[Ala-Carte Buffet] Saturday Lunch @ Famous Treasure Capitol

It was a rather quiet Saturday noon, and Siew Li suggested for ala-carte buffet and everyone else agreed so it was a rather impromptu decision for the change in venue and without any reservations.

Staff said that the ala-carte buffet promo is popular and usually the place would be crowded especially weekends so I guess we were lucky that day!

ala-carte buffet menu

Take note that the snacks on the table and wet towels are chargeable. Staff would enquire on the drinks once you are seated. We opted for pu-erh (can choose from tie guan yin, chrysanthemum, jasmine or pu-eh). Chinese tea (served in a pot for the table) is chargeable at $3++ per pax.

boiled peanuts

cherry tomatoes with preserved plums

There is an order chit to input the dishes that the table wants for the ala-carte buffet, and each serving of the all-you-can-eat dishes is said to be good for 3-4 pax portions. 

There is also a one-time limited fish dish and as we were in a group of 8, we could order up to 2 whole fish for the table. We chose steamed tilapia and deep fried seabass.

roasted crispy pork belly (8 slices per serving)

crystal chicken (half)

The ordered dishes were served up pretty quickly. The thinly sliced pork belly had crispy crackling and enjoyable with the mustard dip. Would be nicer if it is slightly fattier. Crystal chicken was flavourful but rather smallish.

deep-fried seabass with superior soya sauce (1 time order)

Staff asked if we wanted to snap a photo of the fish first before he portioned it out for us. Oops, perhaps we been taking one photo too many. 

steamed tilapia with bean sauce

I liked the steamed tilapia more than the deep-fried seabass. Tilapia was perfectly steamed with its flesh remaining tender and moist.

stir-fried romaine lettuce with fermented shrimp paste in claypot

wok-fried squid with chinchalok and ladies finger

I liked that the dishes were generally tasty yet not too overpowering so one could still enjoy the dishes on its own.

While the rest of us has no intention to order any carbs, Sze Jia wanted some. We thought it would be easy to share since there are 8 of us and staff did say the portion is good for 3-4 pax.

Yang Chow fried rice

Whoa, I think the fried rice portion was indeed for 3-4 pax but perhaps as main dish? Hahaa! It was pretty good nonetheless especially with the good sized shrimps in there. 

spicy mapo beancurd with meat sauce, deepfried de-shelled prawns with salted egg yolk, live poached prawns

Though menu stated it as spicy mapo beancurd, it wasn't spicy at all. It was savoury sweet and good as a topping for the fried rice for a change-up in flavours.

The salted egg yolk prawns looked like chicken karaage so we got confused for a while. It was good and that prompted us to order the rest of the prawn dishes available in the ala-carte buffet menu. Keke.

live poached prawns

deepfried de-shelled prawns with wasabi sauce

The wasabi sauce was creamy and lovely with the good sized prawns. Texture was firm and sauce was only mildly reminiscent of wasabi.

wok sliced beef with black pepper sauce

Was a tad disappointed with the beef though, as it wasn't as tender as anticipated.

stir-fried sliced fish with bean sauce

crispy chicken chop with Thai sweet sauce

braised beancurd with Chinese mushrooms and vegetables

The crispy chicken chop was a nice surprise as the batter remained crispy even after letting it sit for a while in the sauce. Loved the wholesome flavours of the braised beancurd as well.

table full of good flavours

Overall, staff was efficient in their service. Food arrived pretty quickly and there were constant top-ups to our tea. 

Food was enjoyable and it was a great catch-up with university friends. 

We spent around $52 per pax.

 

Famous Treasure

Address: 13 Stamford Rd, #02-28 Capitol Singapore, Singapore 178905

Website: https://thefamoustreasure.com/

Business Hours:

Daily 11:30 AM–3 PM, 6–10:30 PM

[Buffet] Man Fu Yuan - Weekend Dim Sum Ala-Carte Buffet @ Intercontinental Singapore Bugis

There're two seating for the weekend lunch buffet. One at 11.30am to 1pm, last order at 1230pm and the second seating from 1.30 pm to 3pm, with last order at 2.30pm.

Me and my bro took the first seating and arrived promptly at 11.30am. Though I had made reservations for dim sum buffet, the staff asked again if we're taking the buffet or ala-carte lunch. Ok, maybe best to double confirm, I guess?

Man Fu Yuan @ Level 2

interior

table for 2

dim sum  menu

One could also get the menu online and they are the same for the ala-carte dim sum buffet. The two default signature dish would be served automatically once you're ready to dine. The rest of the stuffs, can place the order with the staff. We ordered our first round and default portion for dim sum is 3 pieces per basket.

peanuts on table

There's a plate of peanuts for one to munch on while waiting for food. The tea options were jasmine, pu-er, chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum + pu-er and white mudan. We went with chrysanthemum + pu-er combo.

tea

Signatures (名厨介绍)

First dish was the braised 8-head abalone, sea cucumber with baby bok choy, flower mushroom, and superior pumpkin sauce.

黄焖8头鲍鱼,海参,菜苗,花菇

Was slightly surprised as I was expecting dishes that were one serving per guests would be plated individually, rather than combined into one. But it's alright. 

The braise sauce was sweet and thickened. Sea cucumber retained some of its chewiness but I'd prefer the softer version.

steamed rock lobster with superior master sauce, ginger, scallions

The rock lobster was half lobster per pax. Sauce tasted mildly sweet and some of the lobster meat was kind of hard to get as it was pretty much stuck onto its shell.

Deep-Fried, Pan-Fried and Baked Dim Sum (炸，煎及焗点心)

Crispy lychee prawn, lychee aioli (荔枝虾球,荔枝生汁酱)

The lychee prawn was cute, and somewhat smaller than expected. Next, was the filo prawn pastry. Its been a while since I had filo pastry and I liked the pastry here. Light and crisp. However, it was hard to detect the prawn filling here.

Crispy filo prawn pastry with wasabi aioli, tobiko

Roasts (烧腊)

Next, the plate of roasts was served. We sampled all three; Braised corn-fed “ Yuen” chicken, soya sauce, rose dew wine, honey-glazed pork belly and roast duck with Chinese herbs.

Trio Combination (三拼盘)

The only dish that made its second appearance on our table, was the char siew / honey glazed pork belly. Sliced chunky, meaty yet gentle to bite.

蜜汁豚肉叉烧皇

best bite

The steamed dim sum will take some time to arrive (perhaps steamed upon order), so you may want to put in your orders earlier.

Steamed Dim Sum (蒸点心)

Classic honey-glazed Duroc barbecued pork bun

Spinach prawn dumpling, tobiko

Prawn and pork siew mai, wild mushroom, truffle sauce

Steamed spare ribs, braised peanuts

Steamed chicken claw with superior master sauce

The truffle sauce on the prawn siew mai was rather disappointing as am not sure why but the flavours were rather muted. The spinach har gow (prawn dumpling) was aesthetically pleasing and in a way, this should contribute a bit to the required vegetables intake? =P

The best of the steamed dim sum were the pork ribs and chicken claw. Staff helped to reduce the pork buns down to two per basket as we were rather full but my bro still wanted to try.

Mains (菜肴)

One of the item from the mains, was the braised grouper served piping hot in a stone pot. The bitter gourd, onions, capsicum were bubbling away in the sauce and its softened texture was lovely.

braised diced giant grouper, bitter gourd, black bean sauce

Crab meat with shredded sea cucumber and fish maw bisque

If you'd like white pepper or black vinegar with the bisque (羹), do let the staff know. I liked mine with black vinegar.

with a dash of black vinegar

Congee, Noodles and Rice (粥, 粉面及饭)

Wok-fried flat noodles, sliced beef tenderloin, yellow chives,beansprout

Wow, if there is one dish that's a must order, I'd say it would be this 粤式干炒牛河 (Cantonese stir-fried beef hor fun). Chef was being very generous with those beef slices! One of the stronger flavours through-out.

strong flavours, soft tender beef

Dessert (甜点)

Cream of mango, pomelo, peach collagen (Chilled)

Both of us opted for the same dessert. The bowl was full of diced mango, mine actually had a big dollop of peach gum. Lovely well chilled dessert. The strawberry slice in there was unusual. Maybe for aesthetic?

Service was attentive, especially from Xiao Ni and Shirley. Our teacups never had the chance to go empty, and our plates were changed to cleaner ones every now and then. 

As it was my bro's birthday, I've pre-ordered the cake slices from Lobby Lounge and the staff helped to serve it after our meal.

passionfruit cheesecake

chocolate banana

Happy Birthday to KS Lee, my gor gor. Wishing you good health, happiness and peace!

Man Fu Yuan Restaurant

Address: 80 Middle Road Level 2 InterContinental Singapore, Singapore 188966

Website: https://singapore.intercontinental.com/dine/man-fu-yuan

Business Hours: 

Sat - Sun: 11:30 am–3 pm, 6–10 pm

Mon - Fri: Friday, 12–3 pm, 6–10 pm

Irodori Restaurant @ Four Points by Sheraton

Went there for their ala-carte buffet. At every table, there is a QR code to scan. So one will submit their orders via this method. Be prudent on the first order of everything, to guestimate the serving portions and appoint designated person in the group to prevent over ordering.

entrance

Started with dobin mushi (tea pot soup). Flavourful and warmed the tummy.

土瓶蒸し (Dobin Mushi)

is that Matsutake mushroom?

Of course, we need sashimi and we ate lots when it is buffet. Happy to know that we enjoyed the sashimi slices here, especially the hamachi (yellowtail).

salmon and tuna sashimi

tako and hamachi sashimi

swordfish sashimi

yummy

Of course, we need some greens. Is seaweed considered vegetables?

ワカメ wakame salad

Ebi Tempura

For prawns, I prefer the tempura version over the panko fried version as tempura version tasted lighter.

deep fried prawns

There's also a one-time serving of their special grilled mentaiko prawn (one piece per diner).

Ebi Mentai

Was disappointed in beef shogayaki though. It first appeared with smoke emitting from the plate, so we were surprised when the meat was only lukewarm/closer to cool. When our friend who came late ordered another one at a later time, the temperature was better for the dish.

beef shogayaki

The other deep fried stuffs that we had were tebasaki and karaage. Hmm, no need for repeat.

karaage

lotus root

tebasaki

There's sushi and maki too. Irodori Maki was nice. If I had to choose between Hamachi sushi and Hamachi sashimi, I'd go for the sashimi.

Irodori Maki

Hamachi Sushi

grilled scallops

shishamo

grilled salmon/mackerel

Although I didn't have much carbs during this buffet except for irodori maki (1 slice), ended up pretty stuffed after just 1 hour of eating sashimi and fried food.

There's a coffee machine in the restaurant that you could get yourself a cup of coffee to end the meal. 

Buffet Lunch & Dinner for Adult is priced at $39.80++, Child is priced at $24.80++ (Below the age of 10).

Irodori Restaurant

Address: 382 Havelock Road, Four Points by Sheraton Singapore, Riverview, Hotel, #03-01, Singapore 169629

Website: http://irodorirestaurant.com.sg/

Contact: +65 6737 2002

Business Hours:

Daily 11:30 am–2:30 pm, 6–10:30 pm