It is on a sunny winter’s Sunday that we arrive for our Sunday Roast Buffet at the Novotel’s first floor restaurant and bar, One Restaurant & Bar. A very obliging waitperson seats us by one of the restaurant’s expansive windows and offers us water.
We look around and can’t help but observe how tasteful One is looking since its refurbishment last year. A palette of browns extends from the velvety coverings of the chairs, to the soft carpet and the banquettes. Modern geometric light shades are in keeping with the room’s contemporary and comfortable feel. Windows wrap right around the restaurant, letting in the warm winter sun, giving a fine view to the city street below.
We start our meal with two wines selected from the restaurant’s dinner menu – available to lunchtime diners on request. I choose a Berton Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc ($9/$40), while my partner chooses the local and very drinkable Doonkuna Shiraz ($8.50/$38.00). The Shiraz packs an alcohol content of 15.7%. Delicious, yes, but we may well require a cab home.
A glance at the briefer lunchtime wine menu shows that a solid range of wines from the Canberra region and around Australia are on offer. There’s also good selection of reasonably priced domestic and international beers to choose from.
At the buffet, we proceed to fill our plates with beautifully fresh king prawns and Clyde River oysters. The oysters are sourced from Bateman’s Bay and One is only one of two Canberra restaurants whose menus carry them. They are fresh and delicious with just a squeeze of lemon juice, so delicious that we return to the buffet for a second helping.
Having had our fill of oysters, I head off to try the star of the day – the roast. Today it’s lamb with a red wine jus. As there’s only tongs on hand, I’m not able to get as much of a taste of the jus as I would have liked – a serving spoon would have been useful in this regard. I can attest, however, for the lamb; it is moist, flavoursome and fragrant with rosemary. I choose the baked sweet potato, cauliflower mornay, a good home-style potato salad and a simple but very pleasant salad of green beans, bocconcini and cherry tomatoes as accompaniments.
Making the most of the buffet, my partner has helped himself to creamy tomato soup. I sneak a sip from his bowl – it’s sweet and clean in flavour.
After pondering whether I could possibly manage to graze on cheese before dessert, I decide to skip it. There’s a blue, brie and a cheddar out on the cheese platter today, daintily arranged with strawberries, walnuts and dried apricots. My partner’s picked the blue and the brie and I help myself to a taste. Both cheeses are a lovely way to finish the savoury end of our meal.
Time for dessert. Today there’s a selection of three cakes. I go for a deliciously rich-looking chocolate concoction with Maltesers on top. To assuage guilt, I pile a small mountain of fruit salad onto my plate. Fruit cancels out chocolate calories, right? My partner opts for a rich carrot cake and nods with appreciation.
The One’s Sunday Buffer Roast is on offer from midday until 3.30pm, so there’s plenty of scope for a long lunch. At $47.50 for adults, and with kids under 12 eating for $15, One is a good destination for a leisurely Sunday afternoon with the family. While the buffet is not really geared toward vegetarians, with the seafood and salad selections, pescatarians (seafood eating ‘vegetarians’) are well catered for.
One’s Sunday Roast Buffet is available now and will run every Sunday for the duration of winter. $47.50* for adults. $15.00 per child under 12 years. *Accor Advantage Plus discount applies.
Enjoy a free glass of wine! download discount.
One Restaurant & Bar are also hosting two special events; Sunday 25 July 2010: Christmas in July and Sunday 5 September 2010: Fathers Day. View events
