As a seafood lover, I enjoy visiting buffet spreads that focus on presenting the freshest catch in town. Plaza Brasserie at PARKROYAL on Beach Road has launched Treasures of The Sea, a dinner buffet spread that specialises in seafood. While there were many other stations offering the usual salads, breads with cheeses, meats, etc., I had my eyes set on all the different seafood dishes the buffet has to offer.
Sashimi is way overrated!
Let me get this off my chest. Most people head for the Japanese Sushi Bar to feast on all the Sashimi they can get their hands on. The truth is, the Sashimi you get at a buffet spread is usually pretty decent but never fantastic. That's because the freshest Sashimi-grade fish will be reserved by premium restaurants who have paid top dollar for them. The seafood gourmand would know to focus on other seafood dishes instead of the Sushi Bar.
What Plaza Brasserie has impressed me with at first glance, is the variety of Norwegian salmon dishes they have at the Scrumptious Salmon live station. The live station offers four different variations of salmon dishes, namely Salmon Wellington with a flaky puff pastry wrapping, Grilled Salmon Fillet with Asian Sambal Chilli in Banana Leaves, Sea-salt Crusted Salmon with Bread Stuffing and Classic Baked Whole Salmon with Herb Spices.
I'm a minimalist when it comes to seafood because I believe that if the fish is fresh, light seasoning will bring out the flavour of the fish while strong seasoning would overpower the natural flavour of the fish. The Sea-salt Crusted Salmon with Bread Stuffing is perfect because it presents the salmon in its original taste.
My next favourite salmon dish at the Salmon live station has to be the Salmon Wellington. The pastry tastes buttery and is crispy and flaky. A fantastic complement to the fresh salmon fillet that was baked to perfection in the pastry.
The Nonya-style Steamed Fish arrived piping hot at our table and just the smell of the dish got me so excited that I almost took a piece of the fish without taking a photo. Prepared simply, the ginger removed the 'fishy' smell of the fish while the light soy sauce enhanced the flavours of the fish.
For shellfish lovers, the Crustacean Corner live station will most likely be the station that you would keep going back to (at least that's the case for me). The live station offers a wide variety of shellfish consisting of Bamboo Clams, White Clams, Green Mussels, Soft-shell Clams (Lala), Fresh Prawns, Mud Crabs and Soft Shell Crabs. Diners get to choose from black bean sauce, XO sauce or the spicy coriander sauce to pair with the shellfish of their choice. While the chef told me that they would send the dish to my table once it is done, I love hanging around the live station watching the chef whip up my dish.
I ordered a few shellfish dishes and they were all quite tasty. The mussels in particular, were fresh and succulent.
Other than the Chilli Crab that was available at the buffet table, try the stir-fry flower crab at the live station. I hate to dirty my hands eating crabs in restaurants but these flower crabs were worth it. The meat is very fresh and juicy.
My general approach to tasting seafood is to go from light flavour dishes to heavy flavour dishes so I ended the dining journey with the Curry Fish Head, a speciality dish of the restaurant's Executive Chef Jackson Goh. The gravy is flavourful and tangy with the tomatoes while creamy with the right portion of coconut milk. As this dish is served in a claypot, the Curry Fish Head stays warm until you are finished with the dish.
I ended the meal with a DIY dessert. The dessert station offers freshly made crepes to be paired with a variety of sweet jams but I chose to pair my crepe with the durian custard on the buffet table. This is because I was told that the staff spend hours extracting 6 kg of durian flesh from the fruit every night to make the durian custard. True enough, it was as though I was tasting pure durian flesh on my crepe. Not too sweet, slightly bitter. An absolute heaven for durian lovers! But because of the limited quantity, you better get yours fast!
Plaza Brassiere offers a great buffet spread with their Treasures of The Sea theme and I would definitely want to come back again before they change the theme.
Details
Plaza Brasserie presents Treasures of The Sea from 14 March to 30 April 2014. A dinner buffet spread that features new live stations and a speciality dish with the freshest catch in town.
Plaza Brasserie
PARKROYAL on Beach Road
7500 Beach Road, Level One
Singapore 199591
Tel: +65 6505 5710
Email: fb.prsin@parkroyalhotels.com
This is an invited food tasting. Opinions are as always, our own.
