We arrived about 6:15 pm and took a peek to see what the buffet offered. At quick glance, roasted pig, BBQ, sushi, cook to order sinigang (filipino sour soup), sashimi etc. We decided to have a go at it as we were celebrating a birthday in our group.
The buffet had a juice station that had 3 varieties (orange juice, dalandan, and I forgot the 3rd kind) to choose from. I opted to try dalandan as I never had dalandan juice before. I took a few sips and strangely an odd after taste became apparent. I had my wife taste it as she said she's had dalandam juice before and she immediately said, "don't drink that anymore. Either the cup is dirty or the water they use has an odor." eeeek!! So I ended sticking to water (which didn't have any noticable odors or strange tastes, so maybe it was the cup?!). *gasps*
Now for the food. Cold, cold, and cold. I browsed around and cherry picked what they offered and sadly everything was cold. My dad ordered a shwarma with fries and it was cold, almost frozen. The sushi wasn't fresh. The rice was almost crispy like. Tuna sashimi didn't taste that great, seemed like it came from laying on ice then transferred on a serving plate but then left to fend for itself. What was meant to be hot was cold and what was meant to be cold was luke warm. The receptionist indicated that they opened at 6 PM for dinner, but all the food seemed as if its been left out for quite sometime. I expected the food thats intended to be hot would be piping hot as they did just open. Unfortunately not. Now I will say I was a big fan of their sinigang. Just the right tartness and super hot. We ordered a plate of bam-i which is like two types of noodles stir fryed. It was super salty. Their roasted pig tasted alright but you can tell its been sitting there for awhile as its gotten super dry, almost like a leather look. The BBQ was cold which was a huge turn off. The food was either dry, cold, warm or not fresh at all. I bypassed the salad bar as I noticed a fly just cruising through their leafy offerings. They had what appeared to be pastrami but when I tasted it, it was super spongy and dripped wet. *yuck*
For dessert, they had a variety of offerings but mostly local fare. I tasted the bread pudding and it was super dry, no sauce for it. Ice cream was pretty good and toppings can be found towards the salad bar. They offered conchenta (a brown jelly like dessert topped with coconut shavings), a casava dessert with caramalized coconut strands, chocolate fountain (but the liquid didn't look like chocolate, had a pink color), and small cake cuts normally found in average chinese buffets in the States. They also had a crepe station.
Staff: When we first were seated I got the feeling as if the person putting water in our glass was not ready to be bothered with. He didn't say anything and seemes to just want to get his duties over with. The rest of the evening waiters were attentive and kept making sure the cups were filled with water. Totally different attitude from the original guy who first filled our cups. I did mention to a lady, whom appeared to be a manager, that the dalandan juice tasted funny and that I will only be having water for my drink. She just stared at me and didn't say anything. *shrugs* It also appeared that they may lack in food prep staff as there were scarcely any attendants at the "cook to order" stations.
As mentioned in the title, the restaurant itself was beautiful and nicely layed out (floor seemed to be newly mopped but no caution signs, so tread carefully). We didn't come here to observe the decorations. We came here to eat. Unfortunately, I was disappointed at the quality of the food that was offered. I'm not sure if they had free wifi, I didn't have time to check. Birthday celebrants are free (with i.d. and given a slice of cake, thank you) and each adult was 850 pesos. We were told senior citizens also get a discount (with i.d.). Free parking. read more