Food Place Review - Bongbong's Piaya, Robinson's Place, Dumaguete City

After almost sixty-five days of buzzing like a bee, I have finally came to a chance of getting back to civilization, have a cup of coffee with some friends and do an update talk as for what has been happening around. Being too work-addicted is not much fun after all.

We went back to Dumaguete City to do a systems' check on one of our projects and at the same time undertook a side project while we stayed, of which gave us a descent extra more funds for some things else.

We planned to have our coffee session in Sans Rival's Robinson's outlet in Dumaguete, our friend from Japan is giving a treat. Unluckily for us, the place was filled with people - mostly wives of soldiers. There was a Military Static Display right in the main entrance of Robinson's Place. The vigorous armored vehicles parked right outside as kids had their time to have a fill of the inside of these vehicles. On the other side, some adults were very checking the guns and ammunitions displayed.

Bongbong's Piaya was just a stall away from Sans Rival, we decided to try out their food instead. Since the first time I have tried Bongbong's products eight years ago, I actually fell in love with their piaya. It is like an unleavened bread with a sweet caramel or ube sandwiched in it. It is also excellent when served hot.

When we got in to their stall, we were shocked by what we saw. There we see the baker count some bills and...to our great dismay, handled the piaya he cooked with his bare hands! The cooking area for the piaya is visible to public. One of our friends could barely stand the sight and instead of going through the afternoon with special Bongbong's Piaya, we ended up having coffee and lasagna in Sans Rival -after waiting 30 minutes in the queuing line that is.

For this incident, Bongbong's Piaya was an EPIC FAIL.

Food Place Review - Carmela's, Pagadian City

It was an unplanned session as a friend and I along with two more decided to try out some nice italian afternoon snack. One of us suggested to have a 45-minute drive to Pagadian City and get some carbonara from a well known place called Carmela's.

Side note: Effective this day we have decided to have a format of our review for every food place in this sequence - Food, Service, Cleanliness. We will no longer be hinting on the exact prices but we will only indicate amounts as "very affordable", "average", "reasonable", and "overpriced"

The Food - We ordered a couple of servings of carbonara, empanada, siopao and softdrinks (coca-cola.) Of course, we all know what coca-cola products are and almost everyone in this civilized world already tried these drinks, so we are not going to review these products ever.

Carbonara (Spaghetti) - the servings we got were generous, very generous in fact. As for the way it was presented, nicely average as we expected. After tasting them, WOW, excellent. The food we had met our expectation for a carbonara. We all agreed it is worth rating 9.00 / 10.00.

Empanada - the serving is as big as that of Jollibee's pies-to-go and are very affordable. They are served in a small plate, quite too ordinary. Unluckily, the empanada is something we can all consider as a me-too product, nothing really unique but is worth trying. We all agreed to rate it at 5.00 / 10.00.

Siopao - we all know what a siopao is. That white bread-like stuff filled with meat inside much like of a meat-bread just that siopao is steamed. The siopao's were fairly priced as very affordable products from this establishment and comes fully stuffed. We can all sense that the meat used were freshed as it didn't have some diturbing smell nor taste. Their siopao is really a delightful treat! We rate it at 8.50 / 10.00. (We were still at the heavenly satisfaction from the carbonara).

Service - well, the establishment is a "self-service establishment. So the only criticism we can give is about their sales-people at the point-of-sale area. Unluckily, the way they are staffed is much like of an ordinary bakery and we think they will be better-off if they had uniforms. At this category, we can only rate them at 4.00 / 10.00 as they tidy enough.

Cleanliness, the place is clean and is presentable. 8.50 / 10.00.

From the outside the establishment looks like an ordinary rural restaurant. Given the fact that this establishment already has a huge following from its clientelle, it is probably a good move for the owners to "upgrade" the place. (Though this is already none of our business are what were there for is the food and not the place.)

The final average ratings:

Food = 9.00+5.00+8.50 = 22.50/3 = 7.50

Service = 4.00

Cleanliness = 8.50

Food Place Review - Hayahay (good pizza)

A very busy new year indeed!

It was around a week ago when a friend from Manila called and asked if we can assist him with his business transaction in the Negros Island. Being the only long time business friend he had, from this area of Mindanao and Visayas, we committed to spend the whole three days with his team while they are in Negros.

Off we go then from Ozamiz City, colleagues - the usual four of us - gathered and drove straight to Dapitan City to cathc up with Cokaliong.

Upon arrival in Dumaguete City's lovely port, the bright boulevard and the joyous though laid back theme greeted us with yet another warmth.

It was already 4:30p.m. when our friend called that he had arrived. and so we are still trying to figure out a good place for us to dine. Hayahay popped out of the blue and so we went.

The usual order of beer, vodka and pizza it was. Our Manileño friend were mesmerized by the pizza they had in hayahay, one of them said - this is way better than shakeys! Oh, I forgot to narrate, they hang out in Shakey's for pizza in Manila if not Pizza Hut.

The hot chili sauce if we call it, added some spice to the night. We stayed until midnight drinking and eating without regrets.

Everyone agreed to give it a 8.10 / 10.00 all in all if not for the 45 minute waiting time we had for pizza.

Food Place Review - Sarap Pinoy (Halal), Ground Floor Gaisano Capitol, Pagadian City

Happy New Year to All.

It has been a few weeks since we last made our entry. Travelling around the southern island of the Philippines is indeed fun, though tiring due to it's area. Again we have decided to spend almost a week in Pagadian City where a good friend had something prepared for the season.

As we have enjoyed our stay in this place, we thought of trying out something we don't see everywhere. Food for the muslim (and simply because we are not Muslims, this makes it an entirely unusual experience).

The place offers good coffee! Well, coffee was just the plus, they have a nice set of Mindanao delicacies, dessert mostly such as dudol, dadal (we are not making this names up), suman, cassava cakes, palitaw and more. They also have an unforgettable set of viand - caldereta, kilawin, beef steak, giniling etc.

We tried out almost everything to our satisfaction. Not to mention, we were surprised that our group of six people only billed out at Php 900.00!

We had two sessions eating in this place for the entire week. The place is clean, though some of the staff are obviously amateur in dealing with customers - they are a bit shy - the food they have compensated well. The place is managed by a lady Muslim, we forgot to do an interview with her, she does know how to handle customers.

Now, unlike our unlucky experience with a restaurant in Dumaguete where we got sick, we never had problems after eating in this place called "Sarap Pinoy."

We rated the place with 8.20/10.00. This place is worth a try and a recommendation.

Food Place Review - Sunburst Fried Chicken, Hotel Camila Dipolog City

It was back to Mindanao. Preparing for a project 200 kilometers away.

As we have already tried one of Dipolog's Best - Big Joe's, we took a chance of giving this one a try.

Yes we have been in this place a couple of times five years ago, but that was then when we only dine merely because we need to - without the effort of rating the place.

Each of us ordered one of their specialties - of course the fried chicken. It is served warm and crispy with a cup of rice and some patato fries. Serving time was a bit long, 25 minutes. Seeing that it wasn't so busy, we expected it to be faster. Nonetheless, the food was well cooked - yes, you don't want to serve half-cooked chicken like Ka Waway did. It chicken was tasty and juicy, well prepared we can only guess. Finger-lickin good as a known franchise calls their fried chicken.

The down part is, the management may have unwittingly ignored some customers to smoke within their air-conditioned place. Whic is bad.

If only the management can impose a level of discipline to it's clientele in terms of smoking, they could have a higher rating.

We rate this place as: 5.10 / 10.00