Hong Kong Disneyland Semi Buffet Review – Explorer’s Club
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This is the Hong Kong Disneyland semi buffet review – the Explorer’s Club Restaurant with price, time, food quality, and location information. The buffet is the only best-value option for your stay in the theme park.
It has a great variety of fancy food choices at the buffet session, tasty main dishes, a well-decorated restaurant layout, and the best hospitality in Hong Kong. Most importantly, it is the cheapest” option in price, with a semi-lunch buffet priced at 298 HKD plus a 10% (in total ~ 42 USD) service charge per my last visit.
The buffet price is cheaper than the similar option in HK Ocean Park. Additionally, it is even cheaper than at least at par compared to similar options in Hong Kong other districts such as Central or Mongkok. Together with the environment, it is even comparable to luxury hotel buffet like Ritz Carlton.
After visiting the theme park over 10 times as a local, this is the best restaurant there and one of the best in Hong Kong I ever had in terms of price and quality. Unfortunately, you could not find much information when you tried to search Hong Kong Disney buffet online. It will usually direct you to the buffet in the “Enchanted Garden” of Disney hotel instead.
In that, the greatness of the Explorer’s Club is unknown to most the people, especially first-time visitors. It is the best place to recharge yourself amongst a whole day of great rides in HK Disneyland. This is the reason I would love to share my experience with you at this hidden gem.
🍽️ HK Disney Semi Buffet is the ✅ BEST Valued Option!
The HK Disney Semi Buffet is the best valued dinning option in the park. The lunch buffet price can be as low as ~ USD 38 per person. It is comparable or cheaper than most of the similar quality options in the city center of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Disneyland Buffet (Semi) Price
The official price is very transparent on the HK Disney website or at the board outside the restaurant itself. There are only two price points for adults and children. For the lunch buffet, the price is 298 HKD for adults and 198 HKD for kids. Adding the 10 % service charge, it would be around 42 USD and 28 USD, respectively. For the dinner buffet, the price is higher at 508 HKD for adults and 348 HKD for kids. With the service charge, it would be around 65 USD and 45 USD, respectively.
Other than a slightly different main dish and more variety of food at the buffet session, the dinner buffet also includes admission to the reserved viewing area at the “Momentous” nighttime spectacular. The access allows you to view the signature firework and castle show from the front row later on.
With the growing popularity of Hong Kong Disneyland, it is usually very crowded even during weekdays. So the access would be quite valuable itself as well.
The dinner buffet option can only be booked via the official website or purchased directly at the restaurant. However, for the lunch buffet, you can book via Klook, which is usually 10% cheaper, as the displayed price already includes the service charge.
🍽️ Booking via Klook is 10% cheaper for ✅ The Lunch Buffet!
Get At Least 10 % Off Discount
Based on my experience, you would save at least 10 % (as the service charge is included) by booking the buffet via Klook or other platforms. Other than the price it also provides flexibility of immediate usage of the coupon and free cancellation within 40 days.
The Buffet Serving Time
This is a confusing part for the buffet in the park. The dining duration is 75 minutes from being seated.
The official buffet lunch time is either 12 pm – 1:15 pm; 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm; 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm; and 4:30 pm to 5:45 pm. However, during my last visit, you can check in anytime for the lunch buffet between 12 pm to 4:30 pm.
However, if you book online via the official website, you will have to fix the date and timeslot. I wouldn’t do that It is likely that you would be late or early depending on the waiting time for the rides that day.
Instead, I booked the lunch buffet via Klook last time, which allowed me to immediately use the ticket with 40 days of free cancellation. It offered me great flexibility to manage my visit to Disney.
To play safe, you can check with the restaurant during your visit first on your ways to other rides around.
The official semi buffet dinner time would vary according to the time of the night-time firework show. From there, the official website the time will be as below.
“Dining time from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM with the show at 8:00 PM OR Dining time from 6:15 PM to 7:45 PM with the show at 8:30 PM / 9:00 PM / 9:30 PM OR Dining time from 7:45 PM to 9:15 PM with the show at 9:45 PM”
You can check the show times for the upcoming five days. I would usually opt for the lunch buffet at around 3 or 4 pm. This will allow you to have cheaper options and more time for attraction rides during non-peak hours, i.e., 12-2 pm or ~ 7 pm.
I would consider the dinner buffet only if I wanted to get into the reserved area for the fireworks, which is not sold separately.
🍽️ The Lunch Buffet Is The Cheapest With Great Flexibility ✅!
Best Time For The Lunch Buffet
The best time for the buffet is to do it around 3 or 4 pm during your visit. By doing so you would avoid having lunch during the peak hour of the park. Meanwhile, you can use 12-2 pm or 6pm for the rides when other people are having lunch.
The Food & Beverage In Explorer’s Club Restaurant
The food & beverage at the semi-buffet exceeded my expectations. For the buffet session, they have salad & cold dishes with Moroccan, Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Russian, and other country-style cuisines. While there were only two choices of hot dishes during my last visit, don’t forget you shall have main dish.
The dessert session shares the same Country theme with over 20 varieties and is probably the best. There is cheesecake, cookies, cake, sweet soup, and mousse. You can even find IGable fancy desserts like Pharaoh (Egyptian King) chocolate mouse, Anubis (Egyptian God) cookie, and Matryoshka (Russian doll) marshmallow chocolate there.
In fact, the cold dish and dessert sessions alone can match (if not better than) high-end hotel buffets in Hong Kong like Ritz Carlton.
The drinks are another surprise; other than soft drinks & coffees, they also offer Indian Mango Lassi and Chinese red date with longan tea. Alcoholic drinks are also available, but you need to pay ~ 10 USD for a glass of wine, which is too expensive, I would say. Another thing they could have done better would be not adding Hong Kong street food, it is the only semi-buffet in HK Disneyland.
Main Dish
The man is also really amazing. For the lunch buffet during my last visit, you can choose from Indian Butter Chicken, Moroccan Lamb, Braised Beef Short Ribs Noodle Soup, and Mushroom Lasagna. For dinner, it will be Spice-crusted Sea Bass, Moroccan Waygu Beef Burger, Hainanese Chicken, and Porcini Mushroom Ravioli.
I think the main dish for the lunch buffet is better than the dinner buffet. We ordered the Indian Butter Chicken and Moroccan Lamb during our last visit, which was super tasty. You can find the official menu on Disney’s Website.
🍽️ The Food At The Explorer’s Club Is Also Outstanding ✅!
The Food is not Only Great
The cold, hot, main dishes and dessert at the semi buffet are not only tasty and based on multiple Countries’ theme. It also has very great appearance that you can take good IG photo on it !
Dinning Environment
The dinning environment is very impressive as well. Other the spacious buffet hall in the middle. The dining area is themed by India, China, and Egypt. At each of the areas, there will be respective decorations. For example, there is an Egyptian King coffin at the Egypt session and a synthetic Jade Guan Yin statue in the middle of China session. Other than that there are lots of decorations and paints on the walls.
Although the dinning area is randomly assigned, you can take a photo at each of the dinning hall freely. So the Exploder’s Club does have great food and dining environment.
How To Get To The Explorer’s Club
The Explorer’s Club is the only restaurant at the Mystic Point session. The session is in between Toy Story Land and Grizzly Gulch. The easiest way to get there is from Main Street, turn left to Adventure Land, then get to Grizzly Gulch and reach the Mystic Point.
🍽️ The Semi Buffet Is The Best Option For Your Visit✅!
EWAL Recommended Option
The Semi Buffet in Hong Disneyland has great food, a dining environment with multiple Countries’ themes at an affordable price. It only gives you a great break of 75 minutes to recharge for more shows and rides in the evening!
Is HK Disneyland Semi Buffet Worth It?
It is definitely worth it, and I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, the official website does not contain much information about the greatness of the restaurant, and other reviews seem very updated. The restaurant will definitely make your day the best in your overall Hong Kong itinerary.
The 75 minutes dinning time is more than sufficient. The food and dining hall design would really make you feel exploring the world. The price is reasonable at ~ 37 USD for a lunch buffet. This is cheap as compared to paying ~ 20 USD for a normal fast food meal that you can get in McDonald’s in other restaurants in the park.
Based on my experience, I would recommend you do the lunch buffet at around 3 pm. That way, you can spare more time (and less waiting time) for the attractions when all the others are busy with lunch.
