Fat Buddha Restaurant

Had a family lunch there on the weekend. Food was good, friendly service. I’ve been there when it was busier and was good then as well.

My friend and I were craving for yum cha one evening. But considering that «yum cha» is really served during lunch (or as some may refer to as ‘brunch’) we wanted to see if there was such thing as an evening yum cha. Yes — some people smirked at the thought. But I thought «stuff it — you just never know». I’ve researched and called many yum cha restaurants in the Sydney CBD to no avail but what do you know? Surprise! There’s one place that serves yum cha till 8:00 in the evening! That place is the Fat Buddha Restaurant (and I say this with a fat smile because it’s comforting to know that I’m not crazy for thinking of evening yum cha after all).
PROS:
1. Convenient location: Level 2 (Queen Victoria Building). Perfect for the city workers who don’t want to bother walking all the way to Chinatown or Haymarket just to have yum cha.
2. Great variety of food (and are as good as any other yum cha’s in my opinion).
3. Decent customer service.
4. Fancy — yet relaxed — atmosphere.
5. Extremely clean.
CONS:
(I can’t think of any from my experience).
The restaurant owner was very welcoming and was incredibly honest with my friend and I as well. After seeing the items we have chosen to order, he openly admitted that it was too much to begin with. He suggested that my friend and I start off with 2 (out of 6) items we have initially chosen on their yum cha menu because he didn’t want us to become full so easily. He also suggested that we take our time to eat in order to enjoy the food thoroughly (unless we were in a rush). His honesty was refreshing because most restaurant owners would not have given a hoot if we ordered recklessly. After all, reckless orders usually provides them with the opportunity to make more money. But this owner was genuinely interested in the experience we were to have.
Fat Buddha is a great all occasion venue (whether it be casual, formal or corporate) and is equally great for families, a date with your significant other, or just another one of those «let’s grab a bite» after having those shortly after 5:00pm drinks with your colleagues.
I will definitely come back again.

Well, this is the second visit after such a long time.
As far as I remember the food was average.
Then there was visitor came in and wider around QVB, they wanted to try Fat Buddha, so I said ok and willing. To give a second chance.
I hardly gave a food 1 star, but all selection for yum cha that I had, was sooooooo disappointed, I don’t event know where to start the review.
xia long bao (Shanghai dumpling) was cold, so the juice inside wasn’t so pleasant to eat.
The chicken feed was so dry, I don’t won’t to eat that, and note chicken feet is one of my fave rite yum cha item, that must have .
Siumai was ok, nothing special.
Prawn dumpling was no taste, although they give quite big prawn inside.
Chicken spring roll, I couldn’t taste any chicken .
Wtf is going on? I was so piss off to event write this review.
I was being polite to say the food is ok to my guess, I should bring them to China town, that only 15 minutes walk from this place.

I’ve been coming to Fat Buddha for a while now and every time I go I have a different experience with food and service. Sometimes it’s amazing and other times it can be just pitiful and for a restaurant that is hardly ever that busy (well when I am there it’s never been packed out) it can be somewhat frustrating. I went for yum cha today and it was a good day for food. I like this place because you can get the yum cha menu until late, around 8:30pm which had been convenient for me and my friends in the past. Service today was alright, however every time I go there it seems to be an uphill battle with the staff members for them to understand what we ask them for like water or tea.
That being said there is a friendly guy that works there (he wasn’t there today) and he makes the experience worthwhile with antics and the like.

Always wanted to try out one of those Scoopon deals and marketed as «back by popular demand» I guess the current customers of this place never had anything better than these Yum Cha dishes as that would be the only excuse for trying out this pricy restaurant.
The description on the Scoopon is quite misleading as it gives a list of courses which is actually not one serving (set of 3 – 4 items) as you would assume but 1 item per person.
Quote
====================================
Your 10 scrumptious courses include:
Delicate prawn dumplings
Steamed dim sims
Delicious Shanghai style pork dumplings
BBQ pork OR chicken buns
Vegetarian dumplings
Crunchy chicken spring rolls
Vegetarian spring rolls
Fluffy fried rice with pork and shrimp
Tantalising salt and pepper calamari
Custard OR Mango pudding
====================================
The place at around 1:30am is half-​empty with only one steam and one other fried trolley patrolling quite a big area.
GENERAL
The steamed dumplings were below average, where the average is frozen ones that you steam at home. The spring rolls were the only dish that stood out as quite nice, crisp and thin wrap filled with tasty chicken/​veggies.
DEEP FRIED CALAMARI
At present, you would never see Michelin Stars hanging on the wall at Fat Buddha, they are actually served on a plate as Michelin Tyre style calamari — overcooked and oversalted. They wanted to make it clear that it was seafood by salting it too much, the salt jar probably fell in or something. The batter also was so floury.
FRIED RICE
Quite bad, homemade ones are much better. Bland and missing any uniqueness.
PUDDINGS Coconut and Mango
The mango one was quite nice for what it is. The coconut one had too much gelatine and not evenly mixed. Coconut one also had specs of black residue on top (visible if you zoomin).
P.S 2 x Vegetable Dumplings did not arrive after 1 hour 15…
Conclusion
Scoopon deal, on paper the deal looks good but when you realise what you get and the poor execution of Fat Buddha this must one of the worst Yum Cha in Sydney. I’m just happy I did not paid full price for this. Buddha here is not getting fat because of the abundant yummy food, it’s from eating all the left overs coming back from the dining room.
@thesydneynoob

We came here on one of those groupon deals that my best friend acquired through her travels.
As yum cha goes, this is a situated right at the top of the QVB, the chairs are very orientic… however the food was just. Well it was ok.
The carts came around every so often, you couldn’t flag down staff to save your life but we couldn’t figure out if this was because we were there on a deal or if it was just because they were busy.
They ran out of mango pancakes which is always the highlight of any yum cha I go to, which made me pout. They tried to appease our hurtful looks with a mango jelly thing. Which didn’t taste like mango at all. I’m not sure what it was meant to taste like, but it was pretty bland and reminded me of that fruit you eat that has no flavour. Then I sat there and contemplated why they would want something so bright orange to not have flavour.
We, as I’m sure you will, thought that it was ok — nothing too spectacular. Nothing stood out. The green tea was ok. The service was snappish bordering on rude sometimes.
For the prices they are charging full paying customers I expected a bit more flavour and better delivery to be honest.

Oh, Fat Buddha! (Is there any other kind? You don’t see any skinny Buddhas running around, do you? Probably got eaten by the fat ones.)
By the time you hot the restaurant you’re all flushed and wondrous from the walk through the QVB, past stained glass windows and immaculate shopfronts and artisan tilings and the rest.
Now, the food. Maybe they had an off day, it was a lazy Friday afternoon after all and fat Buddha, well, maybe with all that mirthful girth he takes it a bit easy on Friday afternoons. The fried rice was burned on the bottom and a bit crispy unforchers, and the salt’n’pepper squid was kinda rubbery and could have used some more chilli. The spring rolls, however, were a delight, and the dim sims were damn fine too.
I wasn’t paying so can’t comment on the value but I’m trying to get me dear ‘oul mam to sign up to Unilocal so she can tell us all what she thought one painful point-​and-​click finger-​type at a time. It’d take her a month to write a review, and only then if she had her glasses on, but it’d be worth it.

It should be a zero actually
It was Chinese new year, so I thought I would reserved a restaurant to have a nice dinner with my parents.
Ordered and one and a half hours later, they said it wasn’t put into the system at all. We asked them 4 times prior about our order and no one bother to check the system. It took us 15 minutes to get the menu and some tea. Normal Chinese restaurant would have been there when we sat down.
Now if you think that it might have been an accident, they happened to a couple before us, they left when we sat down.
Absolutely horrible

Fat Buddha had a very tough act to follow. Last week Keeno and I had Yum Cha at a place that actually has a Michelin star. We had the most superb silky light dumplings and an incredible pork bun that gave this place (Tim Ho Wan) the best Yum Cha rating in Hong Kong. And it cost $ 16 for both of us, and I had a Coke, and ate like a pig.
But lets get real. Today I didn’t have to stare down Typhoon Usagi, didn’t have to wait for twenty minutes to get in and I wont have to catch a plane all night (next to a drunken and overly amorous couple) just to get home.
Fatso the fat arsed Wombat cost me $ 30 for 12 steamed dumpers and a pot of tea, but the food was good and its in the QVB so I give it 4 stars… «Margaret?»
” I agree with you David, I give it 4 stars too — and I’d like to say that your last two reviews have exposed you as a name dropping travel snob of the highest order.“
PS We also had dinner at Lung King Heen which has THREE Michelin stars. Sorry.

Food is yum. A bit pricey. But it caters more for the business crowd and those willing to pay for a cleaner & well presented place. Enjoy the atmosphere and décor.
Host is friendly.
Would be good to fix the teapots as it

This was disappointing.
I got a Groupon voucher for Fat Buddah — 9 course banquet for 2 people for $ 39. This is what the deal included:
— Steamed dim sims with scallop (1 piece per person)
— Prawn dumplings (1 piece per person)
— BBQ pork buns (1 piece per person)
— Vegetarian dumplings (1 serve per 2 people)
— Shanghai-​style pork dumplings (1 serve per 2 people)
— Chicken or vegetarian spring roll (1 serve per 2 people)
— Egg noodle with soya sauce (1 serve per 2 people)
— Spicy salt and pepper calamari (1 serve per 2 people)
— Mango pancake (1 serve per 2 people)
I booked for 6pm on Friday night. When we got to the restaurant, there were only two other couples there. It was DEAD and really quiet — not what I expected for such a prime location at the QVB.
We sat down and they brought us water and a few dishes. Service was quick. The lady explained what dishes we had and that was all fine.
After that, the waiters completely ignored us.
I tried to get their attention 3 times and the waiter could not hear me yelling out to him (even though the restaurant was dead quiet). I was waving my arm like a crazy woman and still nothing.
Finally, when i got a waiters attention, I asked if we could have our mango pancake. The waiter was an older man, balding. When I asked for the mango pancakes, he grunted (SERIOUSLY) and then walked away. My partner and I wasn’t sure if that was a yes, but then he came back with the mango pancakes (still had the glad wrap on it) and then put it on our table. He did not say ONE WORD to us!
It was weird because he was also serving the table behind us and was really chatty to them and making jokes with them but didn’t bother to say anything to us. That really made us feel weird.
After our dessert, I asked the waiter if all courses had been served. He replied back with «Yes, what more do you want? What else do you expect?’. I said, «I was just making sure as I don’t remember what was on the menu and wanted to see before we asked for the bill». So rude!
The food was your typical yum cha food, nothing more nothing less. My partner ordered a cab merlot and he said it tasted like they had put water in the wine. LOL. The mango pancake was delicious and filled with cream (probably the best thing about my experience).
The experience was terrible. The waiters were just not friendly at all, and for the fact that they were not attentive, and we got grunted at, we will never come back here again.

This place is great on the service, décor areas (extremely clean) and also good because theres not much of a line here.
However, it is on the pricey side as far as yumcha goes.
I’d recommend this place for those who perhaps have a bit more money to spend, but don’t want to wait long (as around the Haymarket/​Thaitown area).

Great for yumcha, not the best for dinner. The yumcha is authentic, clean, great setting and service. And it’s not too busy so you don’t have to worry about waiting or making reservations. The dinner was not so authentic and a bit on the greasy side. Albert, one of the hosts, is hilarious and can show you some martial art techniques.

Yum cha was horrible. There was only one trolley for hot food and another one for dessert. The quality of food was average or below. The price is high but expected as it is in QVB, but unexpected they ask for credit card surcharge. There are other better yum cha around in the area.

Food is good and tasty — we ordered a few dumplings (vegetables, spinach & prawns) and a ginger crispy skin chicken.
However, we found the service was not up to the standard of the food. Right after sitting at our table we were asked what we wanted to ordered before looking at the menu.
We ordered two main dishes: ginger crispy skin chicken and some pork with eggplant.
The pork with eggplant never arrived and when we asked the staff they told us there was no eggplant in stock. I guess nobody thought it would be useful to let us know when we ordered.
Last thing they wanted to charge 5% for paying by card. Good we had cash!
Even though the food was nice am giving Fat Buddha only 2 stars because service was a big let down and not very friendly.

Pretty good yum cha place in the QVB. There aren’t too many places other than Chinatown that you can get decent yum cha.
We came here for my coworker’s birthday lunch. We booked for 1230, wasn’t super busy when we got there.
Overall the food was really good — tasty dumplings — haw gao, sui mi, etc.
Service was pretty good. The staff was attentive, constantly refilling our tea and getting us what we asked for. At the end, my boss paid the bill but we forgot to give them our voucher/​entertainment card, which was the whole reason we went. We asked the guy to cancel the transaction and re do it, but he said his boss wasn’t there and he couldn’t. I think he was just being lazy.