I'm not a big fan of buffets. It brings out the worst in people, especially Singaporeans.

So it was with some trepidation that I joined my friends at The Line for dinner. Some standard $68++ deal.

It was my first time at The Line and maybe going there on a Saturday was a bad move in itself. Driving was a nightmare coz there was a wedding and many insistent people decided they'd rather wait half an hour to move a car length than valet. Grrr...

We had reservations and were shown to our table by a well-spoken Pinoy lady. First impressions? MADNESS! Hardly any vacant seats, families by the truckloads and large parties (like us)...a veritable zoo!

The food spread is standard ho-hum. Nothing noteworthy. AT ALL. Sure, they had the usual seafood, Jap, Chinese, Indian, Italian, dessert fare...but everything tasted buffet-y, to coin a non-descript blah word to sum up the selection.

And honestly, what in blazers is the Singaporean obsession with oysters and prawns as a 'make it worth my while' at a buffet?? Advertising/marketing people should give themselves a pat coz along with conning Singaporeans into al fresco dining in HOT/HUMID Singapore, they have managed to up the appeal of tasteless food like oysters, mussels etc. I saw almost everyone piling their plates with oysters...many of them then loading the freaking things with tobasco sauce AND making eeky faces whenever they swallowed one then loading on more tobasco followed by more eeky faces. It looked like no one was really enjoying the seafood...BUT they just had to get their money's worth. The same could be said about the piling of ANY food, half eating it...bitching and moaning about it. Mannn, and WE make fun of PRCs being low-end!

K, here's the group's low down on the food.

1) No carvery...guess Singaporeans would have eaten Shang out of house and home if that had been included.
2) Indian fare was passable.
3) Chinese stuff, pretty standard...coffeeshops do it wayyy better. Tim sum also, so-so.
4) No yellow tail at Jap corner
5) Dessert, fancy and again the spread masks the ho-hum factor.

The only item that got sooome kudos (sparingly again I must add) was the satay and its peanut sauce.

Imagine, a so-called delectable spread and all we could kinda agree on was the satay. Sigh.

The service was a pretty good for a Saturday night. There were easily 10 big parties (one group was a noisy bunch of college kids celebrating someone's b'day - they get good pocket money ah, these kids!) and the glasses were refilled promptly, tea, coffee served quickly etc.

Despite that I'm definitely NEVER going back coz there's better food out there and certainly to be enjoyed while NOT being reminded of how Singaporeans have a looong way to go in the holy grail of graciousness.

What a grrr way to spend a Saturday night! I apologise for my first real negative review.

Btw, for fellow whiskey buffs, the lounge bar serves up a treat with even the 50-year Macallan on offer. $59 a peg though. Wallet ouch!