Many may not know but within city square alone are 3 to 4 food establishments operated by astons and man le is one of them .

They have come a Long way - i know because in once surveyed their food and walked out deciding not to eat .

But a rare chance brought me back to this place and I must say - I was pretty impressed .

I won’t say that all the items are equally good but at least the fish cheeks was oh so fresh and the buffet line had steamed purple sweet potato which I thought was a nice touch .

The usual braised items like pork knuckles and pork bellies are also available and the best for me was actually the Chye Poh egg - I have a thing for fluffy Chye Poh egg .

The dishes are on rotation and for some reason, this was themed as a Teochew porridge buffet although I pretty much feel it looks and feels more like a Taiwan porridge buffet with sweet potato porridge and braised items. There are also stir fried vegetables / Chap Chye on rotation , Lala in sambal sauce , steamed mussels , a stir fried or steamed chicken dish , some daily special stir fried noodle dish ( mee goreng / fried noodles ) etc .

I like the nice touch of having a station for a daily soup / laksa / curry noodles specials and there’s a station of rotating meat specials - either roasted/ braised duck or chicken .

To end off - there’s no ice cream but there are some cut fruits and a good rotation of herbal tea / barley water / warm soupy kind of dessert .

I like that astons offer value for money buffets and am always ready to support a local start up .

Nice place for family gatherings where you can eat till you Bao Bao .... ....

Even if you are alone - this is also a good option for you because you can eat from such a good variety - and remember to crunch on some of their crisp ikan billies and crunch roasted peanuts at the condiments section - so addictive with the porridge you can go on and on ......