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Sundays have always been memorable for the special lunches at home, where there was always more than the usual rice-and-viand fare. It was because of a new recipe my father had tried, or the return of a much loved dish we haven’t had in ages. Or an aunt had suddenly craved for sweets, and ended up buying pie for dessert.

But what’ll happen if nobody was around to concoct anything for Sunday lunch? Here’s where Mandarin Oriental Café & Deli in Gateway comes in.

Cherry and I recently tried Mandarin’s Sunday Lunch Buffet, a sumptuous buffet and ala carte service all in one. One look at the buffet spread was enough to make me think I was into more than what I expected: the table was laden with ham, California rolls, green asparagus and crab meat salad, duck embutido, smoked salmon and tuna, squid salad, Thai glass noodles with seafood, leaf lettuce, cheeses, and even oysters! I was seriously troubled, knowing that my stomach could only hold so much, and I knew I had to save some considerable space for dessert. So I decided to be safe with a bed of lettuce drizzled with a rich dressing, bacon bits, cherry tomatoes, and cubes of mozzarella cheese. And because I’m such a soup fiend, I didn’t dare pass up on the creamy asparagus soup, which hit the spot since my breakfast-less tummy was looking for something hot.

I could have stopped there and just waited patiently for the main course to arrive, but I wasn’t able to resist some crackers, parma ham, and more of the soft, yummy cheese—mmm! I was barely into my second slice of ham when our steaks finally arrived. One look at my perfect, medium rare rib-eye steak made me push the plate of crackers and ham aside so I could finally start on a seriously heavy meal.

And I wasn’t kidding when I said it was perfect—it really was! The meat was tender and tasty. I also loved the fact that the serving size was for one person, because the sight of large steaks meant for sharing can be quite overwhelming. If you’re not much of a steak person, though, you can order salmon with cider butter sauce instead—sounds delicious, too, so it might be a good idea to try that next time.

For dessert, Cherry and I indulged in a vanilla cake and the most sinful chocolate brownie I’ve ever tasted. Unfortunately, the steak barely left a spot for dessert, so I resolved to get back on the chocolate brownie when I get home.

Now, it’s really rare that I get to enjoy meals in a hotel because of the hefty price tag that comes along with it, but the Sunday Buffet Lunch costs only P780++ per person, very reasonable for a meal prepared by the same chefs of the Mandarin Hotels. The best part of the whole thing was that we didn’t have to go to the nearest Mandarin Hotel (which was actually farther out), and yet the atmosphere of the Café & Deli in Gateway was still very hotel-like. We could have had our buffet al fresco at the Oasis, too, if only it wasn’t raining.

It was truly a heavenly lunch, something that made me forget about the sinigang na baka at home in the meantime. And speaking of home, well, I figured it would be a nice change if my family could have lunch here instead, some other Sunday—now that would be really special.

Mandarin Oriental Café & Deli serves Sunday Lunch Buffet & More from 12nn to 2:30 pm at Level 1, Gateway Mall, Araneta Center, Quezon City. For reservations, please call 913-5505.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Food and Drink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.