i normally do not care much for buffet – it is foodlover’s hell with a range of frozen food on display, chicken recycled several times from steamed to fried and finally trickled down to chef’s salad, and just about everything greased up for cheaper calorie count. but once every year, my family would have buffet lunch together to celebrate christmas/new year, as we do get a pretty good kick from the idea of “eating anything as much as we want”. it is straight up overindulgence.
this year we chose the new kowloon hyatt as our buffet venue. hyatt was previously located in the canton road side of TST, but rising rental has forced the hotel to relocate to TST east, and it now shares 3/F-5/F with a new designer-concept shopping mall called K11.
cozy interior with rosewood shields and warm lighting
the small restaurant was packed with locals by the time we arrived. the food tables were fairly spaced out, so there wasn’t any long line formed other than the seafood section.
salad section – very run-of-the-mill salad selection that included potato salad and caesar.
seafood section – crayfish, baby lobster, clam, mantis shrimp, cocktail shrimp, whelk, and snow crab claw. whelks and mantis shrimps were surprisingly delightful, whereas the rest tasted like the shaved ice that they had been stored in.
chinese food section – bbq pork, chicken, suckling pig, noodles made-to-order, dim sum, fried spare ribs, and a few other traditional chinese dishes. i was quite surprised to see tan tan noodles made to order.
teppanyaki & tempura section - mushroom, shitake, chicken, asparagus wrapped in bacon, and beef on the teppanyaki side; yam, mushroom, and shrimp on the tempura side. teppanyaki was okay but tempura definitely a highlight - the batter was airy, aromatic, and did not feel greasy at all. it’s probably one of the best tempura i’ve had in hong kong other than inagiku.
dessert section – there were at least 15 desserts to choose from, including froyo/ice-cream. while most desserts were pretty mediocre and the christmas log cake was pathetic, opera cake was amazing!
come to mama!
overall food quality was okay. i have had better buffet at cafe too of island shangri-la and harbourside of intercontinental, but a few dishes at cafe hyatt were worth noting, such as tempura and burger meet patties. i felt the dessert section was probably its strongest as both opera cake and mango pudding really stood out. food selection was excellent; there were not many dishes at each table, but the variety of cuisine from indian to japanese was impressive. i totally pigged out – having been sick and bedridden for three days, i needed to recoup body mass (i do not model for christopher bailey or karl lagerfeld!) and build strength for baking/social events ahead!
i swinged by work after lunch and found a surprise x’mas gift on my desk:
secret santa
i have always wanted to invest in some gimmicky kitchenware but just couldn’t convince myself to pay the price premium. i know who you are, secret santa. thanks so much!
this will be my last entry for the year of 2011. i have crammed many to-do’s into this year, only to finish with more new to-do’s; i fear not being able to complete all my to-do’s, but maybe it is the outstanding to-do’s that breathe purpose into our life.
yes of course you know what i mean. happy new year, everyone.
