In Manila, eating at a buffet is but a common thing. Buffet restaurants thrive because Filipinos like to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than with good food. And so my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary at Niu by Vikings.
Their tagline is "An evolved buffet dining experience". So to be honest, I had very high expectations. I placed our reservation through their website and in no time at all our lunch was booked.
On the day of our anniversary, we got to SM Aura a bit early as we added some allowance of time for our travel. One good thing about being early is that you don't have to wait that long to be seated. At the entrance, you would already see the posh furnishings. It is what I would have expected from Niu.
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The walk to our table was quite impressive as it showed more of the posh interior design of the restaurant. There are a lot of tables that could seat parties of two, four, six or even ten. They even had a function area that can fit 20-30 people. We got seated on our table and we were told that we could start. Since the buffet just started, only a handful of people were at the queue and we were able to capture plenty of pictures of the spread.
Asian Station
Grilling Station
Western Station
Carving Station
I have been curious about Niu for quite a long time already and this is mostly because of their carving station. What can I say, I was not disappointed. There were several items to choose from and I had to back for multiple servings of that Roasted Angus Beef Karubi.
Dessert Station
Niu offers a wide variety of desserts. They offer the usual cakes and pastries, several flavors of crepe, white chocolate and chocolate fondue and native desserts. What surprised me was the wide selection of gelato.
Niu definitely sets the bar high for a buffet experience. However, in terms of customer service, I would rank it below that of Vikings in SM Mall of Asia or in Vikings at SM Megamall. Their staff seems to be slow in the bus-out of plates as well as a slow response to customers requests. I do not I am over-reacting here as I am comparing it to the aforementioned Vikings branches where the staff was quick as lightning.
Anyway. this was our first visit and it would not be our last. Maybe we will try the dinner version of the buffet on our next visit.
Images were taken using a Samsung J5 prime.
Also posted in Fooddadi's Food Blog