Straight from our Tagaytay trip, our van from Taal Vista Hotel took us straight to Quezon City’s Maginhawa Street to check out The Wander Space, a travel-related café right in the middle of Quezon City’s premiere food hub. Together with my traveler friends, tired as we were, we cannot be more excited, our destination was right within our alley.

THE WANDER SPACE CAFE AT THE THIRD FLOOR OF MAGINHAWA’S BUILDING #80

Located on the third floor of the eponymous Building #80, right beside the famous bookworm hangout Bookay Ukay, The Wander Space blends café culture with travel. Put up by Kim and Bam, two young entrepreneurs who are themselves true blue travelers, one can immediately feel that this is a passion project upon entering its wood-framed glass door.

AWESOME TRAVEL GOODIES

The shop’s floor space is understably small but it is packed! A third of the space is dedicated to the travel shop and the rest to a black-walled café with low wood-bleached tables and pillows for seats set on hypnotic rugs. True to its roots, it has a very backpacker hostel lounge feel to it.

HELLO THERE!

Set on plain white walls with a cacophony of paper planes flying overhead, a spread of travel items and trinkets sit upon shelves upon shelves for any type of adventurers to pore on. They have everything, from useful items like drybags, fun pillows that you can bring on your trips, swimwear, burlap bags, and paracord bracelets, to quirky stuff that you really don’t need but you just have to have, like funny stickers you can stick on your laptops and luggage, funky shirts, DIY paper pinhole cameras, dreamcatchers, CD’s from indie bands, patches, and heck, even a miniaturized teepee that can fit a full grown person!

The nice thing about their wares is that most, if not all are all locally made. They have no less than fifty local brands on their shelves. Support the locals, as they say.

PAPER PINHOLE CAMERA

HAVING BAD DREAMS? TRY BRINGING ONE OF THESE HOME

REPURPOSED BEER BOTTLES! COOLNESS!

TOO FRAGRANT? LOL!

We were to have a light dinner here but the items at Wander Space were just too much of a temptation to pass up. So we roamed its aisle while waiting for our meals to be served. Eventually, our hands were filled with Lagu beach blankets, Headware buffs, canvass travel maps that you can put on your wall and pin places you’ve been to, beach shorts, and heaps of stickers and trinkets!

TOILET WALL GRAFFITI

I was also eyeing one Eraserheads-inspired shirt—unfortunately, it was one size smaller than me—and a Star Wars stormtrooper mini-fire extinguisher, which I have absolutely no use for (lol). I guess these would be for next time after I lose weight and I already have my own pad, haha.

HAVING OUR DINNER HERE

We took our sweet time browsing through all the knick-knacks that our dinner was all set right after our shopping spree. Their dining area looks really hip but we’d have to indian-seat our way to dinner, which is kinda hard for me and one of my friends who haven’t lost enough weight yet—blame it on our Tagaytay food trip—so we settled on the bench area right along the shop.

CLASSIC LASAGNA WITH CACAO ICED TEA ~ PHP 250.00

SOLO PIZZA WITH CACAO ICED TEA ~ PHP 210.00

Dinner consisted of Wander Space’s Classic Lasagna and Solo Pizza. For desserts and drink, we had Reggiano Sticky Bun and Iced Dark Chocolate. Food choices are quite limited, but here, it’s about quality not quantity.

REGGIANO STICKY BUN ~ PHP 130.00

ICED DARK CHOCOLATE ~ PHP 179.00

Their lasagna absolutely rocks; a layered melt-in-your-mouth cheesy affair in between chunks of flavorful meat. Very filling. It went perfectly with their six-inch pizza, which has a crispy thin crust topped with homemade marinara sauce and the usual beef, ham, bell peppers, tomatoes, white onions, and cheddar. The combination is much more than the usual flavor though. It was the way a thin crust pizza should be. And to cap it off, the sticky bun, a delightful chunk of sweet happiness.

MY PICK, THE LASAGNA

I’d be hard-pressed to pick a favorite from these, they’re all really quite good. But if, say, someone would kidnap all my Lego Star Wars figures and won’t give it back until I choose, then I’d have to go with the lasagna. On looks alone, it doesn’t really stand up, but taste-wise, it’s really, really flavorful. Plus, it gets the job done on having your fill for dinner.

ADVENTUROUS. BRAVE. CREATIVE.

Travel and food in one unique store? You bet. Live by the ABC’s, Adventurous, Brave, and Creative, that’s how Wander Space puts it. And we couldn’t agree more. Hanging out at this gem of a café was fun; an excellent postscript for the long weekend that was. Now, if only they have beer.

~ THE WANDER SPACE HOSTED OUR DINNER. VIEWS & OPINIONS, ALL MINE.

 

The Wander Space Concept Store & Cafe
Address: 3rd Floor, Building #80, 80 Maginhawa Street,
     Teachers Village East, Quezon City, Metro Manila
Email: thewanderspace@gmail.com
Opening Hours: 1:00PM to 10:00PM, Tuesdays to Sundays
Menu | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
GPS Coordinates: 14.646596, 121.057970