For our whole trip in Davao, I can say that we did not spend a lot of time looking for the best restaurants and eat. We agreed to be very careful on splurging on food.
Our 1st day is almost over and we haven’t had lunch. From the airport, we went directly to McDonald’s to grab breakfast and then went to the house we rented for our stay to leave our things. We visited two tourists’ spots and heeded Manong Driver’s advise of not getting the buffet package at Eden Nature Park because he konws where to take us for lunch.
The misadventures begin!
At around 11:45am, we were done touring the resort. We took advantage of the platted snack package then left the resort. While on the road, they were not interested in seeing the Malagos Garden so the driver took us directly to PEC. Well, not directly, we got lost. We have already passed PEC and have been driving for about 30 minutes when manong driver realized. We drove back to PEC and our hopes were high that we can finally have our lunch. Yes. We DID not have lunch. We walked around the park a bit but left right away. We did not anticipate mosquitoes and insects attack. We hurriedly went out of the water district only to find out that our driver just left. We waited for 30 minutes and at last he showed up. We found out that he went out to get some durian. Since it’s a pajero we are using, imagine the smell we had to bear while aboard going back to the down town.
We were very precise on the hours we traveled going up to Eden Nature Park, it’s not more than 2 hours. We are now awake after some minutes of sleep and we are still on the road. Why is it taking us so long to go back to downtown? We are now running 1.5 hours from PEC. Tito Wally asked the driver the million dollar question, “Pre, saan tayo kakain?”. Kaboom! To our surprise, his suggestions were — ERRRR?! Carenderia where we can see a lot of habal- habal ang jeepneys parked. We asked him if he know of a restaurant where we can eat instead. He said he is not familiar with restaurants but maybe we can find one in Davao City. We all agreed to just continue going and eat in Davao City. From PEC to Davao City, it took us 2.5 hours drive. I don’t know how it happened but It’s definitely not pleasant.
We finally got to park at Victoria Plaza Mall. We were so excited seeing the restaurants around. To our surprise, they were actually closed but there was one restaurant open — Ahfat’s seafood plaza. Since we didn’t have any choice, we walked in and checked on the menu.
We were not disappointed this time. The restaurant’s service was really fast and the staffs are very accommodating to guests. The food were also delicious and they would even give suggestions to guests who are confused on what size to order. I remember trying to order 2 medium sized rice platter then the waiter told me – get 1 large instead, it’s cheaper and that would just be enough for your group. Yes it was!
So were done with lunch. We hurriedly grabbed some stocks in the grocery for our Day 2 adventure in Samal. While doing it, Mamamia and Tita Julie were texting some of their friends to meet up for dinner. Mamamia was texting Sham and Tita Julie texting Marion. Both of them agreed to meet us for dinner, the question is where. I asked Manong Driver if Jack’s Ridge is near our place. He said yes and that place is nice. So we got a place for dinner!
Marion picked us up at around 7pm while Sham waited for us at Jack’s Ridge. Oh yes! Our place is just near, imagine driving to Jack’s Ridge for 40 minutes without traffic. I am not sure if Manong driver is sober the whole Day 1 trip.
Since we had a late lunch, we told Marion that we would just eat light. When we were served with beers, I thought we are good but when the next plates came in, I said, we were in big trouble. They ordered a lot!
The place is really cozy and they serve good food! We were not able to finish the orders and had them wrapped. Before heading hoe, we went around Davao City and grabbed some fruits for Day 2 adventure.
Off to Samal we were on Day 2 and as soon as we were back in Davao, we were again in line for a food misadventure. I had to access the internet while on barge to check on a restarurant or panciteria or a batchoy house. I’ve enumerated the list I found in the net and we agreed to visit Gorio’s Panciteria because of lugao and crab omelete. I asked manong to drive towards San Pedro Hospital and we should find the panciteria around the corner.
Something caught our attention – El Goto de Obrero, ang pinakamasarap sa Davao!
We were already driving along Obrero when we saw the tarp, so we decided to park and eat there. There were a lot of parked cars and a lot of people seated. Hmmm, looks like we are in the right place. Before we reached the tables, the guests stood up and left. So we sat and watch as the servers clean up the table and remove the plates with unfinished foods while we check on their menu. They have set meals for batchoy and lugao. Three of ordered lugao and three of usordered batchoy. We even ordered three extra eggs and 3 extra siomai.
This place is NOT what i says to be. We had to follow up on the extra only to be informed that they just had it cooked. The worst part is, we had to argue with the cashier as she is asking us to pay for the extra siomai that we ordered and sent back to the kitchen. The served us spoiled/ rotten siomai!!! We asked the cashier to eat it and if she can, we’d pay double. She smelled the siomai and said – Ay sobrang kabaho. Hindi na lan pabayaran.
No wonder why the plates were not empty when they cleaned up the table. We should have stood up and transferred instead of staying and trying the food.
We picked up some goods along our way home. Just to be sure we won’t get hungry in the middle of the night.
Come day 3, it’s time to again meet up with Marion for some shopping. He drove us around Davao City and stopped by some tourists’ spots along the way. Then lunch time came.
We ordered seafoods of course and seated in the dining area. We were asking them if they would want to seat by the beach but they all agreed to just seat inside. We were driving around in two cars this time. We still have Manong Driver with us. So while waiting for the food, we asked him if he knew the place and he answered yes. All eyes rolled. I remember handing a paper to him with the list of the places we wanted to visit and where we would like to dine. It was our first time in Davao and we only familiarized ourselves via research. Good thing the food was great! It sufficed the anger of the collegialias that I am with ( FYI – I am traveling with my mom and her highschool friends).
We strolled for a while and stopped by a souvenir shop then went to —- Gaisano for pizza before grabbing our stuff at Deca Homes and finally to the airport.
DEWDSHIP CHRONICLES 