Friday, April 12, 2013

International Buffet Review - The Glass House, Eastin Grand Hotel

The Glass House - International Buffet Restaurant at Eastin Grand Hotel, Sathorn, Bangkok




Overall Score  8.5/10
Taste   4/5
Ambiance  4.5/5
Service  4.5/5
Value   4/5

The Glass House Eastin Grand - International Buffet Restuarant on BumRes.com




Recently I haven’t gone to too many buffets since I don’t like buffet in general.  Some Sunday brunches at hotels are acceptable but buffets in hotel sometimes are just too expensive and not as satisfying in terms of quality.  I just found out about the Glass House at the Eastin Grand on Sathorn road.  This is a fairly new hotel that just opened up last year.  There are three main restaurants in this hotel; the Chef Man, Luce, and the Glass House.  The Chef Man became one of the popular Chinese restaurants in Bangkok.  This place is full nearly every evening.  The Italian, Luce just opened up over the New Year.  The Glass House is the buffet, which I am reviewing. 



The Glass House has the buffet offering all day and everyday.  Prices are 599++, 699++, and 1,199++; for weekday lunch, weekend lunch, and Thursday through Sunday dinner respectively.  I believe there is a credit card promotion for Citibank and KTC, two for the price of one.  With the already low price, the customers with the cards will be even more attracted to this buffet.  My first impression of the atmosphere was toward the simple and elegant décor beyond the four star hotel level, that they claim themselves to be.  Customer service was good, the staffs took good care of us, served drinks and constantly clearing out plates.  The serving staffs at line buffet were also really friendly and polite.  Therefore, about atmosphere and service, this place has already impressed me.              














I was there on Thursday and the price was 999++ baht.  I thought that this price included the drinks but no, I had to order drinks separately.  Bottled water costs 30++ baht.  I felt that at least the water should be free.  Then I got to see the selection of the food in the line buffet, I realized that 999++ was fair for all this.  I guess the paying for extra drinks is where the restaurant could make more profit from buffet customers.  



The food selection at the Glass House is quite complete for the international buffet.  For seafood, there are NZ mussels, Rock Lobster, Prawn, Salmon, and Oyster; no lobster and the shrimps aren’t that big, but for the price these selection are quite the bang for buck.   In the European section, we have cold cut, smoke salmon, caprese salad, and Caesar salad.  For desserts, since I was there during the holiday season, the cakes and all are decorated with the Christmas theme.  In the frites section, Asian choices we had were Tempura and spring rolls.  There are a few choices for European main dishes and Asian dishes.  In the section with serving staffs, we have roast beef, Sashimi and sushi, Thai noodles, and Spaghetti.  The buffet areas seemed pretty small at first but somehow the Glasshouse managed to squeeze every bit of the goodies to serve us.   



Like many International buffets, there are delicious dishes as well as plain dishes.  It would be a rare occasion to find a buffet that can make all the choices super delicious.  Honestly, the Glasshouse has more enjoyable choices than the less exciting ones.  Some of the dishes were tasty but not super outstandingly tasty.  I just felt like – wow, this is good, let’s have some more of it. 



In the buffet, the Honey Roast Ham wasn’t the most attractive one of all but it surely was the best I had during the holiday season.  I mean this Ham could easily be sold as a la carte anywhere.  Its meat was so tender with some fatty and the glazing on the skin was nice.  My two other friends loved it too.  Next good dish was the steamed Hima with light soy sauce.  Basically it was the traditional Chinese style, a simply healthy dish.  My friend had about six fillets of it.  Yeah, it must be that good.  












Other enjoyable goodies would be from the seafood section, the rock lobster and the prawn.  We had unlimited access to these seafood.  They always kept them pile high, very generous buffet.  To be honest, with the freshest seafood, it would mean nothing without the spicy seafood dipping sauce (Thai Style).  We, Thai people are addicted to this spicy sauce.  The Glass House line buffet made the spicy Thai sauce just the way I like, so I had lots of shrimp and lots of the rock lobster.  Besides the seafood, their pastas were also good.  I had the Fusili with cabonara and the squid ink fettuccine.  These two choices were good enough to be sold as a la carte.  There are also Thai noodle soup station with the chef preparing the noodles of your choice to your request.  It was standard good, nothing exciting. 








Other choices we tried in the buffet were the Caesar salad, crispy egg rolls, shrimp tempura, sashimi (salmon, akami, saba), Sushi, Cold cut, fried rice, fresh oyster; all of these we got to try a little bit and all of them were acceptable being a buffet.  Nothing really failed me at the buffet of the Glass House @ Eastin Grand except for the desserts.  Many places could do main dishes better than the desserts.  This place was one of them.  The desserts weren’t as enjoyable as they looked.  It was during the New Year holidays so all of the cake and bakery were sort of decorated with colorful icing and all.  Nearly everything was too sweet for me. 



Overall my buffet dinner at the Glass House was satisfying.  Honestly I am not a fan of buffet because I usually prefer quality over quantity.  This buffet was surprisingly enjoyable compared to most buffet of this price.  For being near the BTS station (Surasak), the Glass House is a recommended choice if you were looking for a buffet with a friends after work.    







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