The city’s packed with indulgent dining options combining unlimited starters and desserts with a choice of the restaurant’s signature dish
Hongkongers love a good buffet. With unlimited edible delights to fill up on, free flow of beverages, and an avalanche of desserts, what’s not to like? However, even the most gluttonous among us can’t sample every single delicacy in front on us.
Perhaps as a more cost-effective way to reduce food waste, many restaurants are now serving up semi-buffets instead of all-you-can-eat extravaganzas. The concept is rather simple: you get to pick just one main, but the starters and desserts are all yours for the taking. The gluttons among us will still be satisfied with the still-impressive variety, and since there’s less food to get through, the time commitment is significantly lower.
We’ve rounded up the top restaurants in the city excelling in the fare and kept the cuisines diverse. Hungry people beware.
Issaya Siamese Club
(Photo: Issaya Siamese Club)
The Causeway Bay restaurant has recently launched a semi-buffet lunch special that combines its most popular appetisers and desserts with a rotation of main courses. Highlights include a slow-cooked beef cheek and surf and turf — wok-seared scallops with moo-hong pork relish. You’ll want to get doubles of the Iberico pork loin salad with chili-lime dressing, and the good news is: you can.
The semi-buffet lunch is available from Monday to Sunday, 12pm to 3pm. Prices starts from HK$238 to HK$350 per person, depending the choice of mains. For an additional HK$178, guests can enjoy free-flow champagne.
Issaya Siamese Club, 25/F, Soundwill Plaza II - Midtown, 1 Tang Lung Street, Causeway Bay; +852 2154-3048; issaya.hk
Mercedes Me
(Photo: Mercedes Me)
Make sure to come with an empty stomach, as this Central dining and lifestyle concept — brainchild of Mercedes-Benz and Maximal Concepts — doesn’t hold back. The Sunday brunch special lavishes customers with three interactive buffet stations preparing eggs and various sustainable raw seafood — from hamachi to tuna to salmon — to their hearts’ content. You can choose to keep the champagne flowing at an extra cost or taste the mocktails, which are delicious in their own right. Served on a skillet, the angel hair pasta stands out amongst the seven main courses with its chewy seaweed garnishes and fragrant garlic aioli.
The Mercedes Me champagne brunch is available every Sunday from 11:30am to 2:30pm and is priced at HK$580 per person. A free flow champagne option is also available for an additional HK$320.
Mercedes Me, Shop C and D, Entertainment Building, 30 Queen’s Road Central, Central; +852 2895-7398
Pirata
(Photo: Pirata)
This Wan Chai-based restaurant and bar does home-cooked Italian fare that is the very definition of the phrase “comfort food”. Begin your lunch by feasting at the antipasti station, which includes fresh salads, pasta salad, Italian cheeses and cold cuts. A variety of hearty dishes make up the selection of main courses: the pappardelle with duck ragu and spinach and ricotta cannelloni will promptly send you into a food coma.
The Pirata semi-buffet lunch is available Monday to Sunday from 12pm to 2:30pm. Prices range from HK$168 to HK$248 per person, depending on the entrée.
Pirata, 29-30/F, Hennessy Road, Wanchai; 2887 0270; pirata.hk
Shiki Zen
(Photo: Shiki Zen)
Though the restaurant is renowned for its homemade udon, its semi-buffet options are just as worthy of accolades. A purchase of a main course will get you unlimited access to the tempura, fresh oysters, sashimi, sushi, grilled meats and dessert platters, and the vegetarian sushi with mushroom in particular is not to be missed. Order the spicy cod roe udon with onsen egg as a main to get the best of both worlds.
The semi-buffet at Shiki Zen is open everyday for lunch and dinner. Prices range from HK$480 to HK$780 for a main course.
Shiki Zen, 29/F, Midtown Plaza II, Causeway Bay; +852 2970-3218
The Bostonian
(Photo: Langham Hotels)
Seafood is the main focus at The Langham’s American restaurant, and the appetiser buffet — serving up an array of raw and cooked oysters, cheese platters and sashimi — does not disappoint. Diners will get a chance to indulge in beef delicacies, another one of the restaurant’s staples, with main course choices such as charcoal grilled fillet mignon and braised Australian wagyu beef cheek.
The semi-buffet lunch menu is available from Monday to Saturday. The meal costs HK$378 per person during the week and HK$398 on Saturday.
The Bostonian, 8 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon; +852 2375-1133
Momojein
(Photo: Momojein)
Korean cuisine is known for its myriad of banchan — intricate small dishes served alongside hot main courses. This element of the country’s dining culture will be on full display at Momojein’s weekend brunch menu, where patrons get to pick from a selection of 25 starters, from cold homemade cabbage kimchi to octopus skewers. The choices for mains are balanced between traditional and modern dishes, including the classic stone pot abalone rice and a slightly more unconventional lamb chop seasoned with Korean bean paste.
The semi-buffet brunch is available every Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 2:30pm. Priced at HK$350 for adults and HK$175 for children aged 3 to 12, an additional fee between HK$120 and HK$170 is charged for 2 hours of free-flow makgeolli, beer, soju sangria and sparkling wine.
Momojein, 23/F, QRE Plaza, 202 Queen’s Road East, Wanchai; +852 2789-1949
The Optimist
(Photo: The Optimist)
The Spanish restaurant offers fresh Spanish pintxos, salads, seafood, cheese, cold cuts and jamon at its buffet stations — all of which will go well with the cold Spanish soup, salmorejo. Choices of the main dish range from a decadent flat iron steak with chimichurri sauce to the hearty zucchini and eggplant gratin, which will delight both meat and vegetable lovers.
The Optimist lunch specials are available every day from 12pm to 2:30pm. Prices range from HK$178 to HK$268, depending on the main course.
The Optimist, G/F-2/F, 239 Hennessy Road, Wanchai; +852 2433-3324; theoptimist.hk