Weekend Afternoon Tea Dim Sum Buffet @ Peach Garden (Thomson Plaza) [Singapore]

In recent months, I had an insatiable craving for dim sum and thought a buffet format, with unlimited indulgence would make me swear off them for a few months. There were quite a few restaurants offering the option and I eventually opted for one closer to home.

Peach Garden at Thomson Plaza; I have a few buses that go directly to the shopping center and with the newly completed MRT station along the Thomson Line, it's no doubt a great convenience for those living in Northern Singapore! 

The promotional poster that attracted me - now, I will need you to take a closer look at the poster as my dining experience was far from satisfactory. To the extent I gave an unprecedented one-star review on Google. 

I shall share the details later. Let me begin with the entry into the restaurant; nothing fanciful, typical interior design for old-school Chinese restaurants in Singapore. As you can see, a pot of tea was readily placed on each table.

To get the dim sum you want, just wait for the pushcarts which made their rounds pretty frequently. And  if you don't know what to have, just get the recommendations from the persons pushing them.

You have the deep fried ones, the steamed options and also those readily cooked dishes like chicken, brocooli and kway teow. For desserts, you would have to check with the waiters / waitresses..

Before long, the table was filled up with baskets of dim sum and trays of food. As I was with Alex, my only worry was whether we can finish up everything, given that he isn't a big eater! Wouldn't want to risk the wastage fee, chargeable at S$10 per 100 grams! 

 

These were the okay dishes; carrot cake and kway teow were fillers and not so much my cup of tea in buffets. Herbal prawns would have been better if the broth was hotter. Broccoli were not bad too, but again, why would I want to indulge in vegetables during a buffet!? Both desserts (green bean soup, and mango sago) didn't blow me away. p.s. my green bean soup is better.

The bad ones - the deep fried dim sums were a letdown and this is coming from a guy who loves deep fried food. The roasted crispy peking duck was the most disappointing; worse than a plate of roast duck you can get from hawker centres / coffee shops. There was absolutely no crispiness and traditional peking duck doesn't use egg crepes. 

Decent and above average; that will be the verdict I had for the above. As you can attest from the photo, the siew mai was large, full of juicy meat and prawns. The beancurd skin thingy was surprisingly good and the crystal dumplings were filled with soft fish paste with a thin layer of dough. 

Century egg porridge was incredible; the usual me wouldn't have ordered this in buffets but I can't stop Alex from doing so. I stole a sip and its flavorfulness appealed to me; I had to order one just for myself! 

From the above sharing, you would have wondered; how come there wasn't any classic dim sum like prawn dumplings (har gow) / chee cheong fun? I did ask about the menu when I stepped into the restaurant and the answer was "it depends on what's available and you will know when the pushcarts are out".

Char siew bao only came out only one hour later and I quickly grabbed a basket. I would also rate them above average as the skin wasn't hard and the char siew filling was quite palatable. Only bad thing is that Alex didn't want any and I had to eat all three by myself.

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Judging from the above content, I wouldn't have given the dining establishment a one-star review. But let me shared what I wrote in the review on Google. There were four main reasons:

As mentioned earlier, the teapot was already on our table and shortly after we were seated, the waitress instantaneously filled up our cups. I naively assumed it's covered in the buffet charge. It's not and cost S$3.80 a person, for which we were not informed. A fellow diner asked if there were options for the tea; answer was only one type. 

What you see on the poster wouldn't be what you get. I had assumed those in the poster would be the ones included but no, molted lava buns, spring rolls and crystal mushroom dumplings were not. There's a disclaimer on the poster; "food images are for illustration purposes only" but if you are not offering them, then to me, it felt misleading. 

Diners from another table complained and managed to secure the molten buns, as a one-off "goodwill". I requested too and got a basket, again as a one-off. Any extra baskets shall be chargeable. To be honest, the molten buns were delicious! 

Look at the timing on my Apple Watch and refer to the poster again; timing of buffet was from 3 to 5pm. The last order was hollered to us at 4.18, 4.49pm. To be honest, this doesn't quite affect me as I was super full by then but it's a matter of principle. I don't expect 5.00pm to be the last order but this is a 2-hour buffet and the restaurant was literally cutting short the timing by more than 25% in advance! This would be frustrating for a person who stepped in at 3.45pm! 

Deepest appreciation to the diners at the next table. I overheard them asking the waitress why service charge was added even though poster indicated that ""service charge waived, minimum 2 pax". I took a look at the receipt that I already paid using my credit card. Darn, service charge was included! 

I went to the cashier and enquired too. No apology; she merely cancelled the transaction and did another one, sans the service charge. I am a trusting person and dislike the fact that an organization I thought was well regarded (at least in the past) could do something that blatantly crosses the crucial, ethical line with an unapologetic behavior and cavalier attitude. 

Likely my last visit to any Peach Garden restaurants.