Tea buffet at Cafe Too, Island Shangri-La HK

 Haven't been to this place over 15 years and even forgot where it was.  Was quite impressed about its buffet but it's just so crowded and noisy that I then deleted this place.  The tea buffet seems to be a good choice when I don't feel like taking a big dinner but going for a buffet with more choices (HK$280++ and a 25% off for a HSBC credit card).  The food in general is pretty nice and among all, the pan friend tofu with fish patty (photo 6) is superb.  Interesting that 3 weeks ago when I came to the Summer Palace (Chinese restaurant of this hotel), it wasn't that good to me.

Tea Buffet, Hyatt Regency, TST HK

The Chinese restaurant and the cafe of Hyatt Regency were my most favourite place for business and leisure meals way back in the 90's. None of my clients felt disappointed with the food and services back then. Besides, its convenient location next to the subway made me so punctual for my business appointments. Quite a no. of my influential business deals were also concluded over those business meals. The most striking scene was on 1st April, 2003. I had a contract signing at the cafe where there was only one table occupied - my table. Why? It's the SARS time in HK. We made it but at a huge cost of thousands of lives. Their sacrifice taught us on personal hygiene like using a pair of common chopsticks, getting accustomed to wearing face mask when sick, washing hands often...etc. Unfortunately, some people from certain least affected countries take these as jokes, or I can say humiliating or discriminating jokes.

The below photos are taken on a recent visit at their tea buffet. The food quality is above average, but service so so.

Spring Summer Review: MoMo Cafe, Courtyard by Marriott HK

Again it's not the best tea buffet in terms of variety but a nice time to hang out with family for a longer tea time over the weekend (from 1-5pm). HK$128+ is a bargain for some salad, sushi, hot food, congee, noodle, fruits, cakes, ice cream and chicken pie.

Momo Cafe, Courtyard by Marriott HK - summer review

Whenever we have spare time, see your family members and your friends. Take your time to enjoy your meal and chat whatever topic. No need for something fancy, something expensive. Momo Cafe HK offers tea buffet from 1pm to 5pm at a charge of HK$128+, with 10% discount offer for HSBC credit card and 20% for platinum card. Talk, eat something, and talk. 4 hours can pass very easily.

1. Very surprised to see Momo Cafe improving their tea buffet a lot with even more variety. Scallop sushi and more and the quality is above average. Their tuna string bean salad is pretty good. 2. unlimited supply of Taiwanese milk tea. I am not into it but the tea aroma and milk is quite balanced and not too sweet. I saw a lady took 3 more after finishing one.

3. The rice roll stir fried is quite nice and also the rice dumpling, but the BBQ pork bun isn't up to standard. They mis-handled the yeast 臭粉. Supposed it should be started from a flour/yeast base (麵種) and let it stand for overnight and further mix it with more flour batter. My mom. was so good at making this BBQ pork buns but regretfully I only remember her telling this part. :) Left ear in, right ear out. 4. A sushi platter selected by Jason. He claimed "yummy".

5. All the hot food have been improved. Quite surprised with the beef steak (with mushroom sauce - not salty at all and I can taste the original mushroom flavour.). It's quite a high grade beef quality - very strong and thick beef flavour. No need to season. 6. Tom Yam noodle. Momo served more than 8 varieties of noodles, from wheat, black sesame, veggie, egg to shrimp roe.... The noodle is of quite a high quality. Not mashy and not hard with strong flour aroma while having each characteristic of the variety. The tom yam is quite Thai style - quite salty to me but that's the Thai local style.

7. Their mini chicken pies never disappointed me. Still good as it has been. 8. They set up a station of Taiwanese snowy ice and they use the original ice solid with slight flavour of condensed milk. I spent so much time on searching this original ice solid of my favourite snowy ice and didn't expect to see this old friend in a hotel cafe in HK. Those self-acclaimed authentic Taiwanese snowy ice shops should come here and see this one. Another delight is the mini balls. It's not those of Taiwanese milk tea. The black ones are filled with chocolate syrup and white with lychee syrup. When you bite it slightly, it will "pop" in your mouth. The lychee flavour is very lychee!

9. Creme brulee still good. 10. Dark choco. with melty inside. A bit too dry on the outside but not too bad. At least it's some nice dark choco. used.

Feast, the cafe, The East, Taikooshing, Hong Kong

Feast is the cafe of the East Hotel. They serve tea buffet on every Saturday and Sunday from 3-5:30pm. Charge at HK$138.

1. the food station. 2. the dessert.

3. the sandwich and pizza. 4. the pancake. You can choose from creamy spinach, Frankfurter sausage, mushroom chicken or fresh fruits.

5. Iced coffee. Pretty aromatic and not bitter at all. 6. a very high ceiling.

7. Almond cookies. Very freshly baked. 8. It's just to my palate - a variety of sandwich, with bread from rye, olive, onion, herb, tomato... The Chef didn't season the ingredients but very wise to use the natural ingredients to contrast the flavour, like cheese to grilled bell pepper (salty vs. sweet). This is the way of smart cooking. Besides if the topping is too seasoned, it would overwhelm the original aroma of each specialty of bread.

9. Parma ham with melon on onion bread. So good! The pizza is also nice. They made the tomato sauce by themselves. 10. Pan cake with mushroom chicken. They also made the fresh cream sauce. Freshly made cream sauce is very different.

11. more pizza (actually more sandwich and pancake). 12. Tiramisu. Caramelised orange slice cup cake. I purposedly chose this one because it's hard to make caramelised orange well. If it's too burnt, it would be bitter. If it's not burnt enough, it's not aromatic with the peel scent. It can't be too sweet, nor not sweet enough. So this one is a bit too sweet and not burnt enough.

13. poppy seed lemon pound cake on the left bottom. Bread pudding on the right. Choco mud cake on the right top. In the middle is mini scone. Left is the mango choco. cake. All are good except the scone which is a bit too dry. 14. the cafe. It's not that empty but I just took it by chance.

15. Raspberry mouse. Quite light and smooth. 16. the stair down to the lobby.

17/18. Want a higher seat or something chic. The chair is pretty comfortable. I noticed Swire does use some refined material.

19. The bar area. 20. I like the elevator to show the floor no. in Chinese and arabic number.