After my ocular inspection of Imperial Palace Waterpark, I was invited by my good friend Marie L. for lunch at their main dining outlet called Familia. Familia is where buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner is served 7 days a week.

Now, I've been to a lot of hotel coffee shops that serve buffet meals and honestly, when I hear of the word buffet, I automatically lose interest already. I'm beginning to think that all buffet meals taste the same. But, there's nothing wrong with trying out another restaurant as there might be some surprises hidden beneath.

The restaurant space is quite spacious, that's the first thing I noticed. Second is that the decor is a bit on the darker side meaning they used mostly dark wood which made the coffee shop seem to be darker that it actually is. Typical of any buffet spread, there are several food stations spread throughout the restaurant.

You have the Korean and Chinese section

Japanese section

Dessert section (my favorite in any buffet!)

You also have the carving/Italian section but there were usually too many people crowding around it that it was difficult to get a proper picture.

Majority of the diners were Koreans and I was told that they are mostly in the hotel on a day trip basis (buffet lunch comes with the day trip fee).

Since Korea is still on a winter school break, majority of the guests were families with a long string of children tagging along.

Now without further delay, here's what I had for lunch

The orange thingy on the upper right is actually one of my favorite Korean street food. Loved it when I tried it in Korea and still love it when they served it here at Familia. Although the street food version is hot. Its called Korean spicy TTeok Bo Kki.

The dimsum tasted good and I wanted to go back for more until I remembered the word 'gluttony'.

I wasn't supposed to eat the Mapo Tofu (a single number above the normally accepted uric acid level) but it just looked so inviting so I had a little bit and it was worth it although it could have been a little bit more spicy.

Talk about carbo loading. Noodles, pasta (below), rice, maki and pizza. I had to try everything coz they all looked so good.

Familia made me forget about my swearing off hotel buffet spreads. There were a lot of food choices but not too much that one would be overwhelmed.

I was supposed to stick to an (imaginary) diet during my trip to Cebu but then, when one is in Rome, do what the Romans do!

Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort & Spa

M.L. Quezon Highway

Brgy. Maribago

Lapu-lapu City, Cebu 6015

Tel (+63 32) 4945288

Website: www.imperialpalace-cebu.com