Excelsior

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Apologies dear readers, who have been waiting with baited breath about which buffet was to be tackled next.

I went to Excelsior the other day with my extended family. We became the distended family afterwards, having to lug that bloated thing we like to call tummy around town.

First of all, the spread. It was excellent.

Chocolate fountain? Check.
Fresh oysters shucked on demand? Check.
Haagen Daaz ice cream? Check.
Tea and coffee included in the buffet? Check.
Whole salmon carved on demand? Check

I started off modestly with a plate of freshly shucked oysters.

They were goooooooooood (plus they didn't give me the runs afterwards, double score!). I believe they had a few types of oysters from around the world. For an oyster lover like me, it was bliss!!


My second plate consisted of sashimi (loads of salmon was available and I love the fact they were not stingy with it and didn't wait until people whimpered by the sashimi platter before refilling it), fluorescent green seaweed salad, tiny mozza balls with pesto tomatoes and some beef carpaccio which was so tender I had to have a second helping to make sure I was tasting it correctly.

See, this plate had a bit of everything. Repeats of the oyster, salmon and seaweed salad with a bit of freshly sliced smoked salmon dolloped with sour cream, a bit of lamb rogan josh and some curried veg.

What you don't see (because I'm messy and splashed the bowl and plate) is the lobster bisque which was, how do you say it? DIVINE!! No matter that it had chucks of shrimp rather than lobster (which caused me no more than a moment's hesitation due to my allergy to shirmp), it was still creamy, rich and utterly delicious. You know when you really, really want to lick the bowl? It was lick the bowl good.

I had a few small bites in between and then came to my last plate. Chocolate covered pineapple and dragon fruit, bits of cheese and a choco tart. The tart was very average, the fruit and chocolate fab as always and blue cheese, brie and swiss went down very well. I'm not ashamed to say I ate about 3 or 4 more of those chocolate covered fruit sticks. I'm just sad I didn't eat more.


Cafe on the First, The Excelsior,
281 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
(852) 2894 8888

Price: HK$338 (I think...I don't quite recall)
But you get the following discounts with HSBC Visa Platinum:
5-12 diners - 30% off
3-4 diners - 25% off
2 diners - 20% off