The Promenade Cafe — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

I've yet to find a buffet where I've been super impressed by the taste and quality of food. I've been to many buffets where the food was completely inedible, despite being presented with a large amount of food. Some buffets don't even serve enough food, with strict time limits and food not refilled quickly enough.

Obviously, you are expecting a more premier experience at The Promenade, and here the Hyatt delivers. The Hyatt hotel is beautiful, the service is impeccable. Staff are always helpful without being overly intrusive. The ambience is lovely, and I could relax a bit more as the night went on. The food is very good, but not excellent. I thought what was on offer was great, especially considering all the seafood on offer. The food restocking & turnover was good. There were enough plates, cutlery, sauces and everything looked clean. So in this regard, this is as good as you'll get for $105, it's worth it and a steal at this price.

In the main area, there seems to be 4 discrete sections: Roasts and pasta, hot food and curries, seafood buffet and salads and antipasti. If you cross over to the next door, you'll find the dessert section.

Don't expect to be wowed by the taste. The pork and beef roast were both juicy and tender. However, they were both underseasoned and undersalted. ( there's salt and pepper at each table.) Both meats had a slightly off taste. The apple sauce served with the pork was runny. I enjoyed the carrots and pumpkin side dishes, they were great accompaniments.

The seafood was enjoyable. I think the things I buy at the supermarket actually have a fresher and better taste. However, this was the best tasting seafood of any buffet I've been to in Canberra. Again with the sauces, not particularly impressive. Eg. The mignonette was runny and too vinegary.

The saving grace was the dessert section, you can end the meal on a high note. They even have a tiny ice cream bar. I gorged myself on tiramisu, pavlova and strawberries. In the tiramisu, savoiardi was replaced by softer sponge cake and the zabaglione is less eggy and more creamy. I think most buffet diners will prefer this version to a more authentic one. In fact, I think all the recipes are designed with this kind of strategy in mind.

I can recommend the cheese wheel for an instagram worthy moment. Don't skip the hot food/curries section, it's actually pretty good! Take your time to savour the food, don't be in a rush, don't...

I recently dined at the Promenade Café in Canberra and, regrettably, my experience was far from satisfactory. Despite the picturesque location and inviting ambiance, the overall value for money was disappointing, especially considering the $50 per person cost for the buffet.

Firstly, the buffet spread was surprisingly small. For the price, I expected a wide variety of dishes, but the selection was quite limited. The range of appetizers, main courses, and desserts did not justify the high price tag. Many of the dishes were lackluster and lacked the distinct flavors one would expect from a restaurant of this reputation.

The quality of the food was another letdown. Several items tasted as if they had been sitting out for too long. The hot dishes were lukewarm at best, and some of the salads were wilted and unappetizing. The desserts, usually a highlight at buffets, were equally disappointing. They seemed to be store-bought rather than freshly prepared, lacking the rich and indulgent flavors that make a meal memorable.

Service was another area where the Promenade Café fell short. While the staff were polite, they were not particularly attentive. It took an unreasonably long time to get our drinks, and empty plates were not cleared from our table in a timely manner, which detracted from the overall dining experience.

Given the high cost, I expected a much higher standard of both food and service. The Promenade Café has potential due to its lovely setting, but the current offering does not provide good value for money. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this restaurant based on my experience. For $50 per person, there are far better dining options in Canberra that offer both a more extensive buffet and...

Last week my colleagues and I had a very disappointing experience with the services that was provided to us at the buffet dinner@ Promenade Cafe. We were there just about 3 min early for our booking (which was at 6pm) and we were told off by the man at front desk that we were too early and we had to step aside to wait while but there were 2 other people that came before us who were gladly taken to their seat by the host, Vivek. When 6pm hit, we were attended to and led to our table. After starting off and having our first rounds of seafood, we notice no one was refilling our table waters, so we had to go to the front dest to ask for someone to refill our water glasses. Vivek apologised and said he would organise someone to refill our water, yet no one ever came to refill our glasses of water so instead, we decided to order drinks to at least get the section waiter attention to out table. We had our hands up, waving a waiter down but no one came to take our orders.

For the second time, we walked to the host desk to order the drinks at the front desk directly there as we were tired of waiting. We left feedback with Vivek (who we were told he was in charge for the night). He apologised but it was not good enough after we had requested a few times directly to him and no action was taken. We couldn’t help notice that the restaurant had around 100 guests and there was only about 3 staff on the floor attending to all the tables. Very disappointing.

On the other hand, food was delicious and the seafood was fresh. Would come again but service needs to drastically improve for the price tag of...