Giovanni Pizza — Restaurant in Lapu-Lapu

Summary: the food is ok but nothing special.

Qualifier: I'm writing this from the point of view of a foreigner who has traveled extensively, including in NYC and throughout Italy and France, where the "best" pizzas and pastas are found.

For the Philippines, and specifically for Mactan where there are fewer choices, I'm giving this 4/5 stars. It's a step above normal Filipino pizza and pasta (no sweet spaghetti here), and barely above international chains like Dominos or Pizza Hut, but it's not amazing. If this were just across the bridge in Cebu City it would only get a 3.5, and in Manila it would barely get a 3 - for Americans or Europeans this is more like a 2.5.

I tried a half Hawaiian, half Mexican pizza and there was barely a difference in taste between the two. The pizza was quite bland overall and I had to put a dash of salt and chili oil to make it more interesting. They do seem to be using "real" mozzarella cheese, but it doesn't have much flavor. I will say that the crust is not bad, and has a bit of light char on the bottom, so some small approval is due for that.

I also had a penne Arrabiata and this was a bit more flavorful. The sauce was good, but there wasn't enough of it for the pasta. Another surprise here was that the pasta was cooked al dente (though it might have been a touch too al dente for my taste), so another small nod of approval for that.

The main draw here is the price, and another reason why I'm bumping them up to four stars for the area. I got a medium pizza (good for two or three people), and a plate of pasta (good for one, maybe two), and two (small) soft drinks all for 350php. That's an insanely good price that makes me a little more forgiving of the underwhelming flavor. It's better than what you'd normally get for the price, but I'd personally rather pay a bit more and get something closer to "real" Italian. I won't be coming back here myself, but if you're in the area and craving Italian food, it might be your best bet.

This is a very unassuming place with almost no decor worth speaking of and cheap outdoor seating. As another review noted, there are too many flies, though I'm not sure what they can do...

I've never actually got up and walked out of a place,. When we got there we sat down, another man entered after we did. They rushed and directly took him his beer. They took our food order then they took his food order, it was a weird sequence of order they chose, after getting his beer they served him some kind of pasta.. They served him before they served us, we were very shocked and we complained to the owner. We heard the owner scolding her and she had an excuse that our food was not ready yet and his was. but we had both ordered pasta. I don't know how his was ready and ours was not. We were still waiting for our drinks after they served two other people. We were getting more and more mad, then they served another couple some more beers. At this point we still haven't had our drinks. We got up and walked out. Most horrible customer service you could possibly imagine. Oh and one more thing someone else was eating a delicious looking chicken and vegetable meal. we asked the waitress if we could have that and she said no. That's only for them not you. I don't think she meant to be so condescending but my God she came across like we were just scum to the earth and these other people were kings and queens. There is so many choices of places you can eat for Italian food... Choose...

I went to the restaurant to order takeout. A large house pizza (asked for no eggplant, but they put it on the pie) with a spaghetti bolognese. I took it home and the pizza was a 4 out of 5 (even with the eggplant). They are a little shy on the toppings though, you’d think on a large pizza they would have more than 5 slices of pepperoni. The spaghetti bolognese tastes like old oil, I don’t know how else to explain it. After watching the kitchen while I waited for the take away. It’s because they don’t wash the pans for the pasta in between orders, so you get the oil from the previous orders. Still it was a 3 out of 5. The serving size is okay, but could be improved. I’ll be back for the pizza though. I added extra Parmesan at home to the pasta, but still it tasted like fryer oil. On the plus side: this pizza has no easy melt cheese; it’s...