When my boyfriend and I went home to Siquijor last November, on the way back to Cebu, we took a fastcraft to Dumaguete and from there decided to take a midnight boat to Cebu. When I’m too hungry to think of where to eat in Dumaguete, I don’t go adventurous and check out the newest places. Instead, I walk a hundred meters or so from the port to Jo’s Chicken Inato and order a piece of chicken and rice (and pancit canton if I’m not on a budget or in a hurry). And that’s exactly what my boyfriend and I did. After our dinner at Jo’s, we walked around the downtown of Dumaguete, checked out their plaza (and it was filled with people that day being a Sunday and a few days before their fiesta), and tried to find somewhere we can sit and have coffee and sweet treats. We noticed a few new coffee shops in the area but finally settled with Poppy at the Siliman Portal because it was deserted.

We ordered coffee (mine had a badly-poured figure of a pig) and cupcakes. The coffee and cupcakes were decent, and so were the prices. All in all, it wasn’t extraordinary, but it was decent.

UPDATE as of April 2016 — While we thought the coffee and cupcakes were not extraordinary, we think the coffee shop and its staff is extraordinary. They are friendly and accommodating. We spent one whole Sunday afternoon working in this cafe and we accomplished a lot because (1) the coffee shop was almost deserted, and (2) we can charge our laptops for a minimal fee of P30 per hour. The food is also inexpensive, which was great when you spend more than four hours working.