Mango Shake at the Big Tree Hive.

There was a time, pre-COVID, when once a week I would meet with a small group of Americans living around Dumaguete and we'd have breakfast. Normally, we would meet in a different cafe each week, but for several weeks running, rather than move about, we would get together at the Senorita's Mexican Grill located at the Dumaguete airport.

Arriving early one morning, I thought I'd visit the cafe next door to Senorita's and have a mango shake while I waited.

I must say, the shake I had there was superior. I would rate it as high as my favorite - the mango shake at Don Roberto's, and at 65 pesos, the price is much better than the 90 pesos charged for a shake at Senorita's.

Although the cafe has obviously been around for a long time, I couldn't find the name of the cafe posted anywhere. I even checked the menu and it wasn't to be found. I had to ask the waitress for the name of their establishment. She told me it was called Big Tree Hive.

This morning, just before writing this review, I went to my account on Google Maps (where I'm listed as a Local Guide) and added Big Tree Hive to the map.

The next time I'm at the Dumaguete airport and in the need for a mango shake, I'll know where to go.

 

The Fruitas Mango Shake

The Fuitas kiosk is located on the 2nd floor of Robinson's Place Mall near the entrance of the Robinson's MovieWorld movie theater. Fruitas sells a wide variety of fruit shakes and smoothies in 3 different sizes - costing p45, p59, or p75.

For this review, I ordered the medium, p59.

The shake has a sweet mango taste. However, the shake does not appear to contain any dairy, so it might be better called a slushy, rather than a shake. The thickness of the drink comes from the large amount of crushed ice used.

This lack of dairy is a major negative for me. Although called a shake, this isn't a shake to my way of thinking. I'm sure quite a lot of folks may like this drink, but I can't recommend it.

 

Mango Shake from Honey's Halo Halo Delight

Wah Crepe isn't the only kiosk in the mini-food court at Ever Mall Shopping Center on Perdices St. serving mango shakes. Just feet away from Wah Crepe, we find Honey's Halo Halo Delight.

As the name implies, their specialty is Halo Halo, but they do sell a variety of fruit shakes. The 16 oz mango shake sells for 50 pesos - the shake is equal to, and even superior to mango shakes costing much more. The shake has a delicious mango taste, with just the right amount of sweetness. The shake isn't as thick as some, but with the ingredients used, one can't really expect an ice cream like thickness.

I was able to watch while my shake was being made. The ingredients consists of mango, sugar, evaporated milk and crushed ice.

Not only is the shake priced right, the waiting time for me to get my shake after ordering was the fastest of any of the cafes and eateries I've been to in the Dumaguete area.

If you find yourself on Perdices St. and in need of a mango shake, it's worth stopping by Honey's Halo Halo Delight.

 

Senorita's Mango Shake

Originally located on the Dumaguete-Bacong Rd., Senorita's Mexican Grill is now a part of The Finish Line Cafe at the Dumaguete airport.

Much can be said for their excellent Mexican food, but that can be left for another time. Today is the day to review their mango shakes.

One need only look at the photo of the shake I got there to know it has to be absolutely delicious. 

 Of all the mango shakes I've found in Dumaguete, Senorita's tops the list. It is naturally thick and creamy, and I didn't have to ask for extra sugar for it to be perfectly sweet. It can honestly be argued if this shake is better than - or tied for first with the mango shake at Don Roberto's.

 The only negative thing I have to say about the shake from Senorita's is the 90 peso price tag. I loved the shake, but for every 2 shakes you buy at Senorita's, you can have 3 from Don Roberto's. It's like getting a free shake.

If I'm already dining at Senorita's, I could very well order a mango shake. But, if I wanted a shake just for shake's sake, I'd choose Don Roberto's because of the difference in price.

The Mango Shake from Wah Crepe

Wah Crepe is one of a number of kiosks found inside the mini-food court at Ever Mall Shopping Center on Perdices St. in Dumaguete. As the name implies, the specialties of the business are their crepes and waffles. The business also has a wide variety of fruit shakes.

Any other time, I might have ordered an avocado shake, or a banana/mango shake, but this time I picked strictly mango to be in line with my past reviews of the mango shakes found in the Dumaguete area.

The shakes at Wah Crepe are priced at 65 pesos - that's better than the 80 pesos charged at some cafes. The shake I got there was thick and creamy, with a tangy mango taste, much like the shakes at Gabby's Bistro. The shakes at Wah Crepe do not normally have added sugar, so this one was not quite as sweet as I like. For the review, I wanted a shake as it's usually made. Next time, I'll have them add just a tiny bit of sugar.

Or, better yet, I'll just have the banana/mango shake which is naturally sweeter and thicker.

As an aside, I have to apologize for the slightly out of focus photo of Wah Crepe. The lighting inside Ever Mall isn't conducive to good photography, particularly the back lighting behind Wah Crepe.

 

What's With All These Mango Shakes?

After posting a link on MeWe of another blog post on mango shakes, someone asked why it seemed like all my posts are about shakes. I hope that this blog post will properly explain my reason for doing so.

I currently have three blogs - this one, dumaguetewebsite.blogspot.com - robertsimms.blogspot.com and sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com.

Since it's creation, sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken has been my blog of first choice. Over time, I have published most often there. It's a general, all purpose blog. I'll publish posts on politics, music, the books I'm reading and just about anything that interests me. A few months back, that blog was banned from Facebook. I'm told that it goes against "community standards". I don't see how that's possible and I suspect there are other reasons behind that banishment.

The banning of that blog by Facebook led to the creation of robertsimms.blogspot.com, where I'll write pretty much the same as I do on the banned blog. I have no problem posting links to it on Facebook.

Dumaguetewebsite.blogspot.com was originally created to chronicle the trials and tribulations of a now defunct website - dumaguetecity.net. It has evolved into a blog centered around life in and around the provincial capital of Negros Oriental, Dumaguete city.

I've recently taken to posting links to these blogs onto MeWe. Because two of my blogs are about general subject matter - and not specifically about life in Philippines, I'll post links to these on my personal page only.

Because my Dumaguete blog (obviously) has references to Philippines, I'll post links to that blog onto my "Life in Philippines" page, as well as the "Philippine Travel Hacks" page. I'm currently in the middle of a series of "mango shake" posts. These will include a photo of the mango shake, usually a photo of the eatery and a map showing the location of the cafe.

In normal times, I might be publishing posts on different events in the area - parades, fiestas. However, these are not normal times. COVID has put a serious dent in those sorts of events.

I suppose I could intersperse within the blog, a series on the number of antique, Volkswagen Beetles I've come upon and photographed in and around Dumaguete. I'll give that some thought.

Mango Shake from the Rollin' Pin

The Rollin' Pin on Katada St. in Dumaguete gets high marks in my book for their being ahead of the curve in the fight against plastic, disposable drinking straws. The mango shake I had there yesterday was served with a metallic, reusable straw. I know some folks may call the war against plastic straws overkill, but Philippines is one of the highest producers of the plastic waste polluting the Pacific ocean, and I applaud The Rollin' Pin for taking this step.

Now, on to my review of their shakes.

Their mango shake is similar to the shake I had at Neva's - although not quite as sweet as I like. I give The Rollin' Pin the benefit of doubt here. I blame a miscommunication between myself and the woman taking my order for the small amount of sugar in the shake I had.

There were pieces of mango in my shake; one piece nearly the size of my thumb. I don't know if this is due to the cafe's intentionally wanting pieces of fruit in the final shake, or the incompetence of the man making the shake. At any rate, I didn't care for the pieces. It's difficult getting a large piece of mango through a straw.

Like the shake I had at Neva's, the mango shakes at The Rollin' Pin are priced at 80 pesos. Sorry, but the shakes can't compare to the much lower priced ones at Don Roberto's so it's unlikely that I'll have another from The Rollin' Pin.

 

Neva's Mango Shakes

As I mentioned in Monday's blog post, I had originally planned on posting a review of the mango shake I had at Neva's Pizza until an unexpected trip to Don Roberto's Bar and Restaurant caused me to discard my original review and write a new one.

In my now discarded review, I wrote that the mango shakes at Neva's had replaced the shakes at Gabby's as the sine qua non of mango shakes. The shake I had at Neva's was excellent, but after going back to Don Roberto's, I can't honestly say now that Neva's is number one.

It could be said that the shakes at Neva's and Don Roberto's are in a tie for first place, and some might even put one slightly above the other. The deciding factor for me is the difference is price.

At 80 pesos, the shake from Neva's costs 20 pesos more than the ones found at Don Robertos. Neva's shakes are 10 pesos higher than Gabby's - they might easily be worth the extra 10 pesos above the Gabby's shake, but I'm sorry, there is no way Neva's could be worth 20 pesos more than the Don Roberto's mango shake.

Neva's pizzas aren't bad, and if I were there having a pizza, I might order their delicious mango shake - however, if I merely wanted a mango shake, I would much rather go to Don Roberto's, if only because the prices.

 

The Mango Shakes at Don Roberto's

I had gone far too long between visits to Don Roberto's Bar and Restaurant for a mango shake. It had been so long, in fact that when a friend recently posted a photo of one of their shakes onto my Facebook page, I failed to immediately recognize the tables and chairs of the restaurant.

Upon seeing that photo, I put Don Roberto's to the front of the review queue.

One of the reasons for my having failed to visit Don Roberto's since I first started these mango shake reviews, was that the shakes there are so good, any other review following a review of Don Roberto's might seem superfluous. 

That fear became realized, somewhat, when after visiting Don Roberto's on Friday, I found I had to postpone the review I had originally planned to post today in order to do a complete rewrite.

The mango shakes at Don Roberto's are a little sweeter than the ones from the Gabby's Bisro located on the 2nd floor of the Paseo Perdices building on Rizal blvd, and thick enough to satisfy even me.

To my tastes, Don Robertos have the edge over Gabby's and at 60 pesos, they are also 10 pesos cheaper.

 

A Mango Shake from Another Foodnet Location

Finding myself not far from a Foodnet located on Perdices, just across the Banica bridge, I saw an opportunity to answer a question from Wednesday's post, namely, are the mango shakes found at other Foodnet locations as tiny as the ones sold at the tiny Foodnet restaurant located on Hibbard Avenue near Silliman ?

The answer is no.

The mango shake that I bought at this 2nd location was much bigger. Naturally the price was bigger as well - 45 pesos, compared to 30 pesos at the Hibbard Ave location.

Like it's tiny counterpart, this larger shake was delicious, with a sweet mango taste. Also, like the tiny shake, this one isn't quite as thick as the ones from the Gabby's Bistro in the Paseo Perdices building on Rizal blvd.

Sure, this shake could have been a little bit thicker for my tastes, but at 45 pesos, it hits the spot.

Cafe of Tiny Shakes

The phrase big things come in small packages could very well apply to the mango shakes sold at the tiny Foodnet restaurant located on Hibbard Avenue near the Silliman campus. The mango shake I had there recently has to be the smallest mango shake sold anywhere, although it's quite possible that smaller ones might be found in Zappa's City of Tiny Lights.

Tiny is as Tiny do.

It's understandable that these shakes would be small and incredibly cheap (only 30 php). The restaurant is practically located on campus, well within walking distance of the college, elementary, Jr. high and high school buildings. Most of their customers are going to be students.

There are other Foodnet locations in the city, although I don't know (yet) if the mango shakes are as tiny as the ones found at the Hibbard Avenue location.

Although tiny, the shake is delicious - not as good as the ones found at Gabby's - but certainly worth the price.

 

The Mango Shakes Found at Cubeiertos Restaurant

On one of my other blogs [sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken] I would, on occasion, post photos of Volkswagen Beetles that I would happen upon in Dumaguete and the surrounding area. One post in particular features a dilapidated VW serving as a rather large flower pot outside Cubiertos Restaurant in Sibulan.

While taking the photos featured in that post, I decided to do research on another of my favorite subjects - mango shakes served in Negros Oriental's cafes and eateries.

After having a mango shake from the Gabby's Bistro located in the Paseo Perdices building on Rizal blvd in Dumaguete, I stated that the mango shakes found there were the sine qua non of mango shakes - the shake by which all others must be compared. So, let's compare Cubeiertos with Gabby's.

First, we have a difference in price. Gabby's mango shake cost me 75 php compared to the 70 php charged by Cubeiertos. The Gabby's where the first shake was purchased is located on the boulevard in Dumaguete which is known to have a good many tourists. Cubeiertos is located outside Sibulan. You'd expect the price difference to be more than 5 pesos.

Cubeiertos' mango shake was a little sweeter than Gabby's; either because sugar was added, or the mango used was naturally sweeter. That's fine with me. Unfortunately, the Cubeiertos mango shake wasn't as smooth and creamy. There was an icy texture and the shake wasn't nearly as thick.

If I were to give Gabby's mango shake 10 stars as the sine qua non of mango shakes, I'd be forced to give the Cubeiertos shake a rating of 7 stars.