The Lounge - JW Marriott HK

I am not a big fan of buffet, but I am a big fan of DIY buffet! JW Marriott's lunch buffet at The Lounge is one of very few buffets in Hong Kong I like. There aren't much I can comment on in terms of cooking quality because what they offered here are mostly raw ingredients, so I can instead comment on the freshness of the ingredients. Therefore, food quality is not the major reason that attracted me to come but the Do-It-Yourself concept. There buffet selections seem to have changed compared with my last visit. They now offer the following categories: Salad Only, Noodles Only, Indian Only and Complete Set which included all the options. No more steak / roast beef options. I picked the Complete Set as usual because I aim to DIY the Salad and Noodles!

One thing I don't like about having lunch here is that they might place your in the Q88 Wine Bar area where the tables are chairs are more suited for bar snacks and not for a proper meal environment. Really depends on your luck I guess, but it seems that there are less people coming here for lunch compared with a year ago, so there should be enough tables to go around. Anyhow, back to the buffet ! There were plenty of greens to select from as well as plenty of diced ingredients such as mushrooms, chicken breasts, hams, olives and various condiments. Also, it is always a pleasure to see watch your salad being mixed at the spinning station.

I like my salad with the following basic ingredients: various greens (randomly picked), eggs, black olives, chicken breasts, diced hams, diced turkey ham, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, shrimps and mushrooms. Dressing I like balsamic vinegar. This my personal preference only ! Most of the items were fresh but the shrimps were a disappointment because they tasted so frozen !

As mentioned, there isn't much cooking skill required and that applies to the noodles bar as well. However, I do admire how the cooks remained so organized through the busy hours with random people shoving them the raw ingredients and still managed to cook different ingredients in the proper order to avoid overcooking items such as beef. Very impressed and enjoyed watching them prepare. For the noodles ingredients, the selections seem to be greater than the salad bar but many are not meant to be mixed together in one single round in my opinion, for example different types of noodles and soup bases. Then again, I guess nothing is stopping you from selecting little of each types of noodles into one single bowl to your liking. I don't have a particular preference with noodles selection but usually would include wantons, shrimps and fish balls. It was the same for today with a bit more mushroom and some beef slices. As for the soup base I picked Bak Kut Teh, but the soup was rather light. My friend picked the Laska soup but it was very light as well. The raw shrimps on the other hand were much better than expected, fresh and didn't taste frozen at all.

Likes:

• DIY concept
• Fresh Ingredients

Dislikes:

• Seating (if placed you in the Q88 Wine Bar area)
• Weak / Light Soup bases
• The spinning station line up can get pretty long during peak hours.

The Lounge
Lobby Level, JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong,
Pacific Place, 88 Queensway
Admiralty, Hong Kong
Tel: 2841 3846