Cafe Pilar CDO — Restaurant in Cagayan de Oro

Was looking for a new place to review . Was intrigued when TripAdvisor placed this as Number 5 in the top 10 highest rated breakfast café in CdO.

I came for coffee and cake. Impressed with the atmosphere and service. Food? Not so, at least the cake I ordered.

It is a hole in the wall corner downtown cafe. Perfect location especially for people looking for a quick escape from the oppressive El Niño heat. Decor is minimalist. If you will not look up, all you see is coffee and cream- the color motif of the interior, as if to remind you that this is a coffee shop and not a fast food chain. It is an intimate dining area, which added to the sense of comfort.

Service is good EXCEPT that they serve PLASTIC fork. Plastic fork! So, it is a fastfood after all. (Note to management: there are wooden or bamboo disposables now if you don’t want to serve silverware.

Now, the coffee is sweet, but serves its purpose of energizing me. The blueberry cake (specialty of the former favorite Blueberry Cafe few blocks down the road) is ordinary.

The blueberry cheesecake recipe depends on three essential techniques- the crust, the cheesecake and the blueberry topping.

Crust was too moist and lacking in crunchiness. The cheesecake was over-baked and without the real blueberries that usually dot the cake, and the topping. It is too thin that there are no drippings.

I can assume that cakes are not their specialty and perhaps was outsourced.

Sad. Still, it is...

I tried the Sansrival and their Americano. Pretty standard coffee and reasonably-priced. My friends got the Spanish Latte and Fizzy Drink. The place is quite small, but it’s alright. We stayed for an hour, using laptops. They allowed us to charge our devices which was cool.

Something you can try when in CDO. Also, there were like couple of dozens of Ube cakes when we visited. Heard that they got big orders. Hope they can have a place to store it rather than occupying some of the tables because It got...

Café Pilar Visit

Dropped by Café Pilar recently and had a really nice experience. The food was fresh and tasty— me and my friend got the bangus and tocino, and both were really good. They have a bunch of breakfast options too, which is always a win.

Tried their latte and caramel macchiato—honestly, not bad at all! Great for a chill morning or coffee break.

The best part? The staff. Super friendly and the service was awesome. You can tell they really care about making you feel welcome.

Will...