Talk about buffet, how can you tell if a buffet restaurant is good? Do you judge by the price? The variety of items? Its location? The quality of service?
Personally, I have a list of criteria to rate a buffet dining.
£ Cold station (salads, cold cuts, seafood) must serve fresh items.
You can tell if the sashimi or salami doesn't look or smell right. Gotta be careful with fresh seafood particularly, because bad one can make you end up visiting the loo too many times afterwards.
£ Fruits station offering at least one unusual fruit
What I consider an average selection: apple, papaya, melon/cantaloupe, banana, grape, orange, pineapples. I have been to a few places that display less common fruits such as passion fruits, mangosteens, blueberries, strawberries, dragon fruits, pomelos, guavas, etc. These fruits are either easily perishable or too expensive to be included in a buffet spread.
£ Regularly replenished food platter before they're completely empty.
£ Numerous manned stations (eggs, porridge, noodles, pancakes, etc).
SATOO (pronounced as /sɑːtuː/) of Shangri-la Jakarta is said to be one of the best hotel buffets in town, and from my personal experience, I can only agree to that and I believe that many would share my opinion too. This place is always packed on weekends, particularly for dinner. I can understand why, with the endless supply of very fresh raw seafood (crabs, mussels and the likes) this place is just like a Hogwarts dining hall for seafood lovers. Even my parents couldn't resist second and third helpings for the fresh crabs!
When I had breakfast there many weekends ago, the buffet spread didn't disappoint at all. SATOO is famous for its Indian food station, but I was particularly impressed by the unusual collection of breakfast cereals imported from Australia (no, you won't find Koko Krunch or Nestle's sugar-packed cereals), Indonesian Aromatic Organic honey, made-to-order Jamu (Indonesian traditional healthy beverage made from herbs and spices), pork station, etc. These food items are quite rare (not to say expensive) to be included in a hotel buffet spread.
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| Indonesian Traditional Jamu |
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| Healthy goodness to start the weekend |
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| My western food platter |
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| From the Japanese station: Inari, Sushi, and nato! (Japanese gooey fermented bean) |
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| The special Christmas station offering various Christmas-themed sweets |
I'm biased for SATOO, because just about any random things I pick always taste good, or at the very least, is not distasteful. Now that SATOO becomes my benchmark in rating a buffet restaurant, I guess my expectations have just gone up to unrealistic level...
Buffet Price:
Breakfast: IDR 198,000++/pax
Lunch: IDR 250,000++/pax (weekdays) | Weekend Brunch IDR 310,000++/pax
Dinner: IDR 270,000++/pax (weekdays) | Weekend IDR 290,000++/pax
Operating Hours
Breakfast 6am - 10am (Weekdays) 6am - 10.30am (Weekends and Public Holidays)
Lunch 12noon - 2.30pm (Weekdays) 12noon - 3.00pm (Weekends and Public Holidays)
Dinner 6pm - 10.30pm (Sunday to Thursday) 6pm - 11pm (Friday and Saturday)
Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta | Level 1
JL. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 1
Central Jakarta
Ph: +6221 29399580
Make your reservation via Qraved, it's quick and easy!
Thank you for this review. Good to know. I'm always on the look out for good brunch/buffet places. And they let the customers take photos too, it seems (I'm a Jakarta newbie and it amazes me how many establishments refuse to have photos taken.. when social media is a very powerful tool and it can give them the exposure they want). The stuff they have look tempting.
ReplyDeleteHi Ellyna! I noticed that Satoo's food selection got substantially better compared to theirs during the buy 1 get 1 free period not long time ago. I dined here twice last month and was very very satisfied with both experiences.
ReplyDelete- On the cold station they got baby lobster (which was incredible), fresh oysters (though not as fresh as Java's oysters on sunday brunch), and some other shellfishes.
- The grill station also serves quality foods. The salmon provencal was tasty and cooked perfectly, showcasing the flakiness of the salmon. The prime rib was tender and juicy and served with himalayan salt for accoutrement!! (where else can you find that!)
- The indian station is of course good, d'oh, this is what Satoo's well known for. The naan matches Queen's Tandoor's quality.
- What really highlights the night is the chinese section though, where I found a very unusually very good tasting steamed fish which turned out to be "kerapu". That kerapu is just damn good.
- The dessert station isn't as awesome as The Cafe's but still good.
Next on my list is four season's hahah
@Wander Woman: Haha, yes I was lucky that morning I guess...A friend of mine who took photos at SATOO was requested to stop taking photos, I'm not quite sure about the inconsitencies, but you can always try your luck ;)
ReplyDelete@Abraham: Wow...you're a big seafood lover! I'm sure you enjoyed your experience here at SATOO. I wish to try The Cafe soon! Totally curious about the dessert spread that you dub as legendary haha.
Anyways, I've tried Season's Cafe a few weeks back. It's much more improved than last year a friend told me. While I'm not sure about the significant difference, but I can tell you that Season's Cafe is worth a shot =)
I bet Season Cafe is! I actually came just to see the food selection during sunday brunch few weeks back, and God, the foie gras cubes… Will let you know my impression once i try!
Deletewow el, i hope i'll have a good luck like yours later
ReplyDeleteduh beautiful shots shots shots shots shootttsssssss!!
Dear Ellyna.. i love reading your food / restaurant review.. putting prices and operating hours and address really help us to decide visiting the restaurant. I suggest to try on the cafe at Mulia hotel for their buffet as well.. they are even better than Satoo..and Edogin at the same hotel for the Japanese buffet inclusive their teppanyaki buffet... looking forward to read more on your culinary bonanza..
ReplyDeleteHi Dixi! Thank you so much for your kind comment :) I'm glad to know that my blog is actually useful for someone. Oh yes, I've been to The Cafe at Hotel Mulia, although only once (shame on me!) but it was at night and I couldn't possibly take decent pictures, hence I didn't write a post on it. Hope to go there again next time and take decent photos of the food there to create a post for this blog. As for the buffet at the other restaurants, oh yes, I've heard praise words about them. Thank you for your kind tip :)
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