Posts Tagged ‘Buffet’
December 13, 2009 | 
Author No. 35
Sofitel Melbourne
Lvl 35/55 Collins St, Melbourne
03 9653 7744
![IMG_3329 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IMG_3329-640x480.JPG "IMG_3329 [640x480]")
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.
![IMG_3330 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IMG_3330-640x480.JPG "IMG_3330 [640x480]")
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!![IMG_3333 [640x480]](../wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IMG_3333-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_3333 [640x480]")
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. ![IMG_3335 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IMG_3335-640x4801.JPG "IMG_3335 [640x480]")
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:
![IMG_3334 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IMG_3334-640x480.JPG "IMG_3334 [640x480]")
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.
![IMG_3336 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IMG_3336-640x480.JPG "IMG_3336 [640x480]")
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.
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Blackjacks
Cuisine: Buffet (Seafood, Breakfast, Sunday Roast, Asian style)
Top of the Queen Street Mall,
Brisbane
Ph: 1800 506 889
I’ve been to Black Jacks for the buffet at the Treasury Casino before. But they have recently renovated and apparently changed their buffet offerings. It used to be the same buffet every day, but who wants to be boring? Now there is a seafood buffet on Wednesdays and Thursdays, there’s also an Asian day (I feel loved) and also a Sunday roast buffet and Sunday breakfast buffet, strategically set on Sundays only. We went for the seafood buffet of course which is $49.90 for non-members or $39.90 for rewards members. The prices for the different buffets varies a little.
So its not the best seafood buffet in town, but I don’t think that’s what they’re trying for. It is probably one of, if not the cheapest. I’m going to try and do this as briefly as possible (I have 5 restaurants to post today, sorry Yang, I’ll try harder to spread these out next time! I promise!).
- The freshly cooked prawns – I wish I’d eaten more of these. It’s hard to go wrong with something like this, especally with lemon and seafood cocktail sauce.
- Bugs (Moreton Bay?) – They didn’t taste like anything. Like someone had washed all the natural flavour away. Bit disappointing.
- Mussels – These were okay. Nothing to complain about.
- Oysters – Again these were okay.
- Crab – While I didn’t eat this, it was reported to me that it was a bit like the bugs, not really any flavour. Must employ seafood sauce here but then that’s kind of pointless.
- Salt & Pepper Calamari – while standing around trying to decide what to put on my plate I heard another patron talk to the chef and exclaim that this was the best salt and pepper calamari he’d ever tasted. After trying it myself I have to come to the conclusion that either this person has never eaten salt and pepper calamari before in his life or if he has that someone lied to him and it wasn’t really salt and pepper calamari. This was probably the least impressive salt and pepper calamari I’ve ever eaten. Sure it was edible, but it just tasted like batter, and not even nice batter.
- All other sides: rice, pasta, roast veges, steamed/boiled veges, pasta salad – adequate for a lower priced buffet.
- Bread & Butter Pudding: I’ve said before this isn’t my favourite dessert, wasn’t too fussed with it Andy said it was okay.
- Carrot cake: I didn’t mind it, but I recently made one myself and it tastes so much nicer fresh out of the oven.
- Some kind of chocolate pudding: as you would expect
- Ice-cream: Total plus is that now they have more flavours of ice-cream!!! I had something with toffee and good ol’ vanilla. Sprinkles are a must.
- Brownie: Rich and brownie like. Good for chocoholics.
- Black Forest Cake: Again nothing to rave about, but nothing wrong with it.
- Apple Crumble: Difficult to go wrong with this, unless you forget to put apple in. Definately add custard and vanilla ice-cream if available.
- THE BEST DESSERT AT THE DESSERT BAR: Vanilla Mousse Custard thingy. I don’t really remember what it was called, but it came in a tiny little plastic cup, similar to a tiny sauce dish/container and sprinkled with what looked like pieces of pistashio or some such. This was so yummy I asked the next person going to the desserts to get me another one. They look ludicrously small, but I had to struggle eating two (however this was after eating a lot of food and tasting most of the desserts).
Langham Hotel
One Southgate Avenue
Southbank, Melbourne
A group of friends went to try Melba at Langham on Sunday night- I’ve heard many people rave about the yummie food in there so I was so so so so excited to go. Alas it wasn’t as yummie as it sounded. 
We arrived at about 5:40pm for our 5:30 booking (this restaurant has two seatings 5:30-7:30pm and 8:30 to I assume 10:30?). Most of the seafood are gone 
Some Asian tourists was on a grabfest right on the word go (and I can safely say this cos I am AZN ). Not that it matters because the oysters were not the freshest, the texture of the crab is a bit soft and clumpy, the sushi looks much worst than Aki and Nori Nori (i.e. looks like they are a day old, been refrigerated till the sushi rice is rock hard, raw fish in it is not fresh- at all). This is just the entree.
On to the mains- I went to the wok station and waited for ages- the stir fry was alright in a sense that it has the “wok” sensation- this is one of the things Chinese judge whether their stir fries are good- and mostly it’s thanks to the hotness of the stove. It’s wayyyyy too oily though and wayyyy to sweet AND salty at the same time. My friend even asked for less sauce and less oil but it turned out the same
By the time I waited for those two cooking stations it’s already approaching 7 (aka half an hour before kick out time). I quickly grab some duck pancakes (not as good as normal Peking duck but still OK) and head for dessert.
It seemed like EVERY man and their dog has this same aspiration of getting as much as they can on the dessert section, which has serious display issues as you can clearly see. They should have spread the dessert out rather than stack it like that- which means there will ever be only two people getting food or else you’ll be fighting. There’s lots of yummie gluten free options which is fantastic-orange gluten free cake is yummie yummie, so is the berry gluten free cake and chocolate cake. Other than that there are lots of fruity jelly mousey like stuff that I avoid, fruit tarts that are mediocre- they need to learn how to make real pastry. The chocolate fountain with marshmallow, profiteroles and strawberries sounded promising, but out of the three dips I only eat strawberries- and that’s what they don’t have. The chocolate is good though cos I had it with icecream (but only ate the bits with the chocolate cos the icecream is not that flash either).
But still I am hesitant to go back- my friends told me that it’s not that bad on Saturdays and I suppose I would be willing to try- if my complaint letter is actioned and I get a free meal outta it