McNeloy’s makes one of the few iconic burgers there is in Dumaguete City. It has been there for quite some time.
Tasty, saucy, inexpensive, and full of umami.
McNeloy’s is now located at Chantilly in Daro.
Nothing has changed in its taste through the years. In fact, their serving even got bigger.
Burger culture in Dumaguete is quite different from other bigger cities like Cebu or Manila.
Here, the veteran ones are McNeloy’s, Howyang (Taster’s Delight), Burger Delights, and City Burger.
What I find in these brands is that they offer saucy, textured, and high-value burgers.
Saucy. Almost all of the burger brands here have good sauces. One thing is for sure: they’re all mayonnaise-based, and they play a bit of sweet and savoury flavours to the pallette.
Textured. Dumaguete burgers are somewhat “weird” compared to the big brands because our local restos put in fresh cucumbers! It’s rare to put those in a burger, but here in Dumaguete, they do it.
I guess it was confusion in the late 80s or 90s when they saw pickles on burgers that may have looked like cucumbers. (That is only my theory.)
Or maybe not many of Dumagueteños like the sour taste of pickles in their burgers hence, our restos use fresh ones instead.
High-value. Burgers need to be relatively inexpensive, anything above P100. can go disappear!
I’ve tried pushing Dumaguete to embrace another burger culture similar to the one in the US wherein they pay alot for.
Sadly, I was really just forcing it to be more like Cebu’s or Manila’s burgers.
Dumaguete will always be Dumaguete. It will never be like Cebu. It will never be like Manila. “Sa Manila P500 gani ang burger!” “Sa Cebu mubayad gani ingani ang tawo!” “Okay, so just move to Cebu, and do your burger business there.”
I’ve heard phrases like those over and over again amongst fellow small entrepreneurs in Dumaguete; bottomline is Dumaguete has it’s own identity.
Focus on and respect what Dumaguete is willing to pay for something, and use it as an advantage on creating a product to sell.
There are a lot of good burger brands out here, to name a few: Bazinga, Dixon’s, Burger Aioli, and Das Burgery.
They offer a slightly more expensive offering of burgers (except Burger Aioli). They obviously have great flavors, and they, too, are well loved by fellow Dumagueteños.
These brands are the future veterans of Dumaguete, and I hope our City will continue to crave for their products and patronize them.
So whether it be old or new, cheap or expensive, may our judgement over these burgers be based only on our own experience with it, and not based what society tells us what’s good.
“Ang lami para nimo, basi dili lami sa uban man gud, and vice versa.It does not make the other one bad. It’s just personal preference.”
But truth to tell, according to my wife, Big Poppa’s Burger still tastes the best.
*****
P.S. If you were wondering earlier why I never mentioned Big Poppa’s, well, you know, I will just roll my eyes and sigh.
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