Rico's Cafe at Nena's Sanctuary — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

pros: we didn’t wait long for a table and they are pet friendly.

cons: in terms of food, fried chicken was okay. the beef kuma was also okay but nothing special - just your plain ol’ kaldereta but it was pretty tender tho so that’s good. also, the iced tea was bland so a server gave us sugar syrup instead. we poured all of it, but it was still bland. for P180, the iced tea was much better at wendy’s.

we already billed out, but we asked one of the servers for the dessert menu. we wanted to order tiramisuman or brazo, but he said that both were no longer available. a few minutes after, the table next to ours ordered the tiramisuman and another server took that order. surprisingly, the same male server who said it was not available even served it to their table. when i confronted him, he said they ordered before us, but that was not the case. he also said that it was really not available when we ordered but we tried to order just minutes before them. he did not even bother to say sorry or do any form of compensation for it by proceeding to get what we wanted since it was now available.

they even switched the bill wrong and the payment method for our table and the table next to ours. the female server realized the mistake and made the necessary changes but it took forever for the transaction to complete on top of the long wait for the initial bill.

given that we drove a long way to laguna to celebrate our cat’s birthdays and that the bill was not cheap, we ended up paying for such poor service instead.

ps. we spoke to the “captain” server, and he assisted by apologizing on behalf of the server we encountered and offered a complimentary tiramisuman for to go, but we went ahead and declined anyway as we already had to go home. kudos...

I recently had lunch at Rico’s Cafe with a group of 8 friends. It was a memorable experience with delicious food enjoyed with close friends in a very beautiful setting.

The lunch was more than just a meal with friends. Upon arrival, I immediately felt a sense of tranquility, with picturesque trees and a beautiful lake right next to the cafe. We couldn’t help but take several pictures both inside and outside the cafe.

Of course, the food is the core of the experience and it didn’t disappoint. I was pleasantly surprised with the variety of dishes, which had authentic Filipino flavors infused with a gourmet touch. The staff were happy to explain the items on the menu and the unique twist to each dish.

Since we had a big group, we were able to order many of the items on the menu for sharing. This meant we had a broad sampling of the restaurant’s offerings and every dish was a pleasant surprise, each prepared in its own unique way. Some of my favorites were the Pugita Kinilaw, Crispy Pata Confit, Beef Kenchi Bilog with Vegetables and Tiramisuan for dessert.

Rico’s Cafe has a wide selection of beverages including wine and cocktails and thus we had no shortage of drink options to satisfy each member of our group. Service was great, with a very attentive and enthusiastic staff, making me feel like a special guest.

Rico’s Cafe represents more than just having a meal. It’s a whole experience where the quality of the food combined with the beauty of the surroundings make it feel like a special event. It’s definitely worth the trip to Sta Elena to take a break from...

The place is nice and calming. The staff are welcoming and attentive. Clean restroom. Nice presentation of food. Loved their breads and liver pate. But the taste of most of the food we ordered were so disappointing. Seafood sinigang is w/o asim so we asked them to add pang asim. The pork adobo had only 2 pcs of so-fatty-pork! Thick fat that we had to pick/dissect the pork meat only. Mas malaki pa ang taba kesa sa meat. Tastes bland. Pork sinigang was ok. We also ordered 2 crispy pata, the 1st was ok but the 2nd one had stinky smell and taste! We called the attention of the waiter, returned to the kitchen and went back and said "ganyan daw po tlaga". Unacceptable bec the 1st one was ok and we are eaters of crispy pata and we know when it is a good pork or not. The lumpia sariwa is made of carrots, singkamas, kamote w/ crispy toppings and peanut sauce, dry kya hindi naubos. The lapu lapu fish is not fresh. The laing lacks the taste of gata, the gabi leaf is so strong and tastes bland too. Hindi rin naubos. I thought this was a fine dining peg bec of the table cloths seen in pictures. But you are eating on a manila paper placemats and after dining, they will just crumple it and throw and replace new ones for the next customers. There were leaks from the ceiling due to rain so a number of pales are seen on the floor. Sayang ang sosyal ambience. The price of the food is really not worth it and not worth coming back. Sorry pero Overrated. Mngt shld be mindful of reviews to improve the quality of food they serve...