Lara Mia Café & Bistro — Restaurant in Davao City

Had been here twice - 1st with family and 2nd time with good friends. This is a pretty new cafe/bistro in Juna Subd which is not too far from our place, about 15 minutes drive away. You wouldn't miss this yellow bldg/ structure with beautifully landscaped lawn infront and of course, their ubiquitous signage where I made that "blogger pose!" I guess this was an old, ancestral house turned to a quaint, homey resto. Wood tables & chairs, pastel-colored decors and sliding doors dominate the interiors. The curiosity in me also explored the back of the resto - vines, trees, black wrought-iron chairs and yes, would you believe -a yellow bike! There's also a side dining portion which is open and good for groups or families. Get that feeling like you're just dining in your lanai? That's it! This place is so IG-worrthy but more than that, food is yummy & very tasteful. The pizza ( 4-cheese pizza) and pasta ( truffle pasta) we tried are so good and filling. There are rice meals, too, which we can try next time. However, it is worthy to mention that the food is quite pricey and good for sharing for people whose appetite is not that big. Otherwise, you have to have that whole meal/dish to yourself. Next time, we will try to have a cup of coffee to go with their cakes, too. My TIP: Don't ever skip the desserts! My husband loves the choco molten lava! Before I forget, guess what was playing while we were eating - Mario Lanza's "opera-ish music" as per my hubby who knew him so well ( sorry millennials if you do not know him, just Google it, hehe...). This kind of music gives this place a different vibe - on a Sunday lunch at that. 😂😆 All in all, worth a visit and maybe just try to be early on weekends as place gets to be pretty full. Definitely we will be back -...

Just gonna do my review in the following criteria for reference.

FOOD: The food was overall a delight for us. We ordered their cold cuts and for the price, the components of the board blended well together. For the pasta, the puttanesca was good but it would’ve felt more complete if there’s a slice or 2 of bread (I think they call this scarpetta?). But for the beef salpicao, I tried a slice of it and it was so tender, I said I wanted to go back just for it. It’s much more tender than any beef salpicao I have ever tried before. Not sure why other reviewers said it’s not tender. Maybe we got lucky with our batch of beef or they just have a really high standard for beef salpicao tenderness, but it was good for me.

SERVICE: They catered us well. I really have no complaints for their service. The food came relatively fast. We waited for less than 30 minutes and that was lunchtime on a Sunday. This would probably vary on a different day and time, and would also depend on the number of orders. We had 2 mains, 1 appetizer, and 2 drinks.

PLACE: We chose to dine outside because we wanted to be surrounded by greenery. It was nice and relaxing. It also wasn’t hot at the time we dined. Otherwise, we would’ve stayed inside which would equally be a good experience since it’s also cozy there. A suggestion would be to upgrade the tables and chairs outside. It would add more to a rustic sort of experience and elevate the atmosphere to the same level...

It was a big mistake on our part for not asking what are their bestsellers because obviously, we did not enjoy the food though we finished them all. We were famished, with no breakfast and lunch prior to our afternoon meal. Our orders include Beef Salpicao with rice, Chicken Marsala with rice, Chorizo and Gambas Pasta, Amore Pizza, Ube Milkshake and French Vanilla Milkshake.

So what went wrong? The beef in salpicao was not tender at all. We felt that the chicken in marsala was half-cooked. The chorizo has bones, though I wasn’t really sure if they were bones or tendons but there were certainly hard stuff mixed in that chorizo. I also expected that it will be in slices instead of very few tasteless ground pork. The pasta was dry. Lastly, the pizza was sparsely decorated with meat and cheese and they were placed weirdly in the pizza like stacked on top of each other instead of spread evenly.

Still hoping to return on a different time of day and will definitely try their...