As mentioned by most blogs, there is a 60min time limit for their buffet lunch and 80min time limit for their buffet dinner and most internet reviews have drawn roughly the same verdict.
The buffet bar only stretches one side of the restaurant and the photos displayed in this post show about 95% of the spread.
There are decent spread of savouries, focusing alot on carbohydrates ranging from bread, pizzas, rice dishes and pastas.
Bread station is located at the other end of the restaurant and this station houses baguette with olive oil vinaigrette.
Teriyaki chicken burgers are also served at this station with a miserable serving of the chicken and average tasting bread. Would have been good if the chicken are bigger in portions.
Finger food and a decent selection of pizzas are the other highlights of the buffet line but the problem lies in prolonged exposure under heating lamps. If you happen to get a batch of pizzas (selection ranges from spinach, corn, salami, chicken, tuna, pineapple and crab) that has idled too long, the base is, as expected, tough.
Among the finger food, homemade fried chicken is one that will never go wrong. Kudos to the tender chicken and we couldn't deny the fact that we went for several helpings.
Carnivores would be sorely disappointed as most of the dishes served has tiny portions of meat but apart from that, most of the pastas are delicious. To me, the spaghetti are not over cooked and are well seasoned (e.g. selection are rotated among Chicken Tomato, Chicken Cream, Meat Sauce, Spicy Japanese Mushroom, Crab Tomato Cream).
The hot station has about 4 to 5 dishes at the go and is replenished when the pan is scraped clean. The general taste of the savouries are slightly sweetened and some of the dishes such as Chicken mushroom spaghetti (Aglio e Olio style), Cabbage & Pork Millefeuille, Niku Jaga, and Omullet (Hokkaido Style) deserved some attention.
Japanese curry is delicious but the setback? Only gravy is served and I was pretty surprised by the absence of potatoes and carrots.
Dancing yaki mochi is no longer available and the only live station available in the buffet is the crepes, served with ice-cream with toppings such as caramelized apples, mixed berries or chocolate banana.
Have to admit that the crepe is decent for the reasonable thickness and it being sufficiently fragrant to our liking.
Chiffon cakes are also the other items that will not go wrong among the desserts and one can expect these to be sufficiently fluffy and moist.
The other hot favourite but well hidden in a neglected corner is the chocolate fondue. Don't miss this out, it is located at the upper deck, beside the drink stations.
Now the main disappointment in the entire buffet lies in the mousse cakes. The chocolate mousse, mango mousse, green tea mousse and even the green tea panna cotta have common characteristics, heavy use of gelatin mixed with lots of cream. The resulting factor, cloying.
Strawberry Frangipane Tart would have captured most people's attention since Fruit Paradise is under the same management but instead of the loadful of cream, this is rock hard. Frankly speaking, the taste is not bad but the texture is way too similar to a lyophilized cookie.
The hype about the wide selection of desserts, about 30 to 40 types, lies in this glass display. Note that one can only pick up 5 desserts at a time. The jellies are acceptable while there are better green tea roll cakes out there. After 2 rounds of desserts, we pretty much wrapped up our dinner.
In conclusion, we would say that the entire concept is not completely a flaw as most have highlighted.
After factoring in the 10% service charge and 7% GST, buffet dinner is only priced at $23.30. Having visited Seoul Garden just 1 week ago and that Seoul Garden's weekend buffet dinner is priced at $25.99++ ($30.60), the amount of "meat" served is pretty much correlated to the pricing.
However, the main difference between Seoul Garden and Let's Sweets lies in the amount of staff and service. Although there is no time limit in the former, we notice there are many staff making their rounds, ensuring that the food is replenished and that the plates are cleared relatively fast at Let's Sweets. Kudos to this aspect. The dishes are also of reasonable standard and most are acceptable.
Moreover, having located at an accessible location (e.g. Bugis Junction), $23.30 do sound reasonable for some decent savouries, a crepe and free-flow drinks (a good range of coffee, japanese green tea and soft drinks).
As for the time limit, 60min weekday lunch is reasonable for office crowd unless there are self-declared time extension to lunch breaks and with most of the restaurants (at Bugis Junction) having long stretch of queues during peak periods, one can assure that the waiting time would not be horrendously long.
Now the main flaw in this place lies greatly on their desserts. we don't have to go far but the desserts served at Ajisen Ramen or even Fruit Paradise are way better. If the restaurant placed so much emphasis on their desserts, this needs to greatly improved to avoid disappointment with their diners. Moreover, the highly recommended signatures (e.g. Japan’s famous street snack, “Dancing” Yaki Mochi, Chocolate Fondant, Hokkaido Coffee Zenzai, Rouleau au Caramel de salée (Sea Salt Caramel Rolled Cake)) were all not available on a Saturday buffet dinner. Now that is really a huge disappointment.
Buffet Lunch (60min, from noon to 4:30pm)
For adults
$15.80++ (Monday to Friday)
$16.80++ (Sat, Sun, eve of P.H and P.H)
For children below 130cm
$11.80++ (Monday to Friday)
$12.80++ (Sat, Sun, eve of P.H and P.H)
Buffet Dinner (80min, from 5:30pm to 10pm)
For adults
$18.80++ (Monday to Friday)
$19.80++ (Sat, Sun, eve of P.H and P.H)
For children below 130cm
$11.80++ (Monday to Friday)
$12.80++ (Sat, Sun, eve of P.H and P.H)
Let's Sweets
Bugis Junction
200 Victoria Street
#02-49
Singapore 188021
Tel: 6338 0187
Let's Sweets' press release can be found on one of the So Shiok's articles.
Don't forget to check out Sihan's blog, we felt that our thoughts are pretty similar to what she has written in her post on Let's Sweets.
7 comments:
The concept is similar to Sweets Paradise from Tokyo.
Kudos to this review! It's very detailed and not boring :). And from desserts expert like you, hope they do get feedback so they can improve more. :)
nice review! are they closing down? that's what i heard.
Taster: For about the same price, it seems that the quality and spread offered Sweets Paradise is alot better than Let's Sweets. Have you been there before?
Loraine: Thank you for the compliment. On the contuary, I haven't drop them any emails nor feedbacks. Not sure about their response as we are not food connoisseurs but personally the name of the eatery does make people set high expectations with their desserts, which sorely disappoints.
Phoebe: Thank you. I don't think so bah, they are opening their 2nd branch at Plaza Singapura this month.
I have not been to Sweets Paradise. But there are complains that the cakes there are dry and often of the same sponge but different cream toppings.
I think buffets served on weekend usually have more savory and less desserts, that could be the reason why many desserts were missing.
I hope they had a good trial with the customers and would include more desserts in the future, then I might check it out.
Check out this article about Tokyo Walker at Plaza Singapura-
http://www.soshiok.com/article/13657
They are going to have fresh rice crackers and dango.
Sorry for the late reply.
Quite surprised to hear that the cakes are dry and similar, considering the selection of cakes served at Japanese Patisseries such as Patisserie Glace, Flor, Tampopo are pretty much extensive and moist. Guess the photos found via google are misleading as I thought the spread looks more attractive and extensive than what Let's Sweets get to offer.
Tokyo Walker is also under Japanese Food Holdings so perhaps there will be some similarities. Will check it out when I swing by.
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