Infinity Brunch Club Outing #6: Landmark Hotel.
What better way to spend your 39th/"40th" (thanks Vanessa) birthday, but with an outing with the Infinity Brunch Club. Since it was my birthday, I opted to go all out and do it in style at The Landmark Hotel/Winter Garden. It's unclear if it's actually part of the Winter Garden as it's on the balcony above, but it's listed on the website for the restaurant, so I'll just go with it.
Unfortunately, our train was super late, so we arrived about 20 minutes late. The brunch is served from 12:30-3:00. With unlimited food and champagne for that two and a half hours. Since we were late, people had already had quite a few by the time we arrived, so the fun had already started. Once we arrived, people quickly got up to get some food and check out the extravagant displays.
There are basically four "sections" to the buffet. The first one has salads, sushi, fish and soups. I started here. I opted for the small build your own Caesar, some asparagus salad, some sushi, beetroot salad, a tomato and mozzarella tart and some of the house-cured salmon. Everything was freaking amazing. I was impressed as usually buffets are sub-par, but this one went all out. For the next round, I went to the breakfast area. There were lots of options here, with your usual fry-up options with a few surprises. Plus an omelette station where they make your omelette for you. And possibly you can learn a lot about the person making it for you. I highly recommend the cinnamon french toast as it was amazing. Although all the breakfast food was amazing, so there really were no complaints here.
Next stop? It was for some roast. There were three types of roast available: beef, ham and chicken. However, as I was getting full, I just had the beef. But everything looked great. The roast was the most disappointing part as it just wasn't to the same level as everything else. It was really good, just not quite as good as everything else.
Of course the last section is for dessert. And they make a huge spread. There's a chocolate fountain (and don't think I didn't want to go all Vicar of Dibley on that!), and a huge table of different things. Of course, not everything will be to your taste, but the small bites for dessert were fantastic. My partner filled a soup bowl with chocolate from the fountain and brought the fruit and things back. Then others at the table started eating it with a spoon. So high marks for the fountain. The salted caramel chocolates, the macarons and the nut dessert were my favorites from the trolley.
And during all of this they keep pouring you champagne. And a lot of it! And they have a piano and guitar player to play pop songs in the form of muzak for your entertainment. So you get to get drunk and start singing ridiculous songs. But don't do that. Unless you're us. Then at the end, they played happy birthday and my table sang for me. Then they brought me a cupcake (which was delicious but I was so full by then) and a candle to blow out.
They go all out for this brunch, which you should expect for the price, and I was extremely happy that I went. I'd definitely go back, but I think it's a once a year/special occasion sort of thing. But if you want to splash out and give it a try, I highly recommend it. You do have to book quite far in advance though, so just be prepared for that. It's definitely the best (and most expensive) infinity brunch I've been to in London so far! read more