Eating at a five-star hotel restaurant is very enjoyable and exciting in itself. Even more so if it is a restaurant buffet of a five-star hotel chain that is recognized all over the world.
So, let’s have a look at some of the seafood items on offer, as well as the price of the buffet.
In my experience, I’ve been to quite a few hotel buffets, at least 4 to 5 stars. For example, I’ve been to Chinese Fusion Dim Sum Buffet, Continental Buffet, High Tea, Christmas Eve, New Year, etc. I usually went for a promotion price, and I used various apps to get a discount coupon for a hotel restaurant.
I usually like buffet-style restaurants, but the price range that I am comfortable with is $20-$25 (RM80-RM100). If the quality and variety are both excellent, I am fine with paying a bit more. However, for a 4 star or higher hotel, you should expect a price of over about US$40 (RM160++).
So I go to all kinds of buffets regardless of whether it is a restaurant in a hotel or a restaurant in a large shopping mall. In the end, the only problem would be the capacity of my stomach. And if I have already considered the buffet price, my strategy is to choose the most cost-effective and expensive ingredients from the buffet spread before my stomach reaches its limit.
In other words, while enjoying a variety of foods, I try to offset the price paid for the buffet or maximize it by eating only the expensive items of the buffet. In fact, if I go to a hotel buffet over $40 and eat plenty of fresh seafood, including lobster, oysters, salmon, tuna, and shrimp, which are served as seafood-themed items, I don’t think I need to worry about the price any more.
In particular, I go to a buffet restaurant and never eat carbohydrates. If you only eat two or three plates full of the above seafood and a few vegetables, it’s like eating more than you’ve already paid. In addition to a variety of fresh seafood, if I can eat some of my favorite barbecue meats like high-quality lamb, beef steak, and brisket, I think it would be good to go to a hotel buffet anytime.
In a way, to be honest, a simple buffet strategy might be to mainly enjoy dishes that are difficult to consume on a regular basis because the ingredients are expensive, difficult to cook properly at home, or not often available for some reasons.
The Lemongrass Cafe Buffet at the 5-star Shangri-La Hotel, located in the city center of Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, which I am writing about today, is a must-visit for buffet lovers who crave a variety of fresh seafood and quality barbecue meats.
I went here with two Japanese friends, Yukako and Miyuki, who are also living in Kuala Lumpur and have known each other for over 10 years. Three of us went for the Sunday evening buffet. The Sunday price is RM168 (US$40) per person as seen in the buffet advertisement. An additional 10% service tax and 6% sales tax are charged.
The Sunday buffet dinner at Lemon Garden Cafe Shangri-La Hotel started at 6pm, but I arrived early and waited for the restaurant door to open while watching the water fountain in the pond where lots of huge yellow, red, and pink goldfish were swimming.
There were quite a few guests like me who had made reservations, waiting for the buffet to open.
One of the things I really liked about this hotel’s location was that when I looked up at the sky from the hotel garden with a pond, I could see the KL Tower, as iconic as Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Twin Towers, towering right in front of my eyes.
The towering magnificence of the KL Tower viewed from a distance closer than expected is truly a masterpiece. So, I took pictures and videos of the tower from various angles, so luckily the waiting for the buffet for about 15 minutes or more was not boring at all.
I think this patio with a goldfish pond has a variety of tropical palms and flowers, so it’s a good place for hotel and cafe guests to come and relax. If you look into the Lemon Garden Buffet restaurant from here, the cafe lighting is very bright and the modern interior is neat.
It’s not quite as luxurious as the tables and chairs you’ll find in 4-star or higher hotels, but it’s not too bad as there are similar types of those tables and chairs available at IKEA stores that are practical and convenient.
However, at this point in time of social distancing due to Covid, the tables and chairs of the buffet restaurant seem quite cramped. When the door opened, we were escorted to a table near the entrance to the cafe, right through a full-glass window overlooking the goldfish pond.
It was the first time in 5 years that I had met my 2 Japanese friends. So we chatted for a few minutes, but seeing customers lining up for food at each of the buffet sections, we stopped chatting and rushed to the buffet corner, where we personally wanted to eat first.
Let’s take a look at the various food spreads that are the highlight of the buffet from here. The first thing to note is that due to Covid, the buffet is not your typical self-service bar.
Instead, with the assisted buffet concept, the buffet food is separated from the guests by a glass partition, so we cannot choose ourselves.
The buffet advertisement banner already had the phrase Assisted Seafood Buffet, but at first I didn’t quite understand the meaning of the word. But it all made sense to me as I realized that I couldn’t pick my own food for each food section of the buffet restaurant.
Customers can stand facing the chef in front of a completely tall glass partition and ask the chef in charge of the food to put the desired dish on the plate.
In fact, everyone is at the food corner wearing a mask, but thanks to the glass, buffet guests excited by the various delicious-looking buffet foods can make sure they don’t accidentally touch the food with their fingers, which is in line with the Covid rules and also in food hygiene.
So the chefs inside serve both fresh seafood and hot dishes. Basically, if you put out an empty plate on a glass partition, the chef will serve you. You can then ask the chef for fewer or more choices.
For example, in my case, I went to the seafood section several times, and there was a line each time. Then, on my turn, I handed the plate to the chef and asked for two lobsters, four very large plump prawns and four oysters on the plate. Of course, I asked for different sashimi fish on other plates.
And in the Indian section of the cooked dishes, I asked for several skewers of beef satay, my favourite, and several times I returned to my table with a spoonful of savory and moderately sweet peanut sauce to go with satay.
At the Mediterranean section, I asked the chef for more grilled zucchini, bell peppers and smoked salmon. The plate is already full of beef steaks, octopus and shrimp.
At the Chinese food section, I enjoyed fresh steamed fish, vegetables, stir-fried shrimp, and duck dishes.
Funny thing is, I wasn’t very hungry when I arrived at the buffet because I had already eaten spicy clam papaya salad and grilled fish as street food a few hours before that day.
But seeing the deliciously displayed food at the buffet always pleases my eyes. At that time, I guess my hunger came only from a psychological feeling.
In particular, first of all, seeing people lining up at the seafood corner located in the middle of the hall of the cafe, I was already full of excitement. So, as I made up my mind in advance, I lined up to eat the seafood first.
The first thing that caught my eye was a basket full of ice stuffed with fresh, wild oysters in a fresh stone-like shell.
The highlights of this buffet seafood selection could be narrowed down to lobster, shrimps, salmon, clams and oysters.
There were quite a few types of sashimi such as salmon, octopus, tuna, and yellowtail, and there was also a decent variety of sushi, including typical salmon sushi and tuna sushi, octopus sushi, shrimp sushi, and various maki rolls, which are similar to Korean Kimbap etc.
Already over 100 mustard soy sauces, pickled ginger, and mayonnaise sauces are set up neatly and laid out like a painting-like tile pattern.
Speaking of the types of food in this buffet, it starts with the Chinese food section from the far left. One important point is that since this restaurant is a halal buffet, there are no pork dishes you would find in Chinese food. So I could see quite a lot of local malay Muslim guests.
Chinese food includes herbal soups with medicinal ingredients, noodle dishes, lightly stir-fried seafood and vegetables, whole steamed siakap(Barramundi) fish, sliced smoked duck meat, and various dim sum items and steamed mini size buns.
The Chinese food section leads directly to the Indian food section. Typical vegetable curries such as okra, bitter gourd, masala flavored meat, daal, white basmati rice and biryani rice are prepared.
At the end of the Indian section is a skewer called satay in Malaysia. There are no lamb skewers, but instead beef and chicken skewers. They are already grilled and stacked on top of each other, and in front of them is the typical peanut sauce that goes well with satay.
One mystery is that the typical Indian breads like chapati, roti or paratha, or naan didn’t exist in the Indian food section to go with rich and savory meat dishes. I don’t know if the Indian bread chef wasn’t there on the day I went, but I wanted to try the Indian curry and tandoori oven-baked garlic or cheese naan, but eventually I gave up.
The Indian cuisine section is followed by the Western meat carving section. The dinner buffet I went to had Beef Wellington and I saw my Japanese friend Yukako enjoying it as her first plate.
But I picked seafood as my first plate and after a while, the Beef Wellington didn’t come out anymore. So instead, I had several times with the beef steak that comes up in the carving section because the steak was tender and juicy, so it wasn’t a problem that I didn’t taste the Beef Wellington after all. Haha!
The next corner from the meat carving section is an olive-flavored salad served with colorful grilled vegetables, and Mediterranean-style dishes cooked with fresh seafood and meat.
For example, I tried octopus salad, lightly grilled salmon and vegetable salad, mussels and shrimp dishes.
Then there are diced vegetables marinated in vinegar and olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, multicolored olive fruits, capers, and smoked salmon.
Continue to the right past the Mediterranean Cuisine, and there is a pasta station where the chef prepares on the spot according to the customer’s request.
And right next to it, there are healthy, non-greasy pizzas with various toppings that look crispy with thinly made pizza dough.
Next, on the far right, there are various dessert items that cannot be missed in the buffet. ????
There is a traditional Malay dessert called kuih lapis, a steamed layer cake.
The rainbow colors of kuih lapis are gorgeous and really beautiful.
There are more than ten different Western-style desserts such as mini-size cheesecake, almond tart, pandan cake, sponge cake, fudge cake, mousse, tiramisu, creme brulee, chocolate Swiss roll cake, and more.
In fact, it was interesting that all the cake sizes prepared for dessert were quite small. It is a size that can be eaten with two to three teaspoons.
I think it was good to be able to taste various kinds of cakes because you can eat them without leaving any leftovers.
And there are breads like fried donut holes, fried bananas, and bread puddings.
And seasonal fruits, which are indispensable as desserts at buffets, are placed in small glass bottles, and the bottles are kept cool on ice.
In the ice cream section, you can choose from about eight typical flavors and eat them with your favorite toppings.
However, the only downside was that the variety of fruit was not too varied and it was cut into small pieces and placed in a glass bottle, which was not convenient to eat.
Especially for someone who likes fruit for dessert like me at buffets, it was not really comfortable to bring five or more glass bottles to eat.
Fortunately, I remember how delicious the almond tart and cheesecake there were. The cakes were fresh and not too sweet, which was perfect to my liking, so I could eat it over and over again.
Also, my birthday was a few days before the buffet, so my Japanese friends brought me a chocolate Swiss roll cake slice with a candle, so I remember enjoying the fun of blowing the candle. ???? ????
As for beverages, there is no beverage section where customers can make coffee and tea using a separate automatic coffee machine and hot water dispenser commonly found in high-end buffet restaurants or hotel buffets. So if you want to drink coffee or tea after dinner, you have to ask the staff for coffee or tea separately. Mineral water is also available upon request.
To be honest, the range of items offered at this buffet was not particularly extensive. However I feel that the slight lack of variety was made up for by the freshness of the seafood, which, after all, is very important for a seafood buffet!
Still, if there were two things that were a little disappointing about this buffet, I do have a couple of suggestions regarding how this buffet can be improved. The first is that it would have been great if they had made available western cheeses, crackers, salami and other cured meats as you would normally expect to find at a 4-star or higher hotel buffet. The second is that it would have been nice to have an automatic coffee machine and hot water dispenser where buffet customers can make and drink various types of coffee and tea comfortably while enjoying dessert.
Again, even that disappointment is not really a problem as this is a seafood buffet concept where you can eat unlimited lobster and various fresh seafood items. So if you are traveling to Kuala Lumpur and want to try a variety of high-quality seafood buffet for around US$40, this is the place to go. Of course, if you’ve eaten enough seafood, or if you want to savor melt-in-your-mouth meat between seafood sessions, you can also try a few plates of beef steak. Since it is not something that can be cooked at home, the juiciness and flavor of the meat cooked on a barbecue grill are well worth it.
Lemon Garden Cafe
Located in:Shangri-La Kuala LumpurAddress: Lobby Level, 11, Jln Sultan Ismail, 50250 Kuala Lumpur
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