Triple Three Hokkaido Buffet 18-31 Oct 2013

Went for the buffet last night (Saturday 19 Nov) and it wasn't very crowded surprisingly! The buffet focuses quite strongly on Japanese food though I must say whether the source is Hokkaido is questionable. Overall its a rather good spread with quality being average-slightly above average! Here's the spread!

Once you enter, you'll see a wide array of desserts focusing mainly on CHOCOLATE laid out in front of your eyes! The hungry boy and I couldnt resist eating some chocolate truffles, macarons and salted caramel tart :) which were all quite yummy!

Front left: Desire cake (with crunchy praline!) this was really good and I finished it although I was filled to the brim!

Middle: mango passion fruit something!

Right: honey truffle

Salted caramel tart - the boy says its really good!

Jar thing - mousse x choc biscotti

Macaon was not bad, shell was not chewy nor crispy, very in between haha

Tiramisu in the middle, choc choux puffs to the right

Interesting flavour! But the boy says this was okay only

Teppanyaki station! This has always been a feature at Triple Three

Croquettes with hokkaido ingredients 

Fruits!

Mochi!

Ice cream - yuzu sorbet, strawberry sorbet, matcha, chocolate, hokkaido milk. red bean, hokkaido sea salt

Top: choc cream puff

Bottom: vanilla cream puff w red bean inside!

"Japanese desserts"

Yoghurt puddings

Matcha truffles (THESE WERE THE BOMB, bitter though and not sweet, full of matcha flavour which I love so I had like 7 of these haha)

Swiss rolls - the boy liked the plain one w strawberry!

Pumpkin tart

Red bean sponge cake

Dorayakis but that looked really sad

Cold seafood!

Scallops

Mussels

Snow crab - SO GOOD

Prawns - v fresh!

Oysters - freshly shucked (okayish only)

Sashimi counter (salmon, tuna, scallop, octopus, swordfish, yellow tail I think)

Sushi

Mains section

The chef is cutting the wagyu beef which everyone raved about!

Towards the left side - beef stew (jap style), hokkaido creamy chicken stew, jap steamed pork don, miso soup x crab meat

Rotisserie - wagyu, honey baked ham

To the right of the photo - bread counter: very Jap focused! Mentaiko bread with salmon filling, matcha soft roll etc

Some photos of my food:

Robatayaki counter

You can choose what you want and they'll grill it for you!

Choices on top of those above: bacon rolled w something, corn

Scallops were really good I felt, plump and juicy! Quail eggs were a little disappointing

Dont get the gingko please, they were SO bitter! Am a gingko fan but this was really bad

Steamed potato

Assorted croquettes

Mentaiko lobster - was good!!

Tempura - there was a station frying tempura made on the spot! 

Chawanmushi was good and I went back for seconds

Steamed pork don

Lemon tart to the left - tart shell was q good but the lemon curd was so artificla!!

Choc cream puff was not bad but the choux pastry was just a tad hard

Dhal x "hokkaido" onion naan

I really dislike how this was called "hokkaido onion naan" when there were only 2 strips of onion in the naan and there wasnt any onion taste at all and srsly, hokkaido onion???

On another note, there was also mentaiko prata/naan which might have fared better?

Fruits were average, peaches were subpar.

Yuzu sorbet was refreshing!!

Matcha was okay

Not pictured ice creams

Red bean - quite good

Sea salt - not v salty but is salty

Ramen - my mom's bowl wasnt cooked thoroughly and nic says it tastes okay only

Service: quite hard to get the wait staff's attention. The lady serving us was always smiling, v friendly but sometimes didnt understand what we were saying and didnt or forgot to bring us what we wanted. Waited very long for the bill. Celebrated a birthday there and quite a big group of staff sang the birthday song for the bday boy. There was a lucky draw as well for every table! Overall, splotchy but just acceptable

Ambience: okay, nothing spectacular

Spread: for the mains, it was okay, not very big I feel. Desserts had a strong focus on "jap" + chocolate! 

Price: $128++ per adult (I wouldnt pay that amount of money though)

When: 18-31 Oct 2013, Dinners + Sunday brunch

Triple Three

Mandarin Orchard Hotel

333 Orchard Road

Level 5

88316288/71

Dessert First: V good desserts!

I was out with a group of friends and I suggested that we head to this dessert place for dessert as I've been reading really good comments about this place! Indeed it lived up to the hype!

Here's what we had! We kinda um over-ordered for 6 of us after our lunch but us being foodies, managed to finish it!

In general: their snow ice texture is really good! I love that it doesnt melt quickly and that its smooth + no annoying ice crystals inside! I really like the texture :)

Green Tea Snow Ice with Red Bean

$5

The green tea taste is not VERY strong but it is certainly discernible which isnt the case in some places. I like the red bean that comes along w it! Basically a classic match done well! My non-durian eating friends were really happy with this order too as they shared this amongst themselves and we just took some bites of it. 4.4/5

Durian Snow Ice

$6

Now the durian-eating people first ordered this and we were like OMGGGG THE DURIANNNNN~~~ and we all gave the super contented look after eating one mouthful of it. No kidding, no exaggeration. Durian lovers, you'll love this! The fresh durian pulp is so strong potent and yummy :) I actually love ice cold durian more than just eating the durian like that haha. 4.6/5 This doesnt get top marks because the durian dessert featured below is better!

Mango Snow ice

$5.50

This was good too! I'm sorry, I kinda forgot if this was snow/shaved ice! Am assuming snow though haha. Mango was rather sweet and definitely generous w the toppings!!! Syrup used isnt too sweet either so overall it was good :) 4.4/5

Peanut Tang Yuan

Can't rmb how much this is & its not on their website, sorry!

Tang yuan was so-so, quite normal this one but of course people would still order it when the craving strikes and theirs is not bad I must say. 3.5/5

Durian Shaved Ice

$6

We were so enamoured with the durian snow ice that we decided to order another durian-related dessert to share amongst the 3 durian-eating us! Boy were we glad we ordered this! This had a much stronger durian taste that perfumed every bite and was more potent than the snow ice! This was the consensus amongst us and we kinda wished we ordered this first! Dont worry if you feel that the shaved ice texture will be less smooth than the snow ice because somehow, Dessert First manages to make it really smooth too! This one doesnt melt v fast either so no worries about toppling and all. But its quite a skill to start eating this haha. Durian lovers, DO ORDER THIS!!! 4.8/5

Glutinous Rice Balls with Black Sesame Filling & Crushed Peanuts

Can't rmb how much this is & its not on their website, sorry!

I loved the crushed peanuts here and how this dish combines my love for peanut & black sesame! The glutinous rice balls are not sticky at all and the filling is rather adequate. That black sesame paste just oozing out slowly when you take a bite + the crunchy fragrant peanuts, mmm if you love both these ingredients then you'll likely like this dish!!

I think we spent about $24 here or something so per pax was $4! This is very good and affordable place for you and your friends to share dessert! I personally feel that it is better than Ah Chew & Ji De Chi! Like much much better!! We're planning to go back for waffles + durian cos the waffles look really crispy and we're in love with their durian :)

Dessert First

8 Liang Seah Street #01-04

SIngapore 189029

63330428

Website (includes their menu but the menu in the shop is more extensive)

Parking will be a bitch

Restaurant Week October 2013: Brasserie Les Saveurs

Semi-buffet dinner style! Appetiser + dessert buffet! Here are photos of the spread! Sorry for the poor quality + yellowish colour! It was the lighting there!

Really love the ambience!!

Heard a comment that the bread was hard

Tomato mozarella salad | pate | cucumber gazpacho | beef salad

Sushi/makis

Salads (mix it yourself)

Cold cuts

Salad (mix it yourself) (left)

Seaweed soup (right)

Chocolate fondue

Front: Chocolate tarts | champagne chantilly

Back: chocolate mousse | mango cake

Cheesecake | chocolate tart | champagne chantilly | lemon meringue | financier | brownie

macarons are for display only :(

Cheesecake | chocolate tart

Fruits

Kuehs 

Bread & butter pudding

Warm chocolate cake

Berry cobbler

Cheese trolley

Beautiful fountain view at dinner! It lasted throughout dinner :)

Beef salad: okayish

Cucumber gazpacho: not smooth, not soupy

Sushi/makis: suggest guys/v hungry people take more of these for some carbo!

Beetroot salad: it's really nice super sweet beetroot!!!! 

Grilled veggies: sweet and nice!

Tomato gazpacho: served to your table

Some notes: they dont tell you what it is, so I saw many tables just leaving it aside and not drinking it

Its actually quiet sour and minty! Quite a good appetiser!

Coq Au Vin

The boy said this was really tasteless

Salmon

I really liked the salmon although the seasoning could be a tad heavier. The salmon was really tender and so soft, I was really happy with the texture!! The sauce accompanying it was creamy but a tad sour. The cabbage (purple thing at the side) is sour and tastes really good with the creamy fatty salmon!

Look at the texture!

Rock melon - really sweet!!!

Papaya - okay

Watermelon - really juicy

Chocolate truffle - super dark bitter and good!

Cheese - I like the spread!

ALL the tarts - tart shells are soggy and soft

Cheesecake (middle) - super light cheesecake 

Warm chocolate cake (blackish thing at the back) - SUPERSUPERSUPER good!!! I ate so many portions of this. It was warm with a crispy crust and the chocolate was so rich and decadent. 

The round chocolate ball truffles ran out so they replaced it with different chocolate truffles (Square ones) which had a wider variety - white & milk & dark chocolate. One has coffebean on top and kahlua inside - not bad. The other one is dark chocolate and is good! 

Its $55++ per person for the dinner and I felt that the buffet variety wasn't really very wide and the quality was quite average. I would rather pay $55++ for a real buffet or other restaurants though the chocolate cake was really memorable! Generally I felt that their chocolate desserts were really good.

Ambience: I loved the whole ambience! Its one of the best experiences I've had so far. There was a live singer with a heavenly voice throughout dinner, though I'm not sure if she's there every night or selected nights.

Service: splotchy. When they're attending to you, they're polite and smiley. But attentiveness was quite bad! Had to keep asking them to refill our water and it was q hard to get someone's attention.

I might be lured back for a meal just for the ambience :)

Brasserie Les Saveurs

St Regis Level 1