Straits Cafe (Rendezvous Hotel)

Another overdue post which happened more or less during the New Year time frame. Was invited along to this food tasting by FZ once again. Special thanks to both FZ and Christina, the marketing manager for graciously accepting my presence at this tasting.

Location: 1F Rendezvous Hotel, 9 Bras Basah Road

Contact: 6336 0220 / 6335 177

Website: http://www.rendezvoushotels.com/singapore/dining.aspx

Price range: $25-30 per head

No introduction needed here

Various patrons and accolades

Walkway

Walkway continued

Television and seats

Straits cafe has a very down to earth feeling to me. Glass panels separate the business crowds and roads from the interiors and even more glass panels are used to separate the kitchen from the patrons. The interior is simple with LCD televisions adorning some parts to provide more entertainment while dining in.

Cold Dish corner

Dim Sum Corner

Cold Seafood Corner

Yu Sheng Corner

Roast Meat Section

Yam Ring

Ribs

Japanese Sushi Corner

Yu Sheng Continued

Dessert and Cakes

More Cakes

The selection is diverse and well thought out. Basically, i think it covers pretty much everything a buffet should cover. This is rather surprising because at first glance, it looked limited but when i went back to actually look and pick the food, there was a whole lot of variety and to say the least, having one item from each managed to stuff me to no end.

Yu Sheng

What Chinese New Year would be complete without some Yu Sheng? So it was with Straits Cafe, they actually do it more DIY style which is found from the DIY counter. But as we were invited, we were fortunate to have the staff rehearse the entire routine for us. In terms of taste, the yu sheng is balanced but didn't really manage to wow anybody. Overall decent with thick fresh salmon and fragrant crackers.

Poon Choi

Needless to say, their rendition is glorious with overflowing ingredients. Lots of sharks fin, lots of pork belly, fish maw, abalone, prawns, lup cheong, mushrooms and dried scallops. Each individual pot is supposed to have been stewed for at least 6 hours before serving. In terms of taste, the abalone is certainly stewed till soft with a nice fragrance from the rest of the ingredients. I liked the pork belly, mushrooms, abalone and fa chai that was in this dish. Because i had a few other renditions of this after the meal, i have to say that this was one of the better ones i've had this year. Worth a try.

Samples from the counters

Laksa

The above shows the amount of items you can take from the counters and its not even the full picture yet. I felt that the food served here is pretty decent, items that are supposed to be fresh are fresh, with some exception in a few prawns i had. Worth mentioning will be the laksa which is suitably spicy and tasty also being surprisingly light. The sashimi counter is worth returning over and over again. So is the chilled seafood section with its oysters and shrimp. I also liked the meat section which had different versions of beef and the yam ring which i felt was pretty decent as well. The dessert section's cakes didn't quite catch my fancy apart from the durian pengat and durian puff. They were lighter and less concentrated then i would have liked though.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

Last word:
I actually found the food here decent. Maybe its because Christina advised on how the executive chef is one with superb potential in his cooking or that their standard that day was above average. One honestly cannot expect too much from a buffet, after all, how good can food prepared en masse be? So taking it for what it is, this restaurant and this buffet works pretty well for me. It helps that the poon choi is the best i've had this year as well. Good effort.