What to eat at Café Ilang-Ilang

What to eat at Café Ilang-Ilang Buffet

What to eat at Cafe Ilang-Ilang at the Manila Hotel

This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are mine. 

One of Manila's popular buffet destinations is Café Ilang-Ilang at the Manila Hotel, offering a sumptuous and diverse international dining experience. With its elegant ambiance, the blend of classic and contemporary design reflects the grandeur of the iconic hotel. The buffet area is spacious, whilst the flock of diners tends to stretch the area on peak hours. More so, the featured food stations are well-organized to ensure a seamless dining experience. In addition, diners can observe chefs preparing in  a semi-open kitchen approach. 

After a decade or so, we're re-acquainted at the buffet floor this time on a "Seafood Night". We don't expect much, but for the buffet rate given, this buffet should be somehow unparalleled in terms of best offers and excellent service. Still, perhaps we can give you a straightforward overall picture of what we had at this dinner encounter. No "pa-cutes" and no excuses, brace yourself with photos as we navigate through the stations. Let's do the starter first, shall we?

Café Ilang-Ilang Seafood Night Buffet

Salad Station & Mediterranean Station. It's a mixed up world, as we see another salad from the Italian station. But we have our sights on the Greek Salad and Seafood Mango Cocktail. We enjoyed every champ of  it, in fact "we fell for it talaga" (wink!). 

Mediterranean salads and seafood salads

Sushi Station / Japanese Station. This section is wild, the queue was a bit slow as we steer our direction to Ebi Tempura.  We make our way to get the do-it-yourself Miso Soup with spring onions and dried seaweed ignoring the tofu. Fill the plate with a little of gyoza, nigiri, aburi salmon, salmon cream cheese,  among other maki  sushi. It's a stand-out, so we had another round of miso soup!

Greek salad, Seafood Mango cocktail salad, miso soup, tempura, gyoza, and maki sushi

Maki sushi station

Carving Station. The highlight of this dinner should have something exotic and supreme. There's another line full of Asians around the premium U.S. Angus Beef, and a sold out tray for BBQ Ribs. Roasted just fine topped with red wine sauce and garnished with roasted garlic. Dress them up with broccoli and cauliflower and roasted potato wedges on the side. Adjacent at the right panel is the Halal Station, they have this Smoked Salmon but we opted not to get it. Maybe next time, instead we had the Lamb Curry, that was really fancy, it got that spicy curry kick.

Curry lamb, baked lobster, lechon and roasted peking duck

Roasted Angus Beef with broccoli and cauliflower, potato wedges and century egg

U.S. Angus Beef at Carving Station

Salmon at Halal Station

Roasted peking duck and century egg

Chinese Station. The Roasted Peking Duck is one for the road, we had some slices of it, with Century Egg Slice around our plates. Plus the Filipino Station is along the way, making a hint for some Lechon slices, which by the way was genuinely "the balat is so makunat" already. But it was fine, we had the fine meat in our sleeve to indulge that night. 

Chinese station

dimsum

Likewise, from the Seafood and Grill Station, our table was served with Baked Lobster, ain't that cute, right! 

Seafood and grill station

Baked lobster

To break even, you can ask the waiter for some tea or coffee. Since the spot we were seated on is like an alley for couples (wink), the night was cold and so was the room. We requested peppermint tea and a glass of warm water. Damn! naman, we ate keto-based food and needed some air to freshen up the palate. 

Italian Section. We can't let pass, the Salad Caprese, Shrimp Pesto Ribbonette with olives, cherry tomatoes and all, Focaccia sandwich bites, Four-Cheese Pizza and the Manila Hotel Pizza garnished with dig-in parmesan cheese. All freshly made with gourmet ingredients.

Italian station

Cold cuts, cheeses and pasta of different kinds

Pizza selection

Dessert and Beverage Stations. At this rate, I decided I'm done (wink). But wait, we can't leave without touching the dessert table. I didn't even get to see what's in the Korean Station and the piggy buns and chicken feets from the Dimsum station. What do we get for dessert? Earlier, we've seen fresh slices of watermelon, dragon fruits, but by the time we got there, they had not refilled them yet. So we settled for chocolate mousse, fruit tarts, strawberry panna cotta, New York cheesecake, and strawberry gelato. Being a kid at heart, one should have a pair of marshmallow twists and dipped them at the chocolate fountain. That's it!

Dessert station

Gelato, panna cotta, cheesecakes, mousse, tart and mini cake

Bread and Pastry Stations. 

To cap off the night, we sat down with a cup of cappuccino and cranberry juice. 

Unlimited drinks at the Beverage station

Overall Experience. Dining at the Café Ilang-Ilang with this wide selection of international cuisines and warm and first-rate service from the people behind the culinary experience we had, we are certain to go back when time and budget permit. The buffet deal we can't pass up.

Café Ilang-Ilang receiving area

Seafood Night is every Friday at Php 4,090 per pax for adults and Php 2,045 per child rate.

Check out the buffet schedules and dining rates at Café Ilang-Ilang.

Catch more photos from Café Ilang-Ilang Seafood Night Buffet.

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