Cafe 2000 - Better than ever with Ala Carte Buffet

While I had written about Cafe 2000 before, it was during the time where all food was displayed out for patrons to grab. Yes, I use the word “grab” because it was Wild Wild South where everyone was scrambling to get their fill of seafood. The variety was awesome, and the seafood made the buffet very value for money, but I didn’t appreciate the ambience, too chaotic. I want to enjoy my food instead of stuffing my face with food to get the “value” back. Thus I am wowed by the concept of ala carte buffet here. The variety is great, with less seafood featured though, and the place has become way cleaner.

The appetizers here are awesome, with most being European variety. If I want to enjoy local food, I will prefer to go to kopitiams instead. So the appetizers definitely meet my expectations. Super fresh, plump, succulent prawns, buttery quiche with the goodness of cheese, well-seasoned fusilli pasta, refreshing potato salad with shredded egg and scallion plus the good old pizza and coleslaw, I love the choices of appetizers available here. The best part is all are served in bit size, so we get to try a little bit of everything without overeating.

Though I am not really into local delights in restaurants, but still got to order some satays since I love satays. And one of the things I love about ala carte is I can definitely get some satays if it is available in the menu and I want to enjoy some. If it is a no holds barred kind of buffet, I will never get to touch even a stick of satay because I don’t like to wait while watching the person in front of me grabbing twenty freshly cooked satays to put into his or her plate, leaving none for the next person. Yup, satays can bring out the worst in people at any settings. The same thing happened at my corporate events.

The soup of the day is very creamy and flavourful, a nice distraction from the solid food. It is cool that the eggs for breakfast set can be cooked in three different ways, depending on one’s preference. While my companion orders the congee and laksa to accompany his breakfast set as mains, I order Spaghetti Forest Mushroom Aglio Oilo, which get the thumbs-up from me due to the generous helpings of mushrooms.

The festive charcuterie is a nice addition for this Christmas season, but the huge slab of turkey meat does not really appeal to me. The gamey flavour is too strong to my liking, and I have never been into meat served in huge chucks anyway. What I like is the tangy mustard sauce served with the potato wedges, and I add it to the prawns to get the oomph out of it.

The cake selection is less than that of the previous style of buffet, but the quality is better now. Signature Durian King Cream Puff has my companion raving over it. He even said, “This is what I come here for.” As for me, I love odeh odeh cake and the warm, moist Chocolate Soufflé served in a coffee cup. There are other varieties of cakes, butter milk waffles with different toppings and ice-creams to satisfy the sweet tooth.

The service is pretty good, being prompt in responding to requests. And the setting has improved a lot. In fact, after the first visit, I have been planning on going there again soon!

My Thoughts: Thumbs up!

Nearest car park: M Hotel's car park

Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar

M Hotel Singapore
81 Anson Road
Singapore
Contact No: 65006112

Cafe 2000 - One of the better International buffets

I don't like those so-called "International Buffets" since they usually include lots of local food into their spread! Not that I don't like local food, but I prefer to have them at kopitiams. Thus I actually first visited Cafe 2000 with the feeling of apprehension, and I was kind of surprised to find that the buffet spread was quite ok.

The attractive point of the spread is the ice bed of seafood, featuring lobsters (though one will miss out on these if coming in at later than 1pm), crayfishes, crabs, prawns and scallops. At certain intervals in time, the manager will even ring his bell, signalling that "The black pepper crabs are ready for your taking!" Not to mention that there is a free flow of fruit juices. The desserts are not bad and looking fancy (not great though). These factors actually deem this place not too bad considering that it only came at the price tag of $48 per pax. It is even better during the 1-for-1 offer period. There are few hawker fare items in the spread, and are not really worth going over to, except for the crispy roti prata.

While the spread is not bad, one has to bear with the awful ambience since the crowd there is noisy, the washroom beside it is smelly, the tables are placed too near to each other and there are a few flies spotted. In fact, the whole place looked like one of those Kopitiam foodcourts!

I'll be going again if there is 1-for-1 offer! If not, I rather go to my favourite buffet restaurant, Basilico.

My Thoughts: Not Bad

Nearest car park: M Hotel's car park

Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar

M Hotel Singapore
81 Anson Road
Singapore
Contact No: 65006112