Since our first visit to Bacolod, La Corona Café has always been on our list of coffee shops to try out. It has however proved to be elusive as we were unable to pinpoint where exactly in the city it is located. Browsing through numerous blogs attesting to its legendary coffee, checking maps and asking the locals proved futile in finding this obscure café.

I guess it’s just pure luck that the random local we asked this time around immediately knew La Corona Café and its location. So after meeting up with L at the Bacolod’s Capitol Park, we started working as to how we would get there.

From the plaza, we walked two blocks to a Burgos Market-bound jeepney terminal. We boarded shotgun, so we could see exactly where we were going. After a few minutes, the jeep was filled and we were on our merry way.

We alighted at the Burgos Market and asked around. After a few wrong turns and much looking, we finally located the venerated La Corona Café.

It looked as I expected it to be, a hole in the wall with standard Formica tables and plastic Orocan chairs. The floor was the typical dyed concrete and the walls painted a deep yellow. A few paintings (made from coffee) hangs on the wall.

It was as basic as it can get, but it has a character that cafeterias from bygone times similar to those found on Carriedo’s old side-streets have.

A menu was posted right above a hole in the wall where orders passed to and fro. It consisted mostly of breakfast items; coffee, milk, juice, eggs and toasts at very very affordable prices.

We ordered an egg sandwich (Php20.00), butter toast (Php12.00), corned beef with egg (Php60.00 + Php12.00) and two cups of Chocolate Tablia ((Php11.00 + Php11.00).
From the blogs we read, it was said that this place’s coffee was so good that local patrons even have their own personal coffee mugs that’s used to serve them. I can just imagine how excellent their brew must be to garner such following.  

Our orders arrived a few minutes later, time to see if the place really lives up to its reputation.

The butter toast paired with the corned beef I ordered was really fine, I dig their corned beef which was not the usual canned ones we get from your run-of-the-mill tapsis or cafeterias. The egg sandwich was, well, an egg sandwich; two loaves of sliced tasty bread with a fried egg in the middle.

Now to their coffee (well not really coffee as we ordered their chocolate drink). Okay, we’re the first ones to admit that we’re no coffee experts, but their hot choco taste like a hot choco. Not bad, but nothing special. It was something you might fix yourself at home.
Thinking we might have ordered the wrong drink, else where’d all those high sung praises from blogs come from, right? I ordered a hot drink again after finishing my cup of hot choco. This time I tried their Coffee with Milk (Php22.00).

Again, the same as with the previous one, it tasted like any ordinary coffee. I tried to feel its smoothness as described by its online fans and indeed it was smooth. But that was about it.

Well we still got our money’s worth from this elusive café. The breakfast was good (I wish they serve rice though) and the way they serve and cook it actually reminded me of home; simple and with no frills. With their prices we really cannot complain. I’d eat here again anytime, even without their supposed legendary coffee.  
La Corona Café
Address: Near the Corner of Burgos Avenue and Hilado Street
Bacolod City, Negros Occidental