The Ellenborough Market Cafe is located inside the Swisshotel Merchant Court Hotel, just walking distance from Clarke Quay MRT (take exit B!) The restaurant has a nice colonial style decor- very nice and homely. There are two buffet stations- one near the entrance serves fresh, raw seafood, desserts and the other main station inside the restaurant offers the rest of the spread. Here are some highlights:
Japanese/ Korean food counter- There's free flow sashimi, freshly cut slices of salmon and tuna that are perpetually swept off the serving plates by eager sashimi lovers. Be prepared to face hoardes of hostile uncle and aunties bent on removing every single sashimi slice from the place. A sushi chef also furiously prepares various sushi pieces which are also constantly swept off the plates. I don't envy the sushi chef's job; if he is not cutting up sashimi, he's rolling up sushi, or being stared down by impatient uncles and aunties. There was also some korean salad served with hints of kim chi which was rather meh.
Cold seafood counter- There are raw oysters, mussels and steamed prawns to choose from. I was suffering from a severe oyster craving, hence the pile of oysters on my plate. Oysters were quite fresh- didn't have any stomach upset the next day hehe. Prawns were big, juicy and succulent.
Nonya food counter- A wide variety of authentic nonya dishes like Ayam Buah Keluk, Chap Chye, fish, Nonya otah. There is also a Kong Ba Pau counter where the chef will prepare the soft steamed buns with braised pork on the spot. There is also a Nonya dessert counter which serves out an assortment of mini bite size kuehs kuehs placed in erm, bird cages.
Hot food counter- The two must try dishes are Butter Fish with Broadbean Sauce and Stir Fried Slipper Lobster in Black Bean Sauce (above). The fish is an excellent dish with great texture and flavour, and its quality is comparable to those served out in expensive chinese restaurants. No wonder the fish meat is quickly polished off the plate once it touches the table. The slipper lobster is also another dish that is not exempt from diners' relentless stomachs. The lobster meat is very fresh, retains QQ texture and goes really well with the black bean sauce that is not overly salty. Do examine the lobster shells carefully; you would want to pick the piece with the meatiest section (like the one shown above) and not some random shell part with no meat. This uncle in front of me actually took his time digging into the catering dish to locate the fattest, juiciest lobster meat (like digging gold in black sauce) and ended up hogging the queue. (He obviously didn't care what people behind him thought). And if you can't do without your greens, do grab some Stir fried seasonal vegetables in abalone sauce, also available here.
Durian Pengat- The famous, MUST TRY durian dessert served here. It is essentially thick, luscious durian cream, pureed from high quality durian flesh. Each mouthful is bursting with fragrant, bittersweet taste of durians pulp and cream. Durian lovers would TRULYMADLYDEEPLYABSOLUTELY adore this. I was somewhat tempted to haul the whole vat of durian pengat back to the table, but I managed to restrain myself.
Dessert counter- Sorry, I was too lazy to arrange the items nicely on the plate, but you get the idea- this place serves an assortment of cakes and pastries. I was too full to stomach everything by then, but there were also local desserts and ice cream available!BTW, they do serve coffee/tea, just ask the friendly waiters around. I also thought the waiters were quite prompt in clearing the plates; by the time you return from another round of food stacking, the dirty plates from your table magically vanishes!
The price of a buffet dinner for one adult is about $60 (after the addition of GST and service charges), which can be a little steep. But considering the spread of good, fresh food available, it's worth the occasional food
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