Amare La Cucina Microtel — Restaurant in Baguio

Hotel restaurant with surprisingly good and innovative pizza. Cash or credit cards accepted. Staff is very friendly and happy to make recommendations.

I admit it - I have high standards for food. And eating at a hotel restaurant inevitably is mediocre at best. So I wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised with my experience here at Amare. Although it's connected with a hotel Amare La Cocina actually has 15+ locations throughout the Philippines. They have an honest-to-goodness brick, wood-fired pizza oven. And the pizza is legit.

Our waitress suggested the Alvin Pizza which sounded sketchy as hell but turned out to be delicious. A pesto sauce with cheese and ham. Extremely tasty. If you're really hungry you might be able to polish off a 10". Otherwise you can share it with someone and order salads or an appetizer. Their salads are huge though, so I'd advise sharing one of those as well unless you're both very, very big eaters.

The Insalata Verde was huge - lots of arugula with finely julienned carrots and some parmigiano cheese. Seasoned with salt and pepper and provided with a side of olive oil to use as you see fit. Really tasty but really huge!

They have beer, wine, and a selection of whisky but they don't seem to know much about what to do with the whisky. Juices, shakes, and soft drinks fill out the beverage options.

Not only are their offerings good they're innovative. The Alvin was created by the owner's brother. They also offer some beer options that appear to be infused with various nuts (pistachios, etc). Sounds weird to me but I'm not a beer guy. The waitress was quite enthusiastic about them though so maybe they're worth a try! I appreciate the fact they're willing to offer variations on tried-and-true options.

I'll definitely be back for some really good pizza and very...

This was the worst dining experience I’ve had at Amare.

Soup (₱220) – Super bland; it tasted like water with truffle powder. The consistency was very runny, like plain broth. There’s no way this was worth ₱220. I added about five shakes of salt and still nothing. The mushrooms even tasted sour, as if they were spoiled.

Pepperoni Pizza – The flavor profile was still there, but the pepperoni was poorly cooked. It reminded me of the pizzas sold by kuyas on bikes, where the ham is just slapped on top. There was no texture at all. I’ve dined at Amare five other times, and the pepperoni was always crusty and delicious. This was so disappointing.

Pesto Pasta – Another letdown. The pesto sauce tasted like it came straight from a can, and the pasta was cold when served.

I also ordered gelato and kindly asked the staff if I could have the yogurt flavor with just a tiny amount of chocolate (which I later learned is a premium flavor). The staff said yes and accommodated my request. But minutes later, I saw her being scolded by another server, and I was charged for the premium flavor without being informed. Could’ve just told me straight up but they were sneaky about billing me the higher price - honesty issues.

Bad food, bad service. This experience has completely ruined...

I am giving a 4 star review purely because the food was great and the serving staff were trying their best. Wanted to give 5 stars but could not. We had dinner around 8pm, so after the normal dinner time rush. Only two other tables eating at this time. The pepperoni pizza was cooked to perfection. Thin base with a nicely cooked light brown base and the crust just slightly raised. This was one of the best pizzas I have had here in the Philippines. Highly recommend if you are in the Baguio area and want a pizza. The salad was made from very fresh produce. We had the Marianne’s special salad, but it was missing the arugula. When we asked they brought us a plate of the arugula. (Note to check all the ingredients are there on your salads) If you like sweet beers, then you will love the pistachio beer here. I found it far too sweet. For me it tasted like it had the flavouring from coffee syrup. Last thing in true Filipino style all your food will be served as chef cooks it. Do not expect it all at the same time. We had a 10 minute wait from when the pizza arrived to when the chicken...