187. Mandarin Oriental Hotel - Melt ~ The World Cafe

I'm back to uploading my photos with the largest size because the previous entries gave me a headache with the picture alignment. Also, I think bigger pictures do let you guys have a clearer view of the food!

I can't help but marvel at the architecture of the interior of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Standing at level 4 of the hotel where Melt is, I looked up and caught vertigo. Like the world is reeling and I asked is that toppest level up there going to collapse like the dominoes? Nah...kidding.

Melt ~ The World Cafe. I felt it was an expressed meaning in the food they served. I have seen the variety show which showcased their dinner buffet. I was appalled by the range of food they served. However, earlier on today, I was at Melt for their high-tea buffet. I was told by the lady at the main entrance that high-tea buffet entails English breakfast tea with local delicacies. I decided it was a better option than The Atrium which only allows a 1-time order of their 3-tier pastries and assorted sandwiches, along with free-flow of beverages.

Outside Seating

One could have a choice of sitting inside or outside which I thought makes no difference. For high-tea buffet, we were only seated at the level where all the bar counters were and not the ground level where the diners were treated to garden views. Garden views was most probably for the dinner buffet.

I think that's the chili sardine or tuna pie. It wasn't labelled so I wasn't very sure but it was well-flavoured. Just, not my kind unless I'm very hungry. Next on the right was the butter crust filled with a tomato mixture which consisted of meat, mushrooms, mini tofu cubes and etc. Liquer was added but not sure what that was, tasted a bit like white wine. I felt the liquer content was a tad too strong and resulted in the filling with a hint of sourness.

The char siew pastry is a must-try! I'm not big on char siew pastry because I didn't really like buttery pastries. I loathe the feeling of having to gulp down water to clear my throat of the crisp. This time round, I thought I'll just try one. And...woots! It's good. The exterior was light and crispy. The char siew stuffing weren't too sweet.

The mini quiche appeared too modest. Taste wasn't too evident. I felt it could have been bigger. At least 2 bite sizes? If you ask me, I preferred my quiche to be with spinach and cheese in a ratio of 3:1.

The cranberry scones is another must-try! I lurrrve their cranberry scones with the clotted cream. Cranberries were added in generous amount. It wasn't too dry.

The baskets of fruits on the shelves were real fruits! They brought along a burst of colours. So many, how about a glass of fruit juice? On enquiry, they don't serve fruit juice for high-tea buffet. Oh...what a pity!

The only dim sum available were siew mai, har gau, sticky rice and red bean buns. I didn't take red bean buns. The dim sum was average.

There was salted egg yolk in the sticky rice, else it would have looked pathetic to me. I find it a little dry and not so strong flavoured, most probably because not too much fat meat was used; less oil. I have no idea why they called it sticky rice instead of glutinous rice. The former sounded a bit unrefined for a 'upz' (some said chi-chi) hotel.

The laksa was well-flavoured. I could taste of a strong shrimp (hay bee) flavour. A mouth-watering bowl of hot laksa warmed my stomach. The laksa base wasn't too thick. Quail egg was added instead of the usual chicken egg. There were cooked curry leaves in the gravy which turned black in the process of cooking and I added more of the fresh cut curry leaves to make my laksa so fragrant. It wasn't too oily. Must-try!

Shooter glass of desserts were kept in the fridge-alike drawers to keep the desserts chilled when served. I thought it was a rather attentive part of the chefs to do so. It's yucky to have desserts which are not chilled. I thought there was a wide variety since there were 3 drawers to choose from but they were repetitive. Only 5 types in the drawers.

The matcha financier was surprisingly good. The matcha flavour wasn't too overpowering. It was moist. I didn't like my financier too dry. I felt it was an exquisite financier, be it in layout or taste.

(L-> R): Black pepper strawberries with ivory chocolate mousse, Green tea tiramisu with passion fruit, Semolina pudding with red current coulis and Chocolate flan.

I would say I only like the black pepper in the shooter glass. The black pepper, as its name suggest, did not really mean exactly the black pepper seeds we had in our crabs. It was more of a mild type. Black pepper for the desserts. Just like those used in the chocolates I have mentioned in 1 of my entries. Same goes for the chocolate flan.

The gelee on the semolina pudding was good. At least to me, I felt it was of the right texture, not too starchy nor runny.

The green tea tiramisu was a flop. It was bland. Except for the thin layer of matcha in the middle and the white chocolate flakes on top, I could not really make out it was a tiramisu.

I would like to say something about the mousse for the above 4 shooters. It was bland, like eating cream unsweetened. Oh...so greasy feel. I was disappointed with the dessert shooters.

Apple crumble. It was nice of the chefs to make the apple crumble into tartlets. Usually served as a whole in a tray, the dishevelled look of the crumble falling everywhere after being spooned by a lot of diners is pretty a turn-off. FYI, there wasn't the raspberry on top of it. It was used as a decoration to the plate of apple crumble tartlets, so I took one to decorate mine. Haha. It was pretty different on the texture because of the crust. It was like those of quiche's. Not so much on the apple flavour. I felt it was also partly due to the size. A tad too small.

(Furthest -> Nearest): Strawberry Cheesecake, Mango mousse cake, Irish Coffee Cake, Chocolate Brownie.

I like the strawberry cheesecake. Must-try! It was moist, not too heavy on the cheese and the strawberry flavour well induced into the cheese, creating a nice swirling pink.

Mango mousse cake with a matcha sponge cake base. I didn't make out what was the green gelee. The matcha sponge cake at the base, though not a very thick layer, has an evident taste. I find the overall taste a bit weird. Not to my liking.

Irish coffee cake was most probably the most sought-after cake for me along with the matcha financier. It simply stands out as the best. Must-try!

Chocolate brownie was not too bad either.

2 of the kuehs I took. Tapioca cake and the onei-onei alike kueh. The tapioca cake was very coconut flavoured, with shreds of coconut in it. I felt it was slightly hard. I like tapioca cake to be soft. The pink kueh was with no filling. Nothing special.

I didn't take any of the assorted sandwiches. Too full to even have one when I reached this counter. It was also the same counter for the waffles. I found lime sorbet was offered to go along with the waffles. I thought that was pretty incompatible. Other ice-cream flavours included espresso, chocolate and strawberry. My friends tried out chocolate and strawberry flavours and the former was the best; the later too sour.

I love this corner! It attracted me when I was ushered to my seats. Jars and jars of marmalade, jams and look! the peanut and cinammon butter stored in the stone pounding bowls and the honey batter alike spatula. Made me think of Pooh holding his honey pot always.

It was the chef's creation. The cinammon butter. I felt it was pretty special. Like yin and yang, the cinnamon butter was a mixture of the light butter and heavy cinnamon taste.

That's a pretty high mountain of chocolate fondue!

Dark chocolate fondue. I find it slightly sweet.

It was $34++ per pax. The total bill for 5 of us worked out to be $200.10. With UOB card, 1 dines free with 3 paying adults. The final bill was $160 for 5 pax.

Overall, food range was quite alright. Service was a bit slow. We had plates occupying our tables for quite some time and the staffs did not clear them until we asked them over. They also did not take initiative to check if refill of tea/coffee was required.

Melt
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
Level 45 Raffles Avenue, Marina Square
Singapore 039797
Tel: 6885 3082

Opens Daily
Breakfast: 6.30am - 10.30am
Lunch: 12.00noon- 2.30pm
High-Tea: 3pm - 5.30pm (only sat&sun)
Dinner: 6.30pm - 10.30pm