Spiral @ Sofitel Manila

Spiral @ Sofitel Manila (Score: 4.0 out of 5.0)

The Philippines have never been known to boast for anything that is the biggest, largest, or hugest (i know its not a word :)) but you just have to visit Spirals in Manila. Located at the lower lobby of Sofitel Manila, this buffest serves the widest variety of food for a buffet. It has out-shined Circles at Shangri-la Makati.


Normally, buffet food isn't top quality food as it is served en masse and cooked en masse. Spiral's take on this is still the same but there are some items such as the cheese room, foie gras, and grill station which provides just top quality food.

The Food

Yummy Foie Gras

Foie gras should be taken in small amounts.... Tell that to this chef. See that plate of flesh colored stuff... that's all foie gras and that is gone in 10 mins (I think faster in some occassions). The chef will cook a portion for your table if you wish or just tell him table for 6 but have it all for yourself... hehehehe.

Heavenly Cold Cuts

Cheese Room

The cold cuts and cheese share the same room in Spirals. It actually has an automatic door to separate it from the other food choices. If you love cold cuts and cheese, there is no other place to visit except this place for a good buffet. They can charge half the price of the full buffet and sell only this and I'm sure there will be people who would be willing to pay. For me the selection is not mediocre but actually good quality. I'm sure there is better but they really had good stuff in here.

The Grill and Pizza Station

They have various goodies here like the chicken and lamb but the secret is getting some of the crayfish from the seafood area and ask them to grill it. That my friends is yummy!

Asian Area (Thai, Chinese, SIngaporean, Filipino, etc)

Ok. Normally in buffets I'm able to try at least some of the special dishes in the different areas. This was the first time I didn't even reach a portion of a buffet selection. I was so full from the goodies from the grill, cold cuts, and cheese section.

Indian Treats

I'll try this next time... Didn't have enough space to even try these. I think they serve naan here too.

Too many to remember... not sure which one this section was....

The Desserts

Candies

Chocolate Fountain

Cake and Assorted Dessert

Don't get me wrong, Spirals' buffet selection have mediocre items too. Well tell me a buffet that doesn't have that then I'll write about it too. Spirals take on the buffet though is quite unique. Its not just that they have a very very wide variety of selection (that's easy) but they are able to serve some very good food. 

That is the key to a good buffet. Make people go back cause of something that is special. I think that is what Shangri-la's Circles have lost as I don't really crave for anything there anymore. Spiral's though... I still want to go back for the cold cuts and cheese. Yes... It's that good.

Price and Value

Ok, As you might imagine, a buffet of such variety and quality can't be cheap. And that is very very true here. The net price is around P3,100 per person. But try to look for someone that has a membership to avail of discounts (around 30-50% depends on some calculation) or wait for a voucher (I think it happened before.)

Regardless wether its P3,100 or P1,500, I hope you guys try this out at least once as it is very very worth it.

Rating:

Food - 4

Ambiance - 4

Value - 4

Service - 4

Overall 4 of 5

Repeat Factor (No!! No! Yes Yes! Yes!!): 

Yes!

Restaurant details: 
Website: http://www.sofitelmanila.com/

Address: Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila, CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, Philippines

Number: +63 (2) 551 5555

Reservation is advised.

1 Market (1 Catastrophe) by Chef Wan

1 Market by Chef Wan (Score: 1.5 out of 5)

This was bad. Sorry. It's worse than bad. Ok, don't get me wrong. Its not as if the food was inedible (thought the beef rendang and the lamb leg that I had was close to being inedible) but this was just a very very very bad buffet. I should have listened to the other reviews and stayed clear of this catastrophe. 

How bad is it you ask? Well, lets try enumerating what makes a bad buffet.

1. Cold hot dishes - check
2. Hot cold dishes - check
3. Bland food - check
4. Very tough meat - check
5. Very tough bread - check (yes the rojak was horrible)
6. Seafood not fresh - check
7. Bad dessert - check
8. Celebrity Chef name to sell a bad product - check check check

Our Orders

Carving Station with ahhh yes... no edible food.

They should fire the guy behind this table. He tried to serve me cold lamb scrap to pass off as lamb leg. Then again, they should fire the EC for no QA.

Spring Roll and Samosa

Ok the spring roll and samosa was edible and in fairness it was crispy and hot.

Hot dishes (Grilled Prawn, Beef Rendang, Honey Mutton, Crispy Chicken, Mixed Vegetable)

Chef Wan if I'm not mistaken is Malaysian. He is one of the if not the most recognizable names in the Asian Food Network. Please tell me how can you have allowed the grilled prawn to be not fresh. Actually I saw them stacking this and curious as to how they can pass food safety standards for seafood. 

The beef rendang is just sacrilege. It was tough, It was cold, and it was bland. If this was my restaurant, I'd close it and fire all the responsible people in the QA. Now if Chef Wan allowed this to be the standard then Chef Wan my only message to you is this, pack up and go home. You aren't doing your reputation here any good. 

The only saving grace in the hot food area was the green curry chicken which was ok.,

Rojak

How can a restaurant make rojak bad? By serving it with bread that is dry and almost inedible. The saving grace here though was the sauce was actually good and the other ingredients like green mango and cucumber were fresh.

Tempura, Spring Roll, Samosa, Grilled Salmon

The tempura was ok. Not in the picture is the sashimi together with the tempura which was a sorry sight. Stay away from the sushi bar specially the Sotong (Squid). Actually stay away from the restaurant.

Mee Soto

Think chicken soup with noodles that you can bulk from the grocery... that is Mee Soto

Another shot of hot dishes. In fairness if presentation was reflective of taste then these would be good.

Satay Section

The saving grace of the restaurant. You will see people line up here as this is probably what people just want to eat in this place. Too bad they serve around 50 sticks of beef and 50 chicken at a time. and people normally get 10 sticks per... and the queue is for about 10 people.... go figure out my point. The bad part here is that for the saving grace of the restaurant, you can get the same if not better satay outside. LPS satay will kick this restaurants a$$.

The satay for our table

Dessert

MMMMMM..... dessert. I wish I never got these. It was bad. Saying that kids make dessert is an insult to kids who make dessert. 

Our attempt for Iced Corn on Shaved Ice (Mais Con Yelo)

This is how it looked like when we got it. This is also how it almost looked like when we left... 

I think I've bashed this restaurant too much already. At the end, a buffet with really bad food mixed with some ok food never works. I can only think of the satay and the chicken curry as the ok food. If this restaurant didn't have Chef Wan's name I think it would be close soon. 

He must visit this place and try out the food for himself. 

Price and Value

All-in-all the bill amounted to around SGD 70 (SGD 35/person). Cheap nowadays for a buffet of this size in Singapore but unfortunately everything was just that cheap. Go to hawker and enjoy the same food there with better quality. And I don't mean to insult the Hawker stalls here in Singapore.

Rating:

Food - 1

Ambiance - 3

Value - 1

Service - 1.5

Overall 1.5 of 5

Repeat Factor (No!! No! Yes Yes! Yes!!): 

No!!

Restaurant details:Official Website: N/A
Address: Plaza Singapura, New Wing, Orchard Road
Tel no: +65 6341 9159

The Magic of Chongqing

The Magic of Chongqing (Score: 3.5 out of 5)

Today, Lynn and I wanted to do some good "healthy" steamboat yumminess. We saw The Magic of Chongqing as one of the 52 best buffets here in Singapore (52 Best Buffet in Singapore). So does it live up to the hype?

The first impression here is not so good. Tanglin Shopping Center just doesn't look old, it smells it as well. But good food cannot be deterred by looks alone, The Magic of Chongqing uses this ambiance quite well and fits the place like a hand with a perfect glove.

The Menu

Not a bad selection for a steamboat buffet. I had my eyes on the fish paste and prawns. There is a separate menu for dinner with more items but to be honest nothing did popped out to make me want to go for dinner service.

Our Orders:

(Fresh Prawns, Beef Balls, Beef Slices, Luncheon Meat, Taro, Sliced Seaweeds)

(Tao Kee, Shrimp Wanton, Vermicelli, Water Crest, Chicken with Mushroon Balls)

(The famous Fish Paste. We had 12 of these.)

Our combination soup: Ma-la Tang and Faithful Chicken Broth

I wont be explaining much on the steamboat items except for the prawns, fish paste and the soup. The prawns were surprisingly fresh. We only had 2 orders (4pcs in total) but that was more than enough for the two of us. Our neighbor I think had 30 pcs in total :). Fresh prawns = happy customers.

The fish paste was definitely handmade. I'd be surprised if someone said otherwise. The ala carte price for this is SGD 6.00 per plate. 

The chicken soup was tasty but nothing special. We should have tried the preserved sour vegetable in chicken broth instead. The ma-la tang soup though was very rich and I personally liked it. You can order this in 3 strengths: Mild, Standard, and Extra Spicy. The picture may look like its the extra spicy but in fact its just the mild (and this was already quite spicy for us).  Consider yourselves warned.

Our soup base with everything on it.

Fried bread roll, Egg coated glutinous square "Tikoy", Water chestnut jelly

Each person in the buffet, are given a single order of the following: Xiao long bao, meat and chives dumplings, and the dessert items (Fried bread roll, Egg coated glutinous square "Tikoy", Water chestnut jelly). The only item worth mentioning here is the Fried bread roll. If I had a choice, I'd trade the xiao long bao and dumplings and the two other desserts with a few more fried rolls. 

Price and Value

All-in-all the bill amounted to SGD 65.70. We should have passed on the "peas" in the table = SGD 3.00 and the 2 Sprites = SGD 5.00 but all in all no regrets. We had a good, hearty, and filling steamboat buffet which was the goal for today.

Rating:

Food - 3.5

Ambiance - 3

Value - 3.5

Service - 4

Overall 3.5 of 5

Repeat Factor (No!! No! Yes Yes! Yes!!): 

Yes! Definitely a good steamboat deal.

Restaurant details:

Official Website: http://www.chinesefeasts.com.sg/

Address: 19 Tanglin Road, #04-06/07 Tanglin Shopping Centre, Singapore 247909 

Tel no: +65 6734 9789
Reservation Required.