Cafe Ilang-Ilang — Restaurant in Manila

If you're looking for a memorable dining experience, look no farther. Manila Hotel's Café Ilang Ilang offers an All-You-Can-Eat buffet that's hard to beat.

After months of being cooped up at home due to strict lockdowns and travel restrictions, it was indeed a pleasure to reunite with family and friends for lunch at Café Ilang Ilang. The indoor restaurant reopened last May 2021, after community quarantine levels were eased to Alert Level 2,  with dine-in  allowed for vaccinated customers (18 years old and above), and children 17 and below.

Getting There: The iconic Manila Hotel (opened in 1912) is accessible via Roxas Blvd., with ample guarded parking. Before entry into the hotel, you'll need to present your vaccination card to the doorman,  then proceed to the x-ray, and fill out the contact tracing form.

You'll have to go through their grand hotel Lobby to access Café Ilang Ilang.  Taking photos with their towering Christmas tree is a must to record your visit. At the Café's front desk, a receptionist will take your reservation name, and escort you to your table.

Gastronomy: There will be plenty of delicious, healthy and fresh food selection among the 8 food stations, that include Asian, Mediterranean, European and Western dishes. All  stations now have partitions, and you order from or point at the food you want from the chefs/food servers, and get the plate/bowl from an opening on the partition or on the side. This is unlike the type of buffet where you take food by yourself. These partitions are for hygiene and health purposes. It's challenging for the chefs to hear our orders because of the partition and our face masks, so we used our hands and sign language to make ourselves understood.

The food stations and tables are spaced apart and at specific locations to prevent congestion. A bar for drinks will be the first you'll notice upon entry at the restaurant. Next the pizza station. There are a selection of  Filipino favorites like Lechon. I queued up for their extensive array of Japanese dishes including Sushi, Salmon, Maki, Tempura, noodles, etc. I like their authentic Samosa, curried vegetables and shrimps from their Halal food selection. The Korean soup with seaweed and mussels, their prawns, steak and Halo Halo were some of my favorites. The kids enjoyed the wide variety of desserts, cold cuts and salads.

As an added treat, birthday celebrants are serenaded by restaurant staff, complete with cake blowing at the end of the meal.

Additional Notes: Make your reservation in advance, due to the limited seating capacity and the Café's popularity. Some of the reasons it is popular are the wide selection of delicious local and international cuisine, the cosy and safe ambience, the health protocols that they adhere to, the discounts (BDO and senior citizens) and promos they offer, and their highly efficient service. They boast of sanitizing the premises using UV light, air filters, with all their serving staff fully vaccinated.

The atmosphere inside the restaurant may be a little confusing to navigate between your table and the food stations. But there are friendly hosts and staff who can guide you, they also go around collecting empty plates, taking requests, and reminding diners (who are walking around) to wear face masks.

One suggestion is for them to open a Mexican food station, highlighting the cultural and historical ties between our two nations. With Tacos, Tortillas, Nachos, etc., these would have added a more festive ambience to the restaurant.

Now that I've enjoyed the delicious and wide selection of food at Café Ilang Ilang, with its safe and clean ambience, and efficient services, I can say that it is highly recommended for a cosy twosome, a family gathering or a group...

Cafe Ilang-Ilang has been one of our top choices for buffet meals for years. Primarily because it is part of The Manila Hotel and because of the varied, numerous selections under each of their international-themed stations. Despite the great variety, large selection, the dishes remain delectable.

They also have "themed-nights"; however, these do not really appeal to us that much, given that their regular international stations already have more than enough dishes to choose from.

Food Selection their salad, bread, appetizer stations are a feast to the eyes (and to the stomach) their international stations have more than enough dishes to choose from, that it would take several visits just to be able to taste everything their ice cream flavors have enough variety/flavors their Filipino desserts are delicious (they captured the traditional flavors); the choices are numerous the stations are replenished often the pastry selection is OK; but, given their prestige, we kind of expected that their pastry selection would be much better drinks are billed separately

Service we usually have to make a reservation, as it is almost always fully booked reception is quite professional and courteous; however, there were a few times when it was obvious that the receptionist favored certain guests = while it is understandable that certain guests are favored, the other guests - who are not as favored - should not feel that they are treated less favorably the servers are usually attentive to our needs, like clearing the tables; during peak hours though, it takes a while to get hold of the servers, that the "supervisors" and/or "managers" step in to fill the gap the Chefs are readily available to discuss each dish at the stations there is a Halal area, where presumably Halal dishes can be prepared; however, in the numerous times we've visited, we have not seen it being used

Ambience while the place is almost always at full capacity when we dine, the place does not feel crowded (probably due to the partitions and the brighter lighting) lighting is just right, makes dining more enjoyable and fun there is an area near the private room, where the noise coming from the private room, can make it difficult to have conversations outside without raising our voices (especially if the door to the private room is open) given that they have live cooking stations, the aroma of various dishes fills the air and sometimes the air kind of feels/looks "greasy" with the smoke/steam from the station = when we leave the place, we can still smell food on our hair, clothing

Wish List more parking space inside the compound (The Manila Hotel may put up a steel frame parking building similar to the one at Cardinal Santos Medical Center and at Cash and Carry; they may just cover the sides of said parking building with a facade to complement the exteriors of the hotel) better exhaust/air filtration system per station to pullout the smoke, grease, and steam; to keep the dining area feeling fresh and clean include drinks in the buffet price (similar to the Medley Buffet at Okada Manila)

Pricing while their regular rates are more on the expensive end, they usually have promos that make their rates more reasonable they have limited paid parking slots inside the compound; there are additional parking slots outside...

The food was average in terms of taste, particularly when it comes to buffet food. Unfortunately we dined during a holiday, and the employees seemed visibly taxed/overwhelmed by the number of guests which affected their ability to provide good customer service. These gripes were bearable. The primary issue came with our bill, and how the restaurant and hotel employeees handled the scenario. I unsuccessfully attempted to call Cafe Ilang-Ilang directly early in the morning, then spoke with restaurant reservations instead. The employee I spoke with over the phone, JC, let me know that there was a credit card discount promo available when I asked about possible promotions, in addition to senior citizen discounts. They let me know that we would be put on the waitlist after I provided the number of people in my party (four). Imagine my horror when I had been informed that this discount would only apply to a party of six or more AFTER we had eaten our fill at the buffet. When I spoke with the restaurant regarding these concerns. the employees seemed to lack any sympathy as and simply deflected responsibility to the restaurant reservations without providing a means for recourse. When I contacted restaurant reservations on the phone immediately after the event, the person on the phone repeatedly deflected responsibility back to me as they noted that I had not asked about the promotion “in their records” despite me retelling my entire conversation with JC. It became obvious that my concerns were not being heard and that they would deny any responsibility, so I let them know that the discussion would end there. Unfortunately, anything that may go wrong falls on the customer’s shoulders at this business. Please find another buffet to go to-what Cafe Ilang-Ilang and Hotel Manila prize are not customer satisfaction and experience, but the amount of money lining...