Spiral Buffet at Sofitel remains one of my favorite buffet places, I can still remember the first time I've been here, it was my grandmother's 80th birthday and as a kid, I was at a loss on where to start! It wasn't that much food choice back then but it was definitely overwhelming for a kid. I remembered eating a lot of marshmallows dipped in the chocolate fountain and ended up having a serious sore throat the day after lol.
Fast forward to the present to celebrate Paolo's birthday and wow! Spiral has definitely stepped up its game and impressed me with 21 ateliers. Spiral now boasts a wide variety of food choices, from Chinese dim sum to roasted duck, Korean barbeque, freshly cooked Japanese food to tempura, Indian station complete with tandoori to cook naan bread, the gorgeous cheese room, fresh bread, salad bar, fresh pizza, seafood, cakes, ice cream, crepe and candy bar. It's really overwhelming! I wanted to try and taste everything they have to offer but sorry, my ever growing waistline can only accommodate so much.
Spiral's Olive bread is the best bread I have ever tasted. Remembering Ratatouille? How'd you know if a bread is good? Not the smell, not the look but the sound of the crust. Upon cracking the olive bread's crust, it sounds really crunchy, aaaah... Music to my ears. It's really really good bread and this comes from a person who doesn't really like bread that much. Served warm, pat on the pesto and butter spread to melt and it's heaven! I highly recommend the pesto spread as you can really taste the pesto's freshness.
Paolo and I headed straight to the Japanese section to get our freshly grilled beef slices. I got some ready cooked food such as tempura, tonkatsu, bacon rolls and Peking duck. Tempura is really fresh and crunchy, tonkatsu was a bit hard to chew, Yabu or Katsu Cafe might be a better choice but this is still a good one. Bacon wrap is heavenly! Bacon strips are not so salty, just the right saltiness for my taste buds. Peking duck is a bit salty but really aromatic as if I was roasted duck eating in Hong Kong. Love it!
For my second plate I headed to the pizza section, that's when I noticed that the pizza counter tops are heated. Amazing! Sushi bar's counter tops are chilled counter tops I think. Pizza was extremely aromatic. I also had a slice of potato with mushroom bits. I'm not sure as what it's called because some buffet stations don't have proper labels. Korean beef barbeque is sweet and savory, can't stop chewing on 'em. Fresh lobster was grilled and laced with butter garlic sauce. Perfection! I also went to the famed cheese room to sample some cheese, the first thing I noticed was how salty the air is inside that my eyes started to sting and water lol. Just be prepared for that when you enter this cheese chamber. There were a lot of cheese choices, aged meat, dried fruit and nuts. I also tried the fried spring roll filled with seafood salad but I didn't like it that much.
Third plate's the dessert plate, my favorite! Unlike most buffets where they offer you attractive cake choices but let's be honest, I don't like their cakes, it's just sweet colored mousse but Sofitel has the real deal. They really offer you quality ingredients that will truly satisfy your sweet tooth. Nutella cake is my favorite, better than Nutella as I can taste stronger hazelnut flavor in this one. Next favorite is the salted caramel puffs, I actually had 4! It has this strong sweet buttery salty taste that I just can't get enough off. Tastes a lot like Bizu's caramel fleur de sel French macaron without the extreme sweetness. The chocolate tart is filled with bitter sweet liquid chocolate. Chocolate cream puffs tastes really good but I like the salted caramel puffs better. I initially wanted to get the chocolate truffles but I was too busy picking my salted caramel puffs, when I went back to get my chocolate truffle, the plate was empty! But when I saw Paolo's plate full of chocolate truffles, AHA! Lol he gave me some when we got to the table, really sweet of him. My least favorite was the pistachio cake.
Overall it was such an excellent dining experience that I can't really pin point glaring flaws, just small minor details(or the lack of it) such as putting proper food labels. Everything else is just excellent and perfect. Spiral is definitely Manila's best buffet.
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