Birthday Lunch at Vikings - A Feast from the Sea

I got wind of Vikings' birthday promo via a social networking site. Their rules are pretty simple: you dine there on the day of your birthday accompanied by a full paying adult, present a government-issued ID indicating your date of birth, and you get to eat for free! Neat, eh?

So last month on hubby's birthday, we trooped to their MOA branch for lunch (we made reservations a week earlier) and dived into what Vikings had to offer. I guess I was a bit overwhelmed by the buffet spread (ok, I was starving, too!) that I just got whatever looked good to me. By the time I spotted the fresh seafood at the grilling station, the pasta section, and the oyster rockefeller and array of dimsum at the Asian section, I was already too full to even take another sip of juice. I promised myself that next time would be different.

February came around, and as planned, off to Vikings went our little family of three. After being shown to our table, hubby went off to take photos of the food while the little boss and I went around hunting for goodies.

First stop: Grilling Section. We selected an assortment of fish for Nathan as he isn't too fond of meat and added a couple of squid to be grilled. They had shrimps but it was brought out later, while crabs, we learned, are served during dinner and weekends. As I am allergic to crabs, it was not really a big deal, though hubby would have liked to try some. We settled for a good serving of freshly cooked shrimp tempura which was just being brought out beside the Grilling section.

Next: Carving Section, which is adjacent to the Grilling Section. Got some beef tenderloin, US top blade and crispy baked pork belly. Hubby also got some leg of lamb, which I tasted since I never had lamb before. It was ok, but I still prefer my steaks. Their beef tenderloin was so tender and flavorful that it doesn't really need any sauce. The top blade was good, too, but not as good as the tenderloin, while the pork belly tasted pretty much like lechon. They also had a lot of meat on skewers, including sausages and what looked like gizzards, but we skipped that.

Some of the goodies we had that day :)

As we passed by the appetizer section, the little boss started reaching for nachos. I got some of that and added some cheese, canapes, little ham sandwiches, and shrimp in a little red cup called ceviche. Also got a small serving of their pumpkin soup which Nathan and I shared. It was good, but the wild mushroom soup they had during our first visit tasted much better, at least to me.

No tummy space left for the yummy-looking bread and salad

At the Asian section, we got some oysters and hubby's plate of sushi. I never had oysters before simply because they, uh, look slimey to me. The ones at Vikings have cheese on top, just like baked mussels. Well, here goes... Hmmm... not bad. It was actually good. But as I was trying it for the first time and I just found out the hard way that I'm allergic to white clams, I decided not to overdo it and settled for just a couple. I was so intent on finding new things to try that I totally forgot one of our dimsum staples: the hakao. And they were really good! Tsk!

I was eyeing the pomelo and waldorf salads, but decided that if I want dessert, I'd have to skip them. So it was off to the dessert section for me and little boss. We peeked at the chiller and was a bit disappointed that there was no chocolate mouse that day. So we got a mango crepe with ice cream, cappuccino panna cotta, and an assortment of cakes. Then we went back for more ice cream (it was yummy and not too sweet!), some gummy candies, and another mango crepe. And since there are no photos to show just how much dessert we had, the calories in them don't count, haha!

Last time, they had prepared crepes in a covered dish which you can fill with your choice of filling. This time, a crew was assigned to the area so that each crepe was made as soon as you order one. We skipped the chocolate fountain as we weren't too impressed with it the last time. The chocolate was much too thin and runny, and tasted more sugary than chocolatey. It also looked like Vikings will be adding puto bumbong and bibingka to the native dessert line-up, since equipment for making them are already set up beside the crepe station, although at the time of our visit, they weren't in use yet.

While waiting in line to get some coffee (they only have 2 machines and the one I went to was sooooo slow!), I saw the frozen yogurt machine and thought, why not? Brought some back to our table and shared it with Nathan. Also beside it was a bartender preparing the shake of the day, cucumber with mint. However, I'm no fan of cucumber so I stuck with my ever-dependable dalandan juice while hubby alternated between that and the flavored iced tea, which happened to be his current favorite, Twining's passion fruit, mango and orange. There was also a soda machine dispensing 2 kinds of flavored lemonade (strawberry and blueberry, I think), sago at gulaman, and even draft beer (strictly for 18 and above only says the sign). Wine, on the other hand, is charged separately.

Of course, I got a birthday cake and a birthday song from Vikings' friendly crew :)

It was indeed a very nice birthday lunch. I got a free birthday treat, was able to try at least a couple of new things, and had two of my favorite boys with me. What more could a girl ask for? :)

Photos by Myk Esguerra