ONE Saturday afternoon, during a road trip to Tagum City, we found a Hello Kitty-themed café tucked among the establishments lining Mabini Street. For fans of the popular Sanrio character, Breathany Café and Restaurant is a must-visit; every corner has an abundant display of Hello Kitty images and accents.
After doing a quick survey of the café’s interior, I found several chairs decorated with Hello Kitty’s bow. A façade of Hello Kitty’s pink and white house led to a small lounge for holding small receptions or parties. Mounted on the wall was a TV in a Hello Kitty frame. If you remember, in 2014, many fans were outraged upon discovering that the feline character was actually a schoolgirl. Despite the hysteria that followed Sanrio’s announcement, many people remain devoted fans of the iconic bow-wearing cat-turned-girl.
Breathany Café, spacious and well-lighted, also has nooks perfect for taking pictures. While eating, your eyes will no doubt dart to the cute trinkets and ornaments that complemented the café’s furniture. With the wall-mounted bookshelves, hammock chair, and overall creative concept, Breathany Café easily makes it to the list of “instagram-worthy” restaurants in the city.
When I was ten, we used to visit a café in SM Megamall that served Hello Kitty-shaped pancakes. Although they don’t serve Hello Kitty-shaped bread, Breathany Café offers a wide-range of affordable and delicious food. They have chicken, pork, and beef rice meals, vegetables, soup, noodles, fish, sandwich, pasta, and pizza. For drinks and dessert, they serve parfaits, smoothies, hot beverages, cocktails, wines and liquors, and fruit blends. Except for the bottles of wine, the most expensive meal in their menu is priced at P399. The cost of everything else ranges from P99 to P299.
Since pink is the most dominant color in the room, we ordered the P125 Strawberry Delight frappe. It was surprisingly good, and it took us only a few sips to decide that in our next road trip, we’d dash straight to Breathany Café.
Breathany Café and Resto, which opened in 2017, got its name from the restaurant owner’s daughter. Just as I suspected, the daughter is a huge Hello Kitty fan, hence, the theme.
You can find Breathany Café at Central Magugpo, located near Freedom Park.