my dear OPS friend WT arranged an early 5pax birthday dinner for me on 24.10.2016. ^^

the place was element at amara hotel.

the price for dinner buffet is S$65pax.

we had a special staff price at 50% discounts.

i have not been to element for more than 10 yrs.

the buffet is very different now. good standard ya. 🙂

there were crayfish, lobster, spanner crab at the cold seafood station (above photo), & crayfish & alaskan crab legs.

i picked some lobster, spanner crab, alaskan crab legs, & oysters (top photo).

spanner crab was good, meat very compact.

the alaskan crab legs were so so, not so sweet. cold lobster also so so, quite average, also not so sweet.

likewise the oysters, not creamy & plump.

i didn’t take the mussels.

cold crayfish same, same.

for me, this (spanner crab) was the best for me among the cold seafood. a friend though thought it was bothersome to eat.

c/w the S$62pax lunch i had at the line recently, the cold station station would be far superior to the line.

perhaps dinner at “the line” would also feature lobster etc…

i am kind of not much into the western cold seafood thing. somehow they are not so tasty & seem a waste of lobster etc. & somehow western cold crabs are never quite like teochew cold crabs (which i also don’t take often).

chef ah yau at the sashimi station is a friend of my OPS friend WT.

we had a very nice plate of sashimi moriawase = kajiki, sake, maguro, cooked prawns, tako, shake toro, more maguro.

it was good sashimi, not superior standard. kajiki & shake toro (salmon belly) best!^^

& we had a plate of mayo aburi (flamed) salmon sushi. very nice sushi dish! 🙂

i had a temaki, good standard too! 🙂

i took some roasted cod with bonito flakes, black pepper crayfish , & some kailan.

the cod was good! i had another helping afterwards.

the black pepper crayfish quite ok too, more tasty than the cold crayfish becos of the pepper sauce. 🙂

there was a peking duck station.

i tried some peking duck. i thought it was below par, maybe just too much food to contend with la…

i tried the roast striploin.

it was pretty good standard la….

took the smoked salmon & smoked duck.

not the very flavourful type so don’t leave much impression. say whereas the smoked duck breast i got from phoon huat for the recent Second FGS Charity Dinner was quite distinctly flavourful & special.

i tried the chicken miso ramen.

it was pretty good. broth was tasty & ramen nice.

obviously not quite comparable to the broth of a S$16++ ramen (which i like never want to pay S$16++ for).

chef ah yau recommended the cempedek creme brulee.

the cempedek quite distinctly flavourful so a delight to try. just a little on the sweet side i thought.

& we had some fruits.

it was a very enjoyable dinner for me. WT also ordered a very nice chocolate truffle cake for me. we had a great evening together.

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this element buffet is a good standard hotel buffet.

at S$65pax i wouldn’t myself be interested.

at 50% discounts it was definitely worthwhile, more so than “the line” lunch which though have much greater variety of food but not really standout food.

anyway at my age, not good to have too much buffet la…. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

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Element Restaurant @ Amara Singapore