Frannywanny

When it comes to hotel buffet restaurants, Marriott Cafe continues to stay at the top of our list ever since we first dined there back in 2010 . Since then, we've frequent Marriott Cafe to celebrate various milestones or whenever the craving for good buffet food hits. Even when we relocated to Singapore, I remembered dining at Marriott Cafe for our 5th Wedding Anniversary . I guess, one reason that makes us want to keep going back to Marriott Cafe is the good variety of dishes available all the time. Also, they always keep a conscious effort to keep on changing their menu making it so exciting to dine there every single time. Take this July for instance, it's all about greeting Annyeong-haseyo  as they're currently running a delicious Korean Food Festival  from the 11th of July up until the 31st.  Be ready to satisfy your oppa-tite (hehe sorry I can't help it!)  as they even flew in 4 Korean guests chefs so you can be assured that all the dishes offered...

Every time Paul takes me out on a date, I still feel all giddy and excited about it. Mind you, we have been dating for more than 9 years already! While we're no longer the college kids that we used to be where sharing a cup of Mocha Frappuccino and a plate California Maki would turn me all lovey-dovey , I still blush and get tiny butterflies in my stomach whenever he tells me to prepare for a date. As we were planning our mini staycation at the Manila Marriott Hotel a few weeks back, we both agreed to just enjoy the hotel's facilities and not to go out..not even for dinner. This just means that we will be having ALL our meals inside the hotel. Luckily, our overnight stay also came with a complimentary dinner at Cru Steakhouse . Yay! It was both our first time to actually dine at Cru except for the time wherein we were invited to try Marriott Cafe's Sunday Brunch which includes crossing over to Cru for some juicy steak and seared foie gras. Remember we had guests ...

Warning: Lots of photos ahead! :) The past few weeks have been fun for us corporate folks. We had a back-to-back long weekend giving us 4-days and 3-days workweeks one after the other. I know that the after effect of this led to spending more hours at work to catch up with the pending tasks but still, a break is a break and I truly enjoyed mine to the fullest. While half of Metro Manila were out of town or out of the country, Paul and I drove about 5km away from home to stay the night at the beautiful Manila Marriott Hotel . We have reached our travel quota for the year so we decided to just stay in town and to have that much needed R&R. As I arrived at the lobby of the hotel, I was warmly greeted by the doorman and a couple of security staff. Seeing that I was trying my best to balance Paul's heavy camera bag plus our overnight luggage on one hand and my shoulder bag and laptop bag on the other, he quickly offered to hold on to our bags while I checked in. The reception d...

To celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary , Paul and I had a dinner date at the Marriott Cafe . I guess it must have been fate and perfect timing that the Marriott Cafe is currently having their Flavors of Asia promotions wherein a couple of Asian favorites will be featured every dinner for the entire month of July . As such, it was a perfect chance for us to relive our fun two-weeks honeymoon spent in Singapore and Malaysia , two years ago. We did nothing but to eat, eat and eat. Luckily, our honeymoon coincided with Singapore's annual Food Festival allowing us to sample and enjoy never-tried-before local fares at affordable prices. Marriott Cafe has prepared a really good spread! I began with some Vietnamese rice rolls that were carefully handmade by the happy looking Chef Phan Tien Hoa of Renaissance Riverside Saigon. Normally, I would have my rice rolls with hoisin sauce or peanut sauce but I was pleasantly surprised by this pesto-tasting green peanut sauce that was...

Don't you just loveeeeee breakfast? I really do but I sometimes find it so hard to pull myself out of bed especially during the weekends. Can you relate with me? This is the reason why I totally salute the person who invented the word "brunch". It's perfect! Not too early like breakfast yet no need to wait till 12 for it to officially be considered lunch. Take for example what happened last Sunday. Paul and I had to bring my sister to the airport at 10AM for her to make it to her noon flight. Feeling our tummies grumbling loudly, we headed to Marriott Hotel's Cafe at Newport City to avail of their Sunday Brunch where we, together with other bloggers, were invited as it was their opening day. We were one of the first who arrived and boy I was so excited! The buffet spread was pretty impressive! We were greeted with an abundant display of fresh oysters with sauces and toppings to suit your taste. Across it was the cheese display where I helped myself to...

When I first heard that Manila will soon have a 6-star hotel, my initial impression was "who can actually afford to stay there?" Months passed and after the opening of the very impressive Marriott Hotel followed by the Newport Mall, the doors of the 6-star hotel named Maxims Tower formally opened to the public. Who would have thought that Paul and I would get invited to have a private dinner at Impressions and to check out the rooms in this all-suites hotel? Thanking our lucky stars, we headed to Maxims Tower one evening excited for the dinner and tour ahead. I will tell you more about the dinner in my next entry but let me give you a brief tour around the new Maxims Tower first. First and foremost, what makes Maxims Tower different from all the high-end hotels in Manila is that it's the only one that gives you your personal butler at any given time of the day. Yes, that's personalized butler service 24/7! Next, it's the only all-suites hotel in tow...

My friend B is celebrating her birthday tomorrow! As a pre-celebration, she invited us, her former colleagues, to lunch at the Marriott Cafe . From the moment I received her text invite, I was very excited and told her I will not miss her lunch party no matter what happens. It was an intimate gathering among us, B's friends with Marriott Manila's Sous Chef Raffy . Chef invited us to try their buffet and of course we gladly accepted his invitation. My friend K, who was the first to arrive, was even able to do a short round and has her buffet strategy down pat. Marriott Cafe's buffet spread has a wide mix of dishes from the East and the West. As always, I began with the cold cuts and salad station . The selections for the cold cuts where a bit limited as compared to other hotel buffets -- they had the smoked salmon, salami and two more cold cuts. Salad afficionados will be happy though as you can choose from three different lettuce types and a lot of toppings and dr...