Cafe Mix @ Shangri-La

Often you see somewhere that you want to visit and you tell yourself ‘one day I’ll try that place’, but the great thing about holidays is that you can make that ‘one day’ right now. I must thank Helen for the heads up; as soon as I saw her post about Café Mix I made a booking within 5 minutes of reading her post.

Why the eagerness? Jacky and I are in search of the ultimate buffet. I think we found the ultimate buffet 6 years ago at a Brisbane hotel near the river but we failed to note down the name of the place and have never come across anything like it since. They had the biggest and freshest selection of seafood; I distinctly remember the whole giant steamed fish, sashimi, oysters, mussels and crab. The variety of other cuisines and desserts was also enormous.

The thing that made this place the ultimate buffet was that you could peel your own prawns, bring it back to the chef with his own little counter who would then use it to whip up a fresh personalised pasta with the sauce of your choice or even better…garlic prawns. Fast forward 6 years we cant forget this place and have a desire to experience something similar once again.

So we gave Cafe Mix at the Shangri-La a go. Upon entering the cafe you are absolutely blown away by the dessert table that is right near the entrance. My sister told me that my eyes lit up like a small child at a candy store. I knew that I would be in for a treat.

This counter was full of crabs, oysters, prawns, mussels, smoked salmon and various salads.

For today they had a complimentary Tiro Italian Blood Orange sparkling drink for all guests, if you like their pink grapefruit drink you'll like this.

More salads

There was also an Asian Counter and an Italian Counter with chefs topping up and making fresh dishes as the patrons ate.

Antipastos

Asian condiments which included salty egg, kim chee, various pickles and sauces. The Chinese chef whipping up some Chinese vegetarian noodles.

Some Indian and Malaysian curries for a bit of spice

Then there was the Japanese counter with fresh sushi

and hand rolls made while you wait

After multiple plates the 5 of us (Jacky, Jacky's dad, Barbara, Sophia and myself) were ready for dessert. Jacky laughed that my friend Belinda who is the Queen of all things sweet would have rolled over and died if she saw what was on offer.

A chocolate fountain, fruit salad, macarons of various flavours and many many cakes.

A edible sculpture made entirely of chocolate as big as the chocolate fountain, the cheesecake which Jacky's sister highly recommends.

Not sure what some of these were but I think Jacky ate the whole tub of chocolate gelato himself!

Looked like a peanut brittle but much softer in texture and crumbled as you bit into it

Pavlova, coffee creme brulee, pineapple jelly with cream

There seems to be a few special deals for the month of January and today we paid $38 per person compared to the usual $48. Make sure you mention it when you get the bill as they don't seem to advertise it openly once you are there. This wasn't quite the 'ultimate buffet' but still very good all the same and definitely worth a visit.

Cafe Mix @ The Shangri-La Hotel
Level 1, 176 Cumberland Street
The Rocks, Sydney
Phone:(02) 9250 6000

Lunch Buffet
Monday to Friday $48
Saturday and Sunday $58

Dinner Buffet
Monday to Thursday $58
Friday and Saturday $85
Sunday $68

A Crazy Week

I’ve just come back from an absolutely crazy week in Melbourne. It’s really hard to summarise everything into a few short paragraphs but I just wanted to say that it was THE most fabulous week where I felt really spoilt!

My week started early Monday morning when I arrived at our Melbourne office at 9am jumping into my first interview half an hour later. I had been up since 5:00am so I was tired but eager to get started.

Left: The building where I work

Right: This is probably the only photo of myself this whole trip (taken in the lift).

Our Melbourne office is pretty stunning (I think it’s a prerequisite for all law firms to be really nice, though Sydney is due for a renovation soon). The Melbourne office is very 'new age' and 'hi Tech', for example the lights turn itself on and off as you enter and exit the rooms (energy saving purposes). There are cappuccino machines on every level and a glass atrium with arm chairs and a view of the city for people to relax and chill out.

Each level has a colour and HR is located on Level 11 'The orange level'. This is part of our kitchen area and like Sydney, the kitchen is always stocked up with a lot of fruit and biscuits. Mark is a Witness to this, and could tell you that I am a big fan of the biscuits! Though Melbourne doesn't get the fresh hand made ones.

I stayed at the Sebel which is basically the old Treasury building. The place is stunning! It is only 2 mins walk from work, but as you know I'm bad with directions so on the first night I got really lost (I left work at 5pm and didn't make it back to the hotel till 30mins later!).

I thought that my room would be nice, but I didn't expect it to be so big! My suite was 2 levels. This was the bottom floor where I had kitchen facilities, TV, in house movies, cable internet and a couch.

Then you go up these stairs to the upper level to my bedroom and bathroom.

This window reached from the ceiling to the floor and during the night the wind would blow against it so hard that I would wake up a little scared. It was a massive suite for one person to stay in, and like I said before it's probably a bit too big for a scardy cat like me.

Minibar Goodness

The Coffee

On the second day, I came to work with a Hudson's coffee in hand. The girls looked at me with shock and exclaimed "ohhh! you must be from Sydney if you drink Hudsons!". I just picked up a coffee from the nearest place so I could warm myself up (it's freezing in Melbourne! I went no where without my coat). They quickly showed me the error of my ways and introduced me to Donatos a little cafe across the road that makes THE BEST hot choclates!

The Cocktail Party

I run the Graduate program for all of Sydney and Canberra and I often assist Melbourne and Brisbane. This week I was here to meet with the Melbourne Partners and to carry out the 2nd round interviews. From 900 applications we had narrowed it down to 40 people for 21 possible spots. To get to know the remaining students a bit better we held 2 information nights followed by cocktails and drinks. The cocktails were absolutely delicious!!

Breakfast & Dinner

I was basically given a budget to spend on food everday, but the daily total could easily feed me for a whole week in Sydney. I must say that my spending for this time was very sensible. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the chance to eat and explore many of the places that I wanted to, because at around 6:00pm every night it would pour with rain! I did go to eat buffet by myself one night at Crown Casino (yes by myself...what a nigel!).

Compared to Star City, the buffet at Sante is such good value - $15.90 all you can eat!

I also made my way to Mekong on Swanson Street. Every time I go to Melbourne I come here, it's famous for its Vietnamese cuisine. The store proudly displays photos around the walls of all the Chinese celebrities who have visited. The food is ok....but I prefer Pho An in Bankstown (Sydney) any day!

If you look hard enough you can find some very cheap eats in Melbourne! (The locals will usually tell you). For lunch I found a little Indian retaurant that served a variety of curry from Northern India. Below is a big plate of vegetable curry with tomato rice and salad for $3.50...yes $3.50!

Other times I would just order room service. All the room service Meals were prepared by the hotel restaurant The Treasury, and delivered by the best looking guys!! I'm talking about tall model types....and there I was in my daggy tracksuit - hawt!

Left: Pizza with prosciutto, goats cheese and confit peppers, Right: French onion soup

The hotel also did an amazing buffet breakfast every morning, (no piccies because the hotel people would think I was weird). Instead of honey out of a jar, they had fresh honey comb that dripped honey onto a plate for people to put onto their yogurt and toast - it was just amazing.

I guess despite having such a great time, I really started to miss friends, family and most of all Jacky. You can be at the nicest places but at the end of the day, it is never that great when you don't have someone to share the experience with. Career wise it's been such a long road to get to where I am, and I'm so grateful...

Next work trip - Wollongong!