Have you had the QT experience yet? If you haven’t been to the revamped Rydges Lakeside, now known as QT, you really need to put it at the top of your priority list!
I was lucky enough to have the whole QT experience this week when I stayed in the 1920’s style hotel. The rooms are the same as the old Rydges, just with a new lick of paint and 1920’s features. The mini bar provides the usual suspects as well as a game of dominoes and an emergency bow tie! And how cool is this?! Everything you need, including the recipe, to make an Old Fashioned- I was really loving the quirkiness of QT.
I could have easily stayed in the room and ordered room service for dinner but decided to head down to the hotel restaurant, Capitol Bar & Grill. We were greeted by a stunning young maître d’ in a figure hugging black dress; she fit into the theme of the hotel perfectly. We were quickly seated at a table for two where we ordered cocktails and looked over the extensive dinner menu.
Normally when I eat out, there are only one or two items that really interest me, but I have to say, more than half the menu was appealing to me. We both ordered poultry for mains; chicken and quail, followed by dessert of pavlova and a whiskey crème caramel. Dinner was delicious!
The next morning we headed back down to the restaurant for breakfast; this is the part that I’m really excited to tell you about! Breakfast at QT is a full buffet, and I mean full! In the center of the room is a huge table filled with pastries, cereals, fresh bread and condiments as well as an assortment of salmon and Italian deli meats; and yes, these are working meat slicers.
This isn’t the only food station by the way; there is a whole table of teas and coffee, as well as a juice station, a yoghurt, muesli and fruit salad station, an entire buffet of hot breakfast items, including, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, 64 degree eggs, two kinds of sausages, bacon, sautéed’ mushrooms, house made baked beans and potato rostis, there is even an omelette station, where a QT chef is waiting to make an omelette just the way you want it!
The breakfast experience at QT reminds me of being inside an up market deli, but instead of being on the other side of a glass cabinet it’s open for you to roam and grab what you like. The Italian in me is very excited by this concept!
The only thing you need to do is decide where to start! For me, I eat hot savoury first, bacon eggs etc., and then I’ll go for a bircher muesli, a piece of toast with jam and cup of tea. My boyfriend (the weirdo) eats backwards …. I’m pretty sure he’s doing it wrong!
I should point out that this is our attempt at plating, we could probably use a little practice!
I love that QT uses all fresh produce, a lot of which is free range. What sets QT apart from other hotel restaurants is that their buffet is not only cooked using a wood fired grill, but is also attached to an open kitchen where you can actually watch the chef’s preparing breakfast.
Breakfast is from 6.30am to 10am, Monday to Friday; and 6.30am to 10.30am on weekends. You can find QT at 1 London Circuit.
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