Eastwood City is probably the first pet-friendly shopping and dining places in Manila—it came even before Tiendesitas and Serendra. In daytime, you’d see a lot of dog owners walking and showing off their pets (this is actually where I saw that spoiled Pomeranian in a dog stroller being pushed by his own nanny). We weren’t planning to bring Shantee along (it was our date night after all), but we just couldn’t resist her cute begging. Read along and follow Shantee’s adventure in Eastwood City!

I was having a craving for Italian food, so Marc and I had dinner at Il Pirata Italian Restaurant.

Shantee hoping for a pizza slice

Marc and I are very particular with what we feed Shantee—there are just some food, like yeast, that’s bad for her coat. She didn’t seem hungry anyway. She was enjoying going to a new place so much that she didn’t even beg for food or a kibble.

The restaurants at Eastwood City have tables and chairs situated in an open area, which is probably the main reason why anybody can dine anywhere with their pets along. Il Pirata has this elevated open area shaped like a pirate’s ship that overlooks the podium where concerts are usually held. Shantee was so surprised when the band had their encore!

Every week, there’s usually a band or singer performing at the podium. Last Friday, it was Richard Poon.

After dinner, Marc and I had our customary dessert at Xocolat Cafe. Chocolate is bad for dogs, so Shantee could only look on while we had a delicious slice of Original Sin Brownie and a cup of the cafe’s famous Taza de Xocolat, hot chocolate that’s so rich and creamy you’d think you’re drinking chocolate syrup!

I didn’t feel like spending that night, so we just walked around and window-shopped. Shantee saw some kids over at Nike‘s (she loves kids), and ran right into the glass door. Hehe. She had no idea the glass door was there!

It took us some time to get away from Shantee’s admirers. The kids just loved her. But before we went home, Shantee had to have a photo with Eastwood’s statue man:

The mime was kind enough to carry Shantee for a photo op. You got to admire these mimes, they could stand there for hours and pretend like statues. Some people think they are real, and scream like crazies whenever they suddenly move. Shantee was a bit scared of the mime—I think the mime’s makeup freaked her out. Hehe.

This Eastwood trip wasn’t Shantee’s first. We brought her along a few months ago to get some coffee, but she was still too young a pup to enjoy it. This time, it’s pretty obvious she had the time of her life. Shantee’s definitely coming along again the next time we go there!

Eastwood City
E. Rodriguez, Jr. Avenue (C5), Bagumbayan
Libis, Quezon City
1110 Philippines

Serendra isn’t like Tiendesitas, where there are lots of pet-related stores. It’s mostly composed of expensive restaurants and equally expensive boutiques. But there’s this park right smack in the middle of it—the boutiques and restaurants surround the park—which is just perfect for hanging out with your well-behaved pet. Shantee isn’t exactly what you’d call “well-behaved,” but she’s so small that it really wouldn’t matter Well, she did try to make friends with Serendra’s bomb-sniffer black Labrador—but she was totally ignored. I guess the disciplined bomb-sniffer thought she was a waste of time

I’m not really sure about the policies in letting dogs inside the stores, though I’m pretty sure that pets aren’t allowed inside restaurants and cafes. I guess it would depend on the store. After all, Shantee did go inside the Crumpler store without getting kicked out. But then again, Marc was buying that ridiculously expensive camera-laptop bag—maybe that’s why they didn’t complain

Tiendesitas is located at Ortigas Avenue, corner E-Rodriguez Avenue (C5). It’s a great place to go to with the entire family—you can shop, dine, and simply relax. It’s actually famous for its Pinoy arts and crafts, but for us dog-lovers, it’s a haven for pet stuff.

There were actually some rumors going around about a year ago that The Pet Village had a dog virus going around. Unless it never was true, the management seemed to have done something about it already since we didn’t see any sick dogs around. The pets for sale seem to be healthy, they could be healthier (as in, Shantee-healthy! Hehe) but they seem ok.

As I said, The Pet Village in Tiendesitas is a haven for pet-lovers. There are a lot of shops with cute dog clothes and things, and some even offer grooming and boarding! Pretty cool eh?

I bought Shantee a dog shirt, which you ought to watch out for in my next post! It’s just so cute