Brazil Churrascaria

2nd December, Wednesday

The ultimate meat eater's paradise. If I am correct, this restaurant (at 6th Avenue) was the first Brazillian restaurant to open in Singapore, and one of my favourite restaurants too! But I always end up too full and bloated after eating here, so I can't visit here so frequently.

Anyway it's a buffet, but you don't have to get food or order - their waiters will always walk around with chunks and slabs of meat for you. The main dishes are: beef tenderloin (a treasure - they won't serve this so often!), garlic beef, beef ribs, beef topside, chicken thigh, chicken breast wrapped with bacon, roasted pineapple (delicious!), roasted ham, chicken liver (my favourite), chicken hearts (not for the chicken-hearted), pork sausages, roasted lamb. It's all quite oily and sinful, but really delicious! For the quality and amount of food that you can get, $42 is definitely worth it.

V's verdict: 9/10

Suki Sushi

30th November, Monday

The outlet at Hougang Plaza, some ulu and run-down place near Hougang MRT. This was the only outlet that serves buffet during dinner, and since my cousins wanted buffet, we came here.

Well, the food is pretty horrible. Everything was of such low quality that I was a bit concerned whether I would get food poisoning after eating or not. The sashimi were all not fresh, and nothing really caught my attention.

Never coming here again. Never.

V's verdict: 4/10
K's verdict: 6.5/10

Palm's Asian Brasserie

25th September, Friday

Located at Copthorne Orchid Hotel (214 Dunearn Road). Decided to give their buffet breakfast a try; anyway my mother had the a la carte card which gives 50% discount for 2 pax.

One word - disappointing. Practically nothing was good, and they don't even serve normal fried eggs - only scrambled eggs (which wasn't really good either). Only the ham and sausages were still arguably acceptable. Their prata was soggy, and I didn't like the gravy they gave, so that was a thumbs down as well.

V's verdict: 4/10

Plaza Market Cafe

24th August, Monday

Apparently they just changed their buffet spread... along with their prices. The price was reduced, but the discount from the Feed at Raffles card was also reduced to 25% for 2 people. My guess is that too many people have the Feed at Raffles card, so they are now trying to balance and find a compromise between normal customers and AMEX customers.

The salmon sashimi was still okay. The other more commendable dishes were their laksa, sambal kang kong, durian pengat, and ice cream (especially yam). The following were average - stir fried pork, stir fried beef, crab meat soup, winter melon soup, and long beans with lemak.

And the remaining dishes sucked - fried hokkien mee and fish & meat ball soup. The latter was so bland that my first thought was, "did he give me the water used to cook the noodles as soup?" It's basically hot water! They had 2 hot desserts which were not hot at all, and were all stuck together.

Disappointed. Even with the 25% discount (around $51 for 2 pax) it was still totally not worth it. Heck, it's still not worth it even with 50% discount.

V's verdict: 5/10

Princess Terrace Cafe

16th August, Sunday

Well known for their Penang hawker fare, this cafe is located at Copthorne King's Hotel, at Havelock Road.

I must say I haven't had such a great buffet in ages. People may think that "hawker fare" is cheap stuff and not worth the $38++, but I have to say that their food is really fantastic! The stuff that really caught my attention was their prawn mee (the soup was so strong and delicious; K said that this is the real Penang prawn mee), herbal duck thigh soup, deep fried crab, and fried kway teow. Other good dishes include their otak otak, braised pork, and pig stomach soup.

Penang laksa was something I have disliked for years. K tried their Penang laksa and said it was good, only a bit below Penang's standards. I tried a sip and actually found it quite... edible!

There was BBQ stingray too, which K liked but I found it a bit too sweet and not hot enough. For desserts, the only thing that caught my attention was ice kachang, since they don't serve ice cream. But ice kachang was a welcome change, so I was all right with it.

I thought that the days of stuffing myself with food beyond a certain level of comfort were over (around 7 years ago?). But I found myself trying to eat more even though I was full, because the food was simply too delicious. I forced myself to down one last bowl of prawn mee so that I won't regret it later. And I am glad I did.

V's verdict: 9/10
K's verdict: 8.5/10

The Global Kitchen

5th August, Wednesday

A buffet restaurant at the 3rd floor of Pan Pacific Hotel.

The food there was not bad, especially their meats. Their roast chicken and duck were quite good for a buffet restaurant, and their sausages were fantastic!

They had a Japanese corner, but a pity they didn't serve sashimi. There was sushi and tempura (prawn, lady's finger, mushroom) and some other stuff, which were decent. Oh, the teriyaki beef was good!

Desserts lacked variety, but there's ice cream so it's enough for me.

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 7.5/10

Equinox

20th July, Monday

Semi buffet style; one main course and buffet.

Char grilled beef onglet

I dunno what an "onglet" is. When I asked the waiter, he said it's a kind of beef cut. Yeah, like that helps. Dictionary.com referred me to hanger steak, and the definition is:

"a cut of beef similar to flank or skirt steak in texture and rib-eye in flavor and from the diaphragm that hangs between the last rib and the loin; also called hanging tender, butcher's steak, [butcher's tenderloin], onglet"

The beef lacked a bit of the natural flavour, so it was only average. It was done just nice; not too cooked and not too raw, so that managed to save it some marks. I didn't mind it being a bit more rare, though.

As for the buffet, they shifted the foie gras into the kitchen, so you have to order from the waiter instead of queuing and asking the chef to fry it. They said it was because of the smell. True enough, the smell of pan fried foie gras is very strong and fills up the whole place.

The foie gras wasn't too good today. It wasn't juicy enough; perhaps it was a tad overdone? But the oysters and crab were excellent! I seldom see such fat and fresh oysters in Singapore. Their parsnip soup was not bad.

Salmon sashimi wasn't as good as before, but still decent. For dessert I mainly had ice cream, so I was pretty contented. $59

V's verdict:
6.5/10 (beef)
7/10 (buffet)

Town Restaurant

3rd July, Friday

Had a business lunch here, so I didn't have to pay a single cent. It serves buffet, but as it was a business lunch, I didn't get to eat as much as I wanted. So everytime we left the table, I made sure my plate was full.

For one thing, they didn't serve soup and sashimi. I was surprised; which buffet restaurants don't serve these now? But their oysters and mussels were fresh, and their salads were quite good. The roast beef and lamb were decent.

For desserts, I tried their oreo chocolate cake, cheese cake, mango pudding, and some other weird dessert in a small glass. All were decent; nothing special.

V's verdict: 6/10

The Buffet

26th June, Friday

A buffet restaurant at M Hotel. They serve international buffets during lunchtime, but for dinner, they serve steamboat buffet. Came here today with my colleagues for lunch.

The octopus sashimi was quite good, and I love octopus sashimi especially. It's not that commonly served in buffet restaurants, unlike salmon sashimi. The lamb steaks were quite good too, and my colleagues liked the corn chowder a lot. They didn't try the oxtail, but I thought it was not bad too.

There was tempura too, which was quite good. Only the chicken cutlet was horribly dry.

They offered durian pengat (excellent!) and ice cream cream for desserts, so that bought me over immediately. Heh.

Overall, it was quite good. Variety was bit lacking though. $36

V's verdict: 7.5/10

Cafe Brio's

22nd June, Monday

A buffet restaurant at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. Brought K and my cousins here for dinner. I have been here many times, and the food has been quite good most of the time.

The roasted sirloin steak was quite good. In fact, I even asked the chef to slice off a piece of fat (slightly burned and crispy) on top of the beef for me. And the person behind me also requested for the same thing. -.- But the fat was absolutely delicious (and sinful)!

The salmon sashimi was good too. I think my cousins ate 2 full plates combined. Oh man. The mackeral sashimi was good too, but none of them could appreciate it.

They had a beef noodle soup, but I thought the soup didn't taste natural enough. Pacific dory fish was average, paella was dry and quite tasteless, cream of pumpkin soup tasted more of cream rather than pumpkin. The black chicken soup was okay though. Basically, I just kept on going for the sashimi and sirloin steak. And ice cream, of course. I can never resist ice cream. $46

V's verdict: 7.5/10

Straits Kitchen

17th June, Wednesday

A buffet restaurant at Grand Hyatt Hotel. From how it is always fully booked, even on weekdays, you can see how popular it is. And one more thing --- it costs more than $50 per person, after GST and service charge. For just local food! No sashimi or other expensive stuff.

But their food was excellent. Of special mention is the fried rice, fried kway teow, and fried carrot cake. All were great and were much better than the hawker centres I have tried. And their Indian food was good too --- their tandoori chicken, curry mutton, and another chicken. Prawn noodles and roasted duck were also quite good too. But their laksa was disappointing; the gravy was too thin.

Other stuff were decent, like their satay and grilled chicken wings. Nothing special. The otak wasn't good though. Desserts were also not very good; I tried one innocent mango-pudding-like dessert and always spat it out. Upon enquiry, I realised that is Indian Rice Pudding Soup. It tasted icky!

But buffets serve such a huge variety of food, and Straits Kitchen serves an even larger variety compared to other buffet restaurants. So it wouldn't be reasonable to rate all their food. In fact, it is sufficient just to have a few good dishes. Not everything has to taste excellent.

V's verdict: 8/10

Orchard Cafe

25th April, Saturday

Located at Orchard Hotel, ground floor. The food has been pretty good consistently, but the last time I went with my parents, it was very disappointing. Tried it again with K today.



(Sorry for the lousy picture!)

Sashimi didn't taste as fresh as before. Their pork with mushrooms and sea cucumber was lousy, but their braised pork (in black gravy) was excellent, much better than the one we had at 一家村. Prawn mee was average only, laksa was all right. Their bbq meat corner was much better than last time, especially the chicken and beef. The lamb was too tough though.

They served pig innards too, and it tasted quite good, surprisingly! The drunken prawns were fresh, but the herbal soup tasted diluted compared to last time. Their ice cream, as usual, was half melted and tasted more like fudge.

I was using a discount card, so the buffet cost us $54 in total. Without the discount card, I wouldn't have come.

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 7/10