Tony U.
Yelp
StraitsRestaurant is the Grand Hyatt's all you can eat Singapore Style Buffet made famous by Anthony Bourdain's "Layover Singapore" episode.
Had dinner there tonight and the set up looks pretty much like it did on that program.
Cost to eat here is about $US50 per person. After that, it's eat as much food as your stomach will hold. Here's where the dilemma starts. After you're seated what to do? The staff will give you a tour and the set up is like any you see in Vegas but difference: the food quality is pretty amazing.
It broken down into at least five different eating stations:
There's the 1) Indian Station where you'll have about three or 2 kinds of naan (plain naan and garlic naan), saffron Basmati rice, plenty of curry dishes from fish, chicken and lamb curry. Then there are tandooris, kebabs, and then there's prawn tandoori.
After that, you have the 2) Chinese Station that serves chicken rice (with all the condiments including cilantro, ginger sauce, chopped red or green peppers, etc), roast duck and pork; wok dishes including Chili (Black) Pepper Crab, fried rice, steamed fish, Singapore style chow mein, and other stuff along with key toppings. There's all sorts of soup noodles here including laksa, hot and sour noodle soup, shredded chicken noodle soup, etc.
The there's the 3) Malay Section with Satay grilled chicken, beef, lamb on a stick with a peanut dipping sauce, super strong and flavorful red onions and hot sauce; BBQ Otak Otak and Sambal Fish; Sayor Lodeh (mixed veggies with coconut gravy; Cucur Sayor, vegetable fritters, and some other items
Then there's the 4) beverage area where you can make an english coffee, espresso, or any kind of a coffee, various drinks from mango to cucumber juice to cool sweet chinese herbal tea. My favorite was rose milk. Something entirely unique and very tasty.
Lastly, 5) there's the dessert section which has all sorts of goodies including gelatos (including Durian yummmy!) and sorbets; various Indian and Malay sweets like Barfi, Assorted Nonya Kueh, warm sweet dessert soups like Pulut Hitam and Coconut cream, sweet potato paste and ginko nuts, and yet even other sweet things.
It's been five hours since I was there and my stomach is still expanding. My advice to anyone who eats here: do not be overly ambitious because it's too much food even if you take just a bite or two of each dish.
Other advice is that you don't drink alcohol. You cannot afford the space in your stomach for it. More advice, have a Alka Seltzer afterwards; still more advice don't lie on your back for at least 8 hours or you'll get nauseous.
While this place is an excellent way to crash course in Singapore, it's simply too much. The service from the servers to the food servers is pretty much 2nd to none. And the quality is pretty decent. You will find better if you explore Singapore, but you won't be disappointed.
The dining atmosphere is a tad claustrophobic for an upscale hotel like the Grand Hyatt. I didn't feel comfortable being placed too closely to other parties whose conversations intersected mine.
I also didn't like the lack of vegetables. Yes there was a salad bar but the food there was invaded by a few invasive fruit flies. Major atmosphere killer and very low scale.
Despite my qualms, I am partly to blame for overeating.
Definitely worth a try if you only have a few days and are just passing by Singapore like I am. Otherwise, you have a week to search throughout and find the best quality out there.