Circles got me goin' round in circles

I looooove long weekends.

It's always a chance for me to relax and not think of work, and of course to find a new place to "gourmandize" (yes, I believe that's a word :D). My family and I decided to spend half of the four-day weekend in Makati Shangri-la  to culminate my mom's birthday month. When I heard the news from my dad, my heart skipped a beat from the excitement starting to build up. This only meant one thing: it's time to try Circles for the first time.

One of the sous-chefs is my brother's friend and he had told him that if ever we decided to eat in Circles, he can make special dishes for us that are not available on the buffet table.

At first I was looking forward to trying out their buffet breakfast. He did say, though, that what makes Circles special is really their dinner buffet because hotel breakfast buffets hardly differ -- you have your usual breads and spreads, cereals, bacon, fried rice, etc. The man does make a good point, you know.

And so dinner it is. I think we all deserve a pat on the back for choosing well :)

A beautiful landscape of seafood screams "Eat me!" as you enter

As the name suggests, the Circles buffet menu allows you to come full circle with the wide variety of cuisines they offer to their customers. You can go from Japanese, to Chinese, to Western, to Italian, to Indian, and then back again, if you wish. And you would.

Nope, these definitely are not crabs like we thought. These are curachas.

I had expected the Japanese area to have more variation, but at least my favorites, salmon sashimi and spicy tuna maki, were present. I didn't see any tempura, though. Which was okay. More space for the other good stuff. :)

The Japanese section

The rest of the sections were just long tables of mouth watering dishes that literally made me so confused -- in a good way. Because I seriously didn't know where to start!

Salad bar with different kinds of cheese, nuts, and cold cuts on the other side

This is where all the meat is housed.

Shawarma anyone? Spot the layers of pyramid-shaped powder on the left!

For a split-second there, I actually considered starting with dessert

.

I decided to visit the salad bar area for my plate number 1, not to get salad, but to sample the cheese. I figured this would be a good way to start.

Say cheese!

But my brother thought otherwise. Being a gourmande himself, he ran straight to the meat section and took everything that spelled C-A-R-N-I-V-O-R-E. Medium-cooked prime rib with wine sauce, lechon, lamb shank, roasted chicken.

My brother's plate #1

When it was my turn to sample the meat, of course I didn't let myself get left behind. :) And no, the asparagus wasn't just for decoration. I did eat that.

Meat galore!

My entire family adores seafood and we couldn't let the night pass without having some curacha, mussels, shrimp and oysters baked in cheese and garlic. The oysters were a bit small, we could mostly taste the cheese but not so much what was under. The mussels, curacha and shrimp were the best!

Oyster Rockefeller and Baked Mussels

Shrimp, Curacha and more Mussels

And hey, I even found myself a new friend.

Baby octopus

My sister-in-law was a little queasy about trying this but I was able to convince her. Told her it tasted just like squid :)

In the pasta section, you could ask the chef to make the kind you want, with your choice of pasta, sauce and toppings. I chose the spinach ravioli with cheese and cream sauce.

Spinach ravioli with cheese and cream sauce

We were so grateful to Chef Paolo for preparing some custom-made dishes for us. He made for us a 12-inch pizza, half pepperoni, half four-cheese. It was light on the stomach and the crust was crispy and soft at the same time.

Pepperoni and Four-Cheese Pizza

As if that wasn't enough, he came back with a plate of tuna on top of watermelon, topped with cream and fish eggs. The watermelon made it very refreshing.

Tuna and watermelon - an odd combination that works!

And now, on to my favorite part of any meal. At this point in the evening, my stomach was already ready to burst any time and so I made sure I chose my desserts well. I didn't want to waste any of them, for that would be a mortal sin. I decided on my favorites -- creme brulee, mangoes, and marshmallows, which I very much enjoyed dipping in the chocolate fountain. I felt like a 3-year old girl next to my 3-year old nephew, who was doing the exact same thing with a sheepish grin.

My dessert choices

While I decided not to try the rest of the desserts, my sister-in-law did. And because I was too full to eat any more, I was happy just to take a photo :)

Cakes, cookies, and more

Her face was enough to tell me her choices were good :)

After three hours of gourmandizing, we finally raised the white flag. Excessively full would be an understatement. But we were all happy and content. My brother most especially :)

Aside from the obviously more-than-satisfying dining experience, I enjoyed the family bonding most. All throughout dinner, we re-lived our childhood days, talked about our plans for the future, and discussed the next family bonding escapade we were going to embark on.

THE GOURMANDE'S SCORE: 5 out of 5