Fortuna is a large buffet restaurant located on Level 3 of the SkyCity Complex. I have been to Fortuna four times now (all for celebrations), most recently last Tuesday night for a work function. We were going to see the show 'Hairspray' at SkyCity Theatre, so this made it the perfect place for dinner. There were about 30 of us in total. Each visit to Fortuna has been good. The food is very average compared to the buffet at Eight at The Langham, but it is cheap at only $29.90 for an "all you can eat" buffet dinner.
Fortuna has four food stations. I usually head to the salad and seafood bar first, where you can choose between pasta or potato salad plus salad greens, tomatoes, cucumber, chicken salad, sundried tomatoes and olives to prawns, mussels, shrimp and crab meat. There is even sushi, although it is not that nice, so best to stick with the above.
There is also a soup and bread station. A few of my workmates had the tomato soup, which they said was delicious. There was also a vegetable soup; however, I did not try it. There are also several breads to choose from to accompany your soup and you can add croutons and olive oil on top as well, which I thought was a nice touch.
For the main course, there were a wide variety of options to choose from, such as lamb shanks, Moroccan chicken with chickpeas, chilli mince (to which you can add tortilla chips, sour cream, cheese and jalapeños to make nachos), roast chicken, champagne ham, vegetarian pizza, creamy pasta, pork belly, roasted vegetables, mashed potato and bread rolls.
I tried the chilli mince, champagne ham and roast chicken. The chilli mince was tasty and I liked that you could add different accompaniments to it to turn it into nachos. The ham and chicken were also good. It was nice having ham off the bone, because I usually only eat it at Christmas time. Some of my workmates like the lamb shanks, while others thought it was average. I guess there will also be mixed reviews about the food, because everybody likes different foods. Overall, nice main dishes but could have easily made them at home. I was hoping there would be something exciting like a fragrant and spicy Indian curry, steamed pork and prawn dumplings or something unusual like kangaroo, but I guess I will be going back to Eight Restaurant for that!
Although most of the food I have mentioned above is standard fare, I do love their dessert station! It changes quite regularly, but below were some of the desserts on offer the night we dined at Fortuna:
- Chocolate mousse (best I have ever had), vanilla mousse and pink lamingtons with cream
- Cheesecake, chocolate mud cake and Pavlova
- Crème caramel, jelly and jars of lollies
- Soft-serve ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauces and sprinkles to go on top- Cheeses, crackers, grapes, tea, coffee, hot chocolate etc.
While I do love fancy desserts and chocolate fountains, sometimes it is nice to have a few simple desserts, especially if a soft-serve ice cream machine is involved! But, really, just a slice of Pavlova with chocolate mousse and sprinkles takes me back to my childhood! I rarely eat these sorts of desserrts nowadays, so it is a nice treat!
As for the service, well, it was okay. Most of our group had wine with their meals. The waiter brought out mismatching wine glasses for everybody, which was strange. In addition, we had to wait ages for waters, and the waiter never refilled them throughout the night. It was interesting because we hardly saw our waiter for the rest of the night, or any waiters for that fact. There was only one staff member visible - the chef behind a counter slicing the ham off the bone.
Overall, I recommend coming here if you are going to a show at the SkyCity theatre and want to have a reasonably cheap night out. However, I would still be willing to pay more for the buffet at Eight Restaurant, because the food at Fortuna just does not live up to the hype.
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