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2018-01-02
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I had heard that InterContinental Harbourside offered buffet of high quality food albeit being relatively pricey. So I was really looking forward to this New Year Eve dinner to please my tongue to celebrate the end of 2017 and to welcome the new year of 2018.Had to book and prepay for our session of 6p.m. to 8:30p.m. We arrived at 5:57p.m. and had to line up to enter the restaurant. I was quite discontent about this because they should have let people in earlier so that there was no line. Having
Had to book and prepay for our session of 6p.m. to 8:30p.m. We arrived at 5:57p.m. and had to line up to enter the restaurant. I was quite discontent about this because they should have let people in earlier so that there was no line. Having said that, we didn't have to wait for too long.
We were brought to a table at the very end of the restaurant near the staircase. Although we had requested 2 kids' highchairs in advance, we had to wait for quite a while for them to set them up. I expected that they should have already set the high chairs up before we arrived. Anyway, the kids' highchairs were really comfortable. My very active almost 28-month-old son managed to sit still most of the time while my almost 5-month-old baby daughter slept through our meal most of the time too, allowing us time to enjoy the food.
As you could imagine, there were lines queuing for food right from the very beginning, although we arrived so early. One of the bad things of this restaurant was that the food was too centralized (one appetizers area, one hot dishes area and one desserts area), unlike Cafe TOO at Island Shangrila where the queues were more manageable despite more guests because the food was more decentralized. Some people might prefer more centralized presentation of food though, but I really hate wasting time queuing, especially when the time was limited to 2.5 hours.
Ok back to the food I tried.
Uni Rolls
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Quite high quality of Uni given that it was a buffet! Fresh without any weird taste! But you wouldn't have the room to finish all the rice underneath the uni! And the way they presented them was so not generous. Hubby said they were presented openly at the very beginning but then you could no longer see them and you need to ask the chef.
Scallop, 象拔蚌, prawn & salmon sashimi
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They also had tuna sashimi but I didn't try. Very average quality of sashimi. Just couldn't taste the fresh seafood
taste of these sashimi. Salmon was the best among them. I think I just had 2 rounds and then gave up.
燕窩海鮮羹
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Just a little bit of birds' nest. But then how much should you expect? The soup itself tasted ok. Couldn't find much seafood though.
These baked oysters were ok. Could tell that the oysters were fresh.
Lobsters & Crabs
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Very disappointing. The lobster was tasteless!! The crab meat tasted better though.
Roasted Beef Bone
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Roasted Beef Bones
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Hubby's favourite: roasted beef bones. He ordered a few rounds. I liked them too! But those at Cafe TOO were better!
Hot Dishes
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Comparatively, hot dishes seemed to be better.
Hot dishes I tried:
- Baked lobster with cheese: better than those cold lobster with the cheese sauce & spinach!
- Beef curry: ok
- Korean-style beef: the sauce was a bit sweet & sour. The beef was tender too. Yummy!
- Japanese-style fish: very yummy. It tasted a bit sweet. It was so smooth! I liked it!
- Chinese-style steamed fish: ok
- Abalone with chicken: I couldn't find any abalone at all and eventually took a piece of abalone-shaped chicken -.-
- Lamb rack: ok. Crispy outside and tender inside!
Hot Dishes
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More hot dishes. I ate more of those which I found yummy like Japanese-style fish, steamed fish and baked lobster with cheese, but the latter two were less yummy than my first round.
New food I tried included: the baked oyster which was ok; The tempura really sucked. They were so cold and the batter was super thick. Almost the worst tempura I had ever tried; The steamed scallop also sucked. The scallop was so dry.
Pan-fried foie gras with pineapple
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It was quite a new idea to serve with pineapple. But I found it ok only. The exterior of the foie gras could have
been more crispy (maybe because they had prepared them in advance for quicker turnover at buffet). I also found it not fatty enough.
Desserts
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My first round of desserts!! There were lots of choices and most I tried were good!
-Haagen Dazs ice-cream on waffle: My favourite HD ice-cream. However, there were only 6 flavours being chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, coffee, mango sherbet & another sherbet. The waffle was ok only. Not warm nor crispy.
-Cheese cake: very very smooth & soft. Better than those I ate at Cafe TOO
-Mango Napoleon: I think it's the best Napoleon I had ever tried. even better than those at Peninsula. Yummy custard & mangoes with crispy slices! i had 2 big pieces!
-Raspberry tart: not my favourite type of butter cookie tart base
Couldn't recall the remaining two. But the raspberry ball tasted good too!
Pancake with ice-cream & fruits
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Then I ordered a pancake and asked for 4 scoops of HD ice-cream including 2 strawberry, 1 chocolate and 1 mango sherbet. I added loads of fresh strawberries & mangoes as well as almond slices. The almond slices really went along great with ice-cream. However the pancake itself was really so-so and didn't offer yummy sweet and egg taste at all. It was also too wet (maybe due to the fruits I added). They also didn't help add ice-cream onto/inside the pancake when I asked. Worse than Cafe TOO pancake which was my favourite!
Desserts
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More desserts! I had another portion of Napoleon! Also tried:
-Pistachio panna cotta with oats & fruits. This one was great. Very smooth panna cotta with strong flavour of
pistachio. The addition of oats gave it extra crispy texture! Good idea!
-Also ate 2 pieces of chocolate cake. One was like chocolate mousse cake while another was covered by nuts. I love
chocolates with nuts!
Chocolate Souffle
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Suddenly heard a bell and then found that they were serving freshly made chocolate souffle. They were actually better than a lot of those served at other buffets but I found them too dry. Should have added some sauce to it.
Desserts
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HD ice-cream encore with loads of almond slices.
Also tried a cheese tart which was ok only.
Tried a berry macaron and a green tea macaron. The macaron was really really GREAT! Maybe the best I had ever had at buffet. Crispy outside with loads of fresh ingredients yet not overly sweet.
Forgot what the yellow star-shaped cake was exactly, which was like a sponge-cake with some fruit jelly in the middle. Not my favourite type of cake.
Macaron
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More delicious macaron!
Only had time to take a picture of the restaurant from G/F when we were leaving. They were busy preparing for another round of buffet.
Undeniably the view of the restaurant was incredible, possessing the best view of the Victoria Harbour & skyscrapers in HK, especially great for festive seasons like New Year Eve. However, service was not so attentive, with reasons I have cited at the beginning of this commentary (i.e. lines entering the restaurant, kids' high chairs) and also the fact that they didn't clean up our table with all the finished plates piled up timely enough.
Food quality was also quite disappointing especially the cold seafood and appetizers. Only the desserts were worth recommendations with a lot of choices and good quality.
The high premium on the New Year Eve all went to the time of dining rather than spreading some to the food items. They even cancelled the free welcome drinks! Anyway, for food like this level of quality and variety I would definitely prefer Cafe TOO of Island Shangrila a lot more, which offered better sashimi, better pancake, more HD ice-cream flavours, and similar choices & quality of desserts. The decentralized presentation of food at Cafe TOO also made the queues more manageable. Harbour view really mattered much less to me for buffet meals.
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