Collins Kitchen
| Where | 123 Collins St, Melbourne, 3000—View map |
Contact | 03 9653 4831 ghmelbourne.collinskitchen@hyatt.com |
Website | www.melbourne.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/entertainment/restaurants/index.jsp#4258 |
Open | Breakfast Monday to Friday 6:00 am to 10:30 am, Saturday and Sunday 6:30 am to 10:30 am |
Payment | EFTPOS, Visa, Mastercard, Diners, AMEX, Cash |
Diet | Vegan, Soy, Gluten free, Caters to special diets |
Seating | Inside |
Kids | Welcome |
Pets | Unwelcome |
Best buffet breakfast
Ellie Parker 12 February 2010
Buffets. Around the world in 30 minutes. That's why people love hotel breakfast buffets. And that's also why people hate 'em. They are usually a nasty contiki tour of cuisine clichés: the lobster might languish next to the sliced ham, whilst the waffles might have to nudge shoulders with the greasy nasi goreng and quicksand congee. The dodgy sod who first came up with the idea of a fishy, hamy, waffley, spicy ricey breakfast probably should have been shot right there and then. Ditto for the guy who had the virgin mary orange cranberry champagne latte brainwave. But then buffets have never been about need, but rather all to do with greed.
Good news. The Melbourne Grand Hyatt's Collins Kitchen has buffed up buffet's reputation, making it a serious alternative to a CBD café. CK takes the scary bit of buffet, being the multicultural mash-up, and turns it into a jaw-dropping array of discrete breakfast stations - the stove, the wok, the steamer, the deli and the patisserie. Add to that the practice of using only the best ingredients, which was up to now a relatively foreign concept in the buffet tradition, and the result is spectacular.
Handsome honey glazed Champagne hams, Green Eggs, Edmund Fallot mustards, huge pots of Tasmanian unrefined meadow honey, Gippsland diary yoghurt and Otway free range (bred) bacon are just some of the fine players in this game. The stove station creates an eggs benedict with the impressive Champagne glazed ham (on the bone) complete with a little red Le Creuset pot of just made hollandaise - the ham is sliced to the desired thickness upon request and the hollandaise is equally measured out. Nice. The wok station has huge mortar and pestles brimming with lurid red and green sambals, ready to go with the jumble of noodle food being flipped in the wok. The steamer section has congee, the loveliest steamed Mulloway in a soy ginger and spring onion broth and the obvious but nonetheless scrumptious dim sum and pork buns, rivaling many CBD yum cha contenders. And where else in Melbourne can you have authentic chawanmushi (steamed Japanese egg custard) for breakfast? Go digging and you discover the hidden treasure of top A grade prawns beneath the velvety custard and the exquisite dashi broth. Mushi me love you.
The atmos and décor is what you'd expect of a Grand Hyatt- it is calm, orderly and doesn't step on anyone's toes. Best advice is to ignore the muzak, grab one of the Russell St banquette booths and help yourself to the magnificent spread. Your clients will like it for a change of pace: swift, serene, professional. Better still, throw yourself into the $75 Sunday brunch. Your lover will like it for an entirely different reason.
Upshot? I can thoroughly recommend the fishy, hamy, waffley, spicy ricey breakfast. Yeah, you heard me, it's tops. Executive chef Jason Camillo has much to be proud of - he has taken the hotel breakfast to an exciting new level of refinement, dedication and quality.
Release your inner buffet beast.