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cafe TOO

4

4

501 Reviews

Taste

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22364

Admiralty

$401-800

Western Buffet Hotel Restaurant

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Picky Couple

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We had been frequent visitors to Cafe TOO for lunch buffet given its pancake station, Haagen Dazs ice-cream station, delicious desserts and reasonably wide variety of hot dishes of reasonable quality.We called to make a reservation in the morning for the same-day lunch buffet on a normal weekday. It was not full at all but it was obviously not a special day without any specific theme/special food items. The cost was $398 + 10%.We arrived slightly earlier than 12p.m. when lunch buffet would start

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We had been frequent visitors to Cafe TOO for lunch buffet given its pancake station, Haagen Dazs ice-cream station, delicious desserts and reasonably wide variety of hot dishes of reasonable quality.

We called to make a reservation in the morning for the same-day lunch buffet on a normal weekday. It was not full at all but it was obviously not a special day without any specific theme/special food items. The cost was $398 + 10%.

We arrived slightly earlier than 12p.m. when lunch buffet would start, so we had some time to walk around and take some photos.

As soon as you enter the restaurant, you will be greeted by this cold seafood bar. We didn't try any of the crabs while my lunch partner tried the shrimps. He said that the shrimps were not good at all as they lacked fresh taste and only offered a meaty texture. The below average mark was given to the shrimps.

Sashimi (北寄貝, salmon, tuna & octopus)

There were 4 types of sashimi (北寄貝, salmon, tuna & octopus). 北寄貝 was ok. I asked for more and the server really gave me loads. Salmon, tuna and octopus were just a pass.

I only ate eel sushi, which were quite dry. There could have been more sauce on them.

There was a salad corner with special Thai-style appetizers which I didn't take photos of.

On the other side of the restaurant, you will be greeted by this Mega Steam Basket, followed by hot dishes.

鳳爪,素餃,蝦餃

The dim sum in general tasted better than I thought! 鳳爪tasted ok while the wrap of the veggie dumpling and shrimp dumpling was too thick. The quality was reasonable for buffet like this.

There was a special counter just for these 小籠包. Although there was quite a lot of soup, the soup no longer had yummy ginseng flavour as before. I was quite disappointed.

Chinese fried rice and Chinese soup

I didn't try these fried rice or Chinese soup.

Chinese hot dishes

I tried the sweet and sour pork which was too hard.

滷水燒味BBQ

My lunch partner tried some chicken and roasted goose which were too dry and below average. I tried a piece of half fatty char siu which was ok.

Then here you go Western hot dishes.

Western hot dishes

Roasted beef bone

There were Brussels sprouts! We hadn't eaten them in such a long time and it was good that we finally met our good old friends! We used to like the roasted beef bone a lot! However, the roasted beef bone this time was so dry, lacking beef flavour and not juicy at all! My lunch partner said maybe it was not fatty enough. My humble opinion was that it was too raw? Anyway I was pretty disappointed. The ox-tail was not tender enough.

Tempura, sweet and sour pork and 柱侯牛筋腩

There was a tempura station which I didn't take photo of. The fish and prawn tempura were really freshly deep fried but the batter was too thick.
柱侯牛筋腩 was served at the noodle bar. They were ok, just slightly salty but I guess it was because they were supposed to be mixed with noodles.

We took a bowl of Chinese soup each when we heard a bell from the Chinese soup station. It was 海底椰 something. The soup was quite salty. Not good at all.

There was a noodle bar station with quite some choices of vegetables and meat. I only tried the spinach in this laksa soup was quite spicy indeed!

There were also a teppan station and Indian station which I didn't take photos of nor try any of the food given my limited room in stomach.

I felt quite dry in my mouth after eating just a little bit of hot dishes and then quickly turned to desserts.

Lovely dessert station!

Haagen Dazs Ice-cream station

HD strawberry ice-cream, raspberry sorbet & macaron

I first asked for a pancake from the pancake station but I was told that it wouldn't be served before 1pm. So I asked for 2 HD ice-cream scoops of strawberry and raspberry sorbet with a macaron first! There could just be no complaint about the ice-cream.

Red bean with green tea mousse, Mango coconut sticky rice, Apricot oolong tea jelly

Cafe TOO always serves these 3 desserts.
The red bean with green tea mousse was yummy as always. Very light and smooth green tea mousse!
The mango coconut sticky rice was a bit heavy.
The apricot oolong tea jelly was just soso. The taste was so plain comparatively.

Cheesecake, Tiramisu, Berry tarts

The cheesecake was just a pass as i think it could have been thicker.
The Tiramisu was ok.
The berry tarts tasted quite good, although the tart base could have been even more crispy and tasty. It was ok given that it was buffet.

I tried strawberry and green tea macarons which were slightly crispy outside and moist inside.

I asked another server who told me that pancake could be made any time! So I managed to get one before 1p.m. This pancake had blueberries and strawberries inside with HD strawberry and chocolate ice-cream as toppings. This pancake was crispy and there were loads of blueberries and strawberries inside. However, I personally preferred soft pancake.

This pancake was soft. I don't know how they decided to make you crispy or soft pancake. I didn't ask for how they should be cooked specifically. It went great with HD ice-cream and fresh berries!

The bread pudding was quite good with loads of sliced almonds. It smelt and tasted so strong of egg and milk! Yummy!

HD mango and strawberry ice-cream

When we came on busy/special days, there could be a long queue for ice-cream. It was not so full the day we went so it was quite easy to ask for ice-cream scoops from the server. If there could have been supplies of toppings like almond slices or nuts on the ice-cream scoops it would be even better!

Overall, I think the quality of the hot dishes had deteriorated, e.g. roasted beef bones, steamed dumpling with soup etc, which was really quite disappointing. Despite the still delicious desserts and HD ice-cream station, I found this place offering a poorer value of money especially when you come with no special offers. There were better choices in town given the price.

(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)

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DETAILED RATING

Taste

Decor

Service

Hygiene

Value

Date of Visit

2018-04-17

Dining Method

Dine In

Spending Per Head

$438 (Lunch)

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