Cafe LAguna - Cebu City, Philippines

CAFÉ LAGUNA began as a labor of love for the urbina family. Coming from a long line of fine cooks, Lita Urbina decided to share her culinary talents with everyone. She got the love for cooking from her mother who owned a restaurant in Cartimar, Manila. As a young girl, she remembered being exposed to the restaurant business and how it was managed.With the help and encouragement of her family, Mrs. Urbina decided to open her own carenderia which served Filipino food with a distinctive taste incomparable to this day. Food was not only sumptuous but enkindled memories of homecooked meals shared with friends and family.CAFÉ LAGUNA started with 10 tables in an apartment she owned in Lahug. Mother's Best was the moniker she gave the fastfood which served only Filipino dishes. At the  

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same time, it was a novelty; not many food outlets served Filipino dishes. Catering service menu includes European, American and other Asian dishes.Cebuanos especially love the puto-bumbong ( sticky rice called tapul that is steamed and served with grated coconut and sugar ). Puto-bumbong has become the trademark of CAFÉ LAGUNA. Urbina's rise to the top of her chosen career in the best food business is dramatically fast. After opening “Mother's Best” in1979, she renovated and expanded the area, transforming the carenderia into a “place of fine dining” in 1991. It became the hit of Cebu. The new spread like wildfire, “For great food, try CAFÉ LAGUNA”. And, sure enough, everyone went for a taste and came back for more.Three years after, in 1994 she opened CAFÉ LAGUNA at the Ayala Center. In 1999 another branch was opened, The Laguna Garden Cafe at the back of the Ayala Center – a 2 storey building which looks more like the home of a Spanish Governor General than a restaurant. Urbina loves to “make her own concoctions” in the kitchen. Some menus served at the Garden Café were her ideas, like dinuguang manok. Other recipes include sinigang sa miso, sinigang sa bayabas, lumpia, dinuguan at