Spirals – Long Buffet

Am pretty sure everyone had their food splurge during the previous holidays and am gonna share one of the food splurges I had!

Spirals is considred to be one of the best buffet in Manila *for now*. It is the buffet service of Sofitel Philippine Plaza here in Manila which is managed by Sofitel. If I am not mistaken, the Sofitel Spiral’s buffet is considered the longest buffet here in Manila. They offer the widest variety of buffet here!

If you haven’t come here, I will show you around then 🙂

So often than not, buffets here in Manila always have a sashimi/maki/sushi station. People first normally go to this station to get their starters.

Filipinos also love makis! Especially that we use Philippine mangoes here for our california makis, which makes it even better! 🙂

What I like about Spirals also is that they have this seafood ‘cocktail’ section. The station has prawns, mussels, crabs and fresh oysters with different cocktail sauces like horseradish, vinaigrettes etc…! yum! love it 🙂 The color of the prawns made the whole station looked even better 😀

Then, there is also a salad station which I didn’t bother trying since it looked pretty much normal. Presentation is neat though 🙂

Next is one of my favorite! The cheese station! Unlimited cheese yay! This is one thing that most Filipinos missed a lot: an appreciation of the cheese! 🙂

I was disappointed with the cheese station this time though. Out of the 4 cheeses I tried 2 were already rancid and overripe 😦 it gives you this acidic taste already 😦 I think they should have tried the cheeses first before serving it!

Moving along, is also my favorite station, the charcuterie station! They got smoked fishes, salamis and terrines 🙂

I love this station and normally, I eat with the cheese and some pizza! Which leads us to the pizza station! 🙂

Eating the pizza right off from the oven gives a whole new dimension! It had a good contrast of texture because of the melted cheese which also gives this rich creamy flavor 🙂 I usually get some plain cheese pizza and add some salami milano or some smoked salmon! yum! 🙂

Next, I also try the bread station depending if there is good bread! I usually touch and try feeling its crust if the bread is good or not! 😀 So often than not, for me, good bread and butter is already enough for a really good meal 🙂

They also have stations for rolls!

In between the bread station and the charcuterie station, they placed a pasta station. 🙂

The good thing about their pasta here is that it is cooked to order so you don’t get to have soggy overcooked pasta! They have different sauces and toppings and pasta for you to choose 🙂

After those stations, I go to the Japanese station of the buffet! it is separated from the sashimi station 🙂

First, there is the sukiyaki/nabe station!

I didn’t actually liked this station since everything there is overcooked with the reason that they just throw the ingredients there and just let it sit their over and induction cooker until refilling is needed hence overcooking most of the ingredients there especially the nabe!

Anyhow, beside it is their yakimono station. Grilled Japanese stuffs!

I was disappointed here because there was no asupara bacon that time or uzuki bacon *quail eggs* 😦 So I didn’t bother getting anything from there!

Next was their agemono station, where everything is deep fried! 🙂

I love the batter they made for their tempura! It was light and crispy! The quality shrimp was not as high as I was expecting though or maybe it was already cold so it got a little tough already. Beside this station was the soba station, noodles which I didn’t try 🙂

Beside the whole Japanese Station, on it’s left were paella and lamb with couscous.

On it’s right was the Indian station which I should try next time. They had these assorted chutneys and tandoori cooked meat! 🙂

Right beside the Indian Station is their grilling station. Grilling stations are common in most buffets here in Manila. What I like best is their lamb chops with mint jelly. 🙂 I love the combination of the flavor of lamb with the slight sharp kick of the mint jelly. 🙂

Beside the grilling station was the carving station. This was quite a disappointment because the prime rib was a bit overcooked! It was medium-well already! Just taking a look at the picture below, you can say that it is already a bit dry already 😦

Moving on, we have the Chinese roasting station! Love the view of the roasting, made me feel am in Chinatown lolz 😀

This is actually the start of their Chinese station where there are different kinds of dimsum.

And Chinese noodles! 🙂

And what’s a Chinese station without Peking duck? 😀

The Chinese station is accompanied with various asian style braises also 🙂

Lastly, we go to the dessert station 😀

They first have these petite desserts that are followed by some tropical fruits 🙂

They also have cakes that are technically the larger version of the petite desserts 🙂

On the other side of the dessert table, the crepe station is placed with different fillings! I like their banana cinnamon filling and looking at the far end of the picture below, they have their chocolate fountain. I should warn you though, try not having the chocolate fountain since most of the time, they buy lower quality chocolates and add a lot of vegetable oil so that it becomes smoother! Talk about calories! 😦

They also have an ice cream bar and halo-halo.

So there you go, a glimpse of the longest buffet table here in Manila. So what are my thoughts about it? First of all, I think I have better experience eating here before. I remember being happy all the time coming here until now, there were many disappointments. I think their consistency is falling out but don’t get me wrong, the food is good but it wasn’t as good as before.

If you were to ask me if I would recommend this place, I would say yes if you are looking for variety, but if you are looking for quality in a buffet, wait for my next post. My next post is a buffet service here in Manila that I feel that has the best quality so far. 🙂