MasterChef sisters Karena and Kasey helped launch Stratosfare, which serves buffet as well as a la carte cuisine.
Stratosfare Restaurant & Bar
185 Fairy Springs Rd, Rotorua
Open: lunch 11:30am-2pm and dinner from 5:30pm till late
Skyline Rotorua has spent $2 million upgrading the restaurant to create an innovative experience that includes live chefs cooking made-to-order fresh, delicious cuisine.
At the recent launch, MasterChef winners, the Maketu sisters Karena and Kasey, created a dish incorporating Volcanic Hills wine with mussels from the tidal mussel tank.
The new restaurant has a meat curing fridge to perfectly aged meat sourced from Mangatu farms. At the Art of the Grill chef station you can choose your own cut of meat, cooked on the spot.
The interior design is stunning; David Trubridge's light architecture frames the ceiling, while Italian marble, schist stonework and native timber feature throughout.
Buffet restaurants are perfect for large groups - there is something to please the fussiest of eaters. This buffet offered choice on a scale I've never seen before - it took us a good 10 minutes just to walk along appraising the options.
All from locally made and sourced ingredients, choose from a huge selection of breads, oils, various antipasto, salads (the children whizzed past that almost as fast as the Zipline), seafood, a grill where you select cuts of meat and get them cooked to order, curries, and more elaborate dishes -I couldn't go past a delicious moussaka.
The kids headed straight for the butter chicken and couldn't wait for the dessert end, which groaned with individual treats; crepes, crème brulee and a cheese board. We left determined to return and try all those things we couldn't fit in our full tummies.
"It's part of our life here."