StraitsKitchen

With all the glorious hawker food joints all over our glorious island, why pay extra to eat in this glorious establishment serving local food?

Let me give you our 5 reasons for dining here last night:

1. All the fantastic local food under one roof.
Like all the other reviewers below, I think the food here is very good, although not the greatest examples of the dishes on offer. The sheer choices available here freshly prepared in front of you will impress even the most picky clients or visitors. Beats the hassle of having them lost in Geylang looking for good beef hor fun.

2. Halal
Beat the trend. There is no reason why we Singaporeans can't all enjoy our food together on the same table. And it proves once and for all that no pork no lard doesn't equal no taste.

3. No fuss.
No mess. No unsightly otah leaves/crab shells/satay sticks. No long queues sweating for some small portions. No tissue paper/umbrella reservations. And all the good calorie-free water you can drink.

4. Free flow Buddha jumps over the wall
With generous servings of this luxe soup, who needs unlimited ice lemon tea? Chunks of thick scallops, sea cucumber and all the abalone you can chew on. So nutritious, it will make your mom/wife/girlfriend look 30 years younger.

5. Coconut ice cream
Creamy rich. Orgasmic. And unlike sex, you can keep asking for more scoops until you're fat and bloated. Skip the other lame desserts to make room for this.

If you are going to keep pretending to be a peasant to keep costs down, try these cost-saving measures:

1. Skip the drinks. $8.50 for watermelon juice? Drink dhaal or buddha jump over the wall (see point 4 above)

2. Get a Hyatt card. Discounts starts from 25% off.

3. Bring a good friend. Good friends pay for their friends to get fat.

4. Go for lunch instead of dinner. Lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper remember?

This is the third time I've been to this local buffet spread ($38+++, with free flow of selected juices) at the Grand Hyatt. The first two times were for dinner ($41+++) because we'd wanted to bring our overseas friends to get a sample of local fare in air-conditioned comfort. Indeed, Straits Kitchen is a classy-looking restaurant (dark wooden wall paneling and tasteful decor) and perfect for group dining.

This time, we chose to have lunch at Straits Kitchen because there were Muslims in our group of 13 colleagues, and I believe Straits Kitchen is 1 of only 2 Halal-certified hotel buffet restaurants (the other being Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scotts.) We arrived (hungrily) at 12:30pm and sat at two separate tables. I was surprised to see the place completely full, so this is not somewhere you just show up at if it strikes your fancy.

There is a wide selection of Chinese, Indian, Malay food, fresh fruit and juices, and local desserts. The food is prepared in front of you, behind glass "theatre kitchens", and I like that the smell of oil does not permeate into the dining area. You should take the time to survey the whole buffet, because even though this is my third visit, I discovered corners that I had never seen before.

This time, I tried to be a little more discerning in my food choice, and headed straight to the Indian kitchen. I was disappointed that there was no "Palak Paneer" (which is basically like a spinach and cottage cheese dip) and the chef informed me that it is only available during the dinner buffet. Instead, I tried the "Karela Kaju Kismis" (bitter gourd with cashew nuts and raisins), "Dhall Tharka" (stewed lentils cooked with cream and butter), "Sarson Wall Machi" (fish marinated with yoghurt, mustard and Indian spices), "Matter Aloo" (potatoes with green peas), "Badami Korma "(cauliflower cooked in cashew nut gravy), as well as plain naan, murtabak, "Prata Kaya" and "Prata Bom" (with condensed milk). (Yes, I was hovering around nerdily typing all the names into my phone.)

So much for being discerning. My stomach wanted to explode after this. Everything was yummy, especially the fish, which was tender and the flesh broke easily. I almost drank the Dhall (oh God, my arteries!) The bitter gourd was too bitter (hah!) and the green peas were just blah. The sweet pratas were interesting. I couldn't actually taste the condensed milk very much. I guess that's a good thing? One of my colleagues said the chicken tandoori was too salty.

At the Malay kitchen, I tried the beef rendang, ikan achar (fried fish), and Kambing Salai Berempah (roasted lamb leg). The lamb was tender but had too much fat for my health-conscious guilt-ridden self. The fried fish was too salty and dry but the beef rendang, oh my the beef, was delicious, tender and not too spicy. The otak otak was "okay" (some said there was not enough fish in it), and the sea bass and stingray received appreciative murmurs of contentment.

At the Chinese kitchen, I only took some vegetable ("bak choy") to make myself feel less guilty, and some fried carrot cake (which did nothing for my health but was chewy and not starchy). My colleagues loved the salted fish fried rice but I am not so sure about the char kway teow. The clams were apparently over-fried and were thus, shriveled-looking. I saw many a happy diner munching on the crabs though. The chicken herbal soup was apparently too salty - hmm ... spotting a theme here?

The rojak station and popiah station are also worth trying, but you should share a portion because really, who eats a whole popiah at a $38+++ buffet right? There's also laksa (which got the thumbs up from my colleagues - I can't stomach the spice) and prawn mee to try. The fruit juices vary from day to day. Today, there was guava juice, mango juice, sour plum juice, bandung, and apple juice. I think only the guava juice was fresh, while the others were made from syrup. The mango juice was really sweet and the texture of puree. The guava tasted like they'd added syrup, but the guy behind the counter claimed it wasn't. OJ and other fresh juices are chargeable. The fruits available today were mango (whole ones that you can take back to your table and peel), red dragonfruit (is there another name for them?), honeydew, watermelon, and lychees (the peel-it-yourself kind.)

The dessert station ... man, you need a whole separate digestive system for this. In the soupy section, there was cheng tng, pulut hitam, green bean (with coconut milk already added). The green bean was waaay too sweet because of the coconut milk, but that didn't stop me from hogging a bowl all to myself. There were freshly made peanut pancakes, mochi, a selection of Malay kuehs, chunks of tapioca, lapis cake, almond cookies, and egg tarts (but with the crappy biscuit crust not flaky pastry crust). In the "cold" section, they featured mango sherbet, soursop sherbet, durian, coconut and sweet corn ice cream flavors. There's also containers of wafers and sweet bread if you want the authentic "ice cream man on the street" feel. Then there was grass jelly, sago, mango pudding, herbal jelly, some milk pudding thing, almond longan jelly, pandan cake, "or nee", "goreng pisang", chendol, ice kachang ... all of which you can custom make to suit your taste. If by the time you reach dessert, you still have full control over your body, then you are by definition, superhuman.

To round off the meal, some of us also ordered teh tarik ($5), which is not included in the buffet. Though seriously, I wouldn't order it unless you've secretly won the lottery or you're not paying for the meal. The glass is not that big. And it's not that frothy either. You can always just hydrate yourself with the free iced water that the waiters diligently refill for you.

So 5 million calories and 2 hours later, we stumbled out of Straits Kitchen. We all knew none of us would be doing any work back at the office this afternoon. Heh. Overall, I would recommend it as good value for money if you want to take non-Singaporeans for a quick survey of our national cuisine. A meal here is for the kind of occasion where you would seriously consider paying $18 for chicken rice (like at the Mandarin), or for business lunches, where your pocket isn't the one feeling the burn. It seriously isn't so bad if you won't balk at the cost, because it's hard to find buffets that cater for your Muslim friends. And kudos to Straits Kitchen, because they really are strict with their policy. I once tried to bring in birthday cake from a non-approved bakery (they have an in-house list) and I was not allowed to bring it in. Instead, the maître d' (bless him) went to pick up another cake for me at the nearest approved cake shop (which was in the former Crown Prince hotel.) But don't go to Straits Kitchen if you are a typical sashimi, seafood, or international buffet lover because this is not the kind of buffet you're gonna find.

P.S. We used the UOB discount, which I think somehow worked out to be 15% off or something.

**Frances**

Recently I was having one of my regular dinners at Newton and a retired US Admiral who was visiting Singapore suddenly turned to me and asked me to recommend a place for good local food. While I was putting on my thinking cap, he mentioned that a friend of his recommended Straits Kitchen and I readily agreed since this restaurant does offer a comfortable setting and a place where one can try many local delights under one roof. However, my recommendation of Straits Kitchen usually ends at the tourist who does not have much time to explore local delights on a more detailed scale given their lack of time in Singpapore.

Located at the Hyatt Hotel, the setting is a open concept with a compilation of local varieties of food. Like in any buffet, I try to eat as much as I can and will list the items in the following categories, namely MUST TRY, TRY IF YOU HAVE SPACE and AVOID.

MUST TRY

1) Butter Chicken - The Indian spread here is pretty good and the butter chicken served is tender with the sauce being not too watery and yet not too thick. Goes well with the Bryani rice.

2) Prawn from the Indian Counter- Succulent and a little boucy. Well marinated.

3) Fish Dishes (from the Indian Counter) - Fresh without the fishy after-taste. Generally sauces tend not to be too overpowering so one can still taste the fish.

4) Fried Carrot Cake - Has a nice taste resulting in the right combination of the egg, carrot cake and salted vegetable with a good amount of "wok hei".

5) Fried Rice - Add the sauce from the chilli crab and you will have a potent combination that would have you coming back for more. The amount of oil used is sufficient to give the rice taste yet not too much that you would make your heart have to work overtime.

6) Steamed Hainanese Chicken - Tender chicken cuts with lots of fat underneath the skin. Not for the faint hearted.



TRY IF YOU STILL HAVE SPACE

1) Fried Flat Rice Noodles - At this is a halal joint, the Fried "Kway Teow" does not have the lard content but is still acceptable, just not the same as you would get in your local uncle's store.

2)Prawn with Sea Cucumber - The prawns here are very crunchy like the kind that one would get after soaking in Sodium Bicarbonate for awhile.

3) Roasted Duck - The version done here tends to be a little on the tough side.

4) Chicken, Mutton and Beef Satay - Very ordinary and nothing much to shout about but the meats were generally tender which made it an easy eat. Tends to be high on the oil content though so avoid if you are health conscious.

5) Curry Chicken - Lacked the spice and tended to be a little bland. Probably closer to chicken stew.

6) Bergerdel - Nice soft fried mashed potato though I wished it was a tad warmer.

AVOID

1) Sambal Sting Ray - Most hawker centres can do it better. Meat was tough and the sambal lacked sting. Maybe this was tailored for foreign taste buds.

2) Ice Cream - Nothing wrong with ice cream but save your stomach for the good local cuisine here and have your ice cream another day.

Well, that summaries my experience there although after reading the other previously written reviews I am kicking myself for not realising that they had the "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall" or I must just have feasted on that all night.