Where lobster is king of the buffet

Adel Rakrouki smiles as he looks around his restaurant, Auspicious Garden, located on the 2nd floor of Pangu 7 Star Hotel, Beijing.

"This evening 135 people have already reserved tables. Last night, we had 178 customers," the hotel's designated Western chef, from Tunisia, says.

Rakrouki, who joined the hotel last October, attributes the pick-up in the restaurant's business in the past eight months to the many options provided to patrons.

"Eighty percent of our guests are Chinese. Many come with their families. They want variety," he says.

Auspicious Garden is not a big restaurant. Although the buffet is a medium-sized spread, it leaves an impression of plenty with its combinations of hot and cold dishes, Chinese and Western, and numerous live stations.

Unlike other buffet restaurants, here you can have the wait staff bring orders from the live stations over to your table.

A very popular lunchtime dish is freshly grilled prawn from Shandong.

Boston lobster, available only for dinner, is probably the eatery's biggest draw. It is flown in everyday and arrives at the restaurant at 3 pm. Rakrouki says he steams them for 27 minutes at 100 C, not more, so the meat is succulent and tender.

Unlike some other buffet restaurants, there is no restriction on the number of lobsters customers can eat, and many Chinese seem determined to take full advantage of it.

The restaurant also offers abalone from Dalian, scallop from the United States, and sea snail from Australia. Rakrouki counts a total of 12 cuisines at his restaurant, including Shanghai, Sichuan, Shanxi hand-stretched noodles, Cantonese dim sum, Japanese sushi and sashimi, besides Mexican, German and Italian fare.

But there are also telltale signs of the chef's nationality in the buffet - like the use of olive oil, table olives, and the distinctive flavor of cumin at the kebab station.

The Tunisian chef came to China in 1997 and has worked at different embassies in Beijing. Before arriving here, he had the impression that China was a place with a lot of people who ate a lot of rice, he says. His favorite Chinese dishes are kung pao chicken, iron plate beef, and fish in spicy soup.

Auspicious Garden offers impressive views of the Water Cube and part of the Bird's Nest, especially in the evenings.

Lunch will set you back by 298 yuan ($47) a person, and dinner, by 398 yuan ($62) a person, plus 15 percent surcharge.