A Taste Of Singapura
I’m not very confident with picking crabs apart. It’s one of those skills that Singaporean men are widely expected to know by heart, along with driving and compactly compressing things into ziploc bags. It’s also a skill that takes years of practice to perfect. But speaking of crabs, if you love them, you’ll want to visit Brizo Restaurant & Bar’s new buffet dinner.
Located at Park Hotel Clarke Quay, Brizo is a place with a reputation for serving up great seafood. They unveiled a brand new ‘Taste of Singapura’ seafood buffet dinner on 1 July that promises loads of local delights, a wide variety of seafood, and their signature crab dishes, such as the Singapore-style Chilli Crab. The Smart Local team decided to give the buffet a shot. Here’s what we thought.
The Buffet By Sections
First Impressions
Our first impression was positive – we were pleasantly surprised at a very wide array of food offerings. Glancing up and down the aisles, we saw a dessert corner, a satay corner, oysters, mussels, sashimi, and Singaporean favorites like nasi goreng, salted egg yolk crayfish, and chilli crab with mantou.
Satay Corner
We started with the satay – mutton, beef and chicken. They were cooked just right, and went well with the sauces offered. A classic well done. The satay corner was also well stocked with shrimp wanton, curry samosa, and ngoh hiang.
Salad Bar
There’s also a salad bar. The sheer variety here should satisfy any salad lover. Don’t fill yourself up with it though – there are better things to look forward to.
Seafood On Ice
Our next venture was the chilled seafood – this included Chilean scallops, flower crabs, Canadian oysters, tiger prawns, and fresh salmon sashimi. We didn’t find the oysters very appetising, but we were satisfied with the Chilean scallops and the fresh salmon sashimi, which came with wasabi and soya sauce. For a seafood buffet to be successful, the foundations have to be well-laid, and the chilled seafood got the job done.
Cooked Food Selection
Our next trip to the buffet line took us to the cooked food. 
The Nasi Goreng Kampong Style was tasty but is ultimately ordinary fried rice, while the tiger prawns in fragrant cereal were something different. One of my colleagues commented that this was his favourite dish of the entire buffet – “not the tiger prawns in the cereal, just the cereal”. You may want to consider sprinkling some on the other dishes.
The buffet also included cooked seafood, such as sotong and mussels. These were uninspiring, however. If you don’t have a big buffet tummy, we suggest you skip these and save your stomach for the centrepiece attractions:The salted egg crayfish pandered to the recent fad of salted egg dishes in Singapore. Paired with the crayfish, the result was tantalising and addictive. I made at least three trips back to this dish throughout the night. It was distinctively local and a great addition to the buffet spread.
The chilli crab with mantou will be a familiar dish to most, being a staple of the local seafood scene for longer than anyone can remember. Brizo has also promoted the chilli crab as one of their signature dishes, so this dish came with high expectations. My colleague pronounced this her favourite dish, and while eating chilli crab can get prohibitively messy at times, we just couldn’t stop digging our teeth into every chunk of crab meat we could find. This is a dish you need to try.
The last dish on the row was this red snapper with sambal chilli. It was tender, not too spicy and well presented, but we can’t help but feel people will be more inclined to go for the crayfish and the crab over this.
Desserts
Brizo’s dessert corner is extremely well stocked. We first tried the tropical fruit platter- papayas, pineapple, honey dew and watermelon. They were a refreshing way to wash down the heavy seafood and cleanse the palate. But you’re missing out if you don’t bathe them in chocolate.
I love chocolate fountains. It’s the first thing I look out for at any buffet, and I’m always disappointed when it’s not there. The fountain at Brizo was simply beautiful, and dipping a skewer of fruit into the chocolate felt a bit like this:
Simply heavenly. Source
There were also cakes, kueh, and durian pengat – a sweetened durian pulp similar to blended durian. I’ve never seen this dessert before, and being a durian lover, I went straight for this. It was not as heavy as eating the actual fruit, but the distinctive durian taste was definitely there. Overall, there’s easily enough dessert to ensure you don’t go home with any sweet cravings.
A Buffet Worth Visiting
Brizo would have been able to handle it even if an entire camp of army personnel came down for cohesion. The buffet will also delight the seafood lover, with the basics done right and the salted egg crayfish and chilli crab outstanding. Although it’s not cheap, we didn’t feel it was unreasonably priced for the food we got.
Verdict: 7.5/10
When: 1 July to 30 September. Buffet dinner only open Wednesdays to Sundays.
Price: Wednesday to Thursday: Adult $58++, Child $29++, Friday to Sunday: Adult $68++, Child $34++
Address: 1 Unity Street, Singapore 237983
This post was brought to you by Brizo Restaurant & Bar.