Olive Tree - Leura

Olive Tree Restaurant houses the breakfast buffet at Waldorf Leura Gardens resort. My partner and I stayed there when we were in the Blue Mountains recently, and as the buffet was included in our accommodation, we decided to take advantage of it early on Saturday morning. When we arrived, it was not particularly busy, and we were seated promptly. The interior of the restaurant can be best described as being dated and soulless. In hindsight, this setting was the perfect omen for the breakfast we were about to receive. I have been to many outstanding breakfast buffets in my lifetime ones with omelette stations and waffle stations with chefs cooking whatever you specify ones with mountains of pastries and doughnuts to satisfy all sweet tooths... To be clear, I was not expecting such grandiosity from Olive Tree, however, I don 't know how low I would have to set the bar in order to not be disappointed. The eggs were rubbery, and had clearly been sitting in their serving pot for a while. I pity anyone who arrived at this buffet after 10am and had the eggs. The bacon was chewy and not crispy at all. The sausages were strange and rubbery. The pancakes, made in a pancake machine (yeah, I should have known better), were below the standard of even McDonald 's Hotcakes or store bought pancake shake mix. To be clear, the food was perfectly edible... it was just not at all enjoyable. Overall, to say that the buffet was an incredible disappointment would be a huge understatement. It 's not difficult to deliver a relatively solid breakfast buffet, but it was abundantly clear that all the food being served was completely devoid of any love. In one sense, it was a free buffet, but in another sense, I was paying for it as part of my accommodation. To any economic buffs reading this, my advice would be thus: treat it as a sunk cost; go elsewhere.