I'm not a buffet person, unless you're talking about Ma La Steamboat, but well, that's beside the point here. A friend of mine is currently working at Hilton and she can get 50% off the bill for buffet at the hotel, so dinner was arranged before I go on my short trip during X'mas.

What comes to our mind when we think of the words Herbs & Spice? Bingo! It's Italian herbs and India spice. The typical salad counters with the usual greens, mushrooms salad and thai mango salad. Indian counter that serve different kinds of curries, naans, pratas. Italian counter comes with lasagne, lamb pasta, sea bass fillet with herbs and orange sauce, stuffed chicken. Roasts Counter with roast beef and roast turkey. Strangely there's small corner that serve sashimi and satay and chinese herbal soup. Desserts counter was pretty decent; with petite pastries like macaroons, tarts and chocolate fudge cakes, there're also x'mas log cake and the hotel's famous cheesecakes.

Wine Buffet at $30 per pax

Buffet at $37 per pax

I got to enjoy all above at 50% off *wink*

Service was very good, even for their trainee. The Indian counter chef was really friendly, he specially made a cheese naan and send it to my table.

***Overall a nice dinner with friends, food quality were ok but I prefer the dessert counter most. Do note that Checkers Brasserie served different theme buffet everyday; do give them a call before heading down.

PS: I wouldn't recommend going for the wine buffet though. Opps :x

The restaurant has a different theme everyday, and on Friday, it is seafood night.

Very disappointing.

Well if you like your seafood cold, rather than chinese style (ala chilli crab), then maybe you may like it. I didnt. There were prawns, crayfish, mini lobsters and oysters, served cold and also BBQ style. But other than that the spread was just limited and non impressive. There was laksa and prawn mee as well, but the laksa was watery and the prawn mee soup was salty, and well short of the standards.

And there was 3 plates of keropok, and chinese har kau on the main spread. I mean.... how low can the quality get?

Dessert selection was poor as well. just some cheescake, pastries, jellies etc.

Maybe I was expecting too much, but for $52 per head, I think I should! Poor and not going back.

Noon to 4 p.m., a strange time to have "high tea" but who's complaining?! This is Singapore, right? When we want to have tea, we'll do it any which way. No need for "tea" time, heh! Anyway, a good time was had by all. We were satiated by the variety and quality of food, not to mention the really fresh make-on-the-spot fruit juices. The only dish I would give a miss next time would be the soup noodles - very average and the beehoon was a mite too hard. The murtabak and chicken curry were shiokest. I do recall that the Hilton poolside had the BEST roti prata in the world - but that was back in the 80's.

The ambience was pleasing and it wasn't too crowded so no need to push and shove at the buffet counter like a lot of high teas I've been to. Phew! Thank goodness, so it was really conducive for a relaxing time with family and friends, eating, drinking and yakking at leisure, for the three hours that we were there; one of the best things to do on a weekend, Mates! I'll be back for sure!

The Japanese buffet was fantastic and great with free flow of sakae! The rock oysters were fresh and huge and not forgetting the fresh juicy sashimi from varies kind of fishes and roe. Tempura and other cooked food were very tasty too.

I went for Checkers' buffet on Sat night, which was a Japanese buffet which came with free flow sake. There was both hot and cold sake to choose from, other than green tea for non alcohol drinkers.

The spread of Japanese food was good, including cooked food, tapanyaki, tempura, sushi, sashimi, Japanese noodles with 3 soup bases and 4-5 noodles and several condiments to choose from. This was complemented with a variety of dessert, including cheesecake, green tea ice cream, fruits, pudding.

What made the meal outstanding was the seafood. The sashimi included the usual tuna, salmon, octopus and they were fresh. The steamed cod, Tapanyaki which included scallop, salmon, cod, prawn were cooked just right, retaining much of the juice and sweetness of fresh seafood without being overcooked. My girlfriend and myself helped ourselves to a few helpings of those.

The venue is not packed with diners even on a Sat night, so it offers a comfortable setting to have dinner with your friends. The seats are also not too packed, make it a more comfortable dining experience. The waiters and waitresses also take the effort to top up our drinks regularly, remove our plates prompty and inquire if we enjoyed our food, making the experience befitting of a restaurant rather than just a buffet.

$53 pax is a reasonable price to pay for a good Japanese meal, including sake. I'm not a fan of Japanese cuisine, so I won't go for the high end restaurants which can easily cost more than $100 pax. So when I'm paying $53 pax for a buffet for good Japanese food with free flow sake, I would consider it a value for money buffet. I don't have a big capacity stomach, nor do I drink myself silly to make up for the cost of the buffet. Rather, in this instance, it will do justice for the buffet for the diner to simply enjoy the variety of food and savour the food which are well prepared by the chef.

I decided not to compare this buffet with Hanabi, because they are quite different. Suffice to say both are buffet which are value for money for Japanese food. The difference in price is justified by the quality, variety of food and the ambience.