Name: Ko Yan Sheng Billy
Student Number: S10105902
Blog Address: http://billyko-trm.blogspot.com/
Previously, I did a review on a buffet regarding Chinese cuisine. After reading the comments for that review, I realised that many people wanted more variety of food in a buffet. Also, since there was an overwhelming response, I decided to do another restaurant review. This time, it would be an International Buffet named “Sakura International Buffet”
Location
Sakura International Buffet is available throughout the whole of Singapore. For those staying in the east, they could visit the Downtown East Branch while for those who stay in the west, they could try out the branch at Jurong West Sports & Recreational Centre, which is just a few minutes walk from Pioneer MRT station. Thus, there shouldn’t be a problem getting to a Sakura restaurant.
Food
There are huge variety of foods in different sections of the restaurant. There is the Sushi section, the dessert section, the seafood section, soups and the hotplate section.
For finger food, I tried out the sushi's. The raw tuna tasted fresh, with no foul smell when eating it. However, the sushi was quite tasteless, thus, they provided wasabi and vinegar to dip the sushi in, so that it will tingle your taste buds.
Next, I decided to try out the soups. There was only Sharks Fin soup and Mushroom Soup available. Even though the variety of soups is small, The restaurant made it up by perfecting the taste of the soups. The Sharks Fin soup had a lot of ingredients e.g fish maw, scallop etc. It was similar to Hotels standard of Sharks Fin soup, except for the ambience of the restaurant, which I will talk about later.
However, the best thing I like about the soups is that they are served hot. I personally believe that soups, no matter how nice they taste, are just like plain water if they are not served hot.
The mushroom soup is also worth talking about. It is not the typical Campbell soup you see in supermarkets. The mushroom soup is made on the spot as you can taste the freshness of the mushroom and furthermore, they don’t cut down on the quantity even though they provide such good quality.
For the main courses, there is Seafood Fried Rice, plain rice and noodles to fill your appetite. The Seafood Fried Rice is simply splendid. The appearance of the dish is enough to make you drool. The white rice filled with a tinge of yellowness from the egg and greens from peas. It is really an art work so perfectly drawn.
A few ‘Must-try” dishes at the restaurant would be their Fried Ebi Prawn and their satay. The fried prawn makes the whole meal worth the money as they really fry the whole prawn, unlike some restaurants that would mince the prawn meat up, before frying. Upon biting, you can just hear the crunchiness of the skin, but when you reach the prawn, the taste of good-ness enters your mouth. The prawn is very fresh as you can taste the springy-ness of the prawn. It blends perfectly with the fried skin. For those who don’t like eating Fried Ebi Prawn by itself, there’s the typical Tomato, Chilli and Mayonnaise sauce provided
The satay was nicely barbequed. The crisp in the meat makes the satay so scrumptious. Furthermore, with the satay sauce provided, the combination of both is just marvellous.
In the background, you can see that there are steaks and baked beans provided, just like the Western style. A pity I didn’t get a chance to feast on the mouth-watering steak, as I had to reserve my stomach for desserts!
Desserts
For desserts, you will be spoilt for choice. They provide desserts ranging from ice creams to cakes and even to mochi’s.
Let me share on the ice creams first. There was quite a huge variety of ice-cream with the usual flavours and some unique flavours. The flavours they provided are Yam, Sweet Corn, Lime, Blueberry Ripple, Strawberry Ripple, Chocolate and Mocha Chips, Coffee, Mango, Strawberry and Rum and Raisins.
Regarding the cakes, I feel that the quantity was good, however, the quality was not there. I had a go on the fruit cake. It was generally nice, with the fillings of fruits in the fruit cake. The only thing I felt that they could improve on is the texture of the cake. The cake was too hard. One good thing was that the cakes came in bite-sized pieces, saving all the trouble to cut the cake.
Ambience
I went to the Downtown East Branch on a Saturday afternoon. Being a buffet, there are bound to be queues for the food. Furthermore, the place was very cluttered with chairs and tables all over the restaurant. This makes it very hard for one to manoeuvre back to the seats after taking the food. The place was very noisy and packed during lunch hour.
Price
For a buffet of such good quality and variety, I feel that overall, it was worth the money. For lunch (12 noon – 2.30 p.m) , the prices would be as follows:
Adult: $21.00+
Senior Citizen: $18.90+
Kids: $11.90+
While for dinner (6p.m-9.30p.m), the prices are:
Adult: $25+
Senior Citizen: $18.90+
Kids: $11.90+
Even though some may find it a bit expensive, but if you compare it with other buffets that offer such high standards, those would easily cost you easily $50 per person. Thus, Sakura International Buffet is value for money.
Something worth mentioning is the way satay’s and steaks are ordered. At every table, there are ice cream sticks with the table number indicated on the sticks. To order the satay, you must bring along the ice cream stick to the counter, and place it in the holder next to the food that you want. Within minutes, the food will bee served to you. There is no limit to the number of times you can order the food. I feel that this is a very unique measure as it ensures that the food is served hot and that there is always food provided for the customers.
This restaurant would be for those who can really eat a lot as there is a huge variety of food. On the other hand, this restaurant is not for those who are health-conscious as the food they provide have high calories and they are mostly fried.
On the whole, I would rate the restaurant a 4.00/5.00
Good points: Variety of Food
Quality of Food
Price
Easily Accessible
Bad points: Ambience
