Seasons Buffet at the Manila Pavilion Hotel

So finally, we were able to use our Ensogo vouchers for Seasons buffet at the Manila Pavilion. The deal was good for a lunch or dinner buffet for two and inclusive of unlimited fruit juices or iced tea.

Calling for reservations was easy breezy. We decided to go for dinner last night. And here’s our experience.

Ambiance

The entrance to the hotel restaurant wasn’t elegant nor grand but it was classy and intimate. Seasons Restaurant is near the hotel lobby and very easy to locate from the hotel entrance.

Seasons Resturant

We reserved our seats at 6pm and we were there promptly. We were ushered to a small private room where there are about ten small tables. Plus points for the ambiance!

Private dining room

Food

Seasons buffet’s wide array of international cuisine was such a gastronomic treat. They have four live buffet stations featuring appetizers, noodles, grill, and desserts. There are also stations for the main courses, meat, seafood, sushi, and a lot more.

For appetizers..

Cheese, bread, spring rolls, and salad

On the plate..

Shrimp overload -- tempura, shrimp salad, shrimp maki

Craving for pizza and pasta? Let the chef create your own pasta..

Pizza, pasta, and calzone

We had carbonara with bacon, shrimp, squid, and parmesan on top.

Pasta lovin'

For the main courses, you’ll never run out of options.

Pork, chicken, and meat viands

For meatarians, you’ll find pleasure in Season’s buffet meat selection. This is one my fave stations in the buffet : )

I personally loved the roasted lamb. I wish I came back for more of this. It was so tender and heavenly!

Oh my lamb!

The Australian beef was firm and well-roasted.

Aussie beef

Who can't say no to lechon? Although I was feeling very full when they served lechon in the buffet table, I just couldn’t ignore it.  This is the smallest lechon I’ve ever seen but one of the the crunchiest and tastiest. 

Baby lechon

There was also roasted duck which can be served with the meat only or wrapped in a spring roll wrapper. You can choose which one you prefer. We had the one in wrapper but quite honestly I missed the taste of the duck because of bland taste of the wrapper or possibly because of its small serving.

Roasted duck

The grilling station was one of the live stations where diners flocked. There are shrimp, squid, barbecue, pork, lamb, beef, chicken, and tuna. You can ask the chefs to grill them for you.

For grilling

On our plates...

Beef bbq and grilled squid and shrimp

Well quite honestly, I didn’t find the barbecue appetizing. It has a strong taste like it was over-marinated.

You can also find dimsum and sushi and tables.

Dimsum and sushi galore

This big tuna sashimi was one of the main attractions of the buffet. 

Tuna sashimi

And for desserts, be prepared to taste all of these.

Desserts galore

I noticed that most of their desserts are “kakanin” which was yummy also. But they improvised some, for example, you will find an ube halaya cake cut into slices but there also ube bite-sized sprinkled with sweets on top. I didn’t find truffles or chocolates or a choco fondue though. 

You can also ask the chefs to create your own version of crepe! You can choose from peach, mango, apple and strawberry with ice cream on top. 

Peach-mango-apple crepe with chocolate ice cream

Service

One thing I noticed with their staff is that they are really attentive to your needs and very courteous. From the time that we were ushered to our seats and during our dining time, we were treated very well. They refilled our drinks on time and made sure we had new plates every time we need one.

The chefs in the live cooking stations were also swift in providing our orders. If not, they made sure that the food is delivered to our tables.

Two thumbs up for the exceptional service!

Overall dining experience

Season buffet's international food selection was wide and impressive although there are some dishes which can be improved as I cited. I hope they put the names of the dishes served. Some of them didn’t have names, there were just illustrations of pork, chicken, beef signifying the viand. But our overall dining experience in Seasons was great. 

We had a great time at the Seasons, obviously!

Dining is a wonderful experience when you're with your loved one