Cafe TOO

The weekend lunch is fine but leaves much to be desired.
Food: 3.5 out of 5
Ambiance: 4 out of 5
Service: 3.5 out of 5
Value: 2 out of 5
At around $ 450 HKD per person, I had much higher expectations for the food. The variety was fine. There was a sushi station and and cold seafood bar with shrimp, crab legs and mussels. For a buffet at this price point I expected better cooked food. The Indian curry had been around for a while. The prime rib was served almost cold and was tough. The tempura station was unseasoned and greasy. The lunch buffet during the week is significantly cheaper and just as good.

I came here a lot as a kid and can say that this is the only restaurant in the world where I’ve, on multiple occassions, eaten so much I can barely stand.
This buffet is phenomenal and the food served is top-​notch (with a top-​notch price). From abalone to lobster, traditional Chinese delights to Indian curries and delicious desserts, café TOO is not your typical «buffet» — it’s an indulging experience.
Recommend coming here and walking around first to survey the goods, before having a small taste of each :) And have a glass of their 100 HKD champagne!

After asking food recommendations from friends who’ve visited Hong Kong and doing some research online, we decided to have buffet at Café TOO. Café TOO is located in the Shangri-​La hotel on Hong Kong Island. We called to make a reservation two days in advance for two people for the lunch buffet on a Tuesday at noon and there were no problems. In fact, I wonder do you really have to make a reservation for weekday lunch because it wasn’t even all that much crowded.
It really is not best buffet I’ve had (New York is where it’s at!) but probably the best food I had in Hong Kong. I expected a much greater variety given the price we paid for lunch (around $ 50 – 60 USD), but that was not the case. Some drinks are included; I got the lemon tea with honey and that was yummy and huge! It is supposedly an international buffet which consists of cuisines such as Chinese, Thai, Japanese, and Indian. There is a cold station for seafood; no lobster, but they had crab, shrimp, and mussels. The noodles from the noodle station was eh. You’ll find a roasted meat station which has duck, char siu, pork belly, and chicken wings. There were other miscellaneous things like Shanghainese soup dumplings (xiao long bao), squid, fried fish with hot chili peppers Szechuan-​styled, skewers (lamb, chicken), roast beef (the worst thing there — so dry!), dim sum stuff, salads. The dessert station was quite impressive. I really enjoyed the macadamia ice cream and the green tea macarons!
Overall the food was really pretty tasty but I wasn’t exactly blown away because I’ve definitely had better buffet. Plus living in New York, you’re surrounded by excellent cuisine everywhere. The service was impeccable. It appears very clean as well. I would probably go back given the chance, but for dinner assuming it’ll have lobster. I really want that lobster — I saw pictures on Unilocal!They automatically add 10% service charge.

What a delight to dine here at any time. Casual with a wonderful array of food. Everyone and anyone would be happy here. You never have to leave the hotel!

I’ve been to Café Too for their dinner buffet twice in the past month (September). They offer a large variety of food, with solid quality.
Appetizers:
You’ll find the standard assortment of cheeses, veggies and salad dressings, along with the sashimi bar. At the sashimi bar, they serve salmon, tuna, octopus and surf clam (forgive me, but I think I might be missing something else here).
What I always find as their star attraction is the seasonal appetizer table. I think this seasonal table changes weekly, and for the two times that I’ve been, it’s been different each time. What’s great about their seasonal appetizer stand is that there’s always a dish that’s freshly made to order. The first time I went, it was Thai; and the second time I went, it was Shanghainese. For the Thai special, I remember their freshly made green papaya salad. They also had some grilled Thai sausages and pomelo salad and a bunch of other stuff. For the Shanghai special, they had a made to order Shanghai noodle sheets (the clear, transparent noodle sheets made from mung beans) mixed with soy and vinegar. They also served up smoked duck eggs that were out of this world (they were SO GOOD, my god)!
Seafood:
For the seafood lover, you’ll be happy to find lobster, crab, shrimp, mussels and others (I also think I’m missing something here — sorry, I’m not a huge seafood person so I didn’t pay much attention). What I can tell you though, is that if you’re looking for raw oysters, they won’t have it here.
Main courses:
The selection for their main courses is very international. You’ll find Chinese, Western, South East Asian, and Indian food! For their Chinese, there’s an assortment of dim sum, BBQ meats, and stir fried dishes. Something a bit more special in particular is their Ginseng Soup Bun. Basically, it’s like a Xiao Long Bao, but bigger in size. However, I couldn’t taste the ginseng at all though, haha. As you move along down the buffet table, you’ll also see a noodle station where there are different noodles, toppings and soup bases (chicken, tonkotsu, and laksa) to choose from. I’m pretty sure they also have a seasonal table for their main courses as well. I remember the first time I went, it was teppanyaki, and the second time I went, it was Malaysian-​style grilled skewers. Their Indian selection is quite authentic, and the butter chicken was really good!
Dessert:
For all the dessert lovers, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but their desserts here are horrendous! Their desserts are presented nicely, but that’s where it ends. Looks are deceiving cause it tastes really bad! The pastry chef told me the cheesecake that I picked up was New York style, but it was a mushy mess (and you know that ain’t right). Avoid like the plague! I’ve also tried other assortments of desserts (that I can’t even name), but it’s just not even worth mentioning. I find it so odd that a 5-​star chain could churn out such disappointing desserts! They do however have quite a few ice cream flavours to choose from and also a made-​to-​order crêpe station (the batter was pretty decent).
Service: Average service, nothing special.
All in all, you get a large selection of foods from different cuisines. Don’t expect top-​notch quality, ingredients and service. If you’re looking for the later, go to the Ritz instead.
Note: Definitely make reservations ahead of time. They pretty much reserve half of their tables for walk-​in hotel guests, leaving very limited availability for non-​hotel guests.