Sakura International Buffet (Orchard)

The restaurant was very dim as we entered. We were seated in a dark area. It's almost like we were in a cinema before they switch off the lights for the movie. It was also very noisy, with tables of colleagues and army boys.

The food was at best, disappointing. The sushi rice was dry and I could eat every grain of rice. Er, well, that is not what is should be, unless you are the type who prefers undercooked rice.

Pizza tasted like hard bread and the toppings were so insignificant that I can't tell what flavor the pizzas were, except Hawaiian because of the pineapple.

I couldn't bear to try much else. I think the otah was OK, but then again who goes to Sakura to eat otah?

Service was at extreme ends - there were ~4 staffs fervently zipping from table to table to deliver the special order teppanyaki but none was clearing plates. Obviously, after a while, we were trying to balance the done plates on our table. (We were so proud of the stacking that we forgot to take photos of our balancing act for this review.) We asked one guy to help us clear the plates but he told us he is only in charge of delivery. It seemed like everyone wanted the nice job but no one wanted to do the dirty job. Perhaps, they should cut the pay of the delivery and pay the people who clear plates. OR better still, be kind and hire 1-2 aunties from the food courts to clear the plates. I am sure they are doing a better job that waiters who seem unnecessarily busy delivering teppanyaki.

In any case, I won't be going to Sakura for a long long long time... Adios...

We pre-booked in advance at least 1.5mths for mother's day... on the day itself we got there, the place was abit hard to locate. Greeted by The Little Nyonya and her plate of kueh kueh we headed up.

The table they gave us was SHOCKING!! It was a table in the corner of an unfurbished large room, appetite went down a BIG notch. It reminded me of a large primary school canteen except the tables and chairs were much taller and the people sitting in there were adults.
I was sandwiched between the table and the wall, going to get food was a hassle all on its own.

Drinks section had this non-slip mat which my heels kept getting stuck in,which later destroyed. The same mats that you'd find in public toilets 10 years ago?

Pizza was C.R.A.P. , someone pay me to make pizza coz I can make it better!
The customers were disgusting as well, taking the sushi/sashimi and returning it to the ice.
Their advertised Nyonya Kueh was horrendous, I'd stick to Bengawan Solo any day.

Did I mention that to get from one side of the -- place was through either the front of the escalator(which they were repairing and covered with a thin piece of carpet) or the back of the escalator

This is one time I had to fight my way through to get food.
The whole experience made the food taste less than it already is.

$28/head was a waste of money especially when I dont have this much problems in a kopitiam/hawker centre. Think 10 times before heading there unless you like to squeeze even though its not a club.

Went to Sakura International Buffet (@Orchard Shopping Centre) for dinner with my girlfriend today. We were anticipating a sumptuous and decent dinner but all we got were,

1) soggy satay (chicken)

2) salty slice fish soup with fish slices that are probably still 30% raw

3) tastless and bland sharkfin,

4) grilled baby squid were still 30% raw as well, on top of that, they were not cleaned properly as ink-like liquid ooze out of the squids' head when we tried to cut them to smaller servings...

5) alacarte chinese dishes tastes like overnight dishes, veges were "sour", curry tastes of strong curry powder(with a bit of bitterness aftertaste),

6) Otah was stale as well, unagi was also soggy,



Nevertheless, our consolations was the

1) must try cheese cakes (each measuring roughly 2cm X 2 cm), 5 varieties which includes blackforest, oreo...etc

2) raw salmon from the sushi bar, fresh and generous in servings

Date of Visit: 21 Dec 2008 (Sat)
Time: 12.00pm - 3.00pm

I was here with a friend for lunch. This was my very first visit to a Sakura Restaurant though my friend has visited the restaurant before.

When we reached there, there were already many people queuing to go in. However, all customers will need to pay first before they can proceed to the 2nd floor. There was only one counter there with one staff collecting the payment. It happened that there was a big group of NS guys (about 8 of them) queuing infront of us and they all paid individually using NETS. So we had to wait quite a while before our turn. An improvement is to increase the number of counters so that it could facilitate the speed of making payments. We waited for closed to 10 mins before our turn! (within the next 30-45 mins, we realised that the restaurant was almost fulled!)

After we had made our payment, we proceeded to the 2nd floor via the escalator. Upon arriving, a staff was already there to greet us and showed us to our seat. It was table 88, a window seat, which both of us were delighted as we could have a good view on Orchard Road!

The variety of food was not bad, ranging from the traditional Japanese dishes like salmon, sashimi, quite a wide spread of sushi, soba, lobster and crab salad, fresh prawns tempura etc; Chinese dishes included sweet and sour fish, roast duck, vegeatables, sambal prawns, claypot laksa, fried popiah and crabstick, shark fins soup, black chicken soup, herbal prawns and dim sum like prawn dumplings and paos, fried rice etc; Western BBQ dishes included various kinds of meat such as black pepper chicken, beef, lamb, squid, satay and eel while others included pasta, pizzas (hawaiian and mushroom flavour) and baked oysters, scallops and mussells and a section of pastries, desserts, ice cream, fruits and a free flow of hot and cold drinks!

The western BBQ food impressed me most and it was on the spot cooking based on your order and they would serve you when the food was ready. The portion served was big too and among all, I liked the lamb and satay most as they were very well marinated and tender with good black pepper and satay sauce. The only issue is that the chef have dipped the satay into the sauce and unlike the traditional serving where you have to dip it yourself (maybe that was part of their good service but no all people like to have their satay dipped into the sauce) and there were also no cucumber or onions to come along. Despite this, they still taste good!

Unfortunately, there were no crabs served today but lobster and crab salad. The lobster was cut into small cube bits which you can't see and were mixed with mixed canned and fresh fruits. You would never feel you are eating lobster as it was too small to chew! The crab salad was made up by crabstick and mixed fruits and vegetables! Nothing special or worth mentioning. You can forget the pasta (as it was cold and hard) and the soba was normal.

The variety of sushi was impressive and salmon was quite ok. However,
the fresh prawns and squid were not that fresh as their flesh were quite sloggy when you bite unlike fresh ones which will be chewy and tasty, which I suspect these fresh seafood could have been stored up for some time! The same thing applied to the sambal prawns which were sloggy too but the roast duck and sweet and sour fish were fine.

As for the soup, they were really good! The shark fins soup and black chicken soup were hot and well done and definitely worth trying for. For the former, it was not too liquid but thick and you could taste the ingredients (which I had 4 bowls) and the latter was sweet and simple although it consisted of some chinese herbs, which I only drank the soup and not eaten the black chicken as it was quite hard for the flesh!

The pastry was ok with some good variety and that also went for the desserts (lychee fruit cocktail, yam paste and tapioca with coconut cream, mango and orange pudding etc), fresh fruits of water melon, kiwi, oranges, papayas, dragon fruit and honey dew, 6 flavours of ice cream. One good thing was that you could have free flow of drinks that included lemonade, peach tea, blackcurrent and orange juices or milo, hot tea to cuppucino to expresso etc!

Overall, we were quite satisfied with the food variety and quality.

As for service wise, the clearing of used plates was quite fast and staff also served the ordered food quite fast without the need to wait too long. If the staff could put up some smiles when they were performing their jobs, it could make the dining experience more pleasant and enjoyable. For the BBQ food, some were served very fast (within 5 mins) while at other times, we could have waited for more than 25 mins and when the staff brought the food over, they were expressionless which should apologize for letting the customers waited too long which they didn't! In addition, when we left, the staff also did not greet us goodbye or wish us have a nice day which we felt they should do so as part of the customer service!

Ambience was normal but if you are thinking of seeing some Japanese pictures or decorations, you will be disappointed. There was a water fountain near the escalator, some small Christmas tress with decorations. But it was quite brightly lighted but if they could play some music or songs, it would be great! Furthermore, tables were arranged quite close to one another which make walking difficult and in fact, there were quite a number of big group diners, it could be noisy due to their laughter and sharing of jokes etc. Because we were seated at the window at the side away from the main dinning hall with a good Orchard Road view, it was ok for us!

The price? It was $26 per person, we felt it was ok and quite value for money, taking into consideration of the variety of food served.

If they could improve on its services and the quality of the seafood (like freshness of prawns and squids), it will be able to let us change our status on revisit to ‘Definitely will revisit’ again!

I've been here umpteen times and thought it will be good to do a review on it. One thing I like about the buffet is that it is halal, something which is very hard to find in Singapore. The price of $30 per person on a weekend is quite affordable. Again, I skipped all the cold seafood and raw food, I just couldn't appreciate them. The other half of the buffet consist of normal hawker fares, western (which is cooked on the spot), laksa, sliced fish soup... and more soup (which is also cooked on the spot).

I love their seafood fried rice, it is really nice! And their chilli crabs were yummy too! But, I think they always rotate the menu and the last time I came, the chilli crabs became salted crabs (which is damn small) and it doesn't really taste nice. Their duck meat and beef was okay... it taste normal.

The western part consist of many varieties. I thought each portion given (each time we make an order) is quite huge... i always have a hard time wanting to try all the food. Esp love the fish dory and cheese sausage, super yummy! They also have chicken... beef.. mackarel..prawns...satay and squids. The squids is yummy. However, i realised that for every of the dish, they used the same type of sauce.. and it can get quite sick after some time.

The desserts was okay too..... they doesnt have any chocolate fondue though. Overall, the food was I guess quite average, it depends on which type of food. However, I think the quality of food seems to decrease each time i make a visit there.. but i heard the one at clementi woods is better. Shall check it out soon. The service was great though! The waiters were quite efficient in clearing the dirty plates. One thing to take note, the restaurant is definitely. not for couples who wants to have their twosome moments because its very noisy.