Food + Beverage
Whether you’re looking for a lunch buffet, a dinner buffet, or a Japanese buffet, there are numerous good restaurants in Singapore. Forget what the food critics have to say! Which Singapore restaurant do diners recommend?
TripAdvisor lists 8,811 restaurants in Singapore, and – somewhat amazingly – there are 7,711 buffet restaurants in Singapore. So which ones are the best according to diners?
Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scotts has been awarded the Best Buffet Restaurant at Singapore Press Holdings’ (SPH) AsiaOne People’s Choice Awards 2016 for the seventh year in a row.
“It is a great honour for Carousel to be awarded ‘Best Buffet Restaurant’ for the seventh consecutive year,” says Patrick Fiat, General Manager of Royal Plaza on Scotts.
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“I would like to thank our amazing service and culinary team, most of whom are our hidden heroes, for consistently creating memorable dining experiences for our guests and of course, our loyal guests who have been making us their top choice all these years
Carousel is the only restaurant which has been inducted into AsiaOne’s Hall of Fame since 2014.
Organised by AsiaOne, SPH’s leading news and lifestyle portal, the awards ceremony celebrates prominent brands and products in Asia that are voted the best in each of their categories by AsiaOne readers.
AsiaOne People’s Choice Awards are organized by AsiaOne, a news and lifestyle portal. Winners are determined by readers of the portal.
Buffet Restaurants
There is no shortage of buffet restaurants in Singapore, and most of them present a pan-Asian spread with a few international dishes thrown in for good measure.
You can expect salads and soups, sushi and sashimi, curries and laksas, grilled meats and pasta … the list of yummy dishes goes on and on and on.
In addition to having several food stations, the Carousel also has four themed seating areas, each with a different personality.
The Terrace is situated under a skylight, the Living Room has parquet flooring, and the Verandah has avant garde backlit glass walls mounted with Austrian red mosaic cut glass.
The State Rooms, meanwhile, offer private dining under beautiful chandeliers, with an optional customizable special wine and dine pairing menu, which must be requested in advance.
Mouthwatering Desserts
And always save room for dessert! Or, as a former hotel marketing executive at the Royal Plaza on Scotts once confided: “Sometimes we skip lunch and head straight for the dessert tables!”
At the Carousel at the Royal Plaza on Scotts, there are fully three separate dessert tables!
One f the dessert table features chocolate fountains, another features hot desserts, and a third focuses on Asian desserts.
Top 10 Buffet Restaurants in Singapore
The Carousel, a buffet restaurant at the Royal Plaza on Scotts, a 5 star hotel in Singapore. Photo Credit: Accidental Travel Writer.
Here are the top 10 most popular choices for Singapore restaurants serving high-end lunch and dinner buffets according to readers of TripAdvisor.
Most of these restaurants are located in 5 star hotels or high-end shopping malls. You won’t find any food courts on this list!
1. Carousel Buffet Restaurant Singapore – Royal Plaza on Scotts, 22 Scotts Road, Singapore: Telephone: (65) 6589-7799.
- “After hearing so many great reviews over past years I finally experienced the buffet for myself. The selection was endless; the service was excellent in fact beyond what I had expected. There was a wedding somewhat the day we visited, but the staff were never too busy to assist us. Definitely worth the price tag!” – Lily85, Singapore.
2. The Line – Shangri-La hotel Singapore, 22 Orange Grove Road, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6213-4275.
- “Clearly a very busy restaurant for breakfast. Some longish queues waiting for a table at times but very efficiently managed. The food variety is extensive to satisfy all national tastes. The environment is great for people watching. The décor colours are certainly bright and the outlook to the pool area is captured if on that side of the restaurant.” – Tastony2, Hobart, Australia.
3. Rise – Marina Bay Sands Hotel Tower 1, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6688-5525.
- “From the viewpoint of a mid-income person, the buffet spread is quite mesmerizing. I went during lunch with a friend who made the reservation, and they kind of spelt his name wrong on the card, but we let that slip. The food is quite well-prepared and enjoyable, though the main dishes are quite limited to Chinese, Japanese, and Indian cuisines.” – Edward L., Singapore.
4. Edge – Pan Pacific Singapore, Level 3, 7 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6826-8240
- “I love the food there, but what stood out was the service from their employees. I went for the HOOKED buffet dinner, and I must say that the seafood spread was extensive with lots of live stations. What WOWED me was the different variety of desserts but most importantly, the Durian Puree is to die for! Would definitely come back again!” – WallyDavid46, Singapore.
5. Momiji Japanese Buffet – City Square Mall, 180 Kitchener Road, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6509-1193
- “This is a Japanese buffet restaurant. Their grilled seafood selection is the saving grace of this buffet. All else are so-so. Their dessert choices are not enticing and so are the non-seafood dishes. To get value for your money, get more grilled or baked scallops. Resto is a bit pricey for the price, if you ask me.” – Vincent Rapisura, Manila, Philippines.
6. Feast @ East Buffet Restaurant – Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel, 50 East Coast Road, Roxy Square, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6340-5665.
- “I’ve been to this restaurant on many occasions (often three times per week). The food is very good indeed, and many dishes are quite spectacular. The quality is not always consistent, and it is possible to find dishes which are mediocre, but the variety of dishes available in the buffet makes these blips less of a problem.” – Daniel Tsokonn, Oxford, Britain.
7. Starz Restaurant – Hard Rock Hotel, Singapore, Level 2, Resorts World, 8 Sentosa Gateway, Sentosa Island, Singapore Telephone: (65) 6577-6688.
- “Visited the restaurant multiple times for buffets. Warm smiles everywhere. Want to give a shout out to the lady chef behind the food counter, Yap Yong. When she saw my son taking the quail’s eggs, she offered to warm them up and even added some beehoon. And she advised me to use the double-boiled pork rib soup for him.” – Jo 0550, Singapore.
8. Melt Cafe – 5 Raffles Avenue, Marina Square, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6338-0066.
- “A quite exceptional buffet at both lunch and dinner – reasonably priced for what it is. Virtually every style of food you could wish for from seafood to Asian and fusion.” – John H., St Quen, Britain.
9. StraitsKitchen – Grand Hyatt, 10 Scotts Road, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6738-1234.
- “Food quality and variety at each of the open kitchen areas was excellent, and our party of 3 sampled each cuisine at least once between us, with some repeat visits to particular stations! The Indian food was particularly good, as was the Indonesian and Singaporean, but the Chinese and Malaysian kitchens were also wonderful so it was hard to single out a favorite.” – Chris Singapore 2, Singapore.
10. Marriott Cafe – Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza, 320 Orchard Road, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6831-4605.
- “The range of food was extensive and the quality also good for a hotel breakfast. Service was friendly and pleasant and overall this was better than expected.” – OD Jack, Singapore.
Word to the Wise
Buffet restaurants are highly popular in Singapore (and other parts of Asia), and diners are usually attracted by the vast array of dishes on offer – and not always by the ambience.
And (forgive me for saying this, but), diners are not always attracted by the quality of the food, either. In many cases it’s an issue of “more is more” rather than “less is more”.
At lunch time, some buffet restaurants in Singapore can be reminiscent of New York City’s Grand Central Station at rush hour!
If you really want to pig out, buffet restaurants in Singapore are a great way to sample a wide variety of dishes at one sitting.
They also allow all diners in a party to do their own thing – seafood for one, pasta for another, grilled meats for a third.
However, If you are looking for romantic restaurants in Singapore or fine dining restaurants in Singapore, you might want to give buffet restaurants a wide berth.
Here is a list of fine-dining French restaurants in Singapore: Ten Most Popular French Restaurants in Singapore.
If you are planning a trip to Singapore, get complete Singapore information at the Singapore Tourism Board website.
Where
Royal Plaza on Scotts, 25 Scotts Road, Singapore. Telephone: (65) 6737-7966.