Buffet at The Fern Tree Cafe

Groupon featured this buffet deal at Hotel Miramar 2 weeks ago and I decided to try it as it is super 'wu-hua'! For $35 nett, you get dinner buffet on a Friday night with FREE-FLOW Tiger Beer. 'WU HUA' right!! Here's the deal:

Fatty (sillyb's new nickname) and I went down last Friday, and here are some pictures taken for that night:

Appetizers - Salads and Sushi Platter

Sashimi - Salmon & Tuna

I did not manage to take more shots of the buffet as the Chef said no photo-taking allowed. So, I will roughly sum up what's available based on what I ate and saw..

Seafood on Ice
No oysters though

Salmon Sashimi
Served in individual portion. We had at least 6 portions of this.

FATTY's creation. 
Tofu from the Hot dishes with Brocolli from Appetizers in Prawn Soup lol

 There were around 8-9 hot dishes that night. 

As they serve international buffet, there was a combination of Western and Asian food. For Japanese they have Sliced Dory in Teriyaki Sauce. Western styled dishes were Spaghetti with Mushroom in Tomato Sauce, Mashed Potato, Sliced Lamb. For Asian style, they serve Sambal Mussels/Squid, Stir-fry seasonal greens, Pork Ribs, Silken Tofu with Shrimp, Pad Thai and White Rice. Most of the hot dishes were average and I guess my favorite would probably be the mash potato.

FATTY's 2nd creation - Sliced Lamb with Achar
He commented that the '羊骚味' is very strong, but still finished it. lol.

FATTY's cheese platter

Sambal Sotong and Pork Ribs in Hot and Sour Sauce
I couldn't taste any hot and sour in the pork ribs. The texture of the meat was to my liking as there was a nice ratio of fats and tender meat. However, it could have been more flavorful.

Mashed Potato, Silken tofu with Shrimp and Stir-fry French Beans with 'Lak Cheong'
The mash potato was smooth and thick, has a hint of buttery and milky flavour, and the sauce was good that I wish they had served more of it! The other two dishes were average, pretty much tasted like home-cooked dishes.

Dim Sum: Mini Soon Kueh, Siew Mai, Mini Popiah
Missing item here is the fried scallop, which I liked with the sweet Thai chilli sauce.

Roasted Duck and Pork with Plum Sauce
They have a station which resembles a chicken rice stall, just that they are serving roast duck and pork. The duck is one of the best dishes that night. The meat was juicy enough, and the plum sauce went so well with it. Roast Pork was so-so as the skin was hard and not crispy.
On a side note, the chef really need to brush up on his 'chopping' skills. The presentation of the dish simply does not do justice to it.

Century Egg Porridge
I liked this porridge as the century egg was soft and the porridge has '银鱼' in it. Usually when you order century egg porridge, they wouldn't cook the century egg in the porridge, causing it to be cold and hard sometimes.

Black Pepper Crab
FATTY and I has been waiting for this all night long. The waitress said that it would be served around 7.30pm and we were there since 6.15pm! No choice have to wait lor.
My verdict: 7.0/10.
Frankly , it's not like the best I have tasted, but I liked the fact that there was enough gravy and the meat was juicy and fresh!! Craving satisfied!

Strawberry Mousse Cake, Nonya Kueh, Mini Durian Swiss Roll, Cream Puff, Mango Mousse Cake, Pandan Creme Brulee.

Pandan Creme Brulee
To me, the dessert presentation was unappetizing. I totally skipped the dessert until FATTY brought this to me. Actually, I have not tried Creme Brulee before as I do not have a sweet tooth. But, the layer of hard caramel totally brought character to this dessert.

Of course, the buffet was not limited to those few dishes which I have talked about. There is a station offering Wanton Noodles Soup and Seafood Noodle Soup. It did not look appetizing enough so I decided to save on the calories. There was a DIY station serving Prawn Noodle Soup, which I only drank the soup to again, save on the calories. It was a little too sweet for my liking. They also had a Prata station, serving those frozen pratas you can get from NTUC, with Fish Curry. Oh, they also serve 4 types of ice cream, which I missed as I was too damn full and busy drowning myself with Tiger Beer. Surprisingly, they have a soft drinks dispenser for non-alcoholics. I mean, it is seldom for hotel buffets to serve soft drinks as beverage is their other source of revenue, where a Coke can cost up to $7++ each.

Without the Groupon deal, the dinner buffet is priced at $42++ and comes with free-flow Tiger Beer too!

 For a price of $35 nett, I would say it is damn worth it for us. We had at least 5 glasses of Tiger beer that night. Although not every dish was fantastic, none tasted bad in my opinion and we enjoyed our Friday night dinner there. 

PS: We reached at 6.15pm and left at 9.45pm - 3.5 hours!

Summary of the menu that night:

Appetizer

 Mesclun with 3 dressings

4 types of Assorted Salads

Assorted Cheese

Sashimi and Sushi

Soup

Bah Kut Teh

Cream of Pumpkin

Seafood on Ice

Prawns

Mussels

Scallops

Hot Dishes

 Sliced Dory in Teriyaki Sauce

Sliced Lamb with I-forgot-what Sauce

Spaghetti with Mushroom in Tomato Sauce

Mashed Potato

Sambal Mussels/Squid

Pork Ribs in Hot & Sour Sauce

Stir Fry Seasonal Greens

Silken Tofu with Shrimp

Pad Thai

White Rice

Live Station

Wanton Noodle Soup

Seafood Noodle Soup

Prawn Noodles Soup (DIY)

Black Pepper Crab

Roasted Duck and Pork with Plum Sauce

Century Egg Porridge (DIY)

Prata with Fish Curry

Dim Sum

Mini Soon Kueh

Siew Mai

Mini Popiah

Fried Breaded Scallop 

Fried Thai Fish Cake

Dessert

Nonya Kueh

Strawberry Mousse Cake

Mini Durian Swiss Roll

Cream Puff

Mango Mousse Cake

Pandan Creme Brulee

Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

Grass Jelly Drink

Assorted Ice Cream

Assorted Fruits

Free Flow Soft Drinks

More information on The Fern Tree Cafe, Hotel Miramar:

401 Havelock Road

Singapore 169631

Tel: +65 6631 3021