The best 1-for-1 hotel buffet dining promotions in Singapore (Sept 2019)

Nothing gets Singaporeans going like a hotel buffet, but the problem is that most of them are pretty expensive at full price. Luckily, with the current spate of excellent credit card promotions in Singapore, you can get half-price hotel buffets with practically any card.

In compiling this list, I focused only on the biggest discounts, i.e. 1-for-1 buffet and 50 per cent off food bill.

There are plenty of smaller discounts but we ignored those because obviously everyone wants the most bang for your buck. The deals are sorted by expiry date, then by price.

Always check the terms and conditions first. Typically you have to call to reserve, quote your bank name to secure the discount (because it may be limited to X number of patrons a day) and pay using that card.

Usually both credit or debit cards are accepted as long as it’s from the partner bank.

DBS/POSB DINING PROMOTIONS 2019

Practically every person in Singapore has a DBS/POSB credit card, so it shouldn’t be a problem for most of us to enjoy these 1-for-1 buffet promotions. Make sure to book in advance, though.

 

UOB DINING PROMOTIONS

UOB has moved their dining promotions to the UOB Dining Advisor website, and you can easily view all the 1-for-1 buffet promotions there.

 

OCBC DINING PROMOTIONS 2019

OCBC is a little slow to catch up with their dining promotions — but the range is decent:

In particular, OCBC cards get your 1-for-1 deals at the swanky Fairmont and Swissotel the Stamford hotels. Not too shabby.

 

CITIBANK DINING PROMOTIONS 2019

Citibank has rolled out a new microsite for credit card promotions, and, along with it, a fresh batch of dining promotions too. But although there are a LOT of dining deals, there’s just a handful of 1-for-1 buffet promotions:

 

HSBC DINING PROMOTIONS 2019

Here are the 1-for-1 buffet promotions I found on HSBC’s website:

If you’re an HSBC card holder, you can also get a whole bunch of 1-for-1 deals with The Entertainer for free. You just need to download the HSBC x Entertainer app and unlock it with a code.

 

MAYBANK DINING PROMOTIONS 2019

Maybank is pretty new to the dining promotions game and has quite an impressive number of hotel partners and buffets, but only a few are 1-for-1. The rest typically require 2 to 4 paying adults to “earn” the discount. Have a look at the most bang-for-buck 1-for-1 buffet deals below: 

You might also want to check out their other dining promotions just to see if your favourite buffet restaurant is in there.

 

STANDARD CHARTERED DINING PROMOTIONS 2019

Standard Chartered has an excellent promotion with Fullerton Hotel and Fullerton Bay Hotels restaurants, where you can get up to 50% off your food bill. You get the maximum 50% discount if you dine with 1 guest (or 1 guest + 1 child); see how it works here.

Another one that would appeal to atas gourmet types is a collaboration with Les Amis group of restaurants, which includes loads of fancy places like Bistro Du Vin, Sushi Jin, and (obviously) Les Amis. You typically get a 20% discount the bill (e.g. $20 off min. spend $100, or $100 off min. spend $500), except for Peperoni Pizzeria which has 1-for-1 weekday set lunch.

It’s not quite as good, but Standard Chartered also has a tie-up with Marina Bay Sands restaurants such as Adrift by David Meyers, Bread Street Kitchen and CUT by Wolfgang Puck. You can get either a $25 return voucher when you spend $250, or 1 person dines for free with 3 paying diners. The promotion runs until 30 Sep 2019.

You can check out the rest of the Standard Chartered dining promotions here.

 

AMERICAN EXPRESS DINING PROMOTIONS 2019

The Platinum card lets you take part in Amex’s dining programme, Love Dining, which gives you up to 50% off at atas restaurants and hotel buffets in Singapore. To get the maximum 50% discount, you need to dine with one friend/date. Otherwise, your discount ranges from only 15% to 35%.

Bear in mind that there’s a hefty annual fee of $321 attached to the card, and you can only get it waived if you’re a really big spender. Still, if you’re a real foodie, you would probably get quite a bit of utility from this card.

American Express Platinum Credit Card

IS YOUR FAVOURITE 1-FOR-1 BUFFET RESTAURANT FULLY BOOKED? TRY THE ENTERTAINER, EATIGO, CHOPE & FAVE

THE ENTERTAINER

The Entertainer is a paid subscription that focuses on 1-for-1 deals, which is our absolute favourite kind of discount. Currently, you can get 1-for-buffet deals at Shin Minori, Katong Kitchen, Straits Cafe and more. As an added bonus, the partner merchants aren’t restricted to restaurants and cafes, too – so you can expect beauty, fashion and fitness deals as well.

At $85, the subscription fee for Entertainer 2019 is kind of steep, but it also includes Cheers, its sister app for bars and pubs, and The Entertainer JB for 1-for-1 deals at hip restaurants and cafes in Johor Bahru.

EATIGO

Eatigo is an online restaurant reservation service that offers discounts based on what time you dine. Check out the full list of hotel buffet deals at their website.

The off-peak hours typically offer the most discounts, but that’s not always the case: Currently, you can dine for half-price at J65 at Hotel Jen Tanglin and Ellenborough Market Cafe at Swissotel Merchant Court from 6.30pm onwards. Others like Azur at Crown Plaza Changi Airport require you to wait until 8.30pm for the 50% off.

CHOPE

Like Eatigo, Chope reservation service that happens to also offer exclusive discounts for their users. Chope is currently having a tie-up with Visa, offering many value-for-money buffet deals. The catch is that you’ll need to pre-purchase discounted dining vouchers to enjoy the discounts.

Some participating restaurants include Gyuu+ and Shabu Tan Japanese hotpot, both of which are famous for their wagyu beef buffets.

FAVE

Fave is the new Groupon, and while they’ve expanded their services to include a lot of new things like FavePay, they still sell discounted dining vouchers.

They may not have a dedicated 1-for-1 buffet section (they go on a discount basis), but some restaurants offer up to 60% and up, which is an even better deal. Check out the current promotions here.

This article was first published in MoneySmart .