April 29, 2009
台北君悅大飯店 - 凱菲屋
We had an expiring gift certificate for the Grand Hyatt, our one final perk for holding our wedding at the hotel. But NT3500 doesn't quite cover a whole banquet, but it seemed gauche to leave the infant at home with mom to run out for a nice meal with just ourselves. I searched through their restaurant web pages and noticed that the Cafe buffet restaurant just happened to be offering a Lady's Night discount that day. With all of the wife's sister and cousins, it wasn't hard to round up the perfect crowd to take advantage of the opportunity. And mom was okay with babysitting since she's always supportive of a good deal.
I like to start my buffet attack with a plate of cold items. They had a nice variety of greens, pastas, and seafoods for their salad platters. There were also areas serving dim-sum and other Asian foods, but even a high-end hotel can't do much for food that sits in steamers and under heat-lamps for a whole evening. The fresh juice-bar is a touch of class, though, to set it apart compared to the usual all-you-can-eat pig-troughs out on the street. Not to mention the impeccable interior decoration as befits the best hotel in Taipei.
But really, it's all about the fresh greens for me. There was a separate DIY-Caesar area with romaine leaves, croutons, bacon bits, parmesan shreds, and dressing which you can toss into a big mixing bowl to mix up your own salad.
Maybe it was because we visited relatively late on a mid-week evening, but the food quality seemed a notch down from my expectations. The roast was just a little bit tough, the seafood wasn't as extensive. Although the dessert area was pure chocolate heaven, with mousses, cakes, puddings, and a fountain. With our gift certificate and the discount it turned out to be a fair value. So I guess it's true about 一分錢一分貨.
Cafe
凱菲屋
台北市信義區松壽路2號
02-2720-1234