Dining Review: Dinner at Beach Road Kitchen, JW Marriott Singapore South Beach
Keywords: Dinner - Sit down buffet - Seafood - Service - JW Marriott
Month of visit: September 2020
Dinner at Beach Road Kitchen, JW Marriott Singapore.
Situated within the JW Marriott Singapore South Beach, Beach Road Kitchen offers a unique experiential dining amidst this pandemic. Instead of the conventional buffet, the buffet spread is brought directly to your table. In addition, there will be a few live stations going around table by table to prepare your food in front of you.
Tip: As part of the Marriott Bonvoy programme, diners can enjoy discounts of up to 30%.
Beach Road Kitchen, JW Marriott Singapore South Beach.
At present, Beach Road Kitchen is offering three presentations, namely Saturday buffet lunch, Sunday champagne brunch and buffet dinner on Fridays to Sundays. We had visited the restaurant to try out their buffet dinner. The buffet dinner is priced at $88++ per person and includes a wide selection of food items.
Immediately after we were seated, we were briefed on the ordering process, which was to look through a contactless menu (available online) and inform any one of the service crew. During our dining, two service staff were assigned to our table and were always within a reasonable distance. While looking through the menu, we were served with appetisers which included three salad bowls; pumpkin quinoa, tomato caprese and beetroot tartare. A bread basket consisting of white and wholemeal breads was also included.
Appetisers which included three chef's salad and a bread basket .
We began our food journey with multiple rounds of seafood-on-ice platter. The seafood options were extensive, with prawns, snow crabs, crawfish, mussels and clams included free flow. All the seafood items were fresh and we had thoroughly enjoyed them. The presentation was also commendable as they came in a bowl of ice, mimicking the self-service buffet concept.
Seafood-on-ice platter.
Two truffle inspired dishes which we found delightful were their signature truffle mushroom pizza and mini truffle ravioli. These meat-free options had a generous portion of truffle. The ravioli was creamy and tasty while the pizza was surprisingly addictive.
Mini truffle ravioli and signature truffle mushroom pizza.
The chilli crab was served in a large stone bowl and came with freshly fried mantou. Apart from being aesthetically pleasing, the gravy was a tad too spicy and made our stomachs uncomfortable for a while. Concurrently, we had called for a portion of black pepper prawns which was nice.
Chilli crab with mantou
From the carving table, we tried the slow baked salmon and roasted striploin. These were beautifully plated together with a variety of vegetables including roasted tomatoes on vine, baked beetroot, roasted asparagus and pumpkin, as well as mashed potatoes.
Slow baked salmon and roasted striploin.
Two local dishes which contain lobster meat were the lobster laksa and lobster fried rice. As expected, the lobster meat quantity was minuscule. Nonetheless, the laksa was flavourful and enjoyable while the fried rice was palatable.
Lobster laksa and lobster fried rice.
Over the course of the buffet, live stations were wheeled from table to table where the chef prepared the food items in front of diners. The first was a gourmet cheese station with a few cheese selections accompanied with fig jam and crackers. The second was Lei cha rice, which is a Hakka cuisine where rice and various vegetables were served with tea soup made of tea leaves, nuts, seeds and herbs.
Gourmet cheese platter and Hakka Lei Cha rice.
Dessert has almost always been our favourite part of a buffet but at that point in time, we had already eaten more than we could so we were labouring to finish them. Nonetheless, there was a good selection of desserts from cakes (red velvet, mini opera and summer berries) to dessert-in-a-cup (panna cotta, mango pudding and tiramisu) and even assorted local kueh and ice cream. Concurrently, a pot of tea was served to wrap up our dining experience.
Selection of desserts to end our meal.
Concluding remarks: As restaurants offering buffet lines have scrambled to adapt to the current norms of a pandemic, Beach Road Kitchen has excelled in that regard. It is noticeable that the selections are lesser than their conventional buffet spread but the food items are exceptionally fresh and tasty. Their presentation of dishes was also commendable and the service crew were attentive throughout our dinner. Overall, it was a pleasant experience and to be honest, we can get used to this new concept of buffet.
