S Kitchen by Sheraton Hotel in Newport City

Sheraton Hotel has been gearing up to open its doors this 2018, and 'staycationers' are all getting fidgety to try the amenities and the rooms. For us foodies, this means one thing, buffet. Sheraton’s in-house restaurant goes by the name S Kitchen, and as of the moment, only those with vouchers are entitled to enjoy buffet lunch or dinner here in the restaurant. Luckily, we got hold of those passes, and we were able to experience dining here just before it opens up to the general public.

It’s important to note that S Kitchen is still at its ‘soft opening’ wherein they are still working on the selection and perhaps even the ambiance. Anyway, let’s take a look at what we have here in the restaurant so far.


Upon entry, you’ll immediately come across the desserts section. Perhaps they want something sweet to greet you, but within the spread (at the opposite side), you’ll find the cheese and bread section which is typically the section where I pick out my first dishes. Hence, ironically, we started where we would end.

By the way, I’ve noticed that the entire interior is dimly lit to a point where it looks almost “eerie”. I'm not sure whether it's intentional but I hope they can improve the lights and turn the dimness into something cozy and classy by the time they officially launch.


There are 4 kinds of cheese served that night, and three of which I adored so much. They had Queso Rustico, Local Davao Bleu Cheese, Mancheso and Comte Cheese. I skipped the bread because I don’t like to put on excessive carbs, and of course to make room for more interesting dishes.


The Salad Station has enough variety to spice up your healthy starter, and there are normally four sauces available - Thousand Island, Ranch Dressing, Balsamic Vinaigrette and Caesar Dressing.


Beside the salad station, you'll find the dried meat and other appetizers such as the smoked salmon, and ceviche. You'll also find in the corner the classics -- sushi, maki and sashimi!


The appetizers/starters basically end here, and we shall now proceed with the main dishes starting off with the carving station.


The carving station feature one variant which is the Australian Beef. I didn't look for anything else because I had 2 ways of enjoying this. First was having it served as is (i.e. medium-rare). Then, I asked for another serving but this time, I had it seared for a well-done finish. The beef was amazing! It was tender and the juice (containing richly spiced taste) kept squeezing out in each bite.


A need to improve speed of service
Another thing that S Kitchen needs to work on before it officially launch is its speed. I handed the steak for searing, and it took about 20 minutes before it was served. I guess they are still still in the process of adjusting with the magnitude of requests.


Pasta was another thing, and I think this is linked up with the "adjusting stage". The red sauce pasta my brother asked for came within a reasonable 10-minute wait. However, the Carbonara mom asked for came probably 30 minutes after while we were already having desserts. The frustration (and also the sweetness of the desserts) probably distorted our buds for the pasta because it came all salty. Needless to say, it was a disappointment.


'It was apparently Seafood Night'
It was during the latter part of the evening when we found out that they were holding a themed buffet for the evening. I guess it wasn't that "felt", since everything seemed quite normal. In fact, none of us noticed that S Kitchen was having a "Seafood Night". It was only when my brother overheard that indeed it was.


Somehow, I understand the situation because they are still on their 'soft opening', and probably they have a lot of thing they will polish before the grand launch.


Luckily, the seafood dishes were all amazing with freshness evident in their taste. They also had lobsters which really helped pull up the dampening mood.


The drill is similar to other buffet restaurants wherein you'll pick out the seafood you'd want to have, and then ask the chefs to cook them in a way you fancy. However, S Kitchen really needs to keep up with the orders to improve the speed.

Anyway, for our seafood we just had them cooked over garlic and butter.


Since it's seafood night, there are other dishes spread across the area such as the Sweet and Spicy Seafood found in the Chinese Cuisine section of the buffet. I highly suggest that you maximize this, since there's practically no wait time for you to enjoy this.


For the night, they also had this huge pan containing the seafood paella. It was really great, and reminded me of Gumbo's Seafood Jambalaya. I usually avoid rice during buffets, but I really couldn't miss this one out. I even had two servings of this, just because I really enjoyed how "infused" the rich seafood freshness was in the rice.


There are other dishes that I was not able to get photos of, but the ones I included here in this blog represent about 75% of all the main dishes available during the night. Anyway, now that we're done with main selections, let's proceed with the desserts.


There was some form of variety (although not too wide) when it comes to the desserts here in S Kitchen. They have Filipino desserts such as the kakanin, and they also have halo-halo here.


They also serve traditional desserts and they have milk and chocolate fondue.


The flavors of ice cream here in S Kitchen will also stir curiosity. They have Kare-Kare ice cream and Jasmine Tea ice cream.


If you want a semi-non-traditional dessert, you can have the teppan "fried" ice cream. The flavor I had was green tea.  Aside from this, they also serve crepes, so you really have sufficient options here in S Kitchen.


Now, for the last dessert, I want to highlight this lava cake. They have two versions of this. One is gooey and the other one a little more baked. Of course, I highly suggest that you try the gooey one. However, if you are not comfortable with the texture, you may want to mix up some of the more baked version.


The cake itself had balanced sweetness and chocolate goodness, but should you wish to have it even more sweetened, you have 3 options: confectionery sugar, honey or vanilla.

Thanks to this dessert, our dining experience ended up really nice and sweet, and that basically wraps up our evening here in S Kitchen.


S Kitchen - In a Nutshell

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Note: Unshaded stars are equivalents of half-stars. The ratings apply solely to this dining experience.
Place ★★★
Taste ★★★☆
Variety ★★★★
Service ★★★★
Budget: (for update)
No. of visits for this particular restaurant/branch - 1 || Date of last visit - October 13, 2018

S Kitchen shows potential in becoming a foodie destination, but it needs to iron up the quirks such as the speed in service and dullness in ambiance. Once it officially launches, I'll drop a visit and re-evaluate once again. For now, should you end up redeeming a voucher for S Kitchen, I suggest that you try the Australian beef, the lobster and the lava cake.

I'd be happy to know your insights as well, so please comment below and share your thoughts.

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S Kitchen by Sheraton Hotel
Location: 80 Andrews Ave, Pasay, 1309 Metro Manila
Contact No.: (02) 902 1800


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