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It's like everything you could possibly want to eat all in one place. Today we're eating at The Glasshouse Buffet just outside of London, where you'll find five major cuisines and eight live cooking stations. Good luck trying to get my your way around everywhere. I've tried, I've never made it. If you do, you get a bonus. But in order to make the most of your time and your stomach space, this is a buffet that requires a strategy. Start light, start small, and then gradually build up to the crescendo. And so today I'm going to show you how to navigate this all-you-can-eat feast and the best food you have to try. Let's find out why so many people say this is the best buffet in the UK.
Hey everyone, it's Mark Wiens. Welcome to The Grove Hotel. We are in Watford, which is north of London. It took about 45 minutes to get here in a car, but you arrive here and this it's an estate with hundreds of years of history. It's so beautiful. There's a golf course, there's gardens, lush greenery, ancient trees. We got here a little bit early just to walk around and check out the place and just to enjoy the gardens, but this is a perfect place for an all-you-can-eat buffet. Okay, I think that's enough walking around. Let's go to the buffet. But the grounds are so beautiful. The trees a lot of trees are ancient. Look at this tree.
It's like a whole rectangular box on a stump. What a tree. Okay, let's go eat. Yeah. I'm I'm starving. very hungry. Hi. Nice to meet you. And you. Welcome. Thank you very much. Um so, this is very unique experience within the UK. Um we're a live sort of buffet experience, lots of theater going on. We've got around eight live stations all from around the world. We have specialists in each area, so it is very important for us to make sure that the food that we give is authentic.
You know, sometimes a buffet it be come a little bit monotone if you know what I mean. Just kind of dodgy interpretations of food. So we actually took this concept or the owner did from Asia. From actually in Singapore and Hong Kong where you see a lot of these sort of live buffet restaurants. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, 7 days a week. Yeah, I can take you around and Yeah, sure. No, I'm excited to go walk around and see the different stations before we eat. Okay, so here we go and this is where we start. So we've got our sort of Japanese sushi section. Then on top of that we've also uh sticking with that Asian theme. Well, this is very much from Hawaii, the poke bar.
Oh, nice. Okay. And then we have our seafood display. We got lobster, we got prawns, we got oysters, we got mussels, we got clams. Then we've got seaweed salad there as well. And then across to our raw bar. So it's all about we got our crudités here. We got our dips, we got different variations of hummus. Then we've got our composed salads here. So here we have our homemade terrines. So chicken liver parfait, ham hock terrine. And then we have our cheese section. So yeah, so we've just only seen one of the islands but already I'm loving and you can just tell from looking at it the quality and the care that's put into every dish. Seasonal ingredients.
Displays are not huge but they're manageable so they can keep refreshing the different dishes so they don't get old or stale. You can already tell that just from your first loop around the buffet but there's a lot more. So I'm going to introduce you to Alan. Hi. He is our wonderful chef. Nice to meet you. Yes, sir. Welcome, sir. All right, thank you. So for now for the group we just running the it's a mixture of the Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. Oh, cool. So this section is normally I handling this one for the Asian section. Here we just running the Asian broad. There's some fried items. There's a small bites. That one is a spring roll. And we have some prawn crackers,
Thai prawn crackers. So, we have the lemongrass chicken, Thai red duck curry. In that corner, now we have a Indian and tandoori section. So, all this one, we cooking in our own tandoor. Oh, yeah. Okay. Maybe this one, sir. We have the We cooking this one here for you. Very cool. So, moving on from the Asian station, where are we at next? Italia. So, okay. What you can see in the background there, we've got a nice stone oven, pizza oven. So, we've got a quattro formaggi, four cheeses. And then we have the classic margarita, for everyone's favorite. Then we've got confit of
onion, grilled artichoke, and sumac flatbread. This one is salami and green pesto flatbread. Great. And then we have nice garlic bread there, too. Excellent. What we have is the live pasta station. Okay. So, we have basically various ingredients, where you can basically bespoke your own. Whatever you want. Oh, nice. We've got fresh truffle on today. Truffle. Yes. And then we go to our British roast section. Oh, yes. Oh, I'm looking forward to this. Next station over here. So, this is our robata. This is where we do steaks to order.
And also then it's driving this whole section that you'll see here. A lot of the things that are coming off the grill here. It's always good to get your bearings to go around the buffet to see what exactly is available before you start eating. But that being said, this is definitely a buffet that requires a strategy to make the most of it, to eat to be able to well, of course, we are at a buffet. We need to be able to eat as much as possible. So, I think I have a strategy. I think I'm going to start with the first island section that Martin showed us. Okay, so I'm going to I'm
going to try to pace myself, try to get like one of everything. So, that's bresaola. We've got some salami, some of the chorizo, prosciutto, why not? Oh, a poke bowl. I'll go for a poke And then I might as well put some sushi onto this plate as well. Some of the rolls, there's the king prawn tempura roll. This I've heard about looks amazing. Okay, two of them. Spicy tuna roll, yes. Okay, I'll go for a piece of the smoked salmon. Go for a piece of the beetroot gravlax. Oh, and look at the entire section of caviar.
Thank you. Oh man, one plate is already full. Enjoy, sir. Thank you very much. I didn't expect my plate to fill up that fast. Have to get another plate. Going to go for the fresh seafood next. Going to go for some of the oysters. Oh, yeah. Let's go for some mussels. I'm going to load up one of these with Tabasco. Let's go for some of these clams. Poached lobster tail, and then let's go for some of the shrimp. And then let's go for some of the prawn cocktail. Okay, over to our table and we're actually in the glasshouse. Yeah, we're in the glasshouse. Feels like we're within the garden, surrounded by the garden. It's beautiful. Round one is actually two plates. It added up so fast, and
I didn't even make it around the first island. Oh no, we are in trouble. There's so much food to eat. Okay, I'm going to start with that oyster. Oh, that's refreshing and cold, icy. Also clean tasting with that hit of Tabasco. And I ended up adding some shallots, some pickled shallots on there, too. Delicious. Okay, let's continue with some of the shrimp cocktail. Oh, this tastes like the Arctic shrimp, like from the really cold water that you get in the Nordic. Yeah, they taste like the Arctic shrimp. They have this incredible little like bouncy
texture to them with this sweetness. A little bit of paprika in there, as well. That is wonderful. Okay, let's go for one of these shrimp. Ooh, a prawns. Good size prawns. I think poached prawns, as well. Okay, let's move on for some of the seaweed salad. I love the vinegariness. I love that kind of gel crunch. Okay, then for one of the mussels. Excellent. Okay, let's try the clams.
Excellent. There's some onions in there, as well, giving it flavor. And sweet little clams. Okay, and we have a whole lobster tail. Out, flop out the entire lobster. Juicy, cold, refreshing. Nice and sweet, as well. Excellent. Okay, out of this entire the raw seafood, the fresh seafood, the out of the entire cold seafood plate, I think my favorite thing were those little prawns. The little prawns are phenomenal. Let's move on to the next plate. Okay, I can't wait to try the beetroot gravlax. Gravlax, this never gets old. Oh, that's like straight butter in your mouth. That fattiness, that acidity from the beetroot.
The dill flavor, smoky, salty. So good. Okay, let's go for a piece of the yellowtail sashimi. And then you get a little side bowl of the wasabi and soy sauce. Mhm, the yellowtail is amazing. Again, that's like pure butter. Just melts. And then this one is the sea bream. Okay, let's move into some of the charcuterie, some of the salami. Oh, yeah. And then we have a whole roll of the prosciutto. Okay, this one is bresaola. Not quite like the poke bowl that I'm used to in Hawaii, but it's actually pretty tasty. You've got rice, you've got the tuna. That sauce is kind of like a
kind of tastes like a sriracha mayonnaise on top. Nice. This one is the blini with salmon roe. That's fine. And the caviar. And they also trust you here at the buffet to just scoop your own caviar as much as you want. Very cool. Yeah, that's that's fantastic. Not too much salinity, good texture to it. Wonderful. And then moving on to the shrimp tempura roll. Let me dip that into the wasabi. With the crunch of the katsu. The rice is kind of sticky around the outside, and then the crispy battered shrimp on the inside. Okay, I'm going to finish off this plate. Then we're moving on for more.
Okay, for this course I went with all the salads, plus some of the preserved meats like a terrine, and also like a royal galantine. But I'm most excited to try these tomatoes, these seasonal tomatoes. Look at them. Beautiful. Oh, they're so juicy. So sweet. Perfect acidity. Drizzled in olive oil. I don't know, I think those are pine nuts, and also some fresh basil in there. Excellent. Let's go for some pepper on everything. Yeah, I think this whole plate deserves some pepper. Around this side, this is some of the Caesar salad, and some of the beetroot, I think.
Really rich and creamy. And then we have a terrine. Oh, the meat jelly on the inside. You feel that like hardened gel that just dissolves in your mouth when you take a bite. That saltiness, that porkiness. And then they had some avocado, couldn't resist some avocado. Plus this is a salad with some of the green peas and I think it's soybeans. I'm not totally sure actually. Can't remember what the sign said. But this looks great. And there's pea sprouts in there, too. It's great. I think that is a little bit of avocado on the bottom. And then also have some of the kale salad. Few pieces of the kale salad.
Eating that the salad course is definitely going to help us in the digestion of all the food we're we're still about to eat. Okay, and this one is a British royal gala pie. Not totally sure what type of protein that is. Maybe pork? Meat, egg wrapped in pastry. Oh, it's really like buttery, really smooth and silky. So rich. Like you feel the density of it as well. Everything's being condensed. Really good. By the way, as I keep eating this plate, the service is super attentive. Like always there. Whenever you leave, your plate is clean, your forks are changed. Really fast, really extremely attentive service.
Okay, let's go for our next plate of food. Should we go for the Asian station or the British roast station first? I've heard a lot of good things about the British roastery station, but I knew very well that if we jumped into that first, it would be completely game over, straight to a nap. So next, let's head over to the Asian station. Oh, hooking it up with some of the chilies. Yes. Oh, yeah. Thank you, chef. Need some spice. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you Hey, we're making progress on the buffet, but this is an the Asian section is irresistible. There's so much variety from Thai to Vietnamese to Indian. Those
are the main ones. Um, and then they have the whole soup station and Chef Allan really hooked it up with the soup. So, let's try the soup first. I'm going to squeeze in the lime juice. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's nice and spicy. All that chili goes in my back the back of my throat. It's kind of more like a pho style broth. So, it's like a clean broth, but we got chicken with noodles. I love how there's so many vegetables in it as well. Uh, that's hot. Flaming hot. But again, it's just so cool and demonstrates the quality that every bowl is made to order. So, you're guaranteed it's fresh.
It's hot. Okay, let's move on to the Asian plate and I got a little bit of everything. Yeah, it's all in a swirl of different curries, even soft shell crab, duck curry, lemongrass chicken, dal makhani, chicken korma, Madras fish curry. It's all here. It's everything you could want on a single plate of food. And as you can see, I'm trying to save on space, so my ratio, this much proteins and sauces for one little tiny little triangle of naan. That being said, Okay, let's try the Let's right in front of us is the chicken korma. Has a bit of a sweetness to it. But it really tastes like the thickness of the yogurt, the masala in there. And I think for every bite, we need to taste just like a nibble.
That tiny little bite of naan. The ratios, the proportions. Yeah, we need to save as much space as possible. There's still a lot to go. Okay, this one is the dal makhani. The black dal. And dal makhani is one of my favorite types of dal, the black dal with a lot of cream in there. You taste the spices, the and I think there's some tomato sauce in there, too, giving it some acidity. Well, that dal is fantastic. And this is the Madras fish curry. Some curry leaves on top as well. Oh, yes.
That's the curry for me. The aroma of the curry leaves, the mustard seed. It has this acidity to it. You taste the toasted flavor of the masala. And then the fish just like melts as you take a bite. Oh, man, I love the flavors of South India. Okay. And next up for the grilled chicken, the lemongrass grilled chicken. This is like Vietnamese style. Let me give you a whole piece of chicken. When you bite down, you immediately get that fragrance of the lemongrass. It's salty, it's juicy. Oh yeah. The juicy on the chicken goes all the way to the bone. It tastes like it's been brined or marinated in lemongrass to absorb all that flavor.
All the flavors are mingling and conjoining into a harmony of flavor. Okay, moving on to the soft-shell crab. Which has been fried maybe a little bit of batter so it's crispy. But I saw what they did is that they have the sauce and then they fry when they need more to replenish the dish. They fry more of the soft-shell crab. So it's continually crispy and continually fresh as they as people take it. What they're doing here, the way it's managed, the way they never let anything sit for too long, that's really what sets this buffet apart. Why I mean why everyone says that this is one of the greatest buffets in the UK.
Next up, this is the gang pet yang, which is a Thai duck curry. The sauce is kind of dispersed throughout my whole plate though. Mixed with all the other curries, which I'm very okay with. With the fruitiness Anyway, it has a fruitiness to it as well with that savoriness. Oh. Those curries are starting to add up though in my stomach. Oh, starting to get sleepy. But we got to power through. We have a lot more to eat.
Including one of the main dishes, the main plates of food that you can't miss when you come to this buffet. Hello. We're back finally. Get back to them. two lines. So, I have a fantastic evening. Yeah, tortellini would be good. Maybe just a couple tortellinis and then one of like the another kind of pasta as well. Like a fried pasta, more of a fried pasta. Yes, sir. No problem. But just a little bit, yeah. What about that? Yeah, that's good.
Spaghetti, you're okay? Yeah, sure. Let's do that. Cool. What's your name? I'm Kenneth. Kenneth, nice to meet you. Thank you so much. So, we're moving countries over to Italy and Kenneth, he really was friendly making the pastas as have been all the chefs and all the staff, but let's start with the tortellinian. Oh, there's a lot of cheese on the inside. Mhm, it's fully stuffed. Cheese on the inside, cheese on the outside. The richness of the pancetta, the fragrance of the truffle.
It's like we've eaten every luxury food item you can imagine all at the buffet today. Okay, next up for some spaghetti bolognese. Tomato sauce, meat sauce, the pasta, lots of garlic in here. Mhm. So much garlic in there. Roasted down, caramelized down until all the sugars come out. You got the acidity of the tomato sauce, the minced meat in there. Just enough cheese sprinkled on top, grated on top. Oh. Oh man. When you start getting to the carb-heavy dishes, that's when you really start to start filling up. It's a dangerous area of the buffet to get to because it tastes so good and you don't want to
stop eating it, but at the same time it's so filling. Okay, and we have the pizza with uh pepperoni as well as nduja. It's a spicy sausage from Calabria. One of my favorite types of sausages, probably on Earth. Mhm. You can immediately smell that chili oil coming from the nduja. It's salty. It has so much depth, so much complexity. Delicious. Now it's time for the roastery. I'm thinking if I could get like a little piece of everything, but just small pieces. Probably a full piece of the beef Wellington, but then just everything like just a really small piece would be great. Okay,
so starting with the turkey, slow-roasted leg of lamb. Oh, look at how juicy that is. Wow. Then we have the dry-aged sirloin. Wow. And then of course the beef Wellington. Okay, I'm going to go for a Yorkshire pudding. Can't resist the beef fat potatoes, some of the carrots, a little bit of the mixed greens. Okay, and then the red wine juice. So everything we've eaten so far is like a build-up to the roastery, the classic British roast. This is magnificent. There's roast lamb, there's the aged sirloin, Yorkshire pudding, all
the vegetables just dosed in gravy. What a meal, what a celebration of a plate of food. But before we try the roast, uh which is definitely going to be a highlight at this buffet, I also got another piece of steak, sirloin steak I believe, uh at the grill station with the padron peppers, which he was making fresh, and some of the sausage. Okay. Oh, that's super juicy. Mhm. Yeah, really juicy, nice and tender. You taste the flame embedded within that piece of steak. And then the padron peppers. Mhm. So juicy, so sweet, so fragrant. Yeah, I could eat these all day long. And then just had to try one bite of the longaniza.
Wow. That is a lot of flavor. I just amazing acidity to it. Just really condensed meatiness. Okay, let's just start with the Yorkshire pudding. Oh. Crispy, pillowy. It has absorbed a lot of that gravy. Oh, oh, it's soaked in. The gravy has sunken to the bottom. Yes, as it should. Just pull this apart. Fluffy and crispy. Oh, this is as comforting as it gets. Mhm. Just cradling it in. Mhm. The gravy.
Oh, the gravy. The gravy is amazing. So sticky, so meaty, such a powerful meaty flavor with a hint of sweetness and maybe red wine as well to bring the flavors together all absorbed in that crispy bubbly Yorkshire pudding Okay, let's go for the turkey there since it's right there conveniently so tender not dried out still so moist and this one here this is the I think this one is yeah this is the roast leg of lamb all oh wow that's phenomenally fatty and tender and even though they cook it like lots of them and for quantity for many people like they preserve the quality cook it perfectly that is how a leg of lamb should taste and feel in your mouth okay and then over here finally we have the beef rib
the aged beef rib mm again tender and juicy I don't know if there's anywhere way else to explain it absorbed with that gravy oh classic okay these are the beef fat potatoes oh just look how golden and crispy they are I think I'm going to dip into some mustard for that mm that crispiness with the center that's so silky so creamy in the center of that potato okay vegetables some roast carrots roast mixed vegetables the roastery is this is one of the plates of the meal right here but I mean you'd be happy to come here and have all you can eat roast British roast but instead you have like the whole world of food before you get here so it's like the best of everything all in one single meal okay It is time.
The king of meats, the beef wellington with the puff pastry with that beautiful, I think, tenderloin on the inside. Oh, yeah. Mhm. The tender meat, the fragrance of the mush- mushroom, that buttery puff pastry absorbing all the juices. That's wonderful. Okay, let's get another bite. With the puff pastry all together, with all the insides. And for this one, I'm going to dip it into that English mustard.
Mhm. Oh, I love English mustard. Oh, that's powerful. Oh, that adds another dimension. A punch up the nose. Oh, superb. Wow. I got to admit, I'm starting to struggle. I need to lean back. I'm getting the roast meat sweats. Oh, but it is so good. We got to power through. We got to conquer the buffet. Oh. My eyelids are starting to close. Okay, we're almost done. All right, so now we're with Chef Brian.
Brian, nice to meet you. Uh so, yes, so tell us about the dessert section. So, here at the Glass House, we've got roughly about 55 desserts on offer every day. Um so, today we've got a chocolate mousse station. So, you can come up and take the chocolate mousse, build bits and pieces that you want on yourself. Then we lead through onto our ambient section. So, from here we've got vegan chocolate cake, cheesecake, yuzu chocolate tart, a mixed berry éclair, and then as we move along we go into sorbet and ice cream. We've got a hot dessert which at the moment, again due to Easter, we've got hot cross bun bread and butter pudding.
Okay, nice. children's favorite section, the chocolate fountain. Oh, look at this chocolate fountain. It's more than a fountain, it's like an entire step tier waterfall. Yeah, it's a cascade, a tier waterfall of chocolate. So, it all comes down to this and they have an impressive dessert selection as we got the full tour. Uh but if you know me, you probably know that I'm not so huge on desserts. But then I remembered and that would That could have been devastating. I almost forgot the British cheese selection. So, like right at the last minute I remembered the British cheese selection. So, we can't leave the buffet without the cheese selection and I think we have tried all the stations
once we finish this, tried all the stations of the buffet. Okay, so we've got mango sorbet. Oh, and all that hard chocolate fountain. Oh, it's a shock to the teeth. Oh, it's really good though. The sweetness of the mango, the tartness. I got to admit after all that meat, after all those savory dishes, that sweetness of the sorbet is it actually That's the best sorbet I've ever tasted for this moment at this time. Now, let's go for the chocolate fountain. This is a piece of chocolate covered pineapple.
I like how that chocolate It's liquid but it then hardens and sticks to whatever you stick it to. That chocolate is good though. Nice and nutty, nice and rich and chocolatey. And then we have a selection. All of them are British cheeses. So I think the move to make is to go with the lesser strong cheese and then uh make our way over to the blue cheese, the stronger cheese. Oh, that has a bit of a uh a strength to it, a bit of a power, a like runniness. It's runny, it's sticky, it's gooey. Oh, it's so creamy.
Okay, I can't remember the name of this cheese, but this is more of like a dry crumbly sharp cheese. My eyelids are closing a little bit more with every single bite now. Nice. Okay, this one is the sheep's cheese. That one's actually quite neutral. Not nearly as strong as I was expecting. Okay, there's a little bit of a complexity at the end, but nothing too strong. Just a gentle soothing cheese. Oh, wow. And on that bite I'm going to fully lean back. Oh, that one is a full experience, a complete journey of a buffet. And truly from the quality, the service and hospitality, the variety of dishes, and just the quality of every
station, every dish that we tried here, that is the reason why it truly is the best buffet in the UK. It costs 94 pounds per person, which is not cheap, but it's definitely worth it for the quality, the variety, and the quantity, of course. If you love buffets, The Glass House is highly recommended, a buffet you have to check out when you're in London. And I want to say a big thank you to you for watching this video. I'll link the next video here. We're traveling around London eating some of the best food you're not going to want to miss, so go check out the next video, and thank you for watching. Goodbye from Watford. See you on the next video.
