Fortune Cuisine: Steamboat and Charcoal BBQ Buffet
Please make sure you read the comments before going!
With SCS Butter, Happi Mummi and ieatFamily
Singaporeans are always on the lookout for a great bargain. And the best way to gauge if a something is a great bargain when it comes to food is when you leave the restaurant thinking: "How the heck do they actually make money from this?"
This is exactly the kind of feeling I got when I ate at Fortune Cuisine. As a Steamboat Buffet, it offered not just the usual steamboat stuff, but also adds a Japanese twist to it by offering a Yakiniku Style Charcoal BBQ as well as Sushi, Sashimi and Cold noodles. Of course you still get your usual cooked dishes like fried rice, sweet and sour pork, fried chicken and other cooked food items. Free Flow drinks, coffee and tea and quite a varied spread of various cakes and ice-creams for dessert.
But of course the astute, kiasu Singaporean Bargain hunter would immediately wonder what is the fuss all about? Sounds like any other buffet steamboat with maybe some sushi at the side. Well, I will tell you why we all felt it was a good bargain. Compared to many other steamboat/bbq buffets, the meats here are pretty good quality. One of the items that I was very pleasantly surprised to see was the free flow Beef Karubi! These are chilled Australian beef short ribs and they are well marbled and actually quite good! Now for that alone, I think it's worth the $22.80++. 4.5/5
Although the highlight for me was the Charcoal BBQ, steamboat lovers won't be disappointed as well. They have three different soup base here, Mala, Chicken and Seafood and they were all pretty good. The seafood selection comes with good medium sized prawns, flower crabs and sliced salmon. The rest of the spread is all the standard stuff that you can expect at a steamboat buffet.
For the desserts, there was a decent spread of cakes and ice-cream plus coffee and tea. I was again pleasantly surprised that instead of a big pot of tea with 2 "Lipton" teabags in it, they actually gave you a selection of "gourmet" Dilmah Tea Bags. You know, the type that you pick out in a fancy Cafe and have to fork out $3.50 for? Pretty good for an "All you can eat" place don't you think?
Conclusion
Now I hope you can understand why we all left the place wondering "How they can make money out of this?"
Update: 29 Nov 2007
Just got confirmation from the owner Desmond that there was a price revision after my dinner there. On weekends the price has gone up to $27.80++. Since there were so many complaints, he has agreed to extend the price of $22.80++ for ieatishootipost readers if you call up to reserve your seats. The offer will be up till 14 Dec 2007.
As to the replenishment of food, the Saturday following the blog post was exceptionally busy, so they had problems replenishing the food. Although they are working at a solution to the problem, my advice is that if you want the good stuff, make sure you go early.
Fortune Cuisine
Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-38A/B
67778622
Lunch $16.80++, Child $11.80++
Dinner $22.80++, Child $15.80++
Disclaimer: SCS Butter arranged for this invited Review
38 comments:
Surprisingly the desserts are quite decent too.
what is their lunch hour?
colleagues and i walked past it last week and it was not open.
is it at sunset way?
wow looks good
what is the dinner time?
do we have to call to reserve?
i guess 10% and 7% service and gst is applicable?
Dinner starts at 5.30pm. The rest of the details please call them to ask. The number is listed in the blog.
i find the selection of deserts quite pathetic. That particular day, only chocolate cake was available.
I like their service. The worst is to eat the buffet the unwanted plates and food all over the place.
The meat is good quality. But limited selection when it comes to the different marinated flavours.
If you don't want to BBQ, you can always get them to do it for you.
Oh, seems they are closed for lunch Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays! Otherwise lunch is from 11.30am to 2.30pm. Dinner is on every day though.
I recently went there for dinner. This resturant does not warrant to be reviewed. The food is no good and does not look fresh. In addition, there is no real house speciality ingredients, looks like those bulk purchase from supermarket. Therefore, I would conclude by saying... there is no selling point even though it is relatively cheap, if that is a selling point?!
I went there after reading your review and was a tad disappointed. It's not as good as you make it out to be. The variety of food is not a lot, they use a lot of cheap ingredients and the "beef Karubi" that you stated wasn't very good either. There weren't even desserts when i went for lunch and the plates were not cleared fast enough. There wasn't any charcoal bbq either. The service was ok enough i guess.
I think the lunch and dinner spread may be different. I went there during dinner so I can't vouch for lunch
truly hardly worth a review. I was there on the 2nd week they opened at about 8 p.m. and they not only did not fill up the sushi sashimi area, they simply told me to ask them for what i wanted (how would i know what they had btw since it was my 1st time?) and when i simply said salmon sashimi, they went into the kitchen and took 7 slices for me.
at 9 p.m., the dessert was empty except for 4 slices of meyson (the type you get in sheng siong for $2.50 per box) mango swiss roll.
Dinner was pathetic at close to $20 odd per pax. hardly worth the review. Well maybe they did a special arrangement for Dr. Leslie when he was there so it was different from most of our experience.
IMHO, its amazing that they can serve such horrid food and never bother to top up leaving many of the buffet area empty and at the same time make so much money.
obviously Leslie's trip was very different from many others.
Hmmm, I was there at 6pm so everything was still well stocked.
was the well stocked items there for you to review only? impromptu review is more objective.
I'm afraid I've to add to the list of negative feedback on this place. My husband and I went to check it out last Friday after reading the review and were rather disappointed. The soup for the steamboat was hardly near tasty - spicy hot water and seafood hot water - and the selection of BBQ meat were still frozen when in the trays. The service nonetheless was earnest but this depended on which service staff you get. We had an aunty and she was attentive as most aunties are. For the same price, I would go to Gyu-Kaku for a table BBQ set. No doubt it's not a buffet and there's no steamboat, but the quality of food is better, the ambience nicer, and the service not bad either.
In my opinion, reality is very different from the review!
First is the pricing, they have different pricing for different nights of the week! So the dinner pricing is misleading! Therefore if the attaction is the price, please ensure that you checked the price properly. And, the staff do not know the pricing well. We called to book ahead and asked for the price they told us $22.80++ but when we were there, it became $27.80++ cos it was a friday night.
Two, cooked food for the buffet is cold. Being cold, they taste horrible.
Three, the beef slices are really sliced tiny and they are not topped up promptly, so are the rest of the BBQ items.
Four, the sashimi looks unappetising and they are also sliced into tiny tiny bits. And yes they are not filled up promotly too.
Five, the outdoor platforms are not well built. The planks sank a lot whenever there are people walking pass. This can provide quite an uncomfortable dinner experience.
As such i am not agreeable with Dr Lesie's rating for the restaurant either of the quality/quantity of food or the pricing and the value for money.
Hmmm, it does seem that somehow my experience was different from a lot of other readers!
It is good for everyone to write in to let us know. I hope the management of the restaurant is taking note of the negative feedback!
les, frankly speaking, i do agree with one of e "anonymous" tat impromptu review is better.
as it was an arranged review, somehow, e people there would wanna impress u, therefore, everything was so good...
have u realised tat e ur older post rarely get any negative comments as they were impromptu visits?
just my 2 cents' worth
Wah, so many different types of comments. I stay in the vicinity but I have not tried the food here.
The last time I walked past the place on a weekday night ,there was quite an encouraging crowd. And the fragrance of the soup was pretty enticing.
However, I can understand the comments about the mediocre spread and number of items on display. Sunset is still not that popular to warrant a consistently healthy level of diners. Most of the time, the place is pretty quiet and empty. So perhaps the owners are trying to save costs, but unfortunately, at the expense of the quality of the dining experience .
Its a dilemma, but thats the reality in the food business, I guess.
Went there on a friday night, and like the other reader, was charged 27.80++ instead of the 22.80++. Also, cooked food such as sweet and sour chicken and some other dishes was not replenished after it has finished. The tempura was also said to be "öut of stock" though we were there at 7+ pm. We were sitting inside and they provided bbq service for us. Our beef karubi came perfectly charcoaled, it was so dry and tough that we had a hard time eating. Also, we asked for our crayfish to be bbq-ed, we gave about 14 pieces and only 2 came back to us. Which i think was pretty ridiculous.I really think they should improve on their food quality and service. I agree with the others that Dr Leslie was given special treatment.Overall, i think the price is not worth it at all and i left very unsatisfied.
I was there on saturday night. I found the bbq and soup very good.I agree with the review. The food was not re-fill fast enough. May be that night there over crowded. It worth going especially the taste of the bbq.
Just got confirmation from the owner Desmond that there was a price revision after my dinner there. On weekends the price has gone up to $27.80++. Since there were so many complaints, he has agreed to extend the price of $22.80++ for ieatishootipost readers if you call up to reserve your seats. The offer will be up till 14 Dec 2007.
As to the replenishment of food, the Saturday following the blog post was exceptionally busy, so they had problems replenishing the food. Although they are working at a solution to the problem, my advice is that if you want the good stuff, make sure you go early.
I went there pretty early. So I was quite happy with the food. So like what leslie said, maybe you should go earlier but that is not the long term solution to the food replenishing issue.
To me it's not superb food, but for the money paid, variety and quality is not so bad. Not the best I've eaten but not the worst either. I didn't leave unhappy.
Well if a buffet can only have good stuff when the patrons are there early, they should close the buffet once the good stuff starts finishing.
Its funny to make full paying patrons pay for a buffet where all the good stuff has finished. Shouldn't they by now at least know how fast and how much they need to replenish after more than a month in business?
imho, its a lousy reason given by the owners but as I do not have a bone to pick with them, I'd just never return again and I wish them the best.
My money can be well spent at other offerings who never seem to run out of "good stuff" as long as a patron pays.
This my second trip to there on the weekend. It seem it had improve alot. The food was replenishing petty well and alot more new dishes been added. Will be there again.
The above negative issues mentioned seem to have improved significantly during my visit last Friday evening.
Overall quite good value and a discount of 8% applies when paying by Visa.
Was there once in January, found the place to be of good value at $52 for 2 (dinner)
There were misses but also hits. The ribs were really nice but as commented earlier the marinated meats can taste really similar to one another. The sashimi IS sliced up too thinly in cube forms but the tempura is great! Fresh from the fryer~ Even most of the cooked food wasn't bad.
The only thing is that my table kept getting the orders of the table behind mine but overall service wasn't bad... plate clearing could be faster though.
Throughout my dinner there items were well replenished, capacity was about 30-40% full having stayed from around 7+ to around 9+ i must say it was rather consistent in terms of service and food.
A happy experience for me, pleasant value for money place i would go back again to visit.
I went once few months back - somtime in Sep or Oct I believe. It was ok, can't complain too much as it wasn't that expensive. The thing that bothered me mostly was the lighting where my seat was, almost non existent so it was kinda very very dark. I wish they'll let us help ourselves to free flow garlic and chilli cuz the portion I got was very pathetic
anyone recently went to eat here?? any update on this restaurant as i see mixed review from earlier poster? are they still serving crayfish and do they re-fill the crayfish section or it is limited?
I've walked past that place several times, always wanted to try. And I'm a huge Steamboat fan, and so are the rest of my gfs. But if this is the review I see then I might not be heading there after all. Maybe try it with bf in secret before letting gfs go there, in case it's really bad.
I went there just yesterday.
Sashimi are quite fresh, comes along with the preserved scallop wings, min octopus and seaweeds. It also comes with handrolls and makis.
We had outdoor seats to enjoy both bbq and steamboat. Mmm BBQ is so - so only cos we dun really like the marinate style. There is abt 4 marinates for each type of meat, such as chicken, pork, mutton and beef.
Seafood is quite fresh, got crayfish,prawns, scallops,flower crabs and sliced fish... Meat are greatly in thinly sliced. yummy, love the beef and pork slices, great for steamboat. They have those normal food for steamboat such as fishball,chicken balls,tofu and etc.
The Desert are not really good... got chin chow, green bean soup, sugar roll, cheese cake, chocolate cake.
Just that the staffs there are almost in their own world trying to put pple to have seats, so kinda ignore u abt clearing plates or etc. Staffs there dun really smile.. so it's like kinda cold ambience. If staffs were to smile, it will make the whole ambience be more friendly and they shld be more attentive to customers and having different staffs for different roles or in charge of diff areas so they will be more efficient.
Paid $23.80++ per person
Worth a try.
i wonder if anyone had been there recently as i am thinking of going there in mid Dec but am a bit apprehensive after reading the negative comments, and the negatives seem to outweigh the positives.
If someone would be so kind as to give me an indication would be great. Thank you.
Hey
Hi. I am Daniel, and I had went there for dinner in end Nov 2008, I would comment that the food taste quite ok, the variety is good,there is improvement in the service. I would recommend a revisit there. The price is also reasonable, about $28 net per person for dinner on Sat.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
hihi.. i jus went there last month before Chinese New Year wif my lady boss. We was very surprised that buffet steamboat cum Charcoal BBQ, and the FOODS not bad .. d tempura taste good and we eat alot of Clayfish.. and d buffet is including drink ,u can drink all u can .. they have soft drink and english tea also (Not like other buffet restaurant the drink is mixed juice or d lousy drink) ..
And we only pay $19.88++ per pax on weekday really worth it !
And i'll go tonight wif my frens and also next Monday wif my lady boss and her frens..
Overall ..it's worth it than wat u pay ..
it taste very badly. The price isnt e the food u get..wat a disappointment...
Can you post more worth paying steamboat rather then this awful place?This is not the standard we expect from you.
Hi all. after seeing so many posts here, i still decide to have a try for their buffet last night. it was really a disappointment! i mean the food isnt really that good, and they dont top-up their food. if you are looking forward to try their bbq, have to make reservation early..but have to give kudos to their attentive staffs, at least they helps to clear the plates on my table/ trays.
and price was $24.8++ (friday night).
So i would suggest, go elsewhere to look for something else!
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