Garden Buffet

«Do you have a spare bag? I think I might need to throw up on the train!» is what an impulsive friend once said after eating too much glorious, unlimited food at the Garden Buffet. I don’t blame her this place cannot be beaten, it’s really really good food and lots of it.
There’s lots for everyone to choose from regardless of taste, age and race. If you are Asian, this place is where you become a stereotypical Asian parent at a buffet. Go to the prawn selection, grab 5 heaped plates for the table and then lemon/​sauce to go with it. Bring it all back and force cooked prawns down everyone’s throat as if tomorrow the world’s prawn population will just suddenly die. That is the Asian highlight.
If you don’t want to be a stereotype, theres lots for everyone else:
–Excellent salad bar, like a gourmet one of the Broadway coles bar, where you can make your own ceasar salad which can out do the top master chef salad this year
–Thick cut chips and fish fillet, yay fish and chips!
–Laksa…they just have the soup and noodles, but you can go to the cavery section and add CHICKEN, hey even add one of those prawns your parents keep trying to shove down your throat
–Lots of asian stuff, stir fries, curries etc
–Pizza
–Pasta
–Soup
–everything really…
AND then there’s STRESSED backwards. Here you will find like 15 sweet things to choose from such as:
–cheesecake
–jelly
–cake
–cake
–pudding
–AND OMG the profiteroles are the best best best! I swear when I was a fat girl I ate like 10 in one go.,…they were tasty and I had no shame in calories.
So I do think anyone who can’t control themselves should go here to binge eat… maybe just bring a plastic bag at the end of it for the trip home if you really lack self control.
Price is around $ 40 depending on the day. Not cheap but better than the Westie RSL buffets and on par with the high class buffets.

I have started my Unilocal existence intent on trying to be positive and specifically intending to review restaurants with reference to what they are. This is a buffet. You don’t expect a buffet to be great, as someone else below mentioned. But you want it to be, especially when it’s moderately expensive. Especially when the same price you paid for it ($ 35 at lunch) could just as well have gone to another single menu item at one of the infinitely fine dining experiences I understand the Star Casino to have as restaurant options. On a whim for a lunch outing with my partner, this was a fun experience, but the food was definitely lacking.
Yes, there are piles of prawns, as many as you can eat. That seems to be what most people do when they go to this buffet. To my spoiled American mind, having to peel your own shrimp is more effort than it’s worth, and the cocktail sauce wasn’t great which is mostly what I enjoy about shrimp/​prawns. The rest of the buffet is seriously underwhelming. The Italian section is thick crusted pizza that has been slightly overcooked and then heat-​lamp-​overcooked as well, the pasta is amalgamated into one indiscernible glob, the beef/​lamb/​duck all had nice looking sauces to cover them up with but they looked dry and slightly fatty and unappetizing, and over at the Asian stations you won’t fare much better. Ultimately the fried food seemed the safest, and I ended up eating a few chips, half a samosa, two spring rolls, one prawn, some greens, and a bit of hokkien noodles. It sounds like a lot of food, perhaps, but given this is a buffet, and I went hungry, I left still slightly hungry, which is just wrong on so many levels. The idea is to «all-​you-​can» eat yourself silly, and I didn’t even want to do that here.
My recommendation is to save your money and buy gelato, there’s a Messina downstairs (Actually, the dessert portion of the buffet was the one decent part, so this is not entirely fair…) Still, the next time I want to waste money at the Star I’ll just go to the slots or eat at a proper restaurant.

The garden buffet is one of the many dining options in the newly renovated Star casino which has recently undergone a major renovation. Located in Pyrmont just off Darling Harbour it’s a great place to eat for a big night on the harbour or the city. The lobby itself (outside the buffet) has been renovated and has a sleek new interior — the entrance to the casino’s gambling area immediately creates an impression of the high quality of the place. The dining area which is quite large is very well lit where the majority of diners are families or large groups celebrating special occasions. The staff do their best to try and get tables large enough for groups which can sometimes be a struggle due to how busy it gets.
The range of food is remarkable, including traditional western, Asian, Italian, fresh seafood and the large variety of deserts. There is no doubt that it has something for the likes of everyone with their fresh ingredients, unlike many other buffets which seem stale after having been left out all day.
You pay around $ 30 – 40 for adults depending on what time you get there, which is great for the amount of food and drink (alcohol not included) you get. The overall dining experience is well worth the spend, and will surely be a pleasant experience for everyone.

All-​you-​can-​eat-​buffet and delicious, quality food don’t tend to go together. Unless you’re talking about the Garden Buffet at The Star.
My parents came to visit one celebratory occasion of last year and, as is custom, we chose somewhere nice to dine out for dinner. The food was delicious and we had a fantastic night. And yet, when asked by my house-​mates where we’d gone for dinner, I found myself ashamed, laughing off our location as if almost a joke.
The Garden Buffet at the Star is not a joke. Nor is it something to be ashamed of. It is amazing.
The buffet has a wide selection of actual quality meals, including pastas, curries (with papadums), roast meats and vegetables, noodles, salads, and everyone’s favourite, as many fresh prawns as you can eat. You can also order lobster, crab, and natural oysters, and finish everything off with as many miniature desserts as you can still fit inside your belly, washed down with as many liquids as you can take — unfortunately RSA cuts alcohol from this equation. All of this for under $ 40. That’s right, all you can eat seafood, dessert, and drinks for under $ 40. I might sound like a home-​shopping network, but I feel this needs to be hammered in once more — ALL THIS FOR UNDER $ 40.
It’s loud, service is renowned for its speediness over its sweetness, and if you’re not a fan of gambling you might find it hard to dodge the poker machines on your way in. But there’s as many fresh prawns as you can eat for under $ 40. There’s nothing to be ashamed about there.