Well. Another week, another breakfast. This time we wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary -- a breakfast buffet. I should start by saying that for me, I'm looking for certain things when I review a breakfast place. I look for beautifully presented food that tastes good. Excellent coffee, nice staff. I want to feel like I'm being taken care of, that I'm having a 'special' experience -- more special than sitting at home in my jim-jams with a plate of 2 minute oats I've made myself in the microwave. If the place has nice views, then so much the better.

Now all of that out of the way... it makes sense that Baygarden didn't tick my boxes. They weren't hideous, and it was a nice change but they just didn't wow me. For a start, breakfast ends here at 10:30. Because it's a buffet, you don't want to get in too late or half the more interesting stuff will have been sitting out for hours or the kitchen will have stopped replacing it. And, I'm just not big on having to drag myself out of bed at 8 am on a sunday in order to get in to clothes -- real clothes, no ugg boots and pyjama pants, sadly... and drive to breakfast. Just... not fun. So we arrive, and the staff are very helpful and show us in. Full hot buffet is $35. Continental only is $26. Now, how they would know what we paid is beyond me, since there wasn't anyone checking, but we paid the full $35. We wanted the full-on, hardcore breakfast deal, baby. 

Now, with my (not so) lithe and girlish figure and bird-like appetite, there is just no way I am going to eat $15 worth of food, never mind $35, but what the hell.

They have a chef on hand who will make whatever type of eggs your heart desires. We go for cheese omlettes that were, quite frankly, excellent, and then stock up on just about one of everything in the bain-maries.It was decent. Nothing to rave about, and being as how I had to serve myself, I'll be honest and say the presentation was crap. Really. I can't load up a plate in an even remotely photogenic way, which is why there aren't any photos of this breakfast, only the view from the windows. Which was lovely.

The coffee was okay. It had caffeine in it, which is always a plus. Sadly, the foam was not a thick creamy layer, but actual froth. As in, looks like it came off a bubblebath, and kind of begins to disintegrate the minute some chocolate is sprinkled on it. But hey, it did the job.

So, to quit rambling and give you the 411? It was your standard run of the mill breakfast buffet -- tasty but overpriced. The view was nice but the coffee didn't wow me. The omlette was definitely one of the best I've ever had, however, and the people watching was certainly worth the drive! some interesting characters in there for sure, including a group of young children in tutus and tiaras! 

OK, we wanted to do something different this week so we went with a hotel buffet breakfast. It's hard to compare this to our regular breakfast places because it's totally different. It was more expensive than our regular breakfast places but we had the freedom to pick and choose a variety of different things.

We had a table with views of the beach across the road which was nice. We got unlimited (not great but OK) coffee made by a barrista and omlettes made by a chef at one of the stands. You could have got them to make anything you wanted such as eggs benedict but I was pretty full with that and hash browns, bacon, pancakes, fruit, yoghurt and a selection of cakes. There was also a rice and noodle section if that's your thing for breakfast.

Hard to rate them on service as we did serve ourselves! But then the hotel staff we did encounter who directed us to the restaurant, made our omlette and cofees were all very friendly. If you are looking for a buffet breakfast experience, I would recommend this place.