A holiday in Ortigas

Last week, I enjoyed a brief but relaxing overnight holiday in the bustling heart of Ortigas at the Holiday Inn Manila to experience for myself what the Gokongwei Group’s Robinsons Hotels and Resorts (RHR) has been doing to refresh its twin brands in the bustling central business district where the Asian Development Bank (ADB), San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Meralco headquarters are located.

Patria Puyat, general manager of Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria and Holiday Inn Manila, invited me, along with a couple of other colleagues to see and experience what RHR has quietly been undertaking to refresh its iconic twin hotel landmarks – the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria and Holiday Inn Manila – which have long graced the Ortigas Center skyline.

The two visible landmark Ortigas skyscrapers have been undergoing a transformative makeover to welcome guests with renewed glamor and comfort, and may I say a delectable Chinese restaurant – Xin Tian Di, setting the standard for business travel with its signature IHG touch.

The twin properties truly allow business and leisure to converge as the hotels are also conveniently connected to the Robinsons Galleria shopping mall, allowing guests to enjoy other conveniences such as shopping and additional dining pleasures in an instant.

The ADB, SMC and Meralco head offices are a mere couple of minutes walk from the hotel. Public transportation such as taxis, buses, jeepneys and the MRT are all easily accessible.

The newly renovated guest rooms and lobbies ensure that guests will enjoy spacious living areas and exceptional comfort. The renovation of the hotel rooms has truly refreshed Holiday Inn Manila from its former dignified wood panel look to a more relaxing mint green walls and white border accents.

In the bedrooms, the dark green curtains shield the rooms from the strong sunlight that bathes the hotel and offers privacy from the nearby offices and buildings, but once opened, especially in the upper floors, reveal iconic views of the sprawling Wack-Wack golf course on one side, the EDSA-Ortigas Interchange with its long ribbon of vehicles and a glimpse of the country’s longest mountain range, the Sierra Madre in Rizal.

The twin hotel properties provide a total of 548 rooms, a spacious underground parking space with 1,677 slots, and a range of event venues, meeting rooms and lounges collectively occupying 34,000 square feet.

This cements their place as the district’s gold standard in the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) industry.

With BPO firms, multinational corporations and international organizations in close proximity, these properties are the ideal hubs for various summits and conferences.

“This is the place to meet—we are the middle ground and the melting pot that unifies the north and the south,” according to Pat Puyat.

Pat, who is a niece of the late Sen. Gil Puyat, returned to Manila after stints overseeing five-star IHG properties across the globe. She brings her extensive international experience home to Manila, where she draws on her deep understanding of Filipino sensibilities to create truly exceptional experiences in the RHR properties.

Mr. John’s favorite

Long loved for its the superior dining choices, Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria continues to elevate the dining scene in Ortigas. Its buffet restaurant, the Seven Corners, features a variety of global flavors in its buffet, offering a range of choices for diners — from prime rib to rich Singaporean laksa and a halo-halo station with a selection of toppings. The variety of its fare makes Seven Corners a versatile place for all kinds of gatherings, from laid-back brunches to business dinners.

However, the true restaurant star of the hotel is Xin Tian Di, which was Mr. John Gokongwei’s favorite. It truly elevates the Ortigas dining scene with its exquisite Chinese cuisine, and Pat gave as proof of the pudding by allowing us to eat at Mr. John’s private room no less! One of my colleagues even gave us the chills when she said that she could feel Mr. John’s presence in the room. But hey, it just made the experience that much more memorable!

Pat pulled out all of the stops with classics like the oven-roasted Peking Duck served two ways, but with a dash more of spice, flare and theatrics. The duck was doused in Chinese wine, sprinkled with cinnamon and flambeed, sending sparkles of the cinnamon spice and leaving a delectable scent that whet our appetites even more.

Another star of our Xin Tian Di dining experience and definitely a must order when you try out the restaurant, is their unique take on the traditional lapu-lapu dish--not your ordinary soy sauce, ginger and leeks steamed dish. Theirs was a truly refreshing fried lapu-lapu with a sweet and slightly spicy pomelo sauce and the fish was completely deboned and cut up into morsels, but rearranged as one complete fish!

So sorry that I can’t post a photo of our delectable and artfully presented meal, but this is a business column after all.

There was also an artfully presented noodle dish that defied gravity, with scallops cooked in XO sauce.

Oh that XO sauce! Truly divine, just a small dollop on almost everything, even on the salted fish fried rice, elevates the dish even more, and the XO sauce is always served at Xin Tian Di, according to Pat, at no extra cost.

To end the meal, Pat recommended the ampalaya buchi with chocolate lava. It was clearly intended to entice a diabetic to try the good ampalaya flavored buchi with the sinful and forbidden sweet chocolate lava.

A restful sleep

We experienced the spacious two-bedroom suite at the Holiday Inn Manila offering a total of three beds -- two doubles in one room and a king-sized bed in the master’s bedroom with its own bathroom that had a mini-jacuzzi style tub (so no need to go to the swimming pool as you can soak in your own luxurious mini pool).

The two bedroom suite had its own six-seater dining table with a mini kitchenette, a wrap-around couch and TV area and a small desk to do some work if needed.

A separate bathroom is provided for the second bedroom and for visitors.

With the air conditioner kept at a chilly 17.5 degrees, we thoroughly enjoyed our sleep burrowed under our fluffy comforter and huggable soft and firm pillows. You wish you could enjoy such relaxing, cool and worry-free sleep at home without having to worry about the cost of electricity.

Breakfast at Holiday Inn Manila’s fourth floor breakfast and all-dining cafe offered a wide range of food selection, but more importantly for Filipinos, a selection of dried fish staples such as danggit, tuyo and dilis -- something that is not often offered in other international chain hotels in the city.

Another delicacy was our iconic “Fear Factor” balut that is definitely not on the menu on a daily basis.

What can one say about the Gokongwei Group, they offer the complete travel package with their “Juan” travel proposition of cheap and affordable airfares through Cebu Pacific and a complete selection of accommodations from their affordable Go Hotels and Summit Hotels and their luxury offering under the RHR banner.