Arriving on the second floor, we entered a lobby decorated with coloured balloons and Easter Egg cut-out boardsagainst a backdrop of a live band of singers crooning Top 40 hits. We were immediately greeted by a hostess who welcomed and ushered us into the restaurant. As we passed by the food booths, we craned our necks and eyeballed the many eclectic offerings.

The entire second floor appears to be dedicated to hosting buffet booths representing the international flavours of the hotels’ various restaurants although the seating actually takes place in La Moda restaurant. The inside of the restaurant’s doorway was lined with a salad and waffle bar with the white-capped chef happily filling the air with delicious scents of the floury goodness of his heart-shaped waffles. The red motorcycle parked at the front of the shelves lined with designer bags, perfume and wine bottles provided a surprising and eye-catching display.

After ordering freshly squeezed orange juice and mint lemonade, which was just the right mix of tangy sweetness, we proceeded to top our plates with the huge international variety of food. The hotel has about 13 restaurants, many of which had booths represented at the buffet. At the Indian station, there was chicken biryani and tikka masala while the Mexican booth offered chicken fajitas and jalapeno peppers. The Arabic table featured various mezzes and kebabs and the Thai booth served spicy tom yam soup, other Thai favourites, and a live cooking station for noodles. Italian food aficionados will be pleased to learn of the freshly made-to-order pasta stationin addition to lasagne, marinated chicken and thin-crusted pizzas which were delizioso, warranting second helpings for us pizzaholics.

I started at the prime rib and Peking Duck stations, which I had hungrily eyeballed as we walked in.  The chunky slice beef was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, exactly the way I like, especially accompanied with the creamy scalloped potatoes. As it has been a while since I had Peking Duck, I ended up having four of the delightful crispy skinned meat wrapped in paper thin wraps. The slivers of cucumber in the Peking Duck ‘sandwiches’ were the only green vegetables I consumed as I piled on the teriyaki chicken, fried Japanese tempura prawns and other fried food. My husband raved about the fresh salmon sushi and when he returned for another helping, I, a picky eater who eats only a small variety of cooked seafood, watched in fascination as the chef sliced up the fat purple octopus.

Seated beside a large table of about eight children under the age of ten, we were impressed to see how well-behaved they all were, happily munching on the kid-friendly food (there is a dedicated children food booth decorated with a life-sized Mickey Mouse poster) although they seemed most quietly content when licking large multi-coloured popsicles and ruby red candy apples. There were face painting stations at the lobby where the kids ran to between courses to have their faces decorated as colourful as the balloons that adorned their table. The ideal family atmosphere was made even more eggcellentwith an Easter Egg hunt scheduled for later that afternoon.

Since dessert is just about the most important course for my husband, we were delighted to see a small room decorated with chocolate Easter paraphernaliadedicated to the pursuit of the sweets. We made it our mission to try most of the desserts from the creamy Umm Ali and other Arabic sweets to the finger-licking good chocolate fondue, chocolate pudding and cakes, fruit tart, and of course, the freshly made waffles which we topped with ice cream, fruit and real Maple syrup. As Canadians, we certainly appreciated the authentic syrupy goodness of the essential waffle topping.

Needless to say, after the multiple platefuls, we felt about as round as the balloons decorating the restaurant. Just before we floated out in our post-indulgencestate, we thanked the very hospitable staff for their attentive service and the meticulously prepared array of delicious international cuisine.