RAFFLES & FAIRMONT’s SPECTRUM Luxe Sunday Champagne Brunch

Raffles & Fairmont’s SPECTRUM recently launched The Luxe Sunday Brunch to heat up The Battle for the BEST Sunday Brunch in Manila.

It’s a carefully curated buffet with an interesting mix of Breakfast offerings, a Sunday BBQ Grill, Live Foie Gras station and unlimited Champagne, Singapore Sling and wine. The usual Spectrum buffet with an assorted Honey Buffet is expanded with more salad and starter options, more meat options, and more homemade desserts. 🙂

Here is our Spectrum Luxe Sunday Brunch experience:

Best Sunday Brunch Series 2013:

• SOFITEL: SPIRAL’s Ultimate Sunday Champagne Brunch!?
• IMPRESSIONS Sunday Brunch Buffet – A Foodie’s Buffet Favorite 🙂
• MARRIOTT CAFE Sunday Brunch Buffet Crossover with CRU STEAKHOUSE!
  
• RAFFLES & FAIRMONT SPECTRUM Luxe Sunday Brunch!
• DUSIT THANI: Sunday Family Brunch Buffet (Umu and Basix Crossover)

It’s easy to go to Spectrum because there are more basement parking options (which is currently free), and Spectrum is just near the Raffles entrance.

You have to pass through Long Bar and Raffles’ welcome lobby to reach the restaurant, which is on the gound floor.

You can reserve this long table found near the buffet area for your family.

(Unfortunately, the windows of Spectrum face the afternoon sun. Otherwise, it would have been nice to sit near the windows with a view of the gardens.)

There’s live acoustic entertainment to complete the Sunday Brunch ambiance. 🙂

 

Champagne Brunch

★ To Champagne or Not to Champagne? That’s the first question you have to answer. If you decide to have champagne, the buffet comes with a never-empty, sexy glass of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

★ The Champagne option also includes an endless pouring of red wine, white wine and Long Bar’s signature drink — Singapore Sling (with the signature peanuts, if you prefer).

Breakfast

To start your buffet, you’ll be served a selection of freshly baked bread with honey dip.

★ Our breakfast favorite in the buffet is the Homemade Granola with Yogurt and Fruit toppings. 🙂

 

Soup, Salad, Cold Cuts & Cheese

There’s a decent assortment of fine cheese,

cold cuts,

various salads,

compound salads,

make-your-own salad, and

really good homemade soup options.

(Suggestion: The only unfortunate thing about the Salad section is that it is located by the window that faces the heat of the afternoon sun. It may be better to relocate the Salad bar to a cooler area.)

 

Honey Station

The most unique feature of Spectrum is its signature Honey Buffet.

You can have different flavors of honey to pair with breads, desserts or to sweeten your drinks.

★ My personal favorite is the creamy Mascarpone Cheese with Sweet Honey and Pistachio to balance the taste.

 

Appetizer

You can start with a fresh spread of seafood.

A lot of people are raving about the Japanese Sushi and Sashimi buffet…

…because of its unique, playful combinations (like using lechon or fish eggs, etc.)

★ We love the Chinese Dimsum options — especially the Hakaw, which passed the Hakaw Test of our Chinese boys. 🙂 We can order basket after basket of Hakaw!

You can also order Duck Wrap with Hoisin Sauce.

 

Pass-Around Delights

 
One of the features I enjoyed in the buffet is that they have pass-arounds of little gourmet bites, which other Sunday Brunch buffets don’t do.

Our favorites are the Foie Gras with mashed Pea, Cranberry tip, and sauce;

★ shots of Taho that come in original and coffee flavors; and

Kare Kare Ravioli!

 

Lechon

★ YES, this Sunday Brunch Buffet serves Cebu Lechon, which is very good, especially if you have tourists or balikbayans, or you’re just celebrating a special occasion. 🙂

 

Sunday Barbecue Grill!

We also enjoyed the Sunday BBQ Grill theme included in the Luxe buffet.

★ You can have freshly grilled Pork Skewers, Salmon,

Baby Back Ribs, and Steak. 🙂

The buffet has a good meat carving selection — Roasted Turkey, Prime Rib and Lamb Shoulder…

…with a nice variety of sauces.

We enjoyed the Prime Rib, but the Lamb Shoulder was a bit dry.

The buffet also includes Tandoori oven-cooked meat. 🙂

★ You won’t go wrong pairing the meat with the Seafood Paella, which had generous toppings of shrimp. 🙂

There are also seafood offerings like Gambas, Grilled Salmon with Orange Beurre Blanc, 

Garam Masala Spice Sea Bass, and freshly steamed fish and prawn options in the Chinese Dimsum buffet.

 

Dessert

There’s an extensive array of homemade desserts that will make any sweet tooth happy.

Gaze at the Chocolate Pralines, Cream Caramel, and Chocolate Eclairs.

Look, there’s even Buko Pie in the dessert buffet! 🙂

★ My favorite is the freshly baked Chocolate Chip Cookie…

…with a topping of Vanilla Ice Cream!

The kids had a blast enjoying several servings of yummy ice cream!

  
★ But the BEST dessert of all in the buffet is the freshly baked Chocolate Souffle…

…with Vanilla Cream Sauce! Sarap!

Overall, this is one buffet we truly enjoyed because of the fine selection and not-too-overwhelming spread. We have lots of favorites, including: 

• Homemade Granola, 
• Mascarpone Cheese with sweet honey and pistachio bits, 
• Hakaw and Cebu Lechon,
• Grilled Salmon and Skewers,
• Taho Shots and Kare Kare Ravioli,
• the Seafood Paella, and
• for dessert — Freshly baked Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Ice Cream
  and Chocolate Souffle with Vanilla sauce.

It’s best to experience it with foodies who like drinking champagne, pairing food and wine, and enjoying unlimited glasses of Singapore Sling!

The only thing I did not like about Spectrum is that the restaurant seemed to be designed as an afterthought — the buffet and dining areas are a bit cramped and are located in the corner of the building that faces the afternoon sun. Plus, I can’t believe there’s no closed-door private room options. 🙁

Nevertheless, congratulations to Raffles & Fairmont for a well-crafted Sunday Brunch! 🙂

SPECTRUM Luxe Sunday Champagne Brunch
Fairmont Makati, 1 Raffles Drive, Makati Avenue, Makati City
Telephone: +632 555-9888 ext 6840
Email: dining.makati@fairmont.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FairmontMakati
Twitter: @FairmontMakati
Buffet Hours: Sunday Lunch 12.00nn to 3.00pm
Buffet Rates:

• Sunday Champagne Brunch P3,888 net per person
• Sunday Brunch (no Champagne) P2,777 net per person 
• 50% off for kids between 6-12 yrs 
• Complimentary kids under the age of 5yrs

★ – Our Favorite and Recommended Items in the Buffet 🙂

Best Sunday Brunch Series 2013:

• SOFITEL: SPIRAL’s Ultimate Sunday Champagne Brunch!?
• IMPRESSIONS Sunday Brunch Buffet – A Foodie’s Buffet Favorite 🙂
• MARRIOTT CAFE Sunday Brunch Buffet Crossover with CRU STEAKHOUSE!
  
• RAFFLES & FAIRMONT SPECTRUM Luxe Sunday Brunch!
• DUSIT THANI: Sunday Family Brunch Buffet (Umu and Basix Crossover)

Live an Awesome Life,

 
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If you have tips on awesome food and travel destinations, please email me at anton@diaz.ph.

Full Disclosure: Our Spectrum Luxe Sunday Brunch is courtesy of our friends from Raffles & Fairmont. I wrote this blog post myself, and it expresses my own opinions. We only feature awesome experiences in the blog.

I have no business relationship with any company mentioned in this post or any organization promoting it. As a policy, I don’t receive compensation from food and travel places we feature in the blog.

P.S. Since there are no private room options, you could opt for the private corner area near the entrance, which you can reserve (but you’ll still be seen by people going in and out of the restaurant).