Nothing beats working from home in a pair of cozy pajamas – but sometimes, working exclusively from home can lead to us feeling stuck. Oftentimes, what we need in this case is a change of scenery to give our minds a much-needed reset. This is where the option of working at a café comes in handy!
A café can be a fantastic place to get creative juices flowing and unleash your productivity. Remote workers, students, and freelancers often take advantage of the friendly neighborhood coffee shop for this purpose. But without the essential commodities such as fast, free WiFi, a quiet ambience, and charging outlets, it would be difficult to get any work done.
Are you from the Marikina area and looking for a café with WiFi and the other amenities mentioned above? If the answer is yes, you may want to visit the three cafés I am listing below.
(Note: This is NOT a paid promotion, I have personally tried all three cafés myself and the opinions expressed in this post are my own!)
Relax and Brew Spa + Café
Located along Katipunan St., Relax and Brew Spa + Cafe is an interesting hybrid of a café and spa: two sanctuaries for the exhausted worker. The café space in itself is quite tiny, but their spa section houses a good number of beds and has an extension in the adjunct building. It has covered outdoor seating too — with a charging outlet! I personally prefer sitting in the outdoor area, since I’m not so fond of cold temperatures due to strong air conditioning.
There’s free WiFi too, with one caveat: it’s not as fast as I’d like it to be. This should not be a problem if you simply wish to watch YouTube videos or take online courses. In my experience, it’s also held up during Zoom calls. However, it may not allow you to do graphics-heavy work with an online tool like Canva, or to load multiple tabs at once.
Food and Coffee: Relax and Brew offers a decent-sized menu with appetizers, hot and cold drinks, breakfast bundles with pancakes in various flavors + brewed coffee, and even rice meals! I recommend trying their Mozzarella sticks and Nachos. I found the pancakes to be just so-so, however.
Bonus: Massage services here are amazing! Their signature massage is a must-try.
Parking: Parking is available at Relax and Brew, directly in front of the branch.
Relax and Brew is located at Mach 1 Building Katipunan St., Marikina City.
Felicidad Coffee House
Felicidad Coffee House along Aquilina St. (near Gil Fernando Ave.) is a hidden gem! I first discovered it when I got a ticket for parking in the wrong spot in the City Hall complex while the Marikina Shoe Bazaar was ongoing. I needed to go to the Engineering Building to pay the penalty fee, and this café happened to be conveniently close.
This café has a quiet and peaceful ambience, making it an ideal space for writing, video editing, or any type of focused work! They also offer a speedy WiFi connection for free, as well as multiple sockets (one set per table!) Their WiFi did not give me any headaches while I was designing a Canva graphic. At the same time, I was also able to stream some YouTube videos and some ambient music, all at the same time! (Talk about my ADHD brain, always overloaded, ha!)
Food and Coffee: So far, my favorite is their Matcha Latte. Their Cheese Milkshake isn’t so bad either — it reminded me of VisMin style holiday salad with fruits and macaroni. Do note that they’re not always stocked up on food items, so keep this in mind if you’d also like to grab a bite.
Parking: Parking for 1-2 cars is available in front of the shop.
Check out my TikTok review of this café!
Felicidad Coffee is located at 25 Aquilina St, Marikina City.
Over Easy
While not exactly a café (it is more of a restaurant and gathering-place) – Over Easy along Gil Fernando Ave. also doubles as a great place to work as they have free WiFi and a vast selection of food and drinks. Bring out your laptop and plug in to any of the outlets conveniently located under each seat. Best to bring some noise-canceling headphones as it can be noisy here due to the sheer number of diners coming in.
Food and Drinks: The photo above says it all. The pizza here is amazing! It’s sizeable and delightfully tasty. Great value for money. Their iced coffee tastes great, too. In addition to coffee, they also offer craft beers, if that’s your thing.
Parking: Ample parking space is provided here. The only downside here is that cars park behind other cars when it gets jampacked. That said, it’s likely that you’ll be asked to move your car if the car you parked behind is leaving.
Over Easy is located at G&W Terrazza, Gil Fernando Ave.
And that’s my roundup of three work-conducive cafés in Marikina that I have personally tried.
Do you know of other Marikina cafés that offer free WiFi? Please share in the comments section – I’d love to visit them, too! ☕️