Pines Grand Buffet and Carvery

Another day, another Scoopon experience – $149 for a Deluxe overnight getaway at Rendezvous Observation City Hotel in a deluxe ocean view room including a buffet breakfast for two and a bottle sparking wine on arrival and also a $60 voucher for the Pines Restaurant and parking. Total bargain! And sure we might live like 15 minutes drive away, but it was GG’s birthday on the weekend so seemed like as good as excuse as any to take advantage of the deal. It’s a nice hotel in a sensational location. Check in was super easy and the girl on reception was so friendly. The hotel was a little dated but the rooms were still really nice. A good size and lovely and clean and the view – the beautiful, beautiful view! So we chillaxed in the room for a while, took in some TV, ate some cheese.

Then about 7pm we headed downstairs for dinner.

With the $60 voucher, it was only another $6 per person for their buffet dinner. One great offer they had on was for their wine buffet, which was $20 per couples, then they basically had a selection of about 8 different white and red wines on offer and it was help yourself. I thought it was great and I got to sample a nice chardonnay from down south and a Malborough SSB, which are generally a nice drop and this was no exception.

It was a nice enough looking restaurant – fairly basic, but not too bad for a buffet. They had a selection of salads, the two types of cabbage in the coleslaw I thought were a winner. Then there were cold meats and also roast beef and lamb shanks and roasted vegies. As is the norm when faced with a buffet I went to town with my first plate and piled it sky high. Cold chicken didn’t do much for me, but the beef was delicious!! I thought the cold cuts were pretty tasty too and also the coleslaw, as mentioned before. I went back for seconds – but just more beef and coleslaw. They did have prawns on the buffet too, which some people went to town on! Big groups would pile a plate like a mountain wit them and sit there and peel away. I’m just not sure I trust buffet seafood.

So after mains GG and I turned out attention to the dessert options. It was to be our first real extravangance since starting TNT and we were ready for a sugar rush. I was actually so excited by the thought of dessert I didn’t take any photos of it. But there was a nice selection of cakes and ice cream and fruit. We started with a mini chocolate cheesecake each – so rich, so indulgent. Next we got a piece of the baked blueberry cheesecake and then also a vanilla sponge cheesecake. We shared those – both nice – it was like cheesecake fest 2011! Then we were both pretty full, but I figured there is always room for ice cream so loaded up a bowl with 2 scoops of strawberry, a scoop of chocolate and then a scoop of old english toffee. Amazing – super creamy, delicious – loved it! And finally a few pieces of fresh fruit was the perfect end to the meal.

Ok so this wasn’t the best buffet I’ve been to before, perhaps the selection was slightly limited – but I still found things I enjoyed and left feeling a little on the full side…… which is how it goes with buffets isn’t it 🙂

So the next morning we headed back downstairs for some more buffet action. I wasn’t too impressed with the hot selections – the fried egg was cold and the scrambled eggs were watery. I was a bit disappointed in the flavour of the mushrooms and the bacon was only ok. I didn’t end up eating much on my plate this round – I sound like such a whinger… just didn’t think it was that great.

So I still had room for a blueberry danish, which was delicious, then some fruit – a combination of fresh and dried, which was a nice way to finish.

In all I really enjoyed my stay at Rendezvous – sure the food wasn’t all that flash, but it did the job and the helfpul, friendly staff and the beautiful view made me glad I’d got my scoop’on the offer.