Staycation Files : Acaci in Acacia Hotel, Alabang

What's a great staycation without good food?

Actually,  whenever Paul and I are having a staycation we rarely leave the hotel and instead take the opportunity to check out the different food establishments available inside. During our stay at Acacia Hotel, they only had one F&B establishment called Acaci. This is apart from the lobby and the poolside that also serves drinks and some light snacks.

Delicious Salmon Gravlax at Acaci

Located at the mezzanine level of the hotel, I was impressed by the size of the restaurant. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be very big. However, the restaurant has a capacity of about 150 guests at the very least.

We had our dinner date at Acaci a few hours after checking in. Note that I just came from a full day cooking class where I've been inhaling butter, eggs and pasta for more than 5 hours and Paul and I even ate the three pasta dishes that I made. We just rested for about an hour and there we were seated at Acaci ready for our dinner buffet. Oh boy!

Here are the different sections available:
- Japanese : sushi, sashimi, kani salad
- Chinese : dimsum, noodle soup station
- Italian : pasta

- Cold Cuts and Appetizers : chilled seafood, different cold cuts and our favorite the salmon gravlax!
- Fresh Salad
- Breads and Cheese
- Main Dishes (a mix of different international dishes)

- Carving : that night they had lamb and roast beef

- Dessert

We started with the Japanese section as our table was strategically located right beside it. Paul and I filled our first plate with fresh salmon sashimi, kani salad and more veggie salad.


I later moved on to the cold cuts station where I happily enjoyed the salmon gravlax which they freshly slice out in front of you. I always have this with some capers, lemon and dill sauce. Yum!

Paul, on the other hand, moved on to fill his second plate with some blanched shrimps and marinara sauce. This is his buffet essential and he only considers a buffet good if they have this.

After the salmon gravlax, I quickly glanced over the cheese station but decided to skip this as all they had were hard cheeses. Where's my brie and camembert? :(

Given that, I had my last plate which was filled with a slice of roast beef, some more sushi and tempura.

We normally can eat way more than this but given that our tummies were already half-filled even before dinner began and we have a swim scheduled a few hours after that, it was then wise to just eat within our limits that evening.

I simply capped my meal off with a stick of marshmallow covered with chocolate sauce from the fondue. Delicioso!

The morning after

After our heavy dinner that evening followed by a quick night swim, you can just imagine how good our sleep was that night. Since swimming allowed us to burn off most of the calories that we took in the day before, we also woke up with growling tummies ready for a hearty breakfast ahead. So, off we went back to Acaci for our complimentary breakfast buffet. We arrived 30 minutes before breakfast ends and luckily, almost all stations were still complete with food.

I began my meal with a bowl of cereals as I didn't want to shock my tummy with the oily and meaty dishes first. Yep, as you can see, I take very good care of my tummy! My motto is: happy tummy, happy Frannywanny!

Paul continued to tease me of my "feeling healthy" phase as he zoomed straight towards the Pinoy breakfast station. He happily filled his plate with garlic rice, corned beef, sausages and tapa. He commented that the food was very good and he liked the tapa and sausages very much.

As soon as I finished my bowl of cereals, I took his lead and tried the bacon, sausages, corned beef, ham and some hash browns. I love love love hash browns and Acaci's version comes quite close to McDonald's.

They also have the same breads and cheese selection, the salmon gravlax also made a second appearance as well as the dessert choices. All these we skipped out on as we somehow felt that they were exactly the same ones as the night before. Also we were quite pleased with the ones that we had that morning.

Acaci has one of the lower hotel buffet rates in town, for only Php. 995 your meal comes with a complimentary drink (pandan juice or iced tea for dinner / fresh juices for breakfast). While I hope they can still add more to the selections, we were both happy with the two meals that we had at Acaci and would love to go back for more someday.

Visit Acaci at the Acacia Hotel -- 5400 East Asia Drive corner Commerce Avenue, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Muntinlupa City. Call them at 720-2000 for reservations.