No. 35
Sofitel Melbourne
Lvl 35/55 Collins St, Melbourne
03 9653 7744

In the dizzying heights of the 35th Floor of Sofitel Melbourne, a trio is playing cheerful Christmas tunes while diners feast on tables laden with food and drank bottomless wine.  We watched for about 5 mins, waiting to be seated so we too, can start our feast.  Alas, our maitre’d is nowhere to be seen.  When he finally arrived and seated us, no one actually offered us anything to drink until we requested.  Not a very good first impression but the waiters were nonetheless very friendly and prompt when we asked- once or twice.

Food-wise, there wasn’t a huge number of selection for a $90 per head “sumptous brunch” we were promised from the website.  One thing I would certainly recommend is the Lobster and prawn bisque, paired with their freshly baked bread.  The bisque is creamy and seafoody without a horrible fishiness.  Whilst there are no lobster bits in it, it’s a nice surprise to have this in a buffet menu.  Hubby and I had two each!

Other than the lobster bisque, there are only the usual suspects, such as oysters- I am not game enough to try buffet oysters, which are normally not as fresh.  Hubby said that they are alright for buffet standard.

My entree recommendations would be the beef salad, deliciously and generously covered in sesame seed oil, and eaten with some crunchy crackers- Addictive!  There’s also seared tuna with a Japanese seaweed salad- now this is very rare in the middle, so for non-sashimi lover, it might not be the greatest choice.

I quite like the haloumi with grilled vegies also, but what you really don’t want to try are any of the noodle salad and sushis- it’s quite dry.

Onto the mains, I would actually not recommend any thing from there.  There were only 8 or so mains to choose from, 3 of which are steamed vegies, roasted vegies and some potato.  I overheard a patron quietly asking his wife, “Is that all there is for mains?”  Well, no not really, if you count the roast section, which features completely inedible tough beef or overcooked bland salmon wrapped in wombok and puff pastry.

Anyway, enough of the roast section, lemme bitch about the mains:

Asian noodles with soy sauce, oyster sauce, honey, chilli- I don’t understand why people would consider throwing all these sauces together would mean that it’s Asian.  Without the balance of flavours it’s just stuff jumbled up together.

Fish baked with herbs and mussel sauce- the fish is much too overcooked, the mussels are fine.

Ravioli with roasted vegetables- it’s fairly tasteless urgggghhh.

Chicken rolled with mushroom and truffles actually taste good, but sadly it’s once again way too overcooked so it’s quite tough.

We moved onto desserts after the disappointing mains- the dessert isn’t too bad, but it’s not special.  Mandarin Creme Brulee tastes great, but it’s a bit overcooked.  The berry champagne jelly shot is really yummy, but the flourless chocolate cake is disgusting.  I’ve also tried the raspberry and apple crumble and it’s really watery.

Let’s just say I wouldn’t be much of a hurry to go back to No. 35 again.