fortuna

my partner and i thoroughly enjoyed our buffet lunch today at fortuna.

there was a huge variety, and dishes were very tasty.

standouts for me included the beautifully flavoured curried kumara soup; and a plate of mexican that i put together, with lush tomato salsa, a thin avocado enhanced lime-cream, chilli con carne, grated cheese, etc. i also really enjoyed the salad selection - including the fresh feta, tomato, cucumber, and black olive greek salad; and a vietnamese lemongrass infused chilled noodle dish.

my partner really enjoyed a selection of meats, like ham from the carvery, and we both loved the roasted veges (the big thick chunks of sweet roasted carrot were great!) the beef stroganoff had a delicious flavor, with sumptuous mini-button mushrooms and loads of nicely seasoned sauce.

my theory with buffets, is that the great value is in the sheer variety and quantity, and it pays to take time to make multiple trips and use the sauces and condiments creatively to make sure you end up with great flavor combinations on your plate... and not a jumble of cuisines flooding one on top of the other!

i also liked assembling a japanese combo, where i used some of the 'sushi rice', and poured soy sauce over some smoked fish on top, and sprinkled with lots of yummy dried seaweed strands and some pickled ginger.

desserts were excellent - with the best part for me, being the sweet and tangy cooled sauce of beautiful giant cherries & plums. the perfect sourness of it cut through the richness of all the other delicious desserts (like the chocolate iced mudcake, the shaved-choc-sprinkled chocolate mousse, the pavlova, and all the other yummy things).

one point for improvement, is the time it took to refill the icecream machine (it was probably only 10 minutes... but it felt like a long time, and i was full of other yummy stuff by the time it came out...) - but mainly, perhaps they could put a sign on the machine while it's being refilled? as there was general confusion amongst us patrons as we tried to fiddle with knobs and things on the machine to get it to work (ha ha!) when another kind patron mentioned that the usual handle was not there because it had been taken away to be refilled.)

anyway, staff were very pleasant, and the young lady who seated us was particularly accommodating in letting us shift seats so we could sit in a quieter and sunnier spot (she went to the trouble of re-issuing our till docket so we could do that - thanks!).

altogether, we were delighted with our choice to come here :)

i have been many times to the buffet and it just keeps getting worse and worse. the service at fortuna is a joke and the price is terrible. they used to have a great buffet when it was downstairs with oysters and much more and better selection. they have become very greedy and sloppy with their service and quality of food. there is no way anyone can eat the amount of food they charge for. we stay at the grand hotel really often and we have decided not to go to the buffet any more since they closed the observatory buffet upstairs. even it was grossly overpriced but the food was very good. don't waste your time and money going to fortuna as you will be very dissappointed. thank you, jim and rosie

hands down the most disgusting experience i have ever had in my life, they literally ruined my birthday. this is a warning to anybody that is considering going to this restaurant.

starting about 3 weeks ago i decided that i wanted to go to dinner for my 18th birthday as i am not the typical 'party animal' and more of an academic. i was extremely excited to go out for the first time, get a drink for the first time and have a nice dinner with my friends.

walking through the sky-city hotel got us really excited as well as everything was quite flash and we thought we would be in for quite a flash restaurant... we were so mistaken.

when we got there we got a receipt and opposed to a nice greeting the lady at the front wrote a big '9pm' on the receipt and said that this was the time we had to be out by.

13 of us went and sat down and me and another 18 year old friend got a drink (quite expensive too i might add- but hey, it was my first so i wasn't worrying about price too much. also, can i add that we weren't even asked for id) then we sat down, i got a cold kumara soup and some stale bread to dip into it- i was optimistic that it would get better, then the staff came along.

as soon as we walked in the manager started spying on us (which, she later admits) and some of the other staff (exception of a really nice lady who was a waitress there) were just plain rude. i asked for some cutlery to go with my next serving of lamb shank and cold roasted potatoes. the waiter said "over there near the buffet". when you pay nearly $40 a head you would expect them to be kind enough to get you cutlery... i mean, come on!

then the real stuff went down, one of my friends (who did not have an id on them) took a sip of my drink because, well, she just wanted to try it. we then got the spying manager scoot over and ask for id, on failure to show her id the manager asked all 13 of us to leave. she then toned it down and said that only my friend needed to leave. the tables surrounding came up to me and told me that they felt really bad and that the whole thing was a joke but this lady had ruined my eighteenth birthday at this stage and none of my friends really wanted to move because of fear of the staff.

the food was awful, dried out and minimal. the drinks were overpriced and the staff were, generally horrible. i don't usually write reviews and have never written a bad one in my life but it takes a lot to get me down and this place did just that.

please, never go there! you will thank me for this very long, long review!

went here with friends before christmas and staff were friendly and overall experience was much better than expected. only downside for us was the place was packed, very hard to get through the tables carrying plates of food and lots of dishes were empty on the buffet as there were so many people there. food itself was good and was perfect for catching up with friends in a nice but not too formal atmosphere.

surprisingly good!

the pasta dishes were exceptional. the guiness pie was delicious with a nice crust and there was a great variety of salads and other cold dishes.

service was efficient and place was clean.

would definitely go again.

this place has improved from 3-4 years ago. however it still feels like a slightly upgraded version of valentines...which i am personally not a great big fan of...

standard nz buffet food, eg. chowders fisha and chips roast food mussels etc...not special spices or sauces...

good place to try meet some rugby players scoffing down food :)

recommend the observatory restaurant if you are thinking of something more special.

service: 3/5
wait time: 5/5
environment: 3/5
food quality and taste: 1/5
price range: $30+ pp

boring array of food with average flavors, though none of them tasted bad. the roast was dry and flavorless. don't expect much seafood. if you re bulking for the season and looking for value for your money, by all means come here. otherwise i would not commend.
one of the things i can highly commend though is their panna cotta, definitely one of the best i have had, silky delicious smooth with real vanilla bean and liquor aftertaste, i had six of these baby. other deserts were not too shabby as well, much better than other "premium" buffets or high class restaurants in my humble opinion. they did serve seasonal fresh (uncut) fruits too, which was a lovely change.

my gosh the make over at fortuna was so worth it
i'm glad they reviewed their menu too because the night we dined was really good.
#1-food is excellent for $$. oysters were lovely and fresh but a tiny bit gritty still, everything i tried was lovely except dessert, maybe we didn't get all the options that night cause it was very basic, fruit pudding,pavlova,choc mousse, something strange & unnamed in a shot glass, wasn't good.
the decor is lovely.

wow have things improved here.
not been back for years and now next weekend will see us dine for the third time in two months. one lunch that was really good . love the included soft drinks.
great variety and quality of food at all times.
variety of soups could improve two out of two vegetable types is boring.
cookies with coffee are great if still warm.

fortuna is a great place for a buffet.

the food was great, it is good that the non alcoholic drinks including coffee and tea were free and the dessert was sweet.

the 1 thing i would like to say is that after having a couple plates of food and them building up on the table they never got picked up and i had to actually ask one of the waitresses to take them from our table. it wasn't very busy either last night (sunday 30th sept) so would of expected them to come round a lot more often and check if any dirty plates need to be taken away. other wise the place looks great after the re-vamp but maybe the service needs to be looked at.

thanks

i don't really have anything bad to say about this restaurant. we dined here with a group of our friends and my workmates and it didn't disappoint. food was never short as they kept topping it up. a true kiwi menu as it draws inspirations from everywhere which is what represents new zealand these days. everything was up to the standard and the setting was great. i have been here before and will definitely be coming back more often now

amazing lunch buffet menu, value for money.
enjoyed the new atmosphere cant wait too go back for another meal.
friendly staff and very tide environment a+.

highly recommended too everyone

in terms of value for money - this is the place to go! i had a buffet breakfast there with 4 mates and ate my weight in delicious breakfast goodness. the highlight? the pastries and eggs benedict with bacon. the low? i would have liked to see some banana and avacado on the menu but for $29.90 i really can't complain. the service was fantastic and the food fresh. a winner in my books.

i got sick of the old fortuna food and set up but since the new fortuna has opened, i am really happy with the changes, the food was excellent and i loved the home made pizza. it was made on crusty bread, so tasty, i love these two for one deals, it makes it a cheap lunch.
the only bad point was having to wait outside for the doors to open, they were late opening up and when you got old people having to stand with bad knees it's a hassle.

fortuna is a restaurant our family goes to a lot when we're in auckland. its a really nice and it's always got something you want.

i like the service, the environment and the amount of seating it has.

the food is great fun.