Tom For durian lovers, a durian buffet is like a dream come true! With prices of durian slowly climbing over the years, it does seem enticing to have a durian buffet and satisfy those durian cravings once and for all. At Giant Tampines, there is a durian buffet (aka durian party or durian fiesta) that runs every year at a relatively affordable price.
There are 2 durian buffets that you can join:
Standard Durian Buffet: $48 (or $38 for early birds)
Premium Durian Buffet: $78 (or $68 for early birds)
For Standard Durian Buffet, you’ll be able to enjoy varietals such as black pearl, red prawn and gang hai.
For Premium Durian Buffet, yup, you’ve guessed it, Mao Shan Wang (MSW) and black gold among others.
To sweeten the deal, all customers of the durian buffet at Giant also receives a $6 shopping voucher at Giant! This means our durian buffet only costs $32!
The only catch? You only have 1 hour to eat as much as you can during this annual durian buffet affair…
The Rules of Durian Buffet at Giant Tampines
The rules of the game at this annual durian buffet is pretty simple. Wear your wrist bands and eat all you can in 1 hour. However, there are some details that we noticed during our visit to this annual durian affair at Giant Tampines…
The Tentage is Divided into 2 Different Sections – The Premium and Standard Durian Sections
As you can see from the photos above, there are 2 different areas within the tentage that would be set up outside Giant Tampines for the Durian Buffet – the Premium section that serves up MSW and Black Gold as well as the Standard section that serves up red prawn, gang hai, among other varietals.
Pre-Game Preparations
Before your session begins (ours started at 5pm), it would be wise to be on time and register for your wrist bands. About 10 minutes before the session began, we were able to enter into the tentage area. Of course, prior to that, we were eyeing seats that were firstly, near to the durian queue and secondly in the direction of the giant outdoor fans.
What Happens during the Durian Buffet at Giant Tampines
At 5pm sharp, we were allowed to enter the queue to grab our durian plates. Each plate (at first) was filled up to the brim. Probably one full durian per plate…
Each person is allowed to take as much as he or she wants. Usually two plates, since you can only hold on to 2 plates at a time. But if you’ve managed to figure out how to stack 3 plates (or more), by all means, go ahead! Just don’t drop and waste any durians ok?
Towards the half way mark, we noticed that the amount of durians on the tables dropped dramatically. Instead of a full table at the Standard section, only a few plates remain – as you can see from the photo above. Strangely enough, we also looked across to the Premium section and we noticed that the tables WERE FULL! Only one hypothesis can really explain this – that the Premium Mao Shan Wang is so jelak (rich and cloying feeling) that people at the Premium section, stopped going back for seconds or thirds. Or, along the same lines, the MSW has such small seeds and thus so much rich meaty flesh, that one plate of durian can really fill one up.
Depending on your interpretation of this phenomenon that we observed, you may
1. Choose to go Standard. Because it is $30 cheaper than the Premium and may seem that one would not be able to fill up on MSW anyway.
2. Choose to go Premium. Because one full plate of Mao Shan Wang durian is already worth more than $68.
Either way, you’ll definitely enjoy the durian buffet at Giant Tampines. Here’s what we had this time…
What We Had at the Durian Buffet at Giant Tampines 2024
First off, we were really spoilt for choice when we first arrived at the queue of the durian buffet. There are the obviously bright reddish yellow red prawn varietal but also other less yellowish but still just as tasty varietals like gang hai and black gold…
As you can see from the photos above, the durian selection was actually VERY good. Even at the Standard section of the durian buffet, you can see that the flesh is never watery and the flesh are plump with enticing colours.
How about the taste?
We must say that it was FANTASTIC! During the durian buffet, different varietals appeared according to the different baskets that the staff were de-shelling from. Hence, we were able to taste durians that ranged from sweet to mild bitter and fragrant ones. There were also many durians that had pretty small seeds that filled us up – fast.
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By the time it was 5:30pm (half hour into the durian buffet fiesta at Giant Tampines), we were already SO FULL! Nonetheless, we managed to clear out 5 HUGE plates of durian. As to whether it was worth the $64 that we paid – we think, DEFINITELY. But it could be just as worthwhile if you go with the Premium durian buffet because of the amount of flesh that you get with the Mao Shan Wang durians.
No matter which buffet you choose, you’ll be sure to enjoy the Giant Durian Buffet when it comes around annually! Enjoy!
P.S. Remember to book your tickets early next year for 2025 and lock in the early bird prices. The durian buffet at Giant Tampines only runs for 2 days per year!
