Buffet in Singapore, tagline “eat-all-you-want” at your own sweet time may soon be a thing of the past. The latest winning marketing formula to hit Singapore is Express Buffet. So what is express buffet? Aptly, to eat as fast as you can with a certain time limit specified by the restaurant.

The economic downturn has prompted this Food & Beverage (F&B) service sector to think out of the box. A new marketing effort to get patrons to dig into their pockets and spend.

The priced reward – you get to save as much as 50% of the usual price of the verses the traditional “take your own sweet time” dinning. To savor the discount, you have to finish your meal within a certain time limit. Some restaurant has it’s time limit at 30 mins while others up to 100mins.

These restaurants have creatively manage the time limit imposed.

At The Line, Shangari-la hotel, offers weekday express Lunch by the Minute. For $23, you will a 30 minutes buffet lunch. What happens if you are not done eating by 30mins. Fear not. You can still continue to enjoy your buffet meal, The Line charges an additional $0.70 for every additional 1 minute exceeding 30 minutes.

A central clock system is used whereby a digital time display is on TV screens placed in the restaurant. The clock starts after the guest are seated and have ordered their drinks. The clocks stops when the guest stop eating and ask for the bill. The serving staff will take note of both the starting and ending time.

While at One Rochester in Rochester Park offers 100min express buffet. Patrons are given bright green wrist-bands stating the startof their 100 minutes.

For $38, guests enjoy a free flow of freshly shucked oysters and shots of alcoholic beverages such as vodka, tequila, gin and rum on Friday and Saturday evenings. The usual price for a shot of alcoholic beverage is $5, while an oyster costs $3.

For the die-hard Asian Buffet or Chinese Buffet fan, you can try the one-hour lunch buffet special at Chinese restaurant Zhou’s Kitchen – Gourmet Buffet in Jurong Point. The Express Buffet saves you 20% pricing at 19.80 instead of $24.80 the normal price. This poularity accounts for 80 per cent of its lunch-time crowd.

At Japanese buffet restaurant chain, Kuishin-Bo, its popular 60-minute lunch special, which costs almost 25 per cent cheaper at $20.90, continues to draw queues despite the economic downturn. It is still a good deal for Japanese Buffet food lover. A typical Japanese meal in a restaurant is expensive and an a la carte Japanese lunch at another restaurant could easily cost more than $30. Good deal!

So, is Express Buffet worth your while to try? We don’t know. Why don’t you tell us. We would like to take poll here. Tell us!!