Dinner today was at the Sakura Restaurant, particular the one at Clementi woods. Its a restaurant located right at the top of the hill within the park itself which stood there for quite a long time already. Previously it was a Chinese restaurant which now converted to the Sakura international buffet restaurant it is today.

Though enshrouded by the quietness and emptiness of the surroundings park, the hilltop restaurant is rather crowded when I visited it today. You can reach it by Westcoast highway making your way through the park or the main entrance from the Japanese School facing the NUS engineering faculty.

You can catch the sea and port views of the Pasir Panjang terminal in the distance from the restaurant carpark and hear an occasional ship’s horn as it departs from the port.

The restaurant only serves buffet and is rather popular among the residents and university dormitory students living nearby with an asking prices of $20++ for lunch and $24++ dinner for adults.

The buffet is spread over 2 floors, with a larger seating area at the 1st serving Chinese al-larte, western, seafood, together with the teppanyaki, laska, tim-sum together with The top floor is home to the Sushi, western BBQ, Italian Pizzas, Japanese salads and fruits/desserts area. The drinks and ice-cream sections are available on both floors. If quantity and variety is the selling factor for you, you are in, the Chinese selection of foods is already more than enough to tempt anybody and when you though you are done you are not only half way there.

Rows of Chinese dishes

Sushi Bar

Here we have pizzas!

The quality of the food is a mixed bunch. Commendable were the self help areas were the Chinese section, so was the Western, Tim-sum and the Pizza sections. The BBQ and Tepanyaki food quality were good as was the speed they were able to get the foods cooked and delivered to your table. The ice-cream and drink selection was descent and if you are creative enough will go make a green tea ice-cream float while you are at it.

However, on my visit, the seafood, Sushi and fruits section was in a very pathetic state- you get white-out muscles and watery calms, rotten Sushi as well as fruits which are all soft and water-soaked in the chillers you are supposed to help yourself from, it’s quite a turn off as a whole. So it’s a mix of relatively good and the exceptional bad which kinda muddles the whole experience.

Whether this experience is an isolated one, I have my mind open on that as I am not a regular there to comment on that. If seafood is your craving, I will recommend you to go for the cooked ones in cheese served by the table chefs, they are the ones you should go for, (unless you see it as a way to cover up for the unfresh seafood, I leave it to you). Most of the Tepanyaki was quite heaty as a whole, though if something quite expected of fried foods, not to mention the fried western food offered tucked in a corner. It’s something I will recommend eating in moderation or risk a sore throat which I am getting now. Thankfully there was free flow of drinks, particular green tea.

One of my biggest hassles was transition to the top floor for more varieties of food- there are 2 ways up one through the central spiral stairwell which will be quite a pain to enter and exit through the heavy glassdoors with your hands full of plates. The restaurant should know that we patrons won’t like to make so many trips up and down for food, (and we will mostly probably be loaded with plates if we do) only to be greeted to a door which only opens in one way and so heavy you have to slump yourself in to push it open, (unless theres a patron or staff there to open it for you). They should have at least have automatic doors or leave the door open with entrance air blowers to contain the air-conditioning The other alternative stairway have the glass doors opened all the time, only that you will have to pass near the toilets and garbage refuse areas before coming to your table, and will your food won’t feel so tasty thereafter.

It is the $24++ price of the buffet which made the trip a more tolerable experience as a whole.In all, it won’t be fair to put this joint under the ranks of the Vienna restaurant I last graded as a whole, but if you are looking for a budget Seoul garden alternative without the hassles of cooking the food yourself at the same remarkable price point and don’t mind an occasional quirk or two to spoil your overall experience coupled with excellent service staff, the Sakura restaurant is a place I will recommend you and your friends to spend a night out.

Dinner tonight was at Muthu’s Curry joint situated along race course road. It’s a restaurant which serves authentic Indian cuisine in a relatively posh setting comparable to that of general hotel restaurants. Having eaten there, why don’t I just share bit more about the place.

The old Muthu’s curry eatery used to be around the race course road area as well, but a much smaller restaurant till they moved to this new place not too sometime ago. It’s directly opposite the current temporary Tekka food center and market, given the actual Tekka food premises being closed for renovations. They have a 2nd Muthu’s curry branch in Singapore at the Suntec fountain terrace basement as well.

The place is very modern looking themed with a posh feel. All the staff are ironically Tamil but no language barrier here- they all speak good English well, which means good for the large considerable number of expats who frequent the joint based on the crowd that night. Overall, if you have a flair for Indian cuisine with quality and nice western ambiance, the place is for you. There is a high degree of authenticity you can get from the large variety of foods you can choose from the menu (including desserts) or the waiters will walk your through the main food selection display area if any of the food names on the menu gives you no clue what is it.

My family was there being invited by cousin Gordon and family as well. So it’s haha very much a dinner on them. We had fish head curry on top few some servings of nun, mutton, cabbage, sotong just to name a few. The food is good, but spicy for me and I kept sweating despite being in air-conditioning! But it’s just me as I was the only one breaking a sweat of of the 7 of us there, mainly because I have a low tolerance for spicy food as my sports and running culture prevents me from eating too much spicy foods.

The restaurant general setting

The table setting and servings

Serving selection area

But I won’t put them down just because of that. The quality of the food is excellent and freshly made (and replenished frequently from the kitchen), but having eaten from the streets of little India and Tekka and with the exception of their Kebabs and Masala Crabs and Prawn, I find that there is actually nothing else special or exclusive in what they serve- you can get the same delicacies off few stores in the Tekka food center at a much cheaper price as well. But Muthu’s curry have their own fair share of pluses- air-conditioning, security, a no-frills one-off melting pot for all what you want Tamil cuisine in one place as well as not having to pull through crowded little India streets and hawker center for crowds and keeps. If paying $6 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks is cool for you, then Muthu’s curry might just justify the asking price for you on their premium menus, which is ironically only al-la-carte (no buffet) and by nature is not exactly cheap either. As the saying goes, you pay $1 for the coffee and $5 for the seat and ambiance in Starbucks, maybe that might justify the free valet parking offered just right at their doorstep as well.

The staff service is just good but not excellent, given the exceptional one or two staff which dampened the rating. The whole place runs off an efficient computerized reservation as well as ordering system, just like what they do in our fast food joints- paperless PDA orders on wi-fi, so the onyl paper they use are your receipts- thats commendable on on their part.

In all Muthu’s curry is not totally bad, but for Singaporeans living in Singapore you will find yourself quite hard to be pleased by what they serve there. I will recommend the place however as an excellent joint for any expat friends you have around town who wants to try authentic Indian cuisine but just don’t want to get down and dirty in the mainstream hawker centers. You will have my vote for that.

Walk round Little India

The busy crowds

The place is packed

Walk round little India
Thereafter, since we were there, my family went off the explore few areas of Little India for the night and we were amazed to see the place like a little self-contained town. I mean yes we know that the place is mostly a populous area for our Tamil counterparts, but in terms of standards, we were surprised that it’s almost matching it like the orchard road of “India” you can say. Race course road on the other hand can be seen as the Holland Village of Little India. Walking through there really makes you feel like a foreigner- people all sitting in open fields chatting in Tamil, all the store sign boards are in Tamil, posters, signs, etc… and everyone is all foreign there, kinda makes you feel very much like you are in a foreign country- with the exception of the warmer Singapore nighttime climate hinting to you that you are not. If it were abit cooler at night it felt just like you are off the streets of a Bombay town. Further coupled with the May Day public holiday crowd, you should go there to see it for yourself, the feeling was unreal.

My family, including me will be rather busy end of the month with schedules and work commitments each of our own. So we’ve brought forward my birthday family dinner planned late month as part of my early birthday celebrations this year. This time it’s based on my mum’s recommendations to try out the international buffet at the Vienna international seafood and teppanyaki restaurant.

Located in the basement of United square right in front of the food junction entrance, you can’t miss the restaurant by the line of white gold-trimmed tables, not to mention crowds evident in the place always on weekends and dinner time. I’ve always had the impression of the it being a steamboat restaurant of sort when passing by always, little do I know only upon closer look on my visit where it’s actually a buffet joint and man do the people always come flocking in for it!

Price
For about $37++ a head, realistically you are paying about $40 per head plus all the extras. A price not that bad for a full international buffet menu. You also get a choice of 1 of 5 complimentary drinks (fruit punch is the most sought after). The place is run by a Taiwanese boss, who desires a typical flair of luxury, a typical of the restaurant royal furniture theme setting and extensive gold lit lighting fixtures.

Food quality
Personally, I am surprised by the quality of the food, especially the seafood which is always fresh and firm to the touch, you will get an assortment of snails, baby lobsters, crayfish, not to mention fresh oysters and clams (all firm, dry and fresh, not watery!) as well. For those who demand a little flair in taste there are specialty prepare and cooked clams with cheese just to name a afew. I’ve tried the seafood at Ritz Carton, but with the exception of a smaller spread and no free flow of large lobsters, amazingly I can say that Vienna seafood quality standard is actually slightly better, and for half the price you pay at Ritz, it’s simply a bargain!

I mean it’s amazing having it beat my seafood benchmark at many other hotels as well (mandarin, pan-pacific, calton, alson, furama, traders, swissotel, etc..) Ritz was always one of my favorite. Looks like things can change!

The buffet serving area

Food quality is actually quite good

Shot of the restaurant at closing

The other amazing thing is that they can even deliver this consistent food quality throughout the night in a full house packed Saturday, normally restaurants which are so loaded will tend to compromise on quality of the food, this is an exception!

Theres is quite an assortment of Japanese sushi and maki as well, not to mention lots of sashimi and exotic octopuses and tentacles. The Chinese menu is rather adequate with the usual blend of vegetables and meat dishes normally found on restaurant al-lacarte, there is also mandarin duck wraps and sharks fin soup as well.

Their western dishes however, are like simply non-existent. You only get a taste of western from a small beef corner tucked with cream soups and the free-flow teppanyaki section for all your “on-the-spot” chicken chops and grilled fish prepared and served to you. So you if you looking for lots of variety prime cut meats, sauces and deep fried foods, you are quite out of luck.

If the complimentary drink is not enough for you, there is quite an assortment of free flow drinks noticeable some cocktail ones served in shot glasses and even test tubes interesting touch indeed, contrary to drinking them as opposed in chemistry classes you’ve ever taken in high school.

The desserts section is rather adequate with an assortment of cakes you can find in budget hotels, but disappointing is the fruit and salad sections which are dwarfed in small serving plates as compared to the rest, the ice cream section is descent with the exception of it being also littered by cheaper “potong” ice-creams, now you can slowly see the budget side of the place.

When is the clash of several dominant cuisines the battle of cuisines collide there are definitely some interesting touches which can make a visit to Vienna an experience different from other, . is the clash of several dominant cuisines such as sharks fins icecream or

Service
Service if exceptionally good though the staff do not talk much or approach your table as welcomingly as managers in hotels. Here it’s simply just “get the job done” which I can say rather effective- plates are all cleared at an instant when you are done and never had I ever had the chance to pile my plates up at all. I can commend that to the large (and presumably cheaper as compared to hiring locals) Taiwanese Chinese speaking staff who work there (so make sure you go with a Chinese speaking friend if you don’t). Interestingly, they even have staff distributing dinner plates out to patrons going out for food.

Low downs
The main low down of the place will definitely be the ambiance- If a nice up class restaurant is a place you are looking for to spend a nice quiet or romantic evening, you are quite out of luck. It is almost like a “jumbo seafood” or “long beach” kind of family-kids joint, which tends to be frequented by most middle classes, not to mention a “seoul garden” to student gatherings and such. It simply just do not go in hand with the posh looking furniture and restaurant setting. So if putting up with screaming kids and baby prams blocking the narrow passageways not quite your cup of tea (not to mention crowd noises), you will have to find better luck elsewhere in an upper class hotel buffet, after all if ambiance is what you don’t mind paying for, this will just justify the price gap in comparison.

Overall I will recommend the place to people who don’t mind the bad neighborhood and desire the quality in seafood, topped with Japaneses and Chinese dishes.