Savoy Mactan: Your homegrown business hotel and good old Cebuano food
What if there’s a place in Cebu where you can combine business with leisure?
YOUR ‘BLEISURE’ HOTEL
Welcome to Savoy Hotel Mactan, our business-cum-leisure (or, should we say, “bleisure”) hotel in the heart of The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. No more than a 15-minute drive from the new Mactan-Cebu International Airport and we’re in Newtown, our kind of town. After a warm welcome from Savoy’s solicitous staff, a refreshing drink, and a breezy check-in, we’re raring to run down to the beach. Yup, Savoy is the only hotel in Cebu with its own beachfront — nearly a kilometer of it.
So, we’re ready to sink our toes into the fluffy white sands and kick up our heels till darkness falls. Mactan Island boasts a whole shoreline of white sandy beaches like nowhere else in Cebu.
“That’s the Hilutungan Channel,” our tour guide points out to us. “Here, you can do a lot of water sports — jet ski, parasailing — or ride a banana boat, or go island hopping. Or cross over to Olango Island, a wildlife sanctuary for migratory birds. And two kilometers from here by banca are big mangrove plantations.”
Having seen enough of the sea, we head back to our hotel. Savoy Hotel Mactan general manager Mary Grace Bartolome is proud to walk us through her charming hotel, starting at the lobby. You will at once notice the circles on the wall behind the reception area. “The circles represent the continuity of our service — we want to make sure our service does not stop from the check-in process,” Mary Grace explains. “So, wherever you are in the hotel, there will always be somebody to assist you.”
You will love the very lively lobby, where you’ll find the Lobby Cafe for your caffeine fix and those sinful pastries, Savoy Cafe for breakfast and all-day dining, and the Zabana Bar for cocktails and drinks.
On the second floor is the Function Hall with the three function rooms named after Magellan’s ships during the Spanish expedition: Victoria, Trinidad, and San Antonio. The rooms can be booked for corporate events and intimate gatherings (the biggest room can seat 100-120).
On the third floor are the Fitness Center (Savoy makes it its business to keep guests fit during their stay), an outdoor swimming pool with a kids’ area, the Pool Bar, where you can have more drinks and chill out, and the Patio with its al fresco setting and the garden. The hotel is also doing a kids’ playground on this floor.
“We want to give our guests a balance of life — live, work, learn, and play,” Mary Grace asserts.
The 18-story Savoy Mactan, a 100-percent homegrown hotel, has the biggest number of rooms (547 guestrooms and suites) in all of Mactan. Set to formally open its doors on Nov. 12, Savoy Hotel Mactan is the first hotel development of Megaworld, a leading township developer, inside its 30-hectare The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. As an introductory promo, room rates until December are at P3,288 to P5,888 per night, inclusive of buffet breakfast for two.
“Savoy Hotel Mactan is the perfect choice for smart business travelers,” says Raymundo Melendres, Megaworld Hotels managing director. “Its location allows guests to experience the beach and the township at the same time, where restaurants, cafes, supermarket, spa, and other retail shops are within easy reach.”
ROOMS WITH A VIEW
The room categories include Superior Twin, Deluxe Queen, Deluxe Premier, and Junior Suite. Some of these rooms have an amazing view of the sea. All rooms are fully equipped with essential amenities, in-room electronic safety box, 43” LED TV, coffee and tea-making facilities, a mini bar, and WiFi. The classy interiors were designed by the world-renowned Hirsch Bedner Associates, which also designed Marina Bay Sands and Fullerton Hotel in Singapore.
The P1.7-billion Savoy Mactan is only the third hotel under the Savoy homegrown chain established by Megaworld. The two other Savoy hotels are in Boracay Newcoast and in Newport City, Pasay City.
Savoy Mactan is only part of the exciting The Mactan Newtown development. The first thing that greets you as you enter the township is the clean and green Newtown Boulevard fringed with lots of mango trees. Hordes of visitors come here for the Cebu Mangoes Festival held every May.
The elongated township stretches all the way to the beach on one side. On the other side, it stretches all the way to the Mactan Lapu-Lapu Shrine, where the historic Battle of Mactan was fought.
The township is bound to make more waves with upcoming developments, such as a beach mall, called The Mactan Newtown Beach Walk with a manmade lagoon in the middle, a boutique hotel, cinema, and a chapel by the cliff. Megaworld plans to build a lot of hotels by the beachfront and convert the beach into an area designed for assorted beach activities.
Soon to rise in the middle of these pulsating developments are larger-than-life sculptures of Lapu-Lapu, Magellan, and King Philip, bound to become Cebu’s new tourist landmarks.
WHAT’S ON THE SAVOY MENU?
Inarguably one of Cebu’s biggest attractions is food! And Savoy Mactan’s young executive chef Chyrch Francis Mendoza gives us a most sumptuous, ample sampling. For starters, the 28-year-old chef presents his Deconstructed Fried Dumpling. “It’s inspired by Siomai sa Tisa (a popular restaurant in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City),” says chef Chyrch, who makes sure he incorporates something Cebuano in every dish he cooks. “But instead of ground pork, I use chorizo de Seville.”
Ever heard of Crispy Chicken Halang Halang? Chef Chyrch makes the halang halang (Cebuano adobo) into a salad, tossing in some red cabbage, potato crisps, onions, and drizzles of coconut sauce.
For the entree, chef Chyrch surprises us with his Pasta Filipina Alla Carbonara, a rich, creamy, briny pasta using puréed sea urchins to coat the noodles. And for the main dish, chef Chyrch tickles our taste buds with his Chicharon Crusted Squid Relleno, with the stuffed squid generously wrapped in crushed pork cracklings. As you probably know, Cebu is as much known for its chicharon as for its lechon.
Having polished off every morsel on our plates, we’re ready for our dessert. Chef Chyrch pampers us with his Deep Fried Sticky Rice and Tablea Sauce (heaps of it on top). “It’s inspired by a classic Cebuano dessert, the puto maya, or puto sikwate,” he shares. “It’s got ginger, coconut sauce with mango ice cream and tablea chocolate, which is typical breakfast fare in Cebu.”
I love that at Savoy Mactan, there’s always something to delight the belly and warm the cockles of the heart. And tourists swear that when the powdery white sand of Mactan touches the soles of your feet, it will never leave your soul.
