We and our extended family members of 11 adults and 3 kids
went for our belated Father's Day celebration @ Melt ~ The World Cafe in
Mandarin Oriental, 5 Raffles Avenue, Marina Square, Singapore 039797 on
5-July-2014 (Saturday).
Frankly, it is always difficult to get a parking lot around Marina Square area on a Saturday evening. The parking challenges (not to mention the traffics congestion), went up two folds especially in the month of July to early August because of the the annual NDP rehearsal at the Marina Bay floating platform. So, if you drive and plan to have dinner around Marina Square area, you might be better off pushing out your visit to the area to a date after Aug 9. Otherwise, the use of valet parking at the hotel can be an option. If you dislike huge crowds, you might also want to avoid first or second week of September when the Formula One (F1) event is in full swing.
Now, back to the buffet...I must said that Melt ~ The World Cafe is one of the
best buffet restaurant in town even though it was ranked 84 among all the
restaurants in Singapore based on the reviews done at TripAdvisor.
Note that the restaurant required credit card information and their policy states that all cancellations should be made 3 days
before the reservations date, otherwise the following charges apply:
Reservations cancelled more than 3 days in advance – no
cancellation charge
Reservations cancelled between 3 days and 24 hours in
advance – 50% of menu price
Reservations cancelled less than 24 hours in advance or no
show – 100% of menu price
Any cancellation shall be acknowledged by the hotel in
writing.
Stepping into the restaurant at the 4th floor, we can immediately see that the dining area is relatively huge. There were reasonable spread of buffet stations with a unique BBQ area located outside the enclosed dining area. There were the usual choices of buffet spreads such as sushi & sashimi, pastries and dessert, Indian vegetarian, bryani &
tandoori corner, wide selection of bread, salad bar, local-flavour noodle such as laksa, tom-yum, roast wagyu beef and chicken as well as good selection of fruits.
We especially like the BBQ
section - the suckling piglet has a crispy skin with tender and flavourful meat and my kids kept going back
for their satay & BBQ prawns.
Their salmon, tuna and octopus sashimi are
very fresh - clearly an excellent choice for sashimi lover!
Lobsters and salmon seemed to make a prominent presence at most of the food stations. I especially like their laksa with lobster. The laksa soup is so so addictive! I went for the second helping but without the noodle. I peeled off the 2~3 lobster fresh meat and soak them into laksa soup. The warm flavourful laksa taste from the soup and the slightly cold lobster meat gel very well. With generous sprinkle of laksa leave, the combination just delivers a nice kick of instant gratification! Oh ... and the prawn inside the laksa was so fresh, just the sort of slight "crunchiness" that I enjoy with every bites...
Talked about salmon .. and there was a huge salmon cooked in tandoori style at the Indian food section:
A good selection of Indian vegetarian food and Naan were also available. However, the Naan were slightly oily and it just did not taste the same as the excellent Naan that we used to eat at Muthu's Curry Restaurant.
There were wagyu beef chunks cooked in curry at the Indian food section but somehow, we didn't really like it - might be due to the taste of strong curry and spices that was just a bit too overpowering. We still prefer the traditional western roast version with black pepper sauce. With relatively thin slices, they really brought-out the fatty rich flavour of the wagyu beef - absolutely tender and marvellous!
For those who crave for artesan bread, there were enough varieties to choose from. Nice to eat them with hot curry sauce or you can make your own version of Subway meal ...
Hmm.. I saw fresh oysters from the TripAdvisor reviews but unfortunately, there was none when we dined there. Now, going over to their dessert and pastries section, their homemade mango and lychee ice-cream are must try - not too sweet and went very well with the
waffles. The exception was their strawberry and chocolate flavour ice-cream - somehow, it was rare to see my kids refused to finish-off both flavoured ice-cream!
Oh.. you might also want to have a bite on their signature Melt cake (see picture above). Absolutely spongy soft and most importantly, not too sweet. I bet you can easily swallow down two pieces if there are still room inside your tummy.. lol! You can finish-up your meal with either a cup of coffee or tea - they were included as part of your buffet meal.
On the services, they are really first class! Since my two kids are not
really big eater, they decided not to charge for their meal - a great gesture
indeed! In all, it was really one of our most enjoyable dinner - two thumbs up
for the restaurant!
Additional information about the International Dinner Buffet:
Tip: For extra value, you might want to use UOB credit card - currently there is an on-going 3-for-1 buffet promotion. 15% discount on total spent for credit cards from HSBC, Citibank, AMEX and DBS/POSB. You can also request for a free parking coupon.
