Vikings grows up

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WITH AGE comes experience, and so after 13 years of the Vikings buffet restaurants, the Vikings Group opens a new experience called Nyx.

Named after the Greek goddess of the night, the One Ayala restaurant is appropriately sumptuous. On its Feb. 3 preview for its Feb. 4 opening, we saw silver chain mail hanging from the ceiling, stone floors, comfortable private rooms, mood lighting, a lounge singer, free-flowing wine, and, of course, an all-you-can-eat buffet. All of this is in a space of almost 2,000 square meters. which seats 450 people.

It’s a little bit different from other outlets of the Vikings Group (such as its other buffet concepts: Vikings, the slightly upscale Niu, and the more budget-friendly The Alley). Instead of piling on your food on plates like there’s no tomorrow, one heads to a station and points at one’s choice, which they then place in tiny plates and bites reminiscent of degustation offerings. You can either wait for them to finish plating up, or drop off your orders and wait for them at your table.

FIRST DAY JITTERS?
Therein lies the growing pains in this specific new growth: during our experience, it felt like we had to wait forever for our plates to come, and a few sprinklings of flowers and smears of sauce weren’t going to make up for it. That, and we’d finish our bite in seconds, making us wait several minutes more for our next bite.

We were offered their best: foie gras, pasta with scallops and a sprinkling of caviar, and Beef Wellington, among other treats. We clock this up to a career of good meals, but some of the other guests at our table left their offerings untouched: one complained that their free-flowing wine was not at the right temperature; another complained that his Beef Wellington had bacon instead of prosciutto (or some such complaint). Another left behind her bite of foie gras because it wasn’t seared enough. We tried our best not to voice the same complaints (saving that for the time difference between bites), but we will say that we found some of the sashimi a bit too chewy, and our lobster tasting a bit muddy. We suppose if you’re paying more than P3,000 for a meal, not to mention knowing the amount of experience of our hosts, expectations would be very high.

We did like the Italian station (spooning oxtail ravioli with the rich broth didn’t take that long), the noodle station (the duck noodles were excellent), and the carving station (our lamb and our steak were great, if a little bit thin, but we’re docking points for the horseradish sauce which lacked a kick). We give plus points for having food not normally found at buffets (who has the time to fold all that ravioli?). We offer them the grace of first-day jitters, and, well, years of experience backing up the other guests tasting their offerings.

Besides, Charles Lee — second generation of the restaurateur family and independent director of the Vikings Group — acknowledges these growing pains, and promises to make it better for the public. “We have noticed it. We just opened, so we’re sort of in a soft opening stage,” he told ����ý in an interview. “We will fix it. We will add manpower if we have to; we will work on the system. We will change what we have to change. ’Di namin titipirin ’yon (we won’t skimp on that).”

The plan was to change the idea of a buffet from a place to get full into a true experience. “Buffets have been the same for many years,” he said. “What we’re trying to do here is changing the experience.

“We’re trying to make a hybrid between fine dining and buffets,” he said. “We want people to stay as long as possible here… eat as much as you want; drink as much as you can.”

In exploring this new direction, he takes off from changes they’ve seen in what diners want. “We’ve seen how they have been hungry for new things. Not just new flavors and new tastes, but newer experiences.”

THE BUFFET MODEL
When they first opened 13 years ago, they hit a winning formula with Vikings, enabling them to open the buffet restaurants across the nation. Now, they have about 20 eateries under their name, and a lot of them have unlimited dining offers. All of the restaurants are branded with the Vikings name, of course, but then they also have Taishu Yakiniku, Sam Stew, and Tong Yang (acquired from previous owners), among others. “People in the Philippines are always about value,” said Mr. Lee, who noted that unlimited deals are popular here because Filipinos will always try to maximize that value. “If the value is there, and they see they can maximize it, game.”

They’re still playing in the fine dining and a la carte game though: found in Viking’s roster is Lore, in partnership with celebrity chef Myke “Tatung” Sarthou, and Putien, a franchise from Singapore, among others. Recently, they have opened two new franchise: Ikoka Yakitori and Ramen Ibuki, both in BGC, both from Japan. The plan is to open a total of five (that makes three more) Japanese concepts, some of them with Michelin Bib Gourmand recognitions in their home country (such as Ikoka).

Mr. Lee talked about the differences between the challenges of running a buffet and a la carte dining. In a la carte dining, the volumes are lower, in terms of people and inventory. “What’s challenging is you’re limited to the menu and the cuisine that you’re given. If people don’t like it, then that’s it.

“Buffet, at the end of the day, will always be very challenging because of the sheer value of people.” That’s customers and manpower both, but another challenge he cites is always having to know what the diner wants. “How do we know that people like the food that’s being served in the entire line? You need to manage that. If you don’t manage that, you’re going to have so much wastage.” — Joseph L. Garcia