Lemon Garden Cafe @ Shangri-la Hotel

Whenever there's a celebration in the family, the meal of choice is (sometimes) a buffet at a hotel as it provides a great ambience to eat and chit-chat in comfort.  It's a place where one can linger for long periods of time without feeling 'guilty' or perceived to be 'hoarding' the seats.

The buffet of choice this time was the Lemon Garden Cafe @ Shangri-la Hotel and it also happened to be our Merdeka Day holiday.  I wasn't the one who made the booking (nor the one who paid ^_*) but I was told it's a High Tea Buffet @ RM120 nett from 12pm - 3pm.

It was a public holiday and the place was running full, so taking photos of the place and food wasn't an easy task but I did manage a few.  The place was fully taken up until extra round tables (that fit 10) were set towards the back of the coffee house (and that was where we were).

If you're lucky enough to score some side tables, you'd be having your meal overlooking a beautiful surrounding of a garden pool with lush greenery and lovely orchids.

This was my fourth time here....and the reason was because this place was my ex-company's venue of choice for their Chinese New Year luncheon...every year!  But that was 5 years ago and I've never been back until now.

I guess people go for buffets because of the wide selection of food but if you're not a big-eater, just looking at the mind-boggling choices is already enough to make you full! :D  In the end, we'd probably just scraped the surface of like 10% of what was offered.

As with any hotel buffet there'll be hits and misses, there won't be a dish that'll make you go 'wow', that's really good, but there also won't be a dish that'll make you go 'oh no', that's horrible, most are what we'd call middle-of-the-road acceptable dishes (so minimal description should suffice...hehe!).

Let's start with one of my favourite sections in any buffet...the Seafood on Ice Section! ^o^

Raw Oysters...shucked and ready, fresh and juicy

Poached Prawns...firm and fresh

Cooked Mussels & Scallops 

Sliced clams, octopus, butterfish, tuna & salmon

My Plate #1 - the fresh seafood of oysters and poached prawns were the best things on this plate for me.

I had to borrow a space for the yabbies that made an appearance later when I got my mother-in-law her plate of fresh seafood ;)


Lots of sushi....I didn't have any.


The Chinese Food Section featured some wok-fried prawns, roast duck, stir-fry broccoli, fried rice, belacan brinjal & ladies finger and lots more.  I also saw lots of fried & steamed dim sum items and sweet corn soup.


 My Plate #2 - I only had a piece of steamed fish from the Chinese section >.<


The Malay Food Section had so many curry dishes, it was insane.  I just took one photo of the Ayam Masak Lemak (chicken cooked with coconut & turmeric) as representation of the entire section....uh-uh, don't have stomach space for the abundant Malay food.


My Shared Plate #3 - I had one stick of chicken satay from this section! >_<


The Indian Food Section is represented by this sole pic of Tandoori Chicken...there were lots more I couldn't remember or wasn't interested....none for me from this Indian section as well.


At the Western Food Section, I noticed the Braised Beef Brisket with grilled peppers and what looked like some kind of peppercorn sauce initially but I think they were juniper berries.


Also the Paper-Wrapped Baked Red Grouper with grilled tomatoes & peppers and a lovely fruit salsa accompaniment (which I enjoyed very much).


My Plate #4 - braised beef brisket, baked red grouper, some cold cuts, baked potatoes & grilled tomato.


My Shared Bowl #5 of mushroom soup


The Cold Cuts Section


The Salad Bar


And even more salad.....+ rojak


From the Noodle Section, my Bowl #6 of Soup Noodles (don't know why I ate this simple noodle, I must have been delirious after looking at too much food, but, heh, at least the dried shrimp sambal accompaniment was really good).

I also saw a Pizza & Bread Section.  Tasked with helping my mother-in-law get her food, taking photos (I gave up after a while) and feeding myself, I'm sure I missed out some sections! ^_^


Finally, the Dessert Section with creme brulee, cupcakes, ice cream, sorbets, ice kacang, macarons, chocolate fountain, fresh-cut fruits and the list goes on.


....and lots of cakes...


.....and panna cotta.


My Shared Plate #7 - Mango Panna Cotta, Chocolate Cake, Mini Lemon Tart, Fresh Strawberry, Durian Cake and a very apt (Merdeka Day) Chocolate Cupcake with our national flag.


Some Ice Cream & Sorbet (that didn't belong to me)


My Plate #8 - just fresh fruits....cheap stuff but the only thing I could stomach seconds....haha! :D


My Shared Plate #9 - more fresh fruits...and no, the grapes weren't part of the fresh fruits, I 'stole' it from the chocolate fountain! O_o

I'd say the only thing missing from this buffet was a selection of chilled juices...there was none :(  There wasn't a self-service Coffee & Tea Section either...you had to order your coffee or tea from the servers.


My Mug #10 - Coffee (not a cup but a mug).....and I had two! ^.^

My Personal Opinion

The enormous and wide array of food here will make many happy!  Hey, if you can down a dozen oysters and some of those seafood on ice, you'd probably get your money's worth back already....hehe...but I can't, of course!

So, in the end, did I eat my RM120 worth?  Probably not.  Even if I did (looking at the fact that I had 10 rounds), it sure didn't feel like it! ;D  I'd rather just have a small but expensive plate of food....like a piece of good wagyu!!  But that's besides the point.  You get to eat your food...slowly while enjoying a nice ambience, mingle, chat and linger for a good three hours or as long as you want...and that should be worth something, right? ^_*

Lemon Garden Cafe
Shangri-la Hotel

11 Jalan Sultan Ismail

50250 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2032 2388