Chef Laudicos Bfast Restaurant Buffet Review

NOTE: THIS RESTAURANT IS ALREADY CLOSED

I was about to abandon this old blog of mine because as you may have noticed, everything that I write here is all about Chabacano and I now have a new home for my Chabacano blog posts. Last Wednesday however, I read this article on Spot.ph about buffets in Manila with a price tag of less than six hundred pesos. This was how I discovered Chef Laudico’s Bfast buffet at only 288 pesos. As with anything new, my first thought was to google Chef Laudico’s Bfast. The reviews that I found on Chef Laudico’s Bfast weren’t very nice. There was talk of greasy foods, and etc. But because of the 288 price tag, I still decided to give it a go like I haven’t learned anything from the Legends of India Fiasco. The journalist inside me though would like to think that I wanted to find out the truth about Chef Laudico’s  Bfast and erase the negative impressions that people have on it and thus this blog post was born.

My story starts from the time that I made reservations for me and my friend for the Chef Laudico’s Bfast buffet. I called at around 11 PM from the phone in my office and it was funny because the person who answered the phone thought that I was looking for Chef Laudico. So I explained myself again and she happily took note of my reservation. The lady on the phone asked me if my reservation was already final and confirmed and I told her no and that I will call back to confirm. At this point, I was disappointed to learn that the buffet starts at 11 AM and not at 10 AM like it said on Spot.ph. But I asked my friend about it and she said that it was fine. We were hoping for something much earlier though since our work ended at 8 AM. So I called back on Thursday night and asked the lady on the phone what the menu will be. She told me that the menu is released or will be known only on Friday night and that she will text me on Saturday morning about it. At around 9 AM Saturday, a lady called me on my cellphone asking if we will indeed be going to Chef Laudico’s Bfast for the buffet and I told her that we will. I never received any text about their menu however.

My friend and I arrived at Ayala Triangle where Chef Laudico’s Bfast was at around 9 30 AM. It was too hot for a stroll so we just sat on a corner and watched life go by.

 At 10 AM though, we were so hot and bored that we decided to enter the restaurant one hour before the buffet time.The interior decoration of Chef Laudico’s Bfast was nice and had a homey feel to it. I also liked the wooden tables, chairs, and placemats.

There was nobody around yet at that time except for me and my friend and a grouchy guy working on his laptop. The first thing that I did when I entered the restaurant was tell the man who looked like the manager that we had reservations for the buffet. We were then escorted to a table and handed a menu. I had to explain a second time that we were there for the buffet. The waiter was talking about delays and stuff so I asked if there will indeed be a buffet. He told us that they were still preparing and that the buffet table will be ready in 30 minutes.

We were asked if we wanted lemon or strawberry iced tea. We ordered lemon although I regretted it later since lemon iced tea is so common and I thought that I should’ve ordered the strawberry iced tea since I never had one before.

At 10 30 AM, the buffet table was ready. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of dishes that they were offering and I initially set out to conquer the pasta. There were two different pastas available, one was spaghetti and the other one was penne. There were three sauces available; taba ng talangka, penne (I forgot the name of it), and putanesca. I only tried the Putanesca sauce among the three. I love tomatoes so I liked the Putanesca although I felt like the flavor was too strong.

The next dishes that I attacked were the Lechon Kawali with Bagoong, the Smoked Bacon, and the Angus Beef Tapa.

The Lechon Kawali with Bagoong was probably one of Chef Laudico’s creations although I just couldn’t understand why anyone would want to eat Bagoong with Lechon Kawali. The Lechon Kawali was’t good as it was a bit tough and the texture was like plain fried pork.

 
The smoked bacon was alright. I would have enjoyed it better had I not just eaten the Lechon Kawali which was vey fatty.

The Angus Beef Tapa was good. Like what the other bloggers who posted a review of Chef Laudico’s Bfast buffet said, the Angus Beef Tapa was among the good dishes in the buffet table.

My third round at the buffet table I got the omelet, Bangus, and Burger Pattie.

The omelet was really good. I liked how it tasted of bell paper and onions. It was also a welcome reprieve after all the fatty and salty foods in the buffet table.

 
The Burger Pattie had a very strong flavor and it was too salty. I also didn't like its texture.

 The Bangus was good and I liked the sweet flavor although I didn’t like how there was no Bangus meat and it was all Bangus fat that they served. I like fish fat but only in between eating fish meat.

Chef Laudico’s Bfast Buffet had two kinds of rice: turmeric rice and garlic rice. Both turmeric and garlic rice tasted okay, nothing special. I liked the garlic rice better though as the turmeric rice tasted bland. The texture of the rice was okay.

 
For dessert, Chef Laudico’s Bfast buffet offered two: brownies and Panacotta something. The brownies were alright. It had almonds and it was moist. Between you and me though, I like KFC's brownies more. The Panacotta (sorry I don't have the complete name for it) was really good.

The top tasted like maja blanca but the texture was like leche flan. The bottom (which I think was the panacotta) mildly tasted like Bico.

It was really good and I had a second round of these desserts. The garden salad was also very good. The lettuce was vey crunchy and the grapes were of high quality.

 
My friend was looking for soup so I asked one of the waiters if there was soup in the buffet. He said that they had Pork Sinigang available. I didn’t taste it anymore though when I heard the word pork. There was also another pork dish in the buffet table that I only took two pieces of. I think it was Pork adobo. This dish was just alright and tasted too plain.

Before going to the Chef Laudico’s Bfast buffet, I was prepared to be very disappointed. Even my friends who have eaten there told me that they did not have a good experience at Chef Laudico’s Bfast. They said that the service was so slow, the food was not good, and it was too expensive. Based on my experience however, the waiters were very nice and friendly. When we approached the buffet table, they oriented us to the dishes available and gladly answered all our questions. If I were them though, I would remove the Lechon Kawali with Bagoong from their menu. That was the worst dish in the buffet. The rest were either tolerable, alright, good, or really good.The buffet time should also be clarified. While the lady that I talked to on the phone said that the buffet begins at 11 AM, they told me on their facebook page that it starts at 10 AM.

Looking back, it was a mistake to have eaten the pasta first. This made me full right away. It was also a mistake to have eaten the bacon and the Lechon Kawali together. After eating these two greasy and fatty dishes, I felt like vomiting already. Here are some tips on how to eat the food served at Chef Laudico’s Bfast buffet.

1.    For your first round at the buffet table, take a lot of Angus Beef Tapa. This is probably one of the most expensive dishes in the buffet table so loading yourself with this dish will guarantee that you make the most of your 288 pesos. Put just a little bit of rice on your plate… and some vegetable salad just so you don’t get weary of the Angues Beef Tapa right away.

2.    For your next round at the buffet table, stuff your plate with omelet, Bangus, and Bacon. You can also get some rice although the omelet will already serve as rice in this food set up.

3.    Next, go for desserts.

4.    Now try some pasta. You can also probably experiment eating Angus Beef Tapa with Spaghetti Putanesca.

Note that the buffet menu at Chef Laudico's Bfast changes and you probably wouldn't get the same things that I got when I went there. 

I read this blog post which said that if you were able to take full advantage of a buffet, you wouldn’t be hungry for a long long time after the buffet. I am happy to report that as of this writing (15 hours since I ate at Chef Laudico’s Bfast), I am still full.

So will I go back to Chef Laudico’s Bfast for their buffet again? I probably will. I give Chef Laudico’s Bfast buffet two thumbs down. The Legends of India buffet was five thumbs down.