Lots of the resturants in AC seem to cook their meat in some type of spoilled after-birth puke rather than USA cooking oil. I say this because the oil smells like urine; the taste can be sweet when it sould not be sweet and hamburgers, like at the Orchid Inn Resturant have a NazzTay after taste.

I eat a lot.

Best Food from my perspective:

Mango Shakes: Margaritta Station and The Doll House Resturant.

Best Food: Meat Loaf, Omlette at The Swiss Chalet Hotel Resturant. Very good Swiss style food- the meat had the texture and smell I was used to. Breakfast bread is also good. Not that hard as a rock shit they call bread at Kokomoz.

DollHouse Resturant: Right accross the Dollhouse. Good Pasta Salad, just like TJI Fridays, perfect. Also, a great cup of chili and beans. Steak was okay - after I drentched it with A1 Steak sauce to get the afterbirth stench out.

- Pizza - The Pizza sux in AC. Kokomoz, etc. Might have been the Squid topping though...

- Sub Delicious - great SubWay style sandwich with softer bread and fresh lettuice and meat. I would reccomend this place and ate here a lot.

- French Fries @ The Orchid Inn - again, the cooking oil they use here smells bad and the texture is off. Maybe I am too picky. But Orchid Inn's food - while quick and clean, was not that great. Their pancakes and bacon were good - but a HELL NO on their Fish n Chips that were soggy and basically fried after birth.

Bottom line: DollHouse Resturant, Swiss Chalet and Sub Delicious get my recommendations.

I did not get any stomache or food poisoning this trip.

When you go back, try Bourbon Street. Food was expensive but the best I had in AC. Ended up eating dinner there about 5 nights and never had a bad meal. Service was excellent.

The restaurant at the Wild Orchid was excellent, though expensive, with a wide range of dishes. I even liked some of the local dishes there.

Dollhouse restaurant prices went WAAAAY up when they got their fancy new picture menus just in time for the new year. Almost all meals now costing well over p200 where last year the prices were extremely reasonable. My breakfast cost literally DOUBLED within the span of three days! Paid p75 for beef sausages on Thursday, then SAME DAMNED THING cost p150 on Monday. While it was certainly underpriced before, it really slaps you in the face when the price DOUBLES!

The good news is that they appear to have two cooks now instead of one, which will hopefully cut down on the wait to get your order during peak periods. Of course the crowds have been scaled way back with the increase in prices too, so that may no longer be a problem anyway!

I ate there a number of times last November. My only real complaint about the food was that the fries were always horrible. I think it's a case of not changing the oil frequently enough. Bummer to hear about the pricing.

The best eating now in AC is the SM Clark Mall. There are lots of restaurants and the food mall is very nice. I ate there several times now for as little as 61 pesos for a very good meal.

Re: the mall, IMO, Sbarro is the best pizza I have ever had outside of the US, and Nathan's hot dogs are the real deal too (and CHEAP!). But other than those and other American fast food places, I don't know much about what is available food-wise in the mall that's all that good, Daytimer. Where are your favorites?

I enjoyed eating the local food in the food court. The chicken, veggies, and rice plates were good and only 60-70 pesos. There is a large variety of food in the food court and it is displayed well. I took some girls there on dates and they loved it.

I think the Shakey's Pizza was good and they have SMB on tap.

With the Mall being air conditioned and with the nice eye candy, it makes for a nice place to eat.

IT'S A MALL. AND IT'S MALL FOODCOURT FOOD.
I don't fly 20 hours to eat at Shakeys Pizza. I'd rather eat balut.

SM Clark fills me with dread. It is a harbinger of more bad things to come. Some examples of things that have already come to pass?

• Santos Street is now paved
• Blow Row is being filled with $150/night hotels
• Glitzy go-gos having 250 piso lady drinks and dancers you can't barfine.
• Single pop professional Short Time is now the standard
• Barfines have hit 3,000 pisos
• Tips are EXPECTED and even DEMANDED
• And lets just say that the Koreans are accelerating these changes and creating a segregated environment

This should be part of your conclusion on you report Smitty, some good points made. I havent been to the new mall but I'm shocked that they have a Nathan's considering very few malls in the US have them. I have been to the Nathan's in Coney Island and have seen one in Phoenix.

Funny...I actually know the dude who started the Swiss Chalet motel franchise in the US...he's a 77-year-old rich dude entrepeneur/drinking buddy of mine. He sold the Swiss Chalet franchise years ago for a small mint. Today he gives his money away to local universities and drives around in his white pick-up truck like another Sam Walton.

The name and Swiss Chalet variant carries on today...I'll be sure to tell him that there is a Swiss Chalet hotel in AC. I'm sure he'll get a kick out of that.

AJ

When did they add a Nathan's, and where exactly in SM is it? I don't remember seeing one, and I was there last November. A good Coney Island dog would really be a nice change of pace in AC.

Y'know, I was going to laugh at Porker's assertion about Sbarro's, but then I thought about it a little longer. I don't know if I've ever had a really good pizza outside of the US (I've never been to Italy).

I'll have to try Sbarro's at SM. I tried the Sbarro's at the Kuala Lumpur airport once. Chicken pepperoni (remember, Muslim country). Yuck.

I'd laugh about Sbarro's too, as it's total crap compared to even something like DOMINO'S in the US, IMO. But in ASIA (or Mexico where I live)? IT'S GOURMET SHIT! Good crust AND tomato sauce? That's all it takes in the 3rd world to be quality pizza.

Nathan's has been there since the mall opened. It's inside the Hypermart (giant grocery store) right behind the cashiers, you'll pass by it as you leave. A jumbo hot dog costs a whopping 50 pesos.