Le Café

For a hotel lunch buffet in the Wan Chai area, Le Café has it in spades. The selection was international, always comes piping hot and refilled diligently, not to mention the awesome mini pancake machine that has everyone drooling.
Located inside the 4-​star 22-​year-​old Novotel Century along Jaffe Road, you’ll have to climb a flight of semi-​spiral stairs to get to the restaurant on the first floor. Immediately, you’ll notice the brown zig-​zag design pattern of the restaurant and the buffet table to your left. Larger tables are placed further into the restaurant while those nearest the buffet table are for groups of 6 or less.
If you book online for lunch, there’s a 15 percent discount which makes it all sweeter. For healthy eaters, there’s a full salad bar chock-​full of different types of greens (think Romaine lettuce) and a raw area for sushi and mollusk eaters.
The adjacent table has cooked food — I avoid eating rice during buffets because I can eat rice anywhere. I’m here for the good stuff — curry croquettes, lamb chops, and a plethora of meat-​and-​veg and baked fish dishes. There’s also dinky «homemade» pizza slices by the other counter but I would rather avoid that because hey, you can eat better pizza elsewhere.
On to the pancake-​making machine, where a lot of people line up to get six or more pancakes. You press how many you want and the machine makes it. Simple as that. I find it a bit slow though, probably why the line is so long. To the side, there are a couple of different syrups but no maple. Bummer. Some people move on to the ice cream section where they mix the two together. They have textbook flavors — vanilla, chocolate, strawberry — but is satisfying nonetheless.
Tip: eat the food that you usually can’t eat elsewhere or can’t prepare at home due to time/​skill constraints. In my opinion, this is the best bang for your buck (and stomach).