Eating like a Viking

I think I will not be eating for many days. My stomach and brain are about to burst after consuming an incredible amount of delectable dishes at the Vikings Luxury Buffet Restaurant at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

 

I felt guilty after having steak, caviar, prawns, pasta, pizza, cheeses, salads, bread, Yang Chow fried rice, Egyptian hummus, cakes, fresh fruit, ice-cold cucumber and parsley shake, and three cups of hot Oolong tea.

 

Am I committing the sin of gluttony? Then I noticed that at the table next to ours was a priest!

 

I did eat different kinds of food but in small quantities. I think that’s the way to do it if you want to have a true Vikings restaurant experience.

 

Lunch service at Vikings is from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. while dinner service is from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.

 

Ever punctual, my husband Riz and I showed up on time for our 11 a.m. reservation at Vikings on his birthday on Thursday.

 

We initially thought of celebrating his birthday at the Manila Hotel or another hotel that had a good buffet selection. However, Vikings seemed to be the best choice, especially as they have a birthday promo – the celebrant gets to eat for free as long as he shows up with at least one paying companion on the day of his birthday.

 

At Vikings, a weekday eat-all-you-can lunch is P688 per person. Weekday dinner is P888 per person while weekend lunch and dinner are P1,088 per head.

 

Agree, their rates are much higher compared to other buffet restaurants. However, Vikings seems like a steal considering the range of dining choices – from Asian to Continental to Mediterranean.

Like a Viking damsel
 

I felt like a dainty Viking damsel as I relished blinis – a small, light, and flavorful pancake – topped with black and red caviar.
 

It was my first time to try a blini and it is now something that I will always look forward to when I am at Vikings.

 

That’s the thing I like most about Vikings – I get to try a wide variety of dishes. For bread alone, the choices can be confusing.
 

Should I try focaccia, panini, ciabatta, Egyptian bread, whole wheat bread, or rye bread?

 

Should I put butter, blue cheese, cheddar, cream cheese, hummus, liver pate, marinara, or orange marmalade?

 

What salad should I choose: Ceasar salad, Waldorf salad, macaroni salad?

 

Choosing what to eat is both gratifying and irritating. All I wanted was to eat and enjoy the food but as I was unfamiliar with many of the choices, I spent quite some time going through the food aisles, reading the descriptions and examining the food.

 

I am not a picky eater but I am fussy. As I am, thankfully, a good cook, I am particular about the food I eat. At Vikings, while I enjoyed the good selection of food, I wasn’t all too pleased with the way some of the dishes were cooked.

 

Some of the dishes lacked flavor. The chicken ala king wasn’t creamy and flavorful enough. It’s one of my all-time, feel-good dishes but sadly, the Vikings version didn’t make the grade for me.

 

But Thursday’s poorly-cooked chicken ala king would not stop me from going to Vikings. There’s so much good stuff there that I have tried or yet to try.

 

The freshly-cooked crispy prawn dish was a definite winner, one of the best I’ve ever tasted. I had to wait for the chef to finish frying the prawns but it was worth it.

 

Waiting is another Vikings thing, especially at the steak station, where there is always a long line of people waiting to try Batangas tenderloin, US ribeye steak, or Australian striploin.

 

Bad beef, good memories

 

Too full in the middle of our lunch, I only got to try the Batangas tenderloin and it was a disappointment. The beef wasn’t tender, juicy, or flavorful. I know what good beef is because our family had a cattle ranch that supplied meat to restaurants.

 

Thanks to Dad, who taught us how to enjoy good food whether at good hotels and restaurants or rundown ones, I learned to eat anything except sweet and sour pork or fish. Something about that dish makes me sick. I cannot stand it just as I cannot stand alcoholic drinks; it’s a genetic allergy. Too bad – Vikings has a good choice of alcoholic drinks, or so the others say…

 

At Vikings, my preferred drinks are only tea and filtered water. I find it odd that while Vikings had a wide array of sweet treats and pastries – from cuchinta to sapin-sapin to red velvet cake and blueberry cheesecake – they only offered one kind of hot tea: Oolong.

 

I love tea so much and I can’t stand coffee. I was wishing for some strawberry tea or even just a simple lemon or ginger tea, but found none.

 

Sipping hot tea is something I enjoyed with my parents as much as cooking with them. For them, it was all about creating and learning to enjoy a variety of good food.

 

The variety that Vikings restaurant offers is one of the reasons why it has become one of my favorites.

 

I plan to go there regularly despite the poor customer service, especially the difficulty in arranging reservations.

 

On the Vikings Facebook page, I saw comments from disgruntled customers who were also complaining about the difficulty in making a reservation.

 

Ana Cham: It's so hard to call. No one answering phone to get reservation.

 

Carmela Maregmen Rosales: Ang hirap namang magpa-reserve sa inyo eh.

 

Like the Vikings who traded and explored the Europe of old, I will trudge on, get over the poor customer service, and keep discovering the good things Vikings has to offer. — ELR/KG, GMA News