Abuhan Dos in Cebu

Dinner with the FTV peeps ( Jia flew in from Singapore ) and our friends from Marketing and Creatives at Abuhan Dos was an experience in itself. Abuhan-the original on Ramos Street I remember from way back in 2001 when I first ventured out to Cebu. It was known for it's pochero-sort of like bulalo which was really good and quite cheap. Perfect after partying fare. This time around almost 7 years later I find myself in Abuhan Dos which is also on Ramos Street but in what could possibly have been an old house. It's got two floors and even an outdoor karaoke section (shudder). Thank goodness we just went there to eat and not to exercise and torture our vocal chords. Filipino comfort food (read: not healthy) as the group ordered pochero (the house specialty-what we Manileños would call bulalo) and sizzling pochero. There was also callos, lengua, grilled taningue, kangkong and chicken salad. The area of Ramos street is not the nicest with a lot of homeless and "women/ trannies" of the night abound. We did have an interesting experience when a woman holding a cellphone approached us and asked if she could be our friend. We waved her away since we had no idea who she was and she proceeded to the bar and eventually sat down with a man (who looked like he hadn't eaten or showered in days) on the other side of the restaurant. After they ate the man left right away and she even went back to us and said "See you later". We thought, 'Ok, weirdo, but a friendly one' her companion was more sketchy looking to be honest, but we were glad that he left without paying us any attention. After she left, we asked the waiter what was going on and apparently this was part of the woman's M.O. she comes in, approaches a big group and pretends to befriend them. She then sits with her companion (or perhaps someone else) and proceeds to order food, then they leave and she tells the waiters that she's part of the big group and to just add her orders to THEIR bill. Thankfully, the watiers and the staff had had experiences with her before so they actually asked her to pay BEFORE she ordered and when she had a receipt they served her her food.
I must say that the whole incident made everyone uncomfortable and I could tell that there was tension even when we were digging into the food. (Which was very tasty by the way, but how can you go wrong with fatty pork). I don't know if Abuhan Dos can "control" something like that since it's not in a great area and they shouldn't really discriminate ( after all the woman did pay for her meal ) but it did bring down the dining mood. Perhaps if we had stayed on the 2nd floor the whole situation would have not come to pass.
Moving forward, I can say that the group enjoyed the get together and despite the threats about hitting the gym the next day or moans about not wanting to eat another bite ever, we still proceeded to La Marea for dessert. Dietary hypocrites we are indeed.