Laguna Garden Cafe in Ayala Center Cebu

 

When I think of great Filipino restaurants in Cebu City, Laguna Garden Cafe springs to mind almost everytime. 

The restaurant is home to many delicious and known Filipino dishes making a great place for friends and family who wants a fancier but not necessarily expensive experience.

Ambiance

Among many Filipino restaurants in the city, Laguna Garden Cafe or its little sister Cafe Laguna might have one of the best interiors and dining experience. 

The ambiance of the restaurant really does a lot to elevate how a stranger to the Filipino cuisine will perceive it as a whole.

Although the place has undeniably fancier looking interior, the prices are still very reasonable and very much worth it.

Food

We got two main dishes and two desserts. The photo above is their Beef Kaldereta. The serving is not very large but I think this could feed a party of three or four. Beef Kaldereta is a Filipino dish of beef stewed in tomato sauce and liver spread.

This does not taste like the kalderetas we have at fiestas (those are top notch) but Laguna Garden Cafe's take on this dish is still very authentic and tastes really great.

Don't judge the book by its cover because this dish might not look the prettiest but it's actually very tasty. This is their Sizzling Sisig na Bangus.

I would personally describe the taste of this as somewhat like a blend of lechon and seafood. That may not be very accurate so take that opinion with a grain of salt. Basically, this dish is really flavourful and will surely make you want to reach for more rice.

I also had their Sago't Gulaman. It is a Filipino beverage usually made of brown sugar, gelatin, tapioca pearls and water. I like the drink a lot but I found that the sago and gulaman are way too bland. Perhaps it's to balance out the sweetness of the liquid? I am not sure but I still think if they're going to be there, they at least have to taste like a little something.

For dessert, one of the two that we had was their Buko Pandan. It is a popular dessert made using coconut, sweet cream, pandan leaves and jelly cubes (usually also pandan flavoured). 

I think this is a great take on Buko Pandan but this might be a little too sweet for you if you're not very much into desserts. The jelly cubes don't really taste like anything but I don't really mind that.

The next dessert was the Halo Halo. It's a dessert made out of crushed ice, evaporated milk, ice cream and a mix of fruit cocktail. 

Although this too wasn't too bad, there was also nothing very special about it. I think there's a lot more places in Cebu City to get great Halo Halo.

I have included their menu below in case you want to check it out:

Service

A couple people waited on our table that night and it was a mix of good and meh service in general. Maybe some just had a long day, but it is worth nothing that it was not even rush hour when we dined in and there were times when we didn't feel so welcome. This is not the first time that I felt this way in this restaurant. It's really a game of luck when it comes to their service.

In conclusion...

There might have been a couple dips in the dining experience, but overall I think this restaurant is still worth visiting whether you're a local or a first timer in the city looking for a taste of Filipino food.

You may also check out the IG reel here:

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