I went with family for their brunch buffet and soon wished I'd gone elsewhere. 217 HKD + 10% service charge per person to get what must be one of the poorest buffets on offer by any (alleged) quality hotel in Hong Kong, and I've been...to a fair number of lunch buffets encompassing a big variety of prices in HK and overseas.
There was no real attempt to take our temperatures despite the covid risk, there were people going up to the buffet without face masks and without being told to put them on; the staff were generally surly and at 1430 hours when the buffet closes, the lights were suddenly turned off, the staff starting pressuring customers to pay the bills and there was a dreadful noise and clatter as the staff started to clear away platters and hot plates......all in the presence of customers. It was almost as if the staff were deliberately making a lot of noise and clamour. If that's supposed to be quality hotel/restaurant, I'd hate to be in one that supposedly isn't It was appalling.
As for the cuisine; it must be one of the few hotel buffets that didn't have a platter of cold prawns/shrimps and oysters. These are like standard fayre at quality HK hotels and almost expected by customers!
There was not a single curry dish, they had beef kebab which tasted more like dried biltong, many of the dishes were either a soggy mush or had dried out on the counter. There was very little choice of sushi dishes and those that were on offer had little taste and left me with the impression that they were dried out or perhaps made many hours before serving. There was fresh salmon and white fish but you couldn't take what you wanted.....it was sliced and dished out by a server who seemed to believe that two or three pieces per person were adequate. Not where I'm from!
I must say that the desserts were reasonable although certainly nothing special, but then there was what masqueraded as coffee. They had a coffee machine in which you got plain (weak) ground coffee which actually tasted more like it was from a jar of supermarket instant coffee. There was no choice of cappacino or latte or similar. One type and that was it. And no cream or fresh milk, none at all; just small packets of powdered creamer that you might expect in a workmans' cafe. It was frankly shocking. From a hotel that is purportedly a 4 star venue? Not from what I experienced.
But what bothered me the most was the attitude of the staff. Making the noise and clatter as they cleaned up at exactly 1430. I had the bill literally shoved in front of me for payment at this time, even though I and my family members still had food on the plates in front of them.
I fully understood that the buffet service only remained open until 1430, but they could have had some decency and been courteous and waited another fifteen or twenty minutes until the customers had actually completed their meal!
This is not a quality buffet nor is it quality service. I happen to live in Tung Chung very close to the hotel but I for one will never be back, not after that sort of treatment. There may be few hotels in the area, but there are certainly far better options when it comes to cuisine!More
