Come noontime and dinner hours, a beachfront restaurant in Station 2 of White Beach, Boracay, gets filled up fast with a hungry crowd. Tourists–mostly Koreans–come in big groups at Sea Breeze Cafe, the signature all day buffet restaurant of Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Spa. Evenings receive extra attention from both diners and passers-by, though, because twice every night, Sea Breeze Cafe showcases the dancing skills of their chefs and crew.
Sea Breeze Cafe unveiled its new look and menu year end of 2014; compared to its old space, it is now bigger, and can seat over 300 diners combined in its different areas — main dining space, indoor, by the swimming pool, and beachfront. It has bragging rights of being the most extensive buffet selection in the island. For Manila buffet veterans, this news might not particulalry excite you — we're spoilt for choice in the city. But long waiting lines and fully booked evenings are proof that Sea Breeze does impress the hungry beachcombers of Boracay.
For one summer weekend, we were able to experience Boracay's biggest buffet for lunch and dinner, and discover the favorite stations and food offerings of the hungry diners. As is the gastronomical norm of buffets — arrive prepared, and very hungry, to maximize the all you can eat feast.
Live Cooking Stations
Not only is Sea Breeze Cafe the largest eat all you can restaurant in the island–their rates per head are reasonable, too. Buffet is offered for Breakfast (P400++), Lunch (P450++), and Dinner (P620++), and for returning diners, it's good to note that the food selection rotates and changes daily. The best feature of their buffet are the live cooking stations — food served hot off the grill or off the pans, and prepared just the way you like it. Each day has a live cooking station highlight: there's Asian Stir Fry Mondays, Salpicao and Salpicado Tuesdays, Moki-Moki (Hawaiian) Wednesdays, Grilled Fish Thursdays, Sambal (Hot Chillie) Fridays, Savory Sizzling Sisig Saturdays, and Pasta Frego Sundays .
Everyone has their personal attack plan when attempting to conquer buffets, and mine is to load up on seafood and meats in most cases. Also, I let go of extra servings of rice, and replace it with another carb content — dessert (the desire to please my sweet tooth is always strong). We experienced the buffet on a weekend, and enjoyed making our own sambal-loaded dishes, sisig, and the stir-fry station was open, allowing us to create our own stir-fry noodles. It was the first time I was able to make (and eat) a spicy beef and pork sisig topped with corn, served on a sizzling plate with an egg. Paired with skewered meats from the grilling station and a nice view of the beach, it was a delicious treat.
Make your own Asian stir-fry noodles
I reserved most of my appetite also for the meat carving station, where roast pork and chuck eye steak sat luscious and juicy for everyone's picking. They have the requisites of soups, breads, a salad station and a bounty of appetizers in bite-size portions, also more main course options like pastas and noodles and Asian and American dishes — the food choices are plenty, but my food space limited. For dessert, more Filipino fare is showcased, which foreign guests gravitated toward, most especially the halo-halo station (perfect companion for beach weather). I appreciated the many ube selections of Sea Breeze Cafe since I like ube, and enjoyed extra helpings of their ube lumpia drizzled with chocolate sauce. During our last evening at the beach, we discovered these delicious oatmeal bars at the dessert section. They were so pleasingly soft, sweet, and chewy that we were wondering if we can order it by the dozen or in a box to bring home as pasalubong.
Dancing Chefs and Live Entertainment
Not only is Sea Breeze Cafe popular for its extensive food selection, they're a hit with evening guests for their fun live entertainment–the Dancing Chefs. This special entertainment happens two times every night: one at 8pm and another one at around 9:30pm, the second set a little longer than the first.
The cooks, along with some of the servers and other crew, really know how to get the crowd's attention. They perform just by the entrance of the restaurant, right where passers by walk to and fro, and once they begin their dance medley of Korean songs, it was so much fun to see all tourists both local and foreign–especially Koreans–start whipping out their phones and cameras. Some onlookers begin to dance along, some sing along.
Guests are invited to take photos with the dancing chefs, and they're given chef toques to wear during the photo-ops. In between the two sets of Dancing Chefs, a live band also performs at Sea Breeze Cafe, holding a mini concert of sorts with a handful of singers belting out pop tunes to keep diners entertained. It's nice to find a place in Boracay where you can arrive hungry, eat all you can, and leave with a happy belly and a happy smile from all the cheeky dancing fun.
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Sea Breeze Cafe is located at the beachfront area of Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Spa in Station 2, White Beach, Boracay. Boracay Regency Beach Resort will be rebranded soon as Boracay Henann Regency. The Hennan Group of Resorts manages the said resort, and two more luxury establishments in Boracay — Henann Lagoon Resort and Henann Garden Resort. For inquiries and reservations, call Sea Breeze Cafe at (36) 288-6111to 17, email rsvn@boracayregency.com or visit websites www.boracayregency.com and www.henann.com
