For the final day of our Southeast Asia trip, we decided to slow down and eat our way through The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore. Club Lounge afternoon tea, a mall McDonald's run, and the Colony dinner buffet: here is everything we ate and experienced during our last 24 hours in the city. Singapore food is some of the best in the world and we wanted to make sure our last full day here did it justice, even without leaving the hotel neighborhood.
For the full hotel review of our Ritz-Carlton stay, see the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore Review.
Club Lounge: Afternoon Tea
After the check-in situation finally resolved (the full story is in the hotel review), we settled into the Club Lounge. The views over Marina Bay are stunning and the food presentation is beautiful. The lounge draws a lot of guests, particularly Japanese tourists, and it is easy to see why. There is a level of polish here that goes beyond just having nice furniture. The staff anticipate what you need, the plates are replaced smoothly, and the whole environment manages to feel intimate even when the room is mostly full.
Afternoon tea at a Ritz-Carlton Club Lounge is not the same as afternoon tea at a random hotel. The execution is noticeably tighter, the portion quality is more consistent, and the visual presentation is genuinely considered. Everything that comes out looks like it belongs in a food magazine, which is a nice thing to experience on the last day of a long trip when you have been eating through a lot of different settings and quality levels.
Afternoon tea spread:
Smoked salmon sandwiches: Fresh and well-made, but nothing that stood out from other afternoon tea spreads we have had. The salmon itself was high quality and the bread was soft, but this is also the dish you can find at almost any upscale tea service.
Vegetarian curry puffs: These were the winner of the savory options by a significant margin. The curry filling was deeply flavorful and the pastry had a good crunch. If these are on the table when you visit, get multiple. We went back for seconds and then slightly regretted not saving room for more desserts.
Desserts: The white bean paste mochi was our favorite sweet of the afternoon. Smooth, not too dense, and not overly sweet. It had a clean, delicate flavor that did not compete with everything else on the plate. The other standout was labeled "Golden Coffee," with an intensely strong espresso flavor that hit immediately. Not a subtle coffee note tucked underneath other flavors: a full espresso hit delivered in a single bite. If you are a coffee person, this is the one to find.
The tea selection was also thoughtful, with enough variety that you could match each savory or sweet course with something complementary. We were not in a rush and took the time to work through the spread properly, which made the whole experience feel like a proper send-off to the trip.
Marina Square and Singapore McDonald's
After the afternoon tea, we walked over to Marina Square mall nearby. The Mid-Autumn Mooncake Festival was in full swing with booths set up inside, which was a nice unexpected discovery. Singapore malls during festival season have a completely different energy from a standard shopping day. The mooncake display cases were elaborate, and watching local families select boxes felt like the right kind of street-level moment to stumble into on a last afternoon in the city.
At some point during the walk, we ended up at a McDonald's. This was not spontaneous: Vincent's friend in Singapore had specifically told us to try the Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich before leaving the country.
It is a Singapore-exclusive item. The sandwich comes topped with a slice of pineapple and a sauce that is unlike anything on the standard menu. Sweet, savory, and the chicken was genuinely crispy all the way through. Not a thin, fragile crust that collapses immediately: a substantial, audible crunch on every bite. We paired it with criss-cut fries. For a midday snack between two formal hotel meals, this was the right call.
There is something specifically enjoyable about finding a local McDonald's variation that you cannot get anywhere else. Singapore puts real effort into their menu exclusives and the Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich is worth seeking out. It is the kind of thing you feel a little ridiculous being excited about, but then you take a bite and you understand why the internet keeps recommending it.
Colony Dinner Buffet
The evening was spent at Colony, the Ritz-Carlton's main restaurant. We used our $100 USD Amex FHR property credit (approximately $130 SGD) toward the dinner buffet. Colony is very popular among both hotel guests and locals, and the dinner spread is the reason. This is not a hotel restaurant that survives on a captive audience. People come here on purpose.
The spread covers a serious amount of ground: multiple live cooking stations, a seafood counter, a dedicated carving section, Indian, local Singaporean, and Western options all running simultaneously. It is the kind of buffet where you walk a full lap before picking up a plate, just to understand the layout and strategy. We did exactly that.
Seafood station: We started here and spent most of our time. Fresh oysters, sashimi, and whole crab. The crab was genuinely exceptional, as fresh and flavorful as anything we had at a dedicated seafood restaurant during the trip. Good oysters at a buffet are rare enough that finding them this fresh felt like a small victory. We went back to this station twice.
Indian station: I went with butter chicken and regular naan. I thought about the cheese naan and then decided against it. I may regret that. The butter chicken had real depth, not the watered-down version you sometimes get at a buffet where the sauce has been sitting out too long. The naan was soft and properly warm.
Local dishes: The salted egg white fried chicken was one of the best bites of the entire meal. Salted egg sauce has this rich, slightly sandy texture and a savory-sweet balance that is hard to replicate outside of Southeast Asia. We also grabbed fried bread to use for dipping into the Singapore chili crab sauce, which is essentially a richer, spicier version of sweet chili sauce. It works perfectly with the fried bread. This combination, specifically, is the thing I keep thinking about.
Dessert was where Colony really finished strong. A proper spread of local kueh, fresh fruit, chocolate desserts, and a soft-serve station. After the heaviness of the seafood and the richness of the salted egg chicken, the lighter kueh options were exactly the right way to end.
The Laundry Story
This is the detail that most clearly showed what the Ritz-Carlton Club level service actually looks like in practice.
Before leaving on this trip, a cat had torn a small hole in a pair of Vincent's linen pants. We sent the pants to the hotel laundry service. They came back to us unwashed with a polite note asking us to confirm it was okay to proceed, since they did not want to damage the fabric further around the hole.
We confirmed it was fine and asked them to go ahead. The pants were returned the next morning: perfectly pressed, washed, and the hole had been completely repaired. No request from us, no extra charge.
The repair was barely visible. The pants were delivered folded in a bag, ready to go straight into luggage. That last part is worth noting as a general travel tip: if a hotel offers laundry service, ask for folded delivery. It saves repacking time and the clothes arrive in the same condition they went in.
This kind of unprompted, problem-solving service is what separates a very good hotel from a truly memorable one. Nobody told them to fix the pants. They just did it, documented it, and sent them back without fanfare. It is a small thing in isolation. Over the course of a trip, a collection of small things like this is exactly what makes you want to return.
A Note on the Lounge Staff
Before checking out, two Club Lounge staff members, Juliana and Mora, gifted us an exclusive Ritz-Carlton stuffed lion and took a photo with us. Small gesture, memorable send-off. It is the kind of thing that lingers after you leave. We have stayed at a lot of hotels at this point, and the ones we remember most vividly are almost never about the thread count or the pillow menu. They are about moments like this: a genuine human interaction that did not have to happen and happened anyway.
Practical Tips for Your Last Day in Singapore
- Colony dinner fills up. If you are using an Amex FHR credit or any resort credit, confirm with the hotel what hours the credit can be applied and whether a reservation is needed.
- Club Lounge afternoon tea timing: Service typically runs in the late afternoon. Arrive early in the service window to get the widest spread before items are replenished rather than replaced with different options.
- Marina Square is a 10-minute walk from the Ritz-Carlton. Easy enough to combine a post-tea stroll with the mooncake market or any festival running at the time.
- Singapore McDonald's exclusives rotate seasonally. The Buttermilk Crispy Chicken is the most consistently recommended one, but check the local menu for whatever is current before your visit.
- Laundry services at luxury properties are usually same-day if submitted before a specific morning cutoff. If you have a final-day flight, confirm pickup time when you drop off.
