A.I.O buffet...

In case anyone has been wondering what A.I.O is, it simply means 'All In One'. So what sort of a buffet is a 'All In One' buffet? That will be something that we will be finding out today. :)

Just for the starters alone, one of my friends have already gone all out placing orders for the different types of 'Cze Char' dishes. Since this is a buffet dinner, I do agree that we should be giving as many types of dishes a try as possible. Therefore, I also go ahead placing a few orders for some ala carte dishes too. :P Over here, not only they are preparing and serving common 'Cze Char' dishes like 'Sambal Kangkong', 'Pork Fried with Dried Chilli', 'Spring Rolls', 'Ngor Hiang', etc... But they have also listed down some other unique 'Cze Char' dishes like 'Rojak Chicken', 'Curry Leaf Chicken', 'Bacon Prawn Roll', 'Assam Sotong', etc... And basically there's a mixture of yummy and normal dishes. As for myself, I'm not comfortable with the 'Stir Fried Kangkong with Fermented Bean Curd'. I prefer the normal 'Sambal Kangkong' even much more and the taste of the 'Rajak Chicken' is kinda funky too. :P But dishes like 'Deep Fried Seafood Tofu' are pretty good. One thing that I have observed would be the generous portion that they are offering over here. At list, it have proven that each individual dish is big enough to feed/share among the 4 of us.

This is the main reason why I wanted to give this place a try. Rather than sharing 1 big pot among a group of people, they are providing each of us a decent steamboat pot. Therefore it means that the more people you have in a group, the more types of soup that you can try in one go. Isn't that great? Basically we ended up trying 4 different types of soup and they are 'Tom Yum', 'Herbal Chicken', 'Fish' and 'Chicken' soup. Being a soup guy, I personally find the taste of the soup to be a little bit too bland. Though it does manage to bring out the unique taste of each soup, but it's just simply not strong enough for my liking. However, I do find the ingredients that they are offering over here to be pretty interesting. On top of the normal stuff like 'Slice Beef', 'Slice Fish', 'Golden Mushroom', etc... they also have stuff like 'Fish Noodles', 'Squid Glue', 'Fish Glue', etc... After a bit of struggling, I decided to give the 'Fish Noodles' a try. (That is the long whitish Noodle that I have shown in the above.) When the waitress pass us the noodles, it was kinda shocking. Rather than giving us a plate of 'Noodles', it was more of a bag of 'Fish paste' with a small opening. The idea behind it works pretty much the same way as the piping bag that you are using to squeeze all the cream onto your cake. But rather than squeezing the 'Fish Paste' onto a cake, you have to squeeze it into the pot. The end product is delicious. The 'Noodles' doesn't have the strange 'fishy' smell and it's pretty chewy too. Not too bad for a 'Fishy Noodles'. :P By the way, remember to set some empty space in your stomach for...

'Ice Cream' They are offering 3 different ice cream flavours over here and it's mainly, 'Vanilla', 'Strawberry' and 'Chocolate'. But that's not all...

'Durian Oozee' No wonder they have limited 1 order of the 'Durian Oozee' per customer. This is fantastically delicious. The idea behind this dessert is pretty much similar to a normal 'Goreng Pisang'. However, the crispy crust is unbeatable and the strong 'Durian' filling is pretty smooth too. :P (To avoid any disappointment, do take note that the 'Durian Oozee' are available on Fridays, Weekends, Eve & on Public Holidays only.)

'Chocolate Fondue' I think that we have ended up trying all the different types of dessert that was listed on their menu that night. As for this dessert, I think that the waitresses over here really know how to tempt the customers. Rather than providing us with a pot of hot chocolate, they have provided us a steamboat pot with a lump of chocolate in the middle of the pot instead. And we are suppose wait for the chocolate to melt slowly... =.=""" Just the thought of it makes me hungry again...

So where can you give the 'A.I.O' buffet a try?

The name of this place would be 'The Rajah Inn'. It's located on level 2 of 'Tiong Bahru Plaza'.

Notes:

• Opening Hours:
  11:30 - 22:00 Daily
  (Last order at 21:30)
  
  Teochew Porridge Buffet:
  11:30 - 14:30
  Steamboat ala carte (A.I.O) buffet:
  17:30 - 22:00

* Click here to find out more about 'The Rajah Inn'.
^ Click here for the 'Facebook' page of 'The Rajah Inn'.