Cafe Too Tea Buffet

It seems tea buffet at Cafe Too had a price increase. But I have re-gained my confidence of eating at Island Shangri-La. Unlike the terrible experience at Waterside Terrace the other time, Cafe Too is much closer to 5-star.

Tea buffet is relatively inexpensive, though my boss said we may be eating the left overs from lunch buffet. Anyway, what I enjoy is keep eating. I still have one cash coupon, so I paid very little for a very nice tea buffet.

My table was nearby the Indian corner, and I had fun watching the chef making naan breads. See video below. Kind of playing magic!

OK, here is my naan bread. Does it look nice?
To go with the naan bread, there are spicy fish sauce, sweet mango sauce and couple other sauces. And of course we enjoyed the chicken and vegetable curry. Though we were busy eating with fingers, it was fun playing around with the naan bread.
Spicy fish sauce and sweet mango sauce
The noodle booth is also next to my table. I also enjoy watching the chef taking orders and producing a bowl of hot and delicous noodle in just minutes or even seconds.

Here is my cooked-to-order Minced Meat Noodle with Black Fungi. A little bit sour but yummy.
The other ingredients available are vegetables and meats.
Guests just placed an a la carte order, and the bowl of noodle will be ready very soon. Of course there are various kind of sauces for guests to add on.
Dessert lovers should find their favourites here. Ice creams of various flavour, tarts and cakes, fresh fruits, instantly made pancakes...Thai sytle pomelo salad, mango and sticky rice in coconut sauce, Japanese shushi and sashimi...The Chinese corner is relatively less attractive with some finger foods, fish and chip, and some dim sum.
Finally, I really enjoy making the Malaysian Kacang madly with the plenty of ingredients provided. The one I have here contains laichee, mango, pineapple, coconut meat, grass jelly, red beans, milk and coconut juice. Unfortunately the service lady was busy and didn't provide me with ice. Well I'm still very happy with it.
To wrap my my tea buffet with a cup of cappuccino, I was extremely full and had to go to the nearby Hong Kong Park to walk off some food.

Cafe Too
7/F Island Shangri-La
Tea Buffet only available on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays, 3.30-5.30pm
HK$268 (US$34.4) + 10% service fee for each person

Hong Kong Food Blog - Tea Buffet at Cafe Too

5-star Hotel Dining Experience

If you think that dining experience at 5-star hotels are always 5-star, wrong!

I’m a health club member of Island Shangri-la and I swim there almost everyday. I receive some dining coupons recently and thought I should take my friends there because the poolside restaurant environment is really nice. Unfortunately that was the only strength they had. Food and services had no way to impress.

The table I booked was completely empty when we arrived. They offered us another table which had only two settings while I booked for four. We had to wait for 30 minutes to have the table fully set.

The food was unreasonably expensive, comparing to their quality. The $240 sea bass was next to rotten. I assume any professional chef should be able to tell that fish was not fresh enough to be served on any dining table. Pomelo salad, Phad Thai, chicken, spring rolls were just so so. The wanton in Tom Yam soup was not bad but $155 for only 6 wantons was just too expensive.

They didn’t re-fill water though the four of us were completely dry. They also didn’t remove/replace used/empty dishes. Our table was such a mess. Any high street fast food shop in Hong Kong could provide better services. In fact we were the only group of guests that evening, apart from the single gentlemen who enjoyed his cigar more than food. What are the excuses for poor services and poor food?

Pomelo Salad ($180)

Wan Ton in Tom Yam Soup ($155)

Spring Rolls ($85) Thought this is the cheapest on the menu
Chicken in Leaves ($85)Stir Fried Noodle ($165)
Any Thai restaurant in Hong Kong can produce something more delicious than this.The next-to-rotten Sea Bass ($240)
The strong sauce couldn't hide the unfreshness of the fish!Mango with Sticky Rice and Ice Cream
I gave it a 'marginal pass'. One of my guests who was Thai Chinese didn't agree with me. She graded it 'failed'. Perhaps this was the only strength of the restaurant. We oversaw the pool and the Bank of China while eating. As the restaurant was almost empty, I was free to borrow another table to take this photo. As the table we ate was in such a mess.
After all, my Thai Chinese friend said she never eat fishes in Thai restaurants as she's from Bangkok and she knows that Thai chefs are generally no good in cooking fishes. I thought she didn't tell me this out of courtesy while I picked the dishes.

Waterside Terrace

8/F Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong

HK$1,083 (incl. 10% service fee)(US$138.8)

Hong Kong Food Blog - Poor Hotel Food

Mango Mille Feuille

Do you love Mille Feuille? I love Mille Feuille and mango. The chef therefore decided to tailor-make one for us with lots of mango. I have a cake coupon from Island Shangri-La so I ordered this birthday cake for my sister-in-law free of charge. Very crunchy but not too sweet.

Mango Mille Feuille

Apart from the traditional layers of puff pastries, the chef offered us more mango inside! Wow, yummy! Thanks for the creativity.

Hong Kong Food Blog - Mille Feuille

Cotton Candy at Tea Buffet

Tea Buffet date: August 15, 2009
3.30pm to 5.30pm – only on Saturdays and Sundays
Cost: HK$218 (US$28) per person, plus 10% service charge
Restaurant name: Café Too, 7/F Island Shangri-La
Restaurant telephone: 852- 2877 3838

The old Hong Kong street side snack here reminds me of my childhood. In the past at least three decades, I haven’t seen this made-to-order cotton candy and yesterday I found it at the tea buffet at Island Shangri-La. Take a look at the follow video. Only a few seconds, a spoonful of white sugar was turned into a large lump of cotton candy.

The tea buffet here has a very wide selection of Cantonese dim sum as well as many delicious Chinese snacks, made-to-order noodles with ingredients of your choice. Japanese corner has sashimi, sushi and soba.

You must love the desserts here. The chef will do pancakes and cotton candies for you. Kids can create their own toppings on cakes. The wide selection of fruits and ice cream will certainly make dessert lovers excited.

懷舊綿花糖製作過程, 只需幾秒
Video - Cotton Candy Making

Chocolate Fountains Cookies Colourful Jellies My assorted desserts My sister's assorted desserts Woo, my Number One choice of today!
I give it a super distinction - Deep Fried Chicken WingsFlat Spring Rolls 付皮卷

Spring Rolls 春卷
Fish Fillets 炸魚柳
Potato Cakes with Mushrooms 薯餅 Hong Kong Food Blog - Tea Buffet

Hong Kong Buffet Lunch - Metropark Hotel

Though I don't eat much, but I love buffet. I pick Metropark Hotel to do my lunch buffet today because it has my favourite desserts. I always think that their chef is from Macau. So far this is the only hotel buffet which I find professional Macau desserts and I do love them. Let's have a quick preview of my buffet lunch today. All these are my favourite dishes, in addition to roast beef, spaghetti, sashimi and soba.

Wide Range of Desserts

Serradura and Steamed Egg Custard 木糠布甸

Steamed Milk Custard - very yummy 雙皮奶

Onion Soup and French Toasts are best partners

洋蔥湯/法式多士 The onion soup tastes good, except too oily

I love deep fried fish fillets 炸魚柳

Roast Ribs with Soft Bones 焗豬軟骨

Stewed Boneless Chicken 雞件

Pan Fried Chinese Pancake 蛋餅

Assorted Vegetables 雜菜

Adult: HK$99 + 10% service charge

Metropark Hotel

41 Hennessy Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2861 1166

Discounts will be offered for online booking

Hong Kong Food Blog - Lunch Buffet

Hong Kong Lunch Buffet

Lunch date: May 15, 2009
Restaurant: Marriott Cafe, 1/F JW Marriott, Pacific Place
Cost: HK$260 (US$33.3) per person + 10% service charge

Buffets in Hong Kong usually include some Chinese food. In Marriot Cafe, their signature dish - stewed fish maw - is rarely found elsewhere. My colleague had a promotion recently and take us here for celebration. It's my first time to try the fish maw here, its really good. At the Chinese food corner, I also like the Hai Nan Chicken Rice which is very professionally done. The noodle corner is also my favourite. I pick the ingredients and the chef cook for me immediately. Let's have a quick browse of my buffet today.

Stewed Fish Maw with Assorted Mushrooms 花膠

Noodle Corner
My Cuttlefish Noodle, with toppings of my choice
自選墨魚面

Cold Cut / Starter

Lots of Seafoods

Japanese Corner

Sashimi, Sushi, Soba...and so on

Desserts

Pancakes

Hong Kong Food Blog - Hotel Buffet

My Favourite Dim Sum

Today at Banyan Gardin in the Wesley Hotel, I found a new dish which looked very beautiful and delicious - seafood tart. My favourite stuffed eggplant became dual with stuffed chilli, however still very yummy.

Baked Seafood Tart 海鮮Tart

Pan Fried Stuffed Eggplant and Chilli 煎釀雙寶
Hong Kong Chinese Food - Hotel Dim Sum

Nightmare Hotel Dim Sum Lunch

Lunch Date: July 27, 2008

Restuarant: Summer Palace, 5/F Island Shangri-La, Queensway, Hong Kong

Number of people: Two

Cost: HK$726 (US$93)

Anna's comment: I usually don't recommend people doing dim sum at hotels. Today I am pulling my legs and had a nightmare. All because I've renewed my health club membership and was offered a HK$500 coupon to eat at any outlet within Island Shangri-La, so I took my sister there for a Sunday dim sum lunch.

At the beginning things went on quite normally. However after an hour we've placed our desssert order, only the sponge cake turned up. After a few following up, we were told that they placed a wrong order. So they quickly rush to do my green bean syrup which upset me totally. It was completely lousy, untidy and ugly with the green bean splashed all over the bowl and the plate. Even fast food shops won't produce something that ugly and unpresentable. It was so ugly that it killed my appetite, and I didn't even care to take a photo of it. My sister's sago pudding took ridiculously long to do. I thought even they went to the market and bought flour after receiving our order, it shouldn't take an hour to deliver.

We sat in the restaurant waiting for an hour for wrong order and ugly food with superior high price - wasn't the end of our nightmare. We spent another half an hour to deal with the bill. Because they placed a wrong order and asked us to pay for the coconut milk which was 50% more expensive than my green bean syrup. After all, we were extremely upset and decided not to go there any more. Even so, I want to alert my blog readers not to visit this restaurant - it's a waste of money and time, as well as killing your fun for eating. You would never expect to have such terrible experience in a five-star hotel!

Chicken in Wine 醉鷄 - HK$150 (US$19.2)

Shrimp Dumpling 蝦餃 - HK$60 (US$7.7)
Shark Soup Dumpling 魚翅灌湯餃 - HK$75@ (US$9.6@)
Vegetarian Fried Rice 荷葉素炒飯 - HK$60 (US$7.7)
Spong Cake 蛋黃千層糕 - HK$48 (US$6.2)
Sago Pudding - took an hour and 10 minutes to arrive

HK$50 (US$6.4)

Green Bean Syrup - too ugly to take a photo - took an hour to arrive

HK$50 (US$6.4)

Hong Kong Chinese Food