Recent developments make staying at Bacolod City pleasurable. Going around the city is now faster and more convenient thanks to wider roads and a modern bus station. New developments like malls and restaurants offer exciting options to diners and shoppers. To meet the increasing demands of a highly-urbanized city, a reliable power source has been put up to minimize the occurrence of brownouts.
New Airport Highway
The newly widened Circumferential Road (Image: Quezon J. Joven)
Travelers will now have a nice drive on the four-lane highway from Bacolod-Silay International Airport to the city through the Circumferential Road. The newly widened roads are lined with street lights and ornamental trees. The modern highway is a symbol of progress soaring through the expanse of Spanish-era sugar cane plantations which seem to proudly hold their ground against the sprouting of real estate developments.
The 14-km. Circumferential Road cuts travel time from downtown Bacolod to the airport from one hour to less than 30 minutes.
Ceres Northbound Terminal
The contemporary design of the Bacolod North Bus Terminal (Image: Skyscraper City Bacolod)
The Ceres Northbound Terminal is one of travelers’ entry points to anywhere else they want to go in Negros Island. The buses pass halfway to Bacolod turning into Talisay City, and along the famous tourist spot of The Ruins, on to Lacson highway and towards the south to Bacolod. With WiFi signal, air-conditioned comfort rooms, and other modern amenities, the terminal is a state-of-the-art transportation hub that Negrenses can be proud up.
New Mall
The new CityMall opens in Mandalagan, Bacolod City. (Image: Ferds Moncawe)
The first CityMall has just opened recently in the Mandalagan area in northern Bacolod. The size of the mall is just right for a mid-sized but highly urbanized city like Bacolod. The family-friendly layout of the mall consists of a well-thought-of mix of restaurants, retail shops, a grocery, hardware store, and pharmacy. There are also value-for-money stores such as Save More, UNO Factory Outlet, SOS Surplus Stores, and tiangge shops (bazaars), as well as popular fast food chains like Mang Inasal, Jollibee, Chowking, Red Ribbon. Other attractions like an amusement center and KTV, children’s playground, event center, and a cinema are coming soon.
CityMall Mandalagan is another option for shoppers aside from existing malls like Robinsons, The District North Point, and local icon Lopue’s Department Store.
The second CityMall in Bacolod will be opening soon in the southern part of the city at the Goldenfield area.
New Restaurants
Capriccioso Deli Ristorante
Façade of Capriccioso Deli Ristorante (Image: Capriccioso Deli)
Located along 15th St. beside L’ Fisher Hotel, Capriccioso Deli Ristorante is an authentic Italian restaurant that has more than typical pasta dishes. They offer cheese, salami, prosciutto, and good Italian wine. Classic Italian dishes like ravioli and lasagna are made with aplomb by their Italian chef.
Vedge Health Hub
Vegan pesto from Vedge Health Hub (Image: Vedge Health Hub)
Vedge Health Hub is a vegetarian restaurant which boasts of food with no monosodium glutamate (MSG), dairy, nor eggs, targeting the increasingly health-conscious Bacolodnons. Yet for lifelong decadents, the menu with healthy versions of sinful food sounds familiar. With dishes like nori burger, veggie bulgogi, mushroom chicharon (fried pork belly or rinds), and Thai spring rolls, diners feel like eating in veggie heaven.
Tres Bistro
Façade of Tres Bistro (Image: Atelier de Aurora)
Tres Bistro offers Spanish fusion dishes, which is fitting for many Bacolodnons with Spanish ancestry, or for those who just want to go on a gastronomic adventure. It is a casual dining restaurant serving contemporary dishes inspired by Spanish and American family cuisine, and with world-class décor to boot. The restaurant derives its name from family recipes handed down from grandmother to daughter, thus spanning three generations.
Opened last February, the Bacolod branch of the restaurant is a spin-off of their successful Dumaguete branch.
Hanok Authentic Korean Restaurant
Façade of Hanok restaurant (Image: Bacolod Food Hunters)
Hanok Korean Authentic Restaurant offers eat-all-you-can barbecued meat. They are known for samgyeopsal or grilled pork belly. Though the interiors are simple, Korean masks and paintings add interest to the place. Hanok is a good place to go for great food at great value. It is located in the southern part of Bacolod City, about a block away from the second CityMall.
Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen
Ikkoryu brings the ramen culture from Japan to Bacolod. (Image: Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen)
For ramen lovers, Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen is worth checking out. They have a wide range of tonkutsu (pork bone broth) ramen which all come with noodles made in the town of Chikuho. The restaurant has nice, well-appointed interiors with wooden panels and red upholstery. Ikkoryu has branches in Mandaluyong, Taguig, Makati, Muntinlupa, Pasig, and Las Piñas.
Check out the Dining & Leisure Category of the ShoppersGuide Directory.
Improved Power Reliability
Improved power reliability means less brownouts in Bacolod City.
Bacolodnons now worry less about brownouts in this modern city. Local electric cooperative Central Negros Electric Cooperative has found a way to improve power reliability in its area without building coal plants. It contracted for the building of a 20 MW peaking and reserve power plant at a safe distance in Bago City. The plant steps in to fill supply gaps and fluctuations from the grid and has been saving the city from power interruptions.
Do you know of any other new developments in Bacolod City? Feel free to share them in the comments section below!
Click the establishment names to see their exact addresses and contact numbers.
