Buffet Dining in Alba Spanish Restaurant (MOA, Pasay City)

Touted by some as home to the best paellas in the country, Alba Restaurant doesn't just do paellas. This is home of the most sinfully salivating Spanish dishes we've ever tasted. In fact, during our buffet dining, it was hard to pick a single dish we didn't like. Every gastronomic serving seduced our palate.

This gastronomic extravaganza wasn't even a whim or random accident. Senor Anastacio de Alba has been serving them since he set foot in the country on February 7, 1952. Sixty-three years (63) later, he has perfected his craft - and Castilian cuisine has never tasted this good. Senor Alba hails from Avila, a mountain city we loved visiting just a few hours from Madrid. These days, his son Miguel is helping him preserve the quality of Alba's legacy.

What was my favorite? It's hard to say. Croquettas de Pollo was seriously delectable. If you're a vegan, you can feast on their Berenjenas al Horno, i.e. baked eggplant with anchovies and three kinds of cheese. If you want your meat tender and tasty, they have their Costillos de Vaca and Callos a la Madrilena. And there's plenty more to choose from. I tried holding back on the paellas but it was just so irresistible I had to make several trips to the buffet station. If they do have a bit of a weak spot, though this is mostly nitpicking, it would be their Sangria which tasted a wee bit diluted.

With a relaxed, albeit intimate atmosphere and superlative food, it is hard to find fault dining here. Alba has branches in Bel-Air Village, Makati and in Tomas Morato corner Scout Lozano in Quezon City. We visited their branch at Prism Plaza, located at Two E-Com Building, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City. We cannot recommend it enough.

This is the Eye in the Sky!

My buffet haul.

Callos a la Madrilena and Costillos de Vaca

Berenjenas al Horno

Croquetas de Pollo

A platter of tapas.

Sangria, a typical beverage from Spain and Portugal consisting of wine, chopped fruit, and a swig of brandy.

Main dining hall

A smaller room.

Please visit their website at http://alba.com.ph/ or contact them at (63-2) 808 2326 or 808-8210. Alba is located at the 4th level of Prism Plaza, Two E-Com Building, Bayshore Avenue cornet Harbor Drive, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City.  

Prism Plaza at Two E-Com Building: Elegant, Modern-Day Beauty (MOA, Pasay City)

Prizm Plaza. That's how it's called owing to the elegant, ultra-modern design of the building called Two E-Com. The park itself is situated at the 4th level, a breathtaking sprawl boasting of ponds, cafes (there's Coffee Bean) and restaurants (there's Alba Spanish Restaurant). To its east is the boardwalk overlooking Manila Bay, and to its west is the glimpse of the rising landscape being continually developed at the Central Business Park Reclamation Area in Pasay City.

If you think it's unfamiliar territory, you'd be very wrong. The building is still part of the Mall of Asia (MOA) complex. On a clear day while waiting for the setting of the sun, everything looked radiantly golden. You wouldn't want to miss this serene enclave of geometric designs and glass panels admixed with blue skies and reflections from the pond found at the center of the park. Forms come into place.

This is the Eye in the Sky!

Manila Bay bracing for the sunset.

Prismatic design

Two E-Com Building's Prism Plaza. This photo only courtesy of sm-land.com. 

Two E-Com Building. This photo only courtesy of Wikipedia.