My wife and I made plans to meet with a good friend so he suggested for us to try Cabalen on the 2nd floor of SM City Iloilo. He has been there himself just after they opened last month. We heard it gets pretty busy there so we decided to meet up before the huge crowd.
After we were seated, we checked out their food. For a Philippine AYCE buffet, they have some pretty good choices. They have separate stations full of salads, grilled food, main dishes such as pancit noodles, kare-kare, and paella rice. Tucked near the front is a dessert station with halo-halo and fruits. So the choices were plenty which is always pleasing at any AYCE buffet.
So I will get right down to the pros and cons. For this place, I'd rather start off with the cons first and finish off with the pros on a high note just because any AYCE buffet is always targeted to having a lot of criticism especially after being opened for just a month.
The service is super slow. Our drinks came at a snail's pace and getting their attention for refills was twice as bad. So I've learned that you need to order your drinks right away and plan ahead for any refills. In case you want bottled water, they don't serve it so don't bother asking for it. If you get up to grab another plate of food, your used dish should be taken away by the time you return but not here. This is because the lunch crowd arrived so the staff was focused on new patrons and completely lost their focus on serving their current guests. I have noticed that when the lunch crowd does set in, the staff has a very hard time keeping up with the traffic flow.
While the restaurant kept busy and more people dine in, the food is just not replenished quick enough and when it is, they bring out a very small plate. That becomes quickly taken away from someone who has been patiently waiting there for a few minutes (me!) so the next person would wait longer (could have been you!). The restaurant gets pretty loud and the eating area became filled with smoke from the kitchen. They accidentally knocked over a 5 gallon jug of water near the other drink station and it started to stream down underneath my feet. "Why did the floor become so slippery" I thought to myself.
So the service needs a pretty big facelift. But that can always be fixed if and only if the management are quick to fix immediate issues. The most important feature of any AYCE restaurant is the food. The greens and salads are a good mix. They have a few salad dressings which is always nice to choose from. The same goes for their main dishes - lots of choices. It makes it easy to say which one makes it to my plate. The one thing I really missed about the Philippines is their crispy "kangkong" which is a lightly battered water spinach deep fried to a crisp.
Their lechon and grilled fish selection is really tasty. The lechon is cooked just right. Every bite you take, the lechon flavour really makes you feel you are eating catered food. I usually don't eat the skin because it is high in fat and cholesterol but I did try a few small pieces and I'd have to say that it has a good crispy taste.
The grilled fish was cooked very well and had a good amount of sauce choices for me to try out. Perhaps next time they might choose a different type of fish that doesn't have too many bones in it.
I try not to pile on all the food for my first plate because I always like to sample different foods. If I like what I ate, then I will go up for a second helping provided that there is still food left for me to grab.
Their halo-halo station is not bad but I did feel like it was missing something. They didn't have any leche flan to mix in with so I ended up putting in some more liquid sugar to boost the sweetness.
For a nationwide AYCE brand (with other food restaurants under their belt), I'd have to say my AYCE lunch experience here was positive. I mean for P298 I could really enjoy having a lot of veggies and protein on the same plate without feeling guilty about calories, as long as I don't overeat or stuff myself with rice.
So yes I would come back here again but I strongly advise everyone to go before the crowd sets in. And don't you all go in when I'm there because I don't want to stand at one station waiting for them to refill! read more