Sakura International Buffet - Literally "International" with a newly revamped Menu [Media Invite]

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I am pretty sure a lot of us have been to Sakura International Buffet in the past. They have been around for as long as I remember, and I cannot remember when was the last time I went (or if I ever have gone). Well, whether it was good or bad, they have revamped their buffet spread.

The place is very spacious and there are sections to seat large groups.

 Local
It is literally 'international' here. Starting from the 'local' zone, you have the Singaporean favorites. The added special highlight here, is the Boston Lobster and Argentina Prawn Hokkien Mee. It is dished up piping hot by the chefs at the live station, but you have to wait for about 10 minutes in the queue, especially if there's a crowd, for them to cook up a new batch. The premium seafood is a plus. The noodles were very flavourful, presumably from the rich, prawn soup stock used in the stir frying. This is must-try, no matter how carb-avoiding you are trying to be as part of your buffet strategy.


Boston Lobster and Argentine Prawn Hokkien Mee, Hiroshima Oyster Omelette
Not the same can be said for the Hiroshima oyster omelette though, which is also part of the live station. It was on the mushy side.

 The local cooked food section featured Hainanese chicken rice. The chicken was pretty tender, while the chilli sauce and ginger helped to lift it. There is also a DIY laksa station. The laksa broth was a little too concentrated and hence salty. Skip the otah, which was powdery and weird in taste but go for the satay. They also had a modest spread of Thai food, which included pineapple fried rice, green curry chicken, kambing soup (lamb soup) and shark's fin soup. The shark's fin soup was quite starchy and we were hard pressed to find any ingredients of substance in it.


DIY Laksa
Shabu-Shabu

 At each table, there is a pot of shabu-shabu with collagen chicken soup stock. Take your pick of ingredients, which includes chicken, beef and fish slices together with mushrooms and vegetables.
The soup was a little bland initially, but the light fragrance grew on us. Ingredients were fresh too.

Japanese

 Directly opposite, the Japanese section had a wide variety of sushi. A try of the makis proved it to be very decent. There were chicken yakitori, tempuras and even garlic fried rice. For the fans of sashimi, you will find salmon, amaebi and tataki at the cold section, along with a slew of Japanese -style salads (soba, potato, egg etc). The cold tofu dish especially, is worth a try.

Cold Tofu
Chinese and Dim Sum

 At the Hong Kong-themed area, there was a small selection of dim sum. What stood out was their version of molten salted egg lava bun aka Liu Sha Bao. Other than the fact that I haven't come across many buffets that offer it, the lava inside flowed out generously and the bun was sufficiently soft. The savoury custard flavour was also sufficient, though it would be even better with a oomph of buttery fragrance present. Tip: Have it hot, otherwise you will find in underwhelming. The rest of the dim sum were average so you can save the space for other things if you are not a dim sum fan.
Molten Salted Egg Lava Bun
Another star of the buffet: the freshly baked Bird's Nest Egg Tart. The crust is the flaky kind and I enjoyed the wobbly egg custard. This was great, if you don't mind the fact that you can see the bird's nest but barely taste it.  

 Just right beside the egg tarts were grilled prawns. The cross section of these prawns have been sliced open for easy eating. The smoky flavour was there and yes, it's worth a try too. 

 USA/Italian/French

 Rounding up the selection was the USA-Italian-French section. They had french fries, nachos and popcorn chicken in cute, little paper boxes. I was excited to see that they had macaroni and cheese and lasagna, but the mac n cheese was way too creamy. The cheese could barely be detected. The lasagna was just dry. There were also pizzas and pastas. The pastas had the DIY element in that you can just put the prepared sauce of either cream or tomato after putting the pasta noodles on your place.


Another purported highlight was the whelk a la bouguignonne, which is basically escargot with parsley leaves. There were also conches (gong gong) available, I found the meat for both too tough and chewy.
Pizza, Whelk a la Bourguignonne, Bread Bowl
They also had miniature bread bowls, which you can fill with cream or bolognese sauce. The bread was crisp and I liked the cute concept.

 Desserts
Lastly, the desserts section. The variety was stunning. 3 shelves chilled and waiting, with each shelf containing 5-6 cakes/tarts/dessert cups/mochi/puffs. This is excluding the live station of Haagen Daaz Chocolate Lava Cake and the fruit section, with assorted jellies. At the end, we simply didn't have space for the enticing mochis.
Dessert galore
Assorted jellies and fruits

Rainbow Kueh Lapis

 Well, to help you maximise your stomach space, these are the desserts (we tried nearly everything) which are worth the space --> Rainbow Kueh Lapis, Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate dessert cup, chocolate cake, mango mousse and of course, the Haagen Daaz Ice Cream with Chocolate Molten Lava Cake.  The molten lava cake was served in a warm plate and every mouthful of hot-and-cold was so comforting. Unfortunately, the lava didn't really flow as gloriously as we wanted it to.

Haagen Daaz Ice Cream and Chocolate Molten Lava Cake
The verdict? At $30.90+(Mon-Thurs)/$33.90+ (Fri-Sun) for dinner, this buffet exceeded my expectations, even though there were some misses. The variety is wide, while food quality for some of the items were really good, and most were at least average otherwise. The quality definitely is better than some hotels' buffets at a similar price range, what more with shabu-shabu thrown in too. Even more value-for-money would be lunch ($17.90+ - Weekdays, $18.90+ - Weekends). However, note that they do not serve the Boston Lobster and Argentine Prawn Mee at lunch, replacing it with Hokkien Prawn Mee.  

Round 1 out of 3


Sakura International Buffet

#01-28, Yio Chu Kang Stadium 

210 Ang Mo Kio Ave 9 S569777

Tel: 67548197

Brunch: 11am-3pm (Sun)

Lunch: 11.30-3pm (Mon-Thurs)
           11pm - 3pm (Sat/Eve of PH)

Dinner: 5.30pm-10pm (Daily)
           

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