Where can you celebrate Singapore’s National Day while:

1. Avoiding the crazy crowds (200,000 people congested in the Marina Bay area!)
2. Eating really delicious food and relaxing in a classy environment with air-conditioned comfort and wonderful service
3. Getting an overwhelming view of the national day fireworks display 
4. Not paying crazy prices! (read: a few hundred dollars for hotel room or food!)

1. Make a reservation at Town Restaurant (book in advance!) and start early (we arrived at 630pm!) so that you have more time to eat and enjoy the atmosphere, both inside the hotel and the celebratory mood outside the hotel
   
   
2. Try any of the specialties being offered at Town Restaurant, which includes Town Laksa, Soft Shell Crab Tempura with Sweet and Sour Ponzu, and Veal Loin with Coriander Risotto, Sun-blushed Tomato Compote with Natural Jus. Gets you in the mood for the fireworks display coming up! This year, to celebrate Singapore’s 43rd National Day, Town Restaurant had a special National Day Buffet Dinner comprising of 43 Asian and local specialties that really added to the celebratory atmosphere in the restaurant. Read on to see which were our favourite dishes in the buffet!
   
   
3. Here is the catch on achieving the reasonable price point criteria while being able to get a full view of the fireworks: Town Restaurant does not face Marina Bay directly (it faces Boat Quay). If it did, it would have been crazy prices. However, the twist is that all you need to do is to step out of the side door at Town Restaurant OR walk out through the hotel main entrance and take a short 1min walk out to the side of the hotel and voila! You will see the full view of fireworks right in front of your eyes! At exactly 7:59pm, the entire Town Restaurant cleared out – it took less than 30 seconds to get to the numerous prime spots around The Fullerton Hotel to see the full fireworks display!
   
   
4. After watching the fireworks display, just step right back into Town Restaurant and its air-conditioned comfort, and continue your dining! No jostling with the crowds to get out from the Marina Bay area. Take your time and relax in the classy, soothing environment, wait for the crowd to disperse and by around 10pm, you can take a leisurely stroll down Boat Quay or make your way home
   
   
5. The best part is you pay no more than between $40 (ala carte) to $70 per person after tax (if you take the buffet) for the entire experience, a steal considering the few hundred dollars National Day Dining or Hotel stay cum Fireworks packages being offered elsewhere.

We tried the National Day Buffet Dinner. Out of the 43 dishes and after great difficulty in narrowing down the list to select the ones we really liked, we ended up with 8 dishes that really impressed us and our Japanese guests! They were:

1. Scallops Makhani
   My personal favourite. I am actually not a scallops fan, but Town Restaurant has given a wonderful interpretation of this Indian curry dish. It is extremely difficult to get the balance right when you whip up a curry sauce that tries to incorporate sweet and spicy flavours. Very often, it veers to either extreme, with one overwhelming the other. However in this case, the delicate balance achieved by the chefs at Town Restaurant for this dish is very admirable. A wonderful sweetness that does not overwhelm the palate, and a subtle spicy undertone that gives it a tangy kick. It was so delicious that I could not stop eating this and mopping up the sauce.
   
   
2. Hainanese Chicken Rice
   Ah yes, the traditional favourite for all Singaporeans. But don’t take it from me, take it from my Japanese guests! I quizzed all of them on which of the 43 dishes were their favourite dishes, and Yamada stated that the Hainanese Chicken Rice, with its fragrant rice and wonderfully done chicken, had emphatically won her over. I have to agree, and it is not a surprise that this dish made the final list. The chicken is done just right, not overcooked, something frequently done in many chicken rice stalls. The rice was nicely done and turned out soft and fluffy, instead of the hard versions commonly churned out by many stalls, including a few well known famous ones.
   
   
3. Lobster  Bisque
   The favourite of the second Japanese guest, Takeda. The creamy smooth texture and strong lobster flavour coupled with the infusion of brandy clearly impressed him. I myself could not stop drinking the Lobster Bisque, with frequent reminders to myself that I had to be professional and leave enough room to try all the other dishes!
   
   
4. Baked Sea Bass
   Only one quick sentence to describe this dish: Wonderfully moist and flavourful. Everyone knows how difficult it is to do fish well. Cook it too long and the texture becomes too hard. Undercook it, and the flavour of a fresh fish does not come out strong enough. In this instance, I really liked how tasty the sea bass was, with its crispy skin on the outside while retaining its moistness on the inside.
   
   
5. Peking Duck
   We were all pleasantly surprised to see this dish actually! And neither did we expect Peking Duck at a buffet to turn out so well. The duck was well marinated and the skin was crispy and succulent. One big bonus is that they give you unlimited servings of the cucumber, spring onions and the sweet sauce to go with the duck, so there is no need to trouble the waitress to keep coming back with more as what I always do at Chinese restaurants!
   
   
6. Bubur Cha Cha
   What is a National Day Buffet without a Singaporean dessert? It was a difficult toss up between the Tau Suan and the Bubur Cha Cha, but in the end, we thought that the Bubur Cha Cha just managed to edge it. Smooth and creamy, it presented a delicate touch towards the end of the meal. It was not too sweet and avoided excessive use of coconut, which made the end result all the more impressive and healthy. Indeed, a great way to end off the meal!
   
   
7. Pandan Mousse
   Have you even heard of this one? For sheer innovation and the way it turned out, we just had to include this dessert in the list. Wonderfully light and with a pleasantly consistent texture, it made eating dessert guiltless for us all! We enjoyed how the pandan taste immersed nicely into the mousse –having the popular local Pandan leaf well woven into a Western invention made this fusion dessert truly memorable.
   
   
8. Walnut Crumble
   Ok, this is not an Asian dessert, but the delightful result of this traditional Western favourite convinced us to allow this dish to appear in the list. Unlike most crumbles that turned out hard, this one ended up fluffy with the crust falling nicely at the edges. That was a clue from the start that this dessert would sink in well, and it did! It was just a tad too sweet for our liking, but the generous sprinkle of walnuts and the overall taste of the crumble won the day for this dessert.
   
   

So in conclusion, what can we say? The perfect base to view the national day fireworks where you can have great food without paying a huge price – we will certainly be back!

With lots of eating,
Dennis Goh and The HungryGoWhere Team