aznyron,

We must have bumped into each other at the Centara buffet on the 17th then, we came in at 12.20.

And although the quality of the food on display has improved and staff keeps replenishing the food "stalls" I miss the sashimi: is no more and for me sashimi as a starter is a must.
Bill was 574 plus tip total expense was 600B and that's upper limit for me.

I guess Sizler will see us more often, it's better value with their promotions at 169B, for two our bill is around 420/450 because we order some drinks at Sizlers.

And bkkstan, I did enjoy that mushroom hamburger when we met your little family there last month, my wife limits herself to the salad bar, my bill must have been around 600 also (think the hamburger was 350) Seriousely, there is no way I will try a BK or Mac----- at Savanaboom airport when leaving LOS.

Went there the other day, if you like sizzler then you will really enjoy the Buffet there at Centara Hotel from 11.30am to 2pm daily .... and possibly no longer return to Sizzler!! for the cheaper price of only 280 baht per person and a huge variety of good food to choose from and including a roast lamb...if your an Aussie you may like this one.
Will be going now regular, really good value and quality.

Heard alot about Centara buffets etc and they are good ....but ..For a change we tried the Chareon Hotel evening buffet the other neet ,,,,,,, 150bt each as much as you want SO go hungry (i did) ,,,, no real farang food (great im fed up of it),, BUT a plethora of great Thai dishes ,,, the room where its situated is a bit dated decor wise other than that mash happily filled his face ..

Mash

We visited Centara yesterday, did a walk around viewing the fare offered{which was pretty ordinary} but on being told it was 440 baht a head,we walked out and went elsewhere.The manager at our heels the whole time trying to get us to sign up for the 1400 baht Xmas dinner and a 5000 baht discount card helped hasten our retreat.

Went this week, the lunch buffet is now 295++, 11:30am - 2pm. The bill for one person ended up being 372 baht after 10% service charge (odd for a self service buffet), 7% vat and a 25 baht 'fill & fill fee' not sure what that means, didn't ask.

Mon - French, Tues - Seafood, Weds - Carvery, Thu - Italian, Fri- Bavarian, Weekends - 'Jazz Lunch'

Was there on a Weds, the steak is still cold as someone posted and I was there at 11:29 lol. The sushi looks pretty but is pretty bog standard filler. Deserts are good if you have a sweet tooth, wide variety of chocolate cakes.

I'd probably only go back on a Wednesday to stuff myself with steak after a morning gym session at Cenfit. That was the only thing worthwhile imo, unlimited carved lean steak in nice sauces.

Oh and I took a pic

Thanks for the photo,to get your monies worth sounds like good advice.Think seafood buffet on Tuesday should also be good for a stuffing as they say
Not forgetting the other arf,the buffet has Thai and Isaan food normally available to keep them happy

Looks really good and the price, beats me why they don't just say 375 baht inclusive as saying 295baht then adding this and that to the bill p1sses people off. Seafood buffet is the one OT will go for though I'm not fussy.

OT........

Went in there today to try the buffet. Well trying to be polite I will just say, I was unimpressed. The wife on the other hand was more forthright in her description of rubbish. The selection was very limited, with virtually nothing that could remotely be called Farang food, unless a tough old piece of beef and a thin pork slice being grilled while you wait could fit that description.The best on offer were a range of pastries :-" I was even less impressed when I asked for the bill to be told pay at the cake shop where I had to wait till someone arrived . Then found I had been charged 60 bht extra for a lousy stewed cup of coffee, not included in buffet price .We were in there from 12.30-1.30 and only five tables were occupied. The bill including a service charge 800+bht for two.On leaving a guy in a suit told us starting next week they are doing a special buffet every monday for 120++baht. I couldn't resist telling him , That's about all it's worth . :-"

TB,
Similar experience last visit (October 2013). Limited choice, the cooked to order steak(?), wasn't any part of the steer that gets past the grinder. Sushi/sashimi, wasn't edible and like a soggy sponge. Like your visit, very few takers. I was very dissappointed as a visit a about a year (or 2) ago was a good memory. Unless I see some improved reviews on this forum, I won't return. Too many other convenient places now that are a better value, and experience for lunch and dinner.

A few years ago (before the refurb) they used to have a sushi bar with a sushi chef (of sorts), who would cut fish for sashimi. They also had a variety of western dishes. It wasn't a bad place to go for a nice slap up lunch.

Went back a few weeks ago as I heard about the new chef. What a load of rubbish. The limited International food that they had was cold, and the sushi bar was just the corner of a table. Won't be going back in a hurry. The buffet at Prajaktra is better and at half the price.

trubrit wrote:Went in there today to try the buffet. Well trying to be polite I will just say, I was unimpressed. The wife on the other hand was more forthright in her description of rubbish. The selection was very limited, with virtually nothing that could remotely be called Farang food, unless a tough old piece of beef and a thin pork slice being grilled while you wait could fit that description.The best on offer were a range of pastries :-" I was even less impressed when I asked for the bill to be told pay at the cake shop where I had to wait till someone arrived . Then found I had been charged 60 bht extra for a lousy stewed cup of coffee, not included in buffet price .We were in there from 12.30-1.30 and only five tables were occupied. The bill including a service charge 800+bht for two.On leaving a guy in a suit told us starting next week they are doing a special buffet every monday for 120++baht. I couldn't resist telling him , That's about all it's worth . :-"

Trubrit, to you have any further info on the 120 ++ baht Monday buffet that you spoke of above? I called today to inquire and nobody seemed to know anything about it. It could very well be on for Monday and the phone staff not be aware of it. I've never been to Centara, so I'd like to give it a shot in spite of the fact that it has some bad reviews.

semperfiguy wrote:

trubrit wrote:Went in there today to try the buffet. Well trying to be polite I will just say, I was unimpressed. The wife on the other hand was more forthright in her description of rubbish. The selection was very limited, with virtually nothing that could remotely be called Farang food, unless a tough old piece of beef and a thin pork slice being grilled while you wait could fit that description.The best on offer were a range of pastries :-" I was even less impressed when I asked for the bill to be told pay at the cake shop where I had to wait till someone arrived . Then found I had been charged 60 bht extra for a lousy stewed cup of coffee, not included in buffet price .We were in there from 12.30-1.30 and only five tables were occupied. The bill including a service charge 800+bht for two.On leaving a guy in a suit told us starting next week they are doing a special buffet every monday for 120++baht. I couldn't resist telling him , That's about all it's worth . :-"

Trubrit, to you have any further info on the 120 ++ baht Monday buffet that you spoke of above? I called today to inquire and nobody seemed to know anything about it. It could very well be on for Monday and the phone staff not be aware of it. I've never been to Centara, so I'd like to give it a shot in spite of the fact that it has some bad reviews.

I just had a Thai neighbor call up the Centara and he confirmed that there indeed will be a 120 buffet each Monday this month.

Well despite the rash of bad reviews I decided to give it a try yesterday.

That was my first trip inside the Centra since its revamp & I must admit that the place impressed me.
One of my gripes about it in the old days was that there was no bar where you could have a quiet beer & they have corrected that now with a lovely seating area & a bar towards the restaurant.

As far as the Buffet..
A note on the table says that they do a different style of buffet each day - with Jazz on Friday & Saturday for those interested.
Wednesday was 'carvery', although I did know that before I went.
I have thought for a long time that an English style carvery would be a success in Udon but, unfortunately, no one from Centra has obviously paid a visit to a Harvester to see exactly how it should be done.

Having said that the food on offer was first class. Plenty of places in Udon can do a nice piece of pork, so that is almost a given, however the beef was as tender and nicely cooked a piece as I have had in South East Asia. The only drawback was that there were no roast potatoes, indeed no potatoes of any sort. A real pity as a good selection of vegetables is almost as important as the meat with a roast - well for me anyway. No gravy as such but 3 different types of pourable sauces. I had the pepper sauce which was excellent, just hot enough without drowning out the flavour of everything else. There was also a dark mushroom sauce that looked tasty as well.
If you didn't fancy a roast then there was plenty of alternatives on offer, including both Thai & Falang.

Although I am not a huge soup fan for once I did start with the potato (that was where they all went ) one & thoroughly enjoyed it. It was anything but bland & the selection of bread & rolls (although small in number) they had was excellent.

There was also a host of salad items & fresh fruit that I never went near so a good enough selection for anybody.

There was also a large selection of cakes which I couldn't resist. I expect to be a little disappointed with cakes from most Thai run establishments. They tend to look superb but taste so sweet as to be inedible, even to my sweet tooth. These were not too bad, they were certainly not overly sweet but there didn't tend to be much of a difference between them.
I can only suggest that the Pastry chef takes a visit to the Cake Cafe nearby Bubba's place to see exactly how sweets & desert should look & taste.

So it was not an awe inspiring meal but absolutely acceptable & the meat (which was the main reason for going) was very good indeed.

Would I go again??
Absolutely yes, it was a shade expensive but given that I was on the free wine deal probably more expensive for the hotel than me... It could be quite easily improved with the addition of a couple of varieties of potato & maybe some peas & runner or broad beans but that is maybe being a bit picky on my part as a certainly came out very full indeed..

You are talking about the lunchtime buffet, are you Bob? Never seen anything advertised about carvery and wine deals .

Yes lunchtime Val.
The various 'days & styles' is advertised inside the restaurant on a small card on the table - in Thai & English.
No mention of the price on the card though

The wine deal is not advertised at all, as far as I could see, but is something that they do.
It is not cheap though, with a reasonable tip we got no change from a 1,000 baht note each,
However the wine was certainly not junk & the red was a choice of Merlot (my personal favourite) & Cabernet Sauvignon with two choices of white - but I was not interested in them..
The waitresses are lightening quick at refilling the glass as well.
Starts at 11.30 & ends at 14:30 - but they do not throw you out at that time, just stop serving the wine & clear all the food away.

BobHelm wrote:Yes lunchtime Val.
The various 'days & styles' is advertised inside the restaurant on a small card on the table - in Thai & English.
No mention of the price on the card though

The wine deal is not advertised at all, as far as I could see, but is something that they do.
It is not cheap though, with a reasonable tip we got no change from a 1,000 baht note each,
However the wine was certainly not junk & the red was a choice of Merlot (my personal favourite) & Cabernet Sauvignon with two choices of white - but I was not interested in them..
The waitresses are lightening quick at refilling the glass as well.
Starts at 11.30 & ends at 14:30 - but they do not throw you out at that time, just stop serving the wine & clear all the food away.

now then bob , how was the meat buffet ? was it farang or was it thai food ... how much wine did you knock down in the 3 hours as you know i,m a sprinter not a maratheon runnner ...did you need to carry collin home .... :-"

The breakfast buffet here used to be very good, the last 2 times I had it, it was absolutely awful, no bacon, pancakes hard like biscuits and the coffee was well stewed, used to be the best breakfast in Udon IMO, now one of the worst only beaten by the Pannerai.

martynsnowman wrote:now then bob , how was the meat buffet ? was it farang or was it thai food ... how much wine did you knock down in the 3 hours as you know i,m a sprinter not a maratheon runnner ...did you need to carry collin home .... :-"

I stuck with Falang, but plenty of nice looking Thai fare on offer that I would have been equally happy with if the Falang stuff had not been there. (see my first post)
The secret of drinking wine in an 'all you can consume situation' is not to count, so I didn't.
My head this morning tells me it was plenty & I more than got my moneys' worth..
I think it was 'mutual support' on the get home situation.

BobHelm wrote:
The wine deal is not advertised at all, as far as I could see, but is something that they do.
It is not cheap though, with a reasonable tip we got no change from a 1,000 baht note each,
However the wine was certainly not junk & the red was a choice of Merlot (my personal favourite) & Cabernet Sauvignon with two choices of white - but I was not interested in them..
The waitresses are lightening quick at refilling the glass as well.
Starts at 11.30 & ends at 14:30 - but they do not throw you out at that time, just stop serving the wine & clear all the food away.

Wow Bob, 1,000bht each? I presume you mean per person. I think even I would shudder at the thought of paying that for lunch. Although I could do justice to two bottles of wine in the 3 allotted hours, to do so at lunch I would need a nearby room available for a long siesta I,m afraid.Think I will give that a miss unless I am staying in town.