Open House @ Grand Park Orchard Hotel

There is a new restaurant in town and it is Open House at Grand Park Orchard Hotel at the junction of Orchard Road and Bideford Road, across from Paragon. Their "all you can eat" lunch buffet is a bit different from other places as it is not a place with a wide selection and where food is placed on chafing dishes.

Instead there are 5 stations where you can place your order and the chef will cook the dish and deliver to your table. The only sections where you take what you like are the salad bar and dessert counter.

The greens were crisp and fresh with a variety of dressings. I love the shaved parmesan cheese, and also took 2 macarons as I could not resist them. Unfortunately the macarons were not fantastic, too chewy like biscuits.

There were 4 items at the dim sum station and we ordered them all - har gow (Shrimp dumpling), siew mai, glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves and char siew bun.

All were pretty good, maybe because they were steamed or prepared only after you placed your order. The har gow was quite big with plenty of prawns. The char siew bun was also yummy with a decent ratio of meat and dough. The glutinous rice was steamed perfectly, tasty and soft. Same for the siew mai.

At the roast meat counter, you could get roast pork belly (also pretty good with crackling skin and a thin layer of fat), char siew (so-so), soya chicken (decent but not fantastic) and roast duck (not very nice). I like the sauces which came with them.

Another winner was the pizza station. Again there were 4 items on the menu. We chose two. The teriyaki chicken pizza was a popular item and it was surprisingly tasty. Maybe it helped that they made the pizza on the spot, including the rolling and stretching of the dough like prata, and then putting the toppings before popping them into a electric grill oven shaped like a wood-fire stove oven.

The other pizza we chose was with parma ham and cheese and topped with rocket leaves. Simple and yet delicious. I love the thin crust. Crispy.

Other stations were claypot and noodles. We tried the bak kut teh, lap cheong claypot rice and chicken mushroom claypot rice. They were not very good at all. Quite a disappointment. There were also assam fish claypot and beef claypot which we did not try.

The noodles choices include beef noodles (pho), wanton noodles, laksa and others which I do not remember. I had a taste of the pho and it was not memorable either.

I would go back there again just for the salad, pizza, dim sum and roast pork belly. The desserts were not fantastic, quite average. Some cakes (chocolate, cheesecake, tarts), local kuehs, petit fours, 2 ice cream flavors and a local soup dessert plus fruits.