Café Kool  

Most buffet places serve the same boring foods every day. Not here! I eat here almost every day and they serve different foods every day. That said, on a good day, they rival the best restaurants in Hong Kong. Even on their bad days, they still serve up some very good food. If they ever make a mistake, they're very quick to correct it. For example, once, I ate some clams that I thought weren't all that fresh. I told the bus boy to take it away and told him why. Most bus boys at most restaurants don't care and/or don't speak any English so it doesn't matter if you tell them. Well, to my surprise, the manager personally brings out a fresh plate of clams that were very good and apologized for the last plate of clams. The lowest common denominator (the bus boy) spoke English and cared enough to tell his manager. That says A LOT about their restaurant! That's why I eat there almost every day.

If you eat a lot, then this is the best deal in all Hong Kong. For example, the other day, i ate one plate of lobster, 10 pieces of the best salmon sashimi, smoked salmon, hand tossed salad made to order, pan seared steak made to order, fish ball flat rice noodle made to order, chicken satay, chicken curry, tomato soup, potato cream, fresh shrimp, ice cream with fresh fruit crepe made to order, fresh tropical fruit and 10 different desserts AT THE SAME MEAL! All of the foods are of the highest quality. My only complaint is that the beef steak was not tender, as with almost all beef served in Hong Kong. The chef did try his best to make the beef taste good by making the steak thinner and pan searing it medium rare (instead of medium or well done). This minimizes the meat's chewiness when cooking with a lesser cut of beef. Other than this one minor complaint, every thing else was 5 star! If I were to order a la carte everything that I ate at a meal here it would cost me a fortune, over $1000 HKD. However, since the friend I usually go with has a Hang Seng credit card (entitles you to a discount), the cost is only about $250 HKD per person for lunch. That makes it a bargain. The credit card that they give discounts for varies, though. So, be sure to call ahead and ask which credit card offers the best discount before you go. Also, this is a reservations only restaurant. You can't just walk in.

Service:
I made a reservation for this buffet dinner a few weeks ago. They were very polite on the phone. The night when we had the dinner, the hostess and waiters were all very polite.

Environment:
Pretty noisy. Don't know if it is because we sat next to a group of big family.

Food:
It is just so-so as most reviewers say on Openrice. The Indian naan is better than average. Salmon sashimi is fresh. For sashimi, you can't take it freely, you have to ask them to cut it for you and each person can get 3 slices.
The desserts are disppointing if you expect they are 5-star quality. The creme brulee is okay but their cakes and tarts.... Oh well.

The BEST food I had that night was this PASTA! This pasta is more than awesome! <3 The cook made it right in front of you. The pasta texture = al dente. The combination of white wine sauce, cheese, ham and parsley (?) is just perfect! When you have the first bite, the taste is not that strong. But it gets more and more intense as you eat more. The cheese is added at the end, so it is not melted at first. The cheese flavor touches your taste bud gradually (if it makes sense?).
The cook told me there was an Italian cook making the pasta at the beginning of the promotion, but now he has gone. The Hong Kong cooks put less white wine in order to fit the HKers' taste.Price:
HSBC credit card holder can have 25% off if I remember it correctly. And if you go in your birthday month, they give you a birthday cake and a bottle of red wine for free. You can take them home.

This has to be the worst buffet and more importantly the worst value for money in term of quality of food I have ever seen.
I booked a table for my girlfriend birthday and we were excited to try this restaurant I read so many good reviews about.

Price was HK$ 488 + 10% of service charge / pers. Service was ok but the food..... I have been to many buffet in the US, in Europe, Asia so when I pay close to HK$ 500 per head i expect a good selection of seafood, meat and desert. But this restaurant feels like a rip off

The entrance of the shangri la hotel looks fancy but as soon as you enter the restaurant it feels like entering a supermarket.

The salade selection is pretty messy. Just next to it you have four cheap kind of cheese and a little bit further what is supposed to be smoked salmon....I'm not even sure it's salmon as it has no taste add to that 2 cold cut of tasteless parma ham and salami !

No comment on the chinese dim sum as i always avoid this kind of food in a buffet.

The seafood part looks just terrible. I tried one oyster and it was The crab leg are half empty and tasteless like they have been frozen for ten years. The sushi looks terrible, the sashimi are normal. Overall no much choice, everything seems straight out of the freezer.

Two kind of roasted meat. no option to make burger. Selection of food in that area is ok. Some baked salmon, potatoes, chicken, quite good.

A big part of the buffet is dedicated to Indian food. It taste ok but a lot of sauce for little meat so it feels like cheap food.

There was a korean section serving noodles and soup but didnt try it. I don't eat noodles in a buffet. No pasta available.

The dessert selection is a joke. No pastries, just the usual sponge cake garbage available. Some cheap ice cream and the classic chocolate fountain. three or five fruits available.

For HK$ 500 /pers I feel not only disapointed but like I was ripped off. For this price you have a coffe or tea included but not even a coke.
Normally a buffet should be around HK$ 300 and you will get some quality items. Buit for some reason there charge a super expensive price and fail to deliver. Carrying the Shangri La brand should involved some responsability in term of service but most importantly quality.

I will never go back, cannot forgive such a disaster. save your time and money and try another one.

For a so call 5 star hotel this has got to be one of the worst service restaurant!

food was ok, not much selection but again emphasize on the poor service from waiter to waitress n chefs to server, they all need major manner training!!!

Rude answers and repeated questions, to pushing our chair while we were seated n eating, n not clearing our table nor refilling our water until we waive continuously for them.

Anyhow wanted to say "who do u expect us to pay our 10% tips to?"

This is one of my parent's favorite buffet restaurant. They love their hot plate while I was quite enjoy the salad bar and cheese corner.

Starter
The seafood soup was tomatoe base and taste not bad. The salad bar serve quite various vegetarian ingredient and customer can request the chef to toss for you.

Western Corner
Grilled onion, steak, and eggplate taste good. Fried seafood cake and stewed beef tail were excellent. Seafood egg tart taste was a good try.

Asian Corner
Chinese style steamed fish was fresh in term of having it in a buffet. Fried rice, Cantonese BBQ, and dim sum were pretty good. Malaysian satay was spicy and great.

Japanese Corner
I didn't try any from there.

Cheese plate was absolutely a good rest between main dishes and dessert.

Dessert
I got most of the mini size dessert and none of them was impressive to me. Instead, the coconut ice-cream was a relatively good choice for me. It seems that I am no longer fans of dessert when getting older!!!

Beverage
My hot coffee was not strong and my parent's tea was too "diluted". My wife's iced lemon tea was the only acceptable beverage on this table.

With Citibank Visa card, the average cost was about HK$180 per head. Room between table to table is too little and it was quite noisy and packed in this dinning room. It may not be good for senior who doesn't walk properly (i.e., like my parents).

We made use of the Bank of East Asia 25% off offer and had buffet at Cafe Kool tonight. We were pleasantly surprised with the food quality but disappointed with the poor service quality.

First starters, there was a good choice of salad and the ingredients were fresh. I was after oil and balsamic vinegar dressing but it was nowhere to be seen. There was a limited selection of seafood but generally of good quality. I tried the oysters, whelks and prawns. The whelks had quite a lot of sand in them. I like the small oysters. There were cold crabs available. My husband tried them and said they were good. Sashimi and sushi were of a high standard. For hot dish, my only negative comment is that the food was not warmed properly. I tried the lasagne but was disappointed because it was only barely warm, as was the lamb chop. My husband tried the roast beef but was not impressed because the meat and the sauce was nearly cold. It was not nicely carved but cut in chunks of 2 cm thick.

The Chinese hot dish that I liked most was the soup which was served in individual pots in a bamboo steamer. The chinese dishes were all pipping hot but I only tried the chinese kailan vegetables. There was a good range of Malaysian satays and Indian curry available but I was too full to try any.

The dessert bar was impressive. There were a lot of people queuing to eat "fried ice-cream". It does not appeal to me at all so I did not try it. My daughter complained that there was no strawberry available at the chocolate fountain which is usually her highlight of a buffet dinner. Overall the dessert available was satisfying and of a high quality.

I was disappointed with the service standard though. Shangri-la is an international name and one expects 5-star service not only at reception but in each and every restaurant within the hotel as well.

The male serving staff walked around in trainers which was not appropriate for a hotel of this standing. There was a lot of gossip and personal talking amongst staff which put me off a great deal. The majority of them were ill mannered. There were a few occasions that I walked back to my table with plateful of food. Instead of giving way to me in the narrow corridors, the waiters just barged across. There was no appreciation of the basic principle of "ladies first" let alone the basic manner of "customers first". The serving staff could not manage basic conversations with customers in a polite way. I asked for tea/coffee and the bill. I got short and sharp answers without being addressed properly, nor was there any please or thank you. The only positive point is that the waiters were hardworking and quick in collecting plates though in a somewhat crude manner. In terms of service, this hotel has a long way to go to match the service in restaurants in Mandarin Oriental and Conrad.

The worst dinner buffet I have ever had in my life. It is not money's worth. Better try Marriot or Coffee Two which are of much better quality.
The variety of seafood offered are extremely restricted and they are not fresh.
Better not to have a meal there in the near future.

I was too indulged in study that I nearly refused to go enjoying the relaxing lunch with my sister and friend on a weekday ... here we were:

To be frank, I am not a big eater, thus I am not a big fan for buffet. But this buffet is up to standard comparing to some neighboring hotels I have been.

A large variety of food it must be. But what I appreciated was nearly all of them are served. Instant cooking incl western pasta/ grilled meat/ congee/ noodles/ sashimi/ salad ...

Among all of them, my most preferred was the salad and grilled meat. You choose your preferred combination of salad leaves and they will mix for you, in addition with a few slices of parma ham and honeydew melon. Nice! The latter was the barbecued steak and sausage, taste really good and meat was still tender.

Also the chinese noodles is nice that you can choose either soup or pan fried, and both are quite nice as well since you have a range of ingredients to choose from.

Unexpectedly, the satay food was quite nice! While the jap bar was ok as well.

For sure dessert was another target of mine - not a few ... I have eaten cups of ice-cream scoops *also provided frying ice-cream* , chinese cakes/ creme brulee/ chocolate pudding/ tiramisu/ grape jelly/ rasberry and choco cakes/ gree tea pudding ... etc ... also chocolate fountain ... the delicate slices were attractive!

The least fav was the chinese dim sum, not recognize and not really appealing. So do the Indian section, it was not hot enough ...

Sitting there for 3 hours, relaxed. Leaving all the textbooks and readings - JUST OUT OF MY HEAD, YEAH!

Actually took more pics, but selected my favorite 8, enjoy!

We went to the Shangri-la last weekend. The first thing to try is the Parma ham (or Serano ham), it’s the worst quality of ham I have ever tasted! The lady serving it had a bad attitude too. The smoked salmon tasted like some cheap stuff made in China. The curry corner did not smell a bit of any spices. All the curry looked watery and unappealing, so I totally passed. The cold seafood look just as bad, you can tell by the appearance that it is not fresh, so I walked away from that too. The kebab is again the worst kebab I ever tasted, it tasted nothing like kebab. The beef, lamb and sausage are ok but just of average quality. The pasta is truly disappointing. If Shangri-la can’t provide the best ingredient and sauces, they should never serve pasta. I wanted some simple stir fry of some vegetable with shrimps and garlic, the chef added some soy sauce and ruined everything!! The dessert counter is average, nothing special that would really make want to go back. I ended up having some congee which I usually never eat in a buffet. I tasted plenty of MSG. For the money they charge, it’s a total waste of time and money!

If you want to really have a good meal, add a couple of hundred and go to Sabatini in Royal Garden. Top quality food!

I've been to Cafe Kool couples of time and thought is was good. I still remember their instant grilled lamb chop, so yummy. So it's Mom's 81st birthday and she chose this place for a lunch get-together. It turned out to be a very disappointing meal because the food standard are a lot lot lot lot lower than it used to be.....

Salad is ok but it was not Grandma and Grandpa's cup of tea...

Cold sea-food, as other writers commented - tasteless.

Hot meal - sweet and sour spare rib - very hard and sour... Roast duck, same... although you can order food at the spot you can tell that the meat are frozen meat and tasteless after cooked. Curry - their curry is no good too, no surprise at all. I can tell that they are using very low quality frozen meat for the s&s spare rib and roast duck.

Pasta - very badly cooked - they just mixed and heat the ingredient for you....

Dessert - the italian cheese cake - tasteless but luckily they have apple pie which is quite good with ice cream. Fruit - not much of a choice, no berries at least.

The only impression you get from this meal is the hotel or the restaurant is trying very hard to cut down the cost and still they are charging you $258 per head. I don't think it is fair and so you can decide whether you want to jump into this trap or not. With this money I think you have a lot of choices.

BTW, service wise - it is getting worse too. All my good impression about this restaurant has gone forever.

I have been to Cafe Kool for a few times, all are for lunches. But this time, it is very special because they are having the Birthday promotion, and we enjoy 92% off on the bill that day!!

The 6 of us really enjoy the food and my daddy's rank his choices as
fresh oyster, cooked prawn, and the lamb steak

My mom's and my grandma choices are
ox tail and lamb steak

My choices are
chocolate banana cake, tiramisu, honey ham, parma ham

Basically, we are all very satisified with the service and the food!! They provide very good quality of food and I really enjoy the lunch there!!

Company dinner for the night~ a group of 40 comes to this location for upper class buffet~~~

I still love this place the best out of all the hotel buffets~ The food are freshly made. The roast beef, lamb are under hot light, sauage and fried lamb are made to order. By the GRILL section, there's the spaghetti section, made to order of your favor and toppings!

Indian on the side is all made, beside that, the congee and wonton, fish ball, meat ball are made to order~

Salad bar n sushi/cold seafood section are on both side, salad can be made to order if you don't want to do it yourself.

Dessert is on the far side, everything is so perfect. There's the chocolate fountain for fruit and candies. Ice cream of your taste, tofu pudding, bread pudding, fruit...beside all the cake.

Cakes: new york cheeze cake (any cheeze cake from here is my favorite ), choco pistachio cake, steam egg white pudding, tiramisu (with rum eventually!!!) creme brulee (my favorite), many more...

I had been here so many time, i taste all the food. Overall i give them a very hight grade, they are clean, fresh,, hot and variety is good enough for me. Tonight i only have congee, 2 plates of Ceasar salad, 1 plate of dessert. not feeling too well tonight...what a WASTE!!!!

Last week, we went to this resturant again for Dinner Buffet. Why? My friend has HSBC Platium Visa and have Birthday coupon in the birthday month. The price has around 25% off for the whole bill with a cake and a wine for 4 people.

The seafood is good and fresh. The oyster is small but the crab is fine. I didn't try Sashimi since it is just average for my previous experience. For BBQ food, it tastes good and there is a counter for parama ham with melon. The instant noodle counter is always full of people and I tried this one this time. It is quite good. For dessert, selection is just constrainted to a limited type. The chocolate cake is very full and good.

Overall, this restaurant can keep the standard.

Two weeks ago, I went to this resturant to try dinner buffet because HSBC credit card had 25% off discount. Then, the price is around $400 per person and it was resonable. There was many food selection and variety. I have tried dim sum and instant noodles. Quite good !!!! I liked the BBQ food the best especially the steak.

However, if you went there for the normal price, it was a little bit expensive. As X'mas is coming, the price will be increased a little bit to reflect the popularity. !

went sunday lunch buffet-

environment: very very casual, lots of people, luckily, people dont act like they haven't eat for a week seating was comfy but dont expect anything grand;

service: very good, caring, good timing to fill the water and take away the plates- except u can always hear the waiters talking to each other about ... concerts, cars... ??

food: great! wide variety, both cold and hot dishes! i like the cold, shell-off prawn most- sooo sweet and fresh! ;D the beef were juicy, salad very fresh... but there's not much to choose from in the dessert area... the cheesecake was 'warm'

overall, it's a great place for family gathering and good food!