Alba Restaurante Español — Restaurant in Quezon City

TLDR: The food quality isn't what it used to be, and the Booky promo felt predatory.

Parking is difficult, but there is a valet to assist, which is nice. The food was mediocre to low, with limited choices, which is understandable given that it's a Spanish food-only buffet. However, the choices on the table were a bit disappointing.

Many items just indicate "assorted pastries" or "assorted appetizers," so there isn't a way to tell what some of the assorted items are.

Appetizers: The cheese on the charcuterie board just tasted like Eden cheese, I don't know, maybe that's what Spanish cheese is supposed to taste like? The preserved meats were really good, though. If I had a better experience, I probably would have purchased the ones they sell separately. The oysters were tempting at first, but were drowning in sauce and tasted like they were frozen oysters mixed with the dressing and just served on the shells. We, at several times commented on how clean the shells were. Too clean..... The salad set was just lettuce, the same ham and cheese they served on the charcuterie platter, eggs, and sauce.

Mains: The Porchetta was crispy but underseasoned. The sauce made it better, but not so much. The paella, the item I was looking forward to the most, tasted a lot better in the past; this time, it was just bland, and you can barely taste the seafood, even though there was plenty mixed in. The shrimp cream pasta (forgot what it was called) was also bland, but the shrimp was tasty. I am confused why the seafood dishes barely tasted like seafood, because there was a lot of seafood mixed in.

Desert: This is what I enjoyed the most. The flan was perfect, and I came back three times for it. The other desserts I didn't try because I was unsure what they were. I got something brown that I thought was a brownie, but it had raisins. I hated raisins, so I just stuck with the flan. The Oreo cake seemed out of place, though.

There was a Booky promo which we tried to avail, even called ahead of time to ask about the process to avail the promo. I was told that we just had to scan the QR code at the restaurant. But when we were about to pay, we were informed that we had to scan the QR code before we started eating, weird, right? They initially refused to honor the promo because of this, but after our insistence, they eventually accepted. The explanation was that there was a time limit to the promo. I still don't understand why it was refused at first, because the time limit was an hour away anyway.

At this point, the whole meal and experience were already a disappointment, and we just wanted to leave, so we didn't check the bill. Upon checking the bill at home, we found that the buy 1, take one was only applied to one meal (only one was free).

I did ask the restaurant about this, and they said that they had a policy that it could only be applied once per table, something that wasn't in the terms and conditions of the promo. The promo felt predatory, but it is what it is, and I just let it go at that point and didn't want to argue anymore.

I was really excited to come back to Alba as I haven't visited in quite a while. I've always had a delicious memory of the food, but this recent visit...

I used to love Alba, but I’m sad to say that the quality of their food has declined drastically since I last ate there ~2 years ago. We didn’t even finish the jamon croquettes because they were severely dry and starchy. 🤮 To make matters worse, the insides weren’t even hot!! We asked the waitress to heat them up, and before I could even explain that they were still cold inside, the waitress just took the plate and walked away. I honestly think it’s because they’re just reheating frozen food. The same goes for the cod croquettes. 😩

We also ordered two paellas: Filipino-style (with sisig and conchi) and Paella Valenciana. We asked the waitress if the base of the Filipino-style paella was the same as the Valenciana, which supposedly has saffron, etc. that make the rice orange. She said no and that the Filipino paella was brown. That’s why we decided to order 2 paellas, even though we were only a table of 4.

When the paellas arrived, we were surprised to see that both were orange, and the rice looked and tasted exactly the same. Worst of all, both paellas were EXTREMELY oily. It was a struggle to eat…. Besides these, we also ordered gambas and lengua (both ok lang).

I don’t know what happened to Alba, but I really hope they can go back to how they used to be. Very, very...

It's been years since I last visited Alba's, and I was looking forward to it. My parents, especially my father, loved their paella and would frequent this restaurant when they were still around.

They were supposed to have opened at 11am but the buffet wasn't completely setup yet so we were told to wait. The hostess told us that she'd inform us when it was ready. After about half an hour, we noticed people were already helping themselves to the food, but no one ever came to inform us. We had to ask one of the waiters if the buffet was open.

I started with the appetizers. I tried most of them and was really happy with the flavors of the hors d'oeuvres. The seafood paella was good, but I've tasted better before in that same branch. The lengua and the callos were really good - tender and flavorful. Pesto pasta was also good. Not too fond of the chicken, but I'm sure it would please others. There was no cochinillo in the spread. Instead they had the crunchy roast (roast) pork.

Wasn't happy about the desserts. They were all toooo sweet. So if you're a diabetic, you may want to skip the dessert. Buffet cost was P1200, but i think...