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

Xian De Lai (鲜得来) @ JEM

Sillyb has been craving for steamboat, so we thought of visiting Xian De Lai at the new shopping mall, JEM. JEM is located beside Jurong East MRT Station and carries many popular brands such as Lowry's Farm, H&M and Uniqlo. Usually when we go for steamboat, we leave the place with a stench on our clothes. We chose Xian De Lai as the air is 'fresher', and most importantly, they serve fresh, shelled cockles which is sillyb's favourite. Trust me, I left the restaurant smelling fresh that night. (Only applicable in JEM outlet)

Xian De Lai is located on basement 1 of the mall. This outlet is similar to NEX, and different from the Bugis and CCN (Cheong Chin Nam) outlet. NEX and JEM outlets offer exquisitely-designed individual pot where Bugis and CCN offer a regular steamboat with two soup bases, a.k.a. 鸳鸯.

frontage of the restaurant

our individual pot

This outlet offers set menu and buffet option. Set menu costs $18.90 and buffet is $25.90. Drinks are not included in the buffet. I did not have a chance to take some pictures of their ala-carte menu as I was not presented with one. Their can drinks costs around $2.50++ each. Also, they have other china style 麻辣 dishes on their ala-carte menu.

set menu

buffet menu

The buffet selection here is somewhat similar to Bugis outlet. The additional $7 they are charging is probably for the extra selection on side dishes and better dining atmosphere. The selection of the soup is also different. As you can see from the menu, there are 5 types of selection. I was rather disappointed that they did not offer the 辣子鸡 and 辣子虾 soup bases here.

Sillyb's duck soup, quite flavourful.

My tonkotsu soup, light and sweet.

Part of our feast

flower crabs!

prawn wonton and special taste ribs

spicy peanut sauce which goes well with beef, tastes like satay beehoon sauce.

As steamboat selections are pretty much the same everywhere, I shall blog on some special ones. First in the line will be 辣子鸡. This was one of my favourite until I tried the 辣子虾 in Bugis outlet. At bugis, they will serve the chicken in the pot without the soup. After around 5 minutes, they will remove the remaining chicken from the pot and fill it up with spicy chicken soup. The spicy chicken soup is different from the usual 麻辣 soup as there is NO '麻' in it. I dislike the '麻' feeling on my tongue whenever I drink 麻辣 soup. So, this is perfect for me!

辣子鸡!
Craving satisfied and it was complimentary (not on the menu)!!
9.0/10

Side Dish: Drunken Chicken.
7.5/10

Side Dish: Spicy Potato Noodle, served cold.
No 'wow' factor.
5/10

Side Dish: Fried Bacon Balls.
This is something like croquette. The filling is mash potato with bacon bits, tasted peppery. 
6.5/10

Side Dish: Wonton Wrapped Prawn.
Not crispy enough and tasted bland.
5/10



Side Dish: Pepper Salt Chicken
This is the most awful side dish we had that night. The powder they sprinkled on top was not to my liking as it 'tasted indian', and totally not peppery ok! I wonder why they served that in a chinese restaurant. The chicken was dry and cold. 
2.0/10

Buffet menu: Prawn Wonton.
This is different from the Bugis outlet. They used white wonton skin instead of the usual yellow ones. This skin is thicker, so I would prefer the yellow ones instead. :)
6.5/10

Buffet menu: Pork Glue.
You can see from the side that it is quite thick, or in fact, too thick. If you use the usual way to cook fish glue on this, it will probably take ages. So, i gave up and scrapped the 'paste' into the soup. The white bits are water chestnut. Flavouring was pretty strong, tasted some 五香 spices in it, and it's not to my liking too.
3.0/10

Buffet menu: Chicken Noodle.
Basically, it's chicken paste and when you squeeze it, udon-like  paste oozes out and drops into the pot. Lol I know it sounds disgusting, but it was really that case. Flavour wise, lighter than pork glue and tasted some ginger in it. Texture was like...egg white?
5.0/10

My healthy pot of goodness. Yummms!

Like I said, Xian De Lai serves ala-carte dishes as well. Here are some promotions which they are having right now.

I wonder why they are giving promotion exclusively at NEX in JEM outlet. I didn't receive any $10 vouchers though. :/

One thing I would like to comment on will be the service team at Xian De Lai. Be it at Bugis or JEM, there are several similar problems. First, if you ordered 20 items, only 15 will be served. The remaining 5 just disappear or did not show up. You need to remind the staff to check it for you. If lucky, they will serve upon checking. Otherwise, they will ask you to order on the second round. Secondly, the portion they serve is very little. There are pros and cons to this. Serving small portions is probably their solution to food wastage. However, it can be rather frustrating when you have to keep requesting for order chit and ordering your favourite items repeatedly. Usually, we will indicated '1' inside the box, and indicate '2' or '3' for items which we prefer to have more. I realised that even if you indicate '10', they still serve '1' portion. Perhaps they have no qualms about wasting paper, and precious time.

Anyway, Xian De Lai will still be one of my favourite steamboat places as the food they serve are fresh.

As usual, we left the place feeling extremely full and decided not to have steamboat for the next one month.

Here's the contact number of Xian De Lai at JEM. Reservation is recommended.
+65 6339 4366

xoxo, ping.