Coco’s South Bistro: Spaghetti Bolognese Comfort Food

An old fave comfort food at Coco’s South Bistro located in a compound between Tiny Kitchen + Dulce Vida Bakery and Starbucks Coffee near La Herencia and Green Coffee in F. Torres Street, Davao City.

When we were around Barrio Obrero a few days ago for an errand and we were just looking for a place to eat, we could not decide until I asked my son where we should eat a good lunch or where he prefers to eat. I was thinking of Harana, a Filipino restaurant along F. Torres Street and their fried chicken which was also a fave of ours there. But my son preferred eating pizza somehow and so we decided to go have lunch to Coco’s South Bistro.

It has been quite a long while ago since we had dined back in Coco’s South Bistro with my boys even before the pandemic lockdown. Upon entering the restaurant, I immediately noticed a woman eating this pasta dish as we were on our way to sit at our chosen table to sit with a bench near the bar and counter.

I asked one of the two male servers nearby what the woman behind us was having. He confirmed it was spaghetti bolognese. He asked what pasta I wanted – spaghetti, fettucine or penne. I was deciding upon spaghetti and fettucine. Coz if I can recall it right, the pasta somehow mattered or maybe not. It has been at least three years since I have eaten this there so I just decided to go for spaghetti pasta.

I wanted to have Coke softdrinks to go with it. But hubby was reminding me I should not have one. Yes best not to have one. What made me decide faster not to have one was the price of a can which was P75. I could buy it in the grocery at less than half that price. Hahaha the tita in me was being “tipid”. Aside that I really should stay away from softdrinks and avoid sugar as what we have tried to consciously do as much as we can though it can be quite challenging most of the time since most of what we consume contains sugar. You get to that age and given health matters to consider as well when you really need to avoid as much sugar as possible. Since this dish is loaded with carbo, I better not have sugar. The sauce of this dish is also kind of sweet already.

This is one of our fave comfort food in this resto. So that day was kind of a cheat day. Any day you dine out especially at a restaurant, I guess it become cheat day. I used to remember we really liked the mix of the sauce they make. This serving though seemed to taste as little less flavorful as we could recall. Perhaps some factors would be higher costs of ingredients or maybe the chef or cook is different now or because of something else perhaps. We could only assume perhaps why it tasted less flavorful as we remembered. These days, I would often ask my boys if we taste the same. The pandemic has taught me that. You wanna check am I the only one tasting it differently. Kind of an instinct now to ask and check. Hahaha.

I used to recall that we would share this with my son and hubby. My son would usually have his fave three cheese pizza there while hubby will usually have one of their main dishes. He ordered something else this time which we have tried once long before and that is their chicken burrito wrap I think. I somehow could not recall that burrito having rice in it. To close, this spaghetti bolognese is still good! Now come to this of it, perhaps if it was served hot or more warm, it could have made it more delicious in my opinion.

It was just good to be able to dine back there and reminisce quickly those times when my son was still a cute little guy eager to have his fave pizza there. He is now a teen and taller than us. He still was able to finish all the pizza he ordered as his appetite has grown and the pizza was delicious.