LAMON KRONICLES: Buffet Meal at Cabalen's Restaurant, SM North (March 31, 2015)

Cabalen Restaurant in SM North.

31 March 2015

Friendship and I were at SM North and we were looking for a buffet restaurant. Cabalen Restaurant and the ever favorite Filipino dishes they offer. We had to sample each of the dishes and see which ones would be our top picks.

We began with a very soft Tocino with a mildly sweet taste. Followed by sticky yellow rice, the Bopis, Tokwa't Baboy, etc. One-third of what I ate for the day was this Crispy KangKong. It has a sour cream dip that goes well here, but the dip goes well with other dishes as well.

Kare-Kare with Bagoong. The sauce is viscous and has a very peanut butter flavor. Pure heaven when I had the buttery texture melting slowly in my mouth. I spoke with one of the servers just to express appreciation for their Dinuguan. They said that this was also one of their bestsellers and had won awards.

No dining experience would be complete without the desserts and sweet stuff. The halo-halo was one of my favorite dishes since childhood, but the sweet chocolate fondue was the winner here. Can't have enough of the chocolate. My only wish was that they had more offerings in the desserts section like bibingka, cuchinta, and others.

To name my top 5 favorites and the ones I'd love to have again next time:

1) Kare-kare

2) Dinuguan

3) Crispy Kangkong with Cream Dip

4) Longganisa/Sausage

5) Halo-Halo and Chocolate Fondue