Tean's S buffet

The jellyfish is back! ^^ It's been quite a long time since I have ate a buffet, esp. a Korean one. So to meet up / try a Korean buffet / makan with Tean, we went to this Korean BBQ buffet place called 'Ssikkek' at Chinatown. Posting about the outing for the day! :)

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As JM said, one does not simply expect too much from a Korean buffet restaurant, especially if it's at a place where the focus is on delicious traditional food. To our surprise, it turned out rather well, and it's definitely worth a visit. =D

It's highly recommended to reserve a table for a lunch / dinner slot, we did just that and well... Maybe it isn't a really popular place, or it's just that the crowd isn't present, the outlet doesn't look packed, and perhaps even a reservation would be unnecessary. It's still better to be safe than sorry though~! This buffet place features a peak-period meal slot, ie. lunch and dinner. Time difference of 1 hour more if you choose the dinner one, but doesn't really matter to us. :D

The environment is surprisingly clean! I have always thought that BBQ buffet places would have oily stains here and there, crammed walkways, and pieces of dropped food all over the place~ This place is awesome! With white walls and organised furnishing, cool and clean place with 4 big TV screens featuring Kpop MVs (ZH would love it), an awesome combination of Kpop and food :D We got ourselves seated in the middle of the outlet, nearest to the table of raw food. =P

Food~

Raw food (meat): Featuring uncooked chicken, beef, and pork
Raw food (others): Featuring seafood, salad ingredients sauces
Cooked food: Featuring noodles, rice, soups and stews
Drinks: Featuring Cold korean tea

Since JM can't eat beef, we greatly reduced the number of raw beef dishes we took. I only tried a super thin but long slice of beef as SY couldn't finish that, tasted quite all right, tender. :D They had a variety of marinating sauces for meat, so there is teriyaki, black pepper, spicy ones, meat cut in terms of pieces, steaks, chops, you name it. :) Seafood, random prawns, sotongs? There is a section where you can create your own salad. Tiny-cut fruits, common vegetables, coleslaw sauce, thousand island sauce, sweet onion sauce, etc. For the cooked food, the classic white rice is there, soups and stews of different kinds, chilli / strange-smelling meat, sweet potato noodles (Dong Fen as Tean called it). The staff refills the food once the level is low, so it's kinda guaranteed that there will be some cooked food for the hungry. :D

What I tried:

Sesame chicken: Not too salty, a very classic chicken taste. :)
Slightly heated bacon: Classic bacon taste, nothing really special about it.
Pork chop: It's not as dry as I thought it would be! A decent serving size.
Pork belly: Definitely nicer than the one in Cathay.
'spicy?' chicken: Didn't really like it.
Rice: Just to go with the plentiful amount of meat.
Own-made salad: Diced apples, cucumbers, random fruits, all in a bowl of salad sauce. Tangy flavour.
Sweet potato noodles: Must be the nicest dish of all carbo food! Not too salty, the noodles got a nice bouncy(?) feeling to it, and definitely nicer than WL's actual dong-fen! ^^ Dash of pepper and vegetables to it, perfect for a good noodles dish outside. :)

A note by SY, there is actually a serving suggestion for the beef. Some slices + sweet onion sauce + onions + green chilli + spices. Didn't dare to try.

Halfway through the lunch buffet, one of the chefs prepared some fries and dumplings for the lunch crowd. At first sight, they looked like nothing special, to the extent that I didn't even want to take a plate. After Tean took a plate for everybody to try, I realised the fries tasted great! Crispy, not too salty fries, with a bit of sweet taste. I don't think they used normal potatoes. Did they use sweet potatoes or tapioca instead? Dumplings, crispy, but not one of my favourites~ =/

Eh? There is no fish? War will like this.

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So for the 2 hours+, it's just sitting down, talking about life, watching MVs and sighing about the upcoming uni life, and listening to SY showing off the proper ethics when having a Korean buffet.

Pop quiz: How do you test whether a food is cooked or not?

What normal people do: See the food colour, take out a bit and test bite if it looks alright.
What SY do: Touch the food.

According to SY, chefs touch the food to determine the status of the food. I must say that hygiene would be a really great issue, imagine touching raw food and then touching cooked food without washing of hands. Scary. o.o Such great ethics should be scrapped ASAP. ^^

We made some weird combinations of food despite SY's ethical presence. Some nonsense included bbq-ing of salad, bbq-ing of fries, mixing pepper & salt sauce with onion sauce, etc. One good item by Tean is the crispy bacon made by Tean! Normally, most fast food restaurant bacons would be more tender instead of crispy, which is a preferred choice for some as the juice is still being locked inside instead of having a dry taste. Tean made it crispy, and everyone enjoyed that version! Good job! ^^

As a birthday treat for Tean, he paid $2 instead of the original $28.25 (after taxes) for his buffet meal. Here's wishing Tean a happy 21st birthday! :) Before we left, we had an ice-bar ($1 each). I got he mango while JM and Tean got a melon flavour. I like my mango bar, it has a rich milk taste. =P

So yup, its $24++ per person for any time slot other than weekday lunch (10++ cheaper!). If you like to indulge in some Korean restaurant, listening to Kpop, eating the awesome meat dishes and sides, this is a good place to be, especially weekdays! :)

Rating: 8 / 10, wow, Fantastic Baby.



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The next 1.5 hours or so were dedicated to walking around Chinatown, visiting the older shopping centres. Seems like quite a lot of shops are closed as they most probably cater to the evening / night crowd. There's a chinese soccer association / jackpot room at the same building with the S buffet place, no visitors allowed. =/

Chinatown Point has a rather new library: Library @ Chinatown. Seems like another unique library, just like the one at Esplanade, except that it features much more Chinese books than usual, and has a cool chinese-themed programme zone, which reminded me of a Ninja inn. o.o We didn't spend a long time there, ODNS spend their Saturdays in a library. =P

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4+, SY and Tean went back home for an early rest. JM and I proceeded to Mustafa for shopping of his random items, including some shaving device, cooling pads, etc. Not extremely crowded too, esp. at the perfume / scents section, where JM sourced for a good scent bottle. Well, I didn't really like them. Too sharp a smell, even though it's supposed to be something of a sex appeal for woman... o.o

Mustafa had a medical section too! Crepe bandages, triangular bandages, salines, etc. I wonder if I had actually known the prices of these items during NS, would I still prioritise the 'appearance' factor over the 'cost' factor. ORD lo! :D

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Set off home in the evening, while JM practised some maths questions as he wanted to teach somebody calculus and functions, which in my opinion, needs much more practice. =D I also shared a real life 'lu bu shi yi' story, which sure tickled JM's funny bone!

"Once on the train, a friend of mine spotted a card-related item on the floor. He picked it up, and sort of looked around to see if anybody is frantically looking for the item. Nobody responded, and he put back the item nicely on the floor. :) That's a very good act to do, not to pocket what doesn't belong to you. It all seems like the perfect thing to do, until a foreign worker picked up the card, tap a guy's shoulder (he is the nearest to the card) and asked if the card was his. The guy was happy, said thanks, and took back his item. =D"

Guess who's the friend? =P

JM initially guessed I was the one, wrong answer, but he got it correct on the 2nd try.

Answer: Warren


That's all for the post! :)

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