Tong Yang, Uptown — Restaurant in Taguig

Our family loves eating in buffet restaurants from Vikings to Dads to City Buffet to Cabalen. We've tried Tongyang at least three times before but in different branches. I really wanted to like it this Tongyang, but it was honestly not worth the cost you paid.

Pros: There's unli beer and Japanese prebiotic drink. The base soups were delicious. We got sinigang and laksa, and both are good. Helpful and courteous staff. But they need to assign more staff to refill. See cons. Stand out food is the cooked noodles, some of the sushi, and the ice cream. The rest are unmemorable. Big space with just enough table and chairs even on a weekend. We didn't wait long to get seated.

Cons: The display spread is always incomplete and needs refilling. They take their time refilling, or maybe they lack enough staff to check which tray needs to be refilled. It could be the uncooked noodles, the drinks, the cooked viands, the ice, the rice, the cooked noodles, the sushi, the uncooked proteins, but always an empty or incomplete spread. They should assign more staff to check and refill the buffet spread. Overall, there's just limited spread and choices. The proteins, when fried in the same pan, almost tasted the same. We can't help but compare with similarly prices buffet minus the burden of cooking and frying and prepping your own food. No CR inside, so you have to go outside inside the food court area. If you're going to cook and get fishy and slimy ingredients, you would need to wash your hands, and you have to go...

It’s my second time to dine in Tong Yang Uptown Mall. I didn’t enjoy it the first time because I felt the place is cramped and the meat was not fresh. But this time, I really had a good time.

I’ve noticed that the beef is not served on the meat station anymore, you have to get it from the window near the soda station. The beef is thinly sliced and you can choose from 2 variants, 1 with more marbling and the other one with less fat. It’s perfect for grilling and shabu shabu.

There’s a lot of ingredients to choose from. They have seafood: salmon belly, squid, cream dory, clams, they have different kinds of meat: chicken, pork and beef. You can add veggies and seafood balls, choose your soup based, I particularly like laksa and sate. Make sure you make a nice dipping sauce because it elevates the flavor. I like to mix peanut sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, sesame oil and chilli together. It brings out the umami taste of the meat. For desserts, they have ice cream with chocolate, avocado, strawberry and cookies & cream flavors and a halo halo station, and different kinds of cakes and pastries ; I like their ube, red velvet and brownie. They also have different kinds of sushi like california maki and fried maki.

Tong Yang is the best place if you want shabu-shabu, samgyupsal, and a buffet of ingredients all in one place. Having a griller and a boiling soup to cook different kinds of things is a perfect food bonding experience with...

"They try to tell us we're TONG YAAANNGG"

And that is just what the reviews did--to decide to celebrate my Mom's birthday here in Tong Yang Uptown Mall and it did not disappoint. I will talk about 3 things from our experience: the FOOD, the ATMOSPHERE, and the SERVICE.

[FOOD] There was a sufficient variety of food--not too much and too little--and the taste is satisfyingly delicious. I like that they have electrolyte water with zero sugar (lesser calories) but enough flavor.

[ATMOSPHERE] The place is not that big which for me is very convenient because it makes the food area very accessible. Our just family was just really able to enjoy the time eating--grab some food and go back to the table within 10 seconds. I also like the sufficiency of their equipment (e.g. tongs).

[SERVICE] The thing that I like the most is the service. I'd like to commend their front desk, CYNTHIA, who was very thoughtful and always wore a smile. She confirmed our reservation cordially through text and when we were asking for a particular spot in the restaurant she expressed concern for us by telling us that it was going to be hot there considering the overall context of the ask (and I do think that she was right). Our attendants, ART and RALPH, were also very hospitable and attended to our requests promptly.

Overall, it was an amazing experience--highly...