The Spiral Experience

My friends Cherry, JR and I decided to save up for one of the best hotel buffets in Manila: Spiral in Sofitel Philippine Plaza. We've only read about the buffet in blogs and from friends so when we finally made reservations, our tummies got really excited too. I love eating so the plan was to get there early and pig out for 4 hours.

As soon as we were ushered to our table, we took pictures of our table. We were seated in a couch with pillows with a nice view of the pool.  Because we got there around 11:30, the place wasn't full yet. Around 12:30, people started coming in.

We weren't sure at first if people are allowed to take pictures inside the buffet area, but we saw others doing it too. I guess it's okay, as long as you do it discreetly. We checked out the Chinese food selection first where they had all kinds of dimsum: siomai, hakao, wanton, scallop dumplings, noodles, xiao long bao, spareribs, chicken feet,and more. We got a little bit of everything and then proceeded to get the Roasted Prime Ribs beside the Salmon Puff (not in pic).

Cherry and JR raved about the salmon puff, but since I don't eat fish, I didn't get to try it. The fish had lemon butter sauce while the roasted prime ribs had red wine sauce. I like my meat well-done, but the medium rare of the prime ribs was so juicy and flavorful! We also stopped by the tempura station in the Japanese menu. They had vegetable tempura, shrimp tempura, crabstick tempura, and potato balls.

Introducing: my first plate! siomai, wanton, scallop dumpling, hakao, peking duck, shrimp and crabstick tempura, roasted prime ribs.

They also served bread with butter and the yummy pesto filling.

After the "warm-up," we went to get our second plates and try all the seafood, pizza and pasta.

seafood paella

Holiday ham! hehehe

ham and cheese

shrimps

mussels

crabs

california maki

sushi station

We had bolognese pasta (which we all shared, pero 3/4 ata sakin) cooked on the spot before we went back to the table.

 My second plate: shrimps, squid, pizza, crabs, and cookies (pampaalis umay).

Then it was time for dessert! These are just some of the dessert stations they had. The ones not in the picture are the crepes, pannacotta, creme brulee and ice cream station. We got so full so we weren't able to try it.

fruits

gummy candies

cookies

white chocolate, dark chocolate, and the green one I'm guessing is pistachio or green tea.

mini cake slices

My dessert plate: pistachio ice cream, vanilla creme brulee, strawberry cake, pistachio cake, mango cream and Bailey's panna cota, and a melon I dipped in dark chocolate.

candies!

We were stuffed by 2PM, but I really wanted to see if their xiao long bao is good. The pot was always empty so had to wait for a fresh batch. While waiting, we rested and used their free Wifi and read a magazine. (Hahaha parang nasa bahay lang!)

It's finally here! It was okay, but because it felt kulang, I paired it with some more hakao and stir-fried spicy noodles.

We finished eating at 3PM because the stations were also closed by then. Sofitel has one of the best hotel swimming pools ever since they renovated so we went around and took some pics. The weather was beautiful too and the pictures came out well.

We took one last picture before saying bye to Spiral. It was worth it, but I think it's one of those things that you should only try once. The food selection was impressive and the service was great.