Malaysia’s famous celebrity chef, Chef Wan, has opened his first ever restaurant, 1 Market in Singapore! It got everyone in Singapore every excited, with queues forming outside the restaurant during dinner almost everyday. The boyfriend treated me to 1 Market’s buffet lunch during the New Year.

The halal restaurant showcases exotic recipes in buffet-style, with creations inspired by his travels in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia. Let’s see what they have!

We started our lunch with some Japanese delights such as sashimi, sushi and soba.

Here are the cold seafood range. Because we had lunch, there is no oyster lah.

keropok for u?

There is the live station where the chef will prepare some Penang Rojak and Kueh Pai Tee for you.

Everyday, they will have a Today’s Special corner and on that day, we had Thai seafood noodle soup. The soup is tangy and provides a good start to the meal.

Salad

From left: Squid Charcoal, Steamed Chicken, Thai Steamed Fish, Stingray Charcoal

From left: Chicken Belado, Lamb Stew, Thai Prawn, Turmeric Crab

Here’s my buffet plate.

Satay is often out because chef was too slow in keeping up with the demand. And they don’t really have a queue system, so everyone who wants satay just lingers around the corner and wait. You can probably get satay immediately if you come earlier or come very late. I suggest they do up a queue system or at least have a number tag on each table, so that they can serve us the satay after it is ready.

Their grill is also taking way too long. In fact, I have never get a chance to eat any at all. It was only when I am done with the mains and halfway into the desserts, then I saw this grilled sotong.

However, one commendable thing about 1 Market is their huge variety of sauces. Almost every corner, you will find different sauces and all of them tastes so good (especially if you are a chilli fan). I am not sure if they are doing it already, but it would be nice to bottle up the sauces and sell too!

The dessert corner serves a variety of tarts and kueh.

They have semi-DIY corners like this ice kachang station where you take the ingredients you want, pass it to the staff and they will do the shaved ice for you.

Something to die for is their waffles. Surprisingly, buffet restaurants in Singapore has been churning out superb waffles. Kiseiki does it well and 1 Market does it well too! Of course, you will expect a queue for the waffles. And if you want ice cream, you have to ask from the staff. All their ice cream lah, ice lah, all managed by the staffs, so you have to ask them for it.

Thank you boyfriend!

Likes:
– The hot dishes are pretty good only if you love the spices. So if you can’t take it, you may not enjoy it. But I love their range of sauces.

– The waffles are good.

Don’t Like:
– The grill section’s supply cannot meet the demand. I initially thought it was a problem because I went on a public holiday. But from the reviews in Hungrygowhere, it seems to be a constant problem.

– Too much manpower used unneccessarily. Yes it will help to reduce some wastage but it just makes the queue longer especially during peak periods. For instance, we can DIY on the rojak ourselves and take the ice cream ourselves. They can focus more manpower on the service staffs because the clearing of plates was too slow.

Conclusion:

Overall, I still prefer the buffet variety at Buffet Town or Kiseki. Frankly, I feel that for the price charged (see above picture for 1 Market’s price list), food selection and quality can be better. If you really want to go and try, go during non peak hours. Weekends and public holidays, the queues are crazy and you most likely can’t get any grilled food then. So it’s not worth it.

1 Market By Chef Wan

Address: #04-45-49 Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Rd.
Tel: +65 6341 9159
Opening Hours: 11:30am-2:30pm, 6pm-10pm daily
Website: http://www.1market.com.sg/

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