Looking for a cheap but good buffet restaurant in Manila? There’s no doubt about it – Tramway Bayview Buffet just might end your long search. Tramway reigns king when it comes to presentable, super affordable buffet-style Chinese, Japanese and Filipino food choices in the city.
Last Thursday, my mom who’s a sucker for all-you-can-eat buffets was craving to dine in at Tramway’s branch along Roxas Boulevard since she was too tired (and dramatically “lonely”) to cook. So we slipped into the venue at about 8:30PM just in time.
Review of Tramway Bayview Buffet (Pasay City)
Ambiance: ★★★☆☆
With so many great restaurants in Pasay City saturating the foodie market, this buffet restaurant may be easy to overlook – unless of course, you’re one of those working or residing in one of the establishments and office buildings nearby.
Tramway’s interior design is quite simple. All the chairs and red linen-topped tables are placed on the rectangular area without divisions. So this place is not a pretty good one to chair and hold private meetings. Also, because of the loud/noisy RnB music playing on the background, you could hardly hear anyone unless you opt to go to their function rooms, or wait until one song is finally over.
Rates of function rooms are as follows:
Restaurant Exclusive (good for 950-1050pax)
4 Open Dining Exclusive (good for 350-850 pax)
4 Big Function Rooms (good for 100-150 pax each)
4 Medium Function Rooms (good for 50 pax each)
4 Small Function Rooms (good for 12 pax each)
Service: ★★★☆☆
This is a self-service restaurant. Upon entering through their glass doors, we were not accompanied or helped by any of their staff to find clean and empty tables. We walked through the aisles, found one by ourselves and started to get food. The only things the server did were leaving a pitcher of water when we were seated and giving the bill out as it was called for.
Food: ★★☆☆☆
What do Steamed Fish, Sweet & Sour Pork, Vegetable w/ garlic, Fried Chicken and Tofu have in common? Not much, except they were all served in Tramway for both lunch and dinner. Other staple dishes are Yang Chow Fried Rice, Pancit Canton Guisado, Pasta (Spaghetti and Linguini with White and Red Sauces), Dices of Raddish Cake, Clams and Chicken Feet.
We ate to our heart’s content but still spared some space in our stomachs for the side dishes: California Maki, Century Egg, Chinese Dimsum, Vegetable Salad, Tossed Lettuce, Carrots, Cucumbers and Onions (with Salad Dressing: Thousand Island Sauce) and Macaroni Salad.
For desserts, we had Fresh Fruits (Watermelon, Papaya and Pineapple), Assorted Gelatin (coffee and pandan) and Assorted Puto.
Food quality and taste were on the lower scale of average. Sigh. I don’t count myself any satisfied. The taste test here failed pathetically.
Price for Value: ★★★☆☆
All the food above were for PHp 248 (no drinks included) per head. Senior citizens even have 20% discount, and rate for children who stand below four feet is at PHp 181 per head.
True, the price is considerably cheap for buffet; judging based on the food though, value is low. Exerting her utmost disappointment, my mom said the price should be only at PHp 150 pax. 😀
Operating hours:
Lunch Time:
1st Batch – 11:00am to 1:00pm
2nd Batch – 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Dinner Time:
1st Batch – 6:00pm to 8:00pm
2nd Batch – 8:00pm to 10:00pm
Other Branches:
1. Tramway Buffet Plaza
Lower Ground Floor, Worldwide Corporate Center, Shaw Boulevard, Highway Hills, Mandaluyong City
Contact numbers: (02) 8617129, (02) 7066351
2. Tramway Garden Buffet
65 Timog Avenue, South Triangle, Quezon City
Contact number: (02) 4152005
3. Tramway Tea House
Alcaraz Street, Santo Domingo, Quezon City
Contact number: (02) 4111565
About Rochkirstin Santos-Sioco
Health and technology freak. Food and lifestyle blogger with a large appetite for food and travel.
What I am interest in this resto is its function. It is very ideal for a small conference, business meeting or even a management committee meeting which we use to have every month as school administrator. The place is very nice.
When we were there, almost every function room was occupied — to think it was a weeknight, Tramway is considerably very popular to the masses.
P248 for buffet is really value for money and the food offerings looks nice too.
If you want to scrimp on meals but craves for buffet food at the same time, Tramway is a good suggestion as a “save” option.
I think this place really fits special occasions like weddings and business meeting. Foods are properly served and love the setting. I would definitely list this on our place to consider when we have conventions /meetings. Have a nice day!
Lines can be long for buffets, especially on weekends. So if you ever intend to conduct your meetings here, plan accordingly. Bottom line: If you plan on gorging yourself at multiple buffets, this is for you!
The place is pretty big! (Or is it?) Does the California Maki taste good? Because I’m a sucker for it! 😀
Yes, space is indeed super big. The California Maki has a taste of artificial flavoring and ingredients used were not fresh. Hmmm I don’t know if it was just because we came here as the last batch of diners.
From the food options you have stated, I suddenly became hungry in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. Got to try this one when we will visit Pasay soon. Thanks for the review!
Hehe if you’ve never been to more prestigious buffet restaurants like Vikings, Buffet 101, etc., you would think that Tramway’s food tastes fine. But once your taste buds have experienced more “elite” type of food for buffet then you would know that there’s a large diff. Prepare to salivate while viewing the food but don’t expect extraordinary delight from here.
I think Tramway Baywiew’s location is much, much better than that of Tramway Garden Buffet. =)
I have not tried their pasta yet. It doesn’t look bad at all. Pretty appetizing! =)
Maybe I am just not really into pasta. I tried both the spaghetti red sauce and white sauce with linguine and didn’t like both. Ugh, so disappointing nga – even the texture of the pasta was not excellently cooked.
Actually this branch has a second floor but we didn’t go there. We just saw the stairs and we’re not sure if food is also available.
There’s tramway too near our area and the reason why we didnt continue to dine is because with what u mentioned, kinda like all by yourself. not that hospitable. hihihi. Arti lang.
Haha of course sometimes you want to be served like royalty but if your pockets are not trough-deep at present, then head to the Tramway branch near your place for a bargain-priced buffet meal. City dining at suburban prices? Yes, please.
Sulit! And what I liked about is majority of their menu are Pinoy foods!
Not super majority like those of Calaben, Kamay Kainan and the like. I think food here are more of a mix of Chinese, Jap and Fil as mentioned in the intro. 😀
The place looks like spacious. The food looks inviting and mouthwatering
Maybe in pictures the food looked good? But in actuality, they’re really not. 🙁 The memory of that dinner was so pungent, so malevolent, that I could not properly exorcise it until lunch the next day.
I think it looks more like a function hall for occasions, which is perfect if it is. But if it’s a buffet restaurant, then would you be able to eat well considering there’s a lot of people queuing for food, and also the noise, I bet the room is noisy.
It can be a good venue for a wedding and those occasions when you need a big space for a large audience – this is, if you’re not much into satisfying your guests with great food. As for the noise level, you can maybe request them to put the background music volume down.
Nice setup for a buffet place. The food looks yummy too! 🙂
Location is good and they also provide parking space for free but food was not at all good. Haha sorry to say. 😛
[…] fair to be set as the regular price. Then again, it’s still expensive and I suggest you enjoy Tramway Bayview Buffet instead if you’re eying for a cheap buffet restaurant in […]