It’s hard to miss The Heritage Hotel Manila’s iconic façade. When I used to frequent Las Piñas, I usually pass it en route to the city right before the Baclaran Church. When going to the airport, I can’t help but notice its windowed rooms facing Manila Bay, making me wonder what its interiors looks like. And last month, after an invite to try their monthly buffet specials, I finally did.

PLUSH LOBBY

Located at the corner of EDSA and Roxas Boulevard, The Heritage Hotel Manila stands proud along Pasay’s skyline. The four-star hotel opened its doors to guests in 1994 and has 450 well-appointed rooms with balconies angled towards the Manila Bay. Outside, its architecture is modernist, but once you enter its airy lobby, it transforms into a much more classical look.

I don’t like sweet things but sometimes I just have to give in, especially if everyone in your group wants to have desserts right after meals. And so it went that after our fantastic Asian lunch at the Mian Restaurant in Marriott Manila, we—or should I say—my companions hurriedly trotted to the nearby Crema café right at the lobby of the same building. I slowly followed, nursing my still full tummy.

THE PERFECT PLACE TO LOUNGE ABOUT, PREFERABLY WITH A GOOD BOOK

CREMA’S SWANKY INTERIORS

Crema opened last 2014 and is located on the ground floor left wing of Marriott’s Grand Ballroom. The place opens right up to the lobby and is tastefully furnished with comfortable loungers, chairs, and low tables. We decided to seat ourselves on the less formal built-in couch lining the windows overlooking the streets of Resorts World Manila.

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Two rice bowls, a couple of noodles, some soups, plates of appetizers, desserts, and drinks; a food feast more than good enough for eight persons. We were at Mian, one of Marriott Grand Ballroom’s in-house restaurants (a hop away from Marriott Hotel Manila) and we were only four in the group. How we’re gonna finish everything off boggles the mind.

MIAN ASIAN RESTAURANT AT THE GROUND FLOOR OF MARRIOTT GRAND BALLROOM

WATCHING THE ACTION AT MIAN’S OPEN KITCHEN

The restaurant is located at the ground floor of the ballroom, just right off the lobby. They serve mostly Asian dishes set on a modern interior setting. From where we were sitting, an airy open niche beset by bamboo enclosure, we can see the staff preparing our meal on the open kitchen.

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After killing time at Marriott Manila’s Executive Lounge, we sauntered to the hotel’s in house restaurant for dinner. Dressed in our finest—we would be attending a musical later at the nearby Newport Theater—we sat on one corner of Marriott Café and surveyed supper; we were indeed ready (and dressed the part) to eat.

MARRIOTT CAFE LOBBY

Marriott Café became our go-to place when our stomach dragons beseech us during our two-day stay at Marriott Manila. We ate here twice, during our first night’s dinner and for the next day’s complimentary breakfast buffet.

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It was quite a night. Seven o’clock found us dining at the Marriott Café buffet. By eight we were running towards Newport Theater to catch the Bituing Walang Ningning musical. By midnight we were belting songs at a KTV somewhere in Pasay City. It was almost six in the morning when the night ended. We walked back to the lobby of Marriott Hotel Manila, heads spinning, finally ready for some shut eye.

MARRIOTT MANILA’S LOUNGE AREA

THE HOTEL’S PLUSH LOBBY AND RECEIVING AREA

Our day didn’t start out so hectic. We checked in at Hotel Marriott Manila at around lunchtime. We were told that check-in time was still at three, but we took the chance since we were already in the area anyways. The receptionist we talked with was quite accommodating—he let us check in ahead of time.

So up we went to our rooms, hopelessly fumbling with the electronic key cards at the elevator.

You can’t believe how happy we were when we finally found a restaurant serving mee goreng in Metro Manila. It has been more than a year since we first tasted the said noodle dish in Jalan Alor Food Street, a street food mecca in Kuala Lumpur, and we were instantly hooked.

MARTABAK CAFE AT MOA (MALL OF ASIA)

We tried various substitute, even finding instant mee goreng noodles in groceries, but it simply wasn’t like the ones we tried at KL. And so it was that one happy weekend, we finally found a restaurant at the Mall of Asia serving our favorite Malaysian noodles, Martabak Café.

Named after a popular Indonesian street food, martabak is a pancake stuffed with eggs and meat. Unfortunately, we were too excited to find that they have mee goreng on their menu that we totally forgot to try that.

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Dirty swords swing and steel clashes with steel. C and I were running through the first season of Game of Thrones—years late in catching up with this crazy medieval series from HBO when my phone rang. “Wanna tag along at Networld Hotel for a staycation?” Came the voice from the other end of the line. “When?” I asked. “Today,” he replied.

I packed up my iPod, my laptop, a couple of boxers and shirts and was off in a jiffy. I’m gonna finish the rest of the GOT episodes in the luxury of a soft hotel bed.

VIEW FROM OUR ROOM

Networld Hotel Manila is located right at the corner of Buendia and Roxas Boulevard. Getting there was a breeze. An LRT ride and a quick hop in a jeepney and we’re there. As we entered the lobby, I immediately noticed that the hotel caters mostly to Japanese tourists. Magazines and signs in Katakana are scattered around the place and smoking is allowed inside the building.

GLITZY KIND OF HOTEL

The hotel is as old-school as a hotel gets. It’s all glitz and glamour here. Plush sofas, heavy drapes, crystal chandeliers, and gold-plated surfaces everywhere. I’m really not used to this kind of opulence, my taste usually running along the bare-white modernism that’s everywhere these days. But yeah, it’s not hard to get used to this.

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OUR CORNER ROOM

We were led to the seventh floor where our room is located. Our jaw dropped as our door opened. We have a corner room, ladies and gentlemen! And yes, we do have a curving panoramic view of Manila Bay from our beds. Wow. Simply wow.

►NEAR HERE: MANILA OCEAN PARK

NO FREE WINE, LOL

The Royal Room, our room is called. Its beds are soft, there’s complimentary water, coffee, tea—the usual works. There’s champagne on the table but we were told it’s not free. But no worries, the free Wi-Fi more than made up for that. I set up my laptop and immediately began searching for the second season of Games of Thrones. Amazing download speed, I tell you!

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VERY OLD-SCHOOL TOILET AND BATH

I hooked up my laptop to the 32” flatscreen, opened a bag of chips and resumed the sixth episode of the series. After some mighty twist and turns in the story, I paused to take a CR break. Lo and behold, we have a bathtub in the house! Although I doubt if we’ll have time to really use it. If only they have a TV set right in the bathroom, haha.

AND A VERY OLD-SCHOOL BEDROOM

The room started to glow orange from Manila Bay’s setting sun as the phone rang. It was dinner time. We were told we’d have Japanese tonight and we didn’t have to go anywhere. Networld Hotel’s own Kaishu Restaurant is just an elevator ride away.

KAISHU RESTAURANT

And so, there we were, four hungry staycationeers led by kimono-dressed ladies into a traditional Japanese dining room. It reminded me so much of my first dinner in Tokyo at Sakura Jaya some years back, sans the tatami mats and Geisha face paint on the ladies.

A JAPANESE FEAST

We were given free reign on what to order and order we did. Varieties of ramen, gyoza, sushi, tonkatsu, tempura, bento boxes and everything else we can think of flooded our table. It was a proper Japanese feast, if I ever saw one.

RAMUNE OR, JAPANESE SPRITE, LOL

For drinks, a bottle of hot sake (₱200.00) was served along with Ramune (₱150.00). “What’s Ramune?” We asked one of the chirpy ladies in kimono. It’s like the Japanese version of Sprite, but taste more like lychee, she says. Alright we’d all like to have a taste of that Japanese Sprite.

STAMINA RAMEN

Everything’s good, but I especially loved the stamina ramen (₱320.00) I ordered. I honestly have no fascination over ramen, never even tasting one while in Tokyo, but this one’s really good! It went especially well with the gyoza (₱190.00). I also love the chicken they serve with the tonkatsu set (which was huge), very tender and flavorful.

After finishing everything up, we ordered cans of Sapporo beer (₱250.00) and transferred to their videoke room. Videoke on a Japanese restaurant? Well, it is a Japanese invention after all, right?

SM KENKO SPA

To cap the night off, we all went to Networld Hotel’s spa services. Dubbed as SM Kenko Spa it’s a Japanese-inspired spa facility complete with hydrojet massage, dry sauna, and steam rooms. I passed off on the sauna and headed straight to the massage area for an hour of Swedish massage and foot spa.

LE AMORETTO CAFE AND BAR

The next morning found us at the Le Amoretto café and bar for breakfast. Located on the second floor of Networld Hotel, they serve (as you guessed it) Japanese breakfast buffet. Yakisoba, pink salmons, korokke (breaded potatoes), yakitori (barbecued chicken), and veggies litter the spread. They have an egg station but it’s too bad they don’t served tamagoyaki (rolled egg).

STAYCATION AT NETWORLD HOTEL

The rest of the day was spent in bed. More chips in hand and swords clanging from the flatscreen. We’re almost at the end of Game of Thrones first season. The only thing I can ask for really, is that Networld Hotel extend our stay some hours more. I want to have a crack at the second season, in style.

 

 

Networld Hotel and Spa ►ROOM RATES
Address: Jipang Building, Roxas Blvd. cor. Sen. Gil Puyat Ave. Pasay City, Metro Manila
Contact Number: +63 (2) 536-7777 | +63 (2) 536-5828
Email: reservation@networldhotel-manila.com
GPS Coordinates Map: 14.552987,120.9897

The usual restaurant haunt for birthdays and special events in our family is at Dampa MOA (Mall of Asia). Here, seafood dishes are so affordable, it’s almost like a buffet for the whole family clan. With a slew of birthdays for the month of September, the gang decided to once again head to the Mall of Asia for a seafood fest at Aling Tonya’s Dampa.

After braving the strong rain, lo and behold, all the the Dampa stalls in MOA were closed. Not because of the bad weather or the lateness of the hour, but they’re simply closed. Everything’s boarded up—no notice, no nothing.

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