For July and August 2016, Hotel Jen Orchardgateway is showcasing the essence and highlight of local delight at their Hawker Fare Buffet At Makan @ Jen. Expect some classics dishes with a twist and of course the original typical hawker fare.
Makan @ Jen perched at level 10 of Orchardgateway provides a serene dinning ambience since it is away from the bustling activities of shoppers.
The space is classified into indoor dinning with air-conditioning and if diners prefer could opt for the natural breeze at terrace with outdoor dinning.
Hawker Fare Buffet At Makan @ Jen
Head Chef Lee Hoong Wan has painstakingly chosen the local delights for the Hawker Fare Buffet At Makan @ Jen. As Chef Lee wanted diners to experience only the best hawker fare using the finest ingredients at the buffet.
Live Cooking Stations
The highlight at Hotel Jen Orchardgateway Hawker Fare Buffet are the live cooking stations set up at the Terrace. There are 3 of such stations. We always love these live cooking stations at Buffet since these serve hot pipping freshly cooked food always. Hence, we checked them out at the start of our buffet.
The first station we checked it out was the Oyster Omelette and Hokkien Mee station. Both these food are Singaporean favourite dishes.
A pity as they did not simmer the Hokkien Mee as such the prawn broth did not immerse into the noodle.
The saving grace of the Oyster Omelette is the size of the oyster. They use large oysters for this dish therefore it compensated some missing flavour in the dish.
The last live cooking station is for the Satay. We like the marinate on the Chicken Satay and the lightly char flavour. How we wish Makan @ Jen will also offer Mutton and maybe even Beef Satay too.
At the Terrace, a local drink station was available as well, serving some local favourite such as Calamansi, Barley, Bandung, Pineapple drink, Ice Milo and Rose Syrup drink. It would be perfect if the Barley drink is homemade.
Chef’s Signature
The highlight at the Hawker Fare Buffet is Chef’s Signature Laksa Fried Rice. Chef Lee who heads Makan @ Jen has creatively twisted our favourite Laksa into fried rice.
The fried rice is non-spicy at all. Instead, one could savour the fragrance of the Laksa herb. And it is best eaten with the special Laksa sauce.
More Hawker Fare
There are quite a good range of local delights and Makan @ Jen has cleverly introduced them into the Hawker Fare Buffet.
The first is the Bak Kut Teh. It is the classic pepperish type.
Next is the Hainainese Chicken Rice. We thought well of the steamed chicken. It was smooth and succulent.
Follow with the Rojak. The rojak prawn paste sauce was a little too sweet. We like the variety of ingredients available for the rojak.
There are some BBQ Seafood at the buffet counter too which include Squid, Crayfish, River Prawns and Otah.
Of course, there are some Indian cuisine. Makan @ Jen provides 2 curry, Vegetable Curry and Fish Curry, with Roti Prata too.
Desserts With Local Flavours
Expect an array of local fare desserts at the dessert table too. A good range of Nonya Kueh are on the table. Taste-wise, there is room for improvement.
How could we miss out the Ice Kacang when we talk about local fare.
And Burbur Cha Cha is also available. I would prefer the Burbur Cha Cha cooked with fresh coconut milk instead.
The pastisserie chef at Makan @ Jen has crafted a number of local flavours cakes and tarts such as Teh Tarik Tart, Gula Melaka Cake and the Bandung Jelly.
We like the idea of infusing local flavours into western dessert but the result weren’t as excellent as we would desire. Mainly due to the flavours were too light to savour. I suppose this is very much personal preference since we prefer strong flavoured food.
Others
To add on for variety since it is a buffet, diners could help themselves to salad.
Some fresh seafood consisting of mussel, prawns, clams and crab.
And a number of sushi and sashimi too.
Unexpectedly, we found a whole grilled fish which was relatively huge at the buffet table too.
At all buffet, coffee and tea are served too.
Validity and Price
The Hawker Fare Buffet at Makan @ Jen is available only for dinner in the months of July and August from Mondays to Thursdays. The dinner buffet will commence from 6.30pm to 10pm. It is priced at $42++ per adult.
NAHMJ Verdict
In our humble opinion, NAHMJ feel that tastewise, there are room for improvement. In general, the food are lightly flavoured. But for some diners who value ambience, hawker food and variety, after all, it is not a bad choice. And it certainly make a good location to entertain overseas business partner to a spread of Hawker Fare Buffet at Makan @ Jen.
Makan @ Jen
277 Orchard Road, Level 10, Hotel Jen Orchardgateway, Singapore 238858
Tel: +65 6708 8899
Website: https://www.hoteljen.com/singapore/orchardgateway/taste/restaurants/makan/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/HotelJenOrchardgatewaySingapore/?fref=ts
Opening Hours
Monday – Thursday 1830 to 2200
Getting There
By MRT:
- North South line – Somerset station
By Bus:
- alight at Somerset Station along Somerset Road 7. 14, 14e, 16, 36, 65, 77, 106, 111, 123, 124, 128, 143, 162, 162M, 167, 171, 174, 175, 190, 700, 700A, 971E
- alight at Midpoint Orchard along Orchard Road 7, 14, 14e, 16, 65, 106, 111, 123, 175, 502
- alight opposite Mandarin Orchard along Orchard Road 36, 77, 124, 143, 162, 162M, 167, 171, 174, 190, 518, 700, 700A
Rating: 6.5/10