The Orange Lantern Review - Joyous Reunion Mini Buffet

The Orange Lantern is a well-rounded food and beverage catering company, with restaurants at various locations apart from their catering services! They specialize in Vietnamese cuisine but have come up with their own Chinese New year menu for the upcoming holidays. Recently they have sent our team their Joyous Reunion Mini Buffet, which boasts a variety of dishes with a Vietnamese touch to it! Read the full review to get a feel of what we enjoyed!

There is a choice of either rice or noodles from the set but we received both for tasting, for a total of 9 items!

• Pomelo Salad with Prawn
• Oriental Golden Snacks
• Cantonese Style Noodle with Fortune Greens
• Abundance Fragrant Lotus Leaf Rice
• Broccoli and Braised Mushroom with Prosperous “Fatt Choy”
• Cantonese Style Garlic Pacific Dory Fillet
• Roasted Chicken with Honey Rock Sugar Sauce
• Garlic Buttered Prawn
• Spring Jelly with Lychee

Pomelo Salad with Prawn

Many different greens were used to create this vibrant dish including carrots, red cabbage, onions, and iceberg lettuce. This combination of fresh vegetables with the sweet and spicy pomelo sauce created a savoury yet refreshing appetizer! The crunch from the vegetables along with the slight crunch from the prawns resulted in a really satisfying bite. I thought this was a pretty well-executed appetizer in this menu!

Oriental Golden Snacks

While it certainly looks more like finger food, do not discount this dish! The aromatic spices from the five spice roll will definitely whet your appetite! The jellyfish adds a nice texture to the dish, like springy noodles. You can’t go wrong with the shrimp balls as the seafood flavour is robust in this one!

Cantonese Style Noodle with Fortune Greens

As we picked up the noodles with the tongs, we could already tell that it was fried to perfection! Firm but springy, the slightly oily noodles glistened under the light in all its glory, making it look irresistible. The noodles were lightly seasoned but flavourful because they are egg noodles! The vegetables complimented the noodles as they added a nice crunch and texture to every mouthful of these noodles.

Abundance Fragrant Lotus Leaf Rice

The moment we took off the lid, the smell of the lotus leaves filled the room. With the rice being wrapped up in these lotus leaves. the rice really absorbed the earthy flavour and fragrance of these lotus leaves! The rice was nicely steamed and almost felt like the texture you get from glutinous rice. However, it is precisely that that left mixed feelings among the team members as some of us felt the rice was too soft while others loved that fact about this dish! Personally, I am a fan of this soft and sticky Abundance Fragrant Lotus Leaf Rice!

Broccoli and Braised Mushroom with Prosperous “Fatt Choy”

Huge Shiitake mushrooms were used in this dish. The soft, silky and slightly chewy mushrooms really gave the gravy a distinct flavour. I have always felt that broccoli and mushrooms are the best combinations in a vegetable dish as I feel that broccoli can taste quite "raw" on its own. The addition of mushrooms sort of "eliminates" that taste with its strong fragrance and earthy flavour.

Cantonese Style Garlic Pacific Dory Fillet

Amazingly tender and boneless fish fillets, the fillets were so flaky and falls apart in your mouth without having to chew much. The generous use of garlic made this dish so aromatic and gave the fillets a nice intense flavour. The sauce was what gave the fillets a slightly salty taste but went well with the garlic. This dish was a whole was so delicious that I can't help going for multiple servings!

Roasted Chicken with Honey Rock Sugar Sauce

These were beautiful chicken thighs tossed in a sweet savoury sauce. The chicken thighs were cut up into smaller pieces so that they are easier for you to handle without dirtying (too much of) your hands! The honey rock sugar sauce was more like a glaze, which actually tasted pretty similar to a honey soy sauce! I quite like that the sauce wasn't too sweet but just enough to give the chicken another layer of flavour.

Garlic Buttered Prawn

Look at the size of these prawns! I always get excited when jumbo prawns are presented in front of me and these prawns here really "made it". These prawns are big and succulent. The garlic infused butter sauce really brought out the natural flavour of the prawns and perfectly complimented this dish!

Spring Jelly with Lychee

A whole lychee covered in flavoured agar agar jelly. I like the concept of this dessert as it looks really premium and is really tasty too! The agar has a slightly fruity flavour and the lychee is really sweet, just perfect after all the oily food.

Overall, The Orange Lantern is a very suitable caterer for most of your needs! Specializing in  Asian cuisine, their food is savoury and sweet, with prices being pretty affordable! At $19.80/pax, we think that the Joyous Reunion Mini Buffet is good for family and friends to share! Order it here! - Joyous Reunion Mini Buffet 

*Prices and Menus are accurate as of 18th Jan 2019