Worst buffet on the Gold Coast! My parents live at the Royal Pines and go here quite often... they've taken us twice (and although I woulld never tell my parents as they were generous enough to pay for it!).
We thought the hot buffet food was dry, tasteless and tasted like it had been cooked the day before. The ravioli when we went a couple of weeks ago tasted like it was a packet pasta. The desserts were slightly better, with a couple of things being nice, but the cheese selection was tiny and they weren't good cheeses. Not recommended.
I believe this hotel restaurant has just had a major renovation since my last visit. We have dined here many times over the years at their dinner seafood buffet and have found over the last year or so that their dessert selection has been consistently enticing over and above nearly every other hotel buffet in SE Q'ld so let's hope they keep their good pastry chef! The seafood selection has the usual suspects, prawns, oysters and crab, usually smoked salmon and another salad usually with peeled prawns.
They also used to have Moreton Bay Bugs, though last time we rang to make a booking (a few months ago) they advised they were no longer on the buffet menu (may be wise to check first). There is also a hot selection of food but the oysters kilpatrick, bugs (when they had them) and whole fish can get rather dried out unless you get in early. Service is always good here and efficient, so all-in-all, a good all-rounder in the buffet stakes.