This Unique Adobo Buffet Will Surprise You With its Inventive, Dramatic Flavors

The Adobo Nation Food Festival at Holiday Inn Makati does not serve the kind of adobo your lola cooks at home. The 30 dishes served on rotation at the lunch and dinner buffets are culinary masterpieces that are upscale, creative, almost subversive in their treatment of this all-too-common Filipino dish.  

Here are three fun facts about adobo. One, adobo is not an actual dish but a way of cooking, which explains why there are so many variations of adobo. Two, the word has foreign antecedents, and can be traced to the French adouber  (quaintly, "to dress a knight in armor”) and the Spanish adobo, a pickling sauce of olive, oil, vinegar and spices.

Three, in spite of its foreign etymology, adobo is a quintessential part of Filipino cuisine and is enjoyed in all its many variations all over the country. 

Let's add this fourth fun fact: Adobo Nation, a food festival celebrating unique, inventive ways of cooking adobo, is extended until November 15 at Flavors, the buffet restaurant at Holiday Inn & Suites, Makati. Available for lunch and dinner, the menu was created in collaboration with popular Adobo Queen, Chef Nancy Reyes-Lumen, with her colleagues, chefs Jen Seranilla and Jaja Andal, who make up Team Adobo.

The inventive and creative buffet showcases a surprising range of flavors centered on sour, salty and sometimes also sweet. 

Rodrigo’s Roast is a whole slab of pork belly cooked adobo-style then baked, with a savory-sweet umami crust. Pianggang Adobo sa Palapa is a Mindanao dish of tuba-marinated chicken with burnt coconut adobo sauce. Tamales ala Adobo comes in a single serving of chicken adobo flakes on corn-rice, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. The spectacular Paella de Adobo is seafood adobo rice garnished with green beans, lemon slices, chilies and bell peppers. In addition to the mains, adobo also finds its way into salad dressings, pâté and dessert. In fact, we strongly recommend that you do not miss the adobo cheesecake.

“Adobo reflects the Filipino personality," says Chef Nancy. "The name ‘adobo’ may be borrowed, but the flavors, ingredients, and colors cover the foodscape of this country and is so much a part of our culture that we truly own it."

Flavors Restaurant has long prided itself in having one of the best buffet selections in Makati City, with a curated selection of Filipino, Southeast Asian, and Western dishes. To this spread, adobo is an inspired addition. 

“Adobo is such a big part of Filipino cuisine that we want our guests, especially those coming from abroad, to experience it, as well as how it translates to different dishes and not just the classic pork and chicken,” states Holiday Inn & Suites manager Andy Belmonte. “We hope they come to love adobo as much as we Filipinos do.”

Adobo Nation is available for lunch and dinner buffet at Flavors Restaurant, Holiday Inn & Suites, Makati