Buddha Bar Manila is actually open for lunch goers, offering them a delectable taste of the Pacific Rim cuisine Buddha Bar offers all across the world. I was lucky to taste most of the dishes they would be offering.
This is definitely foodie heaven for me. Let me walk you through the dishes I’ve sampled.
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| Buddha Bar’s Iced Tea |
While waiting for the dishes, we were served their signature Buddha Bar Iced Tea. It is a combination of early grey tea, lychee and kiwi. It tasted good, it doesn’t have the strong tea flavor, just a refreshing fruity one.
For starters, We were served the soup of the day and salad:
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| Salad Mesculin with Tropical Fruits and Oriental Balsamic Dressing |
The salad was so fresh, with a mix of sweet, sour and citrus-y taste. I liked Balsamic dressing over salad as a healthy dressing. This was a hit for me.
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| Mushroom Cappuccino |
I loved mushrooms, and this came off a bit of a surprise. The soup was thick in consistency, with a strong flavor that I couldn’t pinpoint from where. There s indeed a mushroom-y taste, but I wasn’t able to detect the cappuccino taste.
For the main dishes, here are what Buddha bar offers for business lunch goers:
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| Fish and Chips |
This has the typical fish and chips taste. The potato fries were okay, but I’m not fond of fish cooked this way so my opinion is a bit biased on this.
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| Buttered Salmon Fillet |
The salmon fillet was good, the creamy pasta underneath complemented the taste of the salmon. At first, the pasta came off too creamy, but in combination with the salmon, it tasted nice.
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| Asian Beef Curry |
When they told us that curry would be served, I was bummed. I haven’t tasted curry in my entire life, and I don’t have an inkling to taste one either. But being a dutiful foodie, I must try every dish that was served as a courtesy to the chef who made it. This Asian Beef Curry was absolutely good. It has a similar taste with the Filipino Dish, Binagoongan, but with an interesting mix of spices. I loved it that I had a pinch of rice to go with it. This is a hit for me.
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| Chinese Style Chicken |
Chinese food is my comfort food (well some of it, I guess), and this did not fail. It was good that they have to serve this twice. It was everyone’s favorite. The noodles are also good which is somewhat similar to birthday noodles.
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| Tempura Wok Fried Vegetables |
This is an offering for vegan people who would dine. Chef So mentioned that it was a mix of different veggies, and I did not know what vegetable I had. This taste okay as well.
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| Skewered Beef Tenders |
As the name implies, the beef was indeed tender. This was served with peanut sauce and lemongrass rice topped with egg. It was explained that this is similar to satay, except that the sauce was served on the side for people who didn’t like peanut sauce (Like Me!). As a dutiful foodie, I tasted the peanut sauce, and it was different than what I expected. The sauce was a burst of flavors of spices, I didn’t even notice the peanut taste. This dish is definitely a hit for me.
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| Peppered Beef Shank |
This was also good too. For steak lovers, this should suffice to ease one’s craving.
And for dessert, you may choose between a bowl of fresh fruits or this dessert platter:
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| Dessert Platter |
I’m not sure I remembered the names of these dainty desserts. The green one is pistachio sansrival which was good, not too sweet just right. The mini pastry, I forgot the name, has cream filling. and the interesting one was the bijoux with chili something. What makes it interesting because of the chili aftertaste which will one will start feeling down one’s throat. I just had a mini bite on this removed the middle part, which is where the chili taste is coming from and downed the rest of it.
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| Brewed Coffee |
Dessert was served with Coffee or Tea. I wanted to try their coffee, so I got one. Their coffee was too strong and bitter, one will definitely be awake from it. I thought that maybe this is an espresso shot. I already put 3 packets of sugar and down the whole milk just to lessen the bitter taste but no, the bitter taste is still prominent. I will guess that these are beans pressed with less than 30% hot water, but I may be wrong about it.
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| Sparkling French Wine |
Before we all part, we were also able to taste the sparkling french wine that they would offer to ladies every Wednesday. The wine was actually good. I prefer clear spirits over wine and beer, but this one is actually a wine I could drink.
It was a satisfying meal, considering all the food we sampled. I ate in moderation so I could taste and experience all dishes.
Budddha-Bar Manila
Picar Place, Kalayaan Ave., Makati
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