corniche - diamond hotel

the manila all-you-can-eat scene has just gotten better! yes, it just did because corniche atdiamondhotel philippines recently launched their themed buffet nights. for those who love buffets and all-you-can-eat eatsperiences, corniche has themed nights from thursdays to saturdays. diners can enjoy flavors of china on thursday nights, steak night on saturdays, and the one that we will be sharing with you in this eatsperience, seafood night every friday! 3 nights full of endless high-quality dishes fromdiamondhotel philippines’ outstanding cooks and chefs. make sure to keep on reading as we share about the seafood night atdiamondhotel philippines, enjoy!

we ate here to celebrate our mom’s birthday, surprisingly the quality of the food is great, quiet place for you to relax, good music, service is good. one thing i’m disappointed and that there is no available steak because it’s monday and it is not their theme menu.. wednesday is seafood theme, thursday is filipino theme and friday is american theme. overall it’s good so i am inviting everyone to try and dine at corniche atdiamondhotel manila.

we had a sumptuous dinner at cornichediamondhotel. the ambience was perfect! the service was good. the food is delicious. my personal faves are the tasty tenderloin steak, salmon, creamy carbonara and ice cream! it was a worthy restaurant. #foodgram #foodieph #welovetoeat #jahzforfood #foodlover #foodporn

beautiful buffet and cafe restaurant framing the centre of thediamondhotel’s main lobby. there are special buffet events during key times of the year, such as valentine’s, independence day, mother’s and father’s day, and christmas. service is brisk when the buffet is full, and often full it is. 

the carvery station rotates between turkey, roast lamb, and prime rib (so it’s good to call in advance and see what they have). cold seafood, salad, and their charcuterie is in the centre, with a bar in the rear. japanese sushi and tempura items are on the far right. 

continental, chinese, the grill and carvery station are on the left, with filipino at the very end. 

just like manila hotel, thediamondmakes special effort to make filipino-clavoured ice creams, rice cakes, and other “native” desserts. coffee is included.

considering the formidable competition posed by manila hotel and sofitel manila, i still rank this within the bay area’s top five buffets between the port area and mall of asia, which i’d say includes market cafe in new world manila bay, and brasserie on 3 at the conrad manila in moa.

christmas was just around the corner, and my boyfriend and i were really feeling the holiday spirit. to join in on all the festivities, every year we splurge on our christmas lunch and spend it eating in a hotel buffet. this year, thanks to the promo from bdo, we found ourselves insidediamondhotel's corniche.

corniche isdiamondhotel's main dining hall where breakfast buffet is served, as well as the hotel's welcome drinks. we were given four vouchers for our welcome drinks - choice of coffee, tea or fruit juices. we asked for 2 orange juice and 2 mango juice. delicious, refreshing drinks served in a big tall glass. service was good considering we did not order anything else other than avail of the free drinks. would be nice though if they were proactive in upselling options for snacks, if in case the guest wanted something to pair with the free drink.

filipino culinary pride, a filipino food festival atdiamondhotel featuring chef sau del rosario and chef miko aspiras!. feast on authentic filipino culinary masterpieces served with unexpected twists and new interpretations by homegrown kitchen superstars chef sau del rosario and chef miko aspiras in a grand celebration at diamond hotel philippines.

in celebration of the philippine independence, we took a culinary journey of the philippine archipelago at thediamondhotel philippines. dubbed as the "philippine archipelago", the filipino food festival highlighted a diverse spread at the corniche lunch and dinner prepared by sought-after celebrity chef tatung sarthou.

corniche is a go to place for our family whenever there's an occasion. since it's indiamondhotel, the ambiance and interiors are excellent. since we dine there always, i just find the food to be repetitive. if you are to try it for the 1st time, i am sure you'll enjoy the variety.

lunch in corniche at thediamondhotel was great but the food weren't quite diverse. it has few food choices but its desserts have won my taste!

salmon sashimi is love! ♥

friday nights are salmon nights at corniche,diamondhotel. what does this mean?

it means that the whole buffet is laced with lots of salmon dishes. pretty much each station, with the exception of the desserts, boasts of salmon cooked (or not) differently.

with the copious amount of food, i hardly had the chance to try each salmon dish. one thing i wasn't about to pass up though, was the salmon sashimi. succulent and fresh, i had to rein in my desire to keep coming back for more, lest i found no space for the other viands.

of course, you can't eat just salmon all night. not to worry because still available are the regular buffet favorites. mine especially, is the cheese station.

i particularly loved the sous vide salmon (top middle photo). a burst of flavor in the mouth---almost like a celebration of how long it was cooked in sealed plastic bags submerged in water---greets you, yet it still managed to be so light and lovely at the same time.

what's a buffet without desserts? and while the main attraction is salmon, the sweets are not to be missed as well. i spot a spread of halo-halo ingredients, and other filipino snacks or kakanin.

they also have a variety of ice cream flavors, the same ones they offer at the cake club, if i'm not mistaken. i tried their passion fruit and almond flavors, and had some pistachios and chocolate sprinkles splattered on top.

a plethora of petits fours, cookies, and other confectioneries spanned rows of a glass display shelf. let's see, there's passion fruit mousse cake, mocha pannacotta, green apple mousse cake, mini danielle, strawberry mousse cake, chocolate mousse cake, mango rice pudding, and raspberry panna cotta. i love mousse so it was a delight for me to try a few variants.

more were displayed on another counter like orange chocolate cake, strawberry jelly, dark chocolate mousse, creme brulee, and chocolate creme brulee. as if all those weren't enough, there's even a chocolate fountain to boot.

the salmon nights buffet is priced at at php 2,385 nett per person. just don't make the same mistake i did when i missed their lobster buffet. it's available every friday night, but you have to hurry 'coz it won't last forever.

it's my graduation and celebration calls for buffet, i mean what else could be better?

my big day held at picc ofcourse and i pick a buffet near at pasay. first choice is ilang-ilang at manila hotel, but it's saturday lunch so i'm thinking it would be crowded. and i want to celebrate in a peaceful place.

the fact that i wasn't familiar in corniche, i'm stunned with what i just googled. it has a wonderful fountain overlooking while you dine. perfect becausediamondhotel is just few minutes away from picc, then we made a reservation right away.

corniche cafe is all big. because tables are scattered, you won't think it's spacious enough. first, cuisine selection is not entirely wide but great. for a hotel that big, i'm thinking they should add more food variety. but as i said, even they doesn't have that much selection they serve fantastic and worth your penny. though my heart (and stomach) cried a little when i saw their japanese section, because they only got few sushis and sashimi.

i was instantly relieved by looking at the dessert table. gelato, oh my god. i love their salted caramel and reminded me of gellatissimo! i felt like i got an unlimited gellatissimo voucher..... i'm inlove. plus truffles, oh lord i tried everything and accepted that i'll add few more pounds but i couldn't care less.

it was a happy graduation lunch, indeed.

i got an invite to sample the buffet offerings of corniche, the recently renovated restaurant of maniladiamondhotel. corniche is a french word that typically refers to a road on the side of a cliff or ledge, paralleling the location of the hotel beside the famed roxas boulevard.
corniche holds a weekly “steak nights” during every thursday dinners including free flowing red wine.

i started off the meal with a plate of freshly shucked oysters. just pick how many pieces you want and they shuck them in front of you. i also had some large mussels as well as assorted sushi and sashimi.

the highlight of the night were the steaks. choice available were us striploin, us rib eye, us hanger steak, and beef tenderloin, all of which are on display, chilled. i picked a slice each of rib eye and beef tenderloin. i like rib eye the best because of the marbling i saw from the raw beef. i was not too picky so i left my order with the chef to cook. i think he got a little confused since 3 of us ordered at the same time and might have mixed up my order, since i wanted it cooked medium but got something between medium well and well done.
i like that you could specify how thick and the doneness of the steak, maybe i should have supervised a little more in hindsight.

i liked that some of the dishes were displayed in small amounts to ensure the freshness especially that chicken breast with truffle in the middle of the picture that was creamy and flavorful.

we also had naan bread cooked in their naan oven as can be seen in their indian station.

pasta beautifully prepared and plated from the italian station, which also had freshly baked pizzas. the presentation of the pasta really took me by surprise, being used to the slapshod way from other buffets.

aside from the freshly cooked steak, they also had a sumptuous carving station which had baked fish, us prime rib, soy chicken and lechon de leche. this area and the steak station were the main crowd drawers that night.

desserts galore kept on tempting me since our table was just beside the dessert station. i really can’t resist having those desserts in the shot glasses, i got 4 of them that night. i like the peach and the strawberry one the best. i also saw a halo-halo station at the back, too bad i was too full to get some.
i really like the interiors of corniche, with its use of metal, wood and glass. the different niche seating areas with views of the water features in the garden are also a big plus. one thing i did not feel was stuffy, that’s when i noticed that the whole place had high ceilings, from the buffet area to the seating.
corniche interiors
so if you can’t get enough of steak, you might want to give corniche a try and experience steak nights every thursday.

we stayed at thediamondhotel the saturday before holy week and got complimentary buffet breakfast at the corniche. regular price was around p1500/head. selection was very limited. too few choices at every section. even the filipino breakfast corner only has small sausages and fried fish i think. never saw tapa, longaniza, tocino nor danggit. there were 2 kinds of dimsum but slow to refill. the only consolation were the fresh juices. good that it was complimentary because i wouldn't pay p1500 for this. you can find starbucks and pancake house near the corner at pedro gil. lunch and dinner buffet may be an entirely different story though. breakfast is probably not a priority in this hotel.