Ilkari Restaurant

Ilkari was a great dining experience. Staff were friendly and welcoming Located with the Desert Gardens Hotel. Beautiful ambience. We had the buffet and at $102 per person, it was well worth it. Great offerings and the chef was central to answer any questions. Food included Kangaroo Loin, Lamb Cutlets, Steak, glazed ham off the bone 🍖, amazing salads, charcuterie selection, bread, rolls, noodles, baked pumpkin 🎃, potatoes, crab 🦀, oysters 🦪, biriyani, soup and pasta!!!!!!! The variety was incredible. What was more incredible was the dessert choices 😱 creme brulee, pana cotta, fruit, chocolate fountain, churros, ice-cream, lemon meringue…. Too many to list! All washed down with a lively Pinot Noir 🍷highly recommend. Catch the free resort shuttle! 🚌

This was one of the best buffets I ever had! Amazing food, super friendly staff and nice atmosphere. They offer everything you could imagine: different kinds of meats, vegetarian, gluten free, and a lot of vegan options as well. They even have separate gluten free and vegan desserts (thanks for that!). Also, if you have any questions, the cook is always happy to help - simply awesome. You definitely won't leave hungry. Highly recommended!

My mum and I had a wonderful experience at the restaurant today… it was so calm and peaceful… The food was top notch combined with the lovely jazz music… the waitresses that served us were so kind and very loyal to their jobs.. what a great way to start our holiday and give us a good snack before the drone show

Do NOT come here! This buffet is absolutely not worth it. The food selection is tiny, ingredients are not fresh, and most dishes taste bad. The chili crab was overly salty and tasted spoiled, the beef was poor quality, and the only edible items were a bit of noodles and salad. Drinks are charged separately, which makes no sense for a buffet. The price is high, but the food is both expensive and bad — a total waste. Save your money and appetite, go somewhere else!

The atmosphere, decor, service and food is fantastic at Ilkari. My Wife and I were pleasantly surprised at the food and options available. The staff are very friendly and attentive. The pork belly with quondong glaze is delicious, as was the pasta and seafood bars. The chocolate fountain was a standout. We highly recommend everyone visit Ilkari for dinner, even if you’re not staying at Sails in the Desert. I think some people forget that they’re in the middle of Australia when they visit here.

Words are not enough to describe the experience we had there. What a nice environment with friendly staff and delicious food. We highly recommend this place.

We are guests at the Sails in the Desert 🏜 Hotel.This restaurant was our "go-to" place while staying at the hotel. This wonderful restaurant is located inside the hotel premises. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with Aboriginal motifs around the restaurant whichelevate the atmosphere making it inviting and welcoming environment. This restaurant is packed with a variety of locally sourced tasty produce and native ingredients. It is a great place to tucked into the culture in the Territory and savour a diverse range of Indigenous inspired cuisine.  Standouts include the freshest oysters, mussels and the best cooked meals. Customer service at this restaurant is unmatched - with efficient and very attentive staff. Please allow me to specially mention "Shanae" who looked after us on our first visit to this restaurant. Thank you to the whole team for your commitment and making best ever dining experience.You can tell the staff and management here truly care about your dining experience. The bar here had been set high. Moreover, there is a wide range of international dishes that are also available on offer. This restaurant definitely showcased delicious tasty dishes with an emphasis on the freshest, flavour filled ingredients in all of their dishes. This restaurant is popular amongst the tourists and pretty lucky to get a booking . Definitely  not to be missed when visiting this wonderful place Uluru - even for walk-in customers. We had the dinner buffet .  Each dish is meticulously prepared, reflecting the chef's commitment to quality. Overall experience this restaurant is a must-visit for anyone seeking a memorable culinary adventure. 💯💯💯✨️✨️✨️Highly recommended ✨️

Had the buffet breakfast & high tea at Ilkari. The buffet breakfast was fairly typical, offering a variety of hot dishes, pastries, cereals & some Asian options like dumplings, baos, porridge. The “Australian Native” high tea featured miniature cakes like the rosella flower mousse and lime almond tart, but my favorites were the saltbush caramel Tim Tam and lemon myrtle scones paired with delectable quandong jam. The barramundi tart with lemon aspen was also quite tasty. Throughout the meals, the staff were attentive and friendly, particularly during quieter times like high tea and dinner.

Food was excellent. I made sure to indulge in oysters, mussels, crème brûlée, mini French bread, cheeses, rice, pork adobo, & cream of mushroom soup! I saw there were other proteins like Kangaroo meat, steaks, chicken, etc. Service is attentive. Ambiance is amazing. For two, we paid $209. We ordered strawberry tea aside from the buffet. It's the best eats in all of Uluru!

After a long day of walking around Uluru, Ilkari was the perfect place to feast.They have an excellent dinner buffet selection. There is a fresh seafood section that had smoked salmon, prawns, oysters. There were salads, breads, charcuterie, and a variety of small desserts. For hot food, they had fish, short ribs, and even Indian food. I also enjoyed the interactive menu and had the lamb cutlets. They are made fresh and come to the table. Come hungry, as there are endless options to choose from! A little pricey, but worth it.

Pretty good food here. I had the American Burger - very filling and pretty decent burger. We came here because we were staying right here at the hotel. So it was mainly due to convenience. But I would recommend this place for a good meal.

Buffett dining with a twist?! Well this place does a brilliant job of giving you the best dining options. The seating is all lounges, booths and very comfortable lounge chairs. The buffet takes centre stage, in a cool square shape, allowing everyone dining there to get a view of some of their tantalising food. The twist which is arguably the best part is that they cook some meals for you, to your liking. So the food... I thought all the food available was exceptional! I mean I wouldn't say I over ate for no reason! My highlights included some beautiful prawns with cocktail sauces. The wok dishes were delicious, I had some chicken with chilli sauce and all the vegetables and boy was I impressed. It was served super quick and full of flavour and packed some punch! The kangaroos skewers were incredible, and beautifully cooked which isn't always easy. Dessert was delicious, buffet dessert is always a winner but this one had some great options. There was fruit, cheeses and biscuits for a nice platter type dessert. The ice cream and chocolate fountain went hand in hand. The tiny tiramisu and panna cotta cups were incredible, in my opinion these were the tastiest and best desserts. I would say try them all as many times as you want, since well you're at a buffet. So when in Rome do as the Romans do.

Better than expected - we went for dinner buffet. The price was about $75 AUD pp (I can't remember exactly). The buffet has an "interactive kitchen" where you can order some mains such as lamb chops, kangaroo, vegetable stir-fry and a few other meat dishes. The buffet also features oysters which were quite tasty - I believe they were Sydney Rock. The service was okay but wasn't excellent as we often had to request things twice before we got them. The dining area was comfortable and it was convenient for us since we were staying at Sails.

I found this restaurant to be extremely disappointing. First, the price. At $75 per person plus drinks, the only way to get your money's worth is to eat way too much food. Second, the food is only adequate. Yes, there is a lot to choose from but none of my selections were especially interesting. I had an Asian inspired salad with a sesame soy dressing that was so salty I could barely eat it. I am staying at this resort for 2 more nights and will eat at one of the other eateries here. Ilkari is definitely not good value for my money.

A set price buffet (exclusive of drinks) with mains ordered from the chefs and delivered to your table. A basic but lovely selection of prawns, smoked salmon and oysters which were surprisingly (only because of how far away the sea is) fresh and very tasty and were absolutely plentiful, being constantly restocked. Some decent salads which included a make your own Caesar salad bar along with a soup of the day. The mains were small-ish but considering you could order as many as you liked, there is really nothing to complain about here. Strange situation with their ordering system, you order meals from the buffet area (they have chefs with cooking facilities in an open kitchen) where they write down your order and your table number. Meals are then delivered to your table by wait staff but the number of times things were delivered to tables around us that were incorrect or a staff member was walking around asking if anyone ordered this or that proved that their system was broken. The table next to us had three mains turn up a couple of minutes after they arrived and they only had a table of two! It didn't affect our enjoyment, it was more amusing than anything else but there was a table near us who had obviously been jerked around and who were becoming a little irate. Our meals arrived timely and correct even though the wait staff said they were something different than what we ordered. They weren't, they were actually correct. Apart from the size, the mains were reasonable, not amazing but we enjoyed them enough. Dessert consisted of around 6 different slices and cakes along with a chocolate fountain and a range of fruit and lollies to dip into the fountain. Drinks were reasonably priced and a decent selection. The quality of their wine list was a little dubious but it did mean that they were able to include a lot of options that were in the cheaper side rather than only have decent wines but at prices too high for most. They were out of the red we wanted and then the dessert wine we wanted but again, it's a long way for them to "restock" and there were other options. It was more money left on the table for them as the alternate options were both substantially cheaper. Service was very good, attentive and friendly. For the cost of the meal, the location and the reasonably priced drinks, we had a very nice evening. As an indication, with dinner, a tip, a bottle of red, a couple of beers and a cocktail, the cost was around $250.