Prego Café

At the 5th floor of Gaisano South Citimall in downtown Davao is a simple little coffee shop called Prego Cafe. I rarely go there because it’s almost never along my usual routes, but I enjoy each visit. Yesterday I had to go to CD-R King in Gaisano South (the other outlet in Davao is always jam-packed), so I made sure to drop in at Prego.

It’s an unpretentious café, with simple offerings at reasonable prices. But what few food and drink choices they do have are all very satisfying. As the name might suggest, they’re an Italian place. Their coffee is Italian (can’t quite remember the brand name of the beans, though) and they serve superb panini and some pasta dishes.

What’s closest to my heart is their Ham & Cheese Sandwich. The ham, which they make themselves, is deliciously tasty and the cheese is mozzarella, if I’m not mistaken. Their iced tea is good, too — it’s not the instant stuff that other coffee shops serve.

The usual crowd at Prego are college students (but thankfully not the noisy types). You also see families there once in a while, like those coming from grocery shopping. All in all, a pretty good mix of patrons.

Actually, one reason I don’t hang out there is that they don’t have Wifi yet. The owner, my good friend Rochelle Venuti, told me they’ve already applied for a DSL account, but there seems to be a technical glitch on the mall’s side. Hopefully, though, they’ll be able to get their wireless Internet up and running soon enough. (Good thing that both Smart and Globe have strong 3G signals there.)

Prego Cafe is located at the floor where the cinemas are in Gaisano South (which Dabawenyos still call "JS Gaisano"). Since it’s in a mall, they’re open daily, from 10:00 AM to 8:30 PM.

Tags: Italian, panini