Café Laguna: A Cebu Institution Serving Good Filipino (Tagalog) Food

This article is part of my Cebu Food Trip 2023 series. Check out the installments: Abaca Baking Company (Bakery and Brunch) | Cyria’s Kandingan (Cebu-Style Goat Dishes) | House of Lechon | Johnna’s Liempo Haus (Balamban Liempo or Pork Belly) Plus Balamban Food Park | La Parisienne (and La Parisienne Sky) (French Food) | Matias BBQ (Pinoy Barbecue) | Parr’t Ebelle Tinola (Seafood) | Red Lizard (Mexican Food)

We were not supposed to eat at Café Laguna because it serves Tagalog dishes. Aside from the language, Tagalog refers to the region that surrounds Metro Manila. Its food typically dominates Filipino restaurants, which we eat most of the time back at home.

But due to a change of plans, we opted to have our last meal in Cebu at the airport. Since there was a Café Laguna branch there, we decided to eat there. And we’re happy that we did!

Café Laguna at Mactan-Cebu International Airport (Terminal 1-Airport Village)

Café Laguna is a Cebuano chain serving Filipino food, with branches in Visayas and Mindanao regions. It’s named after the province of Laguna, where its founder, Julita Urbina, came from.

The Urbina family was relocated from Laguna to Cebu due to the husband’s military reassignment. To supplement the family income, Julita started a small eatery in the 70s, serving Tagalog dishes and using her mother’s recipes. Fast forward to 1991, she opened the first Café Laguna store in the same place where the eatery was located. (For a full history of Café Laguna, check out their website here).

It appears that the menu of the airport (arrivals) branch is limited to rice meals and all-day merienda (snacks). Here’s what we ordered:

We got the Sinigang na Baboy (tamarind-based soup with pork and veggies) because we’re somewhat missing this dish. It’s rightly sour, and has tender pork and crisp veggies. This is so comforting!

We also ordered their Tapsilog (beef tapa or marinated beef, sinangag or garlic fried rice, and itlog or egg). The beef tapa appears unappetizing but don’t be fooled by it. It’s beefy and tasty, and is also the dry kind which I like.

For our dessert, we tried the SMT, which is short for suman (rolled glutinous rice), ripe mangga (mango), and tsokolate (hot chocolate).

The suman is soft, the mangoes are sweet and tart, and the hot choco has a nice burnt taste.

We only tried a few dishes at Café Laguna. But those dishes were enough to convince us that they make good Filipino food. There’s nothing fancy with their recipes. They just prepared it really well. I can’t wait to try the food at their non-airport branches the next time we visit Cebu. I highly recommend Café Laguna to you!

By the way, if you’re from another country and traveling to Cebu, then visit Café Laguna for an introduction to Filipino food. Most Filipino restaurants in Cebu obviously offer Cebuano food, which is amazing, of course. But you don’t want to miss out on the classic Filipino dishes such as the Tagalog Pork Adobo (pork cooked in soy sauce and vinegar), Bulalo (bone-in beef shank soup), and Kare-Kare (beef and ox tripe cooked in peanut sauce).

For Café Laguna branches and operating hours, visit the Facebook and Instagram accounts, or their website.