Australia’s first fine dining buffet opens at Langham Hotel
With lobsters flown in twice a week from Maine to suckling pigs served direct by a chef, this new fine-dining buffet inspired by Dubai’s five-star hotels is set to shake things up in Sydney’s hotel all-you-can-eat wars.
Sydney Taste
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IT is all-you-can-eat. But not as we know it.
Sydney now has its first ‘fine dining; buffet with 180 seats, soaring ceilings, flowing French champagne and lobster tails on tap.
Inspired by the decadent dining rooms in Dubai’s luxury hotels, the Langham hotel has unveiled its newest all-you-can-eat ‘fine dining’ smorgasbord in the hopes of luring the booming buffet market.
And with it one of the most expensive buffet price tags in the city.
Combined with a beverage package — headlined by unlimited Laurent Perrier French Champagne, a seat for lunch or dinner on the weekend clocks in at $197 per person.
However, The Langham’s food and beverage boss Laura-Jane Hawkins says it’s good value, with the restaurant offering eight different styles of cuisine including lobsters flown in from Maine in the US every Monday and Friday.
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Fresh Australian sandcrab wok-fried with chilli is also available one night a week, cooked to order, alongside other offerings like traditional Peking duck, wood-fired pizza, Japanese robata grill, Indian curries and fresh-made naan bread as well as dessert bar compiling more than 40 different dishes.
Suckling pig also replaces the traditional Sunday roast.
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Their other point of difference, she says, is each cuisine station is manned by a chef who will cook all dishes ‘to order’.
Guests, alternately, can also order at the table.
“That’s really the part that sets it apart from other buffets and it’s something that has been happening internationally for a while now,” says Ms Hawkins, who says the Langham is looking to capitalise on the rise of the ‘bottomless’ brunch craze sweeping the world.
“Offering a set price beverage package is something you don’t often see, particularly Laurent Perrier champagne. Which is something we are very excited about.”
The newly-opened Langham buffet replaces the hotel’s previous restaurant Bistro Remy following a five-month refurb.
It now joins Sydney’s burgeoning all-you-can-eat market headed by the Sheraton’s famed International ‘Feast’ buffet, Harvest buffet at The Star, Cafe Opera at the InterContinental and the Shangri-La at Circular Quay.
SYDNEY’S TOP BUFFETS
Feast, Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park
A Sydney institution, the Sheraton offers its famous seafood buffet of crabs, prawns, oysters and cooked fish. $98 with drinks not included.
Harvest, The Star
Five food stations with an international bent. $75.90 for a 1.5 dining hour window. Drinks separate.
RSL Bankstown
Offers more than 100-plus dishes which rotate daily. Yum cha is their specialty. $27.50 per adult.
Shangri-La Hotel
Famed seafood buffet with an Asian twist. $85 per person. Children of guests who are under six eat free.
Cafe Opera InterContinental Sydney
The Land to Sea buffet includes the Signature Buffet Wednesday to Friday, $60 per adult and the Deluxe Buffet Saturday and Sunday, $95 per adult.