La Tegola Cucina Italiana - The Esplanade — Restaurant in Cebu City

The place was okay. The menu’s price was expensive, which I expected since they are serving Italian food.

The service was lacking. We ordered our food, and we asked for service water. We told them to serve the water first. After 10 minutes, no service water was brought to our table. We had to ask them a second time for service water.

We ordered Risotto Pescatora and Cream Dory alla Siciliana. The taste was okay. However, the risotto was dangerous. While the flavor was decent, I kept biting into small pieces of shells throughout the dish. It was frustrating because instead of savoring the creamy texture and overall taste, I was constantly interrupted by the crunch and discomfort of shell fragments. It made the whole experience unpleasant. I have eaten risotto several times, and this is a first in being eaten this way. I hope the kitchen takes more care in preparing the seafood next time, as it really affected the quality of the meal. As for cream dory, my partner says that it was okay, but it could do better. So the price of the food was...

One of the oldest Italian Restaurants in Cebu City and I'm glad they are open in a bigger and better area with spacious parking! I remember they were in Ayala Center Cebu and suddenly closed on July 2024, heard it's their contract ending so I was bummed to see them go 🥺

Staff are very polite and attentive, they even offer items not available in the menu (I asked for an Amaretto Sour and I'm surprised they said it's available!)

Pasta tastes great and you can even change the type (Penne, Farfalle, Capellini, Linguine, Fusilli) if you so desire

Ambiance is homey, very reminiscent of when they had their Lahug branch back in 2009 near Tree Shade Spa.

Absolutely will come back, they offered me an Aperol Spitz and told them I'm looking forward to it as an aperitivo...

We were extremely disappointed with our recent visit. We waited over an hour for our food, and despite being told the pizza would take only 15 to 20 minutes, it arrived after almost 40 minutes. Worse, our pasta and herbed chicken never arrived at all.

We made three follow-ups, and each time the staff just said, “Okay ra ma'am, gi luto pa sa kitchen.” No updates, no apologies — just vague answers.

We were seated on the second floor, and it was frustrating to see that tables downstairs were getting served first, even those who arrived later than us.

This isn’t our first time here. Our previous visit was also slow, but not as bad as this. Sadly, after this experience, we’re not sure we’ll be coming back. Good food is nothing if the service...