Woooo, the day after I arrived back in Hong Kong , I was off to have CNY dinner at the hardest to book buffet in town! Replacing the previous fine dining Spanish establishment, The Grand Buffet now sits high up on the 62nd floor of the Hopewell centre in Wan Chai. Boasting 360 degree views of Hong Kong, the restaurant revolves ever so slowly, completing one rotation in two hours so don't worry you won't get motion sickness
Lift entrance to lobby
The restaurant is so beautifully decorated, all beige marble, sandstone walls engraved with the station of food, big spacious tables and the light accents are too chic to not mention.
For those that enjoy a glass of liquor, The Grand Buffet has implemented an automated showcase where guests can use a pre-paid card to select their favourite champagne/wine/sake/plum wine to enjoy with their meal.
As for food selection, let's take a look shall we ;) Be warned there is numerous photos and best not to view when hungry.
Seasonal tomatoes and mozzerella cheese
Caesar salad mixing station
Succulent duck breast
My favourite foie gras terrine, so so smooth~
Smoked salmon
Assorted sushi rolls and nigiri
Or for those that want to skip the rice, a sashimi bar is right next to it where a sushi chef is all ready to slice off luscious slices of fatty salmon, yellowtail, large size Hokkaido scallops, sweet shrimp and tuna.
Don't just fill up on sashimi when there's a whole blue room dedicated to serving you seafood up the stairs. A selection of Boston lobsters, snow crab claws, whole bread crabs, cockles, mussels and three types of freshly shucked oysters from the US, France or whatever is freshly delivered that day. 3 per serve per person so each guest is able to enjoy these briny treats without waiting too long and since it is a buffet you can always line up again.
And a little reveal to show how much roe goodness is inside those bread crabs~
The seafood doesn't just end there... head over to the live big head prawn blanching station where they scoop them from the tank and cook them fresh. These were my favourite, juicy, sweet and I loved sucking the goodness from the head.
If you need a break from seafood, there are plenty of other things to tempt you.
A whole roasted prime rib
Chinese BBQ selection: char siu, soya chicken, roast goose and that suckling pig has the most crunchy crackling~
Or some dim sum whose quality is equal or even surpasses those from a Michelin starred Chinese restaurant, but then again the dim sum masters here previously worked in one of those restaurants *cough Sun Tong Lok cough*
Just look at the translucence of that dumpling skin on this spinach and prawn dumpling~
Some delicious tempura with a thin crunchy layer of batter and surprisingly not very oily.
What is a buffet without a collection of bain maries of hot food?
This double boiled cockles, chicken feet and pork soup was so sweet and flavourful, I had to have two bowls of this.
Whole steamed fish
Grilled sea bass and lobster claws
Brown sauce braised sea cucumber, mushrooms and lettuce. The sea cucumber was slippery smooth and on different days the sea cucumber alternates with abalone. This is a dish where guests stand and wait for this to be replenished.
Sauteed Boston lobster
For the spice lovers, there's a curry station.
Beef Korma
And finally we made it to desserts
Assorted fruit. Can eat it the healthy way or...
...you can dip it into the molten chocolate from this stunning chocolate fondue machine. Not too dark and not too sweet, a perfect balance.
Assorted cakes, pastries and handmade chocolates.
Madelines and friands.
These macarons are definitely worth a mention. Not only is the display pretty, but the quality of these macarons are top notch since they are made by one of their affiliate restaurants Joel Robuchon.
Assorted flavours caramel, vanilla, raspberry, lemon.
Don't fret ice-cream lovers, there is also an ice-cream station with a server displaying her arm strength through chopping and sraping your choice of ice-cream and toppings on an icy teppanyaki plate. Ice-cream is also from Joel Robuchon and let's just say the vanilla bean flavour is divine~
Dinner is currently priced at $658 + 10% and I have heard how difficult it has been to make a reservation via the phone so I would suggest to head up to the restaurant itself and make one directly with the helpful staff.
Such a huge post. Hope you enjoyed it