Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Fairmont's Insanely Delicious Alexandria Nights Seafood Buffet Redefines Freshness

We recommend bringing a bigger belt as the Fairmont Heliopolis & Tower's Alexandria Nights seafood buffet threw us for a loop when we found the Mediterranean's finest presented raw. But after selecting what we wanted, they cooked it fresh to order, creating food memories we won't soon forget.

Staff Writer

Buffets in Egypt are plentiful and luxurious, but often offer a variety of dishes that were cooked hours ago and left in a chaffing dish, keeping them lukewarm as the dish goes from fresh to dried out or soggy. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case when we decided to pay a visit to the gorgeous Fairmont Heliopolis & Towers’ Alexandria Nights, serving a delicious assortment of fresh off the hook seafood.Taking place on Wednesdays at Aqua E Luce, the Fairmont’s Alexandria Nights seafood buffet is literally a fresh change to traditional buffets. The widely creative buffet is split up into two tasty sections; the left side of the buffet features a mouthwatering diversity of salads, sushi, and desserts – which cost 150 EGP for all you can eat – while the right side is equipped with a fresh smorgasbord of raw seafood that looks like it were caught earlier that morning in Alexandria and will be cooked any way you like. Instead of a flat rate, the latter side of the buffet will cost you depending on the selection and its weight.Throwing caution to the wind, we decided to go all out, opting for both buffets; however, we quickly discovered that it’s difficult to settle on what we wanted cooked on the spot as all the options looked appetising. Luckily, walking around the buffet to ensure the highest quality control was Brazilian Chef de Cuisine Eduardo Bronte, who offered to create a one-of-a-kind family feast of the absolute freshest catches of the day for us.

After selecting a few salad choices and pieces of sushi, we could feel anticipation growing in our bellies for the family feast as the starters delivered a balanced explosion of flavours. It was hard to stop ourselves from returning for a fourth round of sushi, but we knew that, if we did, we would struggle to find room for the fresh feast to come.As the seafood feast – served family style – reached the table, we knew we had made the right call; Chef Eduardo presented a mind-boggling but belly-pleasing array of freshly cooked seafood that rivals anything we have ever had at a buffet. The first plate to land on the table was a stunningly moist sea bass topped with a citrus olive tapenade that provides a unique but delicious twist one of the sea’s finest fish.The second plate was an assortment of grilled jumbo shrimp, tender calamari, and crispy skinned salmon accompanied by four sauces: butter herb, olive tapenade, lemon herbs, and passion fruit cream sauce. The absolute highlight of possibly the entire feast was the passion fruit cream sauce, which we thought would never pair with fish, but provided a powerful punch of flavours that didn’t come off too sweet but rather enhanced the flavours of any of the well-seasoned seafood we devoured.The next dish that came as a surprise was the Chinese-inspired preparation of the halibut. Served with seasonal vegetables and seafood rice, this dish was a crowd pleaser as we are yet to meet someone on planet earth that doesn’t like hoisin sauce. Indulging our fried food fixation, the final dish presented was crispy red snapper, which again was taken to another level thanks to an assortment of sauces providing a different taste for each bite.Devouring everything that reached our table, we found ourselves completely satisfied but unable to move. We wanted to try the many desserts on offer but were unable to find an Uber willing to brings us to the buffet for a final dessert round. The truth is, if you’re are coming to Alexandria Nights, chances are you are looking for seafood and not desserts. Sure, they have both, but the unique concept of providing freshly caught food served to order was much too enticing and is the main reason we’ll be returning to this magnificent buffet with a much bigger belt.  

For more information about this exquisitely unique buffet that happens every Wednesday at 6:30 PM, please visit Fairmont Heliopolis & Towers Facebook page or for reservation call 02 22678485.

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Photography by Ahmed Najeeb and Peter Adel.