OK, so a word about my check-in to the Sofitel, which might be of interest to the fellow Canadians out there. As I was pulling up in the taxi, I saw a rather pasty looking guy in a dark wool suit standing by the curb outside of the hotel, and he was wearing a poppy on his lapel, which is the well recognized icon of Remembrance Day in Canada. I thought nothing of it, other than 'Gees these Canadians need to dress a little lighter in the heat of Manila!'.
Upon checking in by the gracious attendant, she mentioned that the club lounge would not be available due to a function. Well, it turned out that the entire lobby was crawling with Canadians wearing poppies! And it turned out that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was there with a massive entourage of RCMP officers, Ministers, staff, local embassy officials, Philippine dignitaries, etc. It was hilarious and amazing. All the Canadian staffers kept looking at me, apparently wondering how I got to change out of my wool suit and into shorts and a tshirt...
As aforesaid, the primary reason for my stay at the Sofitel was that they had relaunched their Spiral buffet restaurant only a few days before I had arrived. The previous one had been destroyed by the typhoon and had been rebuilt and improved. I arranged to meet a local Manila-based up and coming food and travel blogger there,
Niel Mugas, and took him out for dinner at Spiral.
It turned out to be one of the largest and most varied buffets I have ever seen. Certainly it was as good on most respects as the Intercontinental in Hong Kong, and as good in many respects as the one at the Burj al Arab in Dubai. Its strength was in the great atmosphere of a newly rebuilt facility, and in the massive array of various ethnic group cooking stations, featuring live action cooking. They had Chinese, Philippino, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indian, steaks, lamb, breads, seafood, sushi, soups, hot pot, dim sum; they had nearly everything one could think of, and in abundance with many, many dishes for each station.
It even had its own glass room filled with cheese and charcuterie!
It had beautiful fresh sushi:
Great seafood including delicious oysters from france, and massive shrimp.
They had delicious pan seared froi gras!
They had a huge number of delicious chinese dishes as well, of excellent quality:
They had a large selection of dim sum:
I had many plates of food, but it is simply impossible to try even a fraction of the offerings available.
The desert selection was very beautiful as well, with a massive assortment of candies even!
I would say that this is definitely worth trying if one is in Manila.