Spin Kitchen and Bar @ The Marriot

Firstly, there are no pictures of the food today - we all had the buffet so pics wouldn't really represent any levels of presentation, you can't praise or fault a place for me dolloping stuff on my own plate!

I've wanted to go to Spin Kitchen for a while now, mainly since Don Chow of Foodieprints reviewed the place it seemed like a no brainer to try it for brunch one Sunday.

Now, for some reason I had this weird (now it seems weird) impression that it was on the top floor and used to (or still did) revolve, I was sure I read a random review on UrbanSpoon that you, "go for the views and stay for the food", or was it vice-versa?

It does NOT spin, it is NOT on the top floor - it IS a corner of the Marriot's main lobby floor at ground level at the corner of Kent and Queen St. - also the web site seems to suggest a fine dining brunch buffet of $30+ it is NOT. It's $18 each and includes unlimited coffee and unlimited fresh OJ.

We could have ordered off the a'la carte but we all chose the buffet and at first glance it was the same breakfast that you would be offered if you'd stayed the night so first impressions were not good.

We were served quickly with coffee and said juice by a very friendly waiter who replenished everything quickly - taking away dirty plates allowing them to be replaced with the next fresh plate (did I say it was all you can eat?) - I never feel guilty about these places when I accompany my wife - she eats 25% of what she could do - and I eat about 250% of what the normal punter would shovel away so I'm guilt free!

I had some rice crispies! I don't usually eat cereal. they were good and offered the usual "snap, crackle and pop". So far, so good.

The chaffing dishes offered the usual variety of hash browns, bacon, sausage, scrambled egg (eggs cooked to order were offered at no additional charge), baked beans (a little undercooked) and french toast or crepes. they also had a nice selection of breads and bagels along with one of those conveyor toasters. So far nothing out of the ordinary or notable until you get to the last chaffing dish - full of perfectly formed eggs Benedict.

Not just perfectly formed but also with softly poached eggs that oozed when cut into -how do they manage to have a tray of warm eggs Benedict that were actually better than a lot of the freshly cooked versions I've endured? How? So full marks for just this fact alone elevated the Spin Kitchen's buffet to above the average and after 5 courses of food - several cups of good coffee and 4 glasses of OJ I was full to bursting; for my $18 I think that was a bargain (I had 4 eggs Benedict in all which would have been $20+ in any brunch establishment!

If they had validated my $9 parking it would have been almost a perfect buffet brunch! I thought I was being clever by parking under the hotel as it was raining - should have gotten wet and parked on the street for free!!

I dropped off my passengers before parking and told them to go to the top of the hotel! They couldn't see any view in any case due to the weather so we didn't miss the view at Spin Kitchen!

8/10

Until the next time, thank you!