On Sunday night, my husband wanted to surprise his father with a special “Father’s Day Buffet” at the InterContinental in Hong Kong.  Easily enough, I searched for their number via google, called them up and made reservations 5 days earlier (wow, that was easy).  When the day dawned and we headed over to the InterContinental - they told me that I didn’t have reservations at the buffet.  Well, that’s a surprise!  Instead, after having clarified we were actually booked at the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hotel - we had to pay $18 whopping dollars for 2 cabs to go down the street to their sister hotel where we had been booked.  Needless to say, the buffet wasn’t solidly booked and it was a trimmed down version of the grander hotel. 

The buffet itself isn’t completely minimalistic (especially for the price you’re paying at about $368 HKD per person).  They do have raw oysters, snails, crab legs and sushi.  Also roast beef and ham, baked potatos and steamed scallops - but I must admit that I was very disappointed in their selection of hot foods.  A steamed fish turned out to be stiff and dry, the fried rice had only egg whites and some green onions, the lasagna look and tasted like a sloppy joe’s and their seasonal steamed veggies turned out to be one solid selection of steam baby bak choy.  They do have however, custom-made pitas with chicken gyros (which was delicious) and a wide selection of desserts.

However, I must say that I am disappointed at their cheap tactics for connecting me to their lower sister hotel when I had called the InterContinental on Salisbury road.  CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP TACTIC!  And not knowing any better, we actually paid the cab fare to go over there and eat a sub-par hotel buffet (in my opinion).  I’m paying top dollars on a prime weekend for a five-star hotel buffet and that was not what I got.  To top things off, at 2:30 AM this morning (after the dinner), I had the worse cramps and poop session in my life!  It lasted a whole 30 minutes and the pain was far worse than child birth.  I literally have drips of sweat coming off my nose and at times was sprawled on the bathroom floor writhing in pain with my husband in shock and my youngest daughter crying her head off because I had disturbed her sleep.  I wished I could have passed out.  Needless to say, my body excreted the “dirty goods” and 2 painkillers later, I was able to sleep again with a stomach that had felt like it had gone to war. 

Overall - I will write a complaint letter to the hotel for their cheap tactic (ooow, I’m still so bitter at what they did) and I shall NEVER go back to that hotel again for their buffet and I’m debating whether I want to try the new InterContinental (not anytime soon).  So for those who are deciding on a hotel buffet - so far, my experience is that the Hong Kong Island side hotels are much more reliable than their Kowloon counterparts.  I am also sorry that I didn’t take any pictures, seeing as I won’t be returning ever in my entire life.

*********************************************************  FAST FORWARD?

So, after having written this post yesterday and then immediately following the post with a complaint letter to Intercontinental - I received a call from the Assistant Manager of Food & Beverage regarding my complaint.  We eventually traced the call routing problem to a PCCW directory assistant problem (which was true) and we settled the issue of cheap tactics to be really, my fault - or rather, my ignorance to the existance of 2 hotels.  I am sure this is not the first time that this has happened because it is damn confusing to the client to have 2 hotels that are just a 5 minute drive from each other!  Anyways - having apologized for the confusion and not offering any freebies (could be because I let it go relatively easily and didn’t continue to bitch as I usually do).  However, I will still NOT be visiting Intercontinental Grand Stanford buffet ever… ever… ever… that’s not my idea of a 5-star buffet, especially when there are so many other choices in Hong Kong.  EVER!