Hong Kong - Playt (buffet lunch)

Playt - buffet lunch on August 30, 2017 at The Park Lane Hotel in Hong Kong

The second day of our offsite had a packed agenda so we didn’t have time to leave the hotel for lunch like we had done the day before. Fortunately, the hotel had a buffet restaurant on the ground floor so it was quick and convenient to troop down there instead.

I’m going to preface the rest of this post by saying when it comes to buffets in Asia or any other part of the world, I’ve been forever ruined by Niu by Vikings in the Philippines. That’s pretty much the pinnacle of all buffets with its block-long stations of different types of cuisine and the plethora of superior offerings. Vegas casinos have nothing on Niu.

So you’ll have context for when I say Playt was okay. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t come close to toppling Niu for me. There was an eclectic selection of food. And by eclectic, I mean offerings from made-to-order soup bowls/hot pot to sushi to a carving station to chicken nuggets and fries. The selection was varied but offered in small portions so the buffet didn’t take up a lot of room. Presumably the restaurant staff were quick to replenish the serving dishes since they didn’t seem to run out of anything.

I had my usual plate of mixed assorted small bites of “real” food including a custom-made bowl of noodle soup so I had room for dessert. The desserts were sectioned off, almost like a mini candy and ice cream store but with a variety of plated desserts, some macarons and a gelato “stand”.  Gelato, yum.

Although, I did mention I don’t have very Asian taste buds, right? The flavors were a bit too exotic for my non-adventurous taste buds except for the chocolate gelato. It was billed as chocolate banana and at first I was hesitant because I’m actually not a fan of banana and chocolate combined. Unless it was whole banana being dipped into warm liquid milk chocolate as part of a chocolate fondue offering.

Therefore I was pleasantly surprised that by banana, they made frozen bits of bananas as a mix-in to the chocolate gelato. I had thought it was be mashed banana stirred into the chocolate before freezing as gelato. This way was much better. Turns out I’m definitely a fan of frozen banana chunks suspended in chocolate gelato.

As is customary in Asia as well as Europe, the serving was small. That was okay. It gave me an excuse to go back a second time and ask for the single scoop in a cone. Something to take back with me when we got back together for the afternoon session.