I Want Candy's!

As we left Camiguin with a hearty late lunch in J&A fishpen, a 2-hour ferry ride awaits us in Benoni port to take us back to Cagayan de Oro. Then after dropping our things at the hotel, we headed to Candy's at Limketkai for dinner. The funny thing was, before our trip, I was asking if there are any good restos in Cagayan de Oro or Camiguin and the people I asked said there weren't any but because we love to eat we researched and we've got a long list of restos! Now our dilemma now is how to squeeze all the food tripping in our 4-day stay there! So on our first night in CDO, we decided to dine in Candy's for some pizza and pasta.


First off, the classic appetizer of fish and chips. What I like about this is it's not too oily.


For our drinks, we had the Four Seasons shake. I think this is the welcome drink that we had in Paras beach resort back in Camiguin but only they turned it into a shake.


We also had the Chicken and pesto for pasta and ordered the Puttanesca pizza and the Spinach Quattro Formaggi pizza. I so love their pizza! Especially the spinach quattro formaggi, it's a real winner. It's a must-order at Candy's. Now the pasta is also yummy but I'd choose Green Tomato's pesto over Candy's. I must also say, they've got great interiors and Limketkai almost looks like the metro with its restaurant strip. Plus great food!

During the course of the meal, some of us noticed an oddly-shaped dessert on the other table. We all turned to look and laughed at ourselves for looking like it's the first time we've seen a dessert like that. Anyway, we asked the waiter and he said it was Tartufo, an ice cream cake. 'Ooohh!' we exclaimed. And it would go well with the red wine we just ordered. Sweeet!


The outer shell of the Tartufo was a rich chocolate cake which was not too sweet and was also layered with a ganache drizzled with white chocolate. Inside was the vanilla ice cream with walnuts as its core. The sweetness of this dessert was a nice contrast with the bitter taste of red wine.


Looking forward to a fun-filled white water rafting the next day, we all went to dreamland sound asleep. Good thing we had a glass of wine to keep those Zzz's coming from night til dawn.

Pizza and Pasta Craving at Carlos Pizza

Since we didn't had the chance to eat out at Green Tomato one evening due to their busy work schedules so we tried Carlos Pizza in Venice Piazza near our offices. True to the theme of the mall, Carlos Pizza decorated their place with a Venice-feel, putting up a bridge and a mural of a canal river. It feels like Venice here in McKinley Hill when the rainy days come, believe me.



First order up, Creamy Pesto Chicken. It took forever before our order came but in fairness to them, they told us that we need to wait 20 minutes for our order since everything was cooked upon ordering. But already waited for 30 minutes for our pasta and another 15 minutes for the pizza. I even followed up our order of pizza before they served it. Service is too slow especially for working people like us considering almost all their patrons during weekdays are office-goers aside from the students from Enderun.

The pasta is creamy enough but where is the pesto?! The taste of basil, pine nuts and garlic was so minimal they shouldn't have the lisence to put pesto on the title of this dish. I'd have to say the taste was not spectacular. We had ground black pepper overload in our pasta since it's a bit bland.


They have two kinds of bottled chili sauce, the red chili sauce and the green chili sauce, to spice things up. I'm not sure what the difference is because I only tried the green one and it's not too hot.


After almost finishing our pasta, our margherita pizza came finally! We can tell that it was hot from the oven. But disappointing to see that there's only one basil leaf on each slice! They're scrimping on the basil even on the pizza. (I truly love basil so I was disappointed. hehe)


The pizza was so cheesy. So cheesy, in fact, it can be called cheese pizza with A basil leaf! Just kidding! Their crust was delicious though.


Our server gave us a bottle of chili olive oil. It goes great with the pizza, she said. The chili oil was yummy and it really did went well with the pizza. But I'd prefer if the pizza was already delicious by itself and need not add additional spices.


Overall, it wasn't a great experience dining here. They still have a lot of room for improvement.

Fresh Green Tomatoes!

Green Tomato is by far my favorite resto in Shangrila Plaza. Best pizza and best pasta for my hungry tummy. This is a memorable place for me. This is where I first got to taste pesto pasta in their Makati branch more than 3 yrs ago and on that day, history was made.

Mozzarella Toast (PHP 170)

Gooey ooey cheezy goodness in tomato sauce topped with chopped garlic. Yum, 'nuf said.

Wild Mushroom Risotto (PHP 200)

This simple Italian rice dish is addictingly creamy. Although I wasn't too happy about the wild mushrooms. It turns out that it was only button mushrooms. I think I should've ordered the Creamy Prawn Risotto instead.

Chicken and Mushroom (PHP 205)

Chicken, mushroom, cucumber slices, and parsley are tossed with the penne pasta. This is sided with a slice of bread. A simple pasta dish that is not only delish but also heavy on the stomach. Although, my number 1 favorite pasta dish in Green Tomato is their Pesto. I have fallen in love with the taste of their fresh basil in their al dente spaghetti.

Chicken Garlic and Tomato Pizza (PHP 195)

Love love love the sliced tomatoes, bits of chicken, garlic and the pesto on this thin crust. This is my ultimate favorite in their menu, a must-order!

Bacon Mushroom Special (PHP 185)

Mushroom, smoky bacon bits, onions and bell pepper are generously topped in their almost-crunchy crust. This one's also a winner.

I am not sure why all those mushrooms got to our table but no doubt that they are such yummy dishes. And that's enough reason for me to keep coming back to Green Tomato!