Eating in Cagayan de Oro City

Tonight, my co-volunteer M. asked me if I knew any Pizza Hut branches in Cagayan de Oro (CDO) city. Frankly, I could not remember any. My guess is that there should be one, either at SM or at Limketkai. Those two are the only commercial establishments I remember that house Manila-based brands.

When we were living there, we mostly sampled the local food and restaurants. Although we also frequented SM for Mang Inasal's, and because it was the closest decent place to eat from SEARSOLIN, Barangay Lumbia, and any post-water rafting trip. If we were somewhere in the city center, we'd go to Limketkai for familiar brands like Pancake House.

But in Ketkai, as we called it, there's an al fresco strip, that I think is even better than Greenbelt, and would rival the Fort. I only say so because one would expect a province to be backward, but CDO is definitely not. This strip, which has a name I forget, has seafood restaurants, sleek cosmopolitan bar-restos serving Thai food, a dessert place, an American resto, a Brazilian bar with live jazz acts and more.

How I wish I can remember the names as I lived there for awhile, and CDO is the only other place in the Philippines I'd consider living at if I had to move out of Manila.

Talking about the food establishments one can find in the Divisoria area alone would make you realize that CDO is a hip city. On weekends, the entire plaza is closed off and lined with open grills, blind masseuses, fruit vendors, and performers. And the shopping or ukay-ukay. On any given night, there's the Park Cafe in front of Xavier University.

In the smaller streets in the area, one would find an authentic Pakistani restaurant, an Italian restaurant that serves heavenly pizza and gelato, an Austrian cafe, and English restaurant with chips that bring you back to England, and even a Chinese restaurant that serves oyster cakes you'd want to have regularly. Those are just ones that I can remember, and now I am hungry!

So you see, even in Makati, I can't think of an area where restaurants serving such cuisines would be within a distance of a kilometer.

And yes, I eventually remembered that there is a Pizza Hut at the Gaisano Mall, along the highway. The last time my co-volunteers and I ate there, they customized a veggie pizza for D. to eat. They made it vegan. Now, that is service.