Triple Three Restaurant 2020

Triple Three Restaurant 2020
333 Orchard Road
#05-00 Mandarin Orchard Hotel Singapore

http://www.meritushotels.com/en/mandarin-orchard-singapore/dining/triple-three.html

Fresh Seafood Bowl

Decent International Buffet

(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 7
Ambience & Setting: 7
Food & Beverage: 8
Service: 8
Value for Money: 7
Spent about SGD $118++ per person.


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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many industries, including hotels, and hotel dining. Where previously you would have a buffet line, these days, hygiene and safety concerns have transformed most hotel buffets into sit-down, ala-carte buffet dining instead. We last visited Triple Three Restaurant several years back, and decided to see how the experience had changed.

The in-house restaurant of Mandarin Orchard Hotel Singapore, the Triple Three Restaurant is open to the public for lunch and dinner. Named for the address of the building, Triple Three Restaurant offers an international ala-carte buffet dinner, and overall, remains pretty decent, though the range of items has been reduced from pre-pandemic availability. Prices have also been adjusted downwards accordingly. Still, they remain a decent buffet choice, and I personally find it to be better value for money if you take advantage of their special offers or promotions.

Ambience at Triple Three Restaurant is clean, modern, and comfortable, though the overall atmosphere feels dated. There really isn't much points of interest that draw the eye, nothing stands out amongst the understated furnishings in the spacious but warmly lit room. Where seating was previously tightly packed, now, tables are spaced far apart, though this means a reduced seating capacity overall. You no longer get to walk around the open kitchens, instead remaining seated at your assigned table the whole time.

Service at Triple Three Restaurant is good. Staff are polite, professional, and efficient, seating diners quickly, and guiding them where needed. They now provide simple order chits, listing the range of dishes available, and you simply indicate accordingly. Dishes are then served plated, and cleared efficiently when finished. They also proactively provide more order chits if you wish to call for repeat items. If celebrating a birthday, staff at Triple Three Restaurant no longer sing the birthday song due to safety concerns, so it's much more discreet now.

Food at Triple Three Restaurant is better than before. Although the range of options is smaller, the focus has shifted to quality of execution. We sampled nearly all the dishes, and most are decent to good. Ingredients are fresh and premium, resulting in delicious small plates. Portions are now sized for individuals. Prices are lower than before, and at SGD $118++ per person for weekend dinner with free-flow beer and seafood, it's good value for money. Triple Three Restaurant still offer dining promotions. Generally, we enjoyed the ala-carte dinner buffet in this hotel.


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Triple Three Restaurant Signage

Triple Three Restaurant Exterior

Triple Three Restaurant Interior

Seating

Hygiene Pack

The Beer Carlsberg is a Danish pilsner / pale lager, brewed by the Carlsberg Group in multiple cities worldwide. It has a pale golden color, with faint aromas of corn, biscuit, copper, and soap. The body is thin, light, and mellow, with mild tastes of bread, malt, steel, and caramel. Has a flowery earthy sweet bitter flavour, with a spotty foam head, and a clean dry finish.

Beer Carlsberg

The individually portioned Cold Cuts Platter was served with several items. There's tender thin sliced smoked salmon fish, with bright salty smoky savoury flavour. The soft chicken picnic ham had mild savoury sweet flavour, while the thin chewy dry-cured prosciutto / parma ham had bold salty savoury meaty smoky notes. Personally, I think can skip this.

Cold Cuts Platter

Loved the fresh Salad Of The Day, which features a bowl of tossed fresh vegetables (lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, seaweed), having bright vegetal sweet flavour. Dressed in a sharp tangy sour sweet vinaigrette, the contrasting textures of crisp, crunchy, juicy, slippery kept this interesting. Nice.

Salad Of The Day

The Cream Of Mushroom Soup is decent, with a thick creamy texture, though the salty notes overwhelmed the earthy sweet flavours here. It's also very filling, so unless you're a big fan of this, suggest to skip it.

Cream Of Mushroom Soup

The Fresh Seafood Bowl is among the highlights here, and you can call for repeat orders (though you can't choose the seafood, it all comes in a set). While the variety of seafood lives up to its name in freshness, the standouts here include the mussels with their plump juicy briny salty sweet flavour, the bouncy scallops with clean sweet notes, and the plump juicy snow crab pincers with lovely sweet briny flavour.

Fresh Seafood Bowl

The Sashimi is fresh with medium thick slices, lending a nice bouncy succulent chew to texture. The salmon fish has a mild sweet savoury flavour, while the tuna fish has a meaty savoury flavour. The star was the oily swordfish, with addictive fatty meaty sweet flavour. The octopus was clean-tasting with natural sweet notes. Pairs nicely with some light soy sauce and wasabi.

Sashimi

Sashimi

The Aburi Sushi features sticky fluffy vinegared sushi rice, with bright sour sweet notes, over which is laid pieces of lightly torched fish or seafood. I sampled the scallops; these were bright and bouncy with natural sweet savoury flavour. The torching lends a mild smoky note, making it so yummy.

Aburi Sushi

The Teppanyaki Bean Sprouts are crunchy with smoky vegetal sweet salty flavour. I like that you get the fresh and bright crunch here, nice.

Teppanyaki Bean Sprouts

The deshelled Teppanyaki Shrimp are juicy and succulent. Bite in and you get a bold hit of salty savoury flavour from the marinade, then the natural sweet savoury flavour of the shrimp itself.

Teppanyaki Shrimp

This was the best dish of the evening for us, so much so that we ordered several rounds. The Teppanyaki Beef Ribeye is sliced into large juicy cubes, with a tender bouncy chew that releases a burst of meaty savoury salty flavour. With a medium doneness, the exterior carries a slight smoky char, while the pink interior entices with its glistening looks. So good.

Teppanyaki Beef Ribeye

Teppanyaki Beef Ribeye

The Grilled Cod Fish was flaky but firm, and not as fresh as I'd hoped, although the bold sweet savoury teriyaki sauce helped somewhat. Could be improved.

Grilled Cod Fish

Likewise, the Grilled Scallops wasn't as fresh as I'd like, although the cheese crust lends a sharp salty savoury flavour.

Grilled Scallops

Several items on the Rotisserie Platter stood out. The highlight was the tender grilled shiitake mushrooms with bold earthy sweet salty flavour, the creamy smooth mashed potato with rich earthy starchy flavour, and the tender honey baked ham with meaty savoury salty flavour. The crunchy grilled asparagus was alright with its vegetal earthy sweet flavour, as was the snappy juicy pork sausages with savoury salty smoky flavour.

Rotisserie Platter

Rotisserie Platter

The Chawanmushi was a weak rendition, being more dense in texture, and lacking the eggy sweet flavour I like.

Chawanmushi

The crisp juicy tender 5-Spice Fried Chicken holds beautiful savoury salty sweet spice notes, and is rather addictive.

5-Spice Fried Chicken

The Braised Fish Maw With Mushrooms was alright, with the tender shiitake mushroom and spongy fish maw being earthy savoury sweet in flavour, a result from the rich braising gravy. Oddly, there was a piece of oyster as well, which I felt was out of place.

Braised Fish Maw With Mushrooms

The Garlic Fried Rice was a weak rendition, lacking any smoky wok hei / breath of the wok. There was also a lack of garlic or egg, resulting in a rather bland, tasteless dish.

Garlic Fried Rice

The Chili Crab Gravy was underwhelming, I suppose it's meant to be mild enough for children as well. Not nearly spicy or sweet enough.

Chili Crab Gravy

Mantou

The Papadum was crisp and crunchy with lovely grainy sweet flavour, which is perfect.

Papadum

The rich Dhal Tadka was thick with earthy grainy sweet spice flavour, so beautiful. Yum.

Dhal Tadka

The Butter Chicken had a boneless chicken chunk that was tender, and the gravy was tasty. But it veered towards being sweet, with the savoury spice notes being fairly tame.

Butter Chicken

The Goan Prawn Curry was served with a deshelled prawn / shrimp, which was fresh and bouncy with lovely sweet flavour. The curry itself was sharply spicy savoury, with a slight lingering heat.

Goan Prawn Curry

The Fish Tikka was tender and flaky, with the marinade lending a bold milky spice sweet flavour to the fish. Some smoky notes from the tandoor oven as well.

Fish Tikka

The Lamb Tikka was succulent largely because of the juicy bits of fat around the tender lamb meat. Bite in, and you get a burst of meaty savoury salty spice flavour.

Lamb Tikka

The spongy Plain Naan has a natural bready sweet flavour, and picks up the thick gravy / curry well.

Plain Naan

The Garlic Naan has a pleasant aroma of roasted garlic, with herbal earthy sweet flavour.

Garlic Naan

The Cheese Naan was underwhelming, with the primary taste being salty cheesy savoury, but being slightly burnt.

Cheese Naan

A typical Soft Serve Ice Cream that melts way too fast, but has decent milky sweet notes.

Soft Serve Ice Cream

From the Asian Dessert Platter selection, I like the soft kueh lapis legit / spekkoek with its buttery sweet flavour, and the sticky 9-layer kueh / jiu ceng gao with its earthy sweet notes.

Asian Dessert Platter

From the Western Dessert Platter selection, I like the mango cake with its fluffy soft texture and fruity sweet flavour, as well as the crumby soft petite madeleine with its grainy buttery sweet notes.

Western Dessert Platter

The Tiramisu was unbalanced but may appeal to some, as the soft texture gives way to a robust boozy sweet flavour. It lacks the equal amount of roasted coffee notes to balance it out, but those who like alcohol may take a shine to this.

Tiramisu

The fish-shaped Taiyaki is soft with a light chew, and holds a filling of creamy adzuki red bean paste that has bright earthy sweet flavour. I rather enjoyed this.

Taiyaki

Taiyaki

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