Chika-an at Abreeza Mall

Chika-an is located at Ground Floor, Abreeza Mall, Davao City. It's one of those restaurants that you will pass by before you can reach the main entrance of the mall.

Food

Banana Lava?

What a surprise! The good old pinaypay (a piece of banana sliced and formed like a fan) has been transformed to an extraordinary dessert with a scoop of ice cream on top, nuts, and chocolate syrup. I found this serving to be a bit too big for me but I'm not complaining. It's always good to share. =)

Don't forget to try their refreshing drink: Cool Lime! Personally, I think that this is just like flavored water. I can compare this to Mooon Cafe's Sun Cooler and if I think of the Cool Lime as a juice, it wouldn't be as delicious as the former. But, as a refreshing drink, I'd have to say the Cool Lime is pretty cool, too. It's truly refreshing, and it's also affordable at P30++.

Here's a closer look at the Cool Lime:

I think Cool Lime has some slices of orange, calamansi, cucumber, and who-knows-what-else. I don't consider it as a full-pledged juice or beverage. But it's really refreshing. Did I mention that it's refreshing? *wink* And honestly, I brought a glass of Cool Lime for take out and after I finished drinking, with all those citrus slices intact, I refilled my glass with water, placed it on the fridge and it still tasted good. Hahaha!

Baked scallops

I love Baked Scallops. And these Baked Scallops from Chika-an did not disappoint. I love the buttery, almost-cheesy texture, I love the taste. I think it was priced below P200 and I know I should have ordered 2 servings because it really tastes good.

Chika-an has reasonably-priced dishes and I would recommend this restaurant to everyone who loves Filipino dishes. However, I do hope that they could improve on their service.

Service

When we dined at Chika-an, it was a bit late. It was actually during the mall's closing time and there were only a few customers inside. But lo and behold, the heavy rain poured and since the mall goers could not go home immediately because of the rain, customers piled up inside Chika-an. Luckily, we were able to make our order before the sudden influx of customers.

Service wasn't very bad but it wasn't good, either. Our orders came late and the servers duplicated some of our drinks. The person who took our order wasn't very much informed about the availability of their stocks. I ordered Fresh Buko Juice only to find our a few minutes later that it's out of stock. I ordered another drink as a replacement and after a few minutes more, the waitress came back with a news that Fresh Buko Juice is actually on stock. She must be confused. I think Chika-an should devise a system for their staff to know which items on their menu are out of stock.

When I asked for our bill, it took so much time before the bill was handed to us. It was during this time that there were so many customers inside the store. I volunteered to personally bring my payment to the cashier since the servers seem to be too pre-occupied and wouldn't even bother to glance.

If there's anything that Chika-an could improve on, it would definitely be their service. I like the food and their prices are also very reasonable. I hope that next time, I can get quality service from their staff so that I could get out of the restaurant full, satisfied, and happy.