Season’s greetings, everyone!

The time for merrymaking is upon us again and that only means one thing – endless parties and gatherings with your loved ones and friends whom you’ve been too busy to meet all year. Sadly, for the incompetent cooks like yours truly, whipping up a dish as simple as an omelette for a potluck can be a real headache. Rather than subjecting your culinary-inept friends (and your stomach) to the unnecessary torture, why not ditch the apron and leave the food preparation to the professionals?

In a food haven that is Singapore, however, buffets are so aplenty that it takes sheer dedication to even shortlist that few locations. Perhaps, we can start from The Square Restaurant at Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay which has quite a number of exciting festive dishes lined up for lunch and dinner!

Have A Merry Little Christmas
(1 – 31 December 2019)

Indulge in an extravagant feast throughout the month of December as The Square Restaurant brings you the finest selection from the land and sea. Expect to see traditional (but improved!) festive favourites such as their 24-hour Roasted Brine Turkey, Roasted Beef Striploin and Roasted Lamb Leg to get you in the Christmas mood alongside an array of the freshest seafood on ice, like the chilled Alaskan King Crab Legs, Half-shell Scallops and sashimi. At the same time, keep in touch with your roots with local delicacies such as The Square Signature Black Pepper Crab and Salted Egg Crayfish.

Making an introductory appearance at the buffet is the à la minute pasta with your choice of sauce between homemade salted egg and Mala. Having tried both sauces, I must say each of them has its own merits and appeal to different taste buds. Salted egg was a little on the thick side (totally apparent in the above picture) and I could taste the chunks of yolk. But as with most salted egg dishes, the possibility of feeling gelat (surfeited?) is there so go easy on the servings. #sayNOtofoodwaste

Mala, on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air. It contains just the right amount of Sichuan peppercorns for me, a novice eater, to enjoy comfortably without being irked by the (many a time excessive) tingly numbness in my mouth. But that said, if you can’t handle spicy food (though I did suggest to have a range of spiciness level for guest to choose from), definitely opt for salted egg instead.

And do remember to make some room for desserts at the end of the meal as you wouldn’t want to miss delectable sweet treats, like The Square Signature Durian Pengat, Log Cake, Chocolate Fondue, Fruit Cake, Tiramisu and other assorted pastries specially curated for Christmas!

Festive Buffet
Lunch
Monday – Saturday (except 25th Dec) · 12.00 pm – 2.30 pm
Adult: $48++ · Child (5-12 years old): $29++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $38++

Dinner
Sunday – Thursday (except 24th, 25th and 31st) · 6.00 pm – 10.00 pm
Adult: $68++ · Child (5-12 years old): $39++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $58++

Christmas Eve Buffet Dinner
24th Dec · 6.00 pm – 10.00 pm
*includes free-flow martini, beer, wine and soft drinks
Adult: $88++ · Child (5-12 years old): $49++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $78++

Christmas Day Lunch
25th Dec · 12.00 pm – 2.30 pm
Adult: $68++ · Child (5-12 years old): $39++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $58++

Christmas Day Buffet Dinner
25th Dec · 6.00 pm – 10.00 pm
Adult: $68++ · Child (5-12 years old): $39++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $58++

New Year’s Eve Buffet Dinner
31st Dec · 6.00 pm – 10.00 pm
*includes free-flow beer, wine and soft drinks
Adult: $88++ · Child (5-12 years old): $49++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $78++

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Usher the Year of the Rat with an Imperial Feast
(8 January – 8 February 2020)

Hold off your New Year’s resolution of getting back in shape because the feasting is not quite over yet! With the Year of the Rat exactly one month away from Christmas, brace yourselves for another round of edible temptation coming at you from every direction in January!

For many Chinese families, zi char places and Chinese restaurants are usually the gathering point for reunion dinners, and it’s always the same old dishes offered in the set menus. Worse, the prices of these dinner sets can only rise each year while portions remain unchanged or get reduced. Share the same sentiments? Then, you might want to relook the style of your reunion dinner this coming Chinese New Year.

How about a reunion buffet dinner for a change? That way, you will be ensured everyone gets their fill from a myriad of dishes at their leisure (like, you know how some restaurants churn out dish after dish and you feel pressured to speed up your eating? SO STRESSFUL) and you actually pay according to how much each person can consume? Yes, extended families with a brood of very young offspring and blessed with longevity, buffet dinner should be the way to go. And The Square Restaurant has just the what is needed to satisfy diners of all ages.

From an assortment of BBQ meats, Poached Broccoli with Dried Oysters and Black Moss to Wok-fried Salted Egg Prawn and Laksa, the buffet boasts a good mix of traditional and modern Chinese New Year delicacies that is bound to please the pickiest and most demanding of taste buds. On top of that, the more hands-on family members would also find themselves immersing themselves in the experience at the DIY Kong Bak Bao station. What better way to bridge the generation gap between the young and old than to offer your elders the Kong Bak Baos you have specially prepared for them, right? 😉

Lastly, round off the hearty meal with more than just a boring bowl of mango pomelo sago. Everyone at the table gets to pick from a variety of pastries infused with local flavours including but not limited to Pandan Egg Tart, Taro Butter Cake, Bak Kwa Chicken Floss Swiss Roll and Golden Sesame Ball. Not really a pastry person? Sure. Have a go at the Chilled Peach Gum with Red Dates and Dried Longan – which is an absolute favourite of my plus-one because it is tasty yet so healthy – or Pan-fried Nian Gao. Are you salivating yet?

Savoury and juicy sweetmeat wrapped with pastry dough and topped with chicken floss, this ingenious creation was a hit at the media tasting session. I never liked bak kwa, but I just couldn’t resist taking seconds of this. It was hea-ven-ly.

The Orange Mousse Cake is another top pick of mine and I am pretty sure it accounted for most of my calories gained that night – but damn was it worth it! The yellow strip of fondant icing – which I strongly feel should not just be on both ends of the cake because without it, the cake is better off in the Christmas buffet spread – has a citrusy note to it and the slight sourness of the red berry jelly filling prevents the mousse from being too cloyingly sweet. There is simply no reason to dislike this.

Chinese New Year may be more than a month away from now, but it’s never too early to start making your reservations. Act fast before your preferred dates are fully booked!

Prosperity Buffet
Lunch
Monday – Saturday · 12.00 pm – 2.30 pm
Adult: $48++ · Child (5-12 years old): $29++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $38++

Sunday Brunch
Sundays only · 12.30 pm – 3.00 pm
Adult: $68++ · Child (5-12 years old): $39++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $58++

Dinner
Sunday – Thursday (except 26th Jan) · 6.00 pm – 10.00 pm
Adult: $68++ · Child (5-12 years old): $39++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $58++

Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner
24th Jan · 6.00 pm – 10.00 pm
*includes free-flow wine, beer and soft drinks
Adult: $88++ · Child (5-12 years old): $49++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $78++

Chinese New Year Dinner
25th & 26th Jan · 6.00 pm – 10.00 pm
Adult: $68++ · Child (5-12 years old): $39++ · Senior Citizen (above 55 years old): $58++

Fa Cai Yu Sheng
$68++ for Medium · $88++ for Large
(20% discount for all dine-in guests)

Overall, The Square Restaurant has impressed me not only with their palatable offerings, but also their creative spin on traditional dishes. I mean, just look at the presentation of the desserts especially! The effort is unmistakable.

Thanks for reading!

The Square Restaurant @ Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay • 177A River Valley Rd Singapore 179031 • For more information on buffet timings, please visit Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay’s WEBSITE

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