Pigging out at Niu by Vikings

I am not so much a fan of buffet restaurants because I felt I can't eat as much as the next buffet athlete. However, Kay, Anna's classmate in nursing school, wanted to try Niu by Vikings. It is a buffet restaurant at SM Aura (Bonifacio Global City). Niu is reminiscent of the buffet restos I've eaten at in Las Vegas: the lighting, the fixtures, and the tables and chairs all felt luxurious and expensive. Frankly, this has got to be the prettiest restaurant I've been to in Metro Manila where people sit down to pig out.

And pig out we definitely did. There were a lot of options. Clueless with where I should start, I opted to get food from the rear end of the resto, slowly moving forward towards the desserts station. Hence, I began my eating adventure with meats and pasta. Then I moved slowly but surely through the pan-Asian cuisine and the western cuisine. I decided to avoid the Japanese section because the sushi rolls with tuna and with salmon appeared to have been switched (salmon was on the plate with tuna on the label and vice versa). Since I didn't want to risk having an allergy attack in the middle of a great meal, I thought that leaving these out was the best move. Instead of the sushi rolls, I opted for baked oysters and mussels (which are just about the only seafood I could eat). The highlight of the meal, aesthetically, has got to be the desserts. I had ice cream and then different types of cakes. Yum!

As we wound down our meals, Kaye whipped out a checklist of food she had to try in Niu. She was quite upset that the ice cream flavour she wanted to taste wasn't available and a certain dish didn't come up to par. For me, though, I found the food to be okay. It was great to have a lot of options but my senses were getting confused by the eclectic nature of my dinner. I think my brain's been so used to having unified meal themes and this meal just didn't.

If there's something I would change in the resto so I could enjoy the full experience: ensure that there's no cross contamination of ingredients that have allergy potential. I would love to enjoy the Japanese fare but I couldn't.

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