Princess Terrace

I was inspired to go to Princess Terrace after the Duchess of Cambridge visited Singapore. Actually, no. I'm kidding. Honestly, there's nothing regal about Princess Terrace, compared to the other fancier buffet places in town. 

Princess Terrace's Weekday Buffet Lunch (Monday-Thursday) is $38.80++. Click here for the prices on other days. They have some promotion going on as well, so you might want to call and check. 

Well known for serving Penang Buffet, I've been here many times over the last decade. Unfortunately, standards seem to have slipped a little. 

There are a few stations, including the rojak station, the cooked food station, dessert station, the chef-cooks-for-you station etc. 

I was hoping to see some youtiao for the rojak and was disappointed to realise there were none! So it seems that penang rojak doesn't have my favourite ingredients. What you have instead is an assortment of fruits like green mango and guava, vegetables like jicama and some cuttlefish. 

Nothing special about the salad section. Oh the croutons were bad though- obviously toasted a long time ago and just left there.

At the station where your food gets cooked on the spot, you can order char kway teow, penang laksa, prawn noodle, popiah and kueh pie tee etc. The popiah and kueh pie tee were chock full of ingredients and were delicious. 

Despite all the food, there's only so much one can eat and I attempted ordering a bowl of duck soup noodles with kway teow instead of mee sua. The chef gave me an annoyed look and asked me exactly what I wanted in Mandarin. 

Nonetheless, my friend enjoyed the char kway teow and apparently the herbal soup was good too. 

Here is a picture of some Penang style appetisers (which I didn't try!). 

I love satays. I love well-marinated satays. While the meat is tender, it was unfortunately lacking in flavour. In my memory, I imagine it used to taste better.

The cooked food station was nothing much to rave about.

Desserts used to be my favourite station. I used to take many of these little kuehs, especially the pulut tatai. But this was a huge disappointment. The ang ku kuih, while looking petite and extremely edible, turned out bad enough for me to spit it out. My friend who's normally not fussy about his food had the same feelings about it. As for the pulut tatai, there was just something about it that didn't taste like how it used to. 

Nonetheless, the desserts' saving grace was probably the tub of beancurd next to it. There was also a banana dessert which was not bad. If you are craving cold desserts, you can go for some ice kacang.

Princess Terrace used to be somewhere I would go without hesitation  But while the food here isn't so bad that I would give it a complete miss, it has deteriorated over the years.

Princess Terrace

Copthorne King's Hotel 

403 Havelock Road

Tel: 6318 3168