As a group of 11, we were impressed with the wide spread of dishes laid out (and continual replenishment) for an Asian buffet.   Don’t typically have high expectations of food freshness and quality at a buffet (especially marketed as an Asian one) but I would say the food I had was decent though I am fencing on a hit-and-miss on some.   Misses: dim sum (i.e. yam cake, har gow, chicken siew mai – being a halal restaurant) Hits: Clams, Salad bar, fried rice, sashimi (not the freshest, but kudos on the continual replenishment), durian puree   Now for the following 2 bad experiences one after another: 1)      Bill payment – we were aware of the AMEX/DBS promo (15% off for max 8 diners) which was why we decided to give this place a shot. We were not told upfront of the caveat that promotion is applicable per reservation and hence unable to split the bill into 2. Fine, I accept that the restaurant R&R/policies go by the book in all true local culture. Bill came out to ~80 per pax, and honestly I rather top up a little more and head to The Line at Shangri-La for the same if not better buffet spread and good service. 2)      Poor attitude of restaurant manager (Shankar) – for a restaurant in a 5-star hotel, I would expect much better service and attentiveness to customers rather than some mickey mouse attitude rendered by the restaurant manager. To be fair the service staff (i.e. waitresses/waiters) displayed humility which in my opinion is very important in service industry and enhances the overall experience. After the boo-boo and slight commotion from the bill payment, we asked for the birthday cake to be brought out along with some side plates. We were then served with styrofoam plates and plastic forks - SERIOUSLY??!!! That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Forget all the talk of being environmental friendly, was it difficult to extend courtesy to an already irritated group of customers by serving up proper glass/pyrex plates which you already serve at the restaurant? Not sure for the rest, but sure was humiliating to be served with disposable ware. Confronted the restaurant manager to be given proper ware, he failed to properly address/acknowledge the issue (customer service 101!!) and replied with – “I went to this movie screening….”. I had to interrupt him because I was not going to hear his experience which I suspect is related on the same account and probably inspired his attitude. I do know that service line is tough and sure hope service staff especially if you face off directly with the customers are taught the basics on handling customers. In this case, the restaurant manager could have acknowledged the issue, apologized before going on with his movie screening explanation though I would still think is a weak explanation. Give a better reason, mate. Pushing the blame onto other establishments just do not cut out.    

Lets just say the least, the place is a waste of MONEY! 40 bucks for Hi Tea can get you a really decent meal elsewhere. Never mind the food, the service was ok with only 2 staff. Replenishing was excruciatingly slow and not forgetting the best part of all, you will leave the place smelling like a you are stuck in a badly ventilated kopitiam. But those are just minor as compared to the what comes with the bill. I was told that with Amex or DBS cards, comes with a 15% discount for maximum of 8 person. During reservation, I was not told that each reservation can only be billed in one card. So with 15 person, they refused to help me to split the bill into 2. And apparently it will be allowed if you have told them earlier that you will be billing into 2 cards. I have never come across any staff who is so unwilling to make at least the customer come back again. So my very honest verdict, please don't even waste time and money. The food is bad, the ambience is crap and best of all service staff who has no initiative.   

One of those days where my ugly side was shown. The first part of this review is about my complaints. So be prepared.

After hearing a positive review from one of my friends, my partner and I decided to try this place out. Since we didn't make any reservations, we had to wait about half an hour...which we did.

Whatever eager anticipation we had before reaching the place quickly died down after our first trip to the buffet spread. We found that 4 dishes had run out and none of the chefs seemed to be preparing replenishments. The grills and stoves just behind the buffet counter was emptier than my plate. So I walked on, only to find a queue of at least 4 diners waiting for one chef to carve out some chicken kebab (and yes, the kebab looked like it was finishing very soon).

Not wanting to commit my appetite without further exploration, I walked on to the other counters. I chanced upon the laksa counter and couldn't find any staff to help me out. I couldn't find the noodles so I moved on to the prata counter. After deciding that empty flour wouldn't be my first course, so I moved straight to the cold food counter.

I picked a couple of oysters, rounded back to the main courses and grabbed some teriyaki chicken, mutton mysore and some chicken kebab. Starting with the oysters, I found the first one lightly seasoned with sand and accompanied by some shell fragments. Brilliant stuff! I flagged the manager who was unfortunate enough to be nearby.

I immediately landed a barrage of complaints, gesturing almost wildly about the empty dishes, lack of replenishments and dangerous oysters. The manager, just like the buffet spread, looked very sorry. So he immediately asked what I wanted to have and had the dishes prepared fresh and delivered to my table.

After a few minutes, my table was filled with the requested dishes. All of them piping hot, and ready for me to devour. So I did...but stopped short for almost every dish. Things like the chicken, sashimi, kebab, prata, oyster omelette, chili crab, beef, mutton mysore, satay, grilled prawns and so on were at the most...forgettable.

The only dishes worth remembering included laksa and...well, I liked the juices too. Waterchestnut juice was pretty good. Guess that was their signature dish for the buffet.

We moved on to dessert pretty quickly and had some ice-cream, a couple of cakes and some self-made chendol. These weren't too bad but definitely not worth the price.

I want to go on but retelling this catastrophe is causing my blood to boil and a blood vessel might be close to rupturing. So I'll stop here.

On the overall...dissatisfying and anger-triggering.