Our review on Swissotel, Fairmont

This is again a belated belated belated post lol.. Our wedding was in March 2014.

Nonetheless, we wanted to share our experience liaising with Swissotel, Fairmont on our wedding banquet as we felt that they did a really good job, with excellent service and great food served for our banquet.

It has been a breeze liaising with the wedding banquet manager, Wendy Ho, on the menu, the programs and arrangements for our banquet. They were experienced and were able to advice us on things which we overlooked.

Menu Tasting

We were first wowed by their excellent service during menu tasting. There was a small hiccup initially as they served the first and second dish wrong. We upgraded our menu but during the menu tasting, they served the original menu instead. They were apologetic about it and subsequently gave us the correct menu. What really surprised us was at the end of the menu tasting, the hotel staff actually gave us a cake as a form of apology for the blunder made earlier!

Proudly present the dishes for our banquet!

Cold Dish Combination (Sliced suckling pig, Golden prawns with cereal, Mini Octopus, Sea jelly with sweet and sour chilli, Mini spring rolls)

Braised eight treasures seafood soup

Shark's fin is not served at Swissotel which is in line with hubby's believe of not endangering sharks.

Sauteed scallops with asparagus and macadamia nuts and pine nuts

 Generous serving of scallops such that each of us can have 2  or 3 scallops!

Teriyaki chicken

Braised baby abalone with spinach in XO oyster sauce

Steamed dark grouper with chinese olive vegetables

Prawns with mini taro ring, bell peppers and cashew nuts

Stewed Ee-fu noodles with shredded abalone and bean sprouts

Yam Paste with coconut milk. This was one of the smoothest yam paste I have ever eaten!

At the end of the menu tasting, the chefs will come to the dining table to ask for your feedback. If you are not satisfied with any of the dishes or you have any queries, this is the time to tell the chef about it. We were all happy with the dishes as they tasted great and the portion was huge. So we just told the chef that the portion and the taste must be the same during the banquet, cannot have different standard for the banquet ah! 

Confirming details before the banquet

The banquet manager sent us the details of the menu and the programs and arrangements discussed 10 days before our wedding banquet for our confirmation, so that we would have ample time to make any changes or to discuss any details with them.

The banquet manager also made an effort to call us one day before the wedding banquet to confirm the details and also briefed us on other details such as who to approach when we reached the hotel on our wedding day, the time when our in-room pre-dinner will be served, the time the groom and the brothers and sisters would be briefed on the arrangement for the banquet. We thought this call was important as it helped to calm us down and assured us that they are experienced and well prepared for our event.

What we did when we have unused tables for the banquet

One problem we faced was that at the point of making the deposit to secure the venue and the date, we told the hotel that we would like to have 50 tables, but after confirming the number of guests attending the banquet, we realised that we could only fill up 49 tables. The hotel policy will usually allow you to increase the number of tables but not decrease. We told Swissotel in advance that we could only fill 49 tables and they were flexible to let us consume the table within a month after our wedding banquet! We were grateful that they're able to make this arrangement instead of us forfeiting that table.

On the actual wedding day

On our actual wedding day when we reached the hotel, just a call to the banquet manager, Mr Hu Hai Tao, and all we have to do was to unload the stuff from our car, and the rest was well taken care of by the hotel staff. We were led to the bridal suite and the preparation room for the bridal party. The banquet manager politely reminded us again on the time to meet him at the ballroom for the briefing, which again assured us that he's really clear about our programs and arrangements.

Our in-room pre-dinner was served punctually at 4pm, and the food was certainly delicious! We ordered hor fun and sandwich with fries. The hor fun, especially, definitely tasted more delicious than many of the zi char stalls I have eaten!

After the meal, hubby punctually went to the ballroom to meet the banquet manager, while I'm being dolled up by my MUA. You can read about the wedding banquet here! Everything went smoothly, although we were exhausted at the end of the day.

After the wedding banquet, the hotel staff served the portion of the dishes left for us in our room. We were having supper at 1am! But it felt shiok! Because I'm really hungry hahaha.

Breakfast

We have 2 nights stay at the bridal suite and the breakfast wowed us too! We were having breakfast at level 70 of Swissotel Fairmont! We loved the ambience of the breakfast room and the views!

We enjoyed our stay at Swissotel, Fairmont! Even when there's some cock ups with our credit card on the payment when we checked out, the staff at Swissotel was also very patient and helpful.

However, when hubby and I were leaving the Raffles City, there was one thing which made us xian, although it's not entirely the hotel's fault. Hubby was unable to redeem the complimentary parking coupon when we checked out!

We parked our car in Raffles City car park from 14 March to 16 March as we have 2 nights stay in the bridal suite, but the complimentary parking pass was only valid for 24 hours, and we incurred parking charges of $51! So, to avoid such unhappiness in future, the way to avoid such hefty parking charges is to exit the car park daily to redeem the 24 hours complimentary parking.

After our wedding, our friends and families were full of praises on the quality and portion of the food during the banquet! For your information, we did not request the waiter to do individual serving for the guests as we thought it would take up a lot of time. 

Overall, the score we give Swissotel is 8.5/10!

One thing to take note when booking the ballroom is to check with Swissotel if you are sharing the reception area with another couple on your wedding day although they will set up a partition. We did not have this problem because we took the Stamford ballroom which has a private reception area and a private room where I changed into my second march in gown. The room can also be used for solemnisation ceremony. However, if you are using the other ballrooms, you might have to share with the couple using the other ballrooms, so do remember to check with your banquet manager when discussing the details.