This popular Filipino restaurant is closing and moving to Chandler. Here's what to know
Update: The new location of At My Place Cafe is now open. Read Andi Berlin's review.
When your friend says, "Meet me at my place," they may be talking about an empty strip mall on the southwest corner of Dobson and Guadalupe roads. For the past four and a half years, that's been the home of the fabulous At My Place Cafe, a homestyle Filipino restaurant known for its all-day breakfast menu.
This Mesa restaurant is a destination for the Valley's Filipino community. On a recent morning one customer told me she travels across the Valley to eat here, because it's the best in town. There's sizzling sisig and kare-kare on the menu, but most of the customers were there to try the Filipino breakfast plates known as silog, with garlic fried rice, a fried egg and your choice of breakfast meat.
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They are definitely worth the trip. But make sure you get over here soon, because At My Place Cafe is moving locations at the end of May.
Here's why At My Place Cafe is moving
Owner Flordeliza Obregon said she plans to close the cafe May 28 and reopen across the street from Chandler Fashion Center during the first or second week of September.
The move is strategic, she said: It's a slightly bigger space and closer to many of her customers, including many of the salespeople who work at the mall, she said.
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"We'll be doing some additional features on the location," she said. "We're gonna come up with a new line of items. We'll probably have the small space for the cafe, a coffee shop and a mini bakery."
Originally from Manila in the Philippines, Obregon said her husband helped her achieve her dream of opening her own restaurant. She previously worked as a chef at Lone Butte Casino in Chandler, and opened At My Place at the end of 2016 so she could bring homestyle Filipino cooking to the East Valley.
What's on the At My Place Cafe menu?
On a recent weekday at the Mesa location, diners could tuck into their morning meal while watching vendors stream in to supply the shop with desserts and pastries like the iconic Filipino bread pan de sal. When you break open a bag of the bright purple rolls colored with ube yam flavoring, a fresh yeasty smell emanates from the soft dough.
A plate of garlicky rice and snappy sausages sent me into one of those food trances where you forget there's anyone else around and spend ten minutes uttering different variations of "mmm," both quietly and loudly. The sausages were packed tightly like Spanish chorizo, but had a mild sweetness to them, almost like breakfast sausage. Dip them in the white vinegar on the side to get the full flavor spectrum. And then there was the plate of corned beef silog, my favorite that morning, a fatty mound of corned beef hash, pierced with green onions.
An eggy soup called lomi features a thick yellow broth that obscured the various tofus and fishy balls and cakes swimming around in there. With all that going on you almost forget it's a noodle soup, until you pull out thick egg noodles that are puffy like Japanese udon. The soup has been swimming through my brain since I first tasted it, and I can't wait to have it again.
So come September, I'll see you At My Place in Chandler.
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At My Place Cafe
Where: 2121 W. Guadalupe Road, Ste. 8, Mesa. Closing May 28 to relocate in early September.
Hours: Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed Wednesday, Saturday-Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Details: 480-838-1008, facebook.com/atmyplacecafeaz.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Filipino restaurant At My Place Cafe will close and move to Chandler
