Today, we have made a booking to enjoy the Grand Buffet Brunch at The Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue at 11.30am. No other plans for today than to just enjoy the Waldorf and stuff ourselves for a few hours, so we have a lazy morning at home before heading out to the subway. Dining where royalties and celebrities have stayed and dined? Good enough for us...
Rainy day is predicted with tempatures forecast to be between 15 and 15 degrees Celsius (yep, that's correct). It drizzles and rains when we leave and also when we arrive, but who cares.
We enter the Waldorf Astoria right on time and ooh and ahh about the buffet stretching half way into the main lobby (The ornate clock marks the half way point and the buffet wraps around it.)
From our good table we also did some people watching. Not everyone appeared to be the "Park Avenue/5th Avenue types" (Hans called it "High society"). For some guests, this was clearly a dress up special occasion. One particular woman caught our eye as she was hard to miss. A "plus plus size" very curvy woman with a lot of exposed cleavage of her very large chest. With a tattoo exposed on her tit, Hans suggested her occupation may be a "porn star" (hmmm he could be right). She certainly stood out in the crowd.
Back to the food...
Seafood to start with. The quality was excellent except for the prawns, which lacked much taste (we are so spoiled in Australia!). The plate of salmon, salmon and salmon at the bottom of the picture was how Hans started (a bit of a theme was quickly developing here...). The glasses below contained Waldorf Salad, which we felt obliged to sample as the recipe was invented here.
At 12 o'clock serving of alcohol is allowed, and one drink per person was included in the price of the buffet. A very good Bloody Mary with a vegetable jungle for Hans...
And of course salmon! The 7 types of smoked fish included 6 types of salmon. Hans' verdict was "Good shit" which is code for "very yummy".
According to our waiter / server, this buffet is supposed to be the number 1 rated Brunch buffet in the whole world (although we could not find any proof of that in our subsequent online research). Yes, the brunch items were very good and did include something for everyone. You get the ambience and history of Waldorf Astoria on top of that.
Breakfast items were available where the lady is standing, but we felt that while the quality and variety looked good, nothing was unique so we largely skipped these dishes.
You can't quite fit all desserts into one single photo so here they are again from another angle.
We could have taken more photos of all the bakery items, cold meats, cheeses, salads and soups (Di had the delicious white asparagus cream soup!) but we did sample most of it.
After 2 straight hours of gradual eating we are definitely stuffed! And very satisfied. It was great. Hans is seriously full in the picture below.
We never bothered asking the price - not when we booked nor when we arrived - but figured it would be $100 each. Good guess - $98pp including a drink, but plus tax plus gratuity (15% "kindly" added to your bill when it arrives, for your convenience). Not cheap but well worth the experience. We waddled out on the street just before 2pm.
It was still poring with rain and we were so full we decided to just head directly home via the subway and lie on the couch and groan "I ate too much". Here is Di on Park Avenue outside the Waldorf Astoria.
We have a smooth subway ride home with a quiet rest of the afternoon to follow. The drizzle and rain continues on and off for the rest of the day, mostly on. Lazy arvo staying indoors, reading and writing.
No dinner to follow. A couple of beers and some chocolate for Hans and fruit and tea for Di was sufficient.
Good night.
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