Blooie’s Roadhouse

C says:

We’re certainly turning out to be Rail Mall kids. We found ourselves there yet again on Friday night, with M and J, and decided to try Blooie’s new outlet here.

This wasn’t our first time at Blooie’s – a few years ago we went to the Science Park branch, but came away unimpressed. The menu was limited because they were out of a number of main courses, so I think all of us had burgers by default, which weren’t particularly outstanding.

The menu has since expanded, and I saw something on the menu that I really want to go back to try – the Beer-Butt Chicken. This is the by now famous way of grilling a chicken, where you shove a beer can up a chicken’s a** and sit it on the grill, and apparently the boiling beer makes for a very tender and juicy bird. Blooie’s is possibly the only restaurant that sells it in Singapore (as far as I know), but you have to place an advance order of at least a day ahead.

On Friday we ordered some Cajun Chicken wings to start with, and they turned out better than expected. The wings were nicely chargrilled, but I could’ve done with less of the Cajun sauce.

A had a chilli burger, and I had a Portobello mushroom and cheese burger (with a beef patty of course, not vegetarian). I didn’t try A’s burger, but mine wasn’t too bad. Nothing to shout about, but not bad either. We ended the meal with a brownie with ice cream, but it was nowhere near the standard of Jerry’s wife’s brownie at Sunset.

I didn’t have any problems with the food, but what marred the evening for me was the surroundings and the service. The music was really loud (although it IS a bar, after all), and the lighting was way too dim (hence the sucky photos). To make things worse, I sat in a place where the light was directly behind my head, so my own shadow more or less prevented me from seeing anything that I was eating. At the end of the night, we waited absolutely ages for M’s credit card to be processed, and our increasingly sullen glances towards the waitstaff were studiously ignored. Eventually we went up to the cashier, only to be told that the machine was spoilt so we paid cash.

If not for the Beer-Butt Chicken which I really want to try, I don’t think I’d come back here, what with so many alternatives at Rail Mall. However, I need to try the chicken before making any definitive pronouncements about this place.

A says:

Burgers are pretty good although the chilli actually tastes better on its own instead of on the burger. Service is decent (excellent if you really consider it a “roadhouse”) but it is very dark and noisy. Think it may be unfair to compare it to other proper restaurants (other than Brewerkz) though since it’s essentially a bar-cum-restaurant. So since I don’t drink, I think I’d rather go to Renaldo’s for the burger.

Blooie’s Roadhouse
426/428 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Tel: 6766-1588