Breakfast, lunch and dinner at Flavours on Zhongshan Park was a satisfying affair last week.
Expectations for breakfast should be kept in check, for the lunch and dinner spread are definitely better.
I’m guessing that since the breakfast buffet is primarily for hotel guests who consisted mostly of the business crowd and thus won’t be lingering over tower of pancakes and beautifully plated Egg Benedict, the spread for breakfast remained serviceable but nothing too fancy.
It covers the basic of toast, eggs on request, some hot food plus fruits and cereals and that’s about it.
Cold cuts, cheeses, salad, fruits, yogurt and porridge.
For continental breakfast there are chicken and pork sausages, honey pork ham, creamy scrambled eggs, french toast, grilled tomatoes and potato croquettes.
No waffles or pancakes are sighted unfortunately.
Asian flavours include idli and dhaal, steamed glutinous rice, fried kuey teow (rice noodles) as well as a live station for a piping hot noodle bowl if you wish.
And of course, there are juices, milk, tea and coffee offered.
The lunch and dinner as I’ve said, was a more elaborate and delicious affair.
It is by no means big in the number of dishes, but rather in the quality of taste and produce.
For dinner I zeroed in on the braised pork belly, roast rib eye (so, so succulent!), whole steamed fish, the assorted seafood on ice selection and the beef cheeks rendang.
As you know beef cheeks has great texture as it is soft, slightly gelatinous and it has the mouth feel of very rich and fatty meat, but that is just from the abundant amount of collagen within the meat.
Coated in rich rendang sauce, this was truly delicious.
The roast was beautifully pink and juicy and full of natural beefy flavours. Additional servings are recommended!
The Asian spread of pineapple fried rice, braised noodles, squid in chilli and cereal fried prawns were all tasty as well as the flavours of sauce/spices/marinate used permeates into the produce resulting in great flavours through every chew.
PORK satay; not an everyday affair at buffets in Malaysia due to the Halal accreditation.
For us it was like “ Whoa, pork satay!!“. 🙂
I find the spread here pays homage to many traditional old favourites. Otak-otak isn’t something you see at buffets, even in Malaysia, what more a very tasty, stuffed generously with fish one like the below.
And this is something you would expect to come out at family dinners, and cooked by an elderly member of the family.
But I had the chance to enjoy this meltingly tender and delicious braised pork belly in unlimited amounts here at Flavours.
For lunch it was served with steamed mantou accompanied with mustard greens, as traditionally it should be.
Another lip-smacking dish – bouncy soft squid rings in tasty sambal. I love this dish.
Even the simple sweet and sour chicken is finger-licking good.
We know many of us took lavish helpings of the cereal prawns. And for a good reason.
Instead of skinny and messy to-get-to crabs, meaty crayfish in delicious chili-crab style that Singapore is famous for was served instead. Deep fried mantous were thoughtfully offered to mop up the delicious gravy.
We are Asians, and thus the obligatory rice and noodles on the buffet.
I avoid carbohydrates, but the Pineapple Fried Rice and Braised Noodles are so good that I took second helpings! Kudos to the kitchen team for ensuring even the simple rice and noodle dishes are good! 🙂
As I’ve said, not big in quantity, but more than enough to satisfy.
Over at the appetiser counter we see shooters of a variety of hors-d’oeuvre, smoked fishes, ham with pears, seafood on ice (fleshy long crab legs!), sashimi and sushi, seafood on ice and a small selection of salads.
For desserts, it is almost similar to the lunch spread, which features some local kuih, cakes and pastries.
I would recommend the Durian Mousse if you are a durian fan, and also a bowl of the rich, creamy bubur chacha.
There are an abundance of fruits, which is a good thing.
The DIY ais kacang section and the chocolate fondue with marshmallows and fruits are 2 other alternatives for a sweet ending to your meal.
The lunch spread differs slightly from dinner. At the hot food section there were quite a number of dim sum dishes such as steamed glutinous rice, steamed baos, meat dumplings, baked Chinese puff pastries filled with pork and fried carrot cake.
The spring roll you see below is stuffed with duck meat, and tasted akin to Peking duck wraps.
It was my favourite that day as I love duck meat. 🙂
Another item that had me returning for 4-5 helpings was the Pie Tee. The shells were non-greasy (though a little thick) and crispy. I found most pie tee fillings of jicama to be too oily or sweet but this pot here was nicely stewed (neither soggy or nor crunchy) and tasted naturally savoury sweet.
And the accompanying chilli sauce was good too!
We faced the same dilemma for the pork satay. The kitchen team replenished them pretty quick, which was a good thing as we must have polished off quite a bunch!
Some batches were a tad dried out but I was fortunately to get a bunch of really juicy skewers with soft blocks of fat!
All in all the spread here focused more on Asian cuisine and local favourites. We had rojak, a bit of nyonya flavours, some Indian and Malay influences and of course, western with roast and pizzas.
The Japanese section where the sashimi and sushi is is a constant for both dinner and lunch. The salads and the appetisers were almost similar to dinner as you have seen above.
All in all I enjoyed my stay at Ramada and I certainly won’t mind staying here the next time I’m in Singapore!
Do watch out for my next review about the room, the facilities and also the surroundings in Balestier, a developed yet charming urban area in Singapore.
For the recent dining concept “Flavours Wok Series and Twist of Flavours” for the ala carte menu do refer to my friend’s post –> http://www.sgfoodonfoot.com/2015/02/flavours-at-zhongshan-park-ramada-hotel.html
Breakfast – Daily
6:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | Adult: $25.00+ Child*: $12.50 (5-12 years of age)
* Children age 4 and below dine free when dining with paying adults
Flavours Express Set Lunch
Mondays to Fridays
12:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. | Price: $22.00
Flavours of Asia Weekend High-Tea Buffet
Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays
1:00 p.m.to 5:00 p.m.| Adult: $32.00 Child: $16.00 (5-12 years of age)
Flavours Superstar Zichar Semi-Buffet Dinner
Sundays to Thursdays
6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. (last orders – buffet) | Adult: $40.00 Child: $20.00 (5-12 years of age)
Fridays & Saturdays
6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. (last orders – buffet) | Adult: $48.00 Child: $24.00 (5-12 years of age)
A La Carte – Weekdays
12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (lunch) 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. (dinner)
Weekends
12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (lunch) 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (dinner)
All prices stated above are quoted in Singapore Dollar and subject to 10% service charge and prevailing government tax.
Flavours at Zhongshan Park
Ramada Singapore
16 Ah Hood Road
Level 1
Singapore 329982
Tel: +65 68086846
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flavoursramada
Website: http://www.flavoursatzhongshanpark.com
Nearest MRT: Novena (NS Line), Toa Payoh (NS Line)
Ramada-mn that looks like a good spread. could just sit next to the pai tee corner and just fill up on that.
Gosh, I’ve not done a hotel buffet for a very, very long time … this post makes me wanna go over to a good hotel and feast to my heart’s content 😀