The Promenade Cafe @ Park Hyatt Canberra

Dined here a number of times and always enjoyed it. Had a small dinner party for the Seafood buffet at the Promenade Cafe on Sep ‘22. Ambiance is always nice staff are all service oriented. No problems there. Unfortunately, food fell below the standard one would expect from a Hyatt name. Prawns were good. Hot items on buffet were pretty standard. Roast was ok but presentation was unappealing. Overall, food was not worth $95 (coffe/tea not included) . Definitely not. Is Hyatt trying to make more profit from losses during covid? Don’t waste your money if you’re expecting good food but if you only want to enjoy the ambience , then go ahead. Otherwise, not worth the visit.

We have dined at the Promenade Cafe many times over the years and went for lunch at the weekend. It was disappointing to say the least. There were plenty of staff and few customers so the wait of over 20 minutes to get our order taken was rather irritating. The very nice olives we ordered while we waited for mains could have done with some cocktail sticks to assist eating. My fork had very uncomfortably bent tines and I had to ask to have it replaced. The meals were OK, very expensive for just OK though. Dont bother ordering the truffled potato it was more like potato soup with half dozen bland truffle shavings on it. My coffee mug had a small chip in it and my creme brûlée was only half bruleed with a little pile of raw sugar in the middle no nice crack. On the plus side, the music coming from the very talented pianist down the hall was lovely, it was a very quiet service which suited us but had it been busier, I daresay the service would have been even slower. Gone are the days of the vibrant buffets it appears.

We love the Hyatt in Canberra, we have stayed here a lot of times and more often than not, we dine at the restaurant. This evening was a disappointment, this is meant to be a fine dining experience, well may be two stars service. The food was great, but the service was apathetic. There were may be 3 or 4 servers on for the 18 diners, but they were slow, inattentive, impersonal, and basically bad. Had no idea how to attend to folks in a betters class (in in fact any class of restaurant). Took for ever to get menus, took longer to bring menus, took forever to take orders, it wasn 't like they severs were busy, just walking around in circles. No supervision, no management, no training. The $88 bottle of Shaw and Smith SB, was served at a warm temperature, and when pointed out, no response form the manager , no idea how to attend to guests nor attend to their needs, I guess, they were bought up on cask wine, definitely not wine with dinner. The meal was great, beautifully presented, and a delight to consume, another restaurant where servers let down great work by the chefs.

We stayed for a few days and experienced breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Promenade. The staff are well trained, efficient, friendly and courteous, and make you feel welcome. Breakfast: There is a note at the counter advising of possible delays after 8am, so we went early. A full range of items including smoked salmon and the best smoked ham; fresh whole fruit and cut melon etc; eggs cooked to order; delicious pastries, excellent brewed coffee and also cappucinos etc. Lunch: We only wanted a small lunch. No club sandwiches and BLT on the menu, but we had the most delicious salmon and tuna roll (with seaweed and a great dressing), tempura zucchini flowers, spicy grilled mushrooms and some veg- to share- just right. Dinner: the seafood buffet must be the best we have ever had outside Asia. Fresh oysters, prawns, blue swimmer crab, salmon gravalax , charcuterie, soup (spicy cauliflower and corn); salads. The hot dishes in the bain maries- were all delicious and moist. Many buffets serve roast meats that are dry and tough, but the roast beef here was perfect- not rare, but still moist and tender. Desserts included bread and butter pudding, fruit panacotta and big range of little cakes etc to try. A great offering for $90pp. This restaurant is great- good food, no fuss, competent staff. Well done.

We went with 2 families at 9am as a treat for the kids finishing a really tough school year. We were hoping to surprise them with some 'wow ' factor. Really lovely food with lots of choices. Dishes were super tasty, the only thing that was out of stock was the scrambled eggs and they were filled up before we reached them at the end of the hot food line. The 10 y/o amongst us exclaimed it was the best day of their life! I 'm already planning my next visit. This time I 'll skip my piece of toast in hope that I have room for a pastry!