Battle of the Buffets Part 2 (Paseo)

Two down, three to go.

Just to give you a recap, I have decided to try out 5 buffets from 5 different 5 star hotels. Basically, my goal is to see what these buffets have to offer, check how they compare to one another and decide what is best in food quality, ambiance, service and value. For more yummy details, you may read Battle of the Buffets Part 1.

Contender: PASEO UNO, The Mandarin Oriental
Date: June 7, 2007, dinner
Co-critics: Christine Y.T., Rose U., Minena G., Sandy, Cherry T.

The first thing you notice about Paseo is the interior design. Dark wood with lots of glass, dim lights and the aroma of the chocolate in the air. Romantic enough for a date but comfortable for a family gathering as well. Modern and classy, it is one of the best looking buffet restaurants I have seen so far.



As you enter, the first part of the buffet that will welcome you is the dessert. Like Circles, it is another good strategy to lure people in. And since I am in the topic of dessert, let me make my comments about it. There's a Halo-halo station which is a favorite of the gang. There's white and milk chocolate fountain with fruits and marshmallows and cookies as option to dip, flourless chocolate cake, strawberry mouse, lemon tarts among others. Although they look yummy, I say skip everything and go for the ice cream, halo halo or crepes that is prepared just the way you like them.

Cakes, pastries, lollipop and gummy bears were also available. Everything was presented well except for the strawberries. They were just too small to be covered in chocolate and to have a relatively big stick attached to it. It didn't look too appetizing and to think, I am a strawberry lover! I would rather have the small berries on a bowl and have the option to put whip cream and chocolate on top.


There's a whole selection of salad and appetizers but except for the shrimp, oysters and mussels, my gang usually skips this part but if you like potato salad, stuffed eggplant and other cold salads you won't run out of choices. I must say that the shrimp are a bit small and oysters were not plump. The seafood are also laid out so that each one was spaced out from one another. To me, it would have been better if they were stacked up in a pile so that they look abundant and more enticing. Spacing them out looks as if there's a shortage especially since the shrimp are quite small (at least compared to the ones in Circles).


There's a Chinese food station where there are 2 kinds of dumplings, siopao, noodles, sweet and sour chicken, duck, congee and other dishes. Tempura and 4 kinds of sushi was also available although once again, the shrimp in the tempura were skinny and short. Much like my ex-boyfriend. Sandy and Minena had a lot of the smallest hakao (shrimp dumpling) I have ever seen. No wonder they were able to eat about 15 pieces each. They may be small but they were delicious!!



Hot dishes like lamb escalope with herbs, stuffed chicken breast with ricotta and spinach and for the carving station they had baked bone ham in sourdough, beef tenderlion medallions and roasted chicken. To grill, there were assorted sausages and lamb. For the seafood lover, there's a huge snapper baked with herb tomato crust on top. This is usually where the guys in the gang use up 3 plates for. Cannot blame them, the grilled meat was heavenly.

The service was impeccable. We didn't have to wait for our plates to be cleared and glasses to be filled. The waiters were attentive and made sure that we had everything we needed which made us very happy. See? All smiles!


The outlet manager, Mr. Chris Kreuziger was kind enough to help me with the names of the dishes and to assist me with questions I had. He even brought me the spoon for my halo-halo, without my having to ask for it. Guess, I was planning to pour the whole yummy thing down my mouth. Thank goodness Chris was there to remind me of my manners.


Resident Manager, Mr. Knuth Kiefer and PR Manager, Ms. Donna Lampano visited our table to make sure that our dining experience was pleasurable. Now THAT is what I call superb service!

Generally, ambiance and service is a winner compared to Circles, hands down. Food quality can improve a bit making value for money just average.

Next stop, HEAT of EDSA Shangri-la Hotel.


Paseo Uno, Mandarin Oriental
Price for lunch: P1,290
Price for Dinner: P1,351
Friday dinner:P 1,413 (seafood buffet)
Service charge and tax included
(632) 7508888 extension 2412

Battle of the Buffets Part 1 (Circles)

Blogging about buffets is going to be a tough one but I thought that it would be interesting to know how one smorgaasbord would compare to another. I decided to battle it out against five 5-star hotels and hope that it may help you to somehow decide where it is worth to shell out P1,000+ and gain 5 lbs overnight.

It's going to be expensive and fattening but it's a job I am willing to take. Since the photos might be a lot, this is the first of a 5 part blog. Please check back to see how the others fair.

Contender: CIRCLES, Makati Shangri-la Hotel.
Date: May 10, 2007, dinner
Co-critics: Jasmin J, Gary J, Christine Y.T., Ylaine and Peter C.

Appetizers:

Lobsters, prawns, mussels, sushi among others. They are fresh and abundant and is situated right by the entrance of the restaurant which is a pretty good bait for those who are just passing by. They are on a bed of ice and lit properly to make the red color of the shells come out thus making the mouth drool. The promise of seafood heaven is at hand. Sushi is even presented in a more artful way. There's one with avocado and the way it was prepared seemed too pretty to eat. The only thing missing was Uni. That would have been sushi perfection. A salad bar is also available to those who are pretending to be on a diet. C'mon, admit it, if you are eating in Circles, there's no way you are trying to lose weight. My gang skipped the salad bar completely.


Carving:
Roastbeef cooked so tenderly, juicy and tasty for meat lovers. Although it was delicious, the gang and I only got a little piece to save room for the other cuisines waiting patiently for our attack.


It was Friday evening and it was LOBSTERS night. But wait, where were the lobsters? That's exactly what we did, WAIT. Since everyone was in line for it, I think that they should have prepared more and faster because it was such a drag for people to have to stand in line waiting for 1 or 2 of these crustacean to be served. Thank goodness Gary was so willing to get the lobsters for us. He is such a darling and the lobsters? Very very good.

Main course and different cuisines:
Chinese, Indian, Persian, Italian and Filipino. You can easily get full just by looking at the spread. Curry, shawarma, siopao, sweet and sour prawns, dimsum, paella, kaldereta, noodles, duck and a whole lot more. Luckily, all the food that we got were good except for Jasmin, who got a piece of steak and said that it was a bit tough. I liked my sweet and sour prawns. It was tender and the prawns were big, fat and juicy. Christine loved the chicken shawarma. Ylaine and Peter got an assortment of things but by the looks of our empty plates, there's no doubt that the dinner was a success.




Dessert:
The most important part of the meal, there was a whole lot of assortment of sweets for us to choose from. Icecream, cakes, pastries, candies, fruits and chocolate fountain. We had everything, even gummy worms. Not one kind escaped our need for our sugar intake.


The small tarts are not worth the fat. There's bread pudding which is not bad but again, not great. The only thing I thought was pretty good was the icecream.

Gary and I enjoyed the cotton candy, but then again, who doesn't?


Overall view, I think that it is not a buffet you should miss. The seafood is fresh, that's the most important thing for me. The dessert needs to be improved somehow. Being pretty is not enough, it should also be yummy. The service was good and ambiance is comfortable. It is not a restaurant to take your date unless, of course, you both love to eat plenty. I have been here twice and the food selection was the same for both times. This was about 2 months apart so I hope that the next time I decide to dine here, they will offer new and different cuisines.


Circles, Makati Shangrila Hotel
813-8888
Lunch-P1,270
Dinner Sun- Thurs -P1,458
Dinner Fri-Sat-Sun -P1,688
(tax and service charge included)