Overall:
Whenever my parents make their yearly Summer sojourn to Perth, we never fail to have the buffet lunch at the Café on Hyatt. Over the years, prices have increased steadily but at $32 on a weekday with oysters, it is still absolutely good value (more so if you have the Entertainment card). However, for young children at $16 is a little steep and I prefer the costing at other establishments that go according to the child’s age.
We have only been very disappointed once which was last year when the oysters were off. To my dad’s utmost relief, although not plump, the oysters were fresh. The cold spread had the usual hams, salads, mussels, prawns and my favourites the smoked salmon with onion & capers and grilled vegetables. For this month, they had a special tomato section and I only sampled the cherry tomatoes stuffed with mushrooms which was a nice combination. I have never been partial to tomato soup and hence bypassed it for the pumpkin soup which was wholesome.
The hot food would have not been such a success if not for the salmon pieces. Even then, they could have been cooked a couple of minutes less but nevertheless it was not dry. The spiral pasta was supposed to have a creamy sauce but I hardly tasted anything and did not see a cauldron of sauce sitting anywhere either. The roast pork & beef were tender enough but the lamb chops looked rather charred especially since they were marinated with honey.
The dessert table had the usual favourites like bread & butter pudding, sticky date pudding and caramel custard. Unsure if this is a new addition but they had this light purple cake coated with coconut desiccation that nobody touched. I braved it for my daughter due to her keen persistence and was I glad she pestered me. I have got to say the cake did not look particularly appealing and was also cut into full slices so it probably was a combination of both that discouraged diners from sampling it. It was rather light and had custard sandwiched between. I persuaded the rest of our party to get a slice and as we left the café we noticed that nobody else had still tried it as only 4 pieces were gone and that was taken by us all.
A small gripe that I have is Hyatt’s buffet does not include tea/coffee which is a shame as this are immaterial costs if they provide just the ordinary tea or coffee. I just like finishing off a complete meal with a cuppa. The staff are pretty friendly and efficient with plates cleared very quickly. We will return again next year as usual.