MANILA, Philippines - Back when I was young, Sundays meant dressing in my best, keeping awake at church, and a reward of lunch at our favorite restaurant. You got to order drinks if you were good, dessert if you were extra exceptional. And, I thought, no matter how difficult or boring the following school week was going to be, there would always be Sunday brunch for consolation.
These days, I’d rather sleep through Sundays. That was until I went to Spectrum’s Awesome Sunday Buffet.
“The decision makers now are actually children,” says Fairmont Makati’s director of communications Monique Toda. “So, for Sundays, Spectrum is for children.”
She need not really stress the point. There were kids all over Spectrum’s sorbetes section, lined up for crispy suckling pork skin, or fishing for sushi. The reason for the juvenile takeover is the hotel restaurant’s second partnership with Danish toymaker Lego. And it has been drumming up excitement not only for the buffet, which is scrumptious, but also for the Lego village built after world-famous landmarks.
“It appeals to kids. It appeals to adults,” Toda says about the universal appeal of Lego. “They’ve been here for a long time, and they’ve always reinvented themselves. They never get passé. They’re timeless.”
I used to obsess over Lego when I was a kid, to the point of saving my lunch money for a box set every week. Thinking of that made me go heavy on the cold cuts, the cheese, and some of that Raffles honey I piled on my plate. That, however, may come back to haunt me to visit the gym.
“Apparently, Lego recently had an exhibit that focused on Philippine themes,” Monique says. “So I said, what better theme than to put a Filipino twist or to focus on Filipino pride in our food than with Lego, an international brand?”
While this buffet hits two birds with one stone — the adults with the good food and the young ones with the colorful building blocks —who says you can’t opt for both? Before dashed to the fresh oysters and prawns, I had to get a feel of the lifelike Rizal memorial marker at the center of the dining hall.
My lunch date, Monique Toda, however, did not raise an eyebrow. “Aside from eating the food, you get to see all these quirky, interesting creations by the Lego master builders. At the same time, you have your usual brunch, with the international food,” she enthuses, pointing me in the direction of the paella. I had to oblige, although I had my eye on the Lego Star Wars box set they were selling on the opposite side.
Toda says the idea came up because “collaborations with strong brands that complement our brand are the perfect fit. We rely on each other’s strength of brand, and we get to tap a larger audience. I was on a plane on the way back to Manila when I saw the Lego Movie onboard. That was the eureka moment!”
Raffles and Fairmont are no strangers to collaboration, having worked with Rustan’s for its annual Fashion Festival and National Book Store for its Philippine Literary Festival.
“There’s so much noise in the space that you really need to carve yourself out as something different, innovative, offering a new experience.”
Speaking of carving, I had to excuse myself so I could go to the carving station for a slice or two of turkey. Maybe I skipped the lechon while I was there, or maybe I didn’t.
“Of course, you still get the whole spectrum of food, the Japanese, Middle Eastern, and the Spanish. And you can still have your Champagne on top of this,” Toda reminds me. Indeed, before this, Spectrum had a successful Champagne brunch with Maison Veuve Clicquot, which is on the sidelines for now.
“We appreciate Filipino food, and we present it in a creative way. You see our foreign guests looking at the Lego displays and at the dessert station being explained by our pastry chefs about sapin-sapin topped with Belgian chocolate. It’s a very sophisticated twist on the desserts we grew up with.”
With burong mangga macarons, quezo de bola cheesecake, Don Papa rum cake, chocolate-dipped chicharon, halo-halo trifle, and Antonio Luna lollipops, the dessert spread at Spectrum’s Awesome Lego Sunday Lunch may sound revolutionary, even irreverent, but a spoonful or a stack of their sweets is enough to remind you of how good it tastes to be Filipino. “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” may be a phrase used loosely now, but I find that with what Spectrum managed to whip up for brunch, it certainly is more fun in their part of the buffet.
“Everybody offers a Sunday brunch, but you have to offer a different experience. It’s still a family day, and we want it to be enjoyable for both the children and their parents,” Toda says.
At the end of the day, that’s exactly what they’re serving. The nostalgic spectacle of well-built Lego monuments or the quirky, one-off desserts can stir up diner curiosity, but what will make families linger and indulge is still Spectrum’s fine quality and richly diverse food. That, for me, is still the heart of Sunday lunch.
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The Awesome Lego Sunday Lunch Buffet at Spectrum Fairmont Makati is ongoing until Nov. 29. Kids below six dine for free.