ever since city buffet opened at sm fairview, my sister and i have always planned to dine there because their foods look amazing, the ambience of the restaurant is nice and cozy, and it’s really affordable for a buffet dining experience!
anyway, last saturday jeckie treated me to CB, out of curiosity na rin cos i really wanted to try it na, plus i’m craving for maki. haha
all in all i finished 3 plates of food (not including dessert!). i was very careful not to indulge cos they have leftover charge haha. BUTI NA LANG! cos later on we realized why there’s a need for such charge, more than the obvious reason. haha
Plate 1: an assortment of maki! my favorite of aaaaaall the foods i tried! red ginger is awesome!
i will never get enough of maki grabe! one of my all time favorites! also one of the foods i don’t have a ‘brand’ preference with. like for example pag pizza preferred ko shakeys, pag pasta – napoli’s, pag ice cream – selecta. pag maki, i don’t care who makes it, i’ll eat it! chos basta mukang fresh parin naman diba. haha
i’m glad i ate this first, and even more glad that they didn’t screw this food. LATER YOU’LL LEARN WHY. hahaha
Plate 2: kare kare, soup (di ko alam tawag basta ung madalas appetizer soup sa mga chinese restaurant), and *ehem* baked cheese vegetable w/ portuguese sauce
2/3 of this plate sucked. only the soup tasted normal. the kare kare sauce has no trace of tasting like peanuts. it’s salty and the vegetables were cold.
the complex sounding dish was all words and no kick. i was expecting a creamy tasting sauce but it was just curry. i don’t know about portuguese sauce but they could’ve just written curried vegetables. curry + cheese doesn’t jive well for me, specially when you can’t taste the cheese and when you find it on your plate.. what, MOZARELLA?! aaaargh. -__-;
now i know why there are no leftovers allowed.
Plate 3: carbonara, mashed potato, vegetable pizza, nachos and salsa, potato chips and garlic mayo dip.
i thought this would compensate the lack of, ano ba, impression (?) the other dishes have BUT NO. isa isahin natin…
carbonara – i know how a normal carbonara tastes like and i loooove that normal carbonara. but this one is not normal. matabang sya. and it’s not even a pinatabang version of the normal carbonara. ewan ko. di ko na-appreciate. -_-;
mashed potato – i think this tastes okay though di ko rin naappreciate masyado. the only mashed potato i like is the one from KFC (or anything similar to their’s) but this one’s different. my boyfriend liked it though. hehe
pizza – it’s cold it’s weird and the veggies on top don’t seem that fresh anymore. T_T
nachos and salsa – the salsa is very very matabang and the sauce is mejo malabnaw. it’s nowhere near Tostitos, and that’s how normal salsa tastes like. so disappointed. nachos na nga lang.
potato chips and garlic mayo dip – this was okay! FINALLY?! after how many dishes ngayong lang ulit nagkaroon ng katanggap-tanggap na selection. grr
Dessert: the only other thing i liked after maki! i had halo halo, crepe, and ice cream (vanilla and mango). they serve big scoop ice cream by the way! yummy!
Drinks: for an additional 55 pesos you get bottomless drinks na. i don’t remember what they have but we got lemon iced tea and green tea. both are okay! the lemon iced tea is lasang nestea 🙂 they also serve brewed coffee and tea (lipton yellow label). 🙂 oh i had coffee pala, it was your normal brewed coffee! my type of coffee! >:D
Pic spam for your appreciation (don’t get too excited though cos most of them are worse than it looks):
FINAL VERDICT:
i was expecting this buffet to at least taste normal but then it all seemed like a sad attempt for a gourmet buffet. no justice given even to the most common of filipino dishes. western favorites were screwed too. sadly i couldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone specially if you’re after quality food. Harsh pero it’s actually quite a shitty buffet. -__-;
in any case, the area is beautiful, and the staff and crew are accommodating. also, i think they have a birthday promo or something (yung usong uso ngayon). hehe
PRICES:
Monday – Friday (Lunch) : Php 399
Monday – Friday (Dinner): Php 499
Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays: Php 539
Drink all you can (beer not included) : add Php 55
Children below 4ft: Php 259
Left over price: Php 599
Lunch time: 11:30am – 3:00pm
Dinner time: 5:00pm – 10:00pm
No left over
No take out
Sooo, am i the only one with these thoughts? -_-
