Did someone say champagne? Bottomless champagne? These are our two favourite words. The Sydney brunch scene is full of cheap imitations but the Sheraton Grand Sydney by Hyde Park has just reinvented a classier, more interactive experience to take you from brunch to lunch.
Feast is perhaps an apt name for the main restaurant at the Sheraton and on Sunday’s it has a gravitational pull with good reason. It’s their new seafood champagne buffet!
I arrive just before midday. Reception checks me in. I am escorted via the main dining area to the bar where waiters are circulating with Chandon spritz cocktails. It’s a refined way to start the buffet, which, (with the best of intentions) degenerates in to a feeding frenzy like seagulls at the Fish Markets.
I am handed a cocktail and am encouraged to wander and sit anywhere I choose. Now this is very clever, as the bar will be the final part of your buffet feast… it houses an insane amount of desserts, a mirror wall of macaroons, a table festooned with sweet treats, petit four tiers that go skyward, donut wall and even my favourite, bread an butter pudding!
Spritz downed I am shown to my table. The DJ is spinning out tunes. I am immediately offered Pommery Champagne and even better, the bottle is being opened in front of me as I watch my glass fill with golden bubbles of happiness.
The focus of this buffet is seafood with good reason. It’s an artful display and some of the most memorable QLD Tiger prawns I have tasted, they are so sweet and juicy and the flesh is clean with the right about of texture and chewyness. The bistro oysters, whilst small, are tasty Sydney Rocks from Wallis Lake as are the Moreton Bay Bugs which are halved so all I have to do is jab with a fork and enjoy the sweet flesh. I do skip the crab as I am too lazy to work that hard for my lunch!
Bread section 
Feel like sushi?
The seafood theme extends to the next section as a variety of sushi, handrolls are at the starting line, leading to a range of anitpasti including gravalax, smoked salmon, and a range of cut meats and bread.
This is the point at which its really worth having a wonder to work through options of tummy size v pain v opportunity of eating some amazing produce! Two additional new sections sit outside the main restaurant, ‘the roast’ offering slices of porchetta to your likeing and a beatuiful salmon wellington with roast veggies and potatos an option. Next to it is an insanely beautiful cheese table, its heaving with stilton, brie, washed rinds, aged chedder and more. Whilst i note the table, I decide that this could be the thing I forego..
Onto mains. I head straight to the Asian section. Steaming baskets prawn hargow and dim sum are calling me, as is the naughtier chicken and prawn spring rolls and freshly cooked gyoza. It’s the peking duck pancakes that have my name written all over it and the chef hands me one freshly made. It’s delicious. Other people are creating their own laksa adventure, filling up small bowls with their choice of raw ingredients which are blanched a la mode and then you can ladle in your laaksa soup from the hot cauldron.
A little rest and oh! I don’t mind if i do sir. Yes, another glass of Pommery would be delightful. I dabble with a little spoonful of the other main courses; a little mac n cheese (not bad, but not epic), spatchcock ,but am saving myself for the pasta station which looks rather lonely with no queues at all! The range is a little limited to a few different pastas and either a creamy pesto or an arabiata sauce. I then do what any 5year old would at a candy station – head to the seafood section to give my bowl some pizazz with moreton bay bugs and prawns!
Now at this point I could go over to the cocktail waiter who is preparing bloody marys, champagne spritzers and more, but its more about the people watching now. It’s a really lovely vibe. You can see that there are a lot of loyal customers who know their waiters well, there are mums and young daughter combos, daughter and older parents and families with kids and couples celebrating.
The Sheraton Grand has really pulled off something more than a buffet, creating moments and areas of real experiences, connections with the chefs and endless hospitality with not just the dining range but very generous serves of Pommery. With Fathers Day coming it up it might just fit the bill!
Sheraton Grand Sydney, Feast Restaurant , Level 1 – 161 Elizabeth Street, Sydney
Hours: Every Sunday 11:30am – 4:30pm
Price: $149 or elevate your experience and book our exclusive Pommery Champagne Private Area for $189
