Red Hot Buffet

We have just returned from our first visit to the Red Hot World Buffet in Manchester, as Red Hot World Buffet Tastemakers. As you will know, if you have read this post here, that I hadn't been before. 

All I can say is OMG, it is amazing!

We decided to take Megan and Ben with us and have a real family day out, and take advantage of the kids eat for half price at Red Hot Buffet so we started off at the cinema in Stockport. We took advantage of the offer they have for childrens films and went to see The Croods, which we hadn't seen before. That was great fun and we all really enjoyed it. We then drove into Manchester and had a wander around the shops, and went into the Arndale Centre, something I haven't done for ages. 

We arrived at the restaurant and we were quickly checked in and headed upstairs to the seating area. 

I couldn't believe how big it was and there was a further seating area upstairs which was open in the evenings.  The theme in the restaurant was red and black and it all looked very smart. 

Our waiter came over, introduced himself and quickly explained how the buffet works. We ordered our drinks and I decided to have a cheeky cocktail so picked sex on the beach, my all time favourite, and Mr W picked long island iced tea.

I then took Megan and Ben up to have a look at the buffet and pick some food with them. 

Megan wanted noodles so we headed to one of the live cooking stations, where noodles, chicken and beef were freshly prepared for her while we waited. The live stations are in the chinese, indian and italian parts of the buffet and you can have freshly cooked combinations of food cooked while you wait. This station was great and had a choice of meats, fish, noodles, veg and sauces, so you could pick just what you wanted. Megan also picked spring rolls, prawn crackers and rice as well as a couple of roast potatoes thrown in for good measure! 

Megan tucking into noodles, and my delicious sex on the beach cocktail!

Ben picked cheese and tomato pizza, chips and salad. 

Ben tucking into his pizza. Yummy!

Plates loaded, we headed back to the table, got them settled and I went up. I honestly didn't know where to start! There is chinese, indian, tex mex, italian, salads, traditional dishes and loads more. I started off with my favourite, indian - rice, curry, onion bhajis and naan bread. 

Mr W picked a more 'mixed' plate of a bit of everything! It was all delicious and the onion bhajis were really crispy - just how I like them!

Mr W's rather unusual mix!

After this there was no stopping us!! Megan ate far more than I imagined she would, and tried lots of different things - naan bread, curry, spare ribs, spicy pasta. She is getting really adventurous with her food now. Ben stuck with the more traditional pizza, chips, salad, burger and sausage. I tried lots of what I like in smaller portions, so I had chinese bits, beef and veg pie, lots and lots of potatoes! pizza, wedges, noodles with meat and veg and Mr W ate lots and lots in all strange combinations!

After a little breather, (and another cocktail!) we decided to check out the puddings. They were just divine! All tiny miniature portions, so you can eat lots!! Ben had ice cream, chocolate cake and sweets! Megan tried carrot cake, chocolate cake, ice cream, jelly and the chocolate fountain! Mr W and I picked a real random collection of lots of our favourites, cream brulee, chocolate brownies, trifle, mousse and I had quite a bit of cheese and bread! 

Ben enjoying his desserts. Chocolate fudge cake was his favourite!

While we were there we took a couple of trips to the loos (inevitable with small children!) and I was very impressed with the cleanliness of them and the fact that there were automatic flushes, taps and driers in there. This always gets top marks for hygiene in my opinion.

Another thing I noticed was that even though the restaurant was probably three quarters full, tables were attended to promptly and cleared within a couple of minutes of people vacating them. The staff were all very polite and courteous and very smartly dressed. throughout the restaurant. During the time we were there, food was being replenished very frequently and the staff were keeping a running check of what needed replacing well before it ran out.

We had a fabulous meal today. It was so lovely to spend some quality time together as a family, relaxing, having fun and enjoying gorgeous food. 

A very tired Ben on the way home!