saw the discount coupon thingy on OpenRice. 25% off regular price, plus unlimited soft drinks or beer. good deal.
with this kinda deal, i know i have to be "strategic" in fishing out the good stuff to make my meal worth its price. in gist, you come here, don't expect what you'd get in Cafe 2, Cafe on the 1st, or any top notch buffet places. you are only paying HKD200 per person, and thatz HALF of the normal so-called high-end price.
i walked into the restaurant slightly after 7. not full - which to a certain extent is a good thing, you wont have noisy chumps eating franticly around you and fighting for food.
here are some of the stuff i found worth mentioning: -
oysters - both cooked and raw. fresh, better than standard quality. i read from previous comments saying they arent fresh, have to wait, bla bla... HEY, be fair. when have you ever walked into a buffet that doesnt require you to wait a little for the good stuff? and of course there would be a few pieces that would be looking less good from every platter right? i helped myself with several rounds of oysters, each time 3-4 pieces. not bad at all. the cooked ones are prepared fresh, so that required a bit of waiting.
fries - freshly prepared again. more impressively, apart from the boring KETCHUP, they have several choices of mayonnaise to choose from as dip. Not even cafe 2 has it. 1 point le cafe~
beef - from previous posts there were comments about their roast beef tasted like beef jerkies. i had 2 rounds - i must say they have improved! well it is nowhere near fabulous - but tender, and not dry - up to standard la, not something that deserves negative comments.
concerning beef, i am SURE alot of people missed out on this - right beside where they cooked the soup noodles, they actually have a section where they make jap-style pan-fried steaks!! now thatz a thumbs up - you can have the steak done according to your own preference, and the beef itself is not bad too. tip - after getting your beef from this counter, go find some garlic from the soup noodles section. perfect match with the beef.
soup - i am not a big fan, but i wanna mention their soup coz it is HOT! alot of places only serve warm soup, but here they dont have this problem. thumbs up!
pizza - freshly made pizza! another thing that is quite rare for buffets.
pan-fried shrimp - looks are better than tastes. not to the point you can say they are STALE - but not as attractive as the restaurant has projected them to be.
sushi n other cold dishes - standard. but they do refills quite fast.
desserts - the cakes are pretty impressive (for a middle range buffet, that is) and they have hot bread puddings - they are made fresh, so it is hard for them to taste bad anyway. ice cream - thumbs down. totally get the feeling that i am eating CHEAP ice cream. ugh.
hot dishes - sorry to say, but i didnt even bother to go thru them. not attractive at all. (as some of the previous comments have mentioned)
thatz about it. to conclude, they do have several impressive features, and they also have alot of their food made fresh - and when food is made fresh, it cant taste THAT bad. be strategic if you want to have your value for money - i had mine.
remarks - good service. fast plate changing, and the staff is quite polite too. 2 hours free parking at the hotel!! impressive!!! (3rd hr onwards charges HKD30)
Cooking requires HEART. Eating does too.