Marbles Buffet — Restaurant in North Island

My family have celebrated with marbles for 36 years. Not so much over recent years as the cost is slightly prohibitive now but still value for money if you can afford it.

My son came down from hamilton with his 7 yr old son and we introduced him to the family tradition.

My girl would have been married there if not for covid 😯

The food was good. The dessert bar has shrunk and was a bit disappointing. I remember the gateaus and extensive range.

Was bit disappointed that by the 7.30 sitting the hot roast pork was only hunks of fat left and the seafood was basic and a bit generic and tasteless. But in general the food was good and restocked regularly.

No drink was offered and tho tables were cleared promptly there was no real personal service as in past years.

The venue has reinvented itself a few times over the years and i really enjoyed the addition of the photo booth to record your visit. Looking forward to seeing the photos of my grandsons first visit. His dad remembers going from his earliest memories.

Overall it was a good night. The food was good for the price. I think nostalgia was a problem but i would go again.

It is still a great family venue if you...

DO NOT go at 5.30pm on a Saturday! We went for the opening session as we have a toddler who won't tolerate dinner any later, but it was insane and getting food was actually stressful - no one knew where to line up so they just went in all directions and pushed in whereever there was a small gap. We didn't get offered any drinks as the staff were too busy clearing plates. They ran out of clean plates and people were eating their dinner out of bowls then when clean crockery came out it was still dirty and wet. It was feral. The kitchen staff were great at keeping the food topped up (and the food was great) but there were just too many people, they should stagger the bookings rather than have everyone arrive at once. By the time we left at about 7pm it was a lot quieter and the buffet was still...

We went on a Saturday night so we can understand it was busy. The layout of the food area is quite compact, so fitting couple hundred people into maybe 50sqm space all trying to get food is unbearable. Where you sit and eat is fine.

The staff come around and order your drinks promptly and proceed with fast service. They even bring around drawing books for the kids.

The food was mostly tasty. The slow cooked beef and veggies were the best. There is multiple sections of food for everyone but would be nice if each section of the Asian and Indian had maybe 2 more options in it. Be that another curry or maybe a stir fry of some kind.

All in all it was a fine night. I think the price tag should be lowered based on food provided, but I dont see that happening. Will return in the...