Mango Suites Santiago — Hotel in Luzon

Santiago, Isabela… where shall we stay while we are there? Finally, my niece, who is based in Santiago, booked us at Mango Suites. The name sounds pretty, bringing visions of mangoes, fragrant, sweet and delicious. Suite? Images of luxury and comfort. But wait till you hear the prices, we had a Php1,400.00 room. I wonder what kind of room we will be staying in.||||Mango Suites is located along the City Road, beside the Calao River. Readily accessible to the other parts of the city. The edifice housing Mango Suites is a three story building, consisting of a lower ground, an upper ground, and the second floor. It is about 100 meters long. There are ample parking spaces in front of the hotel, with more parking spaces at the back. The hotel lobby is located on the upper ground level, with the hotel rooms on the second floor. There are stores on both sides of the hotel, notable of which is a coffee shop, a bridal outfitter, a spa, and a surveying company on the lower ground level. On the right side of the hotel lobby is the hotel café, while the front desk is on the left. There are comfortable sofa sets in front of the desk, stocked with newspapers. An elevator serves guests proceeding to their rooms, up till 12 midnight only.||||We stayed in room 220, which happen to face the main road. The room has two single beds, a small cabinet for bags, shoes, and a hanger rack with which to hang one’s clothes. A small round table sits near the balcony, which overlooks the parking area and the City Road. The toilet is located beside the balcony. A 1Hp window type aircon provides cooling for the room. The room is clean, spic and span, bed soft and comfortable, perfect for two tired travelers who had driven for 6.5 hours from Manila. ||||While taking a shower before hitting the sack, I noticed that the sliding portion of the shower enclosure door was missing. Added to that, the shower head was leaking. But it was to the management’s credit that when I called the attention of the front desk to the matter the following morning, a maintenance man was already at our door to replace the leaking shower head as soon as I got back to the room. That’s quick service! ||||The café, which is located beside the front desk, is a cozy place, with a balcony to boot. I had breakfast on two mornings. The first day, I tried their tocino, with garlic rice, papaya, and sunny side up egg, with coffee. The garlic rice was done superbly, with the aroma of fried garlic. Tocino was tender, with the caramel done almost right. The egg was cooked just right, the egg yolk still fluid. Coffee was fragrant, not too strong, and doesn’t change flavor or turn rancid, even after 30 minutes. The next day, I tried their corned beef breakfast, which is a vanishing dish in Manila. It was cooked with slices of potatoes, sauted in a light sauce. There are other Filipino breakfast dishes available, like Bangus, Tapa, etc. Prices are also reasonable, value for money’s worth. ||||If we should be back, which is a high probability, I’d readily book...

A thick menu with zero quality.

We start with the table. Tiny ants arrive as if coming out of the table top. We kill a few, pray for good karma, but are overwhelmed. "Are they falling from the ceiling?" I ask my date. She cringes.

The waiter arrives and sweeps the ant army onto the floor (where they will regroup, and later return for a counter-attack). {Pun}

The menu is thick and appears so inviting.

We order corn and crab soup, fish and chips appetizer, and fish with organic sauce.

The fish and chips arrive.

The fish had been deep fried (in what, we have no idea) and when sniffed, bring a disconcerting ammonia odor, characteristic of very old fish. The kind of fish that even the flies won't land upon. Visions (and odor memories) of the nearby wet market overtake my thoughts. I can only think: poison control center.

The soup was very reminiscent of a recent experience with Knoors instant soup mix. Very salty (what are they hiding?). Some chunks of what might be actual crab. It was the only edible part of the meal, if I can survive the sodium overdose.

The "organic sauce" turned out to be a sad coating of pesto over chunks of what appeared to be old fish. Strong ammonia odor. Wet market.

In conclusion, never again. Try the onigiri at the local 7-11. Healthy. Cheap. Sanitary.

If Santiago has a Board of Health, someone must have...

This was my first time checking in here, and the experience was generally okay. We arrived ahead of schedule, but the lady at the front desk kindly accommodated our request to have lunch and charged it to our room once check-in was available.

The amenities aren’t quite at five-star hotel standards, but the room was clean and the bed was spacious. There’s a hot and cold shower, which was great, although there were no slippers provided in the room—so make sure to bring your own.

The location is convenient and accessible by public transportation—right along the main road with tricycles readily available. The front desk staff were helpful, even when I had trouble with my keycard not working. They replaced it quickly, though it was a bit frustrating at the time.

Overall, for the price, it’s affordable and I always get a comfortable...