Crossroads Cafe is the main all-day buffet dining restaurant at Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel along Orchard Road. Thanks to a HSBC Wow weekend 1-for-1 promotion, my husband and I were enticed to give it another shot despite a rather mediocre breakfast experience during our last stay. The theme of the buffet this time was John Stone Irish Beef.
- Our order:
- John Stone Irish Beef lunch buffet for 2
- Spent: SGD$92.66
There are different sections of indoor seating space for guests having the buffet and an adjacent sheltered outdoor area for a la carte ordering. On the day we visited, it seemed like the air-conditioning wasn’t really working properly. We sat at the section nearest to the lobby, which was supposedly the coolest section but it was still fairly warm and humid.
Having said that, the section closest to the entrance was worse. Just standing there for a short while to take photos already left me with perspiration clinging uncomfortably to my skin. Aside from this, the ambience was otherwise pleasant and inviting.
On to the food! The spread was very decent, with the fresh seafood section being the most popular as always. I was highly impressed at the quality of the food as well. The Chinese dishes such as braised chicken, crispy pork belly and roast duck were really well-cooked, the chefs did good locking in the meats’ moisture and flavour. I also enjoyed the sweet and juicy snow crab legs, tender beef cheek bourguignon and succulent truffle cream salmon!
In addition, I was pleasantly surprised that almost all the desserts had great texture and flavour (I find this section typically neglected in most hotel buffets). Every item we tried had a good balance of sweetness that didn’t overpower, with the bread and butter pudding being especially addictive! Mövenpick ice cream was served too, and for some reason, it tasted a hundred times better than the one we had at an actual Mövenpick hotel in the Maldives.
Alas, a couple of dishes didn’t match the standards of their counterparts and were disappointingly lacklustre. I ordered a white wine cream penne and beef bolognese ravioli from the live pasta station but they were so bad that we barely touched them after the first few mouths. The pasta was hard and dry, plus it was paired with bland and uninspiring sauces. The crabmeat soup was equally poorly executed and was basically a tasteless bowl of gloop.
As for the service, the staff were generally polite and took the initiative to clear our plates and refill our glasses with water in a timely manner. However, there were certain aspects of their service delivery that could’ve been improved.
One instance was when a staff asked if she could remove our plate but there was clearly a significant portion of unfinished food still on it. She stopped herself after recognizing this and then proceeded to just walk away. Another instance was when a staff was filling up my husband’s glass with cold water. She held the jug over our food while pouring and I watched as multiple droplets of water slid from the jug’s exterior right into our pasta. Thank goodness we weren’t planning to touch that anymore anyway. It’s details like these that distinguish great service from just good service and in this case, they did not meet that mark.
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. The food was generally delicious and enjoyable except a few anomalies, and the environment was pretty comfortable (though I hope the air-conditioning situation has been fixed). With the 1-for-1 promotion, it was certainly a value-for-money experience! At least we now know that the quality of their regular buffet food is much better than what they serve at breakfast. In terms of service, although the staff were quite nice and approachable, overall service delivery felt a tad rough around the edges.
If this post helped you in some way and you’d like to buy me a coffee, I’d be incredibly grateful (:
Dania Experiences 