[Review] Ellenborough Market Cafe High-Tea Buffet (Swissotel Merchant Court, Clarke Quay)
[With updates after another visit in Jan 2016.]
The husband and I had a free hi-tea buffet for 2, as we used HSBC card to pay for our tour package at the recent Travel Revolution fair. Afraid that we would forget to use it, we decided to use it this weekend - yes, after we had another buffet last week at Cafe Swiss.
The hi-tea buffet was from 3.30pm to 5.30pm, but we could get seated at 3.20pm. (In fact, there were many kiasu Singaporeans who were already queueing before us!) Most of the other customers were families and middle-aged ladies who were catching up, so it felt like a family affair.
Although we knew that Ellenborough was famous for Peranakan food, we were told that the hi-tea buffet would mainly consist of local and Asian food, so we weren't expecting much. However, there were Peranakan delights like the famous durian pengat, chendol, laksa, and so forth, so yay! I will let the rest of the photos do the talking.
Mains
 |
| Everyone rushed for the salmon sashimi. |
 |
| Not too spicy yet flavourful |
 |
| The chicken satay was really good. Succulent and tender. The otak was smooth too, according to the husband (but too spicy for me!). |
 |
| Lotus leaf chicken. So daintily wrapped. Nice! |
 |
| The fried stuff. Too salty and unhealthy though. |
Overall, I have to say that the selection of the mains was wide, with cold soba, salmon sashimi, fried carrot cake, satay, laksa, otak, mee goreng, murtabak, roti john, Cantonese dim sum, Beijing dumplings. But it was a little too salty for our liking.
Desserts - What's a buffet without desserts?
 |
| A wide selection of Western delights and Peranakan favourites. |
Again, the selection of Westerm delights and Peranakan favourites was very wide. The durian pengat and chempadek pengat were the best. Too bad we didn't have photos as we gobbled them up. Oops. Brownies were great too.
|
| The greedy hedgehog had its favourite durian and chempedak pengat again! (Jan 2016) |
We could make our own chendol too. There were also other traditional Chinese desserts like creamy peanut soup, pear fungus soup. More cooling fruits like mangosteen, honeydew and watermelon were available to cool down after the heaty durian and chempadek desserts. Thoughtful!
Overall
There was a wide variety of mains and desserts. I would certainly recommend it if you have an overseas friend who has come to Singapore and would like to try local/ Peranakan delights. Quality is so-so, with some food being overly salty, fried and sweet. It's good for someone like me who likes a bit of everything - and not that fussy about food. Ben, who is a more discerning diner than me, would probably not come for a second time though.
 |
| That's how my buffet plate looks - a bit of everything. |
Well, enough of buffets for us for now. Having buffets in 2 concurrent weeks had been a little overwhelming - to say the least. Got to exercise first! :)
Variety: 7.5/10
Taste: 6/10
Ambience: 6/10 (It was quite crowded and noisy. Tables were quite packed together too.)
Value for money: NA (We had this free, but if we paid for it at usual price, it'd be a 6.5/10.)
Overall: 7/10
(This is the average rating from the husband and me)
Ellenborough Market Cafe, Swissotel Merchant Court Hotel (website)
High-tea buffet: $30++ per adult
3.30pm to 5.30pm
For reservations, please call +65 6239 1848 /1847 or email emc.reservations@swissotel.com
