The Chinese New Year buffet at Nook, Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral is the first Chinese New Year buffet meal that I have ever had. It’s always been Chinese New Year set meals up until now. It was refreshingly different and I can definitely see the lure of having a buffet instead of the traditional set meals.
The buffet section at Nook is small-ish but it’s jam-packed with all the usual offerings you’d expect from a buffet. From seafood on ice, to salads, to sushi, to a noodle station, to hot foods, and of course desserts.
Chinese New Year buffet dishes at Nook
As it was a Chinese New Year buffet, the roast meats on offer included chicken and duck, which had prawn crackers as sides (as any traditional Chinese restaurant worth its salt would have). The chicken and duck meats were tender and full of flavour.
The Chinese dishes on offer included ‘wok baked pine nut salted egg cream flower crab’, ‘osmanthus flowers buttery wok fried tiger prawn’ (both these dishes were hits with all the diners that night as I could see plates piled high with both the crab and prawns on every table), ‘aged vinegar fried with chicken topping’ and ‘brown stewed ying & yang beancurd leaf with fatt chai’.
The specials, which were features of the ‘Lucky Bowl by Chef Ng pop-up’ were the ‘steamed mantou with sliced smoked duck and turmeric sauce’ (the mantou was soft and fluffy, whilst the duck and sauce provided the flavours, which had a slight kick to it, to counter the plain mantou. This was a true delight and I could’ve eaten many, many more of these as they were so easy to munch on!).
The other special was the ‘signature chilli sauce steamed giant red snapper’. This fish was fresh, flesh firm and yet flaky, and the sauce went along well with it.
What I found interesting about Aloft, is that they do not have a Chinese restaurant and yet they have an Executive Chinese Chef – Chef Ng, who has been with the hotel since its opening. He oversees all the Chinese offerings at the buffet at Nook, and I thought it wonderful that Aloft would showcase Chef Ng for Chinese New Year by having a ‘Lucky Bowl by Chef Ng’ pop-up.
One of the highlights for me on that night was the noodle station. I rarely take noodles at buffets but I’m glad I did at Nook. The chicken broth was savoury and felt like a warm embrace on a cold night (this was back in December 2025).
To end our night, the ‘mandarin orange trifle’ was the winner for me. The ‘ginger crème brûlée’ on the other hand was interesting but didn’t really cut it for me.
The ‘Gallop into Fortune buffet’ runs from 15 January to 21 February 2026, Thursdays to Saturdays, from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. The price is RM168 nett per person.
For Chinese New Year eve, the price is RM188 nett per person.
For Chinese New Year Days 1 and 2, the buffet runs from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. The price is RM158 nett per person.
For reservations and inquiries, WhatsApp +6012 338 3095 or call +603 2723 1154.
We were invited by Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral. As always, our opinions are honest and our own.
