Sunday brunch at Catalunya

C says:

I find Catalunya somewhat overpriced - $85 for lobster rice, $135 for half a suckling pig or $20 for a plate of 4 tiny Bikini (jamon, cheese and truffle) sandwiches is, to me, a bit prohibitive. That’s why their Sunday brunch buffet is such a good deal, relatively speaking. For $98 (add $48 for free flow cava, wines, cocktails, coffee and tea), you get an amazing buffet spread featuring various cured meats, steak tartare, rillette, grilled quail, asparagus spears, anchovies, sardines and all manner of other tasty tapas-like items.

The best part is that you can also order unlimited portions of their sandwiches (yes, including the Bikinis) and their scrambled eggs and tortillas (Spanish omelettes). Our table of 10 told them to just keep replenishing our plates of the Bikinis. Just polishing off a few plates of these alone is probably almost worth the $98 price tag.

Brunch starts at 12.30 pm, and at about 1.30 pm, the main courses are presented to much fanfare (and plate smashing). These will include a few paellas, a fish dish, a roast of the day (usually lamb), and the signature suckling pig. Portions of these will be delivered to your table, and again you can ask for more portions once you're done.

Finally, desserts are served and if you haven’t paced yourself then you’re in trouble, because the desserts are definitely worth a try. By the time brunch comes to a close around 3 pm, be prepared for a food coma for the rest of the day/evening.

Definitely not something you can or should be having very often, but definitely worth trying at least once.

A says:

The brunch buffet is probably the only time you'd get your money's worth here. Even then, it's still very expensive. And the starters and sandwiches are really the star (over the overrated pig). So if you've got lots of cash to spare, give this place a try.

Catalunya
The Fullerton Pavillion
82 Collyer Quay
Tel: 6534-0886
Sunday brunch: 12.30 pm - 4pm

The Square Restaurant, Novotel Clarke Quay

C says:

We were invited to The Square, the in-house restaurant of the Novotel Clarke Quay, to try out their festive buffet (they have a regular buffet, but for the festive period till the new year, the buffet includes additional items like turkey, honey glazed ham, roast beef or lamb). A and I are generally not buffet people – we order/eat too much as it is, without needing any further incentive to stuff our faces. Also, we usually steer clear of the dishes in the covered hotel pans, since more often than not they’ve been sitting there a while and are usually overcooked.
 
The Square’s buffet definitely had some elements that didn’t fall into the aforesaid buffet trap – a slab of prosciutto with only a few slices shaved off at a time, some really good items at the carving station, and an a la minute risotto/pasta, laksa and mee siam station.
 

The prosciutto was pretty good, though the slices could’ve been shaved a little thinner to make them less tough and chewy. One of the other diners had the brilliant idea to take the rock melon pieces that were meant for the chocolate fountain, to pair with the prosciutto.
 

 
I passed on the fresh oysters and prawns, though they looked enticing, and made a beeline for the whole salmon. I think it was genius to have this in the cold section rather than as a hot dish. Because the platter was on a bed of ice, it didn’t run the risk of getting overcooked, which is all too common with salmon. I avoided the obvious tail portion and went straight for the oily belly. This was superb – surprisingly no fishiness at all even though it was the belly, and it was luxuriously fat and creamy.
 

There were two festive items at the carving station – a roast turkey, and a honey-glazed bone-in ham. The turkey was quite ordinary, but the ham was excellent – tender and juicy, not too salty and it had a glorious layer of glazed fat.
 

We didn't try their pasta, but their cheese risotto (with mushrooms and sundried tomatoes) was great, and I dare say better than quite a number of risottos that we’ve had in proper restaurants. The rice was perfectly cooked, it was nice and oozy, and had tons of flavour. The fact that it was topped with a heaping spoonful of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese freshly grated from a huge wheel probably didn't hurt.
 

I was less enamoured with the other a la minute items – the laksa and mee siam. Both were quite lackluster, especially the mee siam. The laksa was a bit better but that could also be because I added a big spoonful of sambal.
 

Because it’s currently the festive season, desserts are obviously Christmas-centric, so expect log cakes, Christmas puddings and pannetone. I’m not a huge fan of holiday desserts so I passed on all but a few bites of dessert, and had more cheese instead. Props to them for providing a jar of honey next to the cheeses. They also have a DIY ice kachang cart next to an ice cream cart, which I thought was a cool touch.

They have a lot more variety than what we’ve mentioned, but as I said, the hot entrees are really not our modus operandi for buffets, so we just went with what we knew we’d enjoy.

A says:

Very decent spread. The hams, satay and cheese risotto were great, but I'd skip the oysters. And the ice kachang machine was a winner, especially when combined with the ice cream they have.

All-in-all, it's pretty good value and worth it if you're in the area and in the mood for a buffet, but I wouldn't make a special trip down.

The Square Restaurant
177A River Valley Road
Level 7, Novotel Clarke Quay
Tel: 6338-3333
www.thesquarerestaurant.com.sg

Penang Place Restaurant

C says:

Penang Place Restaurant is a buffet restaurant located at Fusionopolis. We're usually not really big on buffet joints but we heard some good things about it, so we tried it on Friday night with A's family.

There were some hits and misses, but overall I was fairly impressed. The nasi lemak was quite fragrant and came with a good sambal. The beef rendang was very tender and the chicken curry had a thick, rich gravy, not the thin, diluted sort that you may expect from a mass produced buffet place.

The penang char kuay teow was very good too, and the prawn noodle soup had a surprisingly good broth, though perhaps a tad on the sweet side. The chicken satay was pretty tasty too, and very tender.

What didn't fare so well were the desserts. A's folks were mad for the chempedak fritters, but the rest of the desserts were very mediocre.

Dinner was about $30 per person, which A found on the high side but I actually found it quite reasonable given the relative quality of most of the dishes. Not somewhere we'll come back on our own, I don't think, since we're not really buffet people, but it's a good place to bring family.

A says:

What surprised me was that as a buffet staffed by part-time students, the service is fantastic. The main dishes were pretty good but the desserts were horrible. But would I regularly pay $30 for all-you can eat char kway teow, rendang and nasi lemak? Probably not.

Penang Place Restaurant
1 Fusionopolis Way
#B1-20/24 Connexis
Tel: 6467-7003
Mon to Sat: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm; 6 pm to 9.30 pm
Closed Sundays
www.penangplace.com

Shin Yuu

C says:

The gang had a belated birthday celebration for me on Saturday. During the planning stages, we were at quite a loss for a suitable place, since we’re now a group of 10 plus 4 kids. I suggested Shin Yuu, an a la carte Japanese buffet restaurant at Greenwood, based on a couple of recommendations. They have a private room, and we thought that would be good for us to make as much noise as we wanted. As it turns out, when W called to book, they told her our group was too big for the private room so they seated us in the main restaurant.

The buffet here is definitely good value - $35++ per adult for dinner. The items on the menu all sound pretty good, but when they eventually arrived, it became evident that it’s quantity over quality.


Their handrolls were very disappointing. The nori tasted and felt soggy, as though it had been left in the open for ages, and the rice was pretty mushy as well. Their aburi salmon sushi was pretty tasteless too, and nowhere near the standard of the one at Z’En. They had an aburi cheese roll which again sounded good on the menu, but in reality was very disappointing. The cheese was more like a creamy cheese sauce, unceremoniously dolloped on top of maki rolls and torched.



There were a few good items, like the beef short ribs and most of the chef’s specials. The chef’s specials are not on the menu, and only one order of each is given per table. There was a braised oxtail that wasn’t too bad, and the tuna belly nigiri sushi was quite good too. Some specials fell flat, like the grilled sanma fish that was all bone and overcooked, and the grilled fish cheek that had a distinctly watery texture and not much flavour.

What I didn’t like was that although they had desserts, they weren’t on the buffet menu and you have to pay separately. Again, a contrast with Z’En where the buffet includes ice cream, creme brulee and cheesecake.

The service is a bit of an oddity. The owner Gary is quite a character, and on hindsight I don’t think he meant to be rude; it was just his mannerism but before we realised that, he did rub some of us the wrong way. He came out all flustered, and told us to cancel our entire order of handrolls because we’d ordered too much. While I appreciate that we shouldn’t waste food, the way he conveyed it did put a dampener on our spirits, and we kinda lost our momentum after that point.

Overall, it may have been cheap but after a while we just stopped ordering/eating because the food just wasn’t very tasty. In the end I don’t even think that we each ate our money’s worth. This is a far cry from the a la carte buffets at either Z’En or En Dining. In conclusion, I would gladly pay the $15 or so difference, for markedly better quality.

Update: I just found out that the dinner buffet is $48, not $35 as I initially thought. That makes it the same price as Z'En, in which case it's not even value for money any more. For the same price I would pick Z'en in a heartbeat.

A says:

The good reviews got me hyped, and thus, disappointed. It’s… okay…

Shin Yuu
16 Greenwood Avenue
Tel: 6763-4939
Lunch: 12 noon to 3 pm
Dinner: 6 pm to 10.30 pm

Melt the World Cafe – Buffet at Mandarin Oriental

C says:

We’re generally not buffet people, but I must say that this buffet is right up our alley. I’m not one for main courses at buffets, because I always feel that no matter how perfectly cooked a dish is at the start, it simply cannot stand up to being kept in a warmer for hours while it steadily overcooks. We therefore usually head for the starters or the sashimi sections, the carving stations, and food cooked a la minute, like pasta made to order. Melt has all these aplenty.

This is our second trip here; both were with my brother and his family. We regretted not writing about this the first time, so this time we made a point to snap pictures of the food when we first arrived, before everything got messed up by hungry diners.


What really gets me is their cold cuts and cheese section, which is where I camped out for most of the evening. They have an incredible selection of cheeses, breads and grilled antipasti. Tonight actually wasn’t as good as the first time we were here, when they had a great camembert and blue cheese. The cheeses tonight were a bit more unorthodox but still very good. Tip: ask them for a jar of honey to pair with some of the stronger cheeses – delicious!



They also have a leg of parma ham with the slices displayed on top. The quality was good – a deep red hue and not overly salty. But by far what takes the cake for me is their duck rillette – an entire terrine dish of fatty goodness that only we seemed to be taking. The other diners simply don’t know what they’re missing.


They have a good selection of sashimi and sushi too, though I steered clear tonight in favour of the cheeses. Their smoked salmon is good too, especially since they provide mini bagels and a chive cream cheese for you to assemble your very own smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel.


The main courses to me are secondary, but the standout ones are actually at the Indian/tandoor station. They have freshly made naans, and their tandoori offerings are very good indeed – juicy tandoori chicken, prawns and lamb chops.

I was too full to have much dessert, but the variety is quite impressive. They have a chocolate fountain with many different skewers, freshly made waffles that are light-as-air, 8 ice cream flavours, mini cakes and puddings, nonya kuehs and an ice kachang station.

Besides a la carte buffets and not counting the uber expensive Sunday champagne brunches that are so popular nowadays, if I want a good buffet with quality food, Melt is definitely my choice.

A says:

Probably one of my preferred buffets in Singapore.

Melt the World Cafe
Mandarin Oriental Singapore
4th Floor
Tel: 6338-0066
Breakfast: 6.30 am – 10.30 am
Lunch: 12 noon – 2.30 pm
Dinner: 6.30 pm – 10.30 pm
Sunday brunch: 12 noon – 3 pm