Cafebiz

After reading rave reviews on Cafebiz from blogs and food reviews website, I decided to go for the buffet lunch on a Friday, coinciding with my birthday.

Seafood station: Pretty sad really. Prawns and mussels for seafood and they aren't big ones. No sashami, only sushi. And they mostly replenish the cucumber and corn sushi, replenishing the seafood sushi in much longer intervals.

Hot food: The indian variation was pretty good and true to authentic Indian food. The so-called Japanese pizza is basically pizza skin with mayo. Wonder how does mayo pizza relates to Japanese? Maybe I'm missing some connection. The rest weren't very memorable.

Desserts: Must try - Durian Cake. Was really surprised at how good it is after the disappointing range with the seafood and hot food station. Light and the durian taste is not overwhelming. Just the right combination of sponge cake and durian paste. Others include the typical chocolate fondue and chocolate cakes. Their pulut hitam has mandarin orange skin which can be favorable to some.

We actually quoted Hungrygowhere while making reservations so got the one for one promotion. Note that you need to present a safra card with the promotion though which I don't think is stated here. If we didn't have the promotion, I would be really disappointed then but since I had, I am just a little disappointed.

Loved the 1-for-1 for safra members. But you have to make a reservation earlier and tell them you are a safra member to enjoy the promo.

Went there because didnt want to miss the 1-for-1 promo and saw most of the reviews about this restaurant were good. Indeed its good.

The first thing to try is definitely the sashimi (shrimp and salmon). Very fresh and tasty. There is a large selection of raw food, oyster and other fishes too. Should have skipped the stewed food as I'm not a big eater, they are not bad but not worth the stomach space and calories since I wasnt very hungry that night.

There is a section where they cut and serve me their roasted duck and other meat on the spot, which is ok to try but then again, its just normal. Later in the evening, the waiter walk around to serve me the BBQ meat and I cant help but to keep asking for more, the meat is tender and well-marinated with spice/herb.

Dessert and cakes were GREAT! Especially if you love fondue (they use very thick and dark chocolate) and there is a variety of cakes!   :)

The only upset I had was that I asked for the table to be near the salmon and shrimp sashimi area through the phone reservation 2 times when I first called and on the day of visit, and a 3rd time of reminder while I was there on the day itself (while it was still early and most tables were empty)...the waiter still led me to a table at the corner of the place, far away from the action. I had to walk all the way to the front and request for a change before they finally help me shift my drinks etc to a nearer table. But during the meal, their service level was ok, they cleared my used plates for me rather quickly as they were quite observant.

Overall, the meal was great, especially with 1-for-1 promo which makes it worth the money as well.

Came here for the buffet dinner on 9 Jan 10. It has been 1 year exactly since my last visit here. To my surprise, the cafe was full house and they had to even turn down many people who walked in (without making reservations).

Generally, it was a pleasant and enjoyable dining experience and the cafe manages to maintain its consistency in terms of quality and spread of food (though there are areas for improvements which I will discuss them later). Many things remained unchanged.

The sections remained unchanged included the salad bar, Japanese food (which I didn't try as based on past experience, the cafe's sushi maki and salmon were not fantastic as my friend tried and made the same comment), seafood (where they served fresh big oysters, clams, scallops, mussells, tiger prawns and lobsters), bread and soup (also with 1-2 types of pizza, dim sum and kuehs), dessert (various pastries, desserts, fruits, ice creams and waffles). The durian panget was nice too, thick and strongly flavoured. Besides the cut fruits (watermelon, papaya, honey dew and dragon fruit), you could also grab a whole kiwi fruit, chinese pear, orange, fuji apple and longans to go with it or made your own rojak!

The main course and live cooking sections, though similar in the setup, offered different types of dishes. Among which, the roast duck and chicken were food. Others like roti prate and laksa were ok though not fanstatic, baked oysters (good), stewed beef (ok), seafood pasta (ok), seafood fried rice (ok), chaw kueh teow (forget it), laksa crab (interesting but strange way of cooking and if it would be chilli or black pepper, it would be very good), potato wedges, mussells in black pepper sauce, fried little kailan (good), seafood soup (good).

When the laksa crabs were depleted, it was replace with tempura prawns and chicken cutlet, which were quite well done too!

In addition, a chef would also walk around, cutting you extra prepared food which included honey grilled chicken wings, sausages, grilled beef and honey pineapple.

Generally the standard and quality of food were good and the seafood were fresh too.

Areas of improvements? Yes, a few areas.

Services. We felt the cafe were short-handed despite of a full turn out. Our used plates were not cleared promptly nor our ice water refilled without a 2nd or 3rd reminders. Then it would take them quite a long time to response to our request. In addition, for diners who had left, their tables were uncleared until quite a long time later before someone came to do so. Perhaps they could increase their manpower if the cafe is fully booked. Nonetheless, staff were polite and did apologize for their slow or service lapses.

The chef who walked around to cut you additional food did not follow a fix pattern and sometimes when he came to our section, the food would have already depleted (which means we could not taste it) and when he came back with the food again, he did not start from where he stopped and started from the other side of the cafe. We had missed a few of these dishes.

In addition, although the chefs did replenish the seafood regularly, such as clams, oysters, scallops, they did not do so for the lobsters. In other words, if you have missed the lobsters initially on display, you will not have a 2nd chance to eat them anymore. In face, many people were "eyeing" for the lobsters and some even asked the chefs when they would be replenishing. They replied "later" but never did they do so at all. Perhaps they should prepare more to meet the demands or have someone there to allocate 1 or 2 lobsters per diner to ensure everyone (or those who came later) would be able to enjoy it.

Other than these, our dinning experiences here were fine as we were once again indulged in the nicely and bright ambience with nice soft music! We did enjoy it~

Below is a guest reviewer for Cafebiz because he's too lazy to set up an acct! Read and enjoy :)

"Fully booked restaurants due to the upcoming festivities saw my friends and I dining at Cafebiz on a Monday evening. UOB creditcard holders gets 15% off the total bill, so we thought it wasn't that bad a deal.

Cafebiz is situated right at the lobby of Trader's hotel and it is fairly spacious. There was adequate space to move around. The place was also nicely decorated in time for Christmas, which provided quite a comfortable ambience for diners.

There were 5 stations of food- Salads, Japanese & Fruits, Seafood, Cooked food and Desserts.

The salad bar was mediocre- simple and basic fare like potato salad and mixed greens could be found there. If I recall correctly there were around 6- 8 different salads available. At the salad bar I noticed that several food labels were missing, and this problem was inherent at the other stations too. The food labels were either missing, or placed inaccurately. Back to the salads- the potato salad was so-so, but do give the mussels salad (?? no label) a go, it was rather special.

The Japanese station had assorted sushis and only 1 kind of sashimi- sake. The sushis here were really subpar. The rice was too hard and dry, and there was too much rice compared to the amount of ingredient. The rice was also tasteless and it felt like they added too little vinegar. I did not try the sake sashimi but it looked fresh and the cuts were reasonably thick. However, I definitely feel that they should have a wider variety of sashimi for diners.

Seafood section was a pleasant surprise. The oysters were large, fresh and juicy. My only gripe here was that they didn't refill the lemon slices for quite some time. There were also scallops, mussels, and prawns, and they were passable. Had a few rounds of the oysters.

Moving on to the cooked food.
I thoroughly enjoyed the kueh pie tee. The ingredients were laid out for us to choose and customise what we want for our own kueh pie tee. The chilli was tasty enough and added flavour. Next to the kueh pie tee diy counter was a small section for deep fried finger food and dim sum. Once again food labels were missing. Nothing fantastic there, although the fried cheese (??) was quite good. There was also the soup station which had 2 soups- a Chinese one (didn't notice it) and Cream of Broccoli. I really liked the latter as it was creamy enough yet it doesn't overpower the taste of the broccoli. Some of the other items at the cooked food area that I tried were-

Assorted Meat served by the chefs walking around with skewers (something like Churrasco). The beef was tough and overcooked, but the mutton was very tender and flavorful. Didn't try the barbecued pineapples but my friend said that it was juicy enough.

Pasta in cream sauce with turkey meat (didn't take a good look at the label) - Definitely one of the better dish that night, the sauce was fragrant and of the right consistency. The pasta was al dente and not overcooked.

The beef and mutton that were at the stations itself weren't as nice as the ones served Churrasco style. The mutton had a very notable 'yang shao wei', whatever that is in English.

Mashed potato with mushroom was quite decent, but a tad too dry for my liking.

The dory was passable, but slightly overcooked. The sauce was tangy and tasty though.

The turkey that they served that night was the best item, it was succulent and not too dry like other turkey meat.

There were more cooked food but I didn't continue to try them as I wanted to save the space for the desserts which looked quite promising.

Desserts section- Chocolate fondue, various cakes, christmas cookies, longan and almond pudding, ice cream and waffles were some of the desserts that they offered. The desserts were so-so, nothing to shout about. Notable items were those served in the shot glasses, and the fondue's chocolate wasn't too sweet which is good. The waffles we had were below average- they were too soft and chewy for my liking. It was also too heavy and didn't go well with the ice cream.

There is definitely room for improvement with regards to the service here. Plates weren't cleared fast enough and our glasses of ice water weren't refilled promptly. As mentioned before, food labels were missing or placed inaccurately. However, the waiters were friendly and served with a smile, and we could tell that they were trying their best.

Conclusion- A nice place to probably chill with a cup of tea from their ala carte menu (if they have one, I'm not sure) but I don't think I'll be back for the buffet dinner."

Went to Cafebiz for a Tuesday dinner. Restaurant is about 1/3 filled nia so not so noisy. But table is abit too close too one another.


Seafood
Oysters werent really fresh, smelled and tasty fishy.
Sashimi still ok, but only salmon.
Prawns were huge and fresh
Scallap quite ok.
Have some other clams/shell types but din try.
About 5 types sushi.


Appetisers
Quite a varieties of fresh vegetables.
Cucumber salad, mixed beef salad taste normal.
Have smoked salmon.
Carousel serves the best appetisers IMO.


Cooked food
Softshell crabs is nice though a bit to flourgy.
Hainanese pork chop is nice.
Kuey Pie Tee is not bad.
Have roasted pork and Meat
Live pasta station
Beef a bit tough
Pizza quite ok
Tomyam fish is tough and soup is diluted.
Cream of soup is nice
Grilled meat is quite ok, but quite tasteless as little seasoning.


Many ordinary stuffs like oven baked potatoes, xiao bai cai, cabbage, mee tai bak, samosir, baked beans (which look like kechang puteh), nasi lemak rice with ikan billies etc which I din try.


Desserts
Cakes std are good and comparable with The Line. Glass shooters looks ordinary, 1 or 2 taste ok the rest were super ordinary .


The variety of food is quite little for a dinner bufffet and half of the items offered were rather common hawker stuffs, hence we skipped many items. I have birthday discount so it is still quite worth for me. But I will not consider if there is no discount or only 30% discount as it is not worth it.


I have to comment that the staffs service were very good and prompt.

Had brunch at Cafebiz today with my friends. Made the decision to come here after reading a few reviews about it and SAFRA has a 1 for 1 promotion going on. Their usual price is $45 for Weekend Brunch Buffet : 12pm - 4pm.

Cafebiz is located at the lobby of Traders Hotel. The ambience is not that great and the view outside is not interesting. The place is kind of dark, more light would have been better. The interior decoration has a contemporary Asian feel to it, dominated by hues of red and black.

First we started off with the cold seafood. I love the prawns and oysters. The seafood were very fresh. As the place gets more crowded, the oysters be emptied more swiftly by other diners.

They also have muesli which my friend thought was quite good as well. I like the Rojak station, you can actually make your own rojak.

Moving on to the other dishes, they also have Lobster Bisque which I find it too heavy for me. They have a selection of breads as well and a toaster for you to toast your bread before consuming them. The bread station has a few pastries too and they have garlic butter as a condiment there.

They have quite a few DIY stations. The Popiah Cups are quite good, you can play around with a number of ingredients like nuts, prawns, popiah fillings, sweet sauce etc.

They also have the Hainanese Chicken Rice DIY station, you can decide how much seasoning you want for the chicken, more seasame oil sauce etc. However, the chicken is not as good as the one I had at the Carousel.

I didn't really try the Japanese station. The Sashimi seem to be a hot favourite here.

They also have pizzas here, which are quite good. Well baked and savoury.

For the main course, they have Chicken Chasseur which is like Chicken Chops with some kind of brown sauce. It was really delicious. I can't resist having a few more servings of that. I also like the Pasta with Sausage, it is cooked in Aglio Olio style. The roasted garlic with pepper makes every mouthful of that pasta a joy. It is better than the one I had at the Carousel.

They also serve these roasted potatoes with herbs, another hot favourite among the diners there. Crispy, fragrant with a hint of sweetness.

The Hong Kong cod fillet is quite okay too but some of the fillets were overcooked. The sauce goes very well with the fillet.

As for the desserts. The waffles are a must try. They also have excellent bread pudding. I had the Praline Cake which is quite good, not too sweet and it combines the smooth creamy texture of a cake with the crunchiness of a chocolate wafer. The White Chocolate Mousse taste kind of weird. The Mango Pudding is quite nice too, its quite rich. The Macarons are another must try.

As for drinks, they have a free flow of fruit juices including watermelon, orange and tomato juice.

A unique feature about Cafebiz is that they have these chefs serving meat around. They have BBQ chicken drum sticks, chicken wings, Honey Baked Ham, Grilled Pineapples. All of them never disappoint us. Each serving we got was a delightful one.

All these while, the staff were quick to refill our drinks and clear our plates but they missed out on smaller bowls like the soba bowls if you place it in the middle. Overall, they staff has a friendly attitude including the chefs that serve us.

Came to Cafebiz for the buffet lunch with my wife for a post-salary celebration after seeing the generally good reviews here, and must say that the buffet lunch fell short of our expectations.

Firstly, the spread wasn't very big, consisting of mini stations of
1) Salads
2) Cold dishes
3) Japanese and seafood section
4) Cooked dishes
5) Desserts

Most of the stations had 8 - 10 types of very similar foods, with the Desserts and Cooked foods Sections having the widest variety.

1) Salads were quite enjoyable with the large number of dressings available, but no one really goes to a buffet for salads.

2) The star in the cold food section would be the scallops in salmon flakes. Other perennial favourites like smoked salmon were also present, but no sashimi and oysters here.

3) Japanese and seafood section consisted of Japanese cold noodles, sushi, cold prawns, and mussels and some other miscellaneous items. Despite being the station with the most promise, the sushi tasted rather dry (having been put out there for some time), and mussels were flaky and powdery. The prawns, however, were succulent and fresh.

4) The cooked dishes section was probably the most comprehensive in the buffet, with wide selections of seafood and poultry. However, the only dishes we found ourselves taking seconds (and thirds) of were the ones with prawns in them, mainly because the prawns were really fresh and perfect.

5) Desserts were quite ok, with a good range of fruits, cakes, puddings and so on. Some of the desserts were rather sweet, but if they weren't sweet, they wouldn't be called desserts. Tip: Call for coffee.

There was also a kueh pie-tie, chicken rice and soup/bread counter, and the wife commented that the pie-tie was very nice. I found the potato-mushroom puree a little powdery (most likely because of the potato puree).

The service was attentive for the most part, and the waitresses were friendly and accomodating. The only gripe we have is that while trying to order coffee (we weren't sure if we could just approach the counter as no one else did), we had quite a difficult time catching someone to talk to. We also encountered the same problem when trying to get the bill, probably because it was lunch hour and the wait-staff were busy clearing tables. We weren't in much of a hurry, so this didn't trouble us.

The SAFRA card now offers a 1-for-1 deal, and our entire bill came to around $41 for 2 persons.

Based on the range of foods available and the quality of some items, we're not quite sure if we'd make a return to the restaurant for lunch, considering the overall standard is quite poor for $41 per person. For $41 per person, we could afford dinner buffets with much wider ranges. We're not quite sure we'd try it again even with the 1-for-1, too.

However, we hear good things about the dinner buffet, and would likely give it a try first before making our final decision.

my review might come abit late but still i would like to leave some good note that i feel about cafebiz at traders hotel.

went down for lunch as we know that they are offering 1-for-1 lunch buffet.

we were there right from the start till the end. =))))))
12-2.30 pm.

food was not bad.
there was quite a handful of variety for us to choose and I like the widespread of desserts as well.
& special mention will be that i love the kuey pai di!!

just a small disappointment which is there is no sashimi

service was good as used dishes were promptly cleared and nice ambienece as it wasn't very crowded

however, dont think we will go back there if there is no 1-for-1 offer during lunch as it will cost around $80 for 2 which i dont think is worth it.

Went to Cafe Biz with 5 others last night with high expectation of the place after reading the reviews on this site and recommendations from friends. Was rather disappointed as our dinner was spoilt by some inconsiderate diners and the poor services which left us thinking if we were actually treated like 2nd class citizen.

Upon arrival, we were arrange to be sitted near the counter with the Indian Tandoori and the roasted meat. The seat allocated was good as there was sufficient room for me to put my baby daughter's stroller. After 15 minutes into our meal, we were informed by the staff that they need us to change our table as the table we were seated at was already reserved for a larger group. This request alone caught me by surprise. Why on earth seat us in a seat that is already reserved? Not wanting to make a big fuss of of the whole issue, we agreed to change our table. 6 of us end up like part time waiter moving our barang barang, from one end of the hall to the other, right before the exit to the toilet, in front of the bar counter. Consequentially, my baby's stroller have to be place in the middle of nowhere, and as a result we have to carry our baby girl when we eat as we are afraid that diners or waiters moving around may bump into the stroller.

It takes us a while to notice that we have actually got the worst seat in the house. We were the very las table. The "Carnivore" style churraso meats that were served by the chef almost nearly not made it to our table every single round. When it does, there is not enough for everyone. Among the dishes not served to us were the chicken wings and drumlet and the honey-baked ham. These were the popular dishes i suppose. Not too sure what other popular dishes we missed though. Only those probably "not so popular" meat came to us, of which they are not popular with us either, for religious reason. When the sausages came to us, there was like 2 left for the 6 of us. When we told the chef we need 6, he asked us to wait, but end up it never came.

To give credit where it is due, the quality of the food was good and the variety really impressive. However, I believe our evening and many of the other diners would have been spoilt by this group of inconsiderate diners, who arriving early filled up 2 plateful of lobster (literaaly filled up 100% with ALL the lobster's body, less the pincher) and left the counter with only the lobster's pincher. The chef does not seen willing to replenish the lobster until all the pincher have been taken. I do not begrudge the management for that as its probably their cost consideration. But probably a better way of allocating these food type which they have cost consideration will ensure that we get to enjoy the same kind of food these other diners enjoyed, given that I did not pay any lesser than they do.

The dessert counter of "Shangri-la" fame is brilliant with the variety impressive. My only draw-back will be the durian paste which taste sour and stale. I would not say it's bad, as probably other ingredient might have been added to the durian paste. One man' meat might be another's poison, so I just say that did not really suit my taste.

All in all, not a good dining experience for me at the Cafe, as the service offered leave alot to be desired. Definitely not what I expected

from an awesome lunch at traders' hotel. a GREAT pity that i did not bring my camera out today, else i would have tortured you with photos of delectable delights such as the smoked salmon salad, crushed potatoes with __ mushrooms - which honestly are the best 'mashed' potatoes i have eaten in my entire life, they were that buttery and good, as well as the pan-seared fish fillet in __ peppermint sauce which was so freakin awesome it felt like they added some kind of amazing chemical to make you want to eat more and more and more?!?! one of the best damn cooked fish meats i'd eaten, ever. i'd say the spread's better than the ritz, because at the ritz you have some really bad main meals i.e. pasta that tastes like stale worms, though to be honest i didn't try the pasta at cafebiz today. i can tell their mains are good though, the little bit i took of lamb leg with rosemary was to die for.

note though that their lunch offerings for japanese and seafood are more limited than dinner. when i went yesterday there were only small mussels, prawns, and a sushi bar. the seafood was FANTASTIC, though, better than the ritz (sorry to say). they also have chinese food like kueh pie ti/ chicken rice/ fresh made noodles/ some dim sum, indian food and baguette with garlic spread that looked really good. desserts were sufficient for my purposes.

DEFINITELY GOING BACK THERE MAN