Brought my folks to Yue at Aloft for their zi char a la carte buffet recently, and it was quite a different experience from the usual buffets we frequent. First time trying a zi char buffet for all of us, actually. Best part? They’ve got this 1-for-1 promotion which makes it super worthwhile.
The restaurant is located at Aloft Hotel, which connects to Zhongshan Mall. Yue’s on the first floor – once you enter the hotel lobby, you’ll spot it straightaway.
Oh, and there’s a free shuttle bus service to and from Novena. The pick-up/drop-off point at Novena Square is at the area near Curry Times, in case you need a reference point.
The self-service section is located on the right-hand side.
Comfortable and inviting space to enjoy your meal.
The Ordering System
We went on a Friday afternoon for lunch. Pretty quiet – only three other tables of diners around us. The staff handed us a laminated menu where we could use a marker pen to tick our orders, then hand it back to them.
Image credit: Yue at Aloft
Image credit: Yue at Aloft
Dishes get prepared upon order, so everything comes out hot and fresh. None of that buffet food sitting under heat lamps situation.
One cute thing about the menu – they’ve really injected humour into the dish names. Like, Sliced Kurobuta Pork with Garlic Sauce is called 蒜泥狠 (蒜泥白肉), and Yue’s Signature Bee Hoon is 这是Lim Peh (林北招牌米粉). Quite funny lah.
From left to right: hot jasmine tea, congee condiments, and congee.
Create your own tau huay with a variety of toppings.
Press the button and wait for your freshly made pancake to pop out—then go wild with the Nutella 😄
What’s at the Self-Service Section
Some items you can help yourself to:
- Congee with condiments
- Fish maw soup
- Bak kut teh
- Freshly made pancakes with Nutella
- Dessert section where you assemble your own tofu pudding
- Coffee machine, hot jasmine tea, water
The Three Limited Premium Dishes
There are three items on the menu that each table can only get one serving of. You’ll want to order all three.
A decent-sized whole crab served for the four of us—too bad it was a male crab with no roe.
Yue-Style Crab, Singapore-Style Chilli Crab
This comes as one whole mud crab for four people to share. Good size, very fresh and meaty. They provide cracking tool and gloves so you don’t have to worry about getting your hands dirty – very thoughtful touch.
The sauce is not bad, though still not the best I’ve had. A little on the sweet side but still very flavoursome. I wished there was fried mantou to mop up the sauce. I ended up taking some charcoal you tiao from the congee condiments station to eat with the remaining sauce, but the you tiao was cold and soft by then – not great.
Mum liked the sauce a lot though. She literally dipped everything into it, haha.
Duck Confit, Kung Pao
The meat was beautifully tender. Like, there’s no need to cut – just use your chopsticks to pick up the meat, lift the bone, and it separates effortlessly. No gamey flavour at all, just wholesome, rich, savoury goodness.
Poached Live Prawns
You can definitely taste the freshness of these prawns. Huge difference between live prawns and frozen ones. The prawn meat doesn’t stick to the shells, peels off easily. Sweet and crunchy, nicely poached.
I dipped mine into the chilli crab sauce – very nice, even though they’re already good on their own without any sauce.
From the Self-Serve Station
Fish Maw, Conpoy, Crab Meat Soup
A little salty, but tasty. Reduce the salt a bit and it’ll be perfect. Would be nice if they provided black vinegar to give it some acidity. I like that there are lots of ingredients in it, so every mouthful feels satisfying.
Bak Kut Teh
Besides pork ribs, there’s also pig stomach in it. The pig stomach was very tender, while the pork ribs have more of a bite because the meat’s quite lean. Not overly peppery – I would’ve liked it to have a bit more pepper power.
Homemade Beancurd with Condiments
Not bad, not sweet at all. Just wished there was a shaved ice machine so we could make the whole thing icy cold and refreshing.
Hubby’s pancake masterpiece… I’ll let you be the judge 😂
Pancake with Nutella
Press the button and wait for the pancake to drop out. The machine makes it for you on the spot. Surprisingly not bad – soft and fluffy. Nutella never fails.
Unlimited Order Dishes
For the dishes below, you can order as many rounds as you like. Just don’t waste because they do charge for wastage.
Appetisers
Crispy Baby Squid, Sweet Shrimp Paste, Ground Peanut – I love this. So crispy, and the sauce isn’t overly sweet like how some seafood restaurants do theirs.
Deep-fried Mid Joint Wings, Shrimp Paste – Very crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. Shrimp paste flavour is ample. Pretty legit har cheong gai.
Sliced Kurobuta Pork, Garlic Sauce – We all loved this. Had to order a second round. The minced garlic sauce is very well balanced with nice flavour. The pork had a good ratio of fat and meat, and the skin gives it this extra bite.
Homemade Hei Chor – Pork and prawns, nicely fried, well seasoned. Dip in that sweet sauce and it’s very enjoyable. We had seconds of this too.
Meat Dishes
Deep-fried Chicken, Dried Chilli, Sze Chuan Peppercorn – Chicken very crispy, not overly spicy even though there are lots of dried chillies in the dish.
Spring Chicken, Luzhou Laojiao Zisha – So-so. Flavoursome because the sauce is quite savoury, but some parts of the chicken that are more meaty are somewhat dry.
Sweet and Sour Pork, Popping Candy – Didn’t realise the little saucer had popping candy until I looked at the menu again while writing this. It had already hardened by then. I guess they wanted to add this special touch but it didn’t quite work. The sweet and sour pork itself was very good though. Balanced flavour, meaty pork, not a lot of fat.
Sliced Beef, Spring Onion and Ginger – Super tender meat, my goodness. They must have either pounded the meat thoroughly or used some meat tenderiser. Not bad.
Seafood
There’s only seabass fillet under the seafood section. We got it done in two ways.
Sliced Seabass Fillet in Assam Sauce – Very piquant, appetising sauce with so much flavour. The seabass fillet was nicely fried, chunky, meaty, crispy on the outside. Not fishy at all, very fresh.
Sliced Seabass Fillet in Sweet and Spicy Mango Sauce – More like sweet Thai chilli sauce with diced mango. After having the assam one first, this felt a bit underwhelming in comparison. Still good, but the assam one was definitely better.
Vegetables
Stir-fried Lotus Root, Gingko, Mushroom, Cashew Nuts – Love the crunch. Not too salty, not oily either.
String Bean, Minced Chicken, Dried Shrimp – Really liked the minced chicken and dried shrimp bits that give it extra umami.
Noodles
Fried Kway Teow, Penang-Style – Pretty normal, not much wok hei. Only saw lup cheong in it.
Yue’s Signature “LIMPEH” Bee Hoon – We all laughed when the service staff brought this dish and said “LIMPEH”, and I added on “is here”. I don’t know what’s so signature about this – it’s just an ordinary fried bee hoon dish. Can’t taste any wok hei. Only see lup cheong too.
Both noodles weren’t wow, but if you’re someone who needs carbs, then they’re good enough.
Hot Beverages
The jasmine tea isn’t too bitter. Coffee from the machine is also good – not acidic, smooth aromatic brews. Dad and Hubby had a few cups each, haha.
Portion Sizes and Pacing
I actually asked the staff if we could request smaller portions for certain dishes because my folks don’t eat beef. She said all the dishes are already served in small portions, and we could order again if we wanted more.
And indeed, she was right. All the dishes came in manageable portions, so we could try almost everything on the menu, which was great.
The dishes didn’t take too long to be served either. They came in batches, and in no time, the whole table was filled with food.
Service at Yue at Aloft
Service was good and attentive. They replaced our plates when they filled up with bones and shells, which I appreciated.
Final Thoughts
All in all, good meal. My folks welcomed the refreshing change of cuisine. While not every dish was amazing, no dish failed miserably. Even mum with her fussy tastebuds complimented that the food was good.
The zi char buffet concept at Yue at Aloft is quite unique in Singapore. With the 1-for-1 promotion, it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for something different from the usual buffet spread.