Cabalen and Their Food Choices

I had dinner with some friends at Cabalen restaurant last Friday. It was an unplanned trip to the mall so we didn't make reservations. Fortunately, there weren't a lot of people when we arrived so we were seated right away.

The first thing I noticed with their dishes is that many of them were vegetables. There were still meat and seafood dishes but it felt like they were reduced. If you are not fond of vegetables, you will definitely feel shortchanged. The good thing is they still have lechon. And unlike in the past, their lechon has greatly improved. The meat tastes good even without the lechon sauce. The skin is also crispy unlike before when they were usually rubbery.

Dessert choices has also lessened. They still have the halo-halo that many people actually looked for. They also have chocolate fountain with nothing but marshmallows to dip. I didn't see sliced fruits so I had to ask for bananas which I always like to dip in the hot chocolate fountain. They gave me bananas -- unpeeled -- so I had to peel it on my own. Sliced apples would have been nice too but there weren't any.

I was happy with the lechon, sisig and spicy tahong but overall, I wasn't satisfied. I mean I ate a lot of these three so I left Cabalen full but I was not really satisfied with the limited choices.

I understand that it is priced lower than Vikings or Buffet 101 but those restaurants have so many choices you wouldn't really mind paying that much. Cabalen's buffet dinner is just P398. This is lower than the P888 of buffet dinner at Vikings and P899 at Buffet 101 on weekdays but it still feels more expensive because of the limited choices.

I do hope they will improve their food choices in the future so the P398 would feel more acceptable.