Birthday Dinner at Melba Restaurant, Southbank

Sheer opulence and grandeur (without being overdone IMO) at the foyer of the Langham Hotel...

Let's just say I'm glad it wasn't a statue of a cupid... Couldn't get any tackier if it were

Fresh flowers... (Yes, I smelt it)

Night began with a stroll around the buffet area. This sashimi station immediately caught my attention and I knew right away that it was going to be a good night ahead... Right, I was

Mmmmmmmmm...

No holding back at the seafood counter

Tiger prawns... 

Peeled with a squeeze of lime and dipped in Thousand Island Sauce... Buffet faveee

Crabs.... Obviously

Just the pincers 

Oysters... No duhh

Salad and bread station... The only section of a buffet restaurant that I walk past very quickly without a second glance lol

Man frying up some Asian noodles...

First thing that caught my eye at the meat section... Beautiful, glistening duck!!

Take your pick

A coupla things here were pretty good, actually... 

Stunning sight

But me not being one with the sweet tooth as usual, did not feel compelled to have a taste

Plate of sashimi to kick off an epic meal... Joy

Cold seafoods at a buffet, one of my fav things to eat...

Roast leg of lamb, oyster kilpatrick, peking duck wraps, roast pork belly, roast beef...

Loved EVERYTHING on this plate!!!

Sorry my photos started to get pretty shit at this point, was honestly too busy stuffing my face

The Naan bread was AWESOME!! I had the cheese, garlic and chilli one... Yum++

Sorry, couldn't help it... The diehard Asian in me wanted to test what a plate of Char Koay Teow at a 5 Star Hotel would taste like... PASS

Not normally a fan of desserts at buffets (feel like it's normally just mousse after mousse after mousse, yawn...) but a coupla ones that I had were actually quite nice

Most probably my highlight of the night: M&M's NAAN!!!!!!!

Our table... =)

Capping off a great night, never too old to be goofin' around, I say... =)

My meal at Melba Restaurant at the Langham Hotel was a long, long anticipated one. I've been wanting to come here for the international buffet ever since my first year of coming to Australia back in 2008. In my mind, it's always been too expensive for my budget (at $80 a pop), but I thought heck, I've worked pretty hard the past coupla years and I think I deserved it...

I thought my meal at Melba was everything that I expected it to be, in a good way. Fair array of international cuisine with above average food. I thought they maintained the standard of food pretty well across the board. Granted there were a few very, very minor missteps that didn't quite tickle my fancy (like the oysters, mussels or noodles) but these are very much forgivable IMO. Buffets aren't easy to do.

We all still enjoyed 90% of the food very, very much. My highlights included the sashimi and seafood (of course), meat selection and of course... That incredibly weird but downright AWESOME M&M's Naan...! Crisp Naan bread with crunchy M&M shells and gooey chocolate in the middle... Blew my mind for some odd reason.

We honestly ate and ate till our heart's content and let's just say, the belt was not my friend that night. To me, it was a buffet with good standard (which is actually quite rare). Best thing about it was that 2 of our friends had the Entertainment Book, which gave us a total of $90 off our total bill... So, we only ended up paying $65/person (instead of $80) for the meal... WIN!!! So come here for a meal if you've got the Entertainment Card because it's really worth it.

Anyhoo, I couldn't have picked a better place to celebrate my birthday that night and am so glad to have these friends to share it with. Although I'll be staying off buffets for a while, I'm really keen now to check out the other buffet contender in Melbourne that also has everyone raving about: China Bar Signature in Burwood...

Suminoya, Sydney CBD

G'day everybuddy!

How's everyone doing? Well, I hope! So, Suminoya was one of the few meals that we were particularly excited about prior to the our Sydney trip. I mean, we were doing a Food Trip and what better way to celebrate that than to go for an all-you-can-eat Buffet. And not just any buffet... A JAPANESE buffet... Well, Japanese BBQ Buffet to be more exact. Yeaaaaaaa boy.

I was actually talking to a friend who recently moved to Melbourne after growing up in Sydney his whole life about places to eat, and one of the places he mentioned was Suminoya. My eyes lit up O_O. I actually remembered this place when I was in Sydney about 3 years ago! A friend brought us there for dinner on our last night that trip and it was GREAT. At least, from what I could remember. I immediately decided that we HAD to go there for dinner again! Even though I hadn't heard about this from food blogs or Urbanspoon.

Honestly... SO glad we did because it was actually better than I remembered it! Thank goodness... This restaurant is tucked away in a tiny alleyway just adjacent of Martin Place in the CBD. Price per person is either $41 or $49, the latter being more extensive with an additional page to the menu, which includes sashimi. You can check out the full menu: here.

We went with the $49 one because we came all the way so, "why not"? It was steep but we really did feel we ate our money's worth. Seriously.... We ate a LOT.

View of one side of the restaurant

Starters:

Salmon Sashimi

You know how when you go for buffets you normally try to eat the most expensive/valued dish you can find? That means lots of seafood and the most expensive meat you can get. Yeeeeeerp.... Sashimi is usually one of them and let's just say that we ordered a LOT of these...... Hur hur hur... We're Asians in that way ;p

Prawn Salad

Prolly the one and only veggie dish we ordered that night. Even then, it was shared. It was okay, not bad. Your usual greens with a few slices of tomatoes and a couple of tiny pieces of fried prawns.

Rice:

Eel Rice

Pretty good. Nice to eat and accompany the mains with...

Bibimba

No sauce... =(

"Salmon Flakes" Rice

Was okay. Tasted alright but a bit dry to eat (no sauce with the flaky fish)

Soup:

Beef Rib Kuppa Soup or Udon

Not sure what the name means but quite forgettable hmm...

Egg Kuppa or Soup

Simple broth with egg flowers and rice. I love eggs.

Mains:

Ox Tongue

SO GOOD! You have no idea how many rounds of these we ate....

Scallops

We like scallops...

Shabu Shabu Style Pork Loin

Nice, thin and delicious cut of meat. But we were more interested in the beef that night...

Chicken Gristle

Curious to try this. Wasn't sure what gristle was until we realised it was the cartilage. I normally love any cartilage but this was still a bit hard because it wasn't cooked or stewed as long until tender soft. BBQ-ing them seemed a bit weird...

Mushrooms and Beef Harami

Not enough fats in the beef haha...

Pork Sausage, Pork Ribs and Beef Rib Fingers

Guys... Out of all the things that we ordered that night, those beef rib fingers (whatever they were) were hands down my FAVOURITE!!! Ox tongues were a close second. I was really surprised by how tender it tasted as soon as I put them in my mouth, as were my friends. They had good marbelisation in the meat and you wouldn't believe how good the meat tasted from the little grains of fats in them. When nicely charred and cooked to your liking... Seriously, AMAZING! We immediately ordered 5 more plates of these (and many more after that) as soon as we had the first bite.

The sausage was surprisingly nice too cause after they were grilled, the skin was so dry and crispy but the meat remained moist and chewy. Mmm =)

MORE Ox Tongue

Garlic Prawns

Cooked on the grill in the plate it came in. It was Butter. Garlic. And prawns. That's all I need to say.

FIRE!!! Can you imagine how good the meat tasted after that? It needs direct contact with fire like that to be charred to PERFECTION

One of my many, MANY ox tongues that night. While I could still be bothered taking pictures

The beef rib fingers I was telling you about. SO delicious. Had a BUTT load of these as well.

More beef rib fingers, eel rice, chicken gristle and shabu shabu pork MMMM

Dessert:

Green Tea Ice-Cream

Not a huge matcha or green tea fanatic but I liked this. Especially loved that it came with a tiny bit of red beans and CORN FLAKES. Really, really enjoyed the corn flakes in the ice-cream, actually.

Lemon Sorbet

PERFECT palate cleanser. Not too sour and I liked that it was shaved super fine. Really great way to end the meal.

OVERALL, what I really enjoyed most about the food in Suminoya was not just the quantity, but the QUALITY. Honestly, I was quite surprised by it. Really top notch and not everywhere maintains this standard, especially when it comes to buffets. Quite consistent seeing as it was still just as good even after 3 years. We just kept going for rounds after rounds of the beef rib fingers, ox tongue and sashimi it was crazy. We loved it so much.

As for dining experience, I must warn that the whole restaurant was seriously smokey. So many BBQs. Don't come unless you're like us who didn't mind the smoke and even smelling like it after our meal. We expected it already. Also, the restaurant has a strict time frame policy. You can only order for 60 minutes but allowed to eat for 90 minutes.

Despite the strict policy, we really still enjoyed our dinner because the food was SO good. Also, the time frame isn't actually as bad or short as you think. But then again, we were ordering, cooking and eating non stop the whole time so we were quite happy with the time. Really enjoyed this meal and if you're looking for a good place for Jap buffet or are into Jap BBQs, you'll definitely love this!

Happy eating and take care, every one! =)