Spice Brasserie

On like 2 Fridays ago, I went to Spice Brasserie Parkroyal for a lunch buffet. Honestly I didn’t even know it existed until that day. It was located on Kitchener Road, near Mustafa. It was a Teochew Porridge Buffet with a wide variety of side dishes, which comes both cooked and can be cooked-on-demand.

The design of Spice Brasserie is extremely modern. The water fountains behind the glass panels complement the restaurant’s earthy tones, making the entire atmosphere very comfortable and serene.

When we first walked into Spice Brasserie, we were immediately greeted with a sushi and sashimi counter. The counter offers a wide variety of sashimi, with squid and octopi, and not forgetting the fishes like salmon, tuna and mackerel. Unfortunately for me, I’m unable to fully enjoy the sashimi due to the braces that I’m having (I just put it on ), however I did try the salmon though. It was so fresh that I didn’t even put a lot of wasabi on it.

Like most buffet restaurants, Spice Brasserie also has a group of chefs standing next to the sashimi counter, ready to meet your food-on-demand. I didn’t manage to tried their prata (from which I learnt later that their pratas are very delicious as well). What I did try is their Steam Red Snapper. The fish simply just melts in your mouth (almost literally). Flavoured with very simple vegetables like salted vegetables and tomatoes, the fish is light and extremely fresh – not a hint of fishiness inside.

Well since it’s a porridge buffet, of course I did try the porridge. What attracted me was the elaborate selection of traditional dishes. I dare say I’ll never have enough of it if not for my braces (once again).

As usual, to me personally, a buffet is never complete without trying the dessert there. Spice Brasserie has a wide selection of dessert – both traditional and western. I’m actually more drawn towards the western desserts as they are so delightful and extremely cute looking.

Well I took almost one of each dessert available. The first picture on top left is the Kaya Cake. Even layers of light sponge cake sandwiched and topped with a layer of Kaya. Next is my all-time favourite – cream puffs. They may be petite, but inside is filled with rich and flavourful custard. The one on the top right is like a mini chocolate tart. The crust is a little bit too hard and tough in my opinion, but the creamy dark chocolate ganache filling is superb.

The blueberry crumble tart (on the left) has a slightly softer crust than the dark chocolate tart. Well I’m not very sure whether they used real blueberries for this tart or blueberry jam (it doesn’t seem to me it’s real blueberries though) The blueberry taste, to me, is not intensive enough. The coffee cake on the right I believe is Irish Coffee Cake. Walnuts inside the light and soft sponge, which was sandwiched and topped with all-too-familiar coffee-flavoured cream. A very delightful cake indeed.

But what really attracted me is the 4 different types of mousses they offer. And each one of them is served in a shot glass. The colours are all contrasting and all of them are bursting with flavours.

The first one I tried is the Mango Mousse. It’s light and tangy, with small pieces of mango at the bottom. The next is Cookies and Cream Mousse. Up till now I still can’t figure out what’s on the top. It looks like biscuits to me (shares a hell lot of resemblance with Oreo cookies), but they are soft and instantly melts in your mouth. The mousse, to my slight disappointment, did not have such an intense flavour as the mango one. Out of the 4 mousses, the top two are the Strawberry Mousse and the Chocolate Mousse. The Strawberry Mousse is excellent. Every mouth seems like you are eating strawberries purée. The taste is rich and smooth. Funny thing is that the decoration (as seen from the picture), instead of placing the strawberry the other side down, they placed it the other way up. Looks a little funny, I think it’d have looked better if it’s placed another way actually. Last but definitely not the least, the Chocolate Mousse is extremely rich. The chocolate does not taste as dark as the one in the chocolate tart but it’s still dark chocolate nonetheless. Rich and flavourful – what else can I say about it? It’s really good.

The service in all is pretty excellent. The empty dishes are cleared away promptly. As for the pricing, for a lunch buffet for 3 people, including the service charge and GST, it total up to $100, and UOB and debit cardholders get to enjoy a 20% discount, so it’s only around $80.

In overall, Spice Brasserie offers one of the widest selection of traditional Asian food in buffet style. It is very modern but at the same time, suitable for family gatherings as well. Coupled with excellent service, Spice Brasserie is classy yet affordable. Overall I’ll be giving it a 8.5/10.

I’ll definitely be back for more.