[Food] Window On The Park - Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre

THE SUBJECT

Window on the Park Cafe Restaurant
Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre
Level 2, 11 Cavenagh Road, Singapore
229616, Tel: 6733 8333

INTRODUCTION

Christmas season of 2010, we dined with a few friends at Holiday Inn Atrium's Melting Pot Cafe.  At the time, the restaurant was running a 1-for-1 Dinner Buffet promotion for PAssion Card members, so we went to check it out.

This time around, I was able to purchase a voucher off the Deal Guru website for a discounted Lunch Buffet at another Holiday Inn restaurant.  This time at the Window on the Park Cafe Restaurant at the Holiday Inn Orchard City Centre.

THE EXPERIENCE
Upon arriving, we were immediately received by a service staff.  As we have called in for a booking a day before, we were seated right away.  However, they were not really good seats.  As may lunch date tells it, it appears that the seats were just placed at the last moment to accommodate dining guests.  I was a bit disappointed as we have called in a reservation and I was actually expecting to get a good table, and not one that is flushed against a wall.

Moving on, we checked out the buffet line.  Well, first impression was - "Is this it?".  It's not quite the spread one would expect for a Sgd 50++ lunch buffet.  Having been to a lot of buffet restaurants around Singapore, I understand that it's typical to expect less seafood and specialties at buffet lines on the lunch hour, but this was just unimpressive to say the least.

Okay, on to the photos and a bit of commentary on each dish we have tried out.

Salad Station

The usual salad greens with the usual dressings.  For the prepared salads, they had quite a few interesting ones I have never tried before.  The cold chicken salad is quite nice.  I usually like sour foods so the vinaigrette dressing on this one really did it for me.  There was coleslaw and a cold pasta salad which I didn't try.  There was also salmon salad.  The salmon fillets in this one have been pan fried, so it's actually cooked through, and not the smoked kind which I have hoped for. I also liked that one.  But I usually like fish dishes.

Sushi and Seafood Station

I am a big fan of seafood. Be it fish, crab, prawn, squid, mussel, I love them all.  And I was quite happy, at least they have fresh plump prawns on their lunch spread.

Although they had very little selection for sushi, the standard ones are present - tuna and salmon sashimi.  And of all the maki options, it's a plus that they had our favorite - California Maki.  Which we find quite impressive.  The rice is packed tightly, and there's a big chunk of crab meat right at the centre.  

They also had Octopus Nigiri Sushi which I have never tried before.  But I thought to myself, how bad could it be.  I had takoyaki before, why not give another octopus dish a go.  So I had my first Octopus Nigiri Sushi.  It was an okay taste experience.  I find the piece of octopus a bit tough and chewy, but I guess that's really how it's supposed to be.  And the taste was that of the sea.  I know fresh seafood should smell of the sea, but to taste of the sea, I don't really know.  I know fresh seafood should be sweet.  Fortunately, the octopus meat did behave in my tummy until the next day.

Bread and Soup Station 

They had a good selection of breads and 2 choices for soup.  There was Cream of Vegetable, which has a green color, and a Sharksfin Soup. 

Our job is clear-cut, Sharksfin Soup it is!  When there is Sharksfin Soup, we'd usually have it.  So I was quite excited to try Window On The Park's rendition of the dish.  It was disappointing for me. The consistency of the soup is very thick.  Too much cornstarch in the broth perhaps?  I just couldn't get it down.  I've tried many Sharksfin Soup, so I know it's not supposed to be like that.  The best one we've tried is from the Fullerton Hotel's Town Restaurant at Chinese New Year.  

Local Delights Station 

There was only option for dumplings, and it's a vegetarian one.  I tried it and it was okay.  The taste is still kind of meaty even if it's a veggie dumpling.  Another one I tried for the first time is the Sambal Fried Rice.  I have had lots of variations of shrimp paste fried rice, but I have not tried the Sambal one.  So this is again good time to try it, and I honestly like it.  The spicy and salty tastes are balanced.

Desserts Station 

Bread Pudding is always a hit.  Window On The Park serves this classic dessert and is first on the line at the dessert station.  It comes with a vanilla sauce dressing which adds decadence to it. There were also a good number of options for Kueh (a local dessert), Tarts, and Durian sweets. 

 

There were also sliced fresh fruits - honeydew, dragonfruit, watermelon, and pineapple.  All were sweet, juicy and a delight to partake.

They also had what seems like home-made ice cream in coffee, strawberry, chocolate, and sweet corn flavours, plus a wide array of condiments - waffle, syrup, sprinkles, chocolate candies.  I had a shot at trying the coffee ice cream scooped into a "waffle cone" with chocolate sprinkles.

I was actually excited preparing my little ice cream cone dessert. The ice cream is soft and the coffee taste is not so overpowering.   

However, the waffle cone is not crunch as I have expected.  It's quite tough probably because of the moisture from the ice cream, or it just has been sitting on the dessert counter for a while.

In short, I did not finish it.  I had worked through most of the coffee ice cream.  But I stopped after chewing on the tough waffle cone.

RANTS, RAVES, KVETCH

Window On The Park offers a unique experience of preparing your own food.  They have a Rojak station and a Laksa Station.  

I have heard of Rojak before, and I have seen it, but I have never tried it.  Not today.  It is a local delicacy of sour fruits like apple, guava, sometimes mango,  some cucumber, and dressed with tamarind paste, garnished with chopped nuts.  Looks appetizing really, but I just didn't feel like trying it at the time.

But I did try Laksa for the first time.  At the Laksa Station, there is a slide of the steps on how to prepare your own laksa.  It was a good experience.  Only issue here is the space at the Laksa Station was a bit tight.  Right behind it is the ice cream scooping station, and it is always a pathway to the back kitchen.  So the area is quite busy.  Imagine preparing your laksa with another person behind you preparing ice cream, and a service staff asking to pass your way.  Chaotic much!

As for the Laksa, it's quite nice.  We liked the spiciness in the creamy broth.  I think I will try the one at Grand Hyatt's Straits Kitchen local delights buffet when we go there for lunch just for comparison.

One of the dishes I did not like was the Chicken Curry and Naan.  They tasted like off the shelf curry paste and frozen naan.  The curry was too oily.  The naan was chewy and dead cold.  Not nice at all.  I took only small pieces of the chicken curry to try, and 2 quarters of the flat bread.  I only had one bite off them and I gave up.  Fortunately, I managed to swallow what I already had in my mouth, but I just couldn't get myself to finish the serving.  

THE CONCLUSION
With 5 cookies as the top rating...

Food:

The good dishes were really good - Sambal Rice, Vegetarian Dumplings, Cold Chicken Salad, but the not so good dishes are a total flop.  The spread was not impressive but should be enough for a lunch meal.

Ambience:

Dining area had a cozy decor.  But at the time we went to dine, some tables seem to be out of place and flushed against the wall.  I am not sure if they would normally have the table they had us seated.  I can't really recall if they had any music playing then because the dining area was too noisy.  The room's acoustic was bad so all you'll hear is a collective sound of chit-chat, and utensils touching the plates.  If this is the same case as the dinner service, then it might not be too conducive for a date since you can hardly hear yourself think.

Service:

We we're immediately received and seated since I have called in a booking a day before.  Water was also served.  Empty plates were cleared off the table promptly.  I also noticed that the chefs were attentive on checking if food was always available in the buffet line.  We used Deal.com.sg vouchers for our meal.  Upon checking out, they accepted the vouchers with no questions asked, just an invitation to visit again to try their dinner buffet.  A friendly service staff is always a plus at any food establishment.

Value for Money:

For the spread they have for lunch buffet with a Sgd 50++ price tag, it is not worth your dollar.