The new all-day dining restaurant at Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa is sure to please all palates for its sheer variety of cuisines, discovers S Puvaneswary

All MICE organisers can, at some point, relate to the Mother Goose nursery rhyme of Pease Porridge Hot. It is so hard to please all taste buds of a diverse range of local and international delegates. Well, Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa, a MICE-friendly hotel, has a solution to that. Its new all-day dining restaurant, The Resort Café, which opened in April, caters to all tastes through eight sections that serve a range of dishes from Asia and the Middle East.

MICE application

The Resort Café is able to customise menus, buffets and experiences to the specific needs of MICE groups. Its bustling open kitchen features an impressive 60m long buffet line which provides every opportunity for guests to interact with the chefs throughout the event.

Alternatively, The Resort Cafe’s degustation menus, which consist of six to 10 courses, provide a sampling of smaller portions of the chefs’ signature dishes.

Special dietary requirements can be met with advance notice, and the hotel’s events team can tailor a menu for groups.

The restaurant can accommodate up to 362 people through its three dining areas and a 10-seat private dining room. It is flexible and a section can be blocked off for just one group.

Coffee House 2 is the largest and can sit up to 164 people, while Coffee House 1 fits 128 people; Coffee House 3 is the smallest with capacity for 70 people.

During my dinner with friends, I was fascinated by the kaleidoscope of bold colours which gave vibrancy to the restaurant while the 5m high ceiling added to the sense of space.

Most thrilling for me was the sound of ice-cream bells and a man pushing an ice-cream cart around the café and stopping at tables to serve up icy treats. It brought back memories of the 70s and 80s when the sight of ice-cream vendors on bicycles, ringing bells to announce their presence, were a norm in neighbourhoods.

Food concept

What stands out here is the sheer variety of food. The buffet line offers 60 dishes across eight sections – Malay Archipelago (dishes from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia), Indo-Chine (dishes from Thailand and Vietnam), Oriental Far East (dishes from Japan, Korea and China), Spices of India (dishes from Northern and Southern India), Mirage of the Gulf (dishes from the Middle East), and Best of the West (Western comfort food, grills, carvings, rotisserie and churassco). The remaining three sections serve salads, fruits and desserts.

The a la carte menu alone offers more than 50 chef’s signature dishes.

In my opinion, what would attract repeat guests is the choice of familiar dishes of home, such as Thai green curry, Vietnamese pho bo, Malaysia’s pasembor, nasi lemak, chicken rice and nyonya laksa lemak and Korean bibimbap.

There are two features that I love here. One is the open kitchen with its exciting live cooking activities and interactions between chefs and guests. The other is a pair of tall towers that blow 10°C cold mist at the greens and fruits, keeping them fresh and crisp. The salad tower is dramatically presented in two tiers with the first featuring over 32 types of local and international greens and the second offering home-made dressings and a rotation of Asian salads. At the fruit tower, fruits ranging from longan, jackfruit and soursop to grapes and strawberries are made available.

On Friday and Saturday nights, the buffet spread features churrasco which waiters carve out onto the plate of diners at their table.

Service and ambience

It’s great Malaysian hospitality at its finest. The service staff were always discreetly close by and were genuine concerned if we enjoyed the food. The chefs at the open kitchen were cheerful and always ready to share cooking tips.

Contacts
The Resort Café, Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa
Persiaran Lagoon, Bandar Sunway,
47500 Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Tel: (60-3) 7492-8000
Email: eventsrhs@sunwayhotels.com
Website: www.sunwayhotels.com

Opening hours
18.30 to 23.00

Amari Watergate Bangkok has partnered with Thai entertainers, BeyonXd Magic, to bring mind-bending magic and incredible illusions to corporate meetings held at the city hotel.

Beyond Magic can showcase their talents while mingling with delegates during coffee breaks or cocktail receptions, or take an hour-long big stage comedy production to a gala dinner.

Beyond Magic’s one-hour performance – delivered in two 30-minute sets – is priced at 12,000 baht (US$355.70), while meeting packages by the hotel cost 1,450 baht per pax for a half-day meeting and 1,650 baht per pax for a full-day arrangement.

The 512-room Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium has officially relaunched after completing an extensive multi-million dollar refurbishment.

With its revamped lobby, guestrooms, dining outlets and meeting facilities, this is the building’s first major facelift in its 30-year history.

The new vibrant looks of the hotel lobby and guestrooms are inspired by the iconic Singapore River and the colourful rows of shophouses along its banks.

Additions to the dining scene include all-day dining venue Atrium Restaurant, and Atrium Bar 317, which overlooks the hotel’s lobby atrium.

To maintain its popularity among business travellers, the hotel also upgraded its Atrium Ballroom and 12 meeting rooms, fitting them with improved equipment, including new live recording, sound and lighting facilities.

The hotel’s facelift was timed to coincide with its 10th year anniversary, while doubling as a way to stay competitive amid Singapore’s recent falling visitor arrivals. – Jerlene Ng

L Capital Asia’s Ku De Ta, perched atop the SkyPark of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, now sports the name Ce La Vi.

An abbreviation of the French phrase “C’est la vie,” which means “This is life”, the restaurant, bar and nightclub will also be renovated in phases from June until September.

This follows the conclusion of Ku De Ta’s five-year-long legal tussle with a Bali beachfront club of the same name, which saw the court weighing in favour of the Bali outfit.

Speaking to TTGmice at the brand’s launch on June 4, Ce La Vi’s CEO Kirk Martin said plans for the name change had already been in the works before the court ruling.

He said: “(But) the lawsuit accelerated our plans to introduce a new name. We thought this was the right way to go as we are still young, and we can build a new brand. With the previous history (as Ku De Ta), it is also confusing for the customers as we may have different goals with the previous brand name.”

Ce La Vi aims to be “the international titan of lifestyle and sophisticated hedonism” through five core pillars: an iconic rooftop location, inspirational architectural design, a modern Asian menu, innovative cocktails, and entertainment by renowned DJs.

A new Ce La Vi venue will open this month in Hong Kong on the top three floors of California Tower, right in the heart of the Lan Kwai Fong dining and entertainment district.

Martin said: “With each venue occupying a distinctive soaring site with 360º views at iconic locations in key cities, Ce La Vi reimagines and reinvigorates the concept of the adult playground.”

Work is already underway to open the next Ce La Vi within the next five years in key cities such as Dubai and Taipei. – Paige Lee Pei Qi