Dumaguete Sans Rival’s Other Superstar

There’s more to  Dumaguete’s famous Sans Rival pastry shop than the Sans Rival or their Silvanas 🙂

My hometown of Tanjay, which is about a 40 minute drive from Dumaguete (without traffic and traffic is non-existent in our province) is best known for its BudBod which most Pinoys know as Suman. The suman is sticky and sweet enough that you don’t need to dip the sticky concoction in sugar. It’s best paired with coffee and best eaten uhm, whenever and wherever 😀

For our most recent trip however, I decided to go out and venture beyond the BudBod to finally try Dumaguete’s Sans Rival, a pastry shop that’s been around since 1977. I wanted to visit the original shop in San Jose but we hied off to Robinson’s Place in Dumaguete instead where the coffeeshop has a branch in the ground floor.

Of course we ordered the Sans Rival and the Silvanas. The Sans Rival and the Silvanas are both silky smooth and they both just melt in your mouth in their familiar nutty goodness. Nothing new really if you ask me.   The family behind the House of Silvanas in our malls here in the Metro is the same family behind the pastry shop. So if you’ve got a hankering for these goodies, you can get them right here in Manila (in Makati, they have a booth at the food court of Glorietta 4)

I was trying to find out what else I could order when I saw these two:

They were both in the freezer behind the cashier. I ordered a slice, not even asking the cashier what the name of the cake was. Turns out I discovered what is definitely  in my  list of top 5 favorite cakes ever! EVER!

This unique brown cake is a date and walnut dacquioise. Wikipedia defines Dacquoise as a dessert cake made with layers of almond and hazelnut meringue and whipped cream or buttercream. I had to google “Dacquoise” so many times just to get the spelling right! It reminds me of the Visayan word Dako too meaning big haha 😛  But this dessert cake is definitely a BIG surprise and we were all raving about it when everyone got to taste the cake.

The cake was really soft and moist and the dates and walnut were generously scattered all throughout the cake. The sweetness was just right and there is a great balance of the soft and the chewy texture which makes the cake such a pleasure to eat! (AAARGH this post is making me hungry!!)

We loved it so much we ordered one whole cake and took it home

I love this cake so much!! There’s one more reason to go home to the province now 😀

I want to know if dacquioise is a part of the House of Silvanas menu because if it’s not I will start a campaign to bring that cake in haha 😀 Seriously though it’s such a unique cake which I have yet to see here in Manila and it would be such a treat for Manileno’s to have that here.

When you’re in Dumaguete, make sure to stop by Sans Rival!

Contact Person: Chining Bustamante
Address: 1 San Jose St., Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines
Branch: G/F Robinson’s Place, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines
Telephone No: (6335) 225-440, 225-4393, (Robinsons Branch) 421-1529
Mobile No: (63918) 943-5989
Fax No: (6335) 225-4393
Blog:
Email: sansrivalcakes2010@gmail.com