Soup and salad buffet. Again. Well, at least it’s an Italian one this time, haha.
I treated the husband and myself to an Italian lunch buffet at Pete’s Place as I had Hyatt Gold Passport points to redeem before they expired very soon.
For those of you who haven’t been to Pete’s Place before, when you enter the hotel lobby, turn to the left where you would see this inconspicuous staircase (in front of Richard Mille watch boutique) leading down to the restaurant.
As you enter this basement restaurant, you will be greeted with a warm and cosy ambience of a traditional Italian trattoria with its exposed brick walls, wooden furniture and red checkered tablecloth.
Pete’s Place offers a Soup & Salad Buffet Lunch from Monday to Saturday at S$28++ per person inclusive of a round of coffee or tea with an option to top up S$7++ per person to enjoy their main courses.
We opted for the full Italian Buffet Lunch since the top-up wasn’t too much of a difference.
Let’s take a look at what the buffet has to offer:
Two types of soup: minestrone and pumpkin
Cold cuts
Freshly shaved parmesan and antipasti like roasted walnuts and hazelnuts, sundried tomatoes and olives
Salad bar
Tiramisu in a serving bowl
Chocolate torrone with hazelnuts, dried cranberries and sultanas
Assorted fruits (honeydew, rose apple, jackfruit apple, pineapple), chocolate salami, apricot tart and panforte
Assorted cheeses with honey and caramelised onions
Assorted Italian breads
Salted butter and flavoured ones
Thin crust pizzas
The main course selections (for which you’d need to top up S$7++ per pax to enjoy) included the following:
- chicken cacciatore
- veal chop with white beans
- swordfish with puttanesca sauce
- sauteed mix vegetables
- sauteed green mussels with white wine sauce
- spaghetti aglio-olio
- fusilli cacio pepe
- penne amatriciana
Chicken Cacciatore
Sauteed Green Mussels with White Wine Sauce
Spaghetti Aglio-Olio
I started off with a serving of the pumpkin soup that was quite bland so it needed that extra dash of salt to give it flavour which I didn’t mind as I would rather season it to my preference than having one that could be already heavily seasoned. The croutons were like normal toasted crusty bread that immediately turned soggy when dropped into the soup so I would recommend to have them separately if you don’t like mushy bread.
I also tried the minestrone soup that was way too tomatoey and oily for my liking.
I loved the assortment of fresh Italian breads with soft interior and chewy crust.
There were 3 types of butter spreads available – salted, sundried tomato and herbed. The sundried tomato butter was really good. I couldn’t resist eating (so much) bread with it. If you’re not keen on butter, there’s also olive oil and balsamic vinegar for you to dip your bread with.
There weren’t a lot of ingredients to make our own salad, in fact it was one of the smallest spreads I’ve seen at any salad bar. Items were standard like sweetcorn kernels, beetroot, baby radishes (should slice them thinly rather than serve in whole cos’ they were quite tasteless when bit into), whole hardboiled eggs, tuna, carrot, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, sauteed french beans, asparagus, baby spinach leaves, rocket leaves, mesclun salad, broccoli, cooked mushrooms. I also saw raw enoki mushrooms which I didn’t take – just didn’t like the idea of having raw mushrooms.
There were 4 dressings available – honey mustard, yogurt, balsamic and thousand island.
The antipasti selections were so-so. Not a big fan of the salami or ham but I loved munching on the roasted hazelnuts (not pictured) that I had to go back for seconds.
Of the main courses, I enjoyed the penne amatriciana (loved the bacon in it) and mussels the most. The rest of the dishes were ordinary so even though the top up was just a mere S$7++ per person to enjoy these mains, I would choose to skip them and have more soup, bread or salad instead.
The pizzas were good though not the best I had as they were of thin, crispy crusts but would be even better if they had more ingredients and cheese on them. I scattered a small handful of parmesan cheese (found at the pasta section) on the pizzas just to give more sharpness to the flavour.
There were 3 types of cheeses (soft, semi-soft and hard) but as there were no labels, I wasn’t sure what these cheeses were. The soft one was too stinky for my liking but the other two were delicious when paired with the honey, caramelised onions and grissini sticks.
Desserts were the highlight of my meal. I had 3 servings of the tiramisu that had an intense aroma of coffee liqueur and countless pieces of the not-too-sweet chocolate torrone that had plenty of hazelnuts in it. The tiramisu was probably the most popular of all desserts as it was the only one that ran out quickly but replenishment was made in no time so we could enjoy fresh new servings of it.
To round up the meal, we could order a coffee or tea. The husband had the latte which was smooth and not acidic at all.
I ordered a peppermint tea which is a must-have for me whenever I need digestion to get going after a heavy meal.
Overall, I thought the buffet was of mediocre quality and although the prices weren’t expensive considering this place was located in a 5* hotel, I didn’t think there was any wow factor that would have me coming back again. But if you haven’t had an Italian buffet lunch like this before, then it’s still worth checking it out. Remember to save space for desserts!
On a side note, their system for Hyatt Gold Passport point redemption was a little problematic. I had 7,000 points to redeem which was equivalent to USD35 and would be offset from the total bill based on the hotel’s prevailing currency exchange rate. However the system could only accept 2,000 or 5,000 points per bill. There was some back and forth communication between the cashier and I but I was informed at the end that they were unable to let me redeem the 7,000 points even though when I called earlier to make a reservation, I was told that I could do so. I wasn’t given a solution so I asked if I could split the bill into two. And the problem was resolved. Since there wasn’t a limit to how many points one could redeem at a time, there ought to be some flexibility in the system to allow combination of points.
Pete’s Place
Grand Hyatt Singapore Hotel (Basement Level, Grand Wing)
10 Scotts Road
Singapore 228211
Tel: +65 6738 1234
Website: http://www.singapore.grand.hyattrestaurants.com/petesplace/
Opening hours:
Lunch: 12.00pm to 3.00pm daily
Dinner: 6.00pm to 11.00pm daily
Sunday Brunch: 11.30am to 2.30pm
Dress code: Smart Casual