voco Orchard Singapore Lunch Buffet: Opus, Fire, Meat and Knowing When To Stop
A Sunday lunch buffet at a hotel steakhouse should be easy to like.
You sit down. Someone brings you grilled meat. You leave full and vaguely pleased with yourself.
That was the theory, anyway, when I went for Grilled Out Sunday at Opus Bar & Grill in voco Orchard Singapore, which I wrote about in my voco Orchard Singapore hotel review.
What I got was a lunch that was good in parts, slightly uneven in others, and much more enjoyable once I stopped expecting every plate to prove a point.
The first thing worth saying is that this is an à la carte buffet, not the usual walk-around situation where you circle the room pretending to be strategic. You stay seated, order from the menu, and the kitchen sends things out. I liked that immediately. It made the whole meal feel calmer and made the food much harder to excuse when it was only average.
One-Line Verdict: Grilled Out Sunday works best when you treat it like a relaxed steakhouse lunch with a few strong plates, not a grand buffet where every dish is supposed to be excellent.
The Format Did Half The Work
The best thing about this lunch may be the format.
I did not have to queue for anything. I did not have to balance a plate while pretending I was still “looking around.” I sat down, read the menu and ordered properly. That already made the whole experience feel more civilised than most buffet lunches.
It also made it easier to tell what was actually good.
I Started Light, Which Was The Right Decision
I began with the Moules Marinière and the Roasted Tomato Soup.
That was a good call.
The Moules Marinière was one of the better things I ate all lunch. Warm, savoury and generous enough with the sauce that the bread stopped feeling optional. It had real flavour, which sounds like a basic requirement until you have eaten enough hotel buffet food to know it is not.
The Roasted Tomato Soup was simpler, but also more reassuring. No theatrics. No steakhouse swagger. Just a bowl that tasted properly of roasted tomato and knew when to stop. I liked that. It felt grounded.
That opening also told me something important early. This lunch was not only about the meat. In fact, some of the most satisfying bites came before the grill really started to show off.
The Meats Were The Point, But Not All Of Them Deserved The Spotlight
This is where Grilled Out Sunday really wants to win you over. The mains are the centre of the whole idea. Grill, Josper, smoke, rotisserie. Fire-led cooking, tableside drama, meat-forward confidence. Fine. I was listening.
I ordered the Smoked Duck Breast, the Black Angus Striploin, and, against better judgment, the Crispy Pork Belly.
The Smoked Duck Breast was the standout for me. It had enough smoke to feel intentional without tasting like someone had overcommitted to a woodfire narrative. The meat was tender, rich enough to feel like a proper main, and one of the few things on the menu I would order again without hesitation.
The Black Angus Striploin was less interesting, but still worth having. Straightforward, properly grilled, and dependable in the way steak at a hotel lunch should be. It did not have the same personality as the duck, but it felt solid. Sometimes that is enough.
Then there was the Crispy Pork Belly. This was the disappointment.
It should arrive, crackle properly, and make you forgive everyone involved for calling this a buffet. This one did not. The crackling was softer than it should have been, and the meat carried a faint gamey note that made it harder to enjoy than I wanted it to be. It was not inedible. It was just the clearest example of a dish that sounded better on the menu than it performed on the plate.
And that, honestly, is the risk of a lunch like this. Fire and meat can sound thrilling long before they actually taste that way.
The Sides Felt Like Support Staff, Which Is Fine Until They Don’t Help
I tried the Cauliflower Gratin, Butter Glazed Root Vegetables, and Traditional Yorkshire Pudding.
This was the least exciting stretch of lunch.
The Cauliflower Gratin was probably the strongest of the four. Warm, creamy, useful. The Butter Glazed Root Vegetables were there. The Yorkshire Pudding also existed.
That sounds cruel. It is not meant to be. The problem is that these sides did not add much beyond plate management. At a buffet like this, sides either support the meat properly or become edible furniture. Too many of these leaned toward the second.
The more memorable part of lunch remained the appetisers, which tells you something.
Dessert Was Fine, Which Is Not The Same As Good
By the time I reached dessert, I was already full enough to be honest.
So I kept it to the Crème Brûlée. And that was enough.
It was the safer choice and, unsurprisingly, the more successful one. Familiar, clean, no unpleasant surprises. But it also did not do much to lift the meal. Dessert, overall, was where the lunch lost some momentum.
It was not bad. It just was not strong enough to change anyone’s view of the meal. After the better starters and the stronger mains, dessert felt like the point where the restaurant had stopped trying to win me over and started assuming I was already convinced.
I was not entirely.
What I Would Actually Recommend
If you are going, keep it simple.
Start with one or two starters that sound as though they might actually have flavour. For me, the Moules Marinière and Roasted Tomato Soup were the right opening. Then go straight to two mains you would genuinely want to eat even outside a buffet setting. The Smoked Duck Breast and Black Angus Striploin made the most sense to me.
Take one or two sides if you need it. Skip the urge to prove you got value by ordering half the menu. End with at least one dessert and leave before the whole lunch turns into a stamina test.
That is the version of Grilled Out Sunday I would recommend.
Would I Go Back?
Maybe, but with clear expectations.
I would not go back expecting some flawless Sunday steakhouse feast where every plate earns applause, or expecting it to compete with the best buffets in Singapore on sheer range alone. That is not what this is.
I would go back if I wanted a comfortable, seated lunch with a few properly good dishes, a calmer format than the average buffet and enough structure that the whole thing still feels like a meal rather than an event.
That is a perfectly respectable thing to be.
It is just not the same thing as excellence.
J.C. Yue is often in transit, and hotel buffets are her most reliable “in-between” meal in Singapore. She reviews hotel buffets for RERG based on what she actually ate; highlighting what’s worth returning for, and what isn’t.
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