The Square Restaurant - Food Outside The Box

Being an extremely lucky girl, I'm blessed to secure a part time job after A Levels, which lasted me all the way til I graduate from University. That's a whole good 3 years of part time, with 1-2 months annual breaks which allowed for me to study for examinations, and a 3 months break for me to go for internship at ease. With such flexible schedules, and of course, understanding supervisors, I really couldn't ask for more.

So after 4 months, I finally found time to meet up with both my NUS supervisors! Not without food, of course.

So here we are, The Square Restaurant at Novotel, Clarke Quay. Situated very near to Liang Court, please make sure you find the right entrance to Novotel. Or else, you will end up walking around in circles in Liang Court.

Get into the right building. Take the right lift up to 7th storey. Start feasting.

Perhaps we were too early. I couldn't think of any other reasons why the restaurant was so empty. (Until much later)

Almost empty restaurant

But I can't complain. Less crowd can make dining a more comfortable experience.

The spacious dining area with such contemporary furniture and deco makes this modern restaurant an ideal place for large gatherings or family dinners.

To start off, here's the Fresh Seafood Selection.

Fresh Seafood Section

Well, being not a fan of seafood, I didn't try any.

Sushi Platter is next on the list.

Sushi Platter

Oh, how my heart jumps with joy when I spot my favourite Jellyfish Sushi sitting quietly on the tray, waiting for me to pick it up gingerly and pop it into my mouth. But the disappointment sets in as soon I threw the whole sushi into my mouth.

The rice was wrong, the seaweed were damp, even my favourite jellyfish doesn't taste fresh.

Conveniently next to the sushi was a variety of well, pretty looking sandwiches.

Sandwiches for your pick!

Let's just stop at pretty looking. I took a bite of the tune sandwich, and I left the rest uneaten. The bread was such a chore to chew, and the tuna mix was too raw and fishy. I understood why the tray of sandwich was almost left untouched at the end of the buffet.

The Square Restaurant offers quite a few live-cooking stations, namely Roasted Meat section, Singapore's all-time favourite Fried Carrot Cake, Satay/Otah/Chicken Wings, and Noodles section.

Roasted Meat Section (blurred)

The Roasted Pork were not bad. In fact, it was good! The meat was tender, juicy and very tasty. And of course, they provides a reasonable selection of condiment sauces right in front of the counter for your pick.

The Carrot Cake didn't score with me though. My favourite CC will be located in one of the most humid and stuffy hawker centre, where I will request for the cook to add it more cai-po and make it 'more black'. Never had a fancy for white carrot cake.

If you ever dine here and you can only eat one item on the list, please go for the chicken satays. They were so good, I can't help but to go back for three more servings! First of all, the station had already won me over with the familiar smell of smoke. Satay is always one of Singapore's famous dishes, but to make the meat tender, tasty and not overly dry after grilling, that needs alot of skills. The Satays served here absolutely scored full marks with me! Not kidding. The meat were very well-marinated, and it was grilled to almost perfection. I believe no words can do this dish justice, you have to try them yourself!

Next on list was the Noodles Station, which I was already too full to try.

Noodles section

You just let the friendly cooks behind the stations know what noodles you want, and they will whip up the dish for you right there, on the spot.

Aha, not at all unfamiliar with this dish, I am sure.

Chilli Crab

The meat was fresh, the sauce was tasty. What's more to ask? Oh. One of the waitress even serve our table a bowl of lemon water for us to wash our hands with, without us asking for it.

Now that I'm quite stuffed, time to head to the desserts section!
I love how many buffets now allow us to create our very own ice kachang!

Ice Kachang Machine

I meant, just look at the number of jars we can get our condiments from! You'll be lost for choices, really.

Danish pastry

Chocolate Fondue

A buffet isn't complete without a chocolate fondue fountain. Lke many others, the chocolate here is so rich yet not too sweet to turn people off. And it's warm chocolate! Okay, I'm won over.

Fruit Tart

This particular Fruit Tart got my hopes up high, and then dropped me from heaven. The sweetness of this fruit tart is artificial. The base was well, lousy. I can't even describe it in words.

Before

After

By the way, the rest of the desserts were disappointing too. Seems like most of them were leftovers, because majority of them tasted stale.

There were many other stations of course!
Salad sections -  Chicken Sausage salad was lousy. The sausage tasted well, expired. Pasta salad didn't impress as well.
Ala-carte sections - Roti Prata wasn't crispy, nor tasty. I felt like I was chewing onto dough which wasn't mix well. Char Kway Teow wasn't too bad though, just stay away from it if you don't fancy oily stuff.
Ice cream section - The normal sort of ice cream you could get from anywhere, but they tasted good here because I dripped loads of the chocolate syrup over my icecream. And of course, nata de coco (from the Ice Kachang Station which is just beside the icecream one.)
Drinks section - Many drinks to choose from. You've the cold drinks namely Guava juice, Orange juice, Milk (for cereal), etc. Then you have a whole tray selection of tea, packed into little individual packaging, for you to choose from. When I was there, both coffee machines broke down, so we can't try any.

Did not have a good experience with the food, since most of them didn't impress. But the waiters/waitresses were nice and thoughtful to attend to our needs, with initiative. Although they do get a little rushed to clear our plates when we are not even done. But still, the service is out to impress, at least way better than the food served.

The Sqaure Restaurant

Novotel Clarke Quay Singapore Hotel

177A River Valley Road

Singapore 179031

Tel: 6433 8790

Opening hours:Buffet Breakfast - 6:00am to 10:30 am

Buffet Lunch - 12:00noon to 2:30pm

Buffet Dinner - 6:00pm to 10:00pm

Ala Carte Menu - All Day