Thursday, November 21, 2019

Brunch at Cafe Mamia


Like every Thursday for ages, I met with a small group of American Expats for brunch at a local cafe today. At one time, we would find a suitable meeting place and return to the same place for weeks or even months at a time. Recently, however, we've taken to meeting at a different spot each Thursday.

Today, we decided on Cafe Mamia at the corner of San Jose Street and Sta. Catalina Street not far from Rizal Blvd. in Dumaguete. There were six Americans meeting this morning - one is a newbie -. Three of us had met at Cafe Mamia once before. We seemed to be in agreement that it had been two years since we were last there, but a check of photos that I had posted to Google Maps at the time show that we last visited the cafe in September 2018.

Today, we all agreed that the food was top notch. I had a bread pudding à la mode, which was absolutely delicious. With lots of creamer and brown sugar added, my coffee was not bad.

I had planned on trying a mango shake in order to add to my reviews. The menu listed mango smoothies rather than shakes, but no matter. Two of my companions ordered mango smoothies with their regular order, but I didn't want mine to come out with my coffee and bread pudding. I'd order my smoothie after the food arrived. Unfortunately, when I ordered my smoothie, I learned that my companions received had the last mango smoothies available. When it came to me, the cafe was "out of stock, sir".  One of the guys with me - who is also a regular reader of this blog wanted me to point out that he thought his smoothie was very good. We're planning on returning next Thursday, so perhaps I can have one then.

Something odd happened while I was paying for my food. The menu gives the price of brewed coffee as 55 peso, and the bread pudding à la mode as 105 pesos. The cashier had my bill and told me the total was 90 pesos. That's less than the price of the bread pudding - not to mention the brewed coffee. I pointed out to the cashier that the price was incorrect. She said the coffee was 55 and the bread pudding was 35. I was confused. When I told her that the price on the menu was 105 she looked confused as well, and said something to the waiter in Visayan. I'm hardly fluent, but I believe he must have explained to her that the à la mode increased the price.

If that's the case, then I'd hardly think that the addition of cream should raise the price by 70 pesos. I have no complaint because the menu clearly had 105 and the dish was delicious. I'm still finding it hard to believe that I could have had the bread pudding sans ice cream for only 35 pesos.

In addition to posting the photographs I took this morning, I'm including maps from Google showing the location. There will be two maps below. Google has two entries for the same location.....one given as Cafe Mamia and another as Mamia's Bar and Restaurant. There was a time when I would notify Google Maps of the duplication, but after seeing nothing being done to correct this in the past, I'm reluctant to point out the error now.










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