Your belt-busting guide to beautiful bain-maries, sensational salad bars and delicious desserts.
Raceview Hotel
Five and a half million bucks gets you a big buffet. That’s how much Star Hotels invested in the recent renovation of the former Raceview Tavern. Rebranded as Raceview Hotel, the 220-seat buffet restaurant features a few special additions like pork ribs, steamed dumplings, mussels, baked fish and a make-your-own taco, burger and wrap station. A chocolate fountain flows for dinner sittings and sushi is served on weekends.
Lunch will set you back $21.95 from Monday to Thursday and $24.95 Friday to Sunday. Dinner is $27.95 Monday to Thursday and $29.95 from Friday to Sunday. Children aged 3-12 are $11.95 and they eat free on Monday and Tuesday. There’s also a 20 per cent discount for seniors.
Redbank Plains Tavern
The aptly-named Feast buffet includes hot soup, salads, traditional roasts with all the trimmings, pizza, pasta, Asian specials, deep fried favourites and loads of hot and cold desserts. The pricing structure is based on age and it’s just as varied as the menu.
Weekday lunch is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and children 7-12 and $8 for children 4-6. Weekday dinner is $22 for adults, $17 for seniors and the same $12 and $8 prices for kids. Weekend lunch and dinner is a little less complicated – $22 for adults, $17 for seniors, $12 for children 7-12 and $8 for the 4-6 age bracket. There’s also a Family Feast package that covers two adults and up to three kids for $58.
Sizzler
Disappearing faster than a slab of cheese toast in other parts of the country, Sizzler is surviving and thriving in Ipswich. The Brisbane Road restaurant specialises in the sprawling salad, pasta and dessert bar that Sizzler staked its claims on in the 1980s. There’s also a full à la carte menu, and diners are welcomed with that famous bread that you can recreate at home with the help of this handy video from Sizzler USA.
Other options beyond the buffet
These are genuine buffet restaurants, places where you walk to and from your table stacking and racking plates until you eventually enter the wonderful world of a food coma. Other restaurants in Ipswich have all-you-can-eat offers and they bring the food to you, like filling up on lunch time dim sum and sushi at Great Wall of Yum Cha at Riverlink. What’s your favourite destination to get a fix of the good stuff? Share it with us in the comments section below.
4.5
5
After seeing this recent promotion, we decided to try the Raceview Hotel for dinner, not having been there for a number of years. The hotel looks great and it is obvious that a lot of money has been spent on renovation. The staff that we encountered were friendly and professional. Unfortunately, the food was very average. Having previously worked in the food industry, I identified that almost every item on the buffet has having come from a package, box or bottle. We had a later booking and observed that many items were allowed to run out and what was there had obviously been sitting there for some time. Having paid the same as earlier diners, we would have liked the same choices. The hotel was well patronised and popular with families. A balloon artist, the best I’ve ever seen, was keeping the kids occupied. His creations were amazing and watching him at work was possibly the highlight of our night. One of the staff told us that when he finished entertaining the children, he went to one of the other bars where he played guitar and sang. He is certainly versatile. It was unfortunate that Chefs weren’t given the opportunity to demonstrate their versatility. The food was disappointing and we won’t return.
5