When Stirling Steaks at Katong announced their October-long steak buffet for just S$30++, the public were naturally intrigued and excited to indulge in free-flow cuts of steak as well as grilled pork belly, chicken and fish.
The offer seemed too good to be true with free-flow garden salad and fries on top of all that meat.
However, just a few days into the promotion, the first few reviews started to flow in and the public does not appear to be satisfied, as evidenced by comments on the Mothership.sg’s Facebook page.
Netizens noted that the time limit of 1.5 hours per sitting (which includes the up to 15 minute wait time for cooking) ensures that the restaurant “won’t be ripped off” and is “not worth it”. One person did the math and suggested that people will probably only manage to eat three servings before they run out of time.
Another netizen suggested that given the current pandemic, there will also be social distancing implemented, meaning that there will long queues at the buffet which translates to less time to enjoy the food.
One person who actually went to the restaurant before commented that the service was “horrible”, adding that they had to wait for 40 minutes and no one came to take their orders.
There was also another commenter who said the promotion is “fishy” as there’s no way a steak buffet would be so cheap. While another person commented that the steaks in buffets are often of lower quality, sarcastically noting that “life is too short to eat buffet steak”.
According to the promotion details on Mothership, the lunchtime buffet is available in two 1.5 hour sessions from 12pm to 1.30p and 1.30pm to 3pm every day—originally, the slot was just 12.30pm to 2.30pm.
Diners will have to finish their meal within the time frame, though they also have to allow about 10 to 15 minutes of cooking time per order. They will receive a complimentary serving of Stirling sauce to start off with but subsequent servings will cost S$0.50 each. On top of that, diners will be charged S$5 per 200g of food that is wasted or left uneaten.
