The holiday season at City of Dreams Manila unfolds at the table, with its signature restaurants rolling out Christmas menus that range from Cantonese banquet dining and Filipino holiday classics to Japanese fine dining and an expansive festive buffet.

At Crystal Dragon, the resort’s destination for Cantonese and regional Chinese cuisine, the focus is on shared meals with its Festive Season Family Set Menu. Designed for groups of four to six, the seven-course spread brings together premium seafood, traditional techniques, and celebratory dishes meant for long lunches and lingering dinners.

The menu opens with a combination platter of wok-fried green lobster with XO sauce and stuffed tiger prawn with spinach and crabmeat egg white sauce. A double-boiled consommé follows, built around abalone, fish maw, dry scallop, and stuffed morel mushrooms, finished with chrysanthemum tofu. Other courses include steamed live sea grouper in sour broth with fresh enoki mushrooms, Shanghainese-style braised duck in caramelized five-spice soy sauce, and sea scallops tossed with celery heart in pepper truffle sauce. The meal continues with wok-fried fragrant rice with wild mushrooms and smoked honey-glazed pork belly before ending with steamed taro-shaped lava custard buns.

The family set menu is available for lunch and dinner until Jan. 1, 2026, priced at P36,000++. Crystal Dragon operates daily from noon to 11 p.m.

Filipino holiday flavors take center stage at Haliya, which offers a selection of seasonal a la carte dishes inspired by noche buena. The menu includes the Tuna Pistachio Ensalada, combining foie gras mousse, mesclun, prosciutto, caviar, beetroot puree, red radish, chicken skin, and kiat-kiat dressing, priced at P1,200++. For something warming, the Potato Kastanyas Krema, a cauliflower, potato, and leek soup accented with chickpea salsa, water chestnut, toasted cashew, and malunggay truffle oil, is offered at P500++.

Among the heartier options is the Morcon Embotido at P1,550++, a Filipino-style meatloaf made with wrapped pork loin, served with potato puree, pickled mustard seeds, chestnut, green apple, and morel pork jus. Dessert comes in the form of Peras and Kastanyas, a combination of star anise-poached pear, chestnut sorbet, caramel sauce, and pinipig crumble, priced at P400++.

Haliya’s Christmas menu is available on Dec. 24 from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., and on Dec. 25 from noon to 11 p.m.

Nobu Manila marks the season with both a festive brunch and a Christmas omakase. On Dec. 21, the restaurant offers a yuletide brunch priced at P4,388 net per person, highlighting Nobu Matsuhisa’s signature new-style Japanese cuisine. The spread includes dishes such as Black Cod Butter Lettuce, Yellowtail Jalapeño, Salmon Karashi Su Miso, Sashimi Salad, Crispy Rice Tuna, and mini chirashi, alongside local-inspired plates like Nobu-style kinilaw and sisig cup sushi. The brunch also features roasted lamb leg, crispy pork belly, a chilled seafood bar with oysters and shellfish, made-to-order kushiyaki, and a dessert station showcasing Nobu classics.

For dinner, Nobu Manila presents a five-course Christmas omakase on Dec. 24 and 25, priced at P6,653.57 net per person. The tasting menu begins with a chef’s selection of zensai, followed by salmon yuzu truffle with whipped wasabi and dry miso crumble. Assorted Nobu-style nigiri and harusame clear soup with Inaniwa noodles precede main courses of Chilean sea bass in kaeshi dashi with yuzu kosho and wagyu short ribs with red miso sauce, croquettes, microgreens, and red onion. Dessert is a Chocolate Miso Choux filled with miso cremeux, chocolate mousse, and vanilla cream.

The Café at Hyatt Regency Manila City of Dreams rounds out the holiday offerings with a festive buffet on Dec. 24 and 25. Lunch runs from noon to 3 p.m., while dinner is served from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. The buffet features premium meats at the churrasco counter, live teppanyaki, and a carving station offering herb-crusted striploin for lunch and slow-roasted Angus prime for dinner.

Seafood selections include whole tuna for lunch and whole salmon for dinner, complemented by sushi, sashimi, prawns, Chilean mussels, blue swimmer crabs, slipper lobsters, and curacha. The spread also covers Italian, Indian, Chinese, Thai, and Filipino dishes, alongside Christmas-themed cakes, confections, a chocolate fountain, and local desserts.

Lunch is priced at P3,150. Dinner is P4,288 on Dec. 24 and P3,250 on Dec. 25, with rates inclusive of free-flowing house red and white wine, draft beer, soda, iced tea, juices, coffee, and tea. Guests who fully settle reservations by Dec. 20 receive a 20 percent early bird discount, bringing lunch to P2,520, Christmas Eve dinner to P3,430.40, and Christmas Day dinner to P2,600.

Together, the four restaurants offer a cross-section of holiday dining, from banquet-style Chinese feasts and Filipino Christmas plates to Japanese fine dining and buffet celebrations, reflecting how the season is marked as much by shared meals as by tradition.