A Sunday in Five Kitchens: A Mega Brunch Celebration at Solaire

The lobby of Solaire Resort Entertainment City doesn't usually smell like this — smoke curling off a prime rib, the clean brine of freshly shucked oysters, the yeasty warmth of bao buns just off the steamer. But on March 15, from 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM, all five of the resort's signature restaurants will abandon their separate dining rooms and converge in one shared space for Mega Brunch: a single, sprawling, all-inclusive feast that is, by Solaire's own admission, the largest restaurant collaboration it has ever staged.

Five kitchens. One afternoon. No reservations required beyond a ticket.

It begins, as the best meals often do, with something cold and expensive. The Caviar and Oyster Station opens proceedings with freshly shucked oysters on ice — pink peppercorn mignonette, lemongrass velouté, horseradish on the side — and a caviar lineup that runs from Beluga and Ossetra down through Salmon roe, Tobiko, and Bottarga, each with its full complement of blinis, sour cream, chives, and chopped egg. A glass of Prosecco is poured. The afternoon begins.

Fresh seafood from Fresh International Buffet

From there, the lobby becomes a geography of cuisines. Head toward the smoke and you'll find Waterside's carving station: Slow-Cooked Beef Prime Rib, Boneless Herb-Crusted Lamb Saddle, Giant Wagyu Smashed Burgers, and the slightly absurdist centerpiece — a 2-Meter Solaire Hotdog, built for sharing and impossible to miss. Nearby, Finestra lays out the Italian case: Ossobuco, Pork Milanese, Seabass Acqua Pazza, Lasagna Bolognese, and Risotto ai Funghi at the carving station; a live Carbonara wheel where pasta is tossed to order; and a Pizza Bar running six varieties from Margherita to Salmone Affumicato.

Red Lantern takes the Chinese corner, its dim sum spread running the full canon — hakaw, siomai, xiao long bao, char siu bao, baked pork buns, spring rolls, deep-fried wontons, and the quietly charming chocolate sesame pandas — alongside a live station where Peking Duck Bao are assembled to order: crispy duck, hoisin, cucumber, scallions, folded into soft bao. Stir-fried wagyu noodles round out the station.

Peking Duck from Red Lantern

Fresh, as its name suggests, goes deep on the sea. The cold spread alone covers prawns, king crab, Boston lobster, scallops, mussels, clams, curacha, swimmer crab, baby calamari, squid, and octopus. The Raw Fish Bar offers tuna, salmon, seabass, kingfish, barramundi, and hamachi across five preparations — sashimi, tartare, ceviche, tiradito, yuzu kosho. If you'd rather have it grilled, the Grilled Seafood Bar will oblige.

Then there is Oasis, which has apparently decided that restraint is someone else's problem. A six-foot donut wall greets you — cookies & cream, Biscoff, chocolate sprinkle, coconut, pistachio, brownie — next to a build-your-own bingsu station piled with toppings and shaved ice. Beyond that: vanilla panna cotta, rum baba, the Solaire chocolate cake, mango chiffon, both a New York and a Basque cheesecake, tiramisu, honey cake, vanilla millefeuille, cannelé de Bordeaux, and éclairs. It is, in the most literal sense, a lot of dessert.

By mid-afternoon, the lobby will have become something between a restaurant and a party — chefs at their stations, guests moving between cuisines, the particular looseness that sets in when the food is good and there's nowhere else to be. Mega Brunch isn't a buffet in the traditional sense so much as a controlled collision of five distinct culinary identities, each doing what it does best, all in the same room, all at once.

Tickets are available at https://premier.ticketworld.com.ph/shows/show.aspx?sh=MEGABRUN26. More information at sec.solaireresort.com/mega-brunch.

An indulgent Italian spread from Finestra