Spices Cafe

For the record, I love crabs. Having a meal at Long Beach or Jumbo is always a treat and I get my hands dirty on those ridiculously fresh, big and juicy crabs. 

Known as Harvest of the Sea Buffet Dinner ($54++), I left work earlier than usual in anticipation of a good meal. 

This is one of the few rare buffet places that is not filled to maximum capacity. 

You get to choose from five kinds of crabs and they will deliver it to your table- you can order all five kinds as many times as you want. Choices of crab include Thai Curry with Basil Leaves Crab, Chili Crab, Black Pepper Crab, Butter & White Pepper Crab and Salted Egg Crab.

We ordered all five to share and my mum really liked the Salted Egg Crab. I found most of the crab choices to be very average. I prefer the versions at the East Coast seafood restaurants anytime over these crabs. Nonetheless, it was quite interesting trying new flavours for the first time- particularly impressionable was the Thai Curry with Basil Leaves Crab.

In general, the crabs didn't taste particularly fresh but nor were they unfresh. It was just that the meat lacked the chewiness and juiciness.

Each person also gets to choose from either a serving of baked half lobster gratinated with cheese or a serving of braised baby abalone with broccoli and mushroom. Unless you love abalones so much, I'm telling you- get the lobster. The lobster was delicious- all that warm melted gooey cheese with the springy lobster meat will make you forget about how your cholesterol is going to rise after this meal.

They also had a section with the seafood laid out on ice. I only tried the scallops here and I have to say that the scallop was pretty bad. It tasted exactly like how scallops would taste like if they were just taken out from the freezer. The scallops were small and dry.

They had a section where the chefs would cook laksa, herbal prawn soup etc.

I tried the Laksa which was pretty good.

The warm food section also had a lot of seafood dishes- Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab, Oats Prawns, Scallops and Broccoli etc. The soft shell crab was very crispy- unfortunately something was missing- the kick of crunching some shells was non-existent. It just felt like limp crab meat hidden below some deep fried goodness.

There was also a salad section. One of the dishes I tried (not in the photograph) was the Chicken Salad with Mango. I couldn't taste or see the mango which was a real pity because it sounded like a good combination.

Thank goodness desserts were fairly decent. I tried the Chocolate Cake and the Lemon Tart. The Chocolate Cake was made of bitter chocolate and didn't have the cheap chocolate cream taste in it. The lemon tart was also refreshing and not sickeningly sweet.

Food here is average, I wouldn't come here to satisfy my seafood craving. Friendly service.

Spices Cafe
Concorde Hotel
100 Orchard Road
Tel: 6 739 8370