Category Archives: ^ Cuisine – Buffet

Fisherman’s Market (The Central)

Fisherman’s Market is the first restaurant by the well established Japanese company Create Restaurants to open outside of Japan. Create Restaurants has portfolio of over 110 food concepts and it chose Singapore to open its first restaurant outside of Japan.

Fisherman’s Market is a all you can eat seafood buffet concept. Located at Clarke Quay (The Central), it has a total floor space of 10,000 sq ft spread across 2 levels. The first level is for a la carte patrons while the second level is for the buffet which can seats 300 patrons.

Notice that their logo seems to be a crab. Think they chose the right symbol. Will explain why at the end of the post.

Buffet Menu

If you are observant, you would have noticed that their menu has changed slightly. Their price has changed to $44.90 and cheese fondue is no longer in the menu. It was only when I was inside then I realised there was no cheese fondue after enquiring with a staff. Was disappointing, as I had wanted to try it! Moreover, I did not see any blue crab cocktail or crepes ….I am assuming that they all ran out whenever I check the counters out as it is clearly stated in the menu. But it adds up to the disappointment.

Anyway I arrived at 7pm on a Saturday and it was about 50% occupied.

Sashimi and Cold Food

Dishes were missing such as  blue crab cocktail. The Sashimi were not cold and firm enough, might have been left out for too long.

Oysters, Prawns and Mussels

The mussels were fresh, but the prawns were not. The meat of the prawn was not firm and the shell stuck to its shell. Normally, in a buffet I would have polished off quite a number of prawn sadly, this was not the case. My favourite among the 3 was the Oysters! The oysters were fat and juicy, very fresh. Just a drop of Tobasco sauce and light squeeze 0f lemon will be sufficient. Ate 11 pieces of it!

Hot Food

Pizzas
Crabs, Pork ribs

The Hot Food Section is where you can find the pizzas, spaghetti, chilli crab, black pepper crab and pork ribs. Items such as chilli crab, black pepper crab and pork ribs gets polished off as soon as it is served. It was not easy getting any of these 3 items. Well, a tip you are better off waiting for either of the crabs compared to the pork rib. The pork rib was plain in taste, not fragrant not well marinated.

Pepper Crab 
Chilli Crab

It is not easy to land our hands on the crab pincers. As before the crab was served there was already people waiting for the crabs and whoever was there first almost always aim for the pincers first. The Pepper and Chilli Crab was delicious. We were quite lucky that we managed to get several helpings of crab pincers! The first few servings, the crab was fresh, its meat was easily pulled out, firm, sweet and absorbed the sauce. But towards the next few servings, the crab meat stuck to the shell and was not as fresh. Also, it was quite obvious that  the crabs have been put on diet. Despite these, the crabs (pincers) was one of the best dishes.

The rest of the food was average, so it will be just pictures and 1 or 2 liners.

Teppanyaki and Tempera

Sushi

Sushi was average and the rice breaks up easily.

Fruits

Dessert

Chocolate Fondue

There is a machine for you to make DIY ice cream next to the chocolate fondue.

Overall, my take is that most of the food are really just average with the exception of Pepper Crabs, Chilli Crabs and Oysters. No wonder their logo is a crab logo. The rest, I did not really have a second helping of it. Also, I never got to try some of the items such as Blue Crab Cocktail and Pasta Vongole Bianca despite going back to search for it several times. To add on to the disappointment, cheese fondue was taken off the menu. Moreover, we had to wait 25 minutes for the bill to arrive despite asking for it twice! If you go there make sure you get the crabs and oysters!

 Fisherman’s Market (The Central)
 The Central @ Clarke Quay 
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#01-15 & 02-17
Tel: 6221 3177
Opening Hours: Daily 11am–11pm (1st Floor, Ala–carte) 
                          5pm–11pm (2nd Floor, Buffet)
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/fishermans.market.SG 

Tarafuku Japanese Buffet (313 Somerset)

Tarafuku Japanese Buffet is located at 313 Somerset and is part of the Tampopo Group. If you are thinking Liang Court, Shabu Shabu Black Pig, Tonkatsu Ramen and Matcha Chiffon Cake, you are on the right track!

Price List

Visited the restaurant on a Saturday for dinner. So per person it will be $27.80++. They have increased the price as of 18th Feb 2011. Previously, dinner on a Saturday night would have cost $25.80++.

The place was brightly lit decorated with japanese umbrellas hanging on the ceiling.

There is free flow shabu shabu for dinner only.

Hot pot for shabu shabu.

Thinly sliced, this was good! We ordered several helpings of this.

Selection of raw items to accompany the shabu shabu

Selection of vegetables, mushrooms, meat, fishballs and also prawns for the hot pot. Prawns were fresh! Also, there is miso soup at the extreme left of the picture.

Salad Selections

Very few selections for their salad section. The other half of the counter was for desserts. A must try item here is the potato salad.

Sashimi

They have Sashimi, Tuna and in the middle I think it is yellow tail.

Oddly and disappointedly, there was no alasakan crab! What happened to it? I have no idea, but earlier reviews clearly showed that there was alasakan crab. Ironically, with a price increase this item is missing..

Sushi

Chawanmushi

Chawanmushi was soft and smooth. I would have gone for more helpings of this if not for the fact that it was too salty.

Fried spaghetti and fried rice

Shishamo (middle) was not fresh.

The chicken wings (left) was delicious.

Tasty egg with runny yolk only downside was that it was cold.

Soft Shell Crab

You can order Soft Shell Crab which tastes great when it is hot. Ordered several servings of this.

Tofu

You can also order tofu too. Taste great, ordered extra helpings of this too.

Ramen

Ordered a small bowl of ramen. Can’t remember what ramen this was. It was average.

Dessert Selections

The desserts were average. No Matcha Chiffon Cake, maybe the top right was meant to be a small piece of the matcha chiffon cake. But it pale in comparison to the one I ate at Tampopo.

Ice cream

The green tea ice cream was good. The sesame ice cream (not in picture) was way too strong.

Lots of misses and few hits. The delicious items were the potato salad, chicken wings, shabu shabu and its selection such as prawns. Service wise, the staff were mostly foreigners, it was hard to communicate with them. One of them even took our bill to the next table and despite the person saying that he had a ready paid, the waiter could not understand. Overall, I find it a tad too expensive. Not sure if I will be back. If you do try it, let me know whats nice and also if the alasakan crab are being served.

Tarafuku Japanese Buffet
313 Orchard Road
#B3-31/34, 313 @ Somerset
Tel: 6634 0889
Opening Hours: Daily 11.30am – 10pm
Website: http://www.cfc.com.sg/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/TARAFUKU/268831277561?sk=info 

The Mushroom Pot 长寿锅 (Orchard Point)

The Mushroom Pot has been around for some time, has been there around 3 times. So far I have always been to their outlet at Orchard Point as it is more convenient. This time we went there as we bought the BigDeal coupon, $18 for $30 cash voucher. In fact we purchased 2 as 1 will not be enough.

We decided to go for their buffet lunch (steamboat) on a Saturday. The place was not very crowded, slightly less than half full.

You may notice that the lunch is $24.90++ yet we are using $60 cash voucher. Well, reason is wait till you add up all the plus plus such as the packet of tissue and pickles. Well, since we do not eat pickles, we asked them to take it back (and remove it from the bill should be $2.)

You get to choose 5 Starters or House Specials per table or group. So even if you come with another person or 6 others, you can only choose 5. The menu can be found here. We ordered Spicy Chinese Potato SaladMushroom Rolls, House Special BeefMonkey Head Mushrooms in House Dressing and Crispy Squid with Wasabi Sauce.

Spicy Chinese Potato Salad (Starter)

The Spicy Chinese Potato Salad was average. Did not find it spicy.

Mushroom Rolls (House Specials)

The Mushroom Rolls is like spring rolls. Outside, it is seems to be deep fried. Inside, it is full of mushrooms. Yummy!

House Special Beef (House Specials)

The House Special Beef was sightly overcooked. Not as tender as I wanted, but certainty tasty.

Monkey Head Mushrooms in House Dressing

The Monkey Head Mushrooms in House Dressing was quite an unique dish. Each piece of the mushroom has been coated with a thick creamy sweet sauce. And walnuts has been added in it too.

Crispy Squid with Wasabi Sauce (House Special)

The Crispy Squid with Wasabi Sauce was the best dish among the 5 dishes. Each piece of squid (calamari) has been coated with batter and is then deep fried till it is crispy. Dipping it into the wasabi sauce, it added a final punch that will have you longing for more. Well, these are only the 5 Starters or House Specials. Time for the steamboat buffet.

For the steamboat buffet, you can get to choose from 6 soup base. We ordered the Wild Mushroom Herbal Soup which require us to top up $4.

Wild Mushroom Herbal Soup (top up $4)

Wild Mushroom Herbal Soup, is black in colour mainly because of the mushrooms. I thought the soup tasted great at first. But well as I am a huge fan of mushrooms, I am biased. She was right that it was sightly salty and diluted.

Fried Buns

You can never go wrong with Fried Buns (fried mantou). Taste great on its own when it is warm.

Some of the other items that we ate. Do not worry, there are other items not just mushrooms. There are many different types of mushrooms you can order here.

Barley $1.50

We totally forgot we still have a glass of Barley.

Tissue

Each person gets a packet of The Mushroom Pot Tissue instead of the usual wet towel. Did I say get? Oops sorry, its charged to your billed. If you do not want it feel free to reject it.

Overall, I like the buffet here. No where else can you get so many varieties of mushrooms or get so many varieties of mushroom soup base. Totally, my type of food. Moreover, the service was good, always someone near by when you require their assistance. (maybe it was due to the lack of crowd.) The only reason why I come back so few times over the years is mainly because it is too expensive. 2 person, yet the bill is over $60 per person. If it was more value for money I would definitely be here more frequently. If you are a fan of mushroom, give this place a try!

The Mushroom Pot 长寿锅 (Orchard Point)
160 Orchard Road
#04-00 Orchard Point
Singapore 238842
Tel: 67339910
Opening Hours: Daily 11am – 9.30pm
Website: http://www.mushroompot.com/

The Mushroom Pot 长寿锅 (Stadium Waterfront)
2 Stadium Walk
#01-02 Singapore Indoor Stadium
Singapore 397691
Tel: 63423320
Opening Hours: Daily 12pm–2.30pm & 6pm–10.30pm
Website:http://www.mushroompot.com/