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Manila eats: This hotel buffet offers Filipino-Chinese fare

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Angelo G. Garcia

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/05/22/eats1.jpg"/><figcaption>The main dining space of Marcelino St. Cafe. <em>Handout</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA -- Manila Prince Hotel&#x27;s only dining outlet, Marcelino St. Cafe is now offering lunch and dinner buffets, featuring Filipino-Chinese food. </p><p>Located along San Marcelino St. in Ermita, Manila, the hotel re-opened last year after renovations. But when they opened the restaurant at that time, it only offered buffet breakfast and a la carte dishes for lunch and dinner. </p><p>“The restaurant also opened on September but the buffet we had a soft launch recently. It&#x27;s been a la carte since September except for the buffet breakfast. We decided that it&#x27;s about time we serve something else,” explained Manila Prince Hotel (MPH) operations manager Tyne Dignadice, Jr. </p><p>What&#x27;s unique about the buffet is it offers Filipino-Chinese dishes. Hotel buffets usually offer a variety of cuisines but Marcelino St. Cafe decided to keep it simple, offering comfort home-cooked food. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/05/22/eats2.jpg"/><figcaption>The carving station features lechon pork belly and roast chicken. <em>Photo by author</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>According to the hotel&#x27;s food and beverage manager EJ Yap, the dishes that are being offered at the restaurant are from the owner&#x27;s family recipes. </p><p>MPH is the sister company of The Manila Hotel, which is owned by the Yap family, one of the prominent Filipino-Chinese surnames in Philippine business. </p><p>“We mostly chose the family favorites like kare-kare, kaldereta, paksiw, and sinigang. We have four cycles, and each cycle we have five main courses but we&#x27;re still planning to add more. The owner wants to make kiam pong a main stay,” Yap shared. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/05/22/eats3.jpg"/><figcaption>Kiamp pong or Chinese-style paella. <em>Handout</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Kiam pong or kiamp pung is a Filipino Hokkien rice dish which is also referred to as Chinese-style paella. It&#x27;s a traditional dish among Filipino-Chinese families. It uses glutinous rice like Kapampangan bringhe (or regular rice) but has a darker soy-sauce based color. Marcelino St. Cafe&#x27;s version has meat, mushrooms, and a thick sauce. </p><p>The home-cooked feel extends to the other dishes like the paksiw na bangus and beef kaldereta. There&#x27;s also the classics like lumpiang shanghai, barbecue liempo, roast lechon belly, rellenong manok, and roast chicken. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/05/22/eats4.jpg"/><figcaption>Paksiw na bangus. <em>Handout</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>For dessert, there&#x27;s bread pudding, ube mango cake, mocha butter cream cake, and more. </p><p>“The dishes are mostly Filipino-Chinese. The reason why it&#x27;s called Marcelino is because of the street [the hotel&#x27;s address]. The menu and food are from family favorites. We also have food that we also serve at The Manila Hotel. Our pastries are from The Manila Hotel,” Dignadice said. </p><p>Being a sister hotel of The Manila Hotel also means that the restaurant only uses the best ingredients in the dishes since both hotels get from the same suppliers. </p><p>The restaurant has a small space with a capacity of 80 persons in the main dining area. But it has a spillover area to accommodate more people since the hotel has a total of 299 rooms. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/05/22/eats5.jpg"/><figcaption>Chinese pork barbecue. <em>Handout</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Marcelino St. Cafe&#x27;s buffet offering is at an introductory price of P499 nett for lunch and P599 nett for dinner, from Monday to Sunday. </p>

<p>Manila Prince Hotel's only dining outlet, Marcelino St. Cafe is now offering lunch and dinner buffets, featuring Filipino-Chinese food. </p>

Manila Prince Hotel's only dining outlet, Marcelino St. Cafe is now offering lunch and dinner buffets, featuring Filipino-Chinese food.