Late Post III: The birthday bash - Part 2

Banzai!

After spending the entire afternoon at Manila Ocean Park it was time for dinner. And since the theme of the day seemed to be doing something new, we decided to have dinner somewhere we've never been to before: at Banzai, The Great Teppanyaki Theatre. Buffet restaurants seem to be the craze in Manila nowadays. Banzai is a Japanese (obviously) buffet restaurant with an all you can eat and drink concept for a reasonable Php 900 (roughly 150 NOK or 20 USD) per person. The good thing is, birthday celebrants (yours truly) get to eat for free!

We arrived a little early, so we decided to walk the coastline of Manila Bay. It was not the Manila Bay I was used to from long ago! The entire coastline is now lined with restaurants and other business establishments. Very busy and crowded on a Friday evening. But it's great that they made the place safer and more accessible for a lot of people. Before, this was just a dark, unlit walkway with a lot of crime and dirty business going about!

Banzai's atmosphere inside reflects those of its location. It is a a very busy place, with lots of customers, like us, curious as to what all the hullaballoo is about. There is a (cheapish, but nonetheless entertaining) show the staff put out every hour. Thankfully it only lasts for a few minutes so we still got to enjoy our dinner in relative peace and quiet, and roaming the buffet tables and pigging out was not at all problematic.

Of course all of these extras would be useless if the food wasn't good. Fortunately for this restaurant the food was a "win" as well if you like Japanese food. The stations are constantly refilled so you can go back for seconds, or even thirds, if you have the stomach for it! 

It was a tiring day but we all had a lot of fun! It means more to me that my family had a day off from the daily grind, a day to just put aside whatever problems or challenges we are facing at present. This means more to me than celebrating the fact that I am now in my mid-thirties. I hope we get to have more days like this in the near future.