My dining quartet had this sudden spell of interest in hotel buffets. For this round, our hostess selected The Edge @ Pan Pacific Singapore, which had undergone a major renovation last year. Lunch buffet was S$58++/pax and there was an ongoing 1 eat free for 3 paying adults promotion for various credit cards, so the price worked out to S$43.50++/pax.


The sashimi section was very limited for lunch. The kajiki (sword fish) sashimi was good, the salmon was just average, similar to other buffets and definitely not the best. I went back for a second helping of kajiki w/o the salmon. Really nice!

There wasn’t much to pick in the sushi section so I just picked 1 maki (one of my friends liked the inari aburaage sushi though). That’s quite similar in other buffets as well. In Equinox I would pick a unagi (eel) & a ika (squid) sushi, and in One Ninety I had smoked duck but that’s about it.

The Laksa at the Chinese station was very good – gravy was excellent only regrets no “hum” ie cockles. I also took a slice of roast duck (very crispy skin & flavourful), and also 1 slice of roast chicken (good but ordinary, the ginger sauce was good).

I did not take any from the Malay/Peranakan station. There was a beef rendang and my friend thought the steamed rice (basmati) was “super aromatic”. I took 1 stick each of beef & mutton satay (above right photo). One friend thought the mutton satay was very good, but for me, I think it was kind of average. There was no pineapple sauce with the satay gravy.

There was salmon and grilled aussie beef tenderloin (medallion) at the Western station. I asked the station chef who replied that the beef were medium to medium well. I ordered rare & he grilled on the spot for me. It was super (top photo) – very sweet, tender, flavourful, well beyond my expectation of buffet main courses, even though tenderloin not my favourite.

I skipped most of the Italian station – the pasta, pizza & pork rib. My friend who bought lunch thought the rib was good & healthy lean. the other friend thought it was too dry. The 1 item I thought was excellent was the roasted pork. I had 3 slices!

Not forgetting the cold Entree station. I took 4 oysters (very sweet) & 2 scallops (good). The station chef told my friend the orange ones were female & tasted better than the all-white male ones. :-) I skipped the prawns but took the prawn salad – it was kind of limited selection.

The dessert station was quite ordinary, and included chocolate fountain & nonya cakes. The ambience was great. There was good drinks like calamansi juice with sour plum, very good coffee and also tea selection. It was a fun lunch, food & company as we tried out a new place. At S$43.50pax after 25% discount, would I come back though? regrettably answer is no or very unlikely!

For full review and more photos, visit http://chefquak.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/expensive-average-buffet-the-edge-pan-pacific-singapore-on-24-6-2013/

See my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/06/03/shiok-zi-char-dinner-hup-choon-zi-char-on-2jun2016/
had a very nice zi char dinner at hup choon with some new friends on 2.6.2016. ^^
i had been to hup choon many times in the past but mostly for coffee & bakuteh at the time eons ago, never really around dinner time for zi char.
the hostess ordered several very good dishes. this one of those zi char dinner that i really enjoyed. ^^
fish head curry (with added vegetables) was very good.
it’s different (maybe more chinese version) from my own fish head curry, just as lemak, very enjoyable for me. i guess i ate the most la… lol!
prawn paste chicken mid-wings were tasty.
i not particularly fond of prawn paste chicken, but this i count as a very good fried chicken wing.
seafood treasures pot was good.
this mainly got to do with fresh seafood.
not sure how much it was here, at uncle leong jurong east which was very good it would be S$30 for this serving size.
i think uncle leong used a good stock base, maybe this one no stock, but still a good dish.
cuttlefish kang kong“jill her eng chai” was good too, very competent.
it’s the kind of taste i am more used to than that at forture at old holland road across the other side of dunearn.
hae chor was competent too, crispy, not too oily, good filling. i guess quite good though not my favourite dish.
hor fun was also quite tasty. didn’t feel so much wok hae, maybe it was a large plate & i did not take it immediately. but it was good anyway, competent.
don’t know how much the dinner for 9pax cost. will come back again soon to try it la!

see my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/06/03/fabulous-degustation-dinner-cornerhouse-in-1jun2016/
my first time to cornerhouse. i had been to au jardin & taken the degustation several times previously but not since cornerhouse took over.
looking at my previous post, the last time we were here was for the new year eve dinner on 12.31.2016.
for this evening we had a 5-course degustation menu at S$188++
i asked for one of the 2 verandah tables seating looking out at the gardens.
it was really nice. the amuse bouche comprises 3 items.
couldn’t really remember…they were all good la! this one quite unique taste.
this a salty fish cracker with tobiko. great!
last a amuse bouche – bitter cucumber terrine. we enjoyed all of the them.
the first course, carabinero prawn, scarlett prawn from mediterranean, was simply awesome!
the variations of seasonal tomatoes, with basil, olive oil & another falvour were sublime.
the prawn was steamed & chilled, very sweet, tasty & firm. told wife the texture felt like lobster. & there was a tomato sorbet, basically a very flavourful gazpacho, at the top, 12 o’clock! ^^
later i saw on naked fins a nice pic.
it was a very large prawn, and in some sites they mentioned it tasted like lobster.
second course was white asparagus with a 24mths comte cheese & ikura.
such an artistic presentation! ^^
the white asparagus (confit maybe?) was par excellence, very tender & sweet. overall while the dish was very tasty & enjoyable, it made less impression than the tomatoes (& prawns).
the 3rd course, maine lobster, was quite sublime, out of this world! ^^
lobster was firm, sweet, tasty, riso (a risotto like pasta) was great & the sauce was just fantastic! (from bottarga the salted fish roe i think?).
the 4th course, japanese toriyama wagyu was like any top jap wagyu, simply fabulous, so much better than australian or USA, & horseradish mash was excellent with the beef.
the last course, chocolate earl grey dessert, was good.
i mean the chocolates were great really, the sorbet too, among the best i guess, not exactly my favourite dessert. wife & i not particularly hot on chocolates & if chocolate i prefer the really dark intense chocolate type rather than just smooth with earl grey flavour etc….
petit four was pretty good.
they charged for coffee. i always felt coffee should be just included in a degustation & green tea too in a japanese kaiseki, a touch of class not to charge extra…anyway just my persona views..
we skipped the coffee.
dinner 2xS$188pax + 2 glasses of wine came to S$513.
it was an excellent dinner very enjoyable so money well spent. looking back at the 2013 au jardin NYE degustation, i think that offerred a bit better value not this time we had lobster. hard to compare i guess.
i still miss jaan, since that they withdrew feed @ raffles benefits, we were unwilling to pay the full fare & also the menu still looked the same after 2 rounds, andre chiang & julien royers having left…

See my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/05/31/good-peranakan-buffet-suns-cafe-on-30may2016/
a very good friend bought 10pax lunch at sun's cafe oon 30.5.2016. ^^
i quite enjoyed it. i think the food is quite good.
for me the roast duck was the best, maybe because i had a 1/2 drumstick portion each time for my 2 helpings.
duck was flavourful & the plum sauce enhanced the taste. texture of meat & skin were great.
curry chicken was probably second for me, and i made a good curry chicken myself.
curry was intense & tasty, perfect on the rice & chicken was tender. the breast meat looked slightly overcooked (usually the case & especially in buffet) prawns & sotong
the curry & sotong looked pretty, but sotong texture felt artificial & not right. later i spied another friend having a heap of sotong on his plate. he must have liked it.
i decided to take the prawns for my second helping. it was quite competent actually. prawns were fresh, done well, slightly spicy, good competent la..
chap chai was usual.
kuay teow was good, got wok hae.
din try the prawn fritters.
the kembong fish looked good but was in fact the worst dish for me. tasteless, not sweet. i added some sambal etc but still bland.
the ngoh hiang was pretty fine, especially with sambal chilli added.
i did not take a photo of the kueh pie tee. a friend brought a plate to share. i took one. it was good, especially with the chilli.
the braised belly pork did not look great, looked overcooked & the lean meat looked dried up.
i took a piece with lots of skin & fat. actually it tasted good! & the lean meat was ok.
i tried a second piece on my second helping. ok not so great. a friend thought the meat was too dry not tender.
my buffet plate – second helping
for second helping i heaped some chicken curry on my rice. a friend found it odd i was adding rice (even though it was just 1 tbsp each time). & i tried the sambal (very good) & sambal balacan (ok).
before my second helping, i took a laksa. forgot to take photo.
it was good. not out of this world, limited ingredients, no hum (cockles), shredded chicken etc. the lemak curry was intense & tasty. not as good as weiyi laksa etc, but still quite good.
also tried the pig stomach soup. everyone said very good, and i think it as very good too, very sweet. i took just small amount maybe 3 tbsp, with quite a bit if pig stomach, enjoyed it but did not want to add more.
enjoyed my ice kachang as always.
the cream stuff was coconut cream (wrongly labeled). anyway then i realised i could make chendol too.
so i went back to make chendol la!
thick coconut cream, flavoruful gula melaka, but no kidney beans.
rojak missing the best ingredients like yutiao & taupok. still quite tasty, i think i mixed it well haha, the unripe magoes, guava etc all quite nice la…
the groupon voucher was S$19.90 (i made a check, sold-out currently). anyway the hotel offers S$38 1 for 1, so if you have even numbers, it is not a lot more ex than the S$19.90 groupon.

See my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/05/28/really-shiok-4pax-curry-rice-lunch-loos-curry-on-27may2016/
my OPS friend bought lunch at loo’s curry on 27.5.2016. ^^
he bought up whole stall, 6 dishes for 4pax!
& we had prawns, chicken, sotong, pork chop, fish head & veg!
i am recently with my RO friends on 22.3.2016.
we had 8pax & ordered about the same food (which was enuf la)…lol!
pork chop is a must signature food for hainanese curry rice (next to the curry itself i guess…lol).
i not particularly keen on tonkatsu but this went very well with the curry.
the curry prawns was a surprise for me.
usual in these chai pun 菜贩 type stalls, or even in zi char stalls, don’t expect very fresh prawns.
this one was very good, very fresh!
curry sotong always good. we ordered that last time also.
(just read on straits times today 28.5.2016 that the word sotong is now officially included in oxford dictionary!)
chicken curry was very so so, in fact one of the poorer ones i have taken eg the hoower food court cheap curry rice’s curry chicken a lot better
& of course the geyland serai stalls like sinar pagi nasi padang better than both.
the curry itself though always good!
black beans fish head was ok, but these kind of dish have to take at zi char stalls like kok sen at keong saik street la.
curry veg was good but usual.
friend went to order vegetarian ngoh hiang some more. all items very tasty especially the one with mushrooms stuffed inside.
i had to finish almost all the rice & not eat dinner, and after lunch we went for durian some more.
the curry rice was just S$40 for 6 dishes include prawns, we think only because the stallholder “ah” with my friend.