Cafebiz (Traders Hotel)

This was a choice for a staff lunch and a good deal as well since UOB cards have a 1-4-1 promotion. The place was quite packed on a weekday 12:30pm and seemingly many people were there for the 1-4-1.

Cold dishes - spicy chicken salad, salad station, smoked salmon, tuna salad - didnt try alot but the smoked salmon was a tad salty for me.

Seafood - Mussels, clams, and also cold tiger prawns which appeared sporadically. When I reached, the platter was already empty and it was never refilled until maybe 1 hour later, and even so it was carelessly strewn about. No other refills for the rest of the lunch buffet. Some were alright, some were not fresh. At least the clams tasted fresh.

Bread - Didnt try as I try not to take bread at buffets. My colleagues commented that the garlic butter spread was good, even though there were some instances of fellow diners 'stealing' pieces which were buttered as they somehow thought the ready pieces were done by the hotel.

Soups - Mushroom and barley soup (clear soup) and szechuan sour & spicy - both of which were alright except I couldn't quite understand why the mushroom and barley was so oily, altbough it was comfortingly steaming hot. The sour & spicy soup was a little bland for me.

Japanese - Saw sushi and cold soba but didnt try.

Indian - Various curries and prata and naans which were just alright.

Chinese - self assembled chicken rice, sambal sotong, sweet and sour pork, spinach, stir fried beef, kambing (lamb), fried hokkien mee, and various other chinese food. Too many chinese choices for me. Most of what I tried were mediocre at most, with the sambal sotong the only memorable one.

Western - potato wedges and no pasta or pizza that I can remember.

Live station - Laksa, minced pork noodles, grilled (normal) sausages. The laksa was a little disappointing.

Desserts - Ice cream, cakes, waffles, sweets, puddings, and the ever popular chocolate fondue. Again nothing memorable. A let down as the dessert station is usually my favourite.

I had expected a better quality spread to be honest, given that this is under the Shangri-la family no doubt cheaper. The variety was also a let down. Service seems to be quite erratic, plus on one point the floor manager was arguing with one of the chefs right behind me while I was taking my food. Not professional at all.

The buffet comes with a choice of coffee, tea, coke, or sprite. At least the coffee's not too bad.

For the original price this would be a no-no. But I will probably not return even with the 1-4-1 promotion too. (My rating for 'value; is based on original price; total amount spent is nett spent after considering the promotion).

My eyes strayed to the corner as we walked in, the desserts section; I saw the chocolate cake waving to me, the dessert shooters like a lighthouse beaconing the direction. And not lest, the-sight-of-it again: the omnipresent chocolate fondue, my heart just flew over with hugs and kisses.

Not able to resist the seduction, I dropped every last bit of pretence in me and embraced the temptation; lets start with the desserts shall we? We took a bit of everything, and started tucking in. We decided just to have some, and come back for more later. It was a difficult decision; to stop after we started, it was akin to asking a vampire to stop after he started sucking blood from your neck.

And so, the cold seafood counter. There were prawns, there were crabs, and there were mussels & scallops.

A sniff of the icy chilled oyster, the sea breeze gusted into my nose. The hassle of opening up the clam creature was avoided, for it was already prepared nice and clean on the bed of ice. I squeezed a whole wedge of lemon onto it, careful not to spill any outside the shell; every drop of lemon was precious, to fully bring out the quintessence of it. I pitched it up with a fork, and slowly put it into my mouth, one swallow, one gulp, and it was gone.

Our stomach has served us well, and to reward it for the hard work, let’s start with some salad. We took a bit of all the different greens, and dressed it up with the many-variety of dressing available; I always preferred thousand island, while you went for the lighter Italian dressing, and also the adventurous yoghurt one too.

It was fun, the process of ‘playing’ with the Kueh pie tee; we took the shell, add in the typical popiah turnip fillings, sprinkled a bit of the crushed peanuts, drizzled the sweet sauce, beautify it with paisley, and had options of tuna, chicken, and prawns to top with. Boy, it was good! The crispy shell, with the turnip fillings, but it was the sweet sauce and peanut which provided the difference.

There was roasted meat selections, Indian food, Western & Asian mains to choose from too. Again, we ate some of each, and finally it could wait no longer! This time, for desserts, we shall try everything, one of everything. Two if we can help it!

At first glance, it looked like pandan cake. Then, the pistachio financier name tag appeared, in a concealed corner oblivious to the naked human eye. The green stuff, they called it the pistachio nut, it was a personal favourite of our friend; and surprisingly, the pandan-cake-lookalike had a flavourful pistachio taste!

I remembered the truffle berry compote cake for its smooth and silky chocolate, with composition of berries within.

For some unknown reason which continue to evade me, passion fruit seemed to be a popular choice for patissier, I did not have any nice experience with it so far; but I guess it’s the intriguing combination of that-something-sour with the strong cheesecake. I, however, did not like it. I like sweet stuff, something sweet please.

While it had became a common thing for buffets, the chocolate fondue still never failed to excite me, I dipped fruits, puffs, marshmallows, and everything I could find under the flowing chocolate lava.

This, was my favourite part of the buffet. There’s a chef specially preparing waffles and crepes on-the-spot. The waffles were excellent, but they used the same mixture for the crepes, which turned out to be overly thick. And the staffs actually delivered the waffles to our tables when we forgot to collect it, now my dear, that’s what you call service!

I used syrup and butter for my first waffle. Then I returned for more with a topping of all the ice creams available, creativity struck me as I poured some of the lava from the chocolate fondue over my piece of crispy waffles.

The weekend dinner buffet from Mon to Wed is $45 , while dinner from Thursday onwards to Sunday is $50 per head. We were too full to try all the food; we missed out on the Indian food, and the roasted duck selections. Eating a little of everything was almost enough to fill up the tiny stomach of ours. Plenty of tea and a long chat after the meal aided in the digestion too! My appreciation to Helen, the F&B manager of Traders Hotel, for the food tasting invitation.

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!