A warming winter buffet dinner at Straits Cafe in the Rendezvous Hotel, Scarborough

Disclaimer: Hungryagainperth was invited as a guest to Straits Cafe, however all thoughts and musings expressed are honest ramblings by me to you.

Straits Cafe Winter Buffet, Rendezvous Hotel, Scarborough

The weekend is nothing to me, as I work a full day on Saturday. To keep me going physically and mentally on a day where I know everyone else is kicking back relaxing, I end up snacking throughout the day roughly every 2 hours until I get home and demolish dinner like I have never eaten dinner ever before.

With Straits Cafe's Winter Buffet was on the agenda for dinner, I meticulously plan out how to structure my day's meals and most importantly, when should be the last time I could snack before dinner rolled around. 

A hot, cold and dessert spread at Straits Cafe's Winter Buffet

Many people would remember the buffet at Rendezvous as the Pines, but it has since had a grand refurbishment into its present day look - a stylish new venue in a prime location right on the doorstep of Scarborough Beach. Accompanying this is the return of the Winter Dinner Buffet, available every Friday and Saturday night at $59 for adults and $20 for children aged 5-12. Diners are able to eat their way through a selection of WA's quality produce that has been worked into traditional wintery comfort foods whilst enjoying picturesque views of the sunset and waves through the restaurant's massive windows. 

Grilled salmon with salsa verde

Green Pea and Ham Soup

Roast Lamb

Not surprisingly, everything at the buffet is house made with the exception of the cheese. We lift the lids and covers off all the hot dishes to see a fantastic roast lamb dish, salmon, a Singaporean chicken curry, Basmati rice and steamed vegetables, spinach and ricotta ravioli, roasted root vegetables and a cheesy potato gratin complete with a golden crust. On this particular night, roast beef graced the carvery station, but I found my thick piece dry so doused it with a heavy pour of gravy.

Sushi, shucked oysters, fresh prawns and crab

The cold selection included fresh seafood and assorted sushi pieces - mostly egg and smoked salmon. I was hanging out for some sashimi but unfortunately it isn't part of the buffet! I settled for a few oysters and prawns, which were unbelievably sweet and fresh that I ate all of them without any sauces or condiments. I ended up working my way through three plates with just prawns, which deviated very far from my original, good intentions of just one plate.

Other dishes at the cold selection of the buffet

Other choices alongside the seafood was a roasted red pepper quinoa salad, an antipasto platter, cold meats, a selection of breads and a make-your-own caesar salad station. On the other side of the table is a mirror image of the same dishes, with everything being topped up regularly.

Dessert spread

Arguably the dessert table is the most appealing to diners at a buffet - regardless of how full one can be, dessert provides the final ultimate satisfaction. Over time I still have not yet learnt how to contain my greed and still suffer from the 'Big Eyes Small Stomach' syndrome', where my eyes can forever eat more than my stomach can ever follow through with.

Although the selection initially appears to be small, it is a satisfying little spread of sweets and treats all made in house. There are also two house made ice cream flavours to choose from; a tangy strawberry flavour and a chocolate on the night we went.

My partial dessert plate

I love how the dessert spread offers miniature portions, so it leaves you room to sample everything (you know you're going to take one of each anyway!) The lemon tart is a beautiful square of tangy meringue and provides a refreshing change from all the other sweet choices. I also had myself a chocolate mud cake cube, a jar of fruit trifle, a chocolate mousse and a strawberry cheesecake, but the one that truly captivated my heart was the sticky date pudding. Kept warm inside a chafing dish, the cake is gorgeously moist even without the hot caramel and butterscotch sauces available to pour over.

And this time, my stomach managed to conquer all :)

Kiwifruit pavlovas and chocolate eclairs (which unfortunately came out after I unwillingly made the difficult decision to stop eating)

Depriving ourselves of food prior to a buffet is common (and such logical!) practice in anticipation of all the food we could potentially eat continuously over 2 hours. I have such an immense, nearly dangerous some might say, passion for buffets that Andy has threatened to ban me from visiting them because I eat until my stomach legitimately hurts. This time, I am wiser - I stop right before that point of food regret but not before I stuff down my second sticky date pudding before I call it quits.

If you want to talk value, the smaller selection of hot and cold dishes might leave you disappointed. There isn't a huge range or variety to choose from, but you can revel with the comfort that all the food is freshly prepared and not sitting on the counter top drying out or served in bulk to last a lifetime without being replenished. I would have loved more variety, but appreciated that I was able to get a fresh new serving of lamb when the last few meagre pieces of dehydrated roast lamb just wouldn't cut it.

I'm the type of food glutton who feeds off greed and loves a little bit of a lot, but I really need to start practicing what I preach when I am forever telling my students, "Remember, quality over quantity!"

The restaurant is spread out over a spacious and big open-spaced area, with seating divided into several sections that offer a quieter space away from the main buffet area. The staff are very accommodating and we received some of the best service I have had in a while; professional and helpful yet down-to-earth enough to share a joke and laugh with (or perhaps at) me when he well and truly thought I would have been onto dessert by the time he came around and collected around five plates of finished savoury food off me. Thank you big stomach!!

My advice: Start with the seafood and book for an early dinner session to catch the sun before it dips below the horizon. With the exception of great company, a brilliant sunset is the perfect accompaniment to a satisfying and warming dinner.

Entrance to Straits Cafe; this looks striking but naked at the same time!

Straits Cafe, Rendezvous Hotel Scarborough

Straits Cafe

Normal opening hours

Monday - Friday: 6:30am - 9:00pm

Saturday - Sunday: 6:30am - 9:30pm

Winter Buffet Dinner available Friday and Saturday nights only from 6pm during Winter months

(08) 9340 5746

Lobby area of Rendezvous Hotel Scarborough, 148 The Esplanade, Scarborough WA 6019

Warming and delicious Indian cuisine at Bollywood Restobar, Innaloo

Bollywood Restobar, Innaloo

I am an avid Dimmi user and not surprisingly I received an email recently telling me that I was among their top 1000 restaurant bookers in the country. Testament to my appetite! But more importantly, it's a testament to such a great reward system they have that I have used and probably abused haha! To my delight, Bollywood in Innaloo was on their list of restaurants that we could redeem our points at - it was a no-brainer decision.

Curry (especially a table full of it) makes me ridiculously happy and grateful

I have heard people sing great praises about Bollywood and expected nothing short of fantastic. I visit the cinema complex that Bollywood is housed in quite regularly but have never set foot inside the restaurant and it puzzles me why. The decor is stunning; majestic yet contemporary looking with ceiling to floor murals, deep metallic hues and a bar adorned with a bright, neon pink colour. I'm impressed - and I haven't even opened the menu yet!

Complimentary snack

I really appreciate restaurants that provide you with small snacks to nibble on whilst waiting for your meal. We all welcomed these mini poppadoms with open hands and stomachs and enjoyed dipping into the duo of sauces that came with the crisp little discs. The dark red sauce is sweet and reminds me of the sweet and slightly tangy plum sauce in Chinese cuisine and the green sauce is refreshingly cool and minty.

Butter Chicken - $23.50

The second no-brainer was ordering the Butter Chicken - probably the epitome of Indian cuisine in a western culture but nevertheless delicious. Every chunky piece of chicken was tender and tasty, drenched in a rich, fenugreek flavoured tomato gravy with a slightly thick and creamy consistency. I loved the flavour and aroma of the gravy and had a great time soaking the last grain of rice and flake of naan bread I could fit into my stomach with that delicious sauce. I was fairly certain this would be my favourite dish of the night.

Chicken Korma - $23.50

Typically we follow a format of ordering a chicken, lamb, beef and fish dish when eating curries and this was exactly what I had intended to follow through with. Bollywood Restobar's menu has an absence of beef so this protein was replaced with a second chicken dish - a chicken korma with a much milder taste than the rest of the dishes we ordered. The cashew nut gravy is creamy but not as flavoursome as I had hoped for it to be as I love me some nuts! The menu describes it being cooked with a 'subtle combination of spices', but perhaps the subtlety was overly so - especially after the huge hits of flavour my taste buds have been knocked out with by the other curries.

Lamb Vindaloo - $23.50 

I am slowly turning into a chilli fiend and enjoy playing around with hotter tastes, but always regret it when I end up hissing like a violent woman with beads of sweat gleaming across my nose. The lamb vindaloo is at a level of spiciness that I can happily tolerate, but of course the definition of hot is a personal thing and subject to your own tastes - applicable from food to weather and right across to people. The menu states that the lamb is flavoured with vinegar and hot spices and sure enough it leaves a satisfying sensation of slight burn on my tongue.

Maseledaar Fish - $24.50

Trying new dishes I have never seen before on menus is forever my approach when dining out and this seafood dish is what caught my eye when scanning the menu of prawns, lobster and goan fish curry. I am so glad I was in charge of ordering, because this ended up being my equally favourite dish as the butter chicken :) Described as semi-dried snapper prepared in a kadhai sauce, I had no idea what to expect and picturing a grilled-style dish with fish fillets. The dish ended up looking very similar to a typical curry, but tasted amazing. The kadhai sauce is heavily tomato based (which sounds kind of standard and boring I know), but there was something about it that made me tip my rice into the curry bowl and eat straight out of it when I asked whether everyone else was done with it.
It was very oily for me - but I simply did not give a damn when I was stuffing my face silly.

Butter Naan - $3.50

Garlic Naan - $4

Overall the naan breads were good, ticking all the boxes of aroma and flakiness that ensued when we greedily tore them apart. The butter naan satisfied with all its visible buttery goodness that shone in the light, but the garlic naan - although with visible garlic flakes scattered over the bread - did not have a distinct garlic flavour even though it had a fragrant garlic smell. Although slightly underwhelming, the thick curry batter that I covered all my naan breads with probably would have masked any garlic hopeful thoughts I had anyway.

Kashmiri Naan - $5

If you haven't already tried sweet naan, you need to get your hands on some. It hasn't got the same flaky characteristic of naan bread as it is stuffed with a filling of banana, cashew nuts and dried fruit, so it looks more like a flat-pressed toastie. I really like the slightly sticky and chewy texture of the naan, and on its own it is good enough to be a dessert to end any curry journey.

Steamed Basmati Rice - $3.50

Kuchumber - $4.50

This small side salad of diced onion, tomatoes, cucumber, cut chilli and coriander tossed with lemon and spices is a great relief to the thick and creamy curries. The salad itself still gives a slight chilli hit but the zesty dressing is a great accompaniment. Plus, you need to try and have some veggies somewhere!

Bollywood Restobar interior

The ambiance of the restaurant is great; it is spacious and comfortable but also grand in demeanour. The hospitality was welcoming and friendly, our dishes were cleared in a timely manner and whilst we were encouraged to stay for dessert, the staff were totally understanding that we could stuff ourselves no more than what had already been done. There is a separate dessert menu riddled with full page of sweets, but it was a no-go for us after the successive no-brainers we had prior to dessert. There are times when 'no' is the more mature and sensible option!

Add these to your bank of successful pick-up lines :)

Bollywood Restobar, Innaloo

Bollywood Restobar

Monday - Sunday: 5:30pm - 10:00pm

(08) 9244 5499

Greater Union Cinema Complex, 6/57 Liege Street (corner of Scarborough Beach Road), Innaloo WA 6018