Hyatt City of Dreams Full Buffet Review

The buffet at the Cafe at the Hyatt City of Dreams Manila is so sulit! At only P1,188 net, it’s really value for money compared to other hotel buffets.

City of Dreams just officially opened early this month. Hyatt City of Dreams Manila is part of City of Dreams Manila – the newest place to hang out! They are open 24/7, and yes, parking is FREE.

We checked out this new buffet yesterday for lunch. This is the full buffet service. The spread was really good and you’ll find yourself thinking that what you get is really worth more than the buffet price!

This buffet is also open 24/7 – so whenever a craving strikes, you have a place to go! The list of times and prices is shown at the end of the post.

The restaurant is located inside the ground floor casino area of City of Dreams.

A photo posted by Barat Ako (@baratako1289) on Feb 16, 2015 at 1:07am PST

Quality over Quantity

What’s different about this buffet? I feel like the chefs actually care about the food they serve. If you’ve gone to as many buffets as I have, you’ll learn to sense these things. Here at the Hyatt Cafe, I felt that the chefs and staff were really involved with their food, and were really happy to serve their food – this is why they were willing to try different and exciting new dishes. Pride. That’s the word – they had pride in the food they served.

There are several food stations available – Italian, Grill & Griddle, Japanese / Salads / Fruits / Cured Meats and Cheeses,  Asian / Noodles & Dimsum, Fried Foods and Dessert. That may not sound like a lot compared to other hotel buffets, but I like that I was not overwhelmed by the food choices. It makes trying everything that looks good very doable. Also, the fewer food choices means that the chefs can concentrate on making each dish very well. What I really like about this buffet is that they serve food that is different from the generic dishes that the other buffets usually serve. My gourmet sensibilities were very happy with the food that was being served – I mean, look at these choices of sauces, spreads and condiments!

There was another group of sauces I missed taking a picture of — this had tartar sauce, remoulade, and garlic aioli. The Italian section has a pasta station where you can order your pasta a la minute. This means they cook the pasta or risotto only when you order one – you can choose your sauce and ask them to cook it the way you like it — tomato sauce? cream sauce? add more cheese? add more olives? no olives? That day, they also had salmon lasagna, meatlover’s pie and pizza. I really liked the truffle parmesan pizza! I went back for that because it was really good especially just out of the oven. The salmon lasagna was creamy and delicious! Meat lovers will definitely like the meatlover’s pizza – imagine meatlover’s pizza toppings concentrated into one dish!

At their Grill & Griddle section, we find grilled meats, okonomiyaki and teppanyaki noodles! Their Roast Beef Rib was really super tender! The beef really shines! How tender? My senior citizen companion, who is really picky about tough meat, went back for the roast beef maybe 5 times! And they served Yorkshire Pudding with the roast beef (yorkshire puddings are the brown breads on the left). Now, that’s something. I haven’t seen another buffet around here that served Yorkshire pudding. I’ve heard of Yorkshire pudding, but have never actually had one. I was so excited to finally try one! Here’s what the yorkshire pudding looks like inside: It’s like a cross between a bread roll and puto – it’s moist and chewy inside, the “skin” is kind of makunat though.

Other grilled meats are also available – there’s grilled fish, grilled pork neck, lamb, etc… They were all amazingly tender and tasty – just perfectly grilled.

This okonomiyaki was also quite delicious – I went back for it!

Deli – Feast on prosciutto, iberico ham, and various cheeses! They have manchego cheese, too! Here are salads and fruits. I liked the tofu prawn salad. Here is some fresh seafood: And here is the Japanese section – they have natto, edamame, umeboshi and other things you won’t typically find in other buffets! I was very curious to try the unfamiliar dishes. The flavors here are very bright and clean! They were just such good combinations of sweet, a hint of sour, and slightly salty. More Asian Food

Here is the Chinese food. Notice that the dishes are small – this is because they cook one batch at a time. This ensures that the food is always freshly cooked and hot off the wok! Don’t worry, they replenish quickly. Here is some raw dimsum waiting to be steamed. Again, the dimsum is not pre-steamed. They will steam it for you when you order. How is that for really fresh dimsum? There’s also a Noodles section: Here is the Fried Food section – they also have tempura, which I missed taking a picture of: And to cap it all off, here is the Dessert section! Cookies, dried fruits, chocolate fountains, a halo-halo station, a crepe station, creme brulees, and various cakes! There were so many desserts that I really had to force myself to choose which ones I could feasibly consume. Have crepes the way you want them! Soft-serve ice cream is also available! This calamansi tart was quite good! I was torn between getting the calamansi or the chocolate tart, but ended up choosing calamansi just because it was more different than the usual. Get a load of these cakes! There are so many too choose from! Yes, you can ask for any of these cakes! They are all included in the buffet. This strawberry creme brulee was extremely good and creamy! Don’t forget to ask the attending chef to make your creme brulee topping! They also have an ube creme brulee. Here’s a video to make you crave some sugar 🙂

A video posted by Barat Ako (@baratako1289) on Feb 17, 2015 at 10:16am PST

Conclusion

The truffle parmesan pizza was really quite good. It’s not often that truffle anything is served at buffets. I also found their pumpkin soup really delicious! It was very smoooth and soooo buttery!

There were so many new things to try but I was just too full!

The flavors of the food are fresh, light and clean – even the creamy foods don’t feel heavy. Good, fresh ingredients make good food. The fact that the food is always “just cooked” ensures that you get the dish at its peak!

The highlights were of course, the wonderful roasted & grilled meats and fish! I’m not kidding. Next time, I’m going to concentrate on the roasts & grilled meats. Just looking at the pictures is mouthwatering.

I regretted not being able to try the pasta a la minute – I was just too full. I definitely will get some pasta next time, I’m thinking something creamy with truffles and parmesan.

The Japanese fare is also a must-try because the dishes are different and new.

Also try out the sauces, dips and spreads that are not easily available to you – try something different!

And for dessert, don’t miss the creme brulee!

Truly, my regrets for this buffet are that I was not able to try everything I wanted and go back for more.

The dining area also looks really nice, right? I like how spacious it is, and the decor is really nice too. I just totally love their salt & pepper mills – they are so cute and remind me of chess pawns.

AND, they have their own washrooms at the back! No need to walk out of the restaurant to the casino area if you need to go to the washroom.

The buffet is really good value. Check out their affordable prices!

Breakfast (Mon-Fri) – 6am – 10:30am – P1,088
Breakfast (Sat-Sun) – 6am – 11am – P1,088
Lunch (Mon-Wed) – 11:30am – 2:30pm – P1,188
Lunch (Thu-Sat) – 11:30am – 2:30pm – P1,288
Dinner (Mon-Wed) – 5:30pm – 11pm – P1,688
Dinner (Thu-Sun) – 5:30pm – 11pm – P1,888
Overnight (Daily) – 11:30pm – 4:30am – P788
Hyatt’s Sunday Lunch – 11:30am – 3:00pm – P1,888

These are the updated prices as of Feb. 16, 2015.

Coffee and tea is already included with the regular buffet.

Prices are in NET – meaning it already includes taxes and other charges.

How to get to City of Dreams

There are shuttles to City of Dreams from these places: SM MOA, SM Megamall, SM Aura, SM Cubao, SM BF Paranaque, NAIA Terminal 1 & 2, and Strata Gold Building in Ongpin. There are shuttles every 30 minutes or every hour, depending on the location.

UPDATED (May 28, 2015):

The City of Dreams Manila shuttle service, Dreams In Motion is taking you to the city of gold for FREE!

The Dreams In Motion shuttle service is open to all City of Dreams Manila guests (no membership ID required) with pick-up points around the metro.

View drop-off & pickup points via Google Maps:

• Ermita Manila – Horizon Travel & Tours Inc., 490 Potenciana Mansions: http://bit.ly/dim-horizon
• SM BF Paranaque – at Dr. A Santos Ave. near SM Hypermart: http://bit.ly/dim-smbf
• Binondo – Strata Gold Building, Ongpin Street: http://bit.ly/dim-binondo
• SM Mall of Asia – at Pacific Drive, near the Main Mall entrance: http://bit.ly/dim-moa
• SM Aura – Main drop-off driveway, SMX Convention side: http://bit.ly/dim-smaura
• SM Cubao – at Gen. Aguinaldo Avenue near BDO Hypermarket: http://bit.ly/dim-smcubao
• SM Megamall – behind the mall, located on Bank Ave. near the Pantranco bus station:http://bit.ly/dim-megamall

Click here for the full list of the shuttle schedules.

The Cafe at Hyatt City of Dreams Manila
Tel. No. 800-8080
ASEAN Avenue Cor. Roxas Boulevard
Entertainment City, Paranaque