Lime Restaurant Tasting Session 2015

Lime Restaurant Tasting Session 2015
3 Upper Pickering Street
Level 1, PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering

Opening Hours:
Sun - Thu: 6:30am - 11:59pm,
Fri - Sat: 6:30am - 2am


https://www.panpacific.com/en/hotels-and-resorts/pr-pickering/dining/lime.html

This was an invited media review. I did not pay for the meal during the free hosted tasting session, but I did pay the standard price during subsequent visits.
Attended with representatives from HungryGoWhere, Dairy & Cream, Keropok Man, and The Artic Star.


International Buffet With Varied Signature Dishes

(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 7
Ambience & Setting: 8
Food & Beverage: 7
Service: 8
Value for Money: 7
Budget about SGD $68 ++ per person.


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Since opening in 2014, the PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering Hotel has gained international acclaim for its lush sky gardens, reflecting pools, eco-friendly design, and towering tiers of greenery. Their in-house restaurant, Lime Restaurant, hasn't been lagging behind either; offering diners a vibrant, comfortable atmosphere, and serving a wide variety of cuisines on both their buffet and ala-carte menus, Lime Restaurant has been raking in the awards in recent years.

Lime Restaurant Signage

PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering Hotel Signage

Ambience at Lime Restaurant is vibrant and welcoming. The spacious, open concept dining area is modern, comfortable, stylish, and welcoming, and the floor to ceiling windows offer a fantastic view of the busy streets. Lush greenery abounds, and spaces are thoughtfully carved out, while eco-friendly and environmental design elements adorn the place. I love how the desserts are displayed, setup to resemble a forest floor, and I also love how attractive the bar looks with all the liquor bottles displayed along the back. The various buffet sections are well separated, but the overall flow is rather disjointed.

Al-Fresco Dining Area

Private Alcove Dining Area

Standard Buffet Dining Seating

Service at Lime Restaurant is pretty good, with staff greeting you upon entry, and walking you over to seat you. I also like that staff are very quick and efficient at clearing away empty / dirty plates, which is important in a buffet. They do upkeep a professional image, as befitting the Pan Pacific group of hotels, and are knowledgeable on the buffet and ala-carte menus for the day. However, further queries into food or history will often be refered to the head chef, who will then make an appearance to elaborate.

Pernankan Delights Counter

Desserts Counter

Bar Counter

Food at Lime Restaurant is varied, and the buffet includes Western influences from American, British, French, Italian, and Spanish cuisine, as well as Asian influences from Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean, and Peranakan cuisines. Buffet prices are comparable to buffets in other hotels, priced at SGD $68 ++ per person for dinner on a weekday, and SGD $98 ++ per person for brunch on a weekend. The ala-carte menu is available throughout the day as well.

Prawns On Ice

Scallops On Ice

Crabs On Ice

Lime Restaurant maintains several of the more popular sections of its buffet, while the rest of the sections may change now and then. The Seafood On Ice section tends to be a stalwart here, featuring fresh seafood daily, as well as the Japanese section with its Sushi and Sashimi counter. The Pasta counter changes its pasta and method of cooking daily, but while I love the handmade pasta here, I'm quite disappointed that you can only get it prepared in 1 style everyday.

Sushi Counter

Iberico Ham

Hand Made Pasta Counter

Salad Bowl

Roast Duck In Red Wine With Pumpkin

Red Snapper Fish & Grilled Eggplant

I loved the savoury, slightly salty, slightly crisp skin of the Signature Roast Chicken, but the meat, which bordered on dry, was a let down. The Herb Roasted Potatoes were good, with a fragrant, solid taste, but the Mongolian Pork Ribs were more sweet than savoury, and not as spicy as I would have liked.

Signature Roast Chicken, Herb Roasted Potatoes, Mongolian Pork Ribs

Being named Lime Restaurant, you'll expect them to have a pretty good lime drink, and their Signature Limeade didn't disappoint. Love the pretty bright green, vibrant colour, and the presentation with garnishes on top. The taste is quite strong, a combination of sour, tangy, and slight sweetness, very refreshing on the palate.

Signature Limeade

Lime Restaurant uses Echire Butter!!! For those in the know, Echire Butter is the world's most exclusive butter, produced solely from milk (of pampered cows) collected from a 50 kilometer circumference around the Laiterie Cooperative d'Echire Dairy, located in the Poitou-Charentes region of France, near the villages of Poitiers and La Rochelle. This 'Champagne of Butter' has been produced the same way since 1894, with handling kept to a minimum, and a limited quantity of only 950 tons are produced each year, with only 140 tons being exported overseas.

All this means that Echire Butter is also the world's most sought after and expensive butter, with a regular 250 grams tub of Echire Butter selling for SGD $12 on good days. On other (bad) days, prices of Echire Butter can go as high as SGD $21 per 250 grams tub, and in some countries, their black market (yes, there is a black market for Echire Butter), can see prices soar to an eye-watering SGD $105 per 250 grams tub. The cult status appeal of Echire Butter lies in its unique taste and texture; it has a delicate, rich, creamy, and distinctly tangy, sour, and sweet flavour, with a firm, yet supple texture, a remarkable spreadability, and a slow melt.

Needless to say, Echire Butter often outshines any bread it's spread on, and I had to resort to spreading it over other foods, eating it in slices with biscuit crackers (like cheese)... Can't get enough of it!

Echire Butter

Echire Butter & Bread

The Roast Beef With Red Wine Gravy was lovely, with tender, savoury beef, comes apart easily when cut. The red wine gravy was a little too blood red in colour, and slightly watery, I felt it could have been reduced longer to create a thicker sauce instead.

Roast Beef With Red Wine Gravy

The popular Malaysian / Kuala Lumpur Style Kam Heong Crab means 'Golden Fragrance' in Cantonese. An apt name, for this aromatic dish is made by stir frying crabs in shallots, garlic, dried shrimp, curry leaves, curry powder, black peppercorns, sugar, light soy sauce, and bird's eye chili.

The Kam Heong Crab here is chef's signature creation, with a slight Indian inspired twist, resulting in a fragrant, savoury, mildly spicy dish that is bursting with flavour. Unique, and a welcome departure from the standard chili / pepper / butter / salted egg / steamed style of crab. Lime Restaurant will be introducing the Kam Heong Crab into their menu in the 2nd Quarter of 2015.

Kuala Lumpur Style Kam Heong Crab

Kuala Lumpur Style Kam Heong Crab

The Smoked Salmon & Avocado Shot features small slices of savoury, salty smoked salmon, over small diced cubes of creamy avocado. A good combination of flavours, can't really go wrong with this, best eaten as a starter.

Smoked Salmon & Avocado Shot

Peranakan cuisine features heavily at Lime Restaurant, owing to head chef Mdm Nancy Teo, a true peranakan matriarch who sees the kitchen staff as part of her family. The classic Peranakan main dishes here are very good, though the Peranakan desserts are outsourced.

The Bakwan Kepiting has a light, savoury clear broth, fragrant with the aroma of ginger. The pork meat ball is tightly packed and savoury, but the texture is not as firm as I would have liked.

Bakwan Kepiting

The self-serve Kueh Pie Tee is decent in taste, though it can be slightly difficult to get the vegetable stuffing into the crisp, fragile shells.

Kueh Pie Tee

I thought it was rather interesting that Lime Restaurant has deshelled the buah keluak nuts, and served the paste on the side of the Ayam Buah Keluak, so that it appears to hotel guests / tourists as a type of sauce, and looks less frightening. Not too authentic in terms of Peranakan presentation, but wins points for introducing an 'alien' ingredient in a family friendly way. The Ayam Buah Keluak is tasty, with the chicken being moist and tender, and the deshelled paste is just great for spreading over.

The Babi Pongteh was decent in taste, and while I liked the small slabs of fat on the meat, the slices were a little thin, but the gravy was tasty with that slight nutty flavour. The Chap Chye was good, soft and savoury, with a slight sweetness, and great when paired with rice. The best part of the Asam Pedas was the gravy itself, a fiery, sour, tangy sauce that is so addictive and tasty! But the fish was only average in taste, neither terrible nor outstanding.

Ayam Buah Keluak, Babi Pongteh, Chap Chye, Asam Pedas On White Rice

Ayam Buah Keluak, Babi Pongteh, Chap Chye, Asam Pedas On White Rice

A novel idea, the Cheng Teng Jelly Shot dessert tastes like an intense version of Cheng Teng. The jelly is smooth, with a texture like agar agar, and the sweetness of its namesake. I like the addition of ginko nuts, barley, and white fungus, which gives it a more authentic feel.

Cheng Teng Jelly Shot

Loved the rich, deep flavour of the Chocolate Tart With Gold Leaf, the chocolate is smooth, almost fudge like, and incredibly delicious. But the tart was only average in taste, and the texture is rather weak as well, falling apart easily instead of being crumbly.

Chocolate Tart With Gold Leaf

Felt the Mango Mousse In Chocolate Cup had a mango mousse that was great in texture, smooth and custard like, but slightly too sweet and overpowering. The chocolate cup was lovely though.

Mango Mousse In Chocolate Cup

A pretty decent Crème Brûlée, the texture is a little thicker than I would've liked, but the taste is spot on. Wobbly and smooth, with a nice caramel toffee sweetness. The caramelised sugar on top is slightly thin in size, and doesn't crack or shatter, just simply giving way when poked.

Crème Brûlée

The Passionfruit Tart is full flavoured, with an intense passionfruit taste, though a little too sweet for my liking.

Passionfruit Tart

Overall, I loved my experience at Lime Restaurant, and we've agreed to visit again! The atmosphere is perfect for lazy, lingering meals and just chilling and shooting the breeze, and the wide variety of tasty food is just great. Prices can be a little high for regular everyday dining, but special occasions are worth spending, especially for their Peranakan cuisine and desserts.

Reserve a table now @ Lime Restaurant