Lavish Buffet

Lavish Buffet

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Ala Carte Dim Sum Buffet at Peach Blossoms (6 Raffles Boulevard - Marina Mandarin Singapore, Singapore 039594) Reservations: 6845 1118

Visited on 10 Aug 2015 (Mon - Public Holiday). Peach Blossoms is one of the longest established chinese restaurant that has reopened after a S$1 million renovation in 2011. They serve traditional Cantonese fare and dim sum with a modern twist in contemporary interiors.

Weekend Ala Carte Dim Sum Buffet: 

$58++ per adult/ $38++ per child (6-11 years) - Excluding Beverages
Time: 11am to 3pm (Sat, Sun & Public Holidays)

Weekday Ala Carte Dim Sum Buffet: 

$48++ per adult/ $38++ per child (6-11 years) - Excluding Beverages
Time: 12pm to 3pm (Mon - Fri)


This is the beautiful waiting area with oriental seats!










I love restaurants that are bright with abundance of natural daylight from the glass windows!





Pickles: 
Keropok served in a small cute basket
($3++)




The prices for premium tea selection are on the high side, so we just go for normal chrysanthemum tea at $3++ per person.




The staff will push a dim sum trolley around to ask if you want any of their available dim sum selection from their trolley though we can order through the menu! I thought this was quite extra cos we might have already ordered through the menu earlier and if the trolley have the dim sum we want, of course we would rather get from the trolley immediately rather than waiting and will need to cancel our previous order. It will be quite troublesome.


Mini Buddha Jumps Over The Wall
(Limited To One Serving)

How can we missed the most premium soup here? With so many high quality ingredients that were simmered for hours, you can expect the broth to be rich and tasty!!




Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crab Meat
(Limited To One Serving)

The soup was robust ,flavourful and was full of crabmeat! I enjoyed this soup so much! Yummy!!!




Pan-fried Foie Gras with Smoked Duck served on Mantou
(Limited To One Serving)

Usually we had mantou with chilli crab so I felt foie gras with mantou was quite extraordinary! The combination was great and the sauce complemented so well with the melt-in-your-mouth foie gras! 



Crispy Scallop coated with Filo String topped with Fish Roe
(Limited To One Serving)

This was so exquisite.. It would be fantastic if this can be unlimited serving. But we all know premium items are usually served once...



Steamed Honey Glazed Pork Bun

I would like to highly recommend this! So far Peach Blossoms has the BEST Char Siew Bao as the skin was so so fluffy that no other hotel chinese restaurants can do it. And the filling was not too sweet. Overall it's melt in the mouth!




Baked Egg Tarts
The egg tarts here were melted in the mouth except the fragrance in the custard was quite mild, otherwise it would be perfect.



Steamed Chicken Dumpling with Black Mushroom 
(Siew Mai)
The siew mai was decent as it was not juicy and too meaty..




Steamed Custard Bun with Salted Egg Yolk

The bun was not fluffy and the custard was overfull till the extent of even I just had a small bite, all the custard flow out till very messy. And I don't really like the custard taste, somehow had a strong smell of something that I don't really like...



Stir-fried Radish Cake with Bean Sprouts in XO Chilli Sauce
The radish cake were too soggy and the XO chilli sauce was very dull. I expected the sauce to excite my palate but it did not...





Deep-Fried Crispy Salmon Fish Skin with Spices Salt

The spices were spicy and a little salty which were quite shiok!



Roasted Duck served with Plum Sauce

The skin was super crispy with delicate aroma of lychee wood! But the meat was quite tough. Hope the chef can improve in the tenderness of the meat and it will be perfect.




Stir-fried Diced Chicken with Dried Chilli in "Szechuan" Style

The Gong Bao chicken here were quite different from others as it was fried with flour and there was a layer of crispy exterior before you can taste the tender diced chicken. The sauce was not too sour as well. I enjoyed this dish very much!



Steamed Fillet of Fish with Fragrant & Raw Minced Garlic
I thought the minced garlic was a little too much and the fillet could be more tender. 






Chilled Mango Puree with Sago & Pomelo


Ice-Cream of the day: Chocolate



Chilled lemongrass Jelly with Mixed Fruits


Chilled Mango Pudding



Double-boiled Luo Han Guo with Winter Melon

As usual, dessert is not their specialty in most chinese restaurants, so don't expect great desserts. All the above 5 desserts were lacklustre...


They still have this menu that we did not order 

Overall Impression: The service here was not so good. No one attended to us to take our drinks order after we were seated for around 5-10 mins - We have to call for them. There were quite a few times we couldn't find any staff nearby us to place our food order whereby the restaurant was only half-filled. As this restaurant has 3 sections, they should assign 1 or 2 staff at each section to standby since this is a 5 star hotel. Most of the staff were not with any smile too except one of them was good.

Food quality was slightly higher than other 5 star hotel chinese restaurants that I've visited, except some of the dim sum and their dessert really needs much improvements! If only the service can be warm and better, this place will be perfect. 

*Recommended*

Friday 21 August 2015

Lunch Buffet at The Carvery (323 Alexandra Road - Park Hotel Alexandra, Level 7, Singapore 159972) Reservations: 6828 8880

It's such a hassle to make reservation through phone - Book now through Chope for Instant Reservations! (This is for The Carvery)


Visited on 8 Aug 2015 (Sat) and revisited on 30 July, 13 Aug 2016 (Sat). The Carvery is a buffet restaurant with a poolside view located beside IKEA . This restaurant is a little different from other hotel restaurants as the main highlight is their top-grade signature roasts, with 3-4 selections of Beef, Lamb, Pork Belly, Pork Knuckle and Chicken daily. Besides this, indulge in their Asian and Continental dishes, Wood-fired Pizzas, Pasta, Salad Greens and delectable desserts.


Lunch: 12:00 noon to 3:00pm (Daily $38++) (Adult)

Dinner: 6:00pm to 10:00pm

Sundays to Thursdays $56++ (Adult)
Fridays and Saturdays $62++ (Adult)

Credit Card Promotion: Citibank - 10% off, 
OCBC - 1 Dines free with 3 Paying Diners 
(Updated Aug 2017)






Be greeted by this 3 metre long meat carving station when you enter the restaurant!




My favourite rotisserie chicken roasting on a rotating spit!




Rotisserie Chicken
Wow this was really mind-blowing... Look at the skin that was marinated to perfection - Flavourful and Aromatic.. The meat was soooo tender and juicy too, overall the taste was awesome!!! I kept went back for this, too addictive! I was even drooling when I saw this photo again while writing this.... You have to try to believe it!!! Best Rotisserie Chicken in Singapore!


Lamb (On The Left)
The lamb was decent...



Beef
Seared on the outside locking in all the juices on the inside, You can see the tenderness of the beef meat from this crosscut.



Pork Belly
Perfect balance of savoury lean meat, succulent fatty layer and that wonderfully crispy skin... the taste that will simply blow you away!



Salads




Prawns and Mussels On Ice


Curry Pumpkin Soup



Beef & Barley Soup



Olive Rice

The olive rice was a tad dry and hard..



Herb Crusted Sea Bass with Fennel Broth
(30 July 2016)
 One thing I like about The Carvery is, the chef always control the temperature of the fish very well, the meat was always tender with very light and nice broth at all my visits!


White Clams
(30 July 2016)


Duck Confit with Barley Risotto 
(13 Aug 2016)
It's really rare to see duck confit at buffet especially with barley risotto, very innovative! I was extremely delighted to see it at The Carvery. And I'm glad to say the taste was great with melt in the mouth meat! Hope to see this dish more often at the Carvery please!




Pork Fricassee
(30 July 2016)


Vegetable Tempura
(30 July 2016)


Sea Bass with Tomato Sauce

I'm always delighted to see sea bass at buffet! The sea bass here did not disappoint me as the meat was really tender!


 Broccoli



Polenta Fries



Grilled Eggplants



Sauerkraut with Bacon (Pork)
This is a German dish of chopped pickled cabbage.


Baked Tomatoes



Grilled Sweet Potatoes


 Mashed Garlic & Potatoes



Lamb Stew


 Cauliflower Gratin



Mussel Stew


This is the wood-fired pizza station!



Magarita


Roasted Chicken with Mushrooms and Onions


Pasta


Cheese



Fruits


I love this! So refreshing!


(13 Aug 2016)
Ice Watermelon!



Dessert Station in July/Aug 2016

Orange Jivara Cake


Blueberry Yogurt Cake

Passion Fruit Raspberry Cake


White Chocolate Orange Cake



Very Berry Jelly


Almond Pear Slice


Pistachio Raspberry Panna Cotta

 Chocolate Cherry Roll / Red Velvet Cupcake


Chocolate Vanilla Roll 




  Cream Puff


Chocolate Pudding





Free Flow of Coffee and Tea Selection
Very nice Cappuccino!


 Very nice Latte!



This is Earl Grey Lavender Tea from Gryphon. It's a medium bodied tea with aroma of sweet lavender translates into bold floral top notes with notes of citrus, slightly astringent. A great tea to pair with the meal!


Dessert Station in 2015
The dessert station has very limited desserts which was quite disappointing to me as a super dessert lover. Anyway on the 2nd tier, the taste of the blueberry, brownie and strawberry cake were very normal, nothing to shout about.. But thankfully the below 3 types of dessert has won my heart!


My Favourite Desserts Below from 2015


Dark Chocolate Mousse
The dark chocolate mousse was very rich yet satisfying for chocolate lovers. I'm always delighted to see cookie crumbs added to dessert! Great dessert!



Banoffee Tart
I can't stop going back for this awesome chocolate tart! It was so crunchy with nice powdered sugar and some nuts atop.


Pina Colada
The Pina Colada here consists of pineapple pudding with coconut flakes and some mango cubes atop. This is a cooling and tropical dessert that was rare to see at buffet. Thumbs up for this wonderful dessert!


Bread & Butter Pudding
Oh I've forgotten to try this!





Overall Impression: The service here was quite good except the staff were lack of smile. The plates were cleared and water was refilled promptly. The food quality here was quite high except the pizza were lacklustre, the ingredients were not tasty, a tad bland. 

As for the desserts, the standard has dropped compared to 2015. Perhaps the crowd for lunch buffet now were not much so the desserts they provide now were more to simple types rather than those great ones that I had in 2015. But overall it's still quite a value for money lunch buffet given that the food quality was good, as well as they serve very nice coffee here (Unlike some hotels serve those instant coffee machine) Their great coffee and tea were actually part of my reason to keep coming back here for a simple, affordable, yet quality buffet.

This place is more on "Quality" rather than "Quantity buffet so don't expect wide selection of food here. The selection was much much lesser compared to other hotels. But to me, it's definitely enough to fill my stomach. I really like the quiet and cosy ambience here! I'll definitely be back again & again! Haha!

After the lunch or dinner buffet, you still can hop over to Aqua Luna for some drinks - All at same floor, so convenient! (Photo below) 


Note: Their popular Truffle Butter, Yorkshire Pudding, English Trifle Dessert and higher quality cuts will only be available during dinner buffet! You can view their Dinner Buffet Here!

*Recommended*

The view outside The Carvery


Aqua Luna




Aqua Luna which is just outside The Carvery, is an alfresco bar situated on the infinity pool. I think this is really cool, isn't it?! Watch spectacular sunsets over lush tropical foliage at Aqua Luna, the swim-up bar and savour delicious bar nibbles paired with specialty mojitos, martinis and margaritas concocted by their mixologists.

(Photo from Park Hotel)



Romantic Ambience at Night



Sundays to Thursdays:
12:00 noon to 11:00pm

Fridays, Saturdays, Eve of and on Public Holidays: 
12:00 noon to 1:00am

Reservations required.


It's such a hassle to make reservation through phone - Book now through Chope for Instant Reservations! (This is for Aqua Luna)