Pinoy in Singapore

For my birthday, we had buffet dinner at the Greenhouse in Ritz Carlton.

What made me decide to have dinner there was it was the restaurant with the highest overall rating that had multiple reviews from HungryGoWhere.com.

It was my first time there and here’s my first impression of the place.

Let me say first that my benchmark for a hotel buffet is the Circles at Makati Shangri La. It’s the best in terms of variety, taste and value for money.

Having said that, when we first saw the area, I was a little disappointed because the Greenhouse is situated in the hotel’s lobby and the ambiance feels like, well … a hotel lobby. It’s not a place you need to dress up for really but then again if we really wanted to dress up for dinner, maybe we shouldn’t be going for buffet in the first place.

Having eaten so many buffet meals, I’ve already developed a strategy when eating at buffets.

The first thing I do is do a quick walk through of the area and make a mental note of the things I find interesting. In general, I do 4 rounds. The pre-seafood, the seafood, the repeat round, and dessert.

Per round, you get all the food you want to sample for that round before you sit down and start eating. That way you don’t have to stand up everytime to get more food. You also don’t need to put everything in just one plate because first of all it’s a little embarassing when you’re walking with a plate overflowing with food (especially when you’re dressed up.) Also, only get a bite size or two of each dish, otherwise by the time you’re on your 3rd dish you’d be so stuffed you won’t be able to enjoy the other dishes.

My first rule is to limit your rice because they take up precious real estate in your tummy.

I always first go for the items that I normally won’t be able to eat just anywhere or everyday and that’s usually the fresh seafood – sashimi and oysters.

But seafood on an empty stomach can sometimes be disastrous, so I need to first line my digestive tract with something “safer”. That’s why I usually go for the steak. But alas, to my disappointment, Greenhouse, Ritz Carlton did not have a carving station. (Maybe because it was a weekday – not sure.) No steak, no roast beef that I love so much to go with mustard or horseradish sauce. Minus points there. All they had was duck and deep fried pork belly (i think) which I can get from most hawkers.

So for our first round, we tried the cream of mushroom soup with white truffle oil, which to me was pretty good but Mr. Tsiken preferred the mushroom soup I cook for him. We also had the deep fried sea bass which was amazing. It was cooked in a sweet sauce much like escabeche. (Pardon me, I can’t remember the names of the dishes.) And we had lamb and beef satay skewers – they were ok. Definitely better than the satay stalls in Lau Pa Sat. (but are they even comparable?)

For round 2, we had sashimi and oysters. Mr. Tsiken and I usually get our money’s worth on this round alone. We love salmon sashimi dipped in a thick mixture of wasabi and soy sauce. Unlike this other buffet I’ve been to, the sashimi and oysters don’t smell. The salmon sashimi has this creamy texture to it that I love. And the oysters are the easy to down kind – take it with a little Tabasco and lemon – mmm mmm mmm. On this round the only-take-a-bite-size-or-two rule doesn’t apply. We go crazy in this round.

Another thing I’ve been craving for was lobster and I read in the review that they have lobster in the buffet. But the night we were there, they only had grilled crayfish. The crayfish was good as well and so was the pan seared tuna and the fresh scallops.

This seafood round was so good it made me order a glass of champagne.

For the 3rd round, this is where you repeat the things you liked and maybe sample the other dishes as well. That means more seafood for me. A few makis here and there.

And for the final round – dessert. Divine. I loved their chocolate mousse, and the pralines. The chocolate fudge cake was also good. I think Greenhouse, Ritz Carlton is the only buffet i’ve been to where the ice cream is not in generic flavors. I scream for Ice Cream! I love it.

One other thing – I’ve read good reviews about the musicians in the place. They were indeed good and they’re Filipinos. You can always count on Pinoys to provide nice mood music.

My verdict – Greenhouse, Ritz Carlton is good place for buffet with a date or with family, or business. The service is impeccable. I’d rate it a 9.5. It still doesn’t beat Circles at Shangri-La, Makati in terms of ambiance and variety except for the dessert station where the Ritz Carlton definitely takes the cake!