SHATEC (Singapore Hotel Association Training and Educational Center) trains people who want to join the hospitality industry. Courses include Tourism, Hotel Management, Food Preparation, and Food and Beverage Service.

The Sapling restaurant, set up by Shatec in the campus, is their training restaurant. The food is prepared, and served by the students in the school. This gives the students a realistic training of what it will be like when they graduate and start work in the hospitality industry.

This was how my SHATEC mates and I met back in 1986. We were just starting out to find our footing in society and we thought the F&B industry might be for us. Some of us are still in the industry, but most left after realising that the F&B industry was not a good fit for them.

A few years back, thanks to Facebook and the enthusiasm of some in the group, we managed to contact over half the people in our class. Since then, some of us have met up regularly – once a month, sometimes more. During one of our get-togethers, someone suggested we should have a meal at The Sapling to relive the nostalgia and to see how they do things nowadays.

We did that last Saturday. Nine of us from the group went for lunch at the Sapling restaurant in the SHATEC campus which has since moved from their original location in the town area to the north western central part of the island.

The menu at the Sapling is good and reasonably priced – bearing in mind that this is a training school. There is a combination of western and fusion dishes. Apart from the set menu, there is also an ala carte menu. There was enough in there so that if one is living nearby, there is incentive to go back again.

This is their Lunch Menu

We were initially dubious about their being located in an industrial estate. When we arrived, apart from another table, we were the only ones there. However, as the afternoon progressed, the restaurant got reasonably busy. So, it would seem that the location is not a problem after all. They have people working in the estate and they have the residents in the nearby apartment blocks. Hence, he restaurant could be doing reasonably well.

I had the three-course meal – chef salad, braised beef cheeks, and ice-cream. A coffee later for an additional dollar. The food was good. No complaints there. One thing, maybe two, that we find different from our days at training was that now, there is no physical menu. You scan a QR code for the menu. And, food was brought to the tables by robots. Gone were the days when we had to balance a tray of food and drinks precariously on our shoulders. Times have changed. It looked like the trainees had an easier time than we had when we started out.

The name of the restaurant was changed from the 'Shatec Restaurant' to 'The Sapling' to reflect SHATEC’s vision for the students – to nurture the saplings in the hope that they grow up to be sturdy, magnificent trees. The name of the school has an additional ‘The International Hotel & Tourism school (Singapore)’.

All in all, we had an enjoyable outing. It was something different on a Saturday afternoon. We had wanted to do it for a couple of years, and we finally got to do that.

The entrance to the restaurant

My starter - chef salad, which I thought was a bit misleading.

The braised beef cheeks were tender and nice

Nice presenation of the ice-cream but....

Robots brought the food to the table.

The pastry and cake counter

The campus building

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