Crystal Cafe

My mum has always loved Teochew porridge buffets and ever since Crystal Cafe closed for renovations, we have been on the lookout for something similar. The options were either too far or the price was too steep so when Crystal Cafe reopened, we quickly made a lunch reservation to bring my mum there

Located along Killiney Road, Crystal Cafe is on the ground floor of Orchard Grand Court Hotel. With a separate entrance, you can visit the restaurant without going through the hotel lobby at all. The reopened restaurant has a more modern outlook with plenty of natural light from the floor-to-ceiling glass windows

The main buffet counter is at the left side of the restaurant where the rest is filled with wooden tables and chairs. The capacity of the restaurant is quite big and can accommodate up to 80 people in the natural setting. I don’t recall if there were any private rooms but I did see many gatherings at the back of the restaurants where tables were joined to accommodate bigger groups

The front area of the buffet line is the braised pork trotter and braised chicken feet with beancurd skin pots followed by the traditional side dishes of Teochew porridge; steamed salted eggs, fermented beancurd, olive vegetables, ikan bilis, peanuts, fish cake, salted vegetables, braised eggs, braised pork belly, braised tofu and tau pok

The next section is cooked dishes which can be eaten on their own or paired with porridge or rice. The dishes offered on the day we visited included; fried tomato eggs, salted egg yolk with beancurd, chili long bean, fried fish, fried pork belly with onions, fried gong bao chicken, fried kway teow and fried rice

The last section of the buffet is the desserts and beverage area where they only have hot coffee and tea and hot red bean soup. Ice water or plain water was not served with the buffet so those who need cold drinks will need to make an order with the staff. A plus point for sweet tooth customers will be the ice cream fridge where balls of ice cream are pre-prepared into mini cups

Overall, the flavours of the dishes were acceptable and tasted just like homemade or from the familiar hawker stall near home. There is nothing too fancy about the dishes or the restaurant but simple and generous servings of dishes. There are some dishes which are quite delicious like the tomato egg and chilli long bean where I went for 3rd helpings, the rest is more comforting to the stomach than being extraordinarily wonderful in flavours. For the price point of SGD 20.80 ( weekdays) and SGD 22.80 ( weekends), you can really bring the family for a night out without the hassle of cooking and enjoy a filling meal

Address: 131 Killiney Rd, Singapore 239571

Opening hours: For Buffet only

Weekday Lunch Buffet  
12:00pm to 2:30pm
Weekday Dinner buffet
5:30pm to 8:45pm 

Weekend Lunch Buffet
12:00pm to 1.30pm       (1st Seating)
1:45pm to 3:15pm         (2nd Seating)
Weekend Dinner Buffet
5:30pm to 7:00pm         (1st Seating)
7:15pm to 8:45pm         (2nd Seating)