The Café | Hyatt Regency Manila, City of Dreams — Restaurant in Parañaque

Ok so not quite a 4 more like 3.5 but why

Well the experience includes everything.

Parking is not easy unless you want to.pay for Valet Parking - you have to go to the City of Dreams multistory Parking.

Security checking every vehicle but signage to the entrance is not the easiest - yet should be better promoted. There is a pick up service but you need to know about it? Use the elevators and go to the ground floor and wait - no real outline of how long you should wait.

Arrival you have to go through a security check which includes the ladies handbags going through an x-ray machine. Then walking through a body scanner.

Washrooms the main ones are in the lobby - how these can be referred to as the main is unclear.

Mens washroom as 1 urinal and 1 Cubicle only. It was reasonably clean but the lighting was dim. The washroom cubicles though as ababy changing table which is progressive. The cubicles is also suitable for people with disabilities. No cleaning record was visible and as such could have been cleaner.

Entering the restaurant - you have to wait for the opening times- however if you are infirm ask and they will find you a seat.

Would suggest you book in advance.

Food - there is a wide selection which seems impressive but could still be better especially for the price for the Philippines. The area is split into various choices - Italian - Western - Asian - Japanese - Indian - salads - deserts. Most dishes were replenished quickly.

Beverages - wine, beer and a range of fruit drinks, water, tea and coffee.

Staffing was good - quick, helpful, supportive but on occasions they were just to keen to remove glasses and plates etc

Cost - this is a difficult one to address? We visited when the cost was 50% discount and was just about reasonable for the offering. It was popular with many visitors so obviously accessible to some.

WOULD I RECOMMEND? - YES give it a go.

WILL I RETURN? - Possibly but...

The presentation and service in this buffet is what one might expect in a five star establishment (with prices to match).

Low points are the food itself which is sub-standard even by Filipino culinary standards.

The only cheeses available were the most bland and tasteless: Gouda, Edam, Emmental (an especially poor example) and a plasticky raw tasting "Cheddar". No Blue cheeses or mature and flavourful choices.

The butter chicken ((Murgh Makhani) was tasty, but ran out before I could try a full helping.

When I asked for Naan bread (advertised on their website), they were kind enough to bring me some crisp, dessicated apology that more resembled yesterday's stale paratha rather than the fluffy, chewy, bubbly bread slathered with ghee with the signature elasticity that you get from tandoor cooked naan!

Deserts were very pretty but were the usual sugar-poisoned US style with no hint of real cream or anything classic like a Pavlova, or Tiramisu, éclair or Crème Brûlée in sight. If you aspire to Type 2 diabetes, a fat arse and testing the whole range of FDA approved preservatives and colourings then this will be the right place for you.

My companion was so disgusted by the vomit-inducing nastiness of all the food choices that she probably only ate PHP130 worth of the PHP1960 I paid for her lunch.

To cap it all I had to educate them as to the requirements of Republic Act 9994 regarding discounts for senior citizens.

If you want to impress people with the thickness of your wallet rather than your discerning taste, this will be the place for you...

Being fair, neither of us show any signs of food poisoning despite many of the dishes being kept at bacteria-encouraging tepid temperatures for...

Very, very limited food selection even for a standard, non-hotel lunch buffet.

We went for the Sunday lunch buffet, and the food selection was very limited compared to other hotel buffets. Even non-hotel buffets like Vikings, The Alley, Dad’s, Sambokojin, and Yakimix offer far more variety. Themed buffets like Guevarra’s even have a better and more premium food selection than this, while being cheaper.

What’s missing? • No beef dishes at all • No carving station (no pork, no chicken, no beef) which is a staple for all buffet restaurants. • No tempura, sushi and sashimi; the available maki were mostly stuffed with vegetables and fillers (like crabsticks-no actual fish meat) and only came in three variants • No siomai, dim sum, or dumplings in the Chinese section. • No Filipino proper dishes anywhere (when I say “proper”: there’s no actual Pinoy dish that’s a staple on any buffet restaurants) • No crabs, lobsters, or oysters in the seafood selection

Note that this wasn’t just a case of items running out, these were not on the menu at all (they only add crab for the seafood selection during dinner).

What’s available? • Shrimp, tahong (mussels) and clam in the seafood section • Pasta and pizza station • Indian station • Noodle station • Salad station • Fry section (with chicharong bulaklak and chicken karaage-two items at a time only) • Grill station for chicken/pork and shrimp skewers • Unlimited fish chips and pork chicharon to fill you up

Overall, very disappointing especially for a 5-star hotel buffet priced at ₱1,900 per person.

P.S. We visited here pre-pandemic (same, lunch on a weekends) and at that time they still had carving station and a wider selection. Not sure what happened,...