Food reviews - Shanghai, Uncategorized INDONESIAN BUFFET @ THE RITZ CARLTON 9 April 2011


Tables @ Ritz Carlton
Shanghai Centre
1376 Nanjing West Road
????1376?
Shanghai, China

PRICE: ????
RATING:

The Ritz Carlton in Shanghai flew in William Wongso, a chef famous for his modern Indonesian cuisine, as well as a team of Indonesian chefs this week, and were offering a fabulous Indonesian buffet at their restaurant. I was pretty ecstatic when I found out, as I love Indonesian food and what better way than to have it all-you-can-eat?! And so 8 of us decided to hit it up for lunch on Monday, which was a public holiday.

The service was impeccable. Friendly, so efficient, and they even gave us a lovely corner table. I was impressed with the selection and spread of the buffet. Lovely presentation, a huge variety, and quality ingredients. It wasn’t just Indonesian food though, they also offered other dishes such as sashimi and oysters, Western cakes, etc. That suited me just fine, I like the variety!

The Indonesian food was done really well. By far and away, the Beef Rendang was the best. It was meltingly tender, packed a real punch of flavour, and we went back for seconds and thirds πŸ˜‰ The most disappointing for me was the Laksa, which I found was not spicy at all, and had some random ingredients in it that I never knew existed in a laksa. Then again, I have never had a laksa in Indonesia and was comparing it to Singapore laksa.

I especially loved the Dessert spread. Tiny little desserts and a LOT of variety make me very happy indeed πŸ˜‰ We ate ’til we could eat no more, but sadly I couldn’t eat as much as I normally do because I spent most of my time carrying Hunter (who decided to be oddly fussy that day). Which meant that I had to eat at a much slower rate, which meant my stomach filled up and I couldn’t eat at my normal rate πŸ™ The secret to buffets is that you eat really quickly so you can get in as much food as possible before you feel full! Still, I did get in 4 plates/bowls of mains, 2 serves of sashimi and oysters, and 10 of the lil desserts. So not too bad πŸ˜›


William Wongso at the helm of Ritz Carlton’s indonesian buffet

Hunter chilling out (before he got mad fussy and insisted on being carried)

Fresh prawns, crabs, mussels and oysters

A spread of cheeses and breads. Who bothers to eat bread at a buffet?!

Sashimi and salad (LOL) stations

Noodle station

My bowl of laksa, which I found so-so

One of my plates of food. I loved EVERYTHING on it!!

A serve of sashimi and chicken satay. That sashimi was divine.

Just another random plate of (huge) oysters, tender lamb chops, and
super delicious beef rendang and fried rice.

My 10 lil desserts split over both plates. In my belly they went. I liked them ALLLLL!!!

Capping it all off with cute ‘lil ice creams


Let’s Chat!




Let's Chat!

Love reading your blogs on what you ate in Shanghai. Hope you can include also the cost or your meals. MTW, how much was this Indonesian Buffet? Also noticed you are taking less and less of local Chinese food which I find more interesting than the standard western cuisine. I’m sure there are many hidden local gems still waiting for you to discover in Shanghai.

I’ll try and remember the prices in future but it’s pretty hard to! I do give an indicator at the top of each post though, on whether it’s on the cheap or expensive scale.

We ADORE hole-in-the-wall chinese food! But sadly since Hunter, we find it really difficult to bring him there (way too messy/crowded) so we hardly go anymore πŸ™

Love reading your blogs on what you ate in Shanghai. Hope you can include also the cost or your meals. MTW, how much was this Indonesian Buffet? Also noticed you are taking less and less of local Chinese food which I find more interesting than the standard western cuisine. I’m sure there are many hidden local gems still waiting for you to discover in Shanghai.

I’ll try and remember the prices in future but it’s pretty hard to! I do give an indicator at the top of each post though, on whether it’s on the cheap or expensive scale.

We ADORE hole-in-the-wall chinese food! But sadly since Hunter, we find it really difficult to bring him there (way too messy/crowded) so we hardly go anymore πŸ™

Yes he enjoyed it, although he said that Bali Bistro still has more authentic food. But he had a great time chatting with William Wongso though!

Yes he enjoyed it, although he said that Bali Bistro still has more authentic food. But he had a great time chatting with William Wongso though!

Well it was my parents who owned it, I just washed the dishes for 5 pounds a night!

Well it was my parents who owned it, I just washed the dishes for 5 pounds a night!

I usually go to Bali Bistro in Jingan for my Indonesian fix. I love Indonesian food too as we used to own one in London years ago.

I usually go to Bali Bistro in Jingan for my Indonesian fix. I love Indonesian food too as we used to own one in London years ago.