Revisiting Dad's Ultimate Buffet

If you're a kid of the 90's we'd always remember that every graduation dinner would be celebrated at DAD'S. Back then, people would line up at the sushi bar, have their pastas custom made, or line up for turkey with cranberry sauce or steak.

It's been more than a decade since my grade school graduation and now I've decided to visit the Makati branch and give it a go.For Php645.00 you do not only get to the Dad's Buffet but also the Kamayan and Saisaki Buffet. Anyway, so my first stop was the Dad's Buffet where my servings were devoured first before I got to take a picture of it. I had the Dad's Paella, which didn't disappoint me with the seafood servings, and lots of vegetables as usual. The buttered vegetables have always been my favorite so I got quite a large portion of that. I noticed also that they've added tomato and mozzarella at their bar. Meat was not scrimped so I asked for the steak and piled up on pepper sauce. The pepper sauce overflowed to the buttered veggies section on my plate, but they tasted well together.

Halfway through munching on my nachos, the waiter asked for our drinks. And you know what? Each drink you order happens to come with a cute little critter like this:That's an upgrade from the Triple V balloons back then. And yes, I gotta take this little doggy home. Dad's also has their merienda buffet for Php 149.00, available from 3 to 5 pm, which are perfect for late lunchbreaks. The stuffed creatures don't come with the drinks at that time though.

Anyway, after my trip to Dad's it was time for the Japanese corner. Of course, with me and Japanese food, the first thing I look for is the sushi bar. And into my plate went the melt-in-the-mouth salmon sashimi, kani sushi, tuna sashimi, and sashimi that I never had in my neighborhood sushi place. Then, I hopped over the tempura section and got myself my prawns and kani tempura. The salmon sashimi practically melted in my mouth so I had to go back for it. Saisaki though was the first resto that made me love sashimi and sushi, and I did know for a fact that they were raw fish.



This is the view from my seat. The Kamayan or Filipino section, and that's a halo-halo bar I'm staring at, beckoning me that there was still a third section.

I had to choose the thick corned beef sinigang as my soup, which tasted like it was made from real tamarind instead of the powdered kind. The chunks of corned beef were present for the carnivores too, and I'm talking big chunks of beef.Staples in my plate in the Filipino section is kare-kare, seafood, and bagoong rice. Why the small portions? I'll tell you so later.
When dessert came, I immediately went for my favorites:Cream puff, leche flan, gelatin, and sapin-sapin. That's one piece of puto bumbong in the lower left, that they cook right on the spot with those smoking pipes thing that they do every Christmas. Not shown again is the gelatin and pinipig concoction I created from the halo-halo bar.

For buffets though, my tips to really enjoy the experience is to go for small portions first, so you get to experience everything without going overboard. That explains why my plates aren't filled. Since this is a no-leftover buffet, I went for small portions of what I like, hence seafood and vegetables. If there's something that I like, then I go back to it. Another tip I share is that I skip rice. Rice tends to fill me up more and since I could have rice anytime, I'd rather make room for those that I can't have everyday like the steak or sashimi. For specialty rice like paella or bagoong rice though, I still go for small portions, albeit a spoonfull or less. My philosophy though in experiencing buffets is rather than going for quantity of portion, I'd rather go for variety, so I get to taste more. Normally too with buffets, I go for just water since the sugars in drinks like soda and iced tea tend to fill up my stomach more.

Php645 isn't actually bad for the buffet. It's for those who are on a budget who want to treat out their friends visiting from other countries. It's smaller compared to buffets I see in hotels, but it's good enough. I still like that it had its family-friendly vibe over the years and it gives children the chance to explore food aside from cheeseburger and fries.