Breakfast Buffet @ KSL City Resort

I never did like the name of the hotel. Pretentious and overbearing, it pretends to give you the feeling that you are checking into some beachside resort when the hotel is located smack in a residential area of Johor Bahru. Thankfully, the same can't be said about the breakfast buffet.

Malaysian hotels have in many ways suffered from poor service quality, and this hotel is no different. So I stumbled onto the breakfast spread, expecting the worst and was mildly surprised at the packed dining area and the rush of activity. Welcome to the Infusion Cafe, the one stop restaurant for all your buffet needs in the hotel.

Having eaten here several times, I wasn't impressed with the dinner spread even though they have a special dine in offer for senior citizens at 50% off as long as you are above 60. Nor was I thrilled at the Lunch buffet. Both of these weigh in at roughly US$20 including tax.

Breakfast on the other hand offers far more value for money.

Digging into the food, we have a wide variety of both western and asian (sans Japanese or Korean) and that should be about right. The local spread is pretty good, catering to both Indian, Chinese and Malay cooking. There was the Lamb Rendang and Nasi Lemak, then Roti Prata, and steamed buns and a small selection of dim sum. The western spread offers a little more. Cold meat cuts, three types of Cheese that included Camembert, a selection of danish style pastries, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, cocktail sausages, omelets, smoked beef slices, grilled tomatoes with rosemary and a fresh garden salad table. The bread and cereal selection was average, with white or wholemeal toast and the fruit bowl had everything you'd find in season in the tropics. All this is for a price of about US$10++. The garden salad was good while the curry and roti prata was of above average quality. The western breakfast selection is probably the best deal as you can load up on the many options you see on the spread. The scrambled eggs didn't exactly meet my approval but then again, I have a choice of omeletes as an option. The taste is of course important, but I didn't find any particular issues on taste that I would be concerned about.

Such a spread offers far better value for money than that you find in other similar hotels within the city. This is probably the best surprise for those who love to have a hearty breakfast in the morning with a wide variety of foods to indulge your palette.

Coffee, tea and juices are free flow but are of a disappointing quality. Coffee came in the form of Nescafe while the juices are not freshly pressed but of the commercial variety which you can buy off supermarkets.

Service is poor, as the Cafe is understaffed in the mornings. Coffee and tea is not served and the used cutlery and plates  takes forever to be cleaned out.

For me at least, I believe you should of course do your bit for the environment by reusing you plates after having eaten from them but it is not the case for everyone here who believes they should have a fresh plate to start with on everything they select. This causes huge problems for the understaffed kitchen as they struggle to clean out tables at each sitting.

Overall, the pros and cons of this place is simple. If you are not expecting good service but just want to indulge your stomach, this breakfast buffet offers the best value for money in town.

Breakfast Buffet @ KSL City Resort Hotel