On April, I, together with my former work colleagues, traveled to Butuan City, Agusan del Norte for an information and education campaign that we were conducting.
Davao City to Butuan City is a six to seven hour travel and surely we got hungry along the way. To make our tummies happy, we stopped by these restaurants.
Cafe Cristina Victoria
San Francisco – Barobo Rd, Barangay 4, San Francisco, Agusan del Sur
Established in 1983, this popular food destination offers a variety of savory and sweet dishes. It is an open air restaurant with wide tables that can cater groups.
They serve a lot of classic Filipino food at generally cheap prices. They also serve cakes, which are good and cheap as well. Common beverages like soft drinks and juice are available. They serve both brewed and premix coffee.
On our way to Butuan City, we dropped by here for our afternoon snack. We ordered some of their cakes and had coffee. I had their brewed coffee, which was quite good.
Cakes we ordered include Salted Caramel Cake, Tableya Cake, Blueberry Cheesecake, and what I think is either a Yema Cake or White Chocolate cake (I think that what it is since it did not have a name tag with it; I also forgot what the waiter said.)
One great thing about their cakes is it is not very sweet unlike the ones you regularly get from cafes. Their cakes were sweet enough not to cause diabetes or a sugar rush. The slice of their cake are also bigger than what we find in expensive cafes.
The Tableya Cake and Salted Caramel Cake were really delicious. The Tableya Cake, my personal favorite, is not your regular chocolate cake. It had a good balance of bitterness and sweetness that you get from a dark chocolate.
The Blueberry Cheesecake and the Yema or White Chocolate Cake were just okay. They tasted good but not the best out there.
Hillsview Restaurant
Pulang Lupa, Trento, Agusan del Sur
On our way back to Davao City, we had lunch at this open-air restaurant, which serves a variety of classic Filipino dishes and snacks at a cheap price. Their food are not only cheap but are also delicious and the serving portion was also quite generous.
Near the main entrance of the restaurant is a section of Filipino snacks like suman (Filipino rice cake), casava cake, bico, ampaw (puffed grain), and banana chip, among others.
I had menudo for lunch. Then I had Suman de Nangka (Jackfruit) and Suman de Pinya (pineapple) for dessert. All of them were really yummy.
If you find yourself going to the northeastern parts of Mindanao and happen to pass by Trento or San Franciso, then you should top by these two restaurants for a meal or snack.