Verandah Rooftop Rotisserie

This is the 2nd time I have visited Verandah Rooftop Rotisserie, and the first time I visited, the hotel was brand new, and the restaurant also did not offer the buffet option and only had a la carte Western cuisine

Verandah now offers semi-buffet lunches and dinners, where you can help yourself to popular buffet items as well as order dishes from their well-curated menu

Located on level 7 of the Momentus Hotel, the restaurant is on the same level as the swimming pool and poolside bar, so there can be quite a bit of traffic of hotel guests. The restaurant itself is not a very huge space, but enough for up to 50 to 100 people

As I visited during the Christmas festive period, the buffet offering was changed to a full buffet line with festive dishes. For a start, they had the cold seafood area, which included chilled oysters, crab, prawns, clams, and scallops. There is also a salad station with a cheese wheel, salami and cold cuts with various sauces and toppings

Some of the other hot food stations include: 2 kinds of soup selection, grilled prawns, seafood paella, mussels in butter sauce, grilled vegetables, baked potato gratin, roast chicken, cooked and brussels sprouts

The highlight of the buffet at Verandah Rooftop Rotisserie has always been the high-quality meat live grilling section. This was obviously the most popular section, with many customers queuing. They also had the meat carving station with pork ribs, grilled pork belly and chicken right next to the grilling section with many condiments and sauces. For the live grill section, they had quality meats like US Prime short ribs, Tajima Wagyu beef rump and beef wellington

There was no sashimi at the buffet spread, but we were served 1 serving of fresh sashimi with 3 types of fish and octopus with ice in a bowl. There was no repeat for the sashimi, which was not a problem for me, as I found the fish not as fresh as I would have liked. The meat was a bit limp and soft, and only the salmon and the hamachi were ok, so we ended up not eating the tuna and the octopus. On the contrary, the seafood on ice was great, the prawns were huge in size and extremely fresh and sweet, the oysters were plump and fresh with a nice umami flavour, while the crabs were full of flesh and had a natural sea flavour

I took some of the canapes, which were right at the front of the buffet line before the cold seafood section. Some items, like the lychee with ham, were nice, and the angel hair with caviar was refreshing. The other items were lacklustre as the cone for the foie gras was soft and not crispy, and the toast with Parma ham was hard and dry. For the cooked section, the items which really impressed me were the grilled prawns with salt, which were fresh, succulent and sweet with a balanced charred flavour from the grill. I went for many rounds of the prawn, even though I was quite full. The mushroom soup was creamy and packed with earthy mushroom flavours, which was great with the toasted bread provided. The grilled pork and chicken were pretty general in flavour, but my dinner companion did say the beef from the live grill station was delicious

Last but not least for desserts, I had the creme brulee, raspberry panna cotta and a matcha chocolate mousse. They were pretty good to end off the meal and not overly sweet for me. There were a lot more varieties at the dessert counter, which I did not take as I was full from all the prawns I had. For beverages, they also had a free flow of soft drinks, coffee and tea

Overall, the meal was enjoyable as the environment was nice and the staff were very friendly. Some items fared better than others, which is expected from hotel buffet lines, but as a seafood lover, the fresh seafood did buy me over for a price tag which was not over exorbitant

Address: Momentus Hotel, Alexandra Rd, Level 7, Alexandra 323, 159972

Opening hours: 6 am to 10 pm