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2020-10-04
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We had been frequent visitors to Cafe TOO for lunch buffet given its pancake station, Haagen Dazs ice-cream station, delicious desserts, reasonably good sashimi and reasonably wide variety of hot dishes of reasonable quality.While we hadn't been here for meals for around 2 years, we came in a group of 21 on a Saturday night for dinner buffet. It was the long weekend of mid-autumn + National Day. It was my first time to have dinner buffet here. Cost was $698+10% for 1 adult. There was 20% discoun
While we hadn't been here for meals for around 2 years, we came in a group of 21 on a Saturday night for dinner buffet. It was the long weekend of mid-autumn + National Day. It was my first time to have dinner buffet here. Cost was $698+10% for 1 adult. There was 20% discount by using HSBC credit card. Dinner buffet started at 6:30p.m. The reason that we came here was because we couldn't secure seats somewhere else. It wasn't really full during our visit. And you would soon know why...
We arrived earlier than 6:30p.m. so we had some time to walk around and take some photos. Everyone of us had to have our body temperature measured before entering the restaurant. There was a hand sanitizer beside the plates.
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Cold Seafood
As soon as you enter the restaurant, you will be greeted by this cold seafood bar. We didn't try any of the crabs while I tried half a lobster. It seemed to be the only seafood which wasn't available during lunch buffet compared with my visit two years ago. The lobster was basically tasteless. Disappointed.
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Sashimi (赤貝, Salmon, Scallop, Tuna, Octopus)
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There were 5 types of sashimi (赤貝, Salmon, Scallop, Tuna, Octopus), 1 more compared with lunch buffet 2 years ago. Scallop was not available during lunch so we ate loads. They were really so thick and fresh and meaty. Yummy. 赤貝 was not fully defrosted with some ice in between. Octopus sucked because I couldn't chew them off. Nothing special with salmon and tuna. The soy sauce seemed a little bit more salty than normal soy sauce I had outside. I asked for more scallops and 赤貝 and the server did give me more, but in a not-so-willing manner which made me feel uneasy.
Sushi & Rolls
I recalled there were 2 types of sushi, salmon and tuna. I didn't try as there were sashimi available. There were a few types of rolls with clear labels. I didn't try although I had once thought of trying because there didn't seem to be any other good items to eat. There were small bowls of soba with crab stick in between.
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Appetisers and Salads
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There was a cheese corner. My dinner partner said the blue cheese was not overly salty and was very good. I just added some nuts to my ice-cream later on. There were two types of appetisers being smoked salmon and parma ham which I hadn't tried. The salads were put together in small bowls for hygiene reasons but the bad thing was we might not want everything on the bowl so it stopped me from taking more. The greens were fresh but I didn't like the cheese cubes that much so I didn't take more.
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There was a Thai-style appetisers at the very corner. I just tried their Green Papaya Salad which was really spicy but ingredients were fresh indeed.
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At the front of the hot dishes line, the soup had replaced the dim sum corner 2 years ago. The soup of the day was fish maw, chicken, ginseng soup. There was a very small and thin piece of fish maw. The soup itself was ok. I didn't eat other ingredients.
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Dim sum
There was a steam basket right next to the soup corner. There were just two types of dim sum being 蝦餃 and siu mai. Two years ago there were 鳳爪, 素餃, 蝦餃 and a special 小籠包 corner even during lunch buffet.
Chinese hot dishes came first in the line before Western hot dishes. There were Chinese fried rice and average family-like Chinese soup. There were a few Chinese fried dishes. I took an Aberdeen-style crab claw which seemed to be the most attractive dish. I tried the sweet and sour pork bone which was not so good. 乾煸四季豆 was the best because the beans were reasonably fresh and well-flavoured. I recalled another dish was some big wa wa choy which looked so dark and was not appealing at all.
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Roasted beef and chicken
Roasted beef bones were no longer available. I tried 2 slices of roasted beef because the first slice was too thin...They were pink inside which was ok tender. The crust was too hard and rough. The grilled veggies on the side were TOO SALTY! I didn't try the roasted chicken.
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Then Western hot dishes followed. There were some raviolis, duck breasts, pan-fried fish which didn't look appealing at all. There was not even lamb racks at this price......
滷水燒味BBQ
I tried some fatty char siu. Some were crispy and yummy but some were too lean even with fat. I tried a piece of oil chicken which was ok. There were also roasted goose which I didn't try. There were also some 滷水 eggs and sausages.
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Noodle Bar
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大蝦叻沙 was one of the best things to try. Because the laksa soup base was very tasty and the noodles were super super smooth and elastic. I wish my stomach had more room for the noodles! The grilled prawn was relatively less pleasing. This server also made us feel uneasy as we were discouraged from ordering other balls/veggies in addition to their standard 大蝦叻沙 . Yet the prawn and lobster ball we ordered were cooked just right that they were so fresh and elastic. Yummy! I also ordered some spinach which was just like 1 tiny piece at the bottom though...
Teppan Angus beef cubes & Mussels
There was no teppan lobster as other Openrice buddies had commented before. Just Angus beef cubes. Yet they were so overcooked. What a waste of food indeed. There was a line waiting for these. For mussels, the mussels were so fresh and smooth. One of the best I had ever had. However, they didn't keep cooking them and so it was hard to eat more.....So end result was: most of the time you only got to eat the cheaper food which was less tasty....
Indian Corner
There was a tempura station which I didn't take photo of. 2 years ago during lunch buffet, there used to be fish and prawn. Now there was only prawn. The prawn was ok to eat when freshly deep fried and they seemed to keep making them. The batter was quite thick though. There were 2 types of veggie tempura which were pumpkin and eggplant. It was hard to eat freshly deep fried pumpkin and eggplant tempura because people didn't seem to be eating much. I didn't try any food from the Indian corner, as always. There were a few curries and deep-fried spring rolls etc.
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Desserts
I was glad that they still had a dessert station at the centre of their restaurant. However, I had to admit that it was less lovely and festive with much fewer choices of food even at dinner buffet compared with my lunch buffet experience 2 years ago. Lucky that the quality was still there.
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They used to lay out their desserts much higher in a lovely and festive setting but it was no longer available. Choices were much less as there used to be jellys, some festive items like mooncake, macarons, chocolates which were no longer available.
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Apricot & pistacchio mousse, cheese tart, hazelnut cake, lychee strawberry, cheese cake
Apricot & pistacchio mousse was ok only. Cheese tart was lava inside and the tart base was a pass only - not particularly crunchy. It was not comparable to the great cheese tart I had at PLAYT. Hazelnut cake was a must-try - maybe the best item here because it was just like the super elaborate cake from top-notch cake shop like Island Gourmet. The texture was complicated with thin chocolate paper and crunchy nutty base in the middle as well as a big nutty hazelnut on top. Yummy! I had 1 and a half! Lychee strawberry was quite fruity and not particularly filling. The cheesecake was rich and smooth - quite good for dinner buffet like this.
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Hazelnut Cake, Cheese Tart, Chocolate Brownie, Lemon Pie
While the Hazelnut Cake and Cheese Tart were both encore-able, the chocolate brownie was quite crunchy and tasty too, and the lemon pie was pretty refreshing although the pie base was not particularly crunchy. But then there were only 5 items which I hadn't tried, including red velvet cake, banana cake, puff. They used to have green tea and red bean mousse, mango sticky rice, jelly etc.......
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Haagen Dazs Ice-cream station
Lucky that the ice-cream station was still available. There were 8 flavours, including my favourite strawberry & cream, green tea and chocolate. Other flavours included vanilla, rum and raisin, coffee, raspberry sherbet and another sherbet. Look at the candy corner - the usual lovely chocolate plates were no longer available. Only M&Ms and some rainbow toppings for you to add to the ice-cream.
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Pancake with ice-cream
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Lucky that my favourite pancake was still available. I always thought Cafe TOO offered one of the best pancakes with ice-cream in town. Their pancakes were very smooth and hot so went great with the yummy Haagen Dazs Ice-cream. I didn't need to eat with other stuffings although they had some pears to add at your choice. This time they also made part of the pancakes pretty crispy which was even better so that there were different textures in 1 dessert dish. I had 3 rounds of pancakes! However, the server making the pancake again made us feel uneasy
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Fruits and Cheese Tart
I am afraid I really had to complain about the fruits because there were just water melons, Hami melons, pineapples and white dragon fruits. Even the mixed fruit bowl contained Hami melon cubes, pineapple cubes, water melon cubes and very few blueberries. Where were the fresh berries? Where were the dried fruits which we used to see 2 years ago during lunch buffet?
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Mango Alaska
When we heard the bell, we thought there would be souffle. Unfortunately, the souffle were no longer available. They had this mango Alaska instead. No alcohol flavour nor much mango flavour, the ice-cream inside seemed to be vanilla but it was so much worse than Haagen Dazs. It was ok but definitely not anything to encore.
That said, I had to mention that one of the female servers was very very good that she was responsible for handing out plates to customers and she was very friendly to come remind me of the fresh round of dim sum when I first went and saw no dim sum. She was also very nice in helping us take pictures. However, she seemed to be the only helpful server at the restaurant whole night.
By the way, we were here to celebrate the birthday of two family members. The restaurant did offer two small cakes with a chocolate plate and a candy to celebrate.
In conclusion, we were very disappointed. No wonder there were so many negative comments recently and there was a reason - cost cutting with much fewer variety of food, AND POOR SERVICE in general. There were not many good foods to eat given the price. Even worse compared with my lunch buffet experience 2 years ago. I know it might be because of COVID-19. I hope not everywhere has worsened like this. Otherwise there was really no point eating buffet in hotels anymore.
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