The big thing now in buffets? Themed all-you-can-eat affairs where the menu is more compact but no less bountiful or satisfying. They’re also usually cheaper than their all-encompassing counterparts too. If anything, it’s better value for customers because the spread is better curated and you’re not paying extra for food you’re gonna skip anyway.
The Carvery, level 7 Park Hotel Alexandra, 323 Alexandra Road, tel: 6828-8880.
Dinners only, 6.30-10pm daily, until Oct 22. $78/adult and $42/child (under five years) from Sun-Thu; $88/adult and $48/child on Fri & Sat.
Great beef and affordability aren’t often uttered in the same breath, which makes The Great Meat Feast an unbelievably good proposition for beef lovers.
Think about it: It’s your chance to treat yourself (never mind the cholesterol for the night) to a degustation of five great cuts of beef, including full-blood wagyu beef from the Mayura Station ranch, and rice plant-fed Aomori beef from Japan.
And this all-you-can-eat affair is incredibly wallet-friendly too, starting at $78 per adult for weeknight dinners.
The highlights are the three choices of grain-fed and two choices of grass-fed beef, prepared with a simple marinade before roasting to allow customers to fully appreciate the natural taste of the beef.
- Mayura Station full-blood wagyu (Australia) ─ Because the cattle is fed chocolate and grains for a minimum of 500 days, the flavours are incredibly buttery and fatty, with a very pronounced beefy character.
- Cape Grim farm (Tasmania) – Cape Grim is considered one of the places in the world with the cleanest air. It was a pleasant surprise that, when taken side by side with the other meats, we could indeed discern that the Cape Grim beef had a remarkably pristine taste profile with slight floral nuances.
- Zebu (Brazil) – The Zebu species is unique for its characteristic hump, and it’s especially popular at churrascarias in Brasil. Chef prepares this hump with a secret herb blend to mitigate the strong taste of the beef. Don’t be fooled by the “dry” outlook ─ the meat is surprisingly tender!
- Black Angus (USA) – Chef usually uses Black Angus for his prime ribs, smoked with hickory wood and served with housemade Yorkshire puddings, so you’re in for a real treat!
- Aomori rice-fed beef (Japan) – With a diet of mountain spring water and whole rice plants (the straw as well as the grains), it’s little surprise that Aomori beef is highly sought-after in Japan. It’s got a wallop of beefy flavour, but there’s also an unexpected fruity sweetness you’ll want to slowly savour.
To go with the specialty meats, there is also house-made anchovy butter and truffle butter, as well as a gorgeous selection of gourmet salts (black lava salt and chilli-infused salt, for instance) at the carving station.
And of course, there’s still a full buffet spread in addition to the meats, including chilled seafoods like fresh oysters, clams and mussels. The Carvery is notable for the vibrant flavours on its hot buffet line, so you should definitely look out for dishes like braised purple cabbage, fennel and orange rice and seafood bouillabaisse.
The classic English trifle steals the limelight from the dessert spread, but we would also highly recommend you end things off with a sweet nightcap: the St Francis Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 ($18 a glass). We were gobsmacked to discover that this medium-bodied red wine had a deep, chocolatey profile, which makes it just perfect for dessert!
Four Points Eatery, Lobby level, Four Points by Sheraton Singapore, Riverivew, 382 Havelock Road, tel: 6732-9922.
Sundays only, noon-3pm. $52/adult and $26/child.
The Sunday brunch at the revamped Four Points by Sheraton Singapore hotel (it took over the old Riverview Hotel) may just be the cheapest brunch buffet we’ve come across ─ it’s $52 per adult, and it comes with free flow of prosecco, moscato, and soft drinks.
We were in such disbelief we had to clarify the info several times, but yep, it’s a third of what you may at most hotels, and even alcohol is included!
Since the restaurant, Four Points Eatery is branded as a seafood-themed concept, it only follows that this Sunday brunch is all about a seafood extravaganza.
Naturally, there’s a cold seafood showcase with snow crabs, prawns, crabs, mussels, scallops and freshly shucked oysters; and there’s sashimi too, where your choice of salmon, white tuna, tuna and tako (octopus) will be sliced upon request.
What will definitely get your parents and in-laws’ attention is the live Herbal Prawns station. Just look for the crowd of people waiting in anticipation for fresh prawns to be hauled out of the tank and quick poached in herbal stock.
The station is a real old-school buffet favourite, and it’s a great nostalgic (and tasty!) throwback to see it again.
Most of the hot buffet items follow close to the theme. If you like it simple, the grill section with choices like prawns, fish, squid, yabbies and stingray will be right up your alley. Other highlights include baked big head prawns with garlic, assam flower crabs, and grilled boston lobsters.
We say, prioritise the Asian over the Western-style dishes. The marinades and flavours for the Asian ones were always en pointe, but a handful of Western dishes just seemed rather flat and unremarkable. The housemade otah and all the curries were sublime, so definitely make a beeline for those.
For your meat-loving companions, the spread also throws up choices like tandoori lamb chops, oxtail osso bucco and satay ayam bakar.
At the dessert table too, Asian renditions like traditional kuehs make a showing alongside evergreens like bread and butter pudding, chocolate cakes and brownies, and ice cream. But if you’ve got to cut it down to just one dessert, make it the durian pengat ─ rich and luxurious, and even more decadent with the coconut ice cream.
Seasonal Tastes, Level 32 The Westin Singapore, 12 Marina View, Asia Square Tower 2, tel: 6922-6968.
Daily, 6-10pm. $68/adult from Sun-Thu; $82/adult on Fri & Sat. Free-flow of drinks available for a supplementary fee, from $15 for chilled juices and sodas; to $48 for prosecco, red and white house wines, Tiger draught beer and soft drinks.
Tip 1: Wear dark-coloured clothes that you (especially your arms) can move comfortably in.
Tip 2: Book a shoulder massage the next day, because you’ll be pretty tired from working your way through the crazy number of crab dishes.
There are easily at least six to eight crab dishes on the menu every evening, rotating through items like steamed crab with tomato sauce and house-made Italian sausages, deep-fried crab with salted egg yolk, wok-fried black pepper crab and more. It’s a lot to work through, but if you’re a true-blue crab lover, you definitely wouldn’t feel the evening’s complete if you didn’t try a lot of each of them.
Tip 3: Go early. You need time to work on the crustaceans, and there’s still the rest of the buffet to tackle. Plus, you’ll definitely want to snap several panorama shots and selfies with that gorgeous view of the Marina Bay waterfront.
While crabs are the ones in the spotlight, there is a whole load of other seafood to relish too. The chilled seafood section is brimming with crabs, scallops, prawns and oysters, and there’s also a selection of popular sashimi cuts.
Don’t write off the salads and cold appetisers section either, as there are some interesting finds such as tuna tartare, fruity seafood salads, gazpacho etc. For charcuterie fans, they’ve got quite a range of cured deli items too.
There is a live grilling station too, so you can pick out your favourite seafoods and meats ─ such as lobster, tiger prawns, calamari, lamb skewers, beef ─ and have the chefs give them the barbecue treatment.
It’s not all shellfish and no meat though, and the sumptuous selection at the carving station is proof of that: Think crispy roasted pork belly, bone-in pork loin, and roasted striploin.
There are just way too many temptations on the line, and we don’t know how you’ll do it, but we do recommend trying to fit space for both the cheese and dessert sections anyway ─ in particular, have the avocado gelato. The characteristic buttery flavour is there, but it’s lighter on the palate so you don’t have to worry about it being to jelak.