Thanksgiving at The Grand Hyatt Erawan

For the last five years running, I spent Thanksgiving at the Westin Grande Sukhumvit Hotel’s Seasonal Tastes buffet. For those who aren’t Americans, Thanksgiving is a holiday punctuated by gorging on traditional fare like turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. For this self-exiled expat, it’s a nostalgia-driven journey through flavors that go back to my childhood. This year, though, I skipped the Westin in favor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan’s buffet (2050b++). Here’s the breakdown…

I arrived 15 minutes late, thanks to a Bolt driver who refused to listen when I told him to take Silom Road. Instead we went around Lumphini Park and came up Sukhumvit through horrid traffic. When I finally arrived, I was seated immediately and then had to wait 10 minutes for a server to finally come talk to me. I had to wait to start piling up food because I cannot properly enjoy the meal unless and until the wine arrives. When I was finally able, I ordered the free-flow red-white-prosecco package for 950++. I ordered a glass of cab and a glass of sauvignon blanc and then rushed to start feasting, beginning with a bowl of crab bisque, which was excellent. Id’ve preferred to pair it with a chard but the sauvy was adequate. Then I grabbed some soy-marinated raw salmon and rock lobster. The latter was served on ice per usual. The Thais serve lobster two ways: cold, or grilled to oblivion. Nobody cooks lobster right in this country. After that, I filled up a plate with parma ham, salami, chevre, truffle brie, stilton, parmesan, and rustic bread. Everything was on point. I could’ve filled up on just the charcuterie and cheese.

Then it was time for the mains. I skipped the meatballs, bourguignon, Thai food, Indian food, oysters, prawns, pizza, and sushi, and went straight for the lamb, ham, and turkey. The grilled rack of lamb came in huge portions and was grilled to perfection. The honey-baked ham and turkey were both wonderful—moist and delicious. They also had a thing they called ‘beef sirloin’ that most would know it as beef wellington. Despite it being a Thanksgiving buffet, there was no stuffing to be found and the turkey wasn’t the highlight. It was great, but the beef and lamb were the clear winners. They were easily as good as anything Westin might’ve served (except maybe the Alaskan king crab). However, the lack of stuffing was a clear-cut blunder by the folks at Hyatt.

The array of desserts was mind-boggling. The closest thing to a Thanksgiving flavor was a kind of pumpkin tiramisu. Paired with the prosecco, it was quite nice, as was every other scrumptious dessert I scarfed down.

All told, even though the Grand Hyatt is more hoity and toity than the Westin, the Thanksgiving buffet was cheaper and not as great, despite spectacular lamb and beef. In conclusion, there’s only 11 and a half months till Westin’s next Thanksgiving buffet.

At 2 grand for the food, I’d call it worth the price. Same with the wine. I managed to guzzle 2 glasses of red, 2 white, and 2 prosecco for 950. In a dining room that was ¾ full, besides me there was one table of Americans (shorts, t-shirts, backwards baseball caps), and that’s all for farang. Everyone else was either Chinese or Japanese, which is probably why it wasn’t so much a “Thanksgiving” buffet as it was an international spread.

December is holiday buffet-heavy, so check back later for reviews of Christmas and New Year’s feasts…coming soon. More photos from Erawan below: