Guevarra’s Lunch Buffet Review – Very Good for only P399!

I had always passed by Guevarra’s on my way to Greenhills. The charming house turned into a restaurant (I would always crane my neck to get a view inside the gate as our car passed by) has always piqued my curiosity, and the cars parked outside showing that parking was overflowing made the restaurant even more intriguing. Why were people flocking to this place?

A few weeks ago, just back from our HK & Macau trip, S and I planned to go to Greenhills to get her Motorola G unlocked. I was racking my brain thinking of a nice place to have lunch that would impress her. I visualized my “path” to Greenhills via San Juan and got reminded of Guevarra’s. It’s really, literally, on our way to Greenhills. I suggested Guevarra’s and hoped that it would be as good as people said it was.

Guevarra’s, is, as the name suggests, right along P. Guevarra St. in San Juan. We went in and I was charmed by the house! It had the cottage vibe I like so much. Parking is free but make sure to be there early before they run out of parking space. It’s on the right side of the house. See the car at the far end of the picture? There’s a small garden where they can set up outdoor dining for parties. There’s also a ramp for wheelchairs, should you need to use it.

And what about that staircase? I’m having visions of brides in wedding gowns having their pictures taken on those stairs!

We were ushered in to our table. So glad they accept walk-ins! We were there early though, around 11am, and there weren’t many people there yet and we were able to enjoy the very cozy ambience. By noon, the place was filled.

I love, love, love the house! It’s cozy but not confining. It’s small but cool (c/o airconditioner). The big glass windows made the house seem more open.

The house still retained most of its original character. I can imagine it as a very beautiful home one hundred years ago.

Okay, I’m done gushing about the house. Let’s talk about the food!

The food served at Guevarra’s lunch buffet is Filipino fare. But don’t let the super-affordable price of P399++ (ends up being less than P450) fool you. The food is pretty good. And for P399, you can eat what you like without worrying about whether you ate enough to make up for (bawi) what you spent. Guevarra’s Lunch Buffet is really worth the P400+! The only thing you need to worry about is your diet!

The buffet is set up along the far left wall of the house. The carving station and appetizers is set up on one end, and the dessert station is set up on the other end. In between is one long line of FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!

You can see the dessert station at the end. It’s the one with the metal soft serve ice cream dispenser.

Here’s a close-up:

Here’s the view from the other end. The unlimited drinks station is on the far right side. See the Pepsi logo? It includes Pepsi product soft drinks and iced tea.

Here’s the carving station (just opposite the drinks station). They serve Roast Beef, Roast Chicken, Lechon Pork Belly and Tomato Salsa. They have various sauces and gravies on the side.

Here are pictures of the rest of the buffet:

Dessert includes soft-serve ice cream!

Overall, the quality of the food is more than you would expect from the P399 price tag. The food is also fresh. You have the usual noodles and rice dishes too. The desserts for me were so-so, but I had fun working the soft-serve ice cream machine.

My favorites are the Callos and the Beef Kare Kare. I would go back just for those 2! Do you know how hard it is to get good, affordable Callos? For P399 I can eat Callos and Beef Kare Kare to my heart’s content! I’ll probably have to do some sort of fasting or fat flush afterwards… but it’s going to be worth it! Those two dishes alone already make the price of Guevarra’s buffet worth it to me. I won’t be able to get them, as much as I want, for only P399 elsewhere. I think it’s going to be the same logic for lechon lovers, roast beef lovers…

For some reason, I kind of liked the Camote Bites. It’s the fried round thing on my plate:

No, that’s not all I ate. I most certainly went back for seconds and thirds! And dessert!

They have a NO Leftovers policy, so make sure to only get what you’ll be able to eat!

We were also lucky that on the day we had our lunch at Guevarra’s, they also had the Ms. Earth candidates there! We were too shy to take any pictures with them, and I didn’t want to bother them. I’m not the kind of person who likes bothering people while they are having lunch! Mostly because I don’t like being bothered too… but I’m glad for my friend S – she’s rarely back in the Philippines and this time she got to see the Ms. Earth candidates during her trip! And see them have lunch where we are also having lunch! I feel like this makes Guevarra’s “IN” by association! LOL. Hahaha. I’m happy too because this adds another nice memory to our lunch at Guevarra’s!

Guevarra’s by Chef Laudico

Address: 387 P. Guevarra St. cor. Argonne St., Addition Hills San Juan, Manila, Philippines
Contact # 705 1811 / 705 1874 / 502 5006 / 0917 311 2222
Hours:
LUNCH – 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
DINNER – 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Price:
P399/person from Monday – Friday (Lunch)
P499/person from Monday – Thursday (Dinner)
P599/person from Friday Dinner to Sunday Dinner