Halal Buffet Restaurant in Singapore : Aquamarine @ Marina Mandarin Hotel

Halal Buffet Singapore : Aquamarine

It was hubby's birthday waaaay in January and I decided to treat him to a nice dinner since dinner is the only present that I was going to give him haha.. I thought I saw something like a Barbecue Seafood Buffet at Aquamarine the other day that we had an event at Marina Mandarin Hotel and that would be nice. However, upon calling up (and it was such a chore trying to get through the number that in the end I called up front desk and asked them to connect me to restaurant reservation and still my name wasn't on the reservation list when I arrived) the girl over the phone said that they don't have barbecue seafood and whatever cooked seafood that they have will be under "chef's specials" that evening. Oookay.. "Is there a surau/ prayer area at Marina Mandarin then I enquired?" and she answered "Yes, but it's on another level at Marina Mandarin Hotel". 

Upon arriving for dinner, and discovering our name wasn't on the list -humph- we were taken to one of the back seating areas of Aquamarine "well the place wasn't really brimming anyway" but the sounds of dishes being cleared near our table was quite upsetting for me. 

Walking round and round the buffet table, I have no idea what to take since I am not really a big fan of cold seafood and the selection of cooked food was uninspiring. While going around, I also saw a Eurasian lady looking quite confused at the Pie Tie counter, it's DIY with all the condiments laid out BUT with no help / instructions whatsoever for those of us who has never seen one before, even I can't remember the sequence correctly having eaten pie tie only once more than 5 years back when my "nyonya" ex-colleague ordered some during one of our company's lunch. 

Halal Buffet Singapore : Pie Tie @ Aquamarine

Chef's specials that evening was "Chicken Sukiyaki" it looks quite pale that I only decided to try one skewer.(I like my food to have flavours that blast in your mouth and brightly colored) it tasted so-so.

Halal Buffet Singapore : Chicken Sukiyaki @ Aquamarine

We settled for the ordinary fried rice with a blah blah chilli crab that even a local hawker stall can do better and tough beef slices. I stopped the mains after that, it's just not worth the calories.

Halal Buffet Singapore @ Aquamarine

Hubby said to get your money's worth so he headed to the cold seafood section to give it a shot even though  it's not his favorite. His verdict? average.. but of course who are we to judge since we don't like cold seafood!

Halal Buffet Singapore @ Aquamarine

I went around for desserts and picked up a few cakes and sweets. I guess the desserts selection was quite varied and tasted quite ok though not mind blowing and definitely not super sinful enough that it's worth going jogging the next day for. 

Halal Buffet Singapore @ Aquamarine; Marina Mandarin

Sheesh.. if the objective of Marina Mandarin making Aquamarine halal is just to draw Muslim tourists to stay at Marina Mandarin so that they can have halal buffet breakfast and halal room service, then yeah maybe they can attract first-timers or those that doesn't have much choice. But, if Marina Mandarin wants Aquamarine to attract local halal patrons, they definitely need to revamp the menu and upped the food quality offered cos at the moment they are better lower class restaurants serving nicer halal food at much cheaper price out there (my personal opinion that is).  

Malay Food - Sedap Corner at Bedok

*Dear Readers, sadly, Sedap Corner has closed down as announced by Chef Bob on his FB end of June 2014, it is dearly missed by our family and we wish Chef Bob all the best in his future endeavours. *

Sedap Corner is a familiar name for those in JB, its kind of like a food court.But it's branch in Singapore is synonym to the popular Chef Bob and is a small restaurant in the quiet corner of Bedok Road. We used to frequent here when it was fairly new since the food to us was great (the toasted bread with its variety of dips where super sinful), it was air-conditioned and the ambience is chill. We stopped for a while when the quality of the food dropped about a year or two back and then decided to give it a try again to see whether the standard has recovered or whether it was still bad. To our nice surprise, the food now tasted great again. (Although some dishes still taste a bit blah..)

Our must have appetizers at Bedok Corner are the Vietnamese Scallop Trellis (hubby's fave) Potato Prawns (mine!) and the toasted bread (both!) usually we would order other mains but this time around we were not really very hungry so we just ordered Ginger Kway Teow and Chicken Rice. Drinks were Iced Lemon Tea and Teh Tarik (what else?)

Halal Singapore : Vietnamese Trellis @ Sedap Corner Bedok

Vietnamese Trellis is crispy with soft scallop fillings dipped in chilli-infused oil. Potato Prawns are simply prawns wrapped in potato strips and then fried in oil, dipped with thai chilli mixed with mayo! Yummy.. I get hungry just thinking about it :)

Halal Singapore: Potato Prawns @  Sedap Corner Bedok

The toasted bread sadly now no longer come in the original bread (err.. its been so long that I don't even remember how the original bread is like, but nowadays they use the normal bread that you can buy at the shop) and the dips.. sigh doesn't come in the fabulous variety like the last time.. but we still enjoy the crispy toast with the sweet dip though :)

Halal Singapore : Toasted Bread @ Sedap Corner Bedok

Halal Singapore : Kaya Toast @ Sedap Corner Bedok

Chicken Rice came with clear soup and a sambal paste.. this dish is just so-so for me.. maybe because the kids refused to eat and we asked to packed it and I only ate it when it was cold at home.

Halal Singapore : Chicken Rice @ Sedap Corner Bedok

I ordered Ginger Kway Teow because it has been ages since I last had one and the ones in Malaysia are usually fried kway teow with clams, I kind of like my Kway Teow Soupy with loads of beef slices. This dish hit just the right note here. Soupy, not too much ginger and the beef slices are tender. Nice!

Halal Singapore : Ginger Kway Teow @ Sedap Corner Bedok

Teh Tarik is my must have at Sedap Corner its just so different from the mamak's teh tarik.. frothy with just strong enough flavour of tea without over powering milkiness. I love it!

Halal Singapore: Iced Lemon Tea and Teh Tarik @ Sedap Corner Bedok

We came out of Sedap Corner very full and happy, hopefully the standard won't slipped again so that we can continue to patronize it. Chef Bob must come and monitor frequently then the standard will be kept high.

The only gripe here is lack of parking space and lack of praying area though I heard that if you patronize Spize Restaurant (another popular eating place at Bedok Road) they have a prayer room at second floor. Ask the staff. 

Sedap Corner (Chef Bob) is at :

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