My Share for #BeautifulSunday initiated by @ace108

How would you like to eat unlimited grilled food and hotpot? Well look no further as I would share with you today our experience in this restaurant. Not only that, if it is your birthday you get to eat for free. It is my wife's birthday and I wanted to take her out to lunch to some place nice. We are a bit short on the budget but good thing I found out about this restaurant. Get your appetite ready as we are about to embark on a delicious grill and hot pot experience.

 

Free Buffet on your Birthday "Tong Yang Plus"

Tong Yang Plus opened in December 2017 in one of the most popular mall in the country. With a wide variety of food ranging from local Philippine, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Owned by a company that runs several buffet restaurants that can be found all over the country. This particular branch that we visited just opened a couple of months ago and there are times that you need to wait to get a seat. The buffet lunch starts at 11:00 am up until 2:30 pm. If you prefer dinner time starts at 5:30 pm until 10:00 pm.

The rates and promotion are displayed outside.

Week day lunch rate 638 pesos or $12.20 USD

Weekend and dinner rate 738 pesos or $14.12 USD

Rates for senior citizens has different discounts depending on the age of the customer.

Promotions

On your exact birth date you get to eat for free, but you need to have one paying adult with you. Also do not forget you identification card. There were only two of us so we only get to pay for one. Well it wouldn't be fun to eat alone on a buffet.

If ever you visit on your birth month you can also get to eat for free, but you would need to be accompanied with 4 other people. You could scheme and ask four of your friends to join you to get your free meal.

We were there early and the people are just starting to come in. It is a good thing that we have already secured our table. Inside the ambiance and lighting was very cozy. The grills used are smokeless therefore the smell of food would not get on your clothes.

Every time we eat at a buffet my question is always where to start. I often scan the area first to find out where the good stuff are. It is also important not to eat a lot of rice and if possible skip the rice completely. Rice and drinks will get you fill up right away. You would not have anymore space in you belly to sample the other dishes.

Here they also had local Philippine food and other dishes. We decided to skip them all and just focus on the grill and the hot pot.

In all buffet restaurants that I have visited they all have one thing in common. It seems that the shrimp tempura always runs out. We guarded the tray until a fresh batch was served and immediately took several for us. Everyone loves the shrimp tempura, no one ever pays attention to the fish and vegetable tempura.

Here is our table and this is also our first ever hot pot experience. We had no idea how to properly eat hot pot and we had to do a little research before we came here. For your hot pot you will be asked what soup base you would prefer. The options are chicken, seafood, vegetarian, sate and couple more. I selected the sate soup base and while the broth it is simmering we went back to get more ingredients.

There are so many options to choose from and make sure you to take only what you could eat. You will be charged extra for any left overs which is a way to prevent wasting of food.

There are so may raw ingredients including processed food like hot dogs and sausages. I skipped the hot dogs as you could easily purchase some from the market. Although my wife took a couple of sausages.

You could find different marinated pork, chicken and beef here. Out of all the options I only took a few pieces of the Korean beef loin and some garlic chicken.

Other raw ingredients include liver, gizzard, intestine, kidney and other innards. I wouldn't know how to prepare them so also I skipped this portion.

If you love fish this is the section for you, grill them or add them to your hot pot. I took a couple of pieces of the red snapper as they are expensive if you buy them in the market.

Would be great to sample the other fishes but I was craving for beef.

I do not know a lot about dumplings and the options here confused me. I didn't know what to take so I just looked for something that had a nice color and looked tasty. I took a couple of the shrimp and squid dumplings.

I was looking for seaweed to add that flavor to my soup. I found them and also added some white fungus in the mix.

I was hoping there were crabs, but I was told that they only serve them during dinner. Any way we found some shrimp and got every variety of the clams. I am imagining it would give an amazing seafood flavor to my hot pot.

The vegetable section will allow you to cook one of our local sour soup dish called "Sinigang". I guess if you know what you are doing you will be able to cook up anything that you want.

The noodles here are so colorful, I was planning to cook one up if I still have enough space later on. You could maybe cook up a nice ramen with all the ingredients here.

This is the section where you could have fresh meat sliced. Sliced into thin strips which is perfect for grilling. We asked for slices of the three meat options.

Now to complete it all, you will need to mix up your own dipping sauce. Again I was confused which ones to use and I just tried to experiment. Mixing sate pate with a little vinegar and soy sauce. Adding some garlic, spring onions and some chili. I was hopeful it would taste good as a dipping sauce for our grilled meat.

The crew here are helpful and you could always ask them what is the best combination. I'm sure they could help you mix up a delicious sauce.

Time to put in all the ingredients to our simmering hot pot.

With the clams, mussels and pieces of red snapper. I am sure my soup would be very flavorful.

Here are the vegetables I got and they would be going in last. You would not want your vegetables to be over cooked.

My wife did the grilling and was enjoying it. We normally grill with charcoal at home that get the smell of smoke all over you. This way of grilling is very pleasant as it is smokeless.

Will all the ingredients combined the aroma was bursting with flavors. The sate broth was very flavorful compared to the seafood broth that my wife selected.

Here are the slices of meat that are lined up for grilling. I thing maybe we took a little to many, but realized that they would shrink once cooked. I guess the meat volume that we got is just enough for us.

Tongs are provided that you could use to flip the meat over. But I couldn't help to use my fork to help my wife to cook the rest of the batch.

This is the dipping sauce that I mixed up earlier and it was ok for the the grilled meat. We also got the tempura sauce which tasted good with the beef slices.

Our selections were spot on as we enjoyed every bite. It is really important to choose the food that you like first and try the others later on your second round. In this case were already too full to go for another round. I think we already got all that we wanted. I guess no more room for the ramen that I was going to try. Maybe on our next visit on someone's birthday.

Time to get some drinks to finish up the rest of the food. They have unlimited soda, juices, infused water, coffee, tea and beer. Unlimited draft beer, but do remember to drink moderately as you wouldn't want to get too drunk in this restaurant.

To finish it all the crew went around to greet the birthday celebrants with a small birthday cake.

I guess we still have room for desert before be head home.

Small portions of cakes and other local pastries are available. I am not much of a cake guy, but got myself a couple of butterscotch.

Here are some topping to add to your dessert. Would be perfect with ice cream and time to get a scoop of two.

I found them and I suggest the avocado flavor. I do not often see this flavor in the market and I find it delicious.

You want something healthier, well they have fruits available.

Mix up your own salad and even add some more ingredients from the vegetable section. If you are a vegan you would still love it here as I noticed a lot of vegetable options for the noodles, dumplings and other ingredients.

This is the "Halo Halo" section which a popular Philippine desert. Mixing all the sweet ingredients and topped off with shaved ice and milk.

For my wife's dessert some ice cream and halo halo.

Over all I would say that we had a really good experience with Tong Yang Plus. The ambiance and service was great the food was well worth it for the price. We are sure to come back here again birthday or not as we really enjoyed this restaurant.

Thank you for joining us today on this birthday lunch out. I hope you enjoyed the food and if ever you visit the Philippines have a taste of the Tong Yang Plus experience. Hope to see you again soon, happy eating and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Feel free to leave some comments, tell me what you think as I would love to hear from you.

 

Official Page

Tong Yang Plus

 

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All photos are original and taken with

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://watersnake101.vornix.blog/2019/03/10/free-buffet-on-your-birthday-tong-yang-plus-beautiful-sunday/

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