Cafe Mix

Various olive oil and vase display at the entrance

What would you give a person, who have everything and need nothing, but loves to eat? Bring him to a buffet dinner of course, and bring husband to the buffet i did.

When I was browsing the net for a good place for a good value buffet, I accidentally found this special offer. With this special offer ( which unfortunately ends on the 28 of Feb 09 ), the 2 of us can enjoy a good seafood buffet at the price of 1, that is $68 dollar is all we pay!! Though I'm not a big fan of buffet, as I prefer quality food rather than quantity, I'm actually quite eager to try this as it involved unlimited amount of Lobster. I love lobster, and the husband worship lobster, and the lobster in Sydney is very expensive, hence for this price, and the look of husband face, i decided to loosen my belt, and braved in.

I booked a table for 2 at 8:pm on the last Friday of Febuary, and call again to make sure that they do have lobster on that day. ( They don't serve lobster everyday, and the price of the buffet does vary, please call or check their website for more detail )

It's my first time into Shagri-La hotel at The Rocks, Cafe Mix is located at the 1st level. The restaurant was decorated with lot's of wall display of colourful bottles, either empty, or filled with olive oils, coffee beans, teas etc. Very impressive and classy.

The food was being placed, and categorised into 4 main section, the seafood section, the western section, the Asian section and the dessert section. We were being seated at a table next to the seafood section, directly facing the huge mountain of lobster. Perfect!!

I grab my camera and took lot's of photos while husband grab a big plate, and pile on lot's of seafood!!


Balmain Bug


Cooked Tiger Prawns


Lobster


Oyster


Lobster and Salad Bar


Salad Menu

Their lobster were really fresh, and the meat was perfectly done. Not overcooked and rubbery. It's also in very decent size. Prawns and oyster too, did not disappoint. Balmain bugs were a little let down, may be because we didn't like it to start with. We only have to get our money back by filling our first plate in the seafood section! Well worth it. The salad bar was located besides the lobster, there were huge selection of salad for the night, and also huge loose salad leaves and greens for you to mix your own.


various Spices

The Asian section was subdivided into 3 types of cuisine, the Indian cuisine, the Chinese cuisine and the Japanese/Korean Cuisine. For some reason, I like the Indian section the most, I find myself addicted to the papadum and was munching away pieces after pieces of papadum. Their beef curry was excellent, the beef was so tender it virtually melt in your mouth, and the sauce is a great accompaniment to the lobster too.


Indian Cuisine


Naan Bread and Papadum


Indian Beef Curry



Chinese cuisine Menu

I was also very tempted by the big fresh steamed fish under the Chinese cuisine, so fresh and delicious. Though it's not a wise choice to be eating steam bun during a buffet, but I took one each anyway to satisfied my yam cha cravings. They were ordinary, but I prefer the "Char Siew Bun" than the " No Mai Bun" aka, bun with sticky rice ( carb overflow!! )

There are some other dishes that we enjoyed, but didn't took photos of, such as my husband fav fried noodles, though I didn't have any, it must be good as he keeps on going back for more. And I notice that they cooked different noodles every time it needed refill.Another fav of us is the sweet sago with fruit combo. It's very refreshing, with small pieces of rockmelon, strawberry and sago in cold, sweet coconut milk.

Steamed Fish

No Mai Bun and Char Siew Bun


Various Sushi

The sushi was very good, sushi rice was soft and fresh, with big chunks of fresh fish, not the usual buffet quality, where the rice is usually dried and flavourless. There was a not so happy looking Japanese sushi chef behind the counter, the dark face aside, he does make a good variety of sushi, including the salmon nigri, tuna nigri, Californian, inside out etc etc. Besides that, there are also miso soup, soba noodle, and various little claypots contains stuff such as peanuts, pickles vegetables, tofu, friend onion, kimchi, seaweed, pork floss.... which are quite a weird combination and not all Japanese. Perhaps that explain the not so happy looking Japanese chef?!

Various Combination of side dishes

( These combination seems to be pairing with congee, but there are no congee, so it's a bit out of place I think )


Western Cuisine

We're quite disappointed with the limited selection under western Cuisine. The only thing that is worth trying is the paprika spiced lamb leg. Though it was excellent, we wish they would have more selection such as ham with crackling, roast beef etc.

Paprika Spiced Lamb Leg


Selection of Red and White Australian Wine

For those who were not driving and enjoy drinking, there are a huge selection of various Australian Red and Whites. Very good value, though both of us are not in the mood of drinking, we're in the mood of digging in, and not to mention, we have to save our stomach for the huge selection of dessert!!

Dessert Menu

Dessert is a huge thing in Cafe Mix. Just look at the long dessert menu list, and the massive 4 tier chocolate fountain!


Chocolate Fountain


Various desserts

We tried to fit in as much dessert as possible but my stomach is full of lobster! We wished that we've started the dessert first!! Of the long list of desserts available, we did manage to tried a few, and the coconut rice pudding was definitely a winner. I'm not usually fond of rice pudding, but it was so good that i had to go back for another one, despite the already bulging stomach!!

After 2 hours of gastronomic indulgent ( and 6 lobster later ) , husband is truely satisfied with his valentines gift this year, and we finally decided to leave, may be straight to the gym?!


Cafe Mix
176 Cumberland St,
The Rocks,Sydney
NSW 2000 Australia
02-92506206