Collage...an all-day dining @Pullman Central Park

I’ve been an Accor member for few years already. I get lots of benefit from the membership, such as the 2 free nights stay at any Accor hotel in Asia Pacific region, special early bird rate and member rate, discount for meals and beverages, as well as free bday cake, to name few. The free bday cake voucher can only be redeemed in the month of the member’s bday, with a condition that the member has to dine in at one of any available café/resto at the hotel where we are going to redeem the voucher. No minimum amount is required.

The island counter

So, since September is my hubby’s bday month, so we planned to try the bday cake of Pullman Central Park. We’ve tried the one @Mercure Ancol as well as the one @Pullman Thamrin (former Nikko Hotel). And we chose to have all-you-can-eat dinner @Collage, an all-day dining venue @Pullman CP. Here, reservation is encouraged in order for them to prepare the cake as well. Too bad, we couldn’t choose the cake, they only have Chocolate Fudge. I remembered Mercure Ancol offers 3choices of cake (with prior reservation) while Pullman Thamrin has various kind of cake that we can freely choose from (we don’t even need to make a reservation here).

The hotel interior with the pop art pieces

Anyway, I love Collage. I love the place…I love the food…and I love the staff. Let’s talk bout the place first. This is my second time here @Pullman CP. It is totally different with the one @Thamrin or even @Kuta beach – Bali. For their interior, they play a lot with metal, iron, wire and steel in a rough finishing. They put uneven metal planks scattered at one of the ceiling, while they have rough grey tiles for one of the floor. Steel can be found almost everywhere, from the door, elevator, restroom to decoration ornament in the lounge. Totally giving us the look and feel of a fancy factories or cool big warehouse. But, no worry, the cozy feeling is still there with a plush sofa, cute back chair and soft lighting. Not to mention the awesome pop-art pieces put on display around the hotel, definitely adding certain sparkle toward the grayish atmosphere. AWESOME!

Still at the hotel lobby

Now, lets move on to the food. I was quite surprised to see the dishes offered there. I made a mental judgment whether I could try all of them (and silently counted the calories as well) he he he. For those who have a small appetite, no worry since they also offer ala carte menus. While for me and my hubby…well I was pretty hungry at that time (I normally have my dinner at 5pm but I managed to hold my hunger till 7.30pm – the traffic was pretty bad hiks) so I didn’t even consider the ala carte ones. In the resto, they separate the seating into few areas, the one near the entrance is for ala carte, cozy and intimate seating in the middle as well as the high chair near the reflective glass window (separating with the terrace).

The dining floor

We got our seats in the middle one, right in front of the island counter (pretty strategic I would say so he he he). Unlike any other resto, they directly poured us plain water (which later on, they offered other beverages on the menu – exclusive from the buffet charge). There were salad with any kind of dressing, assorted breads and buns, various cold meats like smoke salmon even complete options of seafood on ice (ehm..i skipped these, too messy), fruits, as well as other appetizers and condiments on the island counter. The Japanese counter was there as well, with selected sashimi, various kinds of sushi, miso soup, chicken karage, takoyaki (too bad – it’s best served while hot and warm), and many more. I was stunned, since most of Japanese counter at other buffet resto like this, normally only offers some sushi and sashimi (unless Japanese buffet resto like my fav – Origami @Pullman Thamrin which unfortunately is closed for renovation until further notice). We directly asked for the salmon sashimi (double portions pls he he he) and it was yummy…fresh with no fishy smell at all   J

Ehm...yummy   :-)

Next, I moved on to other counter at the back, which offered European and Mexican cuisines. There were nachos (yum…yum), vegetable lasagna, pasta counter, grilled chicken, and beef moussaka (minced beef with chopped onion, tomatoes, other veg, baked with cheese – I guessed he he he) which turned out to be my liking *licking fingers* I like the baked pumpkin too…it tasted perfectly sweet. But the best part in this counter was the short ribs (with mushroom sauce) which were sooo juicy, tender and melted in my mouth…oh heaven…I WANTED more! And I did get more wakaka…I asked my dear hubby to get some for me. Thank you dear *muach*

Look at that cute ceiling, like a curling paper

Then, I moved to the middle counter. It had sautéed veg, beef tagine (another good dish), lamb something in spiced sauce, chicken something which I didn’t try, seafood something in cheesy sauce which was pretty yummy, and lots more. Sorry, it was difficult to memorize all the dishes names since I was too focus on choosing and filling my stomach *grinning* After resting for few mins, I moved on to the most right corner. I tried some dimsum at Chinese corner there, but nothing special here. There were Indonesian dishes like dory fish in sour and spicy sauce, the usual fried rice and fried noodle, veg and many more. The Makasar grilled duck was yummy (marinated duck in lemon grass and many spices – the chef explained to me but I forgot all of them when I had my first bite he he he). I don't like lemon grass but this duck was so delicious that I didn't bother with the lemon grass at all. For sambal-lover like me (yes, the first thing that I asked was…do you have any chili to go with these dishes?), they had a complete set of sambal, from dabu, matah, chili with ginger, and many more (I counted 7 types of different sambal WOW).

The tableware

An hour had passed and I felt quite full already. However, I still strolled over to the rest of the counter. Here they had Indian signature dishes like masala rice, poultry – seafood – and veg – all 7 pots were in a deep yellow colour like curry (with some fragrant spice). My oh my…don’t they have any other dishes not in yellow colour or coconut milk? My stomach can’t deal with coconut milk easily so I skipped all those Indian foods (I only took a peek on each pot...it was amazing the chef knew which one is what...while all of them looked like curry to me ha ha ha). Next I went to the dessert counter, the most a far counter (near the entrance area). Here, adjacent to the pastry and bakery store, ice cream, various pudding and jellies in rainbow colours, assortment of tiny cut of cakes were displayed beautifully. I tried some yummy wibble-wobble pudding and jelly, as well as a minute slice of financier (it tasted like a very sweet Madeline cake) to complete my dinning here. No ice cream for tonight, maybe next time   J

The free cake

Lastly, the staffs were awesome. They were so helpful and responsive. I’ve never seen staffs which work so fast in a very polite manner, but not giving out the intimidating aura. When my hubby asked for the bill, they directly brought us the free cake (but they didn’t put the cake in a fancy cake box like any other Accor hotel – perhaps they were running out of it). And since we are the member, we got 50% off for the dining (BCA Platinum also offers 50% off here). So for international buffet like this, we only pay IDR 218k++ for both of us (around IDR 263k after tax and service)…plus a free 16cm diameter chocolate fudge YAY   :-D  

So daddy…when are we going to have a lunch here again *wink to my hubby* 

*making a mental note to swim twice harder...to get rid of all those calories wakaka*