Being at a very central location, Ellenborough Market Cafe is located at Paradox Singapore Merchant Court, right beside The Central at Clarke Quay. It is known for being a premium buffet restaurant that specialises in a large variety of Nyonya dishes. With a wide spread of dishes, ranging from Har Cheong Gai to Ayam Buah Keluak and even Babi Pongteh, it contains a large variety that allows people to experience the world of Nyonya dishes. However, today’s review will not be covering the Nyonya dishes but instead cover the dishes that are more interesting.
Sashimi
What is a buffet without sashimi! There is a selection of salmon, tuna and octopus sashimi as well as assorted maki for the Japanese selection. However, the Japanese selection is only available during dinner time, so do take note that there won’t be any sashimi during lunch. Being a buffet, the sashimi aren’t anything to be wow-ed by, it’s of decent quality but does not warrant making you want to keep taking more.
Fresh Seafood
With a decent range of seafood on ice available, you’ll be glad to find tiger prawns, white clams, gong gong and crab in this area. The prawns and clams were fresh and juicy, with the meat being really sweet as well. Being not a fan of gong gong, we couldn’t really appreciate it. The crab was nice but as it was small, it felt like it took too much effort to savour it.
Satay
Satay, what is there to say! Satay can’t go wrong, the meat was tender and was great when dipped in the peanut sauce. However, as the satays are cooked in batches, they tend to get hard when left out for a while till cooled. If you prefer the ones that are soft and tender, you’ll probably want to wait til they take out a fresh batch before swiping some satays for yourself.
Cheese Baked Scallop and Steak
Steak and grilled scallops? These had a big issue with that being, they cool down really fast, and they both are dishes that don’t do well cold. For the beef, it got tough once cold, and it’s hard to get it when it’s just hot as it cools down really fast. As for the scallop, it is perfect when it’s freshly laid out and hot, having a layer of molten cheese on top coating the scallop and adding depth and flavour. However, the moment it cools down, the layer of cheese hardens and forms a crust that keeps you away from the scallop. It is lovely to get these hot, but if you chance on a cool batch, it’s best to wait for the next batch or forgo the dish as it’ll bring you lots of disappointment.
Chilli Crayfish
This is a dish that is my absolute favourite! Crayfish, otherwise known as slipper lobster, was really fresh and had firm meat, with the meat peeling off from the shells with ease. The sauce used was chilli crab sauce and it was really nice to have crayfish with the sauce. There were also fried mantou (buns) which you can use to dip into the sauce and enjoy the flavour. If you love shellfish, this is a dish you absolutely cannot pass by.
In this pic, we have the fried mantou dipped in chilli sauce, chicken karaage, ayam buah keluak, babi pongteh, beef rendang, char siew and grilled chicken. This variety of dishes is not even all that is there, so be ready to be surprised with the massive spread available. There’s other dishes for carbs lovers like laksa and pasta and more.
Ellenborough Market Cafe
Overall, Ellenborough Market Cafe is meant to enjoy the wide variety of dishes available rather than to indulge in just a few dishes. With a large variety of food, as well as a huge selection of desserts, do remember to try their signature dish, being the Durian Pengat! The Durian Pengat is thick and creamy with durian flesh mixed within, it’s just a great way to end the meal, but do remember not to take too much as durian is heaty and you won’t want to go away from a great meal having sore throat or cough. We finished it up so fast, we didn’t manage to snap a picture of it!
Do check for any credit card discounts if there are any available as there are promos sometimes. If you’re still considering, you can always ask them to allow you to look at the selection before entering.
