AFTER a late morning trip to the Big Bad Wolf for some books, Anne, Jethro, and I met at a new cafe in Damosa Business District, Lanang, Davao City.
Mossa Cafe + Bakery is a quaint cafe within the booming and busy business district of Lanang. While it does not serve any specific cuisines, the cafe offers a number of rice meals, breakfast dishes, pastas, and other main courses that may be familiar to diners eating here.
For our lunch I had the Pork Tocino and Honey Soy pasta while Anne and Jethro ordered the Beef Lengua in Mushroom Sauce and Aglio Olio with Shrimp. For the pastries, we had the cheese roll, ube ensaymada, cinnamon roll, and oreo eclair. I had a Peanut-Butter Banana Smoothie for my drink.
We were first served the pastries. We loved the cheese roll. It was soft and buttery. While you can taste the cheese, I wished it was cheesier on the inside. The Ube Ensaymada was pretty okay but I was not able to get that distinct flavor of ube, which was overpowered by the cheese. The Oreo Eclair was good but it was served to us cold and we were not able to fully enjoy the creaminess of its filling. The cinnamon roll was good enough to satisfy my cravings.
I would suggest that they change how they heat the pastries. I supposed that they microwaved some of our pastries as it started to toughen as it cooled down.
I enjoyed the food that I ordered. I loved their tocino here. What I love about it is it is not very sweet. It had a nice balance of sweet and savory. The pork was also quite tender. I just wished that they seasoned the egg more. It was a bit bland.
While I enjoyed the Honey Soy pasta, it needed some spice to balance the sweetness from the honey and saltiness from the soy. The pasta was also cooked nicely. However, I find the bread that came with it too tough.
The Peanut-Butter Banana Smoothie is my favorite smoothie for the year! It was simply a great smoothie. I loved that you can taste both the peanut butter and banana. Cannot wait to have this again.
Anne and Jethro also enjoyed the food they ordered. I had a taste of Anne's Aglio Olio with Shrimp and found it to be quite good. However, same with the Honey Soy pasta, I wished it was spicier.
To cap the meal, I ordered their special puto bumbong, salted caramale macaroon, and strawberry macaroon.
Their special Puto Bumbong was a delicious way to end the meal. I loved how cheesy it was and the condensed milk gave a wonderful balance to the dish.
I have mixed feelings towards their macaroons. While good, I have had better. But the great thing about their macaroons here is it was not a sugar bomb that is hard to swallow. The biscuits were quite crumbly but the fillings were great. The strawberry macaroon was my favorite of the two that I ordered.
Overall, it was a pretty great meal that we had at Mossa Cafe + Bakery. It is a great place to have a good brunch in this part of the city.