If I had a dollar every time someone asked me to recommend a cheap and good buffet, I’d be a millionaire by now. There are many buffet restaurants in Singapore, but most of them are only average, while the really good buffets usually come with a relatively hefty price tag.

So listen up guys, I’m just going to say it once. The buffet lunch at Basilico restaurant is one of the best, if not the best, in the $40-50 category.

Bascilico at level 2 of The Regent Singapore is a huge restaurant. It can easily accommodate up to 200 guests indoor and 30 by the poolside. I lurve (read: not love, but lurveee) the centrepiece of the Italian restaurant, a gorgeous space which houses the antipasti counter. To the left and right of the antipasti counter, you have the hot and dessert kitchens.

I eat desserts first.

People always stare at me whenever I start the buffet with desserts. I don’t know about you, but I think it makes sense to start a meal with something that you like.

Basilico restaurant has a decent array of authentic Italian desserts and a very good selection of homemade gelato.

The Antipasti counter, at the middle of the restaurant, serves an assortment of antipasti.

The appetisers like prosciutto, cold cuts, salads, cheeses and seafood were fantastic. If you ask me the formula for love while I’m eating at the restaurant, I’d reply: parma ham and rock melon.

Cheese. Lots of cheeses. Cheeeeseeee!

From freshly made pizzas to pastas, grilled meat and fish items, the Hot station offers not just Italian food, but also a small local spread.

Obviously, you will not expect good Italian pasta and pizza like the ones you get from the best Italian restaurants in Singapore, but hey, you are paying just $42++ for free flow of everything your heart desires. It is a good deal.

It’s somewhat strange to see that the Italian buffet actually has a corner dedicated to local food like chilli crabs and roasted duck, but I guess it caters to those who want something familiar. I wouldn’t waste any space on that, though.

I like the buffet lunch at Basilico Italian restaurant. Though the buffet spread is slightly limited, the restaurant more than makes up for it with the quality of the food. The antipasti counter, in particular, has fantastic choices.

On Saturday, Basilico has a full Italian buffet (without local spread) for $46++/pax, $56 (free flow juices & soft drinks) and $98++ (free flow prosecco & wine). And on Sunday, they have a Champagne Brunch at $139++ for free flow of champagne and wine. During dinner, it is a semi buffet where you can enjoy the same antipasti & desserts buffet with the choice of 1 main course at $69++. And one more thing, reservations are absolutely necessary.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Basilico Restaurant
1 Cuscaden Road
Level 2 The Regent Singapore
Tel: +65 6725 3232
Weekday Lunch Buffet $42++
Saturday Lunch Buffet $46++
Sunday Brunch Buffet $69++
Daily Semi Buffet Dinner $69++

Note: This was an invited media tasting.

For more recommendations, read my list of the best buffets in Singapore

Fish lovers will be happy to know that Plaza Brasserie at Parkroyal on Beach Road has a fish buffet promotion: Best of Asia Buffet with the Freshest Catch from July 5 to Aug 31. The buffet is available from Mondays to Fridays for $45++/head, and it offers an amazing variety of fish on top of their usual buffet spread.

Freshest catch of the day: Promfret, Sea Bass, Baby Snapper, Sea Bream, Kee Fish, Milk Fish, Red and Black Tilapia Fishes, Song Fish, and Norwegian Salmon Fish Head.

Preparation styles: Hong Kong Cantonese, Teochew, Nyonya, Thai Lime & Chilli, Sweet & Sour, Black Bean, Indian or local curry.

It is important to note that Plaza Brasserie serves an entire fish for each order. Just to clarify further, the fish is not from the buffet counter, it will be served directly to your table.

That means to say, if you order three different types of fish: Curry Fish Head, Steamed Teochew Promfret, and Deep-Fried Sweet & Sour Kee Fish; you will be getting one (huge) fish head, and two whole fish.

It is impossible to try the different types of fish and preparation styles if there is only two people. Unlike other buffets, it is necessary for you to gather more than four to fully enjoy the fish buffet, unless you have the appetite to eat a few whole fishes by your own.

The four of us shared five different types of fish. The Deep Fried Sweet & Sour Kee Fish was my favourite among them. I am a scaredy cat when it comes to spicy food, so both the Deep Fried Nyonya Chilli Kee Fish and the Malay Curry Fish Head were too hot for me.

The Indian Curry Fish Head wasn’t too spicy and the gravy was perfect to go along with white rice. And oh, did I tell you about the Steamed Sea Bass in Hong Kong Cantonese style? It was excellent.

Beyond that, the buffet comes with a salad counter, an ala minute ‘live’ cooking station, main course section, and desserts. Some of the hot varieties include Deep-Fried Prawns with Almonds, Stir-Fried Beef with Ginger and Spring Onion, and their signature crispy soft shell crabs & Braised Sea Cucumber with Roast Pork.

At the ‘live’ cooking station, there’s laksa, roti prata, chilli crab with mantou, tempura, and an assortment of sushi and sashimi to choose from. The tempura was really good – one of the best I’ve had. The sashimi, on the other hand, wasn’t that fresh. We ended our meal on a sweet note with desserts. Plaza Brasserie has a fantastic Chocolate Truffle cake.

On its own, Plaza Brasserie’s buffet is decent for its price, but not what I would call a must-try buffet. It is a different story for the ‘Best of Asia Buffet with The Freshest Catch‘. The 2 month special feature provides enough oomph to elevate the buffet to something better, making it an extremely value for money buffet (especially for fish-lovers).

The Freshest Catch Buffet (Adult $45++, Child $27++) is available at Plaza Brasserie from July 5 to Aug 31 on weekdays dinner.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Plaza Brasserie
7500A Beach Road
PARKROYAL on Beach Road
Tel: +65 6505 5710
Note: This was an invited media dinner.

For more buffet recommendations, read my list of buffet restaurants in Singapore

The new Sentosa Boardwalk is a great way to travel to Sentosa on foot. Featuring tropical landscapes, the garden-themed boardwalk has a stunning view of the bay as you take a leisure stroll from VivoCity Shopping Mall’s waterfront promenade, made easy by two-way canopy-covered travellators.

From 9th to 26th Jun 2011, Sentosa Boardwalk has a Crab and Durian Buffet for $38++/pax. I think that this is a value-for-money buffet, especially so if you like crabs and durian.

The Ultimate Crab and Durian Buffet at Sentosa Boardwalk has more than 40 items available, and the crab dishes highlights include: Salted Egg Yolk Crab, Nonya Curry Crab, Wok-Fried Chili Sri Lanka Crab, Black Pepper Sri Lankan Crab, Masala Mud Crab, and Ginger Scallion Flower Crab.

The durian highlights are Durian Pengat, Durian Cheesecake, Durian Mousse, and ‘Live’ Durians. Besides crabs and durians, there are also other dishes such as Fresh Oysters, Sashimi and Sushi, Poached Tiger Prawns, Slippery Lobsters, Shrimp Paste Chicken, Roast Beef Rump, Whole Bake Salmon and more.

At a media tasting last week, they served us some of the dishes (actual plating will be buffet style): chilli crab, pepper crab, salted egg yolk crab, roast beef rump and durian desserts.

Whilst the salted egg yolk crab was not exactly warm, I thought that the taste was competent. The others preferred the (extremely) spicy wok-fried chilli crab and black pepper crab. Given that the crab buffet is only $38++/pax, I’d think that it is worth trying even though the crabs chosen were slightly smaller.

This is an all-you-can-eat-buffet. You know what this means? You can feast all you want, and blame it on me for introducing you this Sentosa for arranging the crab & durian buffet.

For reservations, please call 6279 1767 or email to carla_cardona@sentosa.com.sg.

// Latest update: The Ultimate Crab & Durian Buffet is fully booked, you can still try your luck by calling and see if there are any last minute cancellations.

Sentosa Boardwalk Crab and Durian Buffet
Date: 9 – 26 Jun 2011
Time: 6pm – 11pm
Venue: The Promontory, Sentosa Boardwalk
Prices: $38++ per adult; $21++ per child (5 – 11 years old)
(price excludes drinks)
Note: This was a media tasting.

I have been wanting to try Japanese Buffet for very long. After doing my research, most people seemed to agree that Ikoi Japanese Restaurant at Hotel Miramar, Irodori Japanese restaurant at River View Hotel and Senki Japanese Restaurant at Killiney road are amongst the best Japanese Buffets in Singapore.

As my friends have been to Ikoi and Irodori Japanese restaurant before, we ended up at Senki Japanese Restaurant for the buffet dinner.

With over 100 items on the Japanese buffet menu, it’s probably a good idea to skip lunch if you are going there for dinner. Most importantly, come with a group of friends so that you can order more things to share.

Under normal circumstances, it is a sin to order so much food. But since we were already at Senki restaurant for their Japanese buffet, we would be fools if we didn’t eat to our hearts’ content. I could imagine the number of rounds that I have to run the next day just to burn off the calories — oh whatever, the diet can wait.

Amongst the Sushi/maki available on Senki’s menu, we tried the Floss Karashi and Mango California. The former was surpsingly good, the tasty chicken floss had a slightly spicy sauce. While the latter was not too bad, it came with the appetising mango topping on top of the typical California maki.

We were proceeding on a rather slow pace. Mindful of the fact that there were many items that we wanted to try, we only had a hand roll each. Senki Japanese Restaurant has quite a selection of different hand rolls: California, ebi tempura, salmon skin, chopped tuna, tamago, tuna, salmon.

My friends’ eyes were glittering when the Sashimi platter arrived. This is probably the highlight of the Japanese buffet since you can eat as much sashimi as you want. Tuna, sword fish, salmon, yellow tail sashimi were devoured in an instant. We kept asking for salmon sashimi throughout the night – free flow sashimi is joy.

From the appetisers, we had chawanmushi, and goma tofu. We continued to fill our stomachs with the grilled dishes: sticks of Yakitori which were so-so, the seemingly healthy grilled shiitake, the Saba Shioyaki, and the delicious Jagaimo Mentai cheese yaki (potato with fish roe and cheese).

Deep-fried food always tastes good. Needless to say, we had an assortment of tempura (prawn and vegetables). Another favourite was the Agedashi Tofu, fried beancurd that was crispy outside and soft inside.

Forget about Senki Restaurant’s tonkatsu, it is not worth the calories. If you like deep-fried food, go for the Tori Karaage – juicy chunks of fried chicken that were good and sinful.

I cannot remember how many items we tried out of the 138 selection on Senki’s Buffet menu, but we definitely ordered at least a few dishes from each category.

For those of you who are keen on the Japanese buffet, the different selections include: appetiser, salad, sashimi, maki, nigiri sushi, hand roll, Itamemono (pan fried dishes), Owan Mono (soup), Agemono (deep fried dishes), Yakimono (grilled dishes), Menrui (noodle), and Gohan (rice).

Between bites, we stoned for a few moments, and stared at the empty plates on the table. We ate, and ate, and ordered some more. We chatted, and took toilet breaks to rest our stomach for even more food. It felt as though we were feasting for three days long.

The Japanese Buffet at Senki Japanese Restaurant is $30++ for lunch, and $33++ for dinner. Prices are the same for weekday and weekend. For eve/public holidays, it is $39++ for the buffet dinner.

Which is your favourite place for Japanese Buffet in Singapore?

Singapore Food Restaurant Review
Senki Japanese Restaurant
109 Killiney Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6734 5565

“I know a place that has the potential to be the best dessert buffet in Singapore, but I’m not telling anyone until I check it out.”

I tweeted this about two weeks ago, and I think it’s time to let the world know about the Dessert Buffet at One Ninety Restaurant Four Seasons Singapore. If you are lazy to read this post, just know two things: a) the dessert buffet is $12++ $18++/pax, and b) it is available from Monday to Friday 12.30pm – 2.30pm 2pm – 3.30pm.

Even though the dessert buffet at One Ninety Restaurant Four Seasons Singapore doesn’t have a wide variety of desserts, I think it is one of the best dessert buffets in Singapore for a number of reasons:

One. It is only $12 $18++/pax.

Do I really need to explain this? A slice of cake at Canele Patisserie will easily cost $8++. Just a word of caution, the root of all problems is expectation — don’t expect too much. Almost all the desserts for the buffet are shown in the first photo.

Two. This is Four Seasons Singapore.

We are talking about having lunch (okay, desserts) at a Five Star Hotel in Singapore. It is a nice feeling to enjoy an afternoon tea buffet in the dimly lit One Ninety Restaurant at Four Seasons Singapore, and watch the world go by.

Three. There’s no need to rush, take your time and indulge in the desserts.

Unlike the Japanese Dessert Buffet: Let’s Sweet at Bugis Junction which has a 60 min time limit for buffet lunch, and 80 min time limit for buffet dinner, there’s no need to rush to finish your desserts at One Ninety Restaurant.

Four. I think I’m wasting my time if you are still not convinced by now, so I shall tell you about some of the desserts that we had at the dessert buffet.

I’m not going to elaborate much on the cakes since the selections change every now and then. But some of the items that we had at the dessert buffet are: Chocolate Pot de Creme which is somewhat like a chocolate mousse with yummy whipped cream, the pretty but dry Fruit Cake, Caramelized Pineapple that tasted like fruit punch, Macanese Sarradura Pudding otherwise known as the tofu-cake-that-has-digestive-biscuits, the unexciting and soggy Tiramisu, the christmassy Cinnamon Star and Stollen (loaf-shaped cake), squarish Pumpkin Tarts that are arranged nicely on a wooden board, amazing Chocolate Praline Cake which is beside the equally good Grandma’s Chocolate cake (moist and sweet), simple and cute mini fruit tarts, the oh-my-god-so-good Lingon Berry Cheese Cake, and a few desserts shooter which I can’t remember now because I ate them before noticing the name.

* * *

Is the Dessert Buffet at One Ninety Four Seasons Singapore worth taking a day of leave? Well, if you are trying to clear your leave before the year ends, I think it will be a great idea to have a whole day of feasting (it’s the Christmas festive period after all).

Eat Kaya Toast in the morning, and head to Four Seasons at Orchard road for the dessert buffet, enjoy an all day breakfast at Wild Honey, and go to Koh’s Grill & Sushi during dinner for some Japanese food.

LATEST UPDATE: Come on, why are you thinking so much? It’s only $12 $18++/pax! If you cannot have just desserts for lunch, the One Ninety Lunch Buffet with unlimited appetizers & dessert, which comes with a choice of main course is at $48++/pax.

Singapore Food Restaurant Review
One Ninety Restaurant
190 Orchard Boulevard GF
Four Seasons Hotel Singapore
Tel: +65 6734 1110

// Read my list of dessert places in Singapore.

It’s a love-hate relationship with buffet.

Buffet always evoked a sense of mixed feeling for me; I tend to over-eat and gorge myself silly (especially with desserts), it always makes me feel sick after the buffet. On the other hand, if you eat too little, it doesn’t feel worthwhile to pay for the buffet. I think I figured out this part: Buffet is a deviously planned conspiracy that is meant to make us sin.

Be it international buffet, dim sum buffet, Japanese buffet dinner, All you can eat buffet, English High Tea Buffet, Crab Buffet or ala carte buffet – Singaporeans really love buffet! Needless to say, everyone will be there so long there’s a buffet, especially when the restaurant has One for one buffet promotion.

The thing about buffet: if it’s good, it’s not cheap. I know many people are always on the hunt for cheap and good buffet, but lets face it – there isn’t any cheap and good buffet in Singapore. You get what you pay for.

The only time I will go for a buffet? It’s always tempting when a buffet restaurant ties up with a bank to do a credit card promotion: 1-for-1 buffet. I always believe in quality > quantity. So it’s pointless to give you a list of ALL the buffet restaurants in Singapore. Instead, I came up with this list of the Best buffet restaurants in Singapore that I want to try this year.

Basilico – Italian Buffet
1 Cuscaden Road
Level 2 The Regent Singapore
Tel: +65 6725 3232
// Weekday Lunch Buffet $42++
Saturday Lunch Buffet $46++
Sunday Brunch Buffet $69++
Daily Semi Buffet Dinner $69++

Bar & Billiard Room
1 Beach Road Raffles Hotel
Tel: +65 6412 1816
// Mon to Sat Lunch Buffet $60++
Mon to Sat Dinner Buffet $75++
Sunday Champagne Brunch $178++ ($158 without champagne)

Carousel Halal Buffet Restaurant
25 Scotts Road
GF Royal Plaza on Scotts Singapore
Tel: +65 6589 7799
// Weekday Halal Buffet Lunch $46++
Weekend Halal Buffet Dinner $50++
Weekday Halal Buffet Dinner $62++
Weekend Halal Buffet Dinner $75++

Cafe L’Espresso – English High Tea Buffet
22 Scotts Road
GF Goodwood Park Hotel
Tel: +65 6730 1743
// Mon – Thu English High Tea Buffet $34+++
Fri – Sun English High Tea Buffet $36++

Cherry Garden – Champagne Dim Sum Brunch Buffet
5 Raffles Avenue
5F Mandarin Oriental
Tel: +65 6885 3538
// Weekend Dim Sum Brunch
Sat – Sun 10am to 3pm
$48++ without Champagne
$118++ with free flow Champagne

Greenhouse – Asian Seafood Buffet
7 Raffles Avenue
3/F Ritz-Carlton Millenia
Tel: +65 6434 5288
// Weekday Lunch Buffet Mon – Sat $48++
Sunday Brunch Buffet $148++ (Champagne)
Sun – Thu Dinner Buffet $58++
Tue Dinner Buffet $68++ (Oysters special)
Fri -  Sat Dinner Buffet $76++

Hanabi Japanese Restaurant – Japanese Buffet
331 North Bridge Road
#01-04 Odeon Towers
Tel: +65 6338 6626
// Japanese ala carte buffet
Weekday Japanese ala carte Buffet $29++
Weekend Japanese ala carte Buffet $33++

IKOI Japanese Restaurant – Japanese Buffet
401 Havelock Road #01-01
Hotel Miramar Singapore
Tel: +65 6887 3788
// Japanese ala carte buffet
Weekday Japanese ala carte Buffet $33++
Weekend Japanese ala carte Buffet $33++
* Reservations highly recommended

Jing Restaurant – Weekend Brunch Buffet
One Fullerton, #01-02/03
1 Fullerton Road
Singapore 049213
Tel: 6224 0088
// Weekend Brunch Buffet $38++

Melt The World Cafe – International Buffet
5 Raffles Avenue
4F The Oriental Singapore
Tel: +65 6885 3082
// Weekdays Lunch Buffet (Mon – Sat) $56++
Sunday Brunch Buffet $88++ (Non-alohol)
Sun – Wed Dinner Buffet $68++
Thu – Sat Dinner Buffet $78++

One Ninety Restaurant – European Buffet
190 Orchard Boulevard
GF Four Seasons Hotel
Tel: +65 6734 1110
// Mon – Fri European Buffet Lunch $48++
Saturday Asian High Tea $45++
Sunday International Brunch Buffet $138++
Weekday Dessert Buffet $12++ $18++

Sabroso Tapas Wine Bar – Tapas Buffet Dinner
26A Lorong Mambong
Holland Village, Singapore
Tel: +65 6766 0053
// Sun – Thu Spanish Tapas Buffet Dinner $32++

Senki Japanese Buffet Restaurant
109 Killiney Road
Tel: +65 6734 5565
// Japanese ala carte buffet
Weekday Japanese ala carte Buffet $30++
Weekend Japanese ala carte Buffet $33++

Straits Kitchen – Singapore Hawker Food (Halal) Buffet
Grand Hyatt Singapore Hotel
10 Scotts Rd
Tel: +65 6732 1234
Daily Halal Buffet Lunch $42++
Daily Halal Buffet Dinner $48++

The Line Shangri La – International Buffet
22 Orange Grove Road
Basement Shangri-la Hotel
Tel: +65 6213 4275
// Weekday International Buffet Lunch $47++
Sat International Buffet Lunch $50++
Sun Brunch $78++ (non alochol)
Fri – Mon International Buffet Dinner $68++
Tue Buffet Dinner Oyster Night special $88++
Wed Buffet Dinner BBQ Night Special $78++
Thu Buffet DInner Seafood Night Special $88++

Town Restaurant – International Buffet
1 Fullerton Square
GF Fullerton Hotel
Tel: +65 6877 8128
// Mon – Fri International Lunch Buffet $48
Sat Local High Tea $32++
Sun Champagne Brunch Buffet $148++
Sun – Wed International Dinner Buffet $48
Thu – Sat Seafood Dinner Buffet $58++

Tea Lounge Regent Singapore
1 Cuscaden Road GF
The Regent Singapore
Tel: +65 6725 3246
// Weekday English Afternoon Tea
Afternoon Tea Set ($38++):
Mon to Fri 12.30pm – 5pm
// Weekend High Tea Buffet ($45++):
Sat & Sun 1.30pm – 5.30pm

Triple Three Restaurant
333 Orchard Road
Level 5 Meritus Mandarin Singapore
Tel: +65 6831 6271
// Weekday Lunch Buffet $68++
Mon to Thu Dinner Buffet $89.9++
Fri & Sat Dinner Buffet $72++
Sun Brunch Buffet $138++ (free flow sparking) $99++ (no Alcohol)
Sun Dinner Buffet $108++
// 1 for 1 with DBS credit cards is valid for Sun – Thu dinner & Mon – Sat lunch

Yan Ting Restaurant – Weekend Dim Sum Brunch Buffet
29 Tanglin Road
The St Regis
// Weekend dim sum brunch $88++
Weekday 11.45am – 2.30pm
Weekend 11 am – 3.30pm
Tel: 6506 6888
Read post here, here, here, and here

I will be adding this list to the top of my Delicious page. Given that it’s already April, that means on average, I need to check out at least one buffet restaurant each month. Get going, save up for the indulgence and report back to me every time you ticked off a restaurant off this list.

I have a little fetish with desserts. I cannot resist them, especially during buffets. I mean, why wait till the end of the meal to have desserts, when you can have desserts right at the start? Because I eat desserts first.

Remember I took seven lucky readers with me for a dinner buffet?

The best part of the desserts section would definitely be the live station that serves fresh crepes and waffles; I had a great time marveling at the process of making the waffles, and then an inspiration suddenly struck as I took a spoon and drizzled the chocolate from the flowing fondue on top of the waffles and ice cream.

You know what’s the worst thing? They know my wildest desire and they demand my attention every now and then. It’s very irritating. They would wave and offer themselves to me. And then they tickle and whisper into my ears. If the others had not pull me away, I’d have stay at the waffle station for the whole dinner.

Their durian pengat is famous too, and it’s a great idea to have it together with the waffles too; anything goes with waffles – it’s just my excuse for having more! There’s an assortment of mini pastries and cakes available, I liked the mini fruit tarts, and simply enjoyed dipping the marshmallow inside the chocolate fondue, oh what joy.

Among the main dishes, the fried carrot cake caught my eye, and surprisingly it was very good and I couldn’t stop raving it to the rest. After the recent revamp, the buffet has doubled it’s selection and now focuses more on local and Asian dishes,

But when it comes to buffet, I always eat very little of the main dish, okay I will still grab some small bites, like one spoonful of rice and fried noodles, one piece of chicken, and some sushi. After which, I will go back and concentrate on the desserts. Oh well, I have a sweet tooth.

There’s also stations where you can prepare laksa and rojak, there’s several sets of different menu and the local favorites dishes will be rotated every night. Food is all about getting your hands dirty isn’t it? The fun of mixing and matching your own rojak, throwing in as much peanut and youtiao as you want, and putting more prawns and chili into your bowl of laksa.

It was not the chili crab, but the deep-fried mantou beside the crab that took my breathe away. What sheer audacity, they actually had a bowl full of deep-fried mantou along side the big pot of chili crab gravy – it was a direct challenge crying out to me, come, lets see how many mantous can you finish!

* * *

The buffet lunch is $39++ from Monday to Fridays, and buffet dinner for weekdays are $44++. Their weekend dinner buffet has a bigger seafood spread at $46++ per person. I will like to thank Chia Yee from Holiday Inn for the invitation for the food tasting session, and I hope that the seven of you enjoyed the buffet dinner.

Restaurant Review
Window on the Park Restaurant
11 Cavenagh road
Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre
Tel: 6733 8333

Black pepper Sri lanka crab

Ginger Scallion flower crab

Fragrant Thai sauce crab

Nonya curry crab

Stir-fried slipper lobster in black bean sauce

Chili crab with deep-fried mantou

Oh man, She’s grabbing all the good stuff; the big pincers, the meatier crab legs, all gone! Everybody behind the woman, stared at her as she made away with the “goods”.

With the crab tong in hand, it was used to hammer the shell. The fellow diners on the same table immediately dispersed, “watch it! The crab gravy is flying everywhere!”

The lady eyed the seafood section, carefully choosing the biggest white fresh oysters on the bed of ice. She proceeded on to squeeze lemon wedges onto each of them, not wasting a single drop. Taking a fork, she slurped down five oysters, in one shot.

Wash your hands clean and crab-free in the lemon water, we are going for the second round!

The team of eight sat down at the table to discuss their plans, like true elite commando fashion; they attacked the crabs in the precise and deadly manner that they were known for.

“Mommy, I want that slice of very delicious-looking, oreo cheesecake!” The small girl told her mother, even though their stomachs are bursting from all the crabs.

* * *

(1) The commentaries were some of the conversation that I’ve overheard, and observed during the buffet, and I thought it would be interesting to write about this.

(2) I don’t like to eat crabs; I’m too lazy to dirty my hands shelling the crustaceans. And if I do, the chili crab will be my favourite; I love the thick, spicy chili gravy. And there’s the best company in the form of the deep fried mantou; I always poked a hole in the middle of the fried bun and poured lots of gravy inside. Then the soaking of the whole bun within the goodness of the gravy, they are oh, so-good! And I kept a bowl of chili gravy filled throughout the buffet, dipping everything in it.

(3) The crab buffet at Ellenborough market cafe is only available for dinner at $46++ per head, and will last for two weeks, starting from the 25th June. Singaporeans, love (read: love), their crabs, I went during the first day of the promotion and it was full house, on a weekday dinner! So if you are heading down, please remember to make reservations in advance. And my appreciation to Sok Hoon, the marketing communication manger for the invitation to the food tasting session.

(4) Just some more information about the buffet: There’s chefs-on-the-spot cooking crab risotto, frying mee goreng, and wrapping crab popiahs, the seafood area which has sashimi, prawns and seafood, the usual western/Asian cuisine selections, the omnipresent chocolate fondue, with a pretty decent choices of desserts ranging from cheesecake, to shooters, and their famous Durian Pengat. And I love having some Chinese desserts like tou suan with you tiao too!

Read my fellow floggers post on the crab extravaganza:
Camemberu here
& Aromacookery here

Ellenborough market cafe
20 Merchant road
GF Swissotel Merchant court
Tel: 6239 1847

My eyes strayed to the corner as we walked in, the desserts section; I saw the chocolate cake waving to me, the dessert shooters like a lighthouse beaconing the direction. And not lest, the-sight-of-it again: the omnipresent chocolate fondue, my heart just flew over with hugs and kisses.

Not able to resist the seduction, I dropped every last bit of pretence in me and embraced the temptation; lets start with the desserts shall we? We took a bit of everything, and started tucking in. We decided just to have some, and come back for more later. It was a difficult decision; to stop after we started, it was akin to asking a vampire to stop after he started sucking blood from your neck.

And so, the cold seafood counter. There were prawns, there were crabs, and there were mussels & scallops.

A sniff of the icy chilled oyster, the sea breeze gusted into my nose. The hassle of opening up the clam creature was avoided, for it was already prepared nice and clean on the bed of ice. I squeezed a whole wedge of lemon onto it, careful not to spill any outside the shell; every drop of lemon was precious, to fully bring out the quintessence of it. I pitched it up with a fork, and slowly put it into my mouth, one swallow, one gulp, and it was gone.

Our stomach has served us well, and to reward it for the hard work, let’s start with some salad. We took a bit of all the different greens, and dressed it up with the many-variety of dressing available; I always preferred thousand island, while you went for the lighter Italian dressing, and also the adventurous yoghurt one too.

It was fun, the process of ‘playing’ with the Kueh pie tee; we took the shell, add in the typical popiah turnip fillings, sprinkled a bit of the crushed peanuts, drizzled the sweet sauce, beautify it with parsley, and had options of tuna, chicken, and prawns to top with. Boy, it was good! The crispy shell, with the turnip fillings, but it was the sweet sauce and peanut which provided the difference.

There was roasted meat selections, Indian food, Western & Asian mains to choose from too. Again, we ate some of each, and finally it could wait no longer! This time, for desserts, we shall try everything, one of everything. Two if we can help it!

At first glance, it looked like pandan cake. Then, the pistachio financier name tag appeared, in a concealed corner oblivious to the naked human eye. The green stuff, they called it the pistachio nut, it was a personal favourite of our friend; and surprisingly, the pandan-cake-lookalike had a flavourful pistachio taste!

I remembered the truffle berry compote cake for its smooth and silky chocolate, with composition of berries within.

For some unknown reason which continue to evade me, passion fruit seemed to be a popular choice for patissier, I did not have any nice experience with it so far; but I guess it’s the intriguing combination of that-something-sour with the strong cheesecake. I, however, did not like it. I like sweet stuff, something sweet please.

While it had became a common thing for buffets, the chocolate fondue still never failed to excite me, I dipped fruits, puffs, marshmallows, and everything I could find under the flowing chocolate lava.

This, was my favourite part of the buffet. There’s a chef specially preparing waffles and crepes on-the-spot. The waffles were excellent, but they used the same mixture for the crepes, which turned out to be overly thick. And the staffs actually delivered the waffles to our tables when we forgot to collect it, now my dear, that’s what you call service!

I used syrup and butter for my first waffle. Then I returned for more with a topping of all the ice creams available, creativity struck me as I poured some of the lava from the chocolate fondue over my piece of crispy waffles.

The weekend dinner buffet from Mon to Wed is $45++, while dinner from Thursday onwards to Sunday is $50++ per head. We were too full to try all the food; we missed out on the Indian food, and the roasted duck selections. Eating a little of everything was almost enough to fill up the tiny stomach of ours. Plenty of tea and a long chat after the meal aided in the digestion too! My appreciation to Helen, the F&B manager of Traders Hotel, for the food tasting invitation.

Read about my other posts on buffet here.

Cafebiz
1A Cuscaden road
GF Traders hotel
Tel: 6831 4374

The-sight-of-it is enough to excite me. The flowing chocolate – like water plunging down from a magnificent waterfall: wonderful, sweet. The cute white marshmallows beckon to me. The puffs – baked for the sole reunion with the delicious chocolate. The big juicy strawberries, oh my. What’s there not to like about a chocolate fondue? I love it!

Now, I don’t really like buffets. When I see food laying out, exposed, I think they are not exactly very tasteful. The food left out in the open air becomes unprotected from the passing fancies of everybody. BUT, but, the current Citibank credit card 50% promotion for 10 @ Claymore is simply too good a deal to miss, so I decided to go for it after all.

How does $29++ for buffet lunch sounds? On top of it with a 1-for-1 promotion, and we are talking about Pan Pacific Hotel, not some dubious twenties-odd range buffet (you-know-where-I-am-referring-to). Given, the variety here cannot compare with other international buffets who have more spread, but what I like about 10 @ Claymore is the focus.

Instead of giving a lot items to choose from, they decided to give just enough. For those who inherited our Singapore-kiasu-genes, my apologies. But this is one buffet where I actually don’t feel guilty trying to gorge myself silly. I ate a bit of everything, and rushed to have my desserts.

Chicken & Seabass in lemon sauce

Lamb & Beef

Seafood Saffron

The chocolate truffle was terrific – sweet, smooth, refined, yet unbelievably simple. I had mutiple helpings of it, until my stomach decided to do a red-shirt-alike-protest to me.

I love the chocolate tarts too; each nicely craft and so delicate. One bite, it’s gone.

Total bill was $34 for 2 person after the citibank credit card promotion. The current good deal last until 30 April, 2 person are entitled to a 50% discount. For $17 bucks per person, buffet lunch at a classy environment, enough said! And oh yes, I forgot to mention that the service was top-notch; the staffs were attentive and always happy to help out when you need anything.

10 @ Claymore
10 Claymore road
2F Pan Pacfic Orchard
Tel: 6831 6686

Television often play an important part in our life, and definitely have great influence on many people. But the debates on whether it is a good thing or not continues to rage on. Many certainly thinks that Television’s one of the greatest inventions, while some in the other camp believe that it is a bad influence on children, especially so when they get addicted to watching TV programmes. Did you ever hear a parent telling her kid to watch more TV shows?

Recently, we have a television show on Channel 8, “Buffet Buffet” which has garnered much interest among the young and the old. And its hard not to see why, food-related programmes have always been a hit with the audience, not to mention this one introduce all kinds of buffets in Singapore. I saw Penang place restaurant on one of the episodes, and since the price is reasonably cheap and near to my place, why not?

If you just watch the crowd in the place without knowing where is it, you’ll never guess its located within the International Business park (IBP) at Jurong. Perhaps that’s exactly the reason why the owner set up shop there, since there’s so many hungry white collar workers in all the offices around. The atrium building is just beside Creative, so its pretty easy to find, and there’s shutter bus from Jurong East mrt station.

Penang place oozes a sense of tranquil with its simple furnitures, and the water settings just beside the restaurant. It was fully packed when we visited on a weekday lunch, Singaporeans do love their buffets!

The selections actually is pretty decent given its reasonable pricing of $19.80++ for weekday buffet lunch.

Well, the intention was to make it an ice kachang, but we somehow added toppings which we like, so it didn’t look exactly the bit like ice kachang.

The Penang laksa actually comes in the form of Assam laksa, sour and spicy in taste, which differed greatly from our local version. The katong-laksa purist might not take quite well to this, which is more like a mix between tom-yam soup and laksa, with the sourish taste dominating the taste bud. But that’s the authetic Penang laksa for you.

I was rather impressed with the seafood soup, well for one it tasted like shark fin soup (even though there’s no shark fin of course), and secondly, i felt that it was similar to my mom’s home-made soup, and that’s a compliment!

What do you think of when I mentioned Penang? The name synonymous with the city is definitely Char Koay Teow. And if you didn’t notice, even the spelling differs slightly from ours. Well, there’s also Assam laksa, wonton mee and hokkien mee too, but Char Koay Teow certainly is the one which leave most people with memorable memories of Penang. Their rendition comes slightly spicy, not too oily and with a generous serving of ingredients. And the best part? Penang Place actually replenished their char koay teow in small portions very often, since it’s like the most popular dish there. While Char koay teow has a reputation for being unhealthy, and even though i had eaten it twice that week, i couldn’t help myself to second helpings. My sinful food.

The Nasi Lemak is served simple and nice with the fragnant rice, crunchy ikan billies, crispy peanut with cooling cucumbers. There are some other common dishes like curry chicken, fried food, but one dish which i found it good was the Batu Uban Ayam Panggang, which was seasoned grilled chicken with peanut sauce. A pity it was gone when i wanted to take a shot of it.

Glutinous rice is often use in the Asian context, and its no surprise to see the Kueh Salat here. Basically steamed glutinous rice topped with a layer of pandan flavoured custard. Well, i didn’t know if it’s just me or what, but i didn’t really enjoy glutinous rice done this way. The taste was rather weird for my liking, and i guessed i still prefer the Chinese dim sum glutinous rice in lotus leaf.

One of my personal favourites, the Kueh Dardan was actually pandan flavoured pancakes filled with sweetened coconut shavings. The pancakes were very soft and nice, with the coconut shavings coming not too heavy. Easily finished a few of them even thought we were full from the buffet.

Another glutinous rice, the Pulut tatai, steamed glutinous rice eaten with kaya.

Kueh Kosei, palm sugar roll with coconut shravings.

Another dessert, or rather kueh that i enjoyed was the Kueh Talam. Essentially a pandan flavoured cake topped with a savoury coconut milk layer, the pandan cake was very fragnant indeed.

Total bill was $69.90 for 3 person at their weekday lunch buffet. I must say, for $23 per head after taxes and service charges, its rather reasonable for the amount of food served. Note, i didn’t say its excellent, but for the price, its rather acceptable since i find it hard to name another place serving buffet in the 20 dollar range which is good. I guess the money will be worth it if you eat more of their Char Koay teow which will cost $8.90 if you order a plate a la carte.

The location might be a tad difficult, since its within the International Business Park, people wouldn’t travel all the way there just for their buffet, but i did. Well for the rest of you lucky souls who are working in the area, i’ll say this is one place to check out for lunch when you are in the mood for a longer lunch.

Penang place restaurant
6 International Business Park
#01-05 Atrium
Tel: 6899 9446
Lunch: 1130-2pm

It’s dim sum time again! This time we are heading to Zhou’s Kitchen, a mid-tier casual Chinese restaurant under Tung Lok group (TLG). Judging by its menu and interior, it is clear that Zhou’s Kitchen caters to the palates and pockets of diners from all walks of life. For its Anchorpoint branch, Zhou’s Kitchen is uniquely housed in a separate double-storey building known as the ‘Copperdome’, just outside the sub-urban shopping mall. There’s also two other outlets at Square 2 and Far east square.

Zhou’s Kitchen caught my attention mainly because of their high tea buffet which is at $16.80++ per head. Initially when they just launched this buffet, it was only on weekends, but they had since included in weekdays as well.

The interior was simple and decorated according to their theme of orange and green. There’s a total of 34 items to choose from the menu, which included some appetisers, soup, dim sum, rice & noodles, and desserts.

Prawn Crackers ($3 for 3 pax)

Zhou’s Kitchen provided prawn crackers for us to munch while waiting for the dim sum to be served. And just in case you’re thinking, they were not free. They charged us $3 for them since we had 3 person, so i guess its by head count.

Wonton

We was expecting wonton but it came in the form of the fried wonton skin instead. Fillings were minimum, but the sweet tangy sauce that accompanied the fried crispy skin was not too bad to start your meal.

Beef slices

I didn’t know what to make of this, i felt that the beef slices was average, the taste was forgettable, but then again, my friends thought it was not bad.

Salad prawn with mixed fruits

I’m a sucker for salad, so anything with salad wouldn’t taste that bad to me. The salad prawns were crunchy, a refreshing appetiser. But no doubt too much of good things could turn out to be bad too, as the salad dressings would be quite heavy.

Drunken chicken

This was easily the most unmemorable dish out of all the ones we had. Drunken chicken? Like what my friend said, it tasted more like “pig tails” to us (not that we had eaten pig tails before).

Pan fried chive dumplings with chicken

I ain’t a fan of chives, so anything from me about chives dumplings would surely be negative. You need to try this for yourself to find out.

Mini Egg tarts

Now, this is the real deal. By far one of the better dim sum i’ve for this meal, the mini egg tarts beared a reminiscent to the ones i had at Wah Lok, smooth and eggy fillings. And like before, mini egg tarts only posed the problem of being too small. But hey, we’re having dim sum buffet, this was all-you-can-eat, so no issue there. I lost count of the egg tarts i eaten that day.

Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings

As always, there’s pork, shrimp, fish roe in the Siew Mai. But Zhou’s rendition had a twist by adding in mushrooms as well. Although the taste of mushroom within siew mai didn’t really enhanced the flavour, but you got to give it to them for doing something different from the norm.

Steamed BBQ pork bun

Any char siew buns which had three parts would do for me. The one here was not bad, and although its very filling eating buns, i couldn’t help myself to two of them.

Steamed shrimp dumplings

The shrimp was good, crunchy and fresh. However, the skin was too thick and sticked to the teeth after eating it. But if you just wanted to make the most for your money, just order and eat as much as you can. Otherwise, i wouldn’t eat too much of it as the overly thick skin made me feel sick of dim sum.

Steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce

I always didn’t fancy ordering steam pork ribs, since there’s always hardly any meat on this type of steamed ribs, and unlike those “pork ribs king” which are popular in Zi-char stores, there’s nothing for you to chew on the bones here.

Fried rice with chicken and salted fish

The fried rice was surprisingly quite good, the wok flavour was evident with every grain of rice, and the clever use of salted fish did enhanced the taste of the fried rice. I’ll have ordered second servings if not for the fact that rices were very filling.

Deep fried prawn paste chicken

Their deep fried chicken marinated with prawn paste sauce, or Har Cheong Kai, was a laughing joke. The chicken was skinny, bare to the bones, the prawn paste was weak. I could hardly finish one chicken wing. Period.

Baked flaky BBQ pork pastry

The bbq pork pastry, or char siew sou, fared better than the rest. Although not excellent, but it’s still worth having second helpings if you are a fan of char siew sou like me.

Steamed custard bun

Their steamed custard buns brought back bad memories like the ones i had at Victor’s, the custard wasn’t cold, but they were very hard, unlike those good ones which had warm custard fillings oozing out with the lightest break of the bun.

Total bill was $66.30 for 3 person, which worked out to be around $22 per person. TLG is well-known in the local culinary scenes with their chains of restaurants, thus i was thinking Zhou’s kitchen couldn’t be that bad. But having been there, ate that, i would say their dim sum wasn’t worth the effort.

No doubt it’s cheap for all-you-can-eat buffets, you can gorge yourself silly, but i’ll rather eat less in quantity, and more in quality. I won’t bother going back again for their dim sum buffet, for a short while, i even felt sick of dim sum after eating so much that day, that’s why i disliked buffets, especially so if the food ain’t good. And by the way, there were 34 items, we tried quite many of them, but i didn’t show all the pictures out since the rest was either not worth mentioning, or we didn’t try them.

Zhou’s Kitchen
368 Alexander road
The Copperdom
Anchorpoint
Tel: 6473 1123

Located within the Arena country club at Upper Jurong Road, opposite the Singapore Discovery Centre, Tung Lok Seafood is the mainstay of the Tung Lok group (TLG). This dinner took place actually very long ago, five months to be precise. I was hesitant in writing the post since the food was unremarkable, typical at best, and there were too many photos to handle.

We chose to have their dinner a la carte buffet priced at $33.80++ for adult. The buffet had a wide range of food like Japanese cuisines, cold cut appetizer, soup, seafood, meat, vegetables, rice & noodles selections, and desserts. With a total of 50 items to choose from, we managed to eat close to 30 variety.

I would say that most of the food was average, and we tried quite a lot of variety, so i won’t go into details for each and everyone of them. I’ll highlight the ones that stood out, and the rest are really up to your own judgement if you ever go to Tung Lok to try their dinner buffet.

The pictures were taken with my old canon ixus before i got my present DSLR, so do pardon the poor photos.

Poached prawns (limited to 100g per person)

The poached prawns were one of the few dishes that had limits, which meant that they were not available for re-ordering. Not that the poached prawns were that fantastic anyway.

California Maki

The California maki was actually the saving grace for the dinner. I wouldn’t say that the sushi was exceptionally fresh, but they were acceptable and we had two servings of them.

Barbeque roast meat platter

The barbeque roast meat platter was also one of the few that stood out. The char siew was not bad, but the roast chicken was better. We were in half-mind whether to have second servings but later decided not as we were too full.

Beijing roast duck (limited to two slice per person)

The Beijing roast duck was no doubt one of the more pricer dishes, hence the limitation of two slice per person. The waiteress brought the whole roast duck in front of our table to slice it on the spot and served with spring onion, cucumber and sweet sauce. One of the better dish, but pity the limitation of the serving.

Chili crab A La Tung Lok (limited to one per table)

Tung Lok’s renown for their Chili crab, they are after all a seafood restaurant. Without a doubt, the best dish among the 50 selections, the chili crab was spicy and there was a sweet hint in the thick and wonderful gravy. Served with man tou (soft white bun), i’ll say that their chili crab is on par with Jumbo, NoSignBoard and Mellben. But again, there’s the limit of one per table. Nevertheless, if you are ordering a la carte, this definitely is a must order dish.

Sichuan style dumpling with spicy sauce

Pan grilled miso marinated beef tenderloin

Old cantonese style sweet and sour pork

I’m a huge fan of sweet and sour pork, but Tung Lok’s rendition didn’t have the “wow” factor to entice me for second helpings.

Roast Spring chicken (half)

Another typical dish, nothing exceptional but still acceptable.

Deep fried “soon hock” fish

We were not a fan of rear fish like soon hock, so we were not really expecting much from this dish. And it turned out to be what we thought, the fish wasn’t fresh.

Deep fried fritters with salad sauce

Pork ribs with fruit sauce

Crisp fried baby squids

You would thought that seafood dishes were be better at Tung Lok, but the baby squids were over-fried, too charred and dried.

Vegetarian Spring rolls

Fried hor fun with sliced fish in egg gravy

I was undecided whether to order the hor fun and mee goreng, and the hor fun proved to be a disappoint choice.

Poached Chinese spinach with fresh bean stick and garlic

Deep fried prawn paste chicken

Ice cream puff

The ice cream puff was your normal ones found in the neighbourhood deli, but i was actually quite hooked with it. Well this actually show how desirable the other dishes were.

Glutinous rice balls with peanut crumbs

Chilled herbal jelly with honey

Chilled honeydew with sago cream

Chocolate ice cream

Dessert of the day

Total bill was $142.65 for 4 person dinner buffet. Although it came with a huge selections of 50 dishes, but most of them were mediocre and not worth trying. If you don’t really mind the quality of the food, the dinner buffet does makes a rather value option since you get to try so many dishes. But if you are the type who cares about the quality, I say skip the buffet and go for their a la carte menu instead.

Tung Lok Seafood
511 Upper Jurong Road
The Arena Country Club
Tel: 6262 6996

If you have been following through LIC, you will know that i never fancy buffet, because the greedy me will want to eat as much as possible to satisfy the price, and you need to fork out big money for quality buffet, think The line at Shangri-la, Wasabi bistro, Melt the world cafe.

Having said that, as my family wanted a weekend dinner buffet without being too heavy on the pocket, i did some research online, and decided on Feast @ East the buffet restaurant. Nothing mind-blowing, just the rather reasonable bill for a weekend dinner buffet, which can otherwise be very expensive.

Feast @ East is located at Grand Mercure roxy hotel at East coast road, just directly opposite Parkway parade. I do have doubts about restaurants in hotel situated in suburban area initially. But i guess there’s always a first time for everything.

The interior of Feast @ East is rather big, i think housing 80-100 shouldn’t be a problem. As the name implies, firstly the heritage feast in the east. And second, they are a buffet restaurant. Duh!

A gastronomic journey of food from a bygone area which many may have forgotten and also the familiar favourites. Truly authentic tastes from the various cultures and lifestyle of Singapore.

This is how Feast @ East describe themselves, and i do agree to certain extent. What really impress me about Feast @ East is the small little details they go into, to create the bygone area feel with some of the stuff that we used to see when we are just small kids. You will see them in the pictures later.

However, the food really is average, nothing much to shout about, and before the buffet here, i had Kampong chicken, went to Bark cafe, so i wasn’t very hungry.

Seafood selection, with mussels and big prawns.

“Authentic” local delights

Somehow i feel that they are more like Hawker food, and honestly, hawker food are best eaten in hawker, not a restaurant.

Roasted meat selections

Surprisingly the roast duck is actually quite good. I am more of a duck than chicken fan, and i must say the duck gets the thumbs up!

Gammon Ham

The gammon ham is too salty, not to our liking. Generous in serving, but wait, this is a all-you-can-eat buffet after all.

The chef will whipped out flavors like laksa and mee siam on the spot.

Mee Rebus

I had a taste of the mee rebus, i’m not sure how you exactly describe a good mee rebus, but i think this one is normal.

Laksa

The laksa is quite all right to be fair, nothing fantastic, but nothing bad either.

More local food selections

Now, this, is what i am talking about earlier. The biscuits are so old-school, totally nostalgic and it really bring out the fond memories don’t they.

Another one, the little details that Feast @ East actually bothers to look into, are what i credit them for.

There’s even an ice-kachang machine for you to satisfy your ice-kachang-seller-wannabe crave.

The desserts section are really the part that set me licking, literally. I am a sucker for desserts, and for feast @ east, i didn’t really try most of their local food, instead my efforts are all channel into, yes desserts.

How can one resist the warm and chocolaty, chocolate fondue. Definitely not me, put a marshmallow under the flowing chocolate, and its simply goodness, do it the same with different kind of fruits!

Especially so with big, juicy and yummy strawberries!

The desserts and cakes selections are rather comprehensive, there are hits and misses of course.

I always love fruit tarts, but obviously the fruit has to be my liking, i don’t fancy the blueberry here, kind of sourish.

There’s also tao suen with you tiao. Authetic taste yes? It doesn’t matter, tao suen is always one of my penchant among the chinese desserts.

Total Bill is $134.15 for 4 person which works out to be about $33 per head. The normal price for their buffet dinner will be $38, but we use the Citicard promotion, 1 dines free with 3 paying adults. At $33, i guess the price isn’t that expensive given its a weekend buffet dinner. But at $38, i might think twice before coming.

You can’t really speak of quality in the food, we felt that they are normal, at best a few dish stands out. Otherwise you are actually paying for the experience of eating hawker food in a restaurant environment. Dessert-wise i think its not too bad, with quite a repertoire to choose from.

Like what i mentioned earlier, credits to Feast @ East for putting in the effort in the small details which creates a truly heritage feel, the gastronomic journey of food from a bygone area which many may have forgotten. The concept is good, but the food just needs to be better.

If you are not too fussy about food, Feast @ East do makes a nice place to bring your family along for a buffet spread. But if you are particular about the quality of food, stir clear of this place.

Feast @ East The Buffet Restaurant
50 East Coast Road
Roxy Square
Tel: 6344 8000

Encountered bad service at a restaurant?

No, thats part of the dining experience.

Taste lousy and not up-to-the-mark food?

Nah, thats also part of the dining experience.

Entering the restaurant and the waitress told you the place is full?

Blame it on yourself who did not make any reservations.

The worst thing, that can ever, ever happen to a food blogger . . .

Is having no camera to take shots of the delicacy displayed upon you.

Thunder never strikes at the same spot, indeed. The last time to The French Stall, LIC forgotten to bring his camera along, and that was an awful feeling. LIC didn’t expect to encounter the same problem, this time LIC did bring the camera, only to arrive happily at the entrance of the restaurant and found out that there was no battery inside!?!

Tsk tsk! LIC shouldn’t taken out the battery to charge and forgot to put it back. A dreadful mistake which must be avoid at all cost next time.

Beware! Warning! The following photos may look awful, terrible, shocking, ghastly, and lousy to you. If you cannot take any of the experience, please DO NOT click on “Read the rest of this entry”

The fatal spot where LIC wanted to take a pot-shot of the entrance and to his horror, discovered that the absence of the battery!

Alas, this post on Kuishin-bo will be short due to obvious reasons, LIC was actually working on Absolute Haven but due to time constraint, this post shall appear before your eyes first. Too many post pending for LIC to write, even OT can’t really help : )

The only “slightly more decent” photo, sushi selections

The sushi are all right i guess, nothing to shout about. Quite a wide selections to choose from though.

Prawn Tempura

The tempura section is most probably one of the place where i consume more, with the exception of desserts (which LIC can’t live without!) The prawn tempura is your normal fried prawn with tempura-flour, it works for me although i pretty much suspect its only decent in the eyes of Japanese food experts (LIC self-proclaimed he isn’t a avid Jap food eater)

Kaminabe paper steamboat

Like what i mention during my visit to Waraku, Kaminabe sounds like a foul-word, it still brings back memories from the last visit, hence the mention. Paper pot, the vegetables, are all there to absorb the otherwise oily chicken and soup. Thinking back now, Beef should have been a better option for Kaminabe.

Desserts – Fruit Tarts

Fruit tarts are LIC favorite! I can pop ten easily into my mouth. The tarts here are pretty standard i guess, but still give them to me!

There are also some miniature cakes around, chocolate ones, mini oreo cheesecakes (really tiny), mini doughnuts in different flavors, quite a variety available.

The chocolate fondue craze might have die down already, but that does not means they are not good. Its just that people forgets easily, before long another new craze will appear and the common folks will start to go after the new hype. Think donut, bubble-tea, luo-han fish, chocolate fondue, well just to name a few.

Total Bill for 2 person during weekday lunch comes up to $46.61 after tax and service charge. Weekday lunch is $24.80++ for adult, and if you Op for the 60 minutes express lunch, it is $19.80+, which we did. I guess the 60 minutes strategy is more to attract office working people, but we took it since we are really full after an hour anyway.

Actually the difference in price is only 5 bucks, if you go for the normal price, you got the luxury to enjoy the buffet from 1130am-3pm, which big-appetite eaters should go for. Otherwise if you are working near Suntec, or like us where you can finish the meal in an hour, the discount of $5 although not much, is still rather substantial.

To be honest, the one hour buffet is rather rushed, and if you are the type that refuse to rush while tasting your food, it is not advisable to take it. But if you know what you are looking for, well just attack those areas and your effort will be paid off for the $19.80.

Kuishi-bo proclaimed itself to be the Authenthic Japanese Buffet Restaurant, which i highly doubted it. Authentic hardly feeds into what they are offering. Nevertheless i believe one sentence should sums it all for Kuishi-bo. Quantity, not quality!

Taste is subjective, if you are not looking for very excellent food, i say the ones at Kuishi-bo are quite decent, and definitely value-for-money since its only $19.80. But if you are into Japanese food, i’m afraid the visit will disappoint you greatly. Nonetheless, comparing Kuishi-bo to Sakura International Buffet, and Sakae Sushi Buffet, i still say Kuishi-bo slightly edged out both the latter.

Many acquaintance mentioned that Kuishi-bo’s standard has vastly dropped from last time, a pale shadow of what it used to be. Well, sometimes you have to experience it for yourself to conclude. I did, which is the reason for my visit to Kuishi-bo. Thus, Yay or Nah, make a trip down.

Kuishin-bo
3 Temasek Boulevard
Suntec City Tower 1 #03-002
Tel: 6238 7088

Quantity, not quality!