• Colour me impressed: The Chihuly Lounge at the luxurious The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore has Christmasified their popular weekend tea buffet, and it’s made up of all things sweet and good!
The moment you walk into the tea lounge you are greeted by the sight of the dessert station. And what a fabulous spread! In place of the usual macarons and bite-sized sandwiches, you get a whole new array of Christmas goodies!
S$46++
Buffet rating:
Buffet hours: 2:30 – 5pm
The first thing that catches the eyes are these tiramisu desserts in shot glasses. They have little gingerbread man biscuits (and they were SMILING!) that would totally win your heart!
Once we have settled down comfortably into our plush seats at a low coffee table, the waitress hands us the drinks menu. There are different types of tea (Earl Grey, English Breakfast, etc) and coffee (regular, mocha, cappuccino, etc). These are all part of the buffet unless you’re going for pricier stuff like the Blue Mountain coffee.
The tea and coffee are served with an elaborate spread of gold-tinged porcelain ware and silverware. There’s both white and brown sugar (in perfect semi-spherical shapes), milk, lemon and a little tub of honey.
At one end of the buffet line is the dessert station while at the other you’ll find the appetisers and finger food. We start from the appetisers before slowly working our way to the desserts. Gotta save the best for last, right?
The appetisers come in neat petite sizes, so there’s room in the tummy to sample everything!
The seared scallop is extremely satisfying, with a full-sized scallop topped with salmon caviar.
You would also find offerings that range from the more ostentatious foie gras mousse…
… to the more down-to-earth roast duck.
Dining here is certainly a feast for the eyes. Even something like roast duck can look so visually appealing!
There are also the bread items, all in miniature sizes. Go easy on these, because they can really fill you up quickly.
Cute mini burgers!
Even something as basic as toothpicks look great with that colourful weaving!
The deep-fried crab claws and roasted prawns come with their own individual spicy dips which are delicious and go very well with the food.
Even though the appetisers are good, my mind is really on the desserts!
If you find the usual chocolate log cake to be too rich or sore throat-inducing, there are various fruity alternatives such as the raspberry log cake. It looks pretty grand!
This baby pink log cake not only looks gorgeous, it tastes divine too! There’s lychee in it, and the layer of strawberry cream is actually mousse! If you can’t get enough of it at the buffet, you can also buy the whole cake home for $55.
Chocolates! No Christmas should go without them. And these are the richest!
A star-shaped cookie for Santa? I love the Christmasy touch given to the cupcake in the form of a gold snowflake white chocolate crisp. The icing is extremely sugary and diabetes-inducing though.
Strawberry dessert shots for the girls. How pretty!
There’s also a chocolate fondue fountain somewhere in the room but I really don’t have room in my bellyful of goodies for more.
During the buffet, a waiter would move from table to table to make vodka shots for diners. Our lychee vodka comes in coloured glasses. Clink!
Despite being in a 5 (or is it 6) star hotel, the mood is comfortable and relaxed. To further enhance the festive atmosphere, a live jazz band plays Christmas songs in the background. With the music, the quaint little delights and the soothing ambience, it sure is a great way to chill out on a weekend afternoon.
The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore
7 Raffles Avenue
Singapore 039799
Tel: +65 6434 5283 | Website
Service:
Bus services: 36, 56, 75, 77, 97, 106, 111, 133, 171, 195, 857, 960, 70X, 107X, 162X, 961C
Nearest MRT: City Hall
Dec 18, 2008
6
geez… this is making me craving for desserts now… and those gingerbread man sitting in tiramisu cup is really bring the xmas’y atmosphere… really interesting!
Dec 18, 2008
3472
Yeah! I love how the buttons on the gingerbread men are of different colours. How cute! I can just imagine the dessert chef putting on the different coloured icing for them. lol!
Dec 19, 2008
19
omg this is oh-so-tempting!!! but it’s gonna burn a huge hole in my pocket! ahhhh!!! do u think it will be available on xmas day itself?
Dec 19, 2008
3472
I think the tea buffet is only available on weekends, but you can double-check with them. I know Greenhouse (the other restaurant next door) also has a Christmas buffet, although it’s not high-tea style.
Dec 19, 2008
19
btw veron, what camara do you use to take all these food pics? looks damn good! is it a pro camara or just a normal digicam?
Dec 19, 2008
19
oops i mean camera! haha..sorry for the typo..
Dec 19, 2008
3472
It’s a new camera that I just bought — the Canon IXUS 870 IS. It’s a regular small camera but it can take really crisp pictures! I’m in love :)
Dec 19, 2008
19
wow! ok! take great pics! but i think you are an IT pro, so you did beautify the pics right?
and thanks for your info bt the restaurant and camera! =)
Dec 19, 2008
3472
No problem! Yes, I’m a sucker for perfection which is why I have to beautify my photos. Somehow the photos I take with my digital cameras all turn out a little duller than I would like. So I let Photoshop work its magic :P
Dec 19, 2008
4
You take wonderful pictures and I’m craving for everything you posted, especially the tiramisu and the mini burgers!
Dec 19, 2008
3472
Thanks! Those are the cutest! But I gotta say that the most delicious of them all has to be the strawberry log cake.
Dec 21, 2008
45
Yummy! Food looks too good to be eaten!!
fyi, the usual weekend high tea buffet is $40. It looks like they are charging a $6 premium for the Christmas version -_-
Dec 21, 2008
3472
I think the premium is for the additional effort in Christmasifying the menu. Oh then there are the vodka shots too. Do they have alcoholic beverages for the regular tea buffet?