Essence  

Novotel Citigate in Tung Chung is famous for the cheaper buffet dinner for higher end hotels in HK. I decided to give it a try after frequent visits to Langham Place and Mandarin's buffet.

True to its price, you do get what you paid for. There's nothing much to clamor about the selection and taste. It's a basic buffet without the high end choices (ie: oysters, crab legs, etc).

The problem lies not with the food, because you are indeed paying a fraction of what other buffet places charge. I think the problem lies with the layout. Tung Chung being the shopping destination for mainland tourists, there will be a massive crowd to say the least. You will have to wait for the popular selection of sashimis and the meat counter.

The food is ok, it's just the crowd that makes a not so great experience.

Lunch buffet is a good choice for families and large parties. Be sure to make a reservation on weekends or during prime hours as the restaurant gets insanely crowded. The food selection is excellent for the most part (pasta/noodle station, hot food of mostly Chinese dishes, seafood area with smoked salmon, sushi and sashimi). The salad/cold food bar could use a bit of work as about half of the cold foods were meat-heavy, with limited choices for vegetarians.

Dessert was just okay, nothing special. Coffee was horrendous, but what can you expect really...

Located in Tung Chung, (considered as inconvenient for me!) I cant understand why it is always packed, even on weekdays.

I suppose the dessert selection is quite good, and the salad has quite a variety too, it has my favourite butter lettuce, not many places serve that.
As for sushi, it disappears very fast, the oysters are quite good.

The noodle bar is good when there is no queue, you select your choice of pasta, and the guy cooks it, one of the guys was quite cheeky, as I went twice, he asked me in away that he thought his cooking was not that good.

We were at the restaurant around 6:30pm, the starting time of the dinner buffet according to their signage. (were surprised there was already a roomful of people eating.) We were told by the staff they needed to place us in a dining room a bit farther from the serving area because they were fully booked and we did not have a reservation. We were fine with that. Actually, we became pleased with our seat location later on as the noise level in the main dining area kept going up.

The number of dishes to choose from, whether it was salads, hot food, or dessert, was not bad, considering it was a $188 dinner buffet. Don't expect a seafood galore. (We were fine with not having the seafood.)

The Romaine lettuce and mixed salad greens were decent. They were relatively crisp and fresh. There were also grilled eggplant, fruit/vegetable salads, and pasta salads. They tasted ok, a little bit bland. (We were glad we got there early. The salad table was located at the traffic hub of the restaurant.)
Hot food was mostly Chinese dishes. BBQ pork, sausages, roasted duck; stir-fry gai-lan; fried rice, curry chicken (fusion?), etc. Also, grilled sardines and potato gratin. 2 kinds of soups. They all tasted ok, nothing too shockingly good or bad. They were there to fill up your stomachs.
There was two cook-to-order stations next to each other. One for pasta and one for soup noodle. The ingredient choices for soup noodle was quite limited - lettuce, fish ball, meat dumplings, and 2-3 choices of noodles. Did not try the pasta.
There was of course the usual fare of smoked salmon and sashimi.
Desserts were their weakness, IMO. They were all on the sweet side and tasted one-dimensional. There were some limited choices of petit fruit tarts, egg tarts, and mousse, custards in tiny cups. The cakes were in rectangular shapes where people would serve themselves with whatever amount they want using cake server utensils. Usually, this kind of cake presentation at a buffet is an invitation to vandalization. An supposedly eye candy became an eye sore. There were traces of mousse cake (I think?) seen on the dessert area floor, which became a bit slippery.

The staff were pleasant and courtesy, given the environment they were in. Plates were cleared at a timely manner. Overall, the dinner buffet was just ok. Can you take that $188 (per person) and eat somewhere else with better quality of food? Sure. If you happen to be in that mall and fancy the "freedom" of a buffet-style dinner, this may worth a try. I wouldn't commute all the way there just to try the buffet.

This is the cheapest buffet with the most variety and both good quality of food and service I have ever had in Hong Kong. I went with my family last weekend on a Saturday for lunch (HK$128 per head). There were seafood including rock oysters, blue mussels, crawish. The oysters were fresh and the good thing was that chefs didn't open a lot in one time and let the oysters sit there. They opened the oysters on demand so they were quite fresh and clean (without being messed by other eaters). The salad and cold cut spread was good. Do try the roast beef. There were many hot dishes including Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Western. The dessert was good too. Overall my family was very happy with the price and food quality. Definitely will go again.

The enivronment was nice and clean too. Service was overall quite good. Must try!