Reason 1 - I heard the buffet here is one of the best in KL.
Reason 2 - I am meeting up with a friend whom I haven't talked to for quite some time.
Reason 3 - My friend has the Shangri-La member privilege card which entitle the member and his or her guest to 50% discount at any restaurants in the hotel. Well, actually she is not a member, she just borrowed the card from her friend!
Anyway, it proved to be a really enjoyable and mouth watering lunch! I've eaten buffet meals at many hotels and I don't think most of them had the kind of quality and variety of food that Shangri-La offers. But then again, the price was not cheap at RM89.90 nett per person. And I am only talking about lunch. Dinner was priced at around RM120 during Ramadan month! Of course, I only paid RM45 since we got to enjoy the 50% discount.
Here are some of the photos of the food we both ate.
We started off with some Chinese cuisines. There's the lovely duck with plum sauce, fried prawn, fried wantan, chicken and prawn dumplings (har gao). There were other dimsum food like siew mai and pau which I decided to forego as they were not exactly my favourites.
We also tried this herbal chicken soup which was very tasty! I wanted to go for second round but then decided not to as I wanted to leave space in my stomach for other food!
Next, I had this very huge raw oyster which was very fresh. Digging my spoon into the shell was like digging into a bowl of tau foo fah - the meat was smooth and so juicy! If you like oysters, this is the place to go to! Their oysters were very fresh and best of all, they were huge! Not like those small ones you find in other buffet spreads.
Believe it or not, they also had abalones, although they were mini abalones (bottom right of photo). I am not a big fan of abalone, but knowing how expensive abalone is, it would be a waste not to eat it! Anyway, the mini abalones were not really that good, perhaps it was not prepared the way abalones were usually prepared.
There were the usual fresh prawns and clams. But one thing which was missing and which my friend complained was mussels. She preferred mussels to oysters, but not me. Oysters were nicer and tastier, at least to me. I actually ate a few more of those delicious oysters! In fact, if you go to this buffet and just eat all the oysters you can eat, it is already worth your money!
If you notice the 4 bottles in the photo above, and wonder what is inside them, well, they are actually caviar. The black stuff was sturgeon caviar, the reddish was salmon caviar, the green was wasabi caviar (this is the one I liked best!) and the last one was apple caviar, which was not really caviar. Actually I had no idea what it was, but I didn't like it!
There were lots of sushi but I did not bother. Instead I went for the lamb, beef and salmon with asparagus and tomato thrown in. The lamb meat was excellent especially when dipped into the mint sauce!
My friend told me the wild mushroom soup is to die for! So how could I not try it? But after taking a sip, I found it to be ok, certainly not to die for. When my friend took a sip, she realised it was not the same mushroom soup she had before. Too bad!
Next, I went for the satay. Quite good, though the peanut sauce still could not match the one from famous Satay Kajang Haji Samuri. Don't ask me what are those circular objects at the bottom of the photo. All I know is it's chicken meat wrapped in a thin skin of something, which I have no idea whatsoever. They were quite tasty, though.
While my friend went for the western salads, I decided to go for my pasta fix. This one was delicious with lots of clams! Yummy!
After that, it's time for desserts! When I first stepped into Lemon Garden Cafe, I was taken in by their very tall chocolate fountain and could not resist taking a snap of it. Look at how tall it is!
And so, I dipped in some strawberries, grapes, honeydew and marshmallows into the chocolate fondue. Actually, I didn't dip all because I prefer to eat those fruits without the chocolate. The marshmallows and chocolate however were a good mix.
Time passed really fast. The buffet lunch started at 12pm and was supposed to end at 2.30pm. I didn't even realize it was near closing time when one of the staff reminded us that we only have 5 minutes left before last call! My goodness!
However, the staff was very nice. He asked us to take as many food as possible to our table as we could still eat them after closing time. Nice chap...and so we took his advice.
Look at what we took back to our table.
An assortment of cakes and local kueh and we only managed to take half of the different varieties that they have! I liked the kueh talam (green kueh with white layer on top) best! Of course I did not finish them all, I could not take in so much at one go and had to share them with my friend.
Now no buffet can end without a sample of ice cream, right? So besides taking all those cakes and kueh in that last 5 minutes, we had to rush to the ice cream counter to get our ice creams too!
They have six different flavours. I don't remember what the flavours are, because I just asked them to mix it all up and I added in the chocolate chips, pistachio nuts, almond nuts, raisins and other stuffs (don't remember as it was all a rush!)
The result of the mixed up ice cream looks like this.
My friend said it looked like cow dung. Haha! I had to agree especially if it was darker. If I had only used chocolate flavour, it would surely looked exactly like cow dung! But I swear it was delicious. I regretted not putting in more pistachio nuts because that really made it very nice!
This was certainly one of the best lunch I had! Shangri-La really lived up to my expectations. And another thing I like about it is the staffs at the Lemon Garden Cafe. They were so helpful and kind and even joked with us. I would say the service was first rate! I would definitely come back again for more!
Now since my friend did not have to return the Shangri-La member card until next week, guess what? We could come back for another round of buffet! Or should we try other famous but expensive restaurants in this five-star hotel, like Shang Palace and Zipangu?
Well, to know what we did, you will just have to wait for my next post!
I have tasted the food at Lemon Garden before and I liked them...and wow, they offer pretty good stuff with oysters, abalones and all...:)Yum!
Interesting, I got to give this a try!
wow, for that RM45 and you get to eat caviar and all the oysters - that is like the best deal ever! So lucky.
my bug life, the oysters were XL size and so juicy I'm still craving for it now! : )
gallivanter, you must try it! : )
eiling, yeah, it's a really good deal! The oysters were the best - so huge, fresh and juicy. But I think I not as lucky as you lah - you get to eat expensive food for free. I still got to pay : )
Reminds me of my Jogoya run... LOL. From your post I felt that Jogoya was better despite the lack of local food (like satay and stuff), but THE CHOCOLATE FONDUE IS SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE!
lucky you to get that 50% off.
Looks tempting especially the chocolate fountain.
day-dreamer, I have yet to go to Jogoya, despite everyone telling me how good it is! Well, I do believe Jogoya is better but the price also more expensive, right? Anyway, will go there one of these days : )
lina, if no 50% very expensive. Yeah, I like the chocolate fountain too : )
I love the buffer at ShangriLa. If you like Japanese food, you should try out Rakuzen's All You Can Eat offer (only on Sundays at Chulan Square)
I want to go to Jogoya too! Zaini always went there with his friends but I never been there! Too damn inconvenient for me to go. Sigh...
arghhh..I wanna go there; just for the oysters :-D
izad, thanks for dropping by my blog! I will consider your recommendation of the Rakuzen buffet. How much does it cost?
lina, I think you should try Jogoya. Cos all my friends who've been there kept saying it's the best buffet in town. I will definitely go one of these days : )
monica, oh you should. The oysters there are simply the best - even better than the ones I had in Sun & Surf @ Sunway Resort.
aduh... u r really living the good life and here i am still cooking for the daily meals :)
bengbeng, this is only once in a while kind of thing. I don't go to buffet at expensive restaurants daily. It's good to enjoy and indulge once in a while. And I'm getting it at 50% discount so very worth it, no?
Looking at the food pics, I'm already full lor. hehe....
I have a small appetite... I probably wouldn't eat much but RM45 is worth it!
eastcoastlife, for you Singaporeans, the RM45 is even cheaper, yes? : )
My goodness Foong, that is a lot of food! LOL It all looks yummy! You probably need to go on the treadmill everyday for two hours just to burn that plate of desserts. :D
Drool! Drool!...I heard that the food there is nice but I've never been there as it's not affordable for the likes of me. Eee...when I go to KL, I wanna borrow your friend's card, can or not? Or better still, you take me there and give me a treat using your friend's card? LOL!!!
i have been to their buffet dinner few times d. not only that, it was in a big grp too, ard 15 of us.
never doubted shang's food. zipangu is nice too esp their buffet serving
Wow! What a wonderful looking buffet. Of course some of the things I have not heard of. Very interesting!
babette, I did some intense exercise on the day before the buffet lunch and the next day too! Luckily for me, I managed to burn off those excess food. Haha!
suituapui, I have no problem giving you a treat as long as I have the card : )
johnny ong, yeah, their food is very nice!
toni, thanks. You should come to Malaysia for a holiday and stay at Shangri-La hotel! Then you can try the food there too! : )
I agree that Shang has the best (or one of the best) buffets in town. At 50%, it's really a steal. I go there for their buffet dinners. I too love oysters. At one stage, I used to go there for their omelettes for supper. Crazy times.
Renaissance has a great spread too and Nikko's has improved tremendously. I like to go to the Melting Pot at Concorde for the ambience. But I guess the ultimate buffet venue (but not for the food) has got to be the KL Tower.
Cheers! Celebrate life by enjoying it.
happysurfer, I've never had buffet at KL Tower before. Must be quite an experience. I've been to Nikko, and it's so-so. Maybe it has improved now. I've also heard that Renaissance had pretty good buffet too : )
rm45 is really a good deal! de food look fab! can i borrow the card too?? puhhleeasseee?
Mmmmmm raw oysters are yummy, but must be fresh of coz! I oso like Hj. Samuri sate, cause got fish sate there! But sometimes they're quite stingy with their sambal, which is actually the best part of the whole sate meal! ;)
Despite being a borderline diabetic, I always try to get my money's worth at buffets, even with the desserts. He he.
Can I borrow the borrowed card from your friend next time? Ha =) Damm! 50% is really a lot. For merely RM45 you got to eat so much. Not fair! Ha =)
cbenc12, yes of course you can borrow the card provided I can get hold of the card! My friend already returned the card to her friend! : (
mariuca, yes the oysters must be fresh otherwise I won't eat it. Don't want to end up with food poisoning! The oysters at Lemon Gdn Cafe were really fresh!
Oh, so you like Hj Samuri satay too! Actually I love their peanut sauce - can drink it without the satay! : )
monace, haha! That's called intelligent consumer! : )
tekkaus, of course you can borrow the card provided I have the card with me. Then it's a case of multi level card borrowing system, which I'm sure the hotel won't agree if they found out! Haha!
omg...such a big choc fountain! Now we must give this place a try already..but have to do without the 50% disc! *sob sob* Pocket sure berlubang already after this! :p
twosuperheroes, why don't you join the Shangri-La membership card, then you get to eat at all the restaurants there for 50% discount. Then I can also borrow the card from you. Hehe
Hey, so nice...
When to bring me go?....
may i ask what card is that u used for 50%?? i need it!! haha..pls let me noe..thanks..
How fabulous.