The Line

Lovers of seafood would have long heard of The Line buffet restaurant at the Shangri La as they are famous for serving fresh and quality seafood during their buffets. The booking at the buffet is always full and the price is also relatively high. Therefore when we chanced upon a 1 for 1 buffet deal, we hopped on the chance to dine at this dream place.

Located at the basement level of the hotel, The Line restaurant was huge and their seats are sectioned into many different areas so that diners get a comfortable space around them. The best seats are probably this cluster since they are between the dessert and the fresh seafood counter.

First ice catching counter is the seafood on ice which offered up to 3 different kinds of fresh oysters which were shucked fresh, there were also mussels, clams, flower crabs, Alaskan snow crabs, mud crabs and prawns.

The oysters were very fresh and plump and there was a variety of sauces you can eat your oysters with, including tabasco, lemon and Thai chilli sauce. While the oysters were fresh and plump, I find that the variety served was not the creamy species which I love. The snow crabs were also very sweet and meaty although it would have been perfect if they refilled the crab legs more often.

Next was the sashimi counter and at the side of this counter was a variety of sushi and maki. You can let the chef know how many servings of each type of fish you want and it will be sliced upon request.

The slabs of fish are cut quite thickly and the salmon fish has a nice amount of fatty parts although it was not the salmon belly area. The fish is generally fresh and there is yellowtail which is not commonly served at a buffet.

There is endless variety when it comes to their hot food, it is generally split into different sections by cuisine. You have the local, western, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Italian as well as some other food. This was the broiled soup within the Chinese dim sum section.

The soup served on the day I visited was a typical Cantonese soup; lotus root with pork ribs. The soup was clear and not oily at all and the flavours are deep enough to taste the sweetness of the lotus root and pork ribs. You can clearly taste the number of hours put into double broiling the soup for the natural flavours to have seeped into the soup.

There was a hot roast counter where roasted pork tenderloin and beef tenderloin was served with a variety of mustard and sauces.

This sight attracted me as you don’t get to see an entire grilled fish so often at buffets. This counter was items cooked in the more European style with many grilled and baked items.

The pork was well roasted with juicy and slightly pinkish meat, the brown sauce was light and not overpowering and went well with the different types of mustard provided. The barley risotto was cooked al dente with mushroom and the flavours were also quite light. The fish was very fresh and nicely grilled with a slightly charred flavour but you could still taste the natural sweetness of the fish.

Near to the Chinese live cooking counter, there was a noodle station where you can fully customise the noodles, toppings as well as condiments to suit your taste.

I had the thick rice vermicelli with prawns and prawn soup which I found too light since I love a strong prawn broth for my prawn noodles. The prawns were also sliced thinly unlike the huge ones offered in other prawn noodles.

At the Indian section, you can also find grilled vegetables, mutton kebabs, curries as well as pita bread.

At this point, my stomach was almost bursting and I have skipped many other hot foods like the Thai section, dim sum sections and picked some of my favourite items. The satay was quite delicious as the meat was not dry and the peanut sauce had enough spice and crushed peanuts. The dahl and curries were also quite authentic with right amounts of punch from the spices and flavourful enough to eat with the pita bread and naans provided.

There was also a wide variety of desserts available like the usual cut fruits, cakes and even a chocolate fountain for fruits and marshmallows.

Personally, my verdict of the cakes is that it is not fantastic and quite mediocre. Most of them are either too sweet or just very normal. Nothing really stood up.

There was also an ice cream counter and crepe station.

I customised my crepe with caramelised bananas and chocolate sauce and it was a perfect ending to the very filling meal.

The matcha and coconut ice cream flavours were also quite legit with the right creamy consistency and fresh natural flavours instead of syrupy artificial sweeteners.

For those interested in the full line up of the buffet, you can check out my walkthrough video here.

Overall, the food at The Line has great standards even though there are some items which are a miss for me personally. The sheer amount of varieties of cuisine in one seating is enough for me to forget about the not so nice items since there are so many other things to try out. In fact, I missed many of the dishes as I was totally bursting with just filling up on my favourites. I would visit again with an empty stomach to try other stuff I have missed out.

Address: 22 Orange Grove Rd, Lower Lobby, Tower Wing, Singapore 258350

Operating hours: 6 am to 11 pm