Latitude – Traders Hotel Manila

Peso for peso, one of the most “sulit” hotel buffets in town, but not as popular as Circles, Spirals, Paseo Uno. This place can hold its own when it comes to dishing out good food.
Located at the lobby of the hotel. There are a lot of choices. Different Buffet Stations.
The Appetizer Station with freshly cooked chilled seafood and salads
Dimsum station
Hot food station
Carving Station
Bread Basket- Freshly baked daily, their breads can rival the best hotels in manila. There are soft rolls and hard ones, plus they have an amazing cheese bread:)
Salad- this is one of their new salad creation. With peanut dressing and grilled chicken slices. The greens were definitely fresh. The dressing was just perfect. Peanut butter based. At first I was skeptical, but after eating it, I couldn’t stop. The chicken pieces were tender and cooked perfectly.
Plate no1- Steam Mussels topped with different sauces, Smoked Salmon Salad, Assorted Sushi
Plate no2- Melon with prosciutto, Mini Quiches, Garlic pasta- The salty prosciutto is always a perfect partner with the luscious and juicy sweet melon slices. The mini quiche was good and filled with a savory surprise. The Garlic pasta was cooked just right. And you can taste the garlic in every strand
Plate no 3- Garlic pasta , Braised pork leg in apple sauce, White fish dish, Smoked Salmon Salad – The braised pork leg was very very very delicious. Very tender asnd the fat was almost gelatinous and just melt as you eat it. The apple sauce was perfect partner also. The fish dish was a bit of a letdown as with any fish dish in a buffet; it can get over cooked because of the time it is  in the buffet station and the constant heat that is applied to it. The salad was great.
Plate no4 – Lamb Curry Rice- Oooohhh… I love the combination of the lamb and the curry, the curry not overpowering the lamb. The lamb bits were definitely present so you can have a taste in everyspoonful
Plate no 5- Lechon Kawali, Roast Beef Tenderloin, Roasted Potatoes with Bacon- One of the best lechon kawali I have ever eaten. The skin was puffy and crispy, the meat was soft and tender. SOOOOOO Good!!. The roast beef was cooked to medium well perfection as you can see the delightful pinkness of the meat…
Dessert- Chocolate Mousse and Mango Pudding- the mango pudding could use more mangoes, but the chocolate mousse can satisfy any chocolate critic.
Overall, I like this buffet as it is not pretentious, its delivers good food and the place is homey and comfortable.
They have lots of on going promo… please call…523-7011

Shang Palace – Makati Shangri-la

2nd floor of the Makati Shangri-la Hotel

Tel no: Trucnkline- 813-8888 then have yourself connected

Shang Palace Dimsum Plus buffet

Shang Palace, arguably one of the best Chinese Restaurant in the country. Is currently offering Unlimited freshly cooked dimsum for P995 net.  Promo is until the End of December.

SO as soon as my schedule opened up,  I grab the chance to visit the place and try it

They offer 16 different types of dimsum, unlimited fried rice/steam rice, unlimited noodles and congee, a single serving of main dish and unlimited dessert.. If you love Chinese food and if you love dimsum  come over and try it.

They cooked each dish upon order.

Freebie:  Fried tofu… love this freebie, its crunchy on the outside soft inside, not oily and seasoned perfectly

Siomai- huge size siomai with shrimp, pork and mushroom.  Definitely the best in manila.

Hakaw- best wrapper IMO, the filling was also sensational, very fresh,  plump and crunchy. Delicious!!

BBQ pork and apples pastry-  the apples added a nice soft and sweet crunch to the pastry. The combination of pork and apples are good.

Seafood Salad Roll- another winner, the filling were shrimp, fish and mangoes. The mayo dip was also good as it was not too thick.

Fried Hongkong style shrimp roll- this was a bit oily.

Asado Siopao—yummy yummy

Sapreribs in tausi- compared to the ones I had in Gloria maris, this was really exceptional.

Vegetable dumplings- I love this even if there was no meat and seafood here.

Asado Siopao(char xiu bao)- done excellently, great filling, great dough.

EFU noodles/ Fried Rice/Fookien fried rice— Among the three,  I llike the fookien fried rice the best, it has an savory sauce with bits of meat, mushroom, and shrimps. Mixed it with the rice and add a bit of hot garlic sauce… simply divine…..

Chicken and corn soup/Hot and sour soup-  this was just okay

Lapu lapu fillet in orange sauce- I though this dish holds so much promise… but when I tasted it. The sauce tasted like sunquick prang concentrate. The fish was good though, fried beautifully, but still tender, flaky and moist inside.

Steam Scallops- so sad also that they sliced the scallops so thin. The sauce on top was also  not to my liking, but I think its an acquired taste.

Mango Sago/Almond Jelly- they have the best tasting mango sago …. BEFORE… this version was not as good as what I remembered. May be a bad day for the dessert chef?:)

Some other pics i taken, like the fillinf of the hahaw and the lonely siomai.

Try to eat here, but only if you eat a lot, a serving of Dimdum cost around P250 per order so if you are not a big eater, the buffet might not be a good idea and just order ala carte.

Basix – Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City

Basix; this is the international theme all day dining restaurant  of Dusit Thani Hotel. Makati City. They are offering an Overload buffet wherein you don’t only get unlimited food, but unlimited drinks as well, which includes canned softdrinks, Chilled juices, local beers, and white and red wine. For 1299 net. Is it a good offer, read on and find out

The restaurant is located in the ground floor of the hotel.  Tables are nicely spaced and lighting appropriate for dining.

There are different cooking stations, like the grill station, the wok station, the roasted items station and the dimsum and carving station and dessert crepe station. Then the other items are when you can find in the usual buffet spread.  The cold shell fish station which you can have them heated and baked to your liking.

The bottomless bar station with different chilled juices,  red and white wines, canned sodas and different local beers.

Appetizer plate no.1 – Smoked Salmon with dill sauce, Mozzarella with tomatoes. I made this combination into a sandwich, the smoke salmon was good, very moist and without a fishy taste. The mozzarella was lovely, soft and just melts in your mouth upon every bite.

Appetizer plate no.2- Roasted duck wraps-  it was just okay, nothing special here.

Salad- the salad station, is a do it yourself where you can toosed you own salad, I love that they provide anchovies  and you can add it to the ceasar dressing if you think it doesn’t have enough anchovy taste.  I made myself the classic ceasar dressing with extra anchovies and topped it with lots of bacon bits and grated parmesan, very very good.

Dimsum platter: they steam your dimsum as you order it so expect to wait 10 to 15 minutes. The prawn in lemon grass was a delight ibecause they used freshly chopped prawns and very little extenders, my only rant here was it lack in taste.  But the texture was excellent. The pouch which was filled with seafood was  bit hard to eat, the pouch itself was dry and tough.

Griiled Items- freshly prepared as you point the meat that you want. The star here was the lamb chops, cooked perfectly medium, it was very tender and juicy. The Prawns were also a delight to eat having the crunch I always look for when eating prawns, indicative of the freshness. Surprisingly, the squid was filled with chopped veggies and CHEESE!!! Yummy!!!! And it was cooked just right, not gummy and tough, but was easily chewed and swallowed without any effort.

Plate no 5,  Chicken Shawarma and Pasta Marinara.  The chicken was dry and didn’t have much seasoning. The pasta was soggy, though the seafood was cooked just right. Too bad, I suggest they make a separate pasta station because it’s a pain to eat soggy pasta.  Very bad

Plate no 6- Hot Dishes:  Egg fried rice, Chicken Tikka,  Scallops, Tempura, Veal Loin -  the tempura was kinda like a mini tempura.. not like the ones served in UMU, however it was freshly cooked so it was hot and delicious.  The scallops was also nice and sweet, cooked just right. The chicken tikka was also bursting with flavours with the right spices seeping in the chicken meat. The veal; loin was forgettable and not recommeded

Plate no 7: Roast beef- here is one of the disappointing moment in this dinner,  we arrived at 8pm. Started eating, by 830pm, the roast beef already looked like this.. I ask the waiter if they are gonna put out another slab of beef, they told me, they are and it was just cooking in the oven, so I patiently waited, asking every 20 minutes with the progress.. It took more than an hour  and where was the beef?? Still nowhere in sight. The carving station has always been the main hightlight of any hotel buffet for me.  After another round of questioning if the beef will be put out, I again approach the waiter and ask if they could give me a slice of beef from the aforementioned “beef still cooking in the oven” this was what I got. A thinly sliced beef. Good thing it was tender and seasoned well.  I would have liked to have another sliced but thinking it would take another hour, I didn’t try anymore. To the F and B manager of Dusit I hope you can correct this. The time of the dinner was supposed to be from 630 to 10pm, at 830pm and with miniscule quantity of beef, you should have brought out another slab if not half a slab, there were still diners coming in the restaurant and there are people like me who still haven’t eaten the roast beef at that time.

Plate no.8 Dessert crepe- Mango with mango ice cream and vanilla sauce. Crepe made very well, thin and slightly chewy. Mangoes very sweet. The vanilla sauce was a little runny. The mango ice cream was excellent.

Another comment: there was no restroom inside Basix. You have to walk to the other end of the lobby to get to the washroom.  It was inconvenient.

This promo is offered till the end of the month.

FAB – Holiday Inn Galeria

Breakfast is really not my favorite meal of the day, but dont get me wrong, i looooove breakfast food, i would eat it anytime of the day but not breakfast time.

I was lucky to be able to get free breakfast at Holiday Inn Galeria at their restaurant named FAB. Serving international cuisine. Food here was the usual breakfast buffet fare, THey have an omelette station which i love..

Plate one- Waffle, country sausage, Bacon

Plate 2- Omellete with tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese

Plate 3-  2 slices of bread

Plate 4-  Hash Brown, Corned Beef, Sausage, Bacon

Plate 5 – Egg white omelette topped with crispy bacon

Dessert – Fresh Taho

Food here was ordinary, nothing really specail that would make me recommend it to people. Its what anyone would find in a breakfast buffet. What i didnt like here was the service, they never cleared my talb euntil i was just abt to leave as u can see in this picture. Oh well, for a hotel, the service was not good..

Spirals – Sofitel Philippine Plaza

Address: Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila
CCP Complex Roxas Boulevard Pasay City 1300 MANILA, PHILIPPINES
(+63)2/5515555 – (+63)2/5515610

From their webpage– described as…..Manilas most fashionable eatery is a concept restaurant with multi-cuisine open cooking stations. Indoor and outdoor environments blend beautifully in the spacious, natural setting.

Among the hotel restaurants who are offering the interactive buffet, This is the largest and with the widest variety of items.

Service was great, attentive and quick. Seats and tables are well placed, not too cramp like the other hotel restaurants.

On the table

Appetizer plate- Mussels which i topped with ceasar dressing, shaved parmesan and bacon bits, Smoked salmon with with dill mustard, japanese makis

Asian Plate- Xiao Long Bao, Siomai, Hakao, Roasted Duck Wrap, LEchon Macau, Aspara-Bacon.. it really disappoitn me when hotel buffet restaurants serveds chinese dumsum dishes that are not high quality. THe siomai and Hakao were forgettable, the Xiao long bao is dry, THe lechon macau skin looks crispy, but only looks.. it was not crispy at all. THe Roasted Duck wrap was good though.

Sukiyaki- this was good, the soup has th right amount of saltiness and sweetness.. balanced.. the meat was cut thin and melts in your mouth.

Japanese PLate- Tempura and aspara-Bacon, Croquette- the aspra bacon was good like i said from above, the tempura…. well… i wish they would use gibber shrimps or prawns, the croquette were ok

Roast Plate- Lamb Chop, Slice of Roast Beef, and Slice of Beef Belly- the roast beef was alittle tough even when it is cooked just the way i liked it, the beef belly was tender and fatty:). the lambchops were cooked ala minute in front of me..

Pizza with Arugula Leaf-  among the hotel buffets, their pizzas are one of the better ones

Grilled Chilean Sea Bass with Fresh Salsa– now this was the highlight of the dinner. soft flesh, cooked when ordered, seasoned just with salt and pepper. THe freshness of the fish and the delicious natural flavor of the fish exudes in every single bite..

Dessert Plate- Crepes, Ice Cream ,  Creme Brulee, Panna Cotta- everything was good, for the this restaurant has the best dessert delection among all the hotel buffets.

Final word.. the food here is really not as well prepared as say, Paseo Uno and Circles, but the huge array  of  food will blow you away, they have the best dessert selection so far for me, the grilled items is what i look forward to here, but sometimes the seabass is not available.

One more thing.. they have the most difficult set of utensils to use.. do u agree?

Dusit Thani Hotel – Makati City

Address: Ayala Center, Makati City

TEl NO: (02)8673333

Buffets have been around the country for a very long time, the most popular being the ones started by the Triple V group, which consist of Kamayan, Dads, Saisaki, then a lot of hotel restaurant have upgraded their buffets to have live cooking stations so we are assured of getting freshly prepared food.

One of the hotels with the most number of dining outlets is this 5 star hotel in Makati. Dusit Thani.

Having a wide array of choices, from the ultimate in Thai Cuisine, Benjarong, to the two of the upcoming great restos in their own cuisine. UMU for japanese and TOSCA for italian, Plus the international cafe BASIX they also have Fiesta San Miguel, which serves the best beers in town,

I was very intrigued by the (Family Sunday Brunch) Crossover buffet they are offering. Imagine, 4 hotel restaurants serving their items all at the same time for only P1450 all in.

To those who want to avail of the buffet, here is my story about it.

Process-

Patrons are to register at the lobby, near the Fiesta San Miguel area, then you will get a tag(that looks like a ride all you can from enchanted kingdom,) which will give you the go signal to go to all the buffet stations of all the restaurants

Station

- there are four stations, namely the 4 restaurants. YOu have to choose where you want to be your base station. I prefer UMU for its laid down atmosphere and very spacious interios

Umu Dishes-

This is where we started. THe Sushi and maki bar, the also serve trhis dish which i thought was cubed salmon but later on realiuzed it was ebiko in in cubed form, which was good actually. THe maki weres also nice, ver nice japanese rice used.

Umu- grill station..

various yakiniku prepared in front of you. also available is the delectable GINDARA teppanyaki.. melts in your mouth, the sauce penetrating the fillet . yummy

The grill skewers were also very good,

the beef was tender, the chicken succulent, the chicken sakin was well.. fattening. If u can see in the pic, i also got a fried lapu lapu collar bone, this was a loetdown cause it was over cooked and dry.

THe beef sukiyaki was heavenly, thinlly siceld well marbled beef, tender tender tender:)

The Tempura Station

was dishing out HUGE prawm tempuras, the coating was light and delicious:)

Next stop-Benjarong,

- THis is the restaurant Dusit is most proud of. With their Executive chef really hands on with the food here. Everything is prepared according to the strict standards of the chef. Food here is not as spicy as the usual Thai restaurant, but you can have it cooked to as spicy as you want it to be.

Here is the chef in action

cooking the PAd Thai was you order it, and believe me , it was fantastic, Just the right amount of all the ingredients…you can ask her to adjust the level of spicyness.

Benjarong- There is also a fried food station

which served arguably the best Shrimp Pancake in town, crispy on the outside, moist and juicy in the inside

Next Stop- Tosca= For me, the best new italian restaurant in the city. They serve bottmless sparkling wine which u can add mango juice and make it to a bellini.. refreshing

Pizza Station-

serving freshly prepared single size italian pizzas, Chewy crispy outer crust, topping u can choose from there.

Tosca- Risotto Station-

Two kinds of Risotto , cooked in front of you. Asparagus and Shrimp /Zuchinni(too bad walang mushroom). THe italian chef was looking at the way his sous chef was cooking. So Rest assured of the quality.

THe shrimp and zuchinnis

was a little was a little wet but the asparagus was perfect. Creamy and cooked al dente.

Tosca- they also have a grill station with different seafood and meat, i chose the sea bass which was just excellent. Grilled perfectly, seasoned well, a few more pieces of this and the 1450 price tag is already worth it..:)

Tosca- other items on the tosca spread

are the different smoked salmon, ribs, fish(overcooked) and a pasta station as well

Next Stop-Basix-

trying to be at par with the other live station buffet restaurant such as Circles, Paseo Uno etc. They have different Stations as well, Roast Station, Dimsum, MAke your won Taco Station, Shawarma Station, Chinese Station, Grilled Station, Crepe Station Etc ETc

Here is the chinese STation,

where the chef will makew you a duck roll, i was intrigue by their use of Melon Slivers instead of the usual cucumber slices. It was good.. nice contrast…

Basix- freshly cooked curry prawns

skewers whic are excellet\nt, fresh ingredients. Good flavor. ONe letdown though teh Roast Beef, it was cold, and overcooked.. sayang.. but i think this is just an off day..

Now for Desserts:

Tosca: Flourless Chocolate Cake-

Topped with Vanilla Ice cream. Cooked in a turbo brioler, i had my doubts, but once u get a spoonful… wow… i am not a chocolate lover but this one is good. Beside it ia creme Brulee.. it was okay..

Other Dessert Offering-

this beautiful plate of flan with a shot glass with mixed fruits in a fragrant syrup. It was beautiful and taste good. Next plate is addorted goodies like mango crepe pouches, Chocolate comething and flan with fruits

Last Plate: Mango Crepe

topped with Vanilla SAuce and Strawberries

Drinks- drnks are included, here in UMU you will be served with Greentea which they brew in house themselves, Tosca has the sparkling wine, Benjarong and Basix have their own ice tea conconctions..:)

What can i say about the experience- it was a revelation all the restaurants have a complete offering, meaning from appetizer to soup to salad to main courses and desserts.

for 1450 all in, it was worth it. My choices(not to be missed) are the Sea Bass, THe Pad Thai, Tempura, Sukiyaki,Gindara Teriyaki, Shrimp Pancakes, Prawn Spring Roll, Pizza, Risottos, Smoked Salmon, Tom Yum Goong, Flourless Chocolate Cake

Some interesting notes: Dusit has a lot of offerings this coming Holiday season

Chritmas eve dinner for each of the outlet UMU 8 course Kaiseki for 3,700. Benjarong 5 course for 1850net, Tosca 4 fourses for 2250, BASIX for 1600net .and Christmas day crossover brunch for 1600 net, a little more expensive but with added surprises..

New year Countdown crossover buffet- for P3800 net, aside from the crossover buffet, u get unlimited open bar drinks and entertaiment coutesy of the New Minstrels so u can celebrate in style and welcome 2009 with a happy stomach:)

Inquire at 02-8673333