Hey Hive!
Even though there are still people getting covid, it's basically being treated like a cold these days so thankfully almost everything is back to normal now! There are no more restrictions on dining these days and you don't even have to wear a mask anymore if you don't want to! It's a huge relief and this allows us to try different food places again!
It's been a month or so since Lunar New Year, which is always a big thing here in Singapore where majority of the population is Chinese. It's a custom to wear new/red clothes and go visiting relatives during the New Year, bringing oranges and exchange red envelopes with new notes of cash to wish each other a new year of good fortune and wealth.
This year, on the third day of the New Year, Sean's relatives graciously invited us to join them for a buffet lunch at the Holiday Inn restaurant called Atrium.
I've never been to this hotel before but it had a similar vibe to one of the fancier ones we've seen in the city, with this huge open lobby going all the way to the top and the lifts being able to see every floor.
The restaurant also had a unique design too, with these super huge lampshades on the ceiling. The surrounding wall was floor-to-ceiling windows though so there was plenty of light in the daytime.
We were shown to our table and since we had a big group we had 2+1 tables since they couldn't connect 3 together. The tables looked pretty simple though, similar to a casual family restaurant.
Since it was a buffet, we took the time to look over all the food that was available before taking our food. That way, we knew which ones to go for because there was no way we could try everything. There were also some foods that were not to our taste as well.
The two sections we always skip over in buffets is seafood and salads. Everyone tends to stack on the seafood since it costs the most and gives the most value to customers, but neither of us are fans of crab legs and such. The only raw seafood I will eat is salmon sashimi and I don't trust buffets that have fresh salmon.
They had lots of cooked dishes as well of course so not to worry. I would say this was the main table where there were plenty of cooked food on induction stoves which made it easy to handle. There were also a pot of satay sticks with mutton and/or chicken. Behind the main table there was a porridge station as well.
At the main table there were plenty of gravy soaked dishes like fish, chicken, pork and beef. Some were cooked Asian style and some Western.
My first plate was mostly dishes from the main table with all its meats like braised chicken. They also had some carbs there like a pot of yam rice which I really liked. The satay was also not bad, but I didn't really like the Western fish dish. The cream sauce they had was way too strong and a little sour too. I did finish my plate though.
Just beside the main table was a mini Chicken Rice stall that they modeled just like the Chicken Rice stalls in hawker centers! It was really cool, and there was a staff member you could call on to chop the chicken for you. The main table also had rice cookers full of plain rice and even special chicken rice which was pretty good!
For my second plate I tried the chicken rice which was quite fragrant and not too oily. I took more of the braised mushrooms and vegetables since that was the only vegetable dish that wasn't salad.
They had a special table for seasonal dishes as well and since it was Chinese New Year, the dish was Kueh Pie Tee - a popular Peranakan dish. It is a thin and crispy pastry tart shell kuih filled with a spicy, shredded Chinese turnips, sweet mixture of thinly sliced vegetables and prawns. Here they let you make your own as it is a buffet after all.
Since Singapore is multi-cultural, they had food from multiple cuisines as well even though it was a Chinese New Year buffet. They had a dedicated chef just focusing on this Indian food section with prata and curry. He was making fresh prata on the spot so it was warm and crispy.
I tried a piece and it was quite doughy but nice. There wasn't as much of a crisp as I would like, but the curry was quite light and paired well with it.
They also had a small turkish kebab that you could order from the chef. But unlike regular kebab places they just gave you the meat instead of wrapping it in a burrito or some carb. We tried a piece and it wasn't that great tbh. I think the meat was dry and not seasoned enough.
Beside the Indian food there was also a station for Laksa! It reminded us of the buffets we've had in airport lounges where they had signature laksa you could prepare yourself. They even had instructions on the board to tell you how to do it.
We thought we had to take it ourselves but then a chef came by to help us prepare the laksa. I guess because the potential scaling from blanching the noodles or something they didn't want to be liable for a lawsuit.
It was fine though, since the chef prepared it for us perfectly. It looked and smelled so good, and tasted just like the ones we've had at the sats lounge in the airport. We wondered if they used the exact same recipe.
By now each of us took about 3 plates of food and had 2 drinks from the drink machine which had some drinks like blackcurrant juice, ice lemon tea and calamansi juice.
But it was time for dessert and beside the drink machine was a whole refrigerated cabinet full of different cakes and fruit. There was also a shaved ice machine you could use to make your own ice kachang, which is a local shaved ice dessert topped with sugar syrups, coconut milk and jellies.
We tried a few of the cakes including a blueberry cheesecake, opera cake, coconut cake and lemon cheesecake. Of the 4 I think we agreed that the opera cake was the best although the chocolate on top was very rich.
After all that food I had to balance it out with some refreshing fruit and the selection was quite limited but at least they had watermelon and honeydew.
There was also a table with small snacks like assorted layered kueh and kacang puteh which is Malay for "white nuts" although they're not really white. They're basically made with assorted nuts and beans.
I think we tried one of the green kueh made of coconut which was surprisingly very jelly-like and sticky. The texture was a lot softer than I thought but it was okay. I was way too full to enjoy anymore though.
Overall, it was a very satisfying meal. There were a few dishes that stood out to me like the yam rice, the laksa and the prata. Maybe because it's been a while since I've had those dishes but the others were pretty average. Nothing to complain about but nothing to write home about either.
The only complaint I would have about the place is the restaurant itself. The downside to having such an open restaurant is the lack of ventilation because it was quite warm like there wasn't any air-conditioning, especially with so many stoves on in the buffet. It wasn't that bad that I was sweating thankfully, but I did see some people perspiring quite a bit.
It was still a really great meal though, and a good way to round out the New Year celebrations. Hope everyone had a lovely New Year and cheers to a happy 2024 (even though we're already a quarter in)!
Thanks so much for reading!
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