the line, shangri-la

lunch buffet: noon to 2:30pm (we learnt the hard way)


basically we were all super psyched about go to The Line for lunch buffet, since we striked a pretty good deal off original price. we even got there early, full of bubbly anticipation.

it looked the same since the last time I was there, all counters were functioning for lunch (I was there for dinner the last time), though a cursory (and mandatory) walk round the perimeter showed a significantly lesser selection of foods, particularly for the meats.

none the matter, I was endowed with a task list (courtesy of my sis) of must-eats, which included SASHIMI, and I think I really only remembered sashimi.

but since the north indian counter was close by, I opted for my Paneer (cheese) in some gravy (I’m not very good with foreign names, even Chinese names, forgive me), Methi (stew of potatoes and greens), Tandoori Chicken and a piece of papadum like pastry.

they’re like my favoritestest north indian dishes but sadly, only the methi was up to par. the paneer wasn’t as tasty as my chinese tongue remembers it to be, and the tandoori was just tragic. it was parched, and the spices failed to permeate the thick cut of meat (presumably breast, my tired jaw said).

we got a bowl of wanton soup as well. you’d expect at least the kind of broth akin to Crystal Jade’s, but no, it was rather blend and mono-layered (like the mindless ikan billis and bean stock which I hate). The wanton was alright, though one of them was raving (umm…)

(since we’re on canton food here, we also got a plate of char siew and roast pork, plus some chicken bakua coins. only the last one was worth my stomach’s space. the roast pork had the horrid pork stench; like seriously?)

at this time, one of the guys brought a plate of fresh oysters. i eat oysters enough to know there are two kinds: Cooked and Raw, hence I regret the variant is unbeknownst to me. But anyway, I’ve always been extremely apprehensive of oysters and I never get if I should chew at all, or just swallow (oblig: that’s what she said?). I’d pass, but since it was there and the lemons have been sacrificed,

one, two bite and three to maybe 10 more (I just couldn’t swallow). It was actually alright, quite sweet, didn’t have that gross blackish water taste, though there was sand, which puts me off a lot when eating shellfoods. I can’t decide if I liked it.

but y’know, whatever, because imma have my sashimi next. I think I cried when I realised they only had Salmon and Tuna (and squid, but who cares). WHERE WAS MY SWORDFISH? I even had to join a queue to get raw fish I don’t exactly like, but hmm ok, sashimi is sashimi is sashimi

wrong.

firstly, as an amateur raw fish enthusiast, the cuts weren’t very fresh. My friend says the salmon belly was ok, but it didn’t taste very fresh to me (i don’t know). the tuna was honestly quite horrid. the colour was dull and there was a weird taste, like as if it was already starting to spoil. we’ll know when I have to pop carbon pills tomorrow.

as if things couldn’t be worse, the wasabi was not in the least potent. we were slathering the green paste all over and still experienced no thrilling sensations. fail.

my stomach was too upset by that time (literally and figuratively) the remaining rounds were a blur.

I believe I went for salads next (I tend to skip proper order). normal greens with balsamic dressing, this melon dish, where instead of parma ham, a thin air-dried slice of beef was used - this was nice, I liked it a lot - and hummus (not good, B Bakery’s better); forgettable.

i got a bowl of tomato soup along the way, I think they forgot to add sugar for that.

then there was fried baby squids, where I felt like my teeth were about to fall as I sounded like I was chewing on pebbles. There was also a Duck Confit and Tortellini (in cream sauce) pairing I did which came out rather delightful.

we had something against the pasta dishes though, it didn’t make sense that their fresh pasta was hard (or maybe that’s just their definition of al dente, idk). My theory is that the pasta may have been left out a tad too long, I mean, we’ve made fresh pasta before and it’s suppose to be springy when cooked fresh.

other dishes were rather forgettable, until we went to get a cheese platter to try. we loved how happy the auntie was, cutting the cheeses for us and arranging the platter (the rest of the service staff were uppity, like erm ok). because we’re very safe cheese eaters, we had cheddar, gruyere and goat’s cheese. very delightful with crackers, grapes and apricots.

we didn’t have wine though (sad face; I could use a glass or two or three right now).

as we were making our nth trip, we decided to try to yorkshire pudding, which was placed next to the roast sirloin slab. i asked the chef how we were suppose to eat it and I only heard “like a burger”.

the slice of sirloin was extremely raw. and that makes me wretch. i tried to kiap the most cooked part of that slice in my yorkshire pudding but still felt like I was eating silvers of raw cow meat. never again, joyce.

shudders.

I’d go on to tell you my wonderful dessert experience, but by the time we wanted to get some treats after walking and cooling ourselves off (we sat at a place that didn’t seem to but within the central cooling system’s radius), THE BUFFET WAS OVER. we didn’t know that, no one told us; were we suppose to know? so we grabbed whatever was left of the dessert spread (which basically were crap) and tearfully said goodbye to the crushed-brownie stuffed crepe that never was.

overall, it was disappointing, especially for the line. we tried to find something we really liked about the food and that was as difficult as having to down 20 slices of stale tuna sashimi. if you like quantity over quality, in a contemporary ambience,

where you feel judged by the staff, and constantly within earshot of 4 other tables, you’d probably enjoy the lunch more than we did.

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