MANILA -- Projection mapping is a technology that gives “life” to inanimate objects through digital projections. An example of this are those videos showing building facades that are seemingly changing their shape and design but are actually just three-dimensional (3D) projections.

Imagine that on a dining table. Bright and colorful imagery brings life to a plain white table. A cartoon character moving around and preparing the meal on one's plate. Then a server puts down the actual dish, to get a taste of the real food.

That's what Six Doors 3D BBQ Buffet restaurant recently introduced to the local market. The buffet restaurant features six themed VIP rooms that offer this unique dining experience. At P4,500 per head, guests get to experience an eight-course visual feast like no other.

Aside from the table mapping, the walls of each room has projections of different locales as well. The images transport the guests to different countries, reflecting the origins of the dishes.

“There's a lot of buffet restaurants already but this is the first of its kind in terms of the table mapping projection. That's the first in the country,” explained Khristina Sandoval, marketing manager of Kungfu Master Cooking Group.

Located at the second floor of Uptown Mall of Uptown Bonifacio in taguig City, the restaurant offers this kind of experience to differentiate itself from the many buffet restaurants in Metro Manila.

This is the first buffet restaurant for the company, which also operates Singaporean brand Olivia & Co.

“The VIP rooms offer an eight-course surprise menu. Two of the courses (first and last) would be the one that have the table mapping projection. In between those two courses, each course represents the city included in the 'magical train' like Seoul, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro,” she said.

The rooms use around four to six projectors. The rooms are all white except for the chairs. The table and plates also use a different shade of white for the 3D projection mapping to work.

The table mapping is exclusive to the VIP rooms but the 3D technology extends to the main dining room. An interactive aquarium is displayed at the stage area where kids can interact with the projections.

MASSIVE SPACE

The whole restaurant occupies a massive space inside the mall. It can accommodate up to 344 guests at a time. This includes two function rooms and the six VIP rooms. And each table has its own smokeless grill where guests can cook their own barbecue dishes.

It has a cold station where cold seafood, salad, and fruits are situated; the fresh station for the raw meat for grilling; prepared dishes section; sushi bar; beverage bar; dimsum station; and many more. But a unique offering is the Brazilian churrasco barbecue served right on the table.

“Apart from the usual buffet fare we serve churrasco, Brazilian BBQ and we serve it the traditional way. We have our serves come out from the kitchen carrying these huge skewers and they walk around and slice the freshly cooked barbecued meat right in front of you,” Sandoval said.

The restaurant carries more than 300 items in its buffet which also includes the Indian flying cake. It's a crepe-like dish that is filled with either banana, butter and cheese, and sausage.

The restaurant utilizes smokeless grills for each table. Photo by author

Chicken skewers. Photo by author

Fried chicken wings. Photo by author

The sushi bar offers various rolls like this Volcano Maki. Photo by author

Dessert station. Photo by author

Its regular buffet rates is P859 for weekday lunch and P1,390 for weekday dinner, weekend lunch and dinner, and holidays. But to attract the office crowd in the area, the restaurant also offers a one hour buffet for only P499.

Birthday promos are also available including the 3+1 birthday month promo (three paying guests plus one free) and 1+1 birthday/date promo (one paying guest plus one free).