Malaysia – Shangri-La Hotel – Lemon Garden Cafe

Restaurant: Lemon Garden Cafe
Cuisine: International/Seafood/Buffet
Last visited: April 23, 2010
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Address: Inside Shangri-La Hotel
11 Jalan Sultan Ismail
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
T: (603) 2032 2388
Price Range: $30-50CAD – RM 90-150

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5.5
Service: 4
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 5.5
Additional comments:

• Gourmet buffet
• International cuisines
• Chinese/Malaysian/Indian/Japanese/Italian/American
• Not authentic, but contemporary
• Amazing set up
• Caviar station
• Fresh Blue Fin Tuna sashimi
• Gourmet desserts/dessert station – Dessert post
• Bakery attached
• Private dining room available
• Smart Casual
• Open kitchens
• Live cooking
• 6am-1am daily
  

**Recommendations: To come here if you travel to Malaysia!

The lobby at Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The lobby at Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

After breakfast at The Loaf, lunch at Madam Kwan’s AND a food tour of Malaysian street food… we headed for our 7pm dinner reservation at Lemon Garden Cafe at Shangri-La Hotel. I could barely keep up with myself… not to mention I went for Indian food at Devi’s Corner (dinner #2) AFTER this luxurious buffet.

The Lemon Garden Cafe is a must try buffet while in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It’s located on the ground floor of the Shangri-La Hotel and serves Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, and Italian modern cuisine prepared in open live kitchens.

The food is not exactly authentic, but they still do a great job. I mean it is a hotel buffet meant for mainly tourists, although there was a mix of locals and tourists there and I had a local take me here too.

It’s one of the best buffets I’ve ever been to and even better than the best buffets in Las Vegas. It was gorgeous. I couldn’t stop taking pictures.

I’m not sure if this was for decoration or if this is the tank that holds the fish they cook and serve at the buffet.

This is right outside The Lemon Garden Cafe at the Shangri-La hotel. I think you can eat outside… but I was getting eaten outside. Just to take this photo I got bitten by 3 mosquitos – mind you I was full of sweet blood from the 100 desserts I ate that night.

On the table:

The salad bar which I basically skipped because there was so many other things.

The bread and cheese station. Cheeses included: Blue Cheese, Brie, Aged White Cheddar, Port Salut, Camembert, Gouda, Parmesan etc.

The bread station. They had every single kind, flavour, form and shape of bread you can think of. Baguettes, crackers, flat breads, bagels, loaves, slices, crostini – everything.

Hors d’oeuvres such as cold meats and also the crudites station.

This was an olive pate loaf wrapped in puff pastry. I saw this at Harrod’s gourmet food court in London, but I don’t recall seeing it too often in Vancouver, BC.

All the stations have chefs and cooking stations so you can watch them cook everything live. It’s really nice to see the buffet items being prepared in front of you rather than dished out in the back. (There was some stuff that still was dished out from the back though.)

Yes – that is a mini buffet station for caviar. It was presented with minced red onion, white onion, hard boiled egg yolks, capers and all the traditional toppings that go with caviar.

They really go all out here. So many different kinds of caviar and each has their own unique flavour. I’ve never seen this at a buffet before and I don’t know when else I will… maybe in Dubai?

This is the Chinese food station. It had a wok station and selection of dim sum dishes. They had the typical dim sum items (Shui Mai, Har Gow, dumplings, BBQ pork buns etc.) and they even had shark’s fin soup out. This is not a place for PETA activists.

This is the second part of the Chinese station. The noodle and soup station. You can order any kind of noodle with any kind of ingredients.

From wonton, beef brisket to fishball noodle, duck lai fun, and Malaysian laksa you can get any soup noodle here. I’ve seen this in Las Vegas before though.

This is the Japanese station. The best Japanese station I’ve seen at a buffet – or ever.

One side is freshly shucked oysters…

…and beside the raw oysters is this giant Blue Fin Tuna – totally unethical, but oh so good!

They cut the Blue Fin Tuna and serve it as sashimi. Fresh, but not as fresh as the sashimi I had in Korea – when I watched them beat my fish to death and then slice it before my eyes. Korean sashimi at the fish market – click here. This Blue Fin Tuna is better though.

Of course on the other side is the sushi and you can watch the chefs make all the rolls.

This is the front of the Japanese station with all the cold seafood. Alaskan king crab legs, lobster, clams, scallops, mussels, crayfish, prawns, shrimps etc. You name it, they have it.

This is the Malaysian and Indian station.

I think this could have been the Blue Fin Tuna cooked and stuffed with lemons, chilies, basil and other fresh herbs. Since the Blue Fin Tuna can only be eaten as fresh sashimi for such a short time they probably prevent wastage by cooking it after the sashimi quality due date.

These are some more Malaysian appetizers. They had fried prawns in chilies and then some fish balls skewered onto lemongrass.

These are the different type of traditional Malaysian specialties and curries they had. I actually think these were quite authentic considering I was in Malaysia. I had never heard of some dishes which is promising. Some included Sotong Masak Kalio (Squid cooked in curry sauce) and Updang Lemak Chilli Api (Spicy Hot Prawn in Coconut Cream)

The chef’s managing the Indian station are constantly skewering up these kebabs. They’re grilled in the tandoor for all the curries and appetizers.

These are the Indian curries and they make the Indian bread like roti and naan in the back. The curries were very bland for Indian curries though.

This is the Italian station. It was a gourmet pasta bar where you can chose your veggies, sauce and meat and they cook it before your eyes.

This is something that surprised me actually. I had this in Italy once and a paella version in Barcelona once. I never thought I would see it again let alone see it in Malaysia! It was a risotto made from squid and squid ink topped with yellow and red cherry tomatoes, more seafood and Italian flat leaf parsley. It was more like paella than it was risotto though – risotto doesn’t sit under a heat lamp well.

This is the American roast beef section which I don’t think anyone not even myself really touched. It’s probably much better at an American buffet… actually no wait I did try it. Yeah I tried everything but the salad because I know what that tastes like. But I am right – the roast beef is better at American buffets and so were those mini pot pies. It was filled with a roast beef stew and root vegetables.

The dessert is something that CANNOT Be missed. I’m doing an entire post on just the dessert buffet. This picture is just a teaser – a small sample of what will take your breath away! It took mine away. Shangri-La Lemon Garden Cafe dessert buffet.

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