Since York Hotel had just ended their recent Penang food fair, choices seemed limited for a Penang food buffet in an air-conditioned environment until we found this place.
As usual, excited by friends’ photos and delicious-looking online reviews, we were really looking forward to the lunch. Especially for the Assam Laksa.
It turns out the the gravy was rather thin, and the noodles soggy. Portion wise, it was a nice small one though. Good for saving space for trying other items. Remember to add a good dose of prawn paste to lift the flavors.
The prawn noodles soup base was excellent though. Full of prawn goodness and the right amount of spicy kick to warm our tummies. Shiok factor 👍🏻
The chunky carrot cake is on the slightly sweet side. Bite is nice, soft enough, not crumbly. I like the egg mix from the stir fry. As usual I add sambal / chili sauce for an extra heat.
I had some high hopes of the Penang stir fried kway teow. But the taste was rather light (even though it was oily enough to coat your lips). Texture-wise, the noodles was bouncy and not heavy. Just missing enough of that wok hei flavour.
The Roast Pork Belly in Soya Sauce was thick but smoothly infused sauce of various sauces, spices and ginger. Very good to go even with just a bowl of plain rice. The roast pork was somewhat dry and required some jaw work.
We also tried the kueh pie ti & popiah (not bad but not fabulous). And the steamed otah (very lemak, on the watery side).
Above – Some of the other dishes we didn’t manage to make room for (there is still lots more).
For desserts, there is a range of kuehs and other treats like ban chang kueh, dou hua with gula melaka (this one was nice) and ice kachang was surprisingly light and refreshing together with a hot cup of teh alia. A nice treat for the end of the meal.
At the time of writing, the price for the buffet especially for weekends (Sunday lunch $51.80++) is fairly prohibitive viz-a-viz my opinion of the overall quality of the dishes, although there are some jems here and there.
Thankfully someone had a Millennium Hotel à la carte card which got us a discount of 20%. I don’t think I’ll come back again unless it’s for a special occasion for a loved one who might be craving Penang food.
Website
https://www.millenniumhotels.com/en/singapore/copthorne-kings-hotel/princess-terrace-cafe/
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