Cafe Brios @ Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel

Feasting like good bad luck, comes in stokes. One after another, like a tidal wave.

It either leaves you drenched in happiness or soaking in dissatisfaction.

Enter Cafe Brio's at Grand Copthorne Waterfront. If crowds are a gauge of how good the food is, Cafe Brio's was packed.

Skipped the seafood this time and headed for sushi and sashimi. Sushi was too stiff, sashimi was fresh for non-Japanese buffet standards.



Green Leaves Salad

I picked this because of the strawberries.



Oriental Jellyfish

Not sure why but jellyfish is usually hard to resist.



Chicken Tikka Salad

Nothing spectacular.



Thai Papaya Salad

Did not excite the tastebuds much.



Cold Cuts

Pairing mandarin orange with salad is interesting...though I won't same the same of a dry ham and plain mandarin orange.



Oysters

A must-eat to try to validate going to a buffet, no surprises here.



Baked Zucchini and Roast vegetables

I ate them to qualify the vegetable quota for the day.



Panfried Snapper

Phew, a decent dish that made me think of going seconds. Me and meat without a bite never agrees so imagine my delight when I sunk my pearlies into the firm meat. The raisins gave this a nice fruity aftertaste.



Chicken Roulade stuffed with Cheese

And I proceeded to get disappointed with dry chicken with barely a hint of cheese.



Fish Fillet Otah

Reminds me of the famous Otah from Muar, only less authentic.



Prawn Salad

Fresh prawns saved the day!



Roast Duck with Dried Kumquat and Almond

Not much of an impression, unfortunately though I was intrigued by the usage of Kumquat and Almond.



Achari Paneer

Cottage cheese was a little too tight to chew.

Navarattan Korma

Curry vegetables, yums.

Papadum

Ok, I found the next yummy thing....crunchy snackworthy papadums! These were wiped clean each time they were refilled.



Stir Fried Beef

Too bouncy from the MSG loaded in.



Sweet and Sour Pork

Good not great with the disproportional amount of flour versus meat.



Stir Fried Vegetables

Already sounding like a meal of Teochew porridge with dishes.



Braised Shoulder Lamb
A slight gamey taste, figured it should be quite strong coming from a carnivore.



Nua Tua Braised Beef in Soya and Spices

None too outstanding as well.



Eggplant Lagsane

Eggplant made delicious. A dish with equally colourful taste and appearance.


Hainanese Chicken Rice

Came with a choice of roast chicken and oily chicken. Both were equally flavourful. Adore how the rice is well done! Oily, fluffy and captured the essence of a sinful plate of chicken rice. Doesn't hurt that the chilli sauce has enough punch.



Char Kuay Teow

Expectedly lacking in wok hei, almost like the morning economical noodles I'd pick up for breakfast along the way to work.


Cheong Fun

Decent shrimp wrapped in cheong fun.



Char Siew Pau

Obviously frozen, the ball of char siew clumped so tightly together...



Lotus Paste Soo

Seconds for this lovely light lotus paste pastry! Lotus paste pau reinvented, I'm liking it!



Assortment of cheeses

Like a wardrobe, the cheeses were displayed in drawers for you to pull out and cut your desired portions. Blue, Brie, Cheddar, Goat's cheese...I lost count in a fantasy land for mice. Not forgetting the awesome Onion loaf! Pity it wasn't warm but it proved to be one of the worthy mentions during the buffet.



Fruit jelly shooter, strawberry almond jelly, vanilla mousse

All three were placed there for the sake of it, without a distinct taste...infact they left me baffled why they were even part of dessert. Queer pairing of flavours.



Swiss Roll

A dense sponge cake with cream slapped all over.



Vanilla Cream Cake

A bouncier version of the swiss roll. Both were the more edible ones.



Mango Lassi

A heartwrenching kind of sour.



Assorted Nonya Kueh

Decency never tasted so good.



Icecream

Dressing up my icecream was more enjoyable than finishing it.

I did not manage to take a picture of the Raspberry Green Tea cake, should anyone spy that...avoid it like plague please. The layers are as divided as they look, powdery green tea, bitter chocolate, sour raspberry mousse...all in one cake.

Yes, by now you would have guessed how ordinary and disappointing this was. Stuffing myself through so many dishes hoping to find worthy mentions or even "worth the stomach space" proved arduous. Unless there is a compelling reason, I would not recommend a visit.

Cafe Brios
Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel