Cafebiz

Cafebiz
1A, Cuscaden Road
GF Traders Hotel
6831 4374

My family usually go out for buffets at least 4 times per year for celebration of birthdays. This is the 3rd one of 2009! Dinner is priced at $50++ per person. There's definitely no shortage of hotels serving buffets in Singapore so now, you may ask, why Cafebiz? Well... Read on to find out! (Or look at the photo below for a clue)

I always try to be rational when eating buffets as there's just too many varieties to sample! So, my tactic is walk around without taking anything first while "strategizing" which dish to try in which order. The starter section looked good with many types of salads like smoked salmon and asparagus salad.


The seafood section is always one of my favourites at any buffets (2nd to desserts, of course!). There were oysters, scallops, prawns, mussels, lobsters etc. The ones I tried were very sweet and juicy.


The lobsters disappeared very quickly! I think all of us were waiting for the moment when they were replenished to pile as many as we can onto our plates. It was actually quite amusing. The lobsters were very fresh! But definitely can't be compared to the ones I had in Sydney.

Now, this is THE reason why we were here for dinner. White asparagus! Yes, they are in season now. These were not on the buffet spread and served to our table by the waiters personally only when we made a request for them. White asparagus is not exposed to light during the growing phrase and thus, has no chlorophyll. Less bitter than the green variety, it is very popular in the European countries such as France, Belgium and Germany, and also very expensive. It can cost $40 or more per kg!

We had 3 orders of these beauties. I really love these! Fat and juicy, these were poached to perfection with a dash of salt to bring out the natural sweetness. Hollandaise sauce is the usual company of white asparagus but I prefer the plain ones with no sauce. Mmm...

Of course, there were other cuisines such as sushi, sashimi, grills and cooked-to-order hot food. Trust me, these photos only cover a small portion of the whole spread. I only focused on the ones I like. The dessert section can be said to be the most important aspect of a buffet to people with a sweet tooth like me. The spread was quite comprehensive with a good selection of cakes, puddings, ice cream, tarts and pies.

There was also a chocolate fondue! It was quite good as the chocolate was not cloyingly sweet. What caught my attention was the bowl of plump strawberries. They were so sweet and fresh! I think I finished one whole bowl by myself.

Out of all the cakes, the Caramel Nut Almondier was my favorite. Surprisingly so, since I don't like caramel. But this was subtly sweet with LOTS of nuts in every bite.

Since this was an international buffet, there were also Asian desserts like durian pengat and pulut hitam. I liked the herbal jelly as it was very bitter with very low level of sugar.

It is almost inevitable to overeat at a buffet since there's just too much choices. There's definitely hits and misses but definitely more of the former than the latter here. Just having the white asparagus is enough to make me forget any of the misses!

Note: Traders Hotel is part of the Shangri-la Group which houses the famous "The Line" buffet so the quality of the food is comparable to that at The Line.