Cafe Laguna at Abreeza

Last weekend, we were in Davao for my niece's wedding. Since the wedding was scheduled at 9 am in Eden, I decided to have my hair done the night before at Abreeza, an Ayala mall which recently opened in Davao. There were 3 Beauty Salons to choose from which was great. The mall also has Robinson's Department Store as its anchor tenant and has both National Bookstore and Fully Booked in it. So, when my son texted that the latest book of Christopher Paolini was out and that he wanted me to buy it, I had no problem getting a copy of the book, Inheritance.

For dinner, we couldn't decide whether to eat at Hanoi, Spirale or Cafe Laguna. We've never eaten at Cafe Laguna and so we decided to try it out. Furthermore, it also had the most diners among the three which is always a good sign that the food must be good.

Kare-kare with Bagoong at Php 275. Normally, when I order this dish in other restaurants, it would have lots of vegetables and tripe and a couple of meat. But the dish in Cafe Laguna was loaded with both meat and vegetables and no tripe. I don't like tripe and so its absence just made it more appealing. At the end of our meal, there was still left-over meat. It was that much. I really enjoyed this dish. My husband said that it tasted like my home cooked kare-kare. So, is that good or what?

Calamares at Php 195. I almost always order a squid dish when we eat out because I can never cook it right at home. This dish did not disappoint. It was crunchy outside and so soft and tender inside. I couldn't figure out the dipping sauce though. It had the tangy sweet taste of tamarind. I would have been quite happy with plain vinegar with tons of garlic.

Cafe Laguna has good food at reasonable prices. If we just ordered the Kare-kare, we would still have left the restaurant with a full stomach. The only drawback is that they charge 38 pesos per cup for rice which is more than Manila prices. I would definitely go back to this restaurant on my next visit to Davao.

Cafe Laguna
Abreeza Mall
J.P. Laurel Avenue, Davao City