167. Fairmont Hotel - Plaza Market Cafe

WOoT! Allow me to make this exclamation before I continue with the review on this entry. This is the 4th time I uploaded the photos and I finally did it without any errors. Blogger needs some improvement with their picture upload tool. I can only upload 5 at a time. So time-consuming.

I was at Fairmont Hotel - Plaza Market Cafe for my Saturday high-tea buffet. A Peranakan cuisine buffet. An amalgamation of Chinese and Malay ingredients. When I stepped into the cafe, the tiled flooring and the woven chairs gave a casual feel. The waiters and waitresses dressed in Peranakan costumes. There were a lot of food on display and I was excited for a while.

They had window shades with drawings that showed Chinese ladies with the beer brand (they don't serve beer though), our early ancestors trading tea and etc. I felt those were to create a reminisce feel of olden times, unfortunately, such decorations didn't bring out their main identity, as a place which serves traditional Peranakan cuisine. It was like their name suggested, very much like a market cafe. As more and more diners came in, the place became very noisy and warm. I even saw a daddy in shorts and slippers.

The pepper and salt shakers and the sugar pack holder were the few items which I felt were of Peranakan's.













We sat down for quite some time and no hot tea/coffee was served and so I requested. The waitress, I suppose, a Vietnamese lady started stating all the types of teas they have. I was confused because her pronunciation wasn't too clear and I couldn't make out what was she talking about. So, she brought this, something like a chest box.

Tea @The Fairmont. 12 selections to choose from. Wow....was the felt at that moment. So, not just the Lipton tea huh?

I chose chamomile and my friend, peppermint tea. I liked chamomile tea. It has a mild floral smell and is pretty light. My friend, on the other hand, chose a heavier variety. The peppermint was so strong that I could smell it even when she wasn't stirring it. Another Wow came....Australian honey to go with the tea. Me and my friend thought it was pretty much of an indulgence. A more blunt way to put it, it was like wasting food - honey. Obviously, we couldn't finish the honey. But adding honey to our tea was nice. So smoothing to our throats.

There were about 5-6 types of salads available which I felt was quite good. Buffets are not just the meat. 3 dressings were available, the balsamic vinaigrette, french dressing and another was not named. The french dressing was too sourish. I liked the beet root salad though it was just beet root in french dressing. The taste was appetizing.

The Japanese corner was filled with some sushi makis and a small cup with a piece of tofu and crabstick. I wondered if that was their version of the cold tofu. It was presented way too casual to look appetizing.

A shotglass of carrot pulp was like carrot pulp mixed with a few drops of water. Slight sweetness. And why was it in the Japanese corner, I have no idea.

Bread with a big portion of fillings. I felt the fillings were too much which made the bread too big sized. It was like I would be full if I ate 1 of those.

The nonya a-char was delicious but a tad too oily. I liked the orange scented couscous salad. It had dried raisins and orange peels in it. Cous cous may looked bland and dry but what Fairmont has presented was healthy and tasty.

The nasi lemak was quite good. They added long beans into the slice of egg. The rice wasn't superb but decent. Together with the chili and ikan bilis, it was overall quite palatable.

The peanut congee was a big consolation. It was delicious and well-flavoured. Fragrant and thick. Add more fried shallots and spring onions, the congee was much fragrant.

I wasn't keen on dim sum and the curry noodles and thus didn't try them out, so I shall reserve my comments. My friend felt the curry noodles had too few ingredients. Gravy was thick.

The two dishes that were very much apart in taste. The miso soup was too salty but it had mushrooms added to it.

The cha soba's sauce was tasteless like water. Even though the sauce was light brownish, it was no different from water.

The roasted pork was pretty much a disappointment. It was left on the chopping board. Even under the spotlights, it didn't appear very much appealing to me.

The taste was just so-so. The skin was slightly crispy. The sauce was that of char siew's. Sweet sauce. It didn't make me wow. The pork was not too fatty but the fat:lean layers weren't obvious like the dim sum restaurants would serve.

The fried food corner had only 3 types to choose from. The nuggets, fries and fish fillets. The nuggets were left exposed to air for too long and it was hard and not crispy.

More breads and scones. Didn't taste them either. Too full to take in more flour.

The cinnamon buns looked nice though.

The desserts corner wasn't like that of Sheraton's. Lessened my crave.

Bread pudding was not cushiony and I didn't like the layer of crushed nuts at the bottom. Made the bottom layer too hard and easily separated the cream layer.

The kuehs were good. Soft and tangy.

The chocolate and strawberry mousse were the same. The strawberry mousse was quite bland and the layer of mango or lemon on top overpowered the strawberry taste. Slight tinge of sourish. The chocolate wasn't chocolaty enough. Both made me felt as if I was eating cream. At least whipped cream was sweetened.....


The chocolate cake looked quite tasty to me but it was yet another disappointment. The exterior was a tad too dry and the alcohol content was too much. It made the chocolate cake bitter. The lemon curd was overpowered by the alcohol. Only tasted slight lemon taste.

The cheese cake was slighty too moist. Quite heavy on the cheese content. A decent piece. Luckily the strawberry wasn't very sour, else the cheese cake would be another flop.

The sesame pudding with the de-skined tangerines was a new dish to me. Seldom see it in other buffets. It was smooth and not too sweet. Good for elderly. Haha.

Creme caramel was a little runny. The aloe vera fruit was sweetened and went well with the creme caramel which wasn't too sweet.

Brownie was a tad too hard and dry and silver foil came into use. I didn't know that silver foil was also used in desserts now. Gold foil looked much better on chocolate.

Ice-kachang corner. Durian pengat. The durian pengat was quite good but I still tasted of finely crushed ice in it. Could be further improved. The one from Sheraton's was much better.

The fruits were replenished pretty fast. They didn't serve watermelon.

The most welcomed desserts were the Novenpick ice-cream. Creme brulee, mixed fruit and strawberry flavoured. They didn't label the other flavour and I didn't taste the ice-cream. They have provided toppings such as the rainbow rice chips, chocolate rice chops and another was the nuts.

Overall, the high-tea buffet cost $37.70 per pax. I felt it was not so worthwhile. Although there was a wide range of food available, the taste wasn't very much matched to the price paid. Some of the food weren't labelled so I didn't know what were them. Like the shotglass of carrot pulp was known after I have tasted it.

However, service was very commendable. Fast and sensitive. Plates were cleared very fast. While I was making a conversation about the taste of the food with my friend, the manager overheard us and asked about our opinions on their food. Very friendly and approachable.

Plaza Market Cafe @Fairmont Hotel
Level 2 Tel: 6431 6156

Hours Of Operation:

Breakfast: Daily - 6:00 am to 11:00 am

Lunch: Daily - 12:00 noon to 2:30 pm

High Tea: Saturday, Sunday & public holidays - 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm

Dinner: Monday to Friday - 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Saturday, Sunday & public holidays - 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm