Le café Français — Restaurant in Cebu

I went for a dinner and was promptly seated. My first choice wasn’t available, I chose a green salad and carbonara. The salad was bad, the carbonara was made of spaghetti, ultra salty pancetta and bacon. For the price they charge I was expecting much better. A lot of the stuff on the menu wasn’t available either. Overall, a bad experience, such a shame because I was hoping for a nice dinner.

Edit: In response to the reply by the owner; I have eaten extensively in Italy including MAKING carbonara and while I didn’t comment on the technique, the pancetta was too salty, the bacon on top was also inedible. I have been to and eaten in more than a 100 countries, I have never seen a seasonal salad with just leaves drenched in seasoning. Coming from Europe doesn’t guarantee you know about food or do it good. It would be good if you elaborate the details on your menu instead of rebuking an honest review in the name...

We enjoyed the food so much that we visited thrice!

On all 3 visits we had the tuna tartare 🤤 the tuna is so fresh and juicy! We love the inclusion of mango that lends sweetness to the dish, which helps balance sourness from the lemon 💯

We love their pastas as well, we had the garlic butter shrimp linguine, shrimp linguine with spicy cream sauce and scallops pasta (white wine sauce). Our personal favourite was the garlic butter shrimp linguine, which was so fragrant 🥹 the other two are nice as well. The pasta here tasted better than an Italian restaurant down the street 🫢

We also had the seafood gratin (not pictured) that was decent. The crepe was decent as well. We did not really enjoy the coffee as it seems instant (?) as there were powder bits, so I wouldn’t recommend ordering coffee here.

Nevertheless, we love the food here and would recommend everyone...

This is by far the best restaurant I’ve visited in Moalboal, and I’ve been coming here for over 2 decades.

Salmon carpaccio is a wonderful French-Visayan intersection of flavors and served with artisanal sour dough bread. Gone so fast!

I had apprehensions of ordering tenderloin beef in any restaurant if it isn’t Angus, and this is by far, again, the best one I’ve had. It’s simply perfectly cooked and served with an also-perfectly cooked potatoes on the side. Their house wine is in the same tier to pair.

Mango Chantilly, crepe with mangoes and whipped cream, is a delight of simplicity, with an outstanding star of the dish(m, the crepe itself, that could stand on its own.

Wonderful experience. This restaurant made us decide to stay an extra night to sample their new dishes, such as ox tongue with white wine sauce.

We will be...