Triple the fun with Triple V’s triple buffet

The Triple V group of restaurants started in the late ’70s with Kamayan, a novelty Filipino restaurant that promoted dining with one’s hands. The restaurant industry then was experiencing a boom, and this inspired experiment by Triple V’s main man Vicvic Villavicencio proved to be such a success that it paved the way for the opening of Saisaki, the group’s Japanese restaurant, and Dads, its continental outlet.

Today’s diners would probably know the Triple V group for trailblazing the perennial fad for buffets practiced in most restaurants in the metro, but the stress here has always been in great value-for-money dining, a principle it has adhered to all these years.

Says Veejay Villavicencio, SM Megamall Triple V managing director, "One thing that is constant in everything that we do is great value, and here at our restaurants, I can honestly say that we give great value for everything."

Through the years, Triple V has always been a family affair. The germ for the first ever Kamayan Restaurant was the habit of the Villavicencio family to dine out on weekends with friends. When they saw the opportunity to try out their novel scheme at Kamayan, the family plunged into a business and discovered a gold mine.

"That’s how Triple V evolved," says Veejay. "And from there, we opened Saisaki, and eventually Dads."

Indeed, most Triple V restaurants around Metro Manila are run hands-on by a member of the Villavicencio family, mostly the children of Vicvic Villavicencio, as well as relatives. Veejay was a perfect fit into the system, having been a part of the Triple V group during his summers away from school.

"I bussed tables, cooked in the kitchen and even manned the sushi bar," he says. "I got each piece of the puzzle of managing a restaurant business this way. There’s no way that you can learn this business without getting your feet wet, so to speak."

"My father never forced us to enter the business," he adds. "But because you’re around it, you do get a sense of pride from it… We got exposed to it at an early age. When I finished college, I told myself I hope I could do something aside from being in the restaurant business. But, it was always food that interested me. I used to go out of the country to look for high-quality food or items that we could use in the restaurant. It would always be one or the other. Eventually, we grew into the operations, we grew into all of these things."

Having been in the business for long, Veejay now has a better appreciation of the fine art of managing a restaurant.

"The food business is the most difficult business that you can possibly enter," he admits. "There’s so much detail to work out. However, if a restaurant manages to stay on through good times and bad, then it’s here to stay. And I must say that we’re here to stay."

Indeed, the Triple V group of restaurants has ridden the wave of food fads that have hit Manila in the past 20 years.

"We started as an a la carte restaurant and eventually evolved into a buffet restaurant," he adds.

Each Triple V restaurant has a unique thing going for it. But the ultimate dining experience may be had at Dads Restaurant. Its Ultimate Buffet is really three buffets in one: Dads international fare, Saisaki’s Japanese specials, and Kamayan’s Filipino favorites.

"It is the ultimate buffet, and it is here that we showcase the best that we serve in all our restaurants. We have our lechon from Kamayan, roast beef from Dads, and the sushi bar from Saisaki," he says.

At any one time during operating hours, there are as many as 150 dishes available in the Ultimate Buffet, ranging from an array of soups to appetizers, hot items, carving and desserts. Add to this live cooking stations manned by a gourmet chef that offers a diner’s choice of pasta, barbecue, noodle dishes and sukiyaki. Then, there’s the variety of carvings that a diner can choose from. Apart from lechon, there’s a choice of Dads’ baked ham, roast turkey, roast beef and prime rib. The choices will definitely challenge any weight watcher.

"Here at Dads, you can eat anything and everything from our triple buffet. At lunch, it’s P395 and at dinner, it’s P495. At Kamayan, it’s P275 the whole day, and at Saisaki, it’s P350 for lunch and P450 for dinner," says Veejay. "We pride ourselves in giving the best quality of food at the most reasonable price."

And the fun doesn’t stop there. Each buffet has a quarterly cycle where items are updated to give guests a wide variety of choices. There are also regular promotions that give diners extra options. Dads now has an Italian buffet festival, while Saisaki has its Tokyo festival and Kamayan its seafood festival. And true to form, all these promotions are carried over and reflected in Dads Ultimate Buffet.

"We can really say that our buffet is never stagnant," he adds.

Add to this is the quality staff that Triple V has nurtured through these years.

"We are proud that our staff is very courteous," he says. "Our personnel are well-trained professionals that respond to the needs of our diners."

At the SM Megamall where Veejay is at work from before opening hours at 11 a.m. to after closing hours at 9 p.m., he oversees a staff of 280. The entire Triple V group, he says, employs 1,200 trained food service personnel.

Apart from its buffet promotions, the Triple V group also operates its Triple V Express, a fastfood establishment that offers the same dining choices as in its other outlets but at quality value-for-money servings.

"The problem with most fastfood outlets is that while they offer value-for-money dining, it comes at the expense of the quality and the taste of the food. That’s what we would like to emphasize at our Triple V Express. We offer the best quality food at affordable prices," says Veejay.

The setup might be fastfood-style but the operation is still genuine Triple V. As in its buffet restaurants, trained chefs work at the kitchen, dishing out the specialties of their mother restaurants.

"You can be sure that the Japanese items we serve at Triple V Express are cooked by our Saisaki chefs," he adds. "This is true for even our Filipino items, which are prepared and cooked by our Kamayan chefs. We also have special lanes that cater only to sizzling items and pasta. With trained chefs handling these, diners are assured only of the best service."

The Triple V Express now sports a brighter, more colorful look to keep up with the times. It also has an ongoing Pinoy League promo that entitles diners to a free welcome-back dish coupon with every two orders of Filipino dishes, and a Merienda Boom Time special that pairs two merienda items for P39.

And there’s more. As a special treat to the Class of 2003, Triple V has its The Graduator promo that gives a free drink-of-the-month, complete with graduation-themed stuffed toy and a ready-to-frame graduation handprint, to any newly-grad dining with at least three friends.

Over at Saisaki, there’s a special shokuji promotion, a complete meal that comes with a sushi platter, rice and soup, with prices ranging from P225 to P250.

If Triple V is riding the wave of success, it is because of hard work and luck. Veejay demurs that he doesn’t really believe in good luck.

"I believe that you make your luck with hard work," he says. "And here at Triple V we’ve worked hard perfecting what has to be done to give our diners the best in food choices."