The Rice Table

Nice deal for lunch, 17.90 all you can eat. The food was awesome and service attentive. Full disclosure, this was my first Indonesian meal. I would go back for the lady fingers, fried fish and all the sauces.

Our lunch at The Rice Table was a special experience — a great way to try small dishes of many different Indonesian flavors. They serve all-​you-​care-​to-​eat «set menus» of 14 lunch dishes for S$ 17.90/person and 19 dinner dishes for S$ 28.50 — a real value for this quality and authentic flavors of food. Our meal included: Javanese Chicken Soup, Vegetables in Coconut Stew, Beef Rendang, Curry Chicken, Ladyfingers (Okra) in Bean Sauce, Curried Tofu, Chicken Satays in Peanut Sauce (we had a second dish of these — the sauce was divine), Kangkong Belachan (stir-​fried spinach with chilies and shrimp paste), Otak (spiced fish paste in a banana leaf), Grilled Chicken, Fried Sweet and Sour Fish, Tahu Telor (bean curd omelettes), Pickled Cucumbers, and Indonesian Fruit Salad. The servings are small enough that you can actually eat all of the dishes, and you may request additional servings or deletions of any of the dishes — they just ask that you not waste food. Located at the top of the escalator to the second floor of 360 Orchard Road’s International Building (a small building located between the Shaw House and the Royal Thai Embassy — take the Orchard Road MRT stop and walk through the mall following signs to Shaw House), the 54-​seat restaurant itself is simply and serenely decorated. Dishes were served on a candle-​powered warmer in the middle of our table so foods stay warm and can be eaten at leisure. Service was attentive but not obtrusive. A lovely dining experience that we would highly recommend, especially for foodies who want to savor a wide-​range of Indonesian specialties.

The food at rice table is fantastic but the service borders on rude. I’ve been to the Rice Table about three times in the last year and always enjoy eating the kick ass, puffy tahu telor that is fried crisp and drizzled with a rich peanut sauce. I like the simple yet tasty soto ayam that starts each meal, and the ayam paggang (that honestly looks more like stewed chicken rather than grilled chicken), tongue tingling sambal kang kong and sweet Indonesian style satay. On the other hand, they do a whole bunch of watery seafood curries that don’t show off the ingredients, the otak tastes like it was made in a factory and the bergedil is meh. In general, you can be assured of a good meal at the Rice Table, just beware of the service.
The Rice Table hires some teenagers that probably work to earn some extra pocket money and it shows. On my first visit for a dinner of 15 people, my host called ahead to let the restaurant know we would like to split the bill a certain way (drinks on one tab, food split individually). We knew this would be difficult and hence called ahead to make sure it was ok. Well communication broke down somewhere and each person was charged a drink with their food despite us explaining in person several times.
On my second and third visits just with the dude, we arrived at 9pm and 8.30pm respectively. When we walked in and asked for a table for 2, the waiter on our first visit LITERALLY rolled his eyes at us, looked at the clock and said, «last order is 9.30pm and you need to get out by 9.45pm sharp». Oh hello and welcome to you too. We thought ok next time we’ll come earlier so we did at 8.30pm and received a very similar, curt response from another waiter. When we sat down, no one came to explain how the menu worked (since the time between our first and second visit was almost a year) and the waiters were merely interested in plonking down the dishes as quickly as possible. That being said, there is a lady who I think is Indonesian and is polite and actually is a joy to speak to but most of the time, I just felt like I had rained on someone’s parade. I don’t eat at buffet restaurants ever so maybe this is the norm and perhaps their target demographic is a repeat customer that doesn’t expect service for the price, but oh well.

This is our second visit here, the first a year ago. We enjoy this place and their style of serving because you get the best exposure to the wide range of food flavors that exist in Asian foods. Unlike many restaurants where they have one particular specialty, the preparation and flavors of the food here are many and varied. The Rice table is informal and the focus is on food not décor. There’s no thinking involved, just show up and they give you a bit of everything. How civilized. Visitors in the Orchard area should give this a visit for an intro to Indonesian cuisine. As a bonus, there’s a foot massage place downstairs from the restaurant. Now that’s civilized!

Before eating here, I’d heard loads… especially about how much you get to eat. And that’s always good news when you talk about a buffet — the whole point is to eat till you (almost) pop, right?
I’d like to say at this point that everything I heard was true.
Oh joy, pure joy; when you get to eat as much as you want, and doubly so when the food is AWESOME!
You walk in, and say «yes, I’d like to have the buffet, please.» They show you to your seat. And the awesomeness begins.
You sit down, and they place these heating trays in front of you, and you wonder: are they setting up the buffet right in front of you? THE ANSWER IS YES. The army of plates and bowls emerge from the kitchen, onto your table. And you dig into EVERYTHING. Shame that your mouth can only fit that much in at once, because it is all NOM, I mean delicious.
You get all the favourites for lunch — tahu telur, rendang, bbq ayam, some fruit rojak to refresh the palate, and there’s even more for dinner. When the dish looks a little empty, turn around and give your server your best puppydog eyes, and it’ll get refilled (or don’t, they’ll probably do it anyway).
Gracia’s right, bookings are essential, and even more so when you want to go there with a decent sized gang, if you want to try all the deliciousness they have on offer.

Had to host some Indonesian guests over lunch one day, and with that, we got a table for ten at TRT. I’ve been hearing all sorts of good things about it ever since its location at Suntec but never got around to trying it out. So, what better time than now?
The venue is on the tiny side, and it was a bit of a squeeze for all of us. We were there for lunch, and I must say that the prices are very fair. For a lunch buffet, it set us back at approximately $ 17++ per pax, and we were all stuffed to the gills. There are little heated racks placed in the middle of the table, and small platters of appetizers and food start to pile up. The range is extensive — rendang, satay, ikan goreng, tahu telor, sambal udang, sayur lodeh and so on. The dinner menu is a little more extensive, but you need to ensure that your party is big enough, otherwise you’d be too stuffed to eat very much and that would be quite a pity.
Owing to its popularity, TRT is immensely crowded. If you don’t have a reservation, I’m sorry, but you’d be better off lunching at TCC downstairs. Service can be a little hard to attract due to too many customers vying for the servers’ attention but once you catch their eye, it’s all good.
There’s roof top parking available, though it means that your steely steed will be left to bake in the mid day sun. Give it some time before you slide back into your car, else you’ll burn your bum. TRT used to do bento box deliveries, but not sure if they still continue this today.