When in Cebu, you can have a taste of authentic Italian pizza at La Tegola. Italian Master Chef Alfredo Malasomma offers 14 varieties to choose from. La Tegola’s Pizza Margherita (P190 for the 9" pan), the simplest pizza of all, with only tomato sauce, Italian mozzarella cheese, olive oil with fresh basil, and onion rings, is the best I have tasted.

Chef Alfredo uses a wood oven that gives the pizza its crispy golden brown outside crust. The Italian mozzarella is beyond comparison with the cheaper and more widely-used New Zealand version. With authentic ingredients, at prices that range from P190 to P300, La Tegola’s pizza is the best buy for your money anywhere in town.

Owned and operated by Joel Estoursy, former Executive Restaurant Manager of Manila Hotel’s The Peninsula, Chez André offers fresh homemade pizza at reasonable prices. It now has 10 branches all over the Visayas through franchising. On a mission to provide a good and healthy pizza alternative to the masses, Joel personally prepares the dough everyday, makes the tomato sauce from scratch—devoid of any red coloring and preservative, bakes the pizza, and even delivers orders to your doorstep.

Noteworthy items at Chez André are the Four Seasons Royal—four toppings with an egg at the center—and the Italiano. The Four Seasons (P190) is the answer for a group which has different pizza topping preferences. You won’t have to order different pizzas for everyone, because with a Four Seasons pizza, you get two slices each of Campione (beef, onion, bell pepper and mushroom), Hawaiian (pineapple and bacon), Pepperoni (pepperoni and mushroom), and Rene (ham and mushroom). The Italiano (P245) is topped with Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, bell peppers, onion, garlic, black olives and fresh tomato. It’s baked just right, so you can taste the freshness of the vegetables.

Roma Mia: Their best seller is the Calzone Roma, which is filled with ham, ground beef, mushroom, onion, roasted bell pepper, and egg (P225). For the open-faced pizzas, The Boss (topped with pepperoni, mushroom, onion, cheese, roasted pepper, black olives, bacon, ground beef, and pineapple, then sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese) is the preferred choice (P220).

Wraps: They are best known for their Janus pizza (roasted chicken, mushroom, bell pepper, tomato, onion, and mozzarella cheese in white sauce), which has a dough topping brushed with garlic butter then showered with herbs and sesame seeds (P158). I also like their Calzone (P125); you get to choose 3 fillings to go with the cheddar, mozzarella, and ricotta cheeses. I recommend the roast beef, mushroom and ham, or pepperoni as filling.

White Sands: If you go to Bantayan Island to swim and relax, you can try out White Sands’ pizzas. Although rather pricey due to their distance from the city, they are generous with the variety of imported toppings, and use real mozzarella cheese.