ORCHARD CAFÉ, THE

Orchard Hotel,

442 Orchard Road S(238879) TEL: 6739 6565

Recently rejuvenated, The Orchard Café has upped its buffet game to include a wider selection of local and international favourites—and this makes it popular with the local family crowd while keeping things interesting for tourists. The cold seafood section is well-stocked with fresh sashimi, oysters and prawns, a

DIY salad station and a variety of novel, ready-made salads and appetisers, such as the mussel capsicum salad and the wakame salad. The live stations, where one can order laksa or satay bee hoon with customisable ingredients, provide a simple crash course on local noodles for visitors, while the cooked food section includes Chinese, Indian and Western dishes, all of which pack wholesome homecooked flavours. The soy-poached chicken rice stands out, as does the chicken tikka and the mutton Mysore. Another interesting station at the buffet is the one with five different types of crackers, such as the papadum and emping, with eight different kinds of sambal chilli sauces to go along with them.