Carousel, the people's favourite?

Celebrated Mummy's bdae at the Carousel as we heard tons about it. Voted as the "People's Choice" 3 times in a row, the Carousel is definitely a worthy place to celebrate Mumsy's 53rd Birthday. We made reservation about a month before and I was counting down ever since. 

I thought Carousel's spread was pretty decent. They had the seafood counter; Jap, Italian, Indian and Chinese dishes and a fairly decent variety of desserts. Their seafood counter is impressive indeed; boasting huge baby lobsters, fresh prawns, oysters, clams, mussels, scallops and fresh juicy crabs! I thought their lobsters are to die for, it's so fresh and sweet and über yummy, so say the person who doesn't quite fancy seafood. 

Huge Baby Lobster 

I liked how they have a variety of sauces and garnishes for you to drizzle over the seafood. The oysters tasted great with a dash of lemon but I thought it went pretty well with the sauces too.

An Aaray of Seafood

Having a live Italian station isn't exactly unique but serving Tortellni during a buffet? that my friend is my first! We were given a choice of pesto, bolognese, tomato sauce and aglio olio style for the pasta dressing; pasta offerings were Tortellini, Tagliatelle, spaghetti and Fusilli. I had the Tortellini with pesto sauce and it tasted really good! The Tortellini were stuffed with cheese and they went really well with that herb-y basil pesto.

Pesto Tortellini

Their sashimi were pretty good too! I was pleasantly surprised to find swordtail amongst the many other fresh fish. Unfortunately, the rest of the buffet items weren't that great. Their indian was horrid and their dim sum menu was severely lacking in variety. I thought their hot dishes weren't as tasty too. 

What's more disappointing is their lackluster desserts. Most of their desserts were either mousse based on gelatine based desserts which was utterly disappointing. Their NY cheesecake was way to soft and mushy while their mango log cake was grossly gelatinized. I thought their coffee cake and chocolate cake has too much gelatine in them too, making the cake almost jelly liked/ kueh liked. Their chocolate mousse (served in shot glasses) weren't that bad while the rest just didn't cut it for me. 

I guess the only thing I enjoyed was the chocolate fondant and fruits. I thought it was rather cool of them to serve breadsticks and pistachio white chocolate fondant; both of which aren't common in your normal restaurant buffet. Their ice cream was a tad too soft for my liking but I loved how they went an extra step and added chocolate bits in their ice cream, enhancing both texture and flavour. In addition, they provided ice cones for those who can't have their ice cream coneless.

I didn't wanna waste stomach space on bread but I thought their large variety of bread deserved to be recognized. Moreover, their breads were displayed really well too! making them more appetizing than they already are.

Bread station

Carousel serves complimentary birthday cake and mum had a nicely decorated cupcake for her bdae. I thought it was pretty nice of them to have their service crew sing a bdae song HOWEVER, it was kinda annoying to hear that song being sang not once, not twice but 8-9 times. I swear I'm not exaggerating when I say 8-9 times. I'm pretty sure some tables just wanted a free cake that night...and it's not wonder they only offered ordinary buttercake cupcake.

Mum's Birthday Cupcake

We ended our meal with a lovely cup of Nespresso coffee. I thought it was pretty generous of them to offer a range of coffee capsules for diners to choose from.

Nespresso Coffee

In short, I think Carousel's seafood might be the reason for their outstanding reviews and fame. However, being a dessert person, I was kinda disappointed with the lack of quality in their dessert. To me, Carousel's buffet is a quantity over quality issue and I don't think I would re-visit, unless my dessert fetish evolves to a seafood one.

Happy Bdae Mumsy, may you forever be happy :)