Londoner Life Dot Com

Every year at the beginning of October the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington has a Simply Singapore festival which gives visitors the chance to experience a Singaporian buffet in their restaurant The Park Terrace.  The restaurant is transformed into a Singaporean eatery reminiscent of Singapore’s famed Hawker Stall food markets and the food is prepared by some of Singapore’s leading chefs who are flown in especially for the event. 

This year the Simply Singapore buffet was held from the 5th October and ended today.  There were 3 different menus this year which rotated between the 10 days of the event and I was lucky enough to sample 2 of the menus having attended last Saturday 6th and tonight.  The menus included a lot of delicious traditional delicacies such as char kway teow, laksa, satay, chilli crab and mee siam as well as a variety of starters and desserts.  Below is an example of today’s and last Saturday’s menu:

Today’s menu:

Appetizer
Drunken Chicken
Shredded Duck and Lettuce Rolls
Sliced Pork with Garlic
Nonya Acar (Mixed Vegetable Pickles)
Pickled Tien Tsin Cabbage
Poached Prawns In Sweet Chilli Sauce
Fruit Rojak
Gado Gado
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Soup Of The Day
Chicken Herbal Soup
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Hot Entrees
Chilli Crab
Assam Fish
Chicken Briyani
Stir Fried Beef with Black Pepper
Braised Beancurd with Minced Pork
Steamed/ Pan Fried Carrot Cake
Sesame and Seafood Dumpling
Kong Bah with Steamed Bun
Seasonal Vegetables
Indian Mee Goreng
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Live Station
Braised Duck with Yam Rice
Mee Siam
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Dessert
Ice Kacang
Fresh Fruits
Mango Pomelo and Sago
Peanut Pancake
Sweet Potato Fritter
Barley and Ginko Nut Soup (Hot)

Menu last Saturday:

Appetizer
Shredded Chicken with Peanut Sauce
Braised Duck
Fried Wanton with Sweet Sauce
Nonya Acar (Mixed Vegetable Pickles)
Pickled Tien Tsin Cabbage
Salad Prawns
Pork Ngoh Hiang
Tauhu Goreng
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Soup of The Day
Hot and Sour Soup
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Hot Entrees
Stir Fried Prawns with Dried Chilli
Fish with Onion Sambal
Chicken Curry
Braised Pork Knuckle
Oyster Omelette
Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf
Char Siew Soh
Seasonal Vegetables
Char Kway Teow
Beef and Chicken Satay with Condiments
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Live Station
Roti Prata
Laksa
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Dessert
Ice Kacang
Fresh Fruits
Sago Gula Melaka
Red Bean Pancake
Baked Tapioca
Or Ne (Teochew Yam Pudding)

As you can see, it is quite an extensive menu and takes its influence from Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan cuisines.  So if you missed it this year I would definately schedule it in your diary for next year!

Satay, Char Kway Teow, Char Siew Soh, Glutinous Rice In Lotus Leaf, Oyster Omelette, Chilli Prawn and Plate Of Starters

Laksa

Dessert - Ice Kacang, Sago Gula Melaka, Red Bean Pancake, Baked Tapioca, Yam Pudding, Fruit

More Starters - Fruit Rojak, Prawn Crackers, Shredded Duck and Lettuce Rolls

Mee Siam

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I am going to start off my Japanese Restaurant Mission with Matsuri (St James Branch) which I visited last weekend.  Every summer they have a lunch buffet on Saturdays and Sundays throughout July and August where you can eat as much california roll and Hiroshima style okinomiyaki to your heart’s desire and you also get either a seafood, steak, chicken or vegetarian teppanyaki with steamed rice (this is not all-you-can-eat though).  I have been going to this for the past few years and although it has changed from being a complete all-you-can-eat buffet to a combination buffet and teppanyaki, it is still well worth the price of £12 (it has gone up from the even better £10 price tag last year). 

The california roll is very fresh with the avocado perfectly ripe to complement the crabstick and cucumber.  The okonomiyaki is tasty (if you haven’t come across okinomiyaki before I will be writing a post on this soon) and although I’m not really as keen on teppanyaki as I am on other Japanese culinary delights, the seafood that I had was fresh and not overcooked apart from the squid which was a bit too rubberlike.  I also would have liked them to use a bit of garlic butter as I prefer teppanyaki restaurants to use a little in the sauce to give it more flavour otherwise it can be quite bland.

I would definately recommend this lunch buffet even if you don’t like teppanyaki and are just going to fill up on california rolls and okinomiyaki because this is the best part of the menu.  It would probably be wise to make a booking too as the restaurant does fill up pretty quickly although it sits 120 people.  The service in the restaurant is excellent and staff are very attentive, the restaurant is also nicely laid out with a good atmosphere although you are sitting with strangers around a teppan.  All-in-all this lunch buffet  is a good taster of what Matsuri offers if you are not prepared to fork out around £50 a head for dinner.

Matsuri St James Address: 15 Bury Street, St James, London, SW1Y 6AL
Telephone Number: 020 7839 1101
Opening Times: 12pm - 2.30pm, 6pm - 10.30pm (Mon - Sat) 12pm - 3pm, 6pm - 10pm (Sun)

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