Jainin's Cafe (San Juan)

Opening hours :

Monday to Friday: 8.00AM - 8.00PM - Weekend: 7.30AM - 9.00PM.

Excellent coffee and cappuccino

Nice variety of local breads and cakes. Local Delicacies

Big plus : Air Con

This is not a tourist cafe that opened last year. Jainin's is the offshoot of a Siquijor bakery founded by Josephine and Edgardo Chan, both trained bakers and pastry chefs. They started in 2000 as a hobby and opened officially in 2006. The name comes from their two children, Jai-Jai and Nino. Their very first product, the Tortalita, is named after Josephine's mother.

The parent business, Jainin's Cakes and Pastries, is in South Poblacion, in Siquijor town. The San Juan branch is on the National Highway, in Solangon.

What to order: the brownies are the only item that earns a superlative in the reviews. Then: the beef lasagna, the loaded fries, the fish and chips, the watermelon-melon shake. The house promotes its poke bowls, but it is the cakes and the coffee that built its reputation. Espresso around 70 ₱.

The real draw: air conditioning. It is one of the few cool rooms in San Juan, which makes it the place to work for a few hours with a laptop.

Opening hours: two versions circulate, 7.30am-8.30pm daily according to Google, or 8am-8pm on weekdays and 7.30am-9pm at weekends. We could not settle it. Phone: +63 976 428 1784.

Our honest take: 4.1/5 on 331 Google reviews, with 15 % of reviews at one or two stars, which is a lot. Recurring complaints: slow service, flies, poorly labelled pastries, and a room with no character. Card payment fails when the network is weak, so carry cash. You come here for the cake, the coffee and the air conditioning, not for the experience.

There are two Jainin's on the island, and they are easy to mix up. This is the San Juan branch, on the National Highway in Solangon: the red-roofed building with painted murals either side of the window. It is the larger of the two, and it is the air-conditioned one.

The other is the Siquijor town branch, by the port — the island's first cafe when you step off the ferry. Same house, same cakes, different hours.