new city mall

new city mall

 

i think coffee at Bo's is at least as good as starbucks (altho not a coffee connoisseur). Althou i never tried a frappacino, the Froccino is pretty good. As far as restaurants as good as US, i like Adamo, Alima (except like it's sister Kri, it's "out of stock" more and more), Pasta King, Pearl, Soban, Casablanca (the Schnitzel is huge), Salaya, Lantaw, Seniorita's. WhyNot's german stuff is good (the thai is unforgivable), Andy's steak is good. Back in the US, years ago we gave up KFC, McD's, BK (more than once a month), anything with massive amounts of chemicals. Chooks, although much smaller boids (no hormones), are our go-to light dinner, home made rice with lots of stirfry vegetables from the farmers' market..

But the alternative is cebu or manila, and i moved to Dumaguete for slower pace, better traffic (it is better than Ceb/Man/LA/NYC/SF)...nicer people, better weather (it's 115 in palm springs), and less expensive restaurants ... PS, the one way streets, once you figure out the pattern, are actually an improvement on the old way. This place is a good balance between small towns and big cities.

 

This is going off topic but I think you're comparing apples to oranges here.
Metro Cebu Area has roughly 30 times as many people (2.8Mio as of 2015), I won't even calculate how much bigger Metro Manila is - compared to that Dumaguete definitely is a small city.

And while there are many foreigners here, I think a large percentage isn't willing to (or simply can't) pay what food in a world class or highest standard restaurant costs. Tourists often eat at their resorts anyway, which as far as I can tell also serve decent food and are just a short drive away - definitely shorter than going from say Lapu Lapu to Cebu City or from Manila to Makati. And there you're sitting on the beach instead inside a mall...

 

City Mall opened 8th August; 9th August ... A group of people waited for the elevator and gave up waiting!; 12th August .... Elevator out of use.

 

Galleon at City Mall: Sold me a 'Nokia' battery on the 9th August ... charged it first time and it lasted from a FULL charge for only 7 hours on STANDBY. Took it back but they refused to refund my money because "It is NOT an original" (they did NOT tell me that when I purchased it and it was in a Nokia packaging with an enclosed leaflet advising how to check the battery for authenticity). They would only give me a replacement! I know it is a big problem here for consumers but perhaps this is a store worth avoiding. Why for the sake of a relatively few pesos are they willing to lose all my future custom PLUS that of anyone who hears of my complaints and shuns them. In fact, my wife was going to buy two 5600 peso phones but decided now to go elsewhere. So shortsighted of retailers.

 

Had a recent similar experience from another local Computer Store. I bought an 8GB Flash-drive that clearly states "Lifetime Warranty". Got it home and it was faulty, so I sent them a text advising that I was going to return it the next time I was back in the City. When I turned up, they refused to take it because; "Sorry Sir we only offer a 7 Day Warranty". I SHOWED them my text message dated the day I bought the item, advising them their item was faulty and stood my ground. They eventually replaced it. Now I make them double test everything before I leave their Store! I would advise anyone buying electronics to do the same!

 

If the Savemore supermarket at Citymall (not open yet, ETA October) is similar to the one in Carcar Cebu (good selection of foodstuff, pretty much "organized") then it will provide a welcome competition. Obviously it remains to be seen if people are willing to drag their groceries up the stairs to their car.
Other than that, the foodcourt is "more of the same" as expected, and the few remaining shops will do little to keep the interest going imho except maybe for the hardwareshop and the appliances store.

As for my take on the other supermarkets:

• Robinson downtown: pretty much ok despite the two-level thing, a little more expensive than Lee and Cang
• Robinson at the mall: too big, which management compensates by putting the same stuff in multiple places,
• Lee Plaza downtown: too disorganized for my taste, maybe slightly more "imported goods" than Robinson.
• Hypermart (also Lee): "it works" but dislike the warehouse atmosphere. Decent coffee at the foodcourt.
• Cang : limited selections, sometimes has long waiting lines, like at Lee's also

 

I did not find anything worth going back to City Mall for and I notice that Robinson's Mall is once again full so other people are thinking the same way.

I agree with you that the new supermarket will be welcome. I had a look at where it is going to be and I would not drag my groceries up the stairs. There is an entrance door right by the grocery store and I am convinced that people will do exactly like they do at Hypermart, leave the little woman standing by that door while the man goes and gets the car, drives up to the door, loads the groceries and then off we go.

 

For me Hypermart wins hands down, but don't tell everyone that as I love the relaxed shopping environment, wide uncluttered aisles, excellent food court and convenient pharmacy, I would really hate for it to turn into a busy hive like its counterparts in the city!