This place at One Farrer Hotel just off Serangoon Road has become one of my (new) favorite places for a dinner buffet, and long, I hope, may it stay that way.
Escape might not be one of those dining places with heavy plates, elaborate decor and formal service, and (frankly) it may not be the likes of what you will find at Marriott, Sands, Swissotel or Hilton, but it has a homely, cosy, quiet, out-of-the-way, nook-in-the-corner sort of vibe that at once makes you feel comfortable, relaxed, and at ease.
The colors in the restaurant are inspired by nature, in earthy shades of brown, orange, mustard yellow, blue and green.
And their buffet offerings are a wonderful combination that invite you to partake of the Earth and the Sea.
On one side you have the Asian cuisine that includes roast duck, roast pork and roast chicken, as well as (on occasion) cute little paus with fillings of coffee and yam, and little dumplings filled with either prawn, or chopped chives.
Then you have zichar-like dishes on the other side, where one gets stuff like fried rice, fried noodles, steamed pieces of fish (really large ones) along with other stuff like sweet and sour pork ribs and steamed vegetables.
A staple offering that they have are the Indian dishes, particularly South Indian, where tucked at the corner are pots and pots of chutney and curry, a platter of naan, a platter of briyani, lots of vegetables, yogurt, and on occasion, some sort of kebabs on a skewer.
What I like are their seasonal offerings.
We went there at Christmas, and they had brussels sprouts sauteed with honey, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted pumpkin, chestnuts, sauteed onions, and an entire serving platter of shepherd's pie. I remember the brussels sprouts particularly well, because even though I'm not a huge fan, they tasted so good I took an entire plateful, accompanied by chestnuts and two spoonfuls of shepherd's pie.
Good idea I did, too, because I've been back there twice since then and there have been no brussels sprouts on the menu, much less those sauteed with honey.
And yet, disappointed I am not, because what keeps me coming back here for dinner are their salads, their sashimi, their desserts, and their selection of fresh seafood.
Now, some of us might say that these aren't that big a deal- most buffet spreads have them- but here at Escape they've been prepared with a lot of heart, and I love that.
In fact, their salads are one of the first things you see when you approach the buffet table. Served on ice next to the platters of cut fruit, everything is kept fresh and cold. Salad is a meal that you can eat alot of, and not worry about being filled up. It doubles up as an appetizer whilst you figure out the rest of your meal, and there is something refreshing about filling your plate with crispy, cold romaine lettuce, olives (I only like the black ones), kernels of corn, chickpeas, kidney beans, feta cheese, alfafa sprouts, dashed with a generous dose of olive oil. There is also something cleansing in having chunks of fresh rock melon, a forkful of chilled papaya salad, a bit of creamy pasta salad, bean salad, and a couple of potatoes tossed with some sort of salad cream.
Centrestage is their seafood- and quite a variety they have of it.
If you're someone who digs fresh prawns, mussels, cockles, snow crab legs and freshly shucked oysters amidst other varieties which I now suddenly can't remember, here's the place to be. I don't take everything- too lazy to crack the crab legs that's why- but oysters and prawns dipped with Thousand Island sauce are frequent favorites, and between me and my dining companion... let's just say that we can take a few plates.
Same thing we do for sashimi- we always have salmon, we take by the plateful- and if there's salmon belly, straight to it we go. :)
Of course, impossible it is to leave a meal as great as this without dessert, and here they do have interesting selections that combine the palates of the east and west. There're cakes all nicely sliced- sometimes there's red velvet, sometimes there's cheesecake, sometimes there's matcha cream cheese, and very often there's chocolate. They have three flavors of ice cream that rotate from time to time.
If you miss the typical desserts from Chinese restaurant dinners, sometimes they might have a big pot of almond jelly with lychee that you can take as much as you like (no restriction to just one bowl!) There's mango pudding. There's pandan pudding. There's jelly for those who like it. During Christmas they had the additional selection of gingerbread cookies and M&M chocolates.
And then, to satisfy the sweet tooth of the South East Asian vibe, there's durian pengat, served in cute little one-shot glasses, decorated with a little leaf on top, and which I think is best savored bit by bit instead of slurping it up all at one go.
The colors in the restaurant are inspired by nature, in earthy shades of brown, orange, mustard yellow, blue and green.
And their buffet offerings are a wonderful combination that invite you to partake of the Earth and the Sea.
On one side you have the Asian cuisine that includes roast duck, roast pork and roast chicken, as well as (on occasion) cute little paus with fillings of coffee and yam, and little dumplings filled with either prawn, or chopped chives.
Then you have zichar-like dishes on the other side, where one gets stuff like fried rice, fried noodles, steamed pieces of fish (really large ones) along with other stuff like sweet and sour pork ribs and steamed vegetables.
A staple offering that they have are the Indian dishes, particularly South Indian, where tucked at the corner are pots and pots of chutney and curry, a platter of naan, a platter of briyani, lots of vegetables, yogurt, and on occasion, some sort of kebabs on a skewer.
What I like are their seasonal offerings.
We went there at Christmas, and they had brussels sprouts sauteed with honey, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted pumpkin, chestnuts, sauteed onions, and an entire serving platter of shepherd's pie. I remember the brussels sprouts particularly well, because even though I'm not a huge fan, they tasted so good I took an entire plateful, accompanied by chestnuts and two spoonfuls of shepherd's pie.
Good idea I did, too, because I've been back there twice since then and there have been no brussels sprouts on the menu, much less those sauteed with honey.
And yet, disappointed I am not, because what keeps me coming back here for dinner are their salads, their sashimi, their desserts, and their selection of fresh seafood.
Now, some of us might say that these aren't that big a deal- most buffet spreads have them- but here at Escape they've been prepared with a lot of heart, and I love that.
In fact, their salads are one of the first things you see when you approach the buffet table. Served on ice next to the platters of cut fruit, everything is kept fresh and cold. Salad is a meal that you can eat alot of, and not worry about being filled up. It doubles up as an appetizer whilst you figure out the rest of your meal, and there is something refreshing about filling your plate with crispy, cold romaine lettuce, olives (I only like the black ones), kernels of corn, chickpeas, kidney beans, feta cheese, alfafa sprouts, dashed with a generous dose of olive oil. There is also something cleansing in having chunks of fresh rock melon, a forkful of chilled papaya salad, a bit of creamy pasta salad, bean salad, and a couple of potatoes tossed with some sort of salad cream.
Centrestage is their seafood- and quite a variety they have of it.
If you're someone who digs fresh prawns, mussels, cockles, snow crab legs and freshly shucked oysters amidst other varieties which I now suddenly can't remember, here's the place to be. I don't take everything- too lazy to crack the crab legs that's why- but oysters and prawns dipped with Thousand Island sauce are frequent favorites, and between me and my dining companion... let's just say that we can take a few plates.
Same thing we do for sashimi- we always have salmon, we take by the plateful- and if there's salmon belly, straight to it we go. :)
Of course, impossible it is to leave a meal as great as this without dessert, and here they do have interesting selections that combine the palates of the east and west. There're cakes all nicely sliced- sometimes there's red velvet, sometimes there's cheesecake, sometimes there's matcha cream cheese, and very often there's chocolate. They have three flavors of ice cream that rotate from time to time.
If you miss the typical desserts from Chinese restaurant dinners, sometimes they might have a big pot of almond jelly with lychee that you can take as much as you like (no restriction to just one bowl!) There's mango pudding. There's pandan pudding. There's jelly for those who like it. During Christmas they had the additional selection of gingerbread cookies and M&M chocolates.
And then, to satisfy the sweet tooth of the South East Asian vibe, there's durian pengat, served in cute little one-shot glasses, decorated with a little leaf on top, and which I think is best savored bit by bit instead of slurping it up all at one go.