ate too much

Best of 2011

2012-01-18T21:38:00.000+08:00

C’sBest of 2011

We’re having increasing difficulty comingup with our annual “Best Of” lists. Quite often, new places that we try don’tblow us away quite as much as we’d expect, while old favourites still continueto impress. Plus foreign establishments don’t count, so some of the awesomeplaces in Spain won’t make the cut.

On that basis, we’ve decided to cop out,and just pick some noteworthy places, both old and new, that made us smile.

JuShin Jung Korean Charcoal BBQ

Whether you come here for the exquisite Korean BBQ, or just a simple meal of some soup, rice andtheir delicious side dishes, this place never disappoints. Except when youcan’t get a table on a particularly bustling weekend evening.

The fact that it’s a stone’s throw from ourplace is just the cherry on top.

L’Entrecote

Yes, the place can be a bit of a madhouse,and the fact that they don’t take reservations may put off some people whodon’t like to wait indefinitely, but on the flip side, if you do manage to getthere before 7.30 pm you’re more or less guaranteed a table without any wait.

It’s not fine dining, the tables are aninch apart so romantic it definitely isn’t, and their sole main course is afairly basic cut of meat that may make steak snobs shudder. But I still thinkthat’s all part of its charm, and their pate, truffle brie and salted caramelwaffles make this a winner in my book.

Read about L’Entrecote here.

Bruno’s

The only things preventing me from being aregular fixture at Bruno’s are the location, the fact that even though you have a reservation it’s stillchaos when you arrive, and the sometimes erratic service times.

The food itself is excellent; prices evenmore so. The king prawn linguine alone is worth a visit.

Chinoisby Susur Lee

Granted, we’ve only been to Chinois once, and haven’t yet made good on our intention to try their dim sum menu. Butthe one meal that we did have there was unexpectedly good.

Jiro-styleramen – Bario and Riki

Being a fervent tonkotsu ramen fan allthese years, Ramen Champion (and Lucky Peach) opened my eyes to the lesser known varieties of tsukumen and Jiro ramen. Bario at Iluma and Riki at Terminal 3 get my vote for best ramen of the year.

Ember

What’s our Best Of list without Ember?It may be a cop-out, but we always leave Ember happy, and to me that’s one ofthe best indicators of how good a place is.

JewelCoffee

Given that we usually go to Jewel Coffee for dinner, we unfortunately don’t get to sample as many of their caffeinatedbeverages as we’d like. They’re on my Best Of list for the food, and inparticular their awesome chicken wings which, depending on the mood I’m in,could dethrone Ikea’s as my all-time favourite chicken wings.

What do I like about them? They only usethe mid-joint, which to me is the best part of the wing. It’s only very lightlyfloured because I hate heavy batter coatings. It’s seasoned with a veryinteresting Asian-esque marinade, served with an amazing kicap manis dip. It’sso tender and juicy that the meat just glides off the bone. Enough said. I’msalivating just writing this.

Kazu

We also haven’t been back to Kazu yet, butthe meal we had,ending with the burnt caramel ice cream, was truly outstanding.

A’sBest of 2011

Bestramen: Taishoken at Ramen Champion Iluma

I’ve recently gotten into the dipping styleramen and Taishoken’s is the best. From the latest standings, it seemsSingaporeans prefer the conventional Sapporo style ramens so I doubt it’ll winthe Ramen Championship. Hurry to Iluma before June to try it before it’s gone. Sigh.

Best$100 restaurant: Ember

Great service. Great food. And you can geta weekday booking just a week in advance. Still a favourite.

Bestburger: Morton’s Bar

Expensive. But still the best burger inSingapore.

Bestfood at a coffee joint: Jewel Coffee

Okay. This one’s subjective. I wouldn’t saythe coffee’s the greatest, but the combination of friendly staff and good foodmake this a fav of mine.

Bestchicken rice: Wee Nam Kee at Marina Square

The food’s as good as the one at Novenaplus it’s air-conditioned and you don’t get the crowds.

Bestdesserts: L’Entrecote

Waffles…Mmmm…

Bestfood blog: atetoomuch

hahaha

Loola’s

2012-01-13T23:48:00.000+08:00

Csays:

Ichiban Boshi on the 2nd floor of Esplanade has been taken over by Loola's, another bistro/casual dining eatery from the Awfully Chocolate group. Loola's serves dinner till midnight, making it a very convenient option for those of us who can't quite manage to grab dinner before a 7.30 or 8 pm show. We did that on Friday - we had a quick snack before the show, then came here at 10.30 for a late dinner.

It was a bit too late to eat as much as we normally do; we ended up sharing a starter, a main and a dessert. The starter was my choice - a very interestingly described salted vegetable soup with duck confit and egg emulsion (S$9). A twist on kiam chye arh!

The presentation was anything but, but one mouthful of the soup and you can'tmistake it for anything else. It was the essence of kiam chye arh, just in adifferent texture. Very cool. The quenelle of duck confit added a nice layer oftexture and flavour too.

We originally wanted to order one of their souffle preparations - either thecrab souffle or the souffle omelette, but were told that both would take about20 minutes. We decided to save that for another time, and ordered the Lobsterand Sheets instead, which was butter poached lobster with pasta sheets and alobster bisque sauce.

When it arrived I thought we'd been served a crepe instead, but on closerinspection it was indeed a disc of fresh pasta. This was better than expected -they were very generous with the lobster (at $42 they ought to be!), the pastawas silky smooth and the bisque sauce was divine. My only criticism would be that the lobster was slightly overcooked and was a bit rubbery.

Because I picked and pretty much ate all of the starter, the dessert was all A.He ordered the chocolate mille crepe (S$11) - layers of chocolate crepessandwiched with chocolate cream. Comparisons to Classic Cakes' version areinevitable, and I think the original is still better. It's lighter and eachcrepe is thinner. Loola's tastes good but it's a lot denser and heavier.

Despite a sudden post-show rush, service was good and we got our food verypromptly. I've read some negative comments about the other Awfully Chocolatefood joints in the East, so I was actually more than impressed with Loola's.Definitely warrants a return visit, perhaps at a normal, non-post show time.

Asays:

While the menu wasvery interesting, I didn’t have high hopes. I was pleasantly surprised that thehostess provided excellent service and the food turned out decent. The lobsterwas far from perfect considering the $42 price tag, but other than that, everywas reasonable. This will probably be our default post-show place from now on.

Loola’s

8 Raffles Avenue

#02-14, Esplanade

Tel: 6336-9563

Ramen Champion at Iluma – an update

2012-01-08T21:16:00.000+08:00

C says:

Just a quick update onRamen Champion at Iluma:

- Yes, they’re stillopen and fully functioning. The rest of Iluma is quite a mess now, as it’sgoing through what looks to be massive renovations, but Ramen Champion on the 4^th flooris unaffected and still very much in business.

- Based on 2011 Q4results, Ikkousha is still in the top spot, but Bario is only lagging by 2%!!Plus, the cashiers told me that lots of people actually do order Bario, theyjust don’t vote for some reason. So Bario fans unite! Apparently you can votemultiple times using the cards at the entrance, so every vote counts if we wantto overthrow Ikkousha! Go go go! Heh.

- A went for hisTaishoken again. Given it’s in 5^th place, he’s going to need toget his fix in the next 6 months cos no way is it going to win. He ordered thelarge this time – big mistake. For $3 more, you get a way disproportionatelyHUGE portion of noodles, leading – predictably – to diminishing returns. Onetip that we learned from Lucky Peach is that you can ask them for soba-yu todilute the dipping broth so that it’s drinkable as a soup. We tried thattonight and wow. It resulted in an amazing broth that was the essence of umami,with all the flavours of the more potent dipping broth but subtler and pareddown. Awesome.

- Btw, when wementioned earlier that both tsukemen and Jiro-style ramen wereavailable at Menya Shinchan, I should add that we tried going there on NewYear’s Eve, and unfortunately there was a sign on the door, saying that as ofearly November the landlord had repossessed the premises. So, there goes thatoption. Sigh.

A says:

Taishoken! Taishoken!Taishoken! Be sure to ask for the soba-yu after finishing to turn the dippingsauce into an AWESOME soup.

Rio Tapas

2012-01-06T22:14:00.000+08:00

Csays:

Rio Tapas, tucked awayin a corner of Marina Bay Sands Shoppes, is actually a creation of Carnivore.Located adjacent to the Carnivore at MBS, Rio offers a lighter all-day diningconcept, morphing from muffins at breakfast to cocktails and tapas at dinnertime. It’s a pretty small set-up, with only 5 tables, but I think you can orderthe Rio menu while sitting at the Carnivore tables as well.

Their idea of tapas isactually just small plates, so don't expect authentic Spanish tapas offeringslike grilled octopus or jamon. Rather, there is a small but ratherenticing-sounding selection of small bites, including mini burgers and searedtuna salad.

We went for 4 dishes,and by far the best (and also best value at $16 for a decent portion size) wasthe squid ink pasta with grilled squid. The squid ink is part of the pasta, andthe dish is prepared aglio olio style with cherry tomatoes and a hint ofchilli. The pasta was seasoned well and cooked just right, and the squid waspretty nicely charred as well.

Another pretty gooddish (though this was way more up my alley than A’s) was their oxtail soba.This was a small bowl of a rather rich and very flavourful beefy broth withpieces of tender oxtail. The soba noodles were rather overcooked though; Iwould have liked them to have some bite. The dish was supposed to have beendrizzled with truffle oil but I didn’t get any hint of it. Despite these fewflaws, I did enjoy it and at $9, again pretty decently priced.

We tried their duo ofmini burgers – one with cheddar cheese and one with blue cheese. When they saymini, they aren’t kidding. The burger bun was about 7 cm in diameter, and thepatty itself can’t have been more than 4 cm. In addition, we were a bitapprehensive when they told us that the burgers were cooked well done. Theywere ok – they were more meatballs that actual patties, and after beingsmothered with cheese, actually not bad.

The cubed beeftenderloin was an epic disappointment though. They asked for preferred donenessso we said medium rare, but the irregular morsels that arrived were more mediumto medium-well done. The beef didn't have much flavour at all, and reallyneeded the ponzu dipping sauce that accompanied it. Their fries aren’t half bad,and at least they serve a good ketchup.

Despite A’s inabilityto drink alcohol, he couldn't resist ordering the Alco-Horlicks – a spikedmilkshake with chocolate sauce and Horlicks. It seemed innocuous but left alingering boozy heat at the back of your throat. The churros were a pleasantsurprise – they were a lot lighter and fluffier than expected. They came with 3dips – chocolate, spiced vanilla and raspberry coulis. The chocolate wasobviously the best, but the other two didn’t suck either.

Whenever we walk by,Carnivore/Rio are seldom full, so this could be a good last minute option atMBS, given that it’s well nigh impossible to get a table at Mozza at shortnotice.

A says:

A surprisingly goodmeal. Despite my reservations, everything turned out to be decent (except forthe very blah and over-priced beef cubes). I’d definitely have the squid inkpasta next time. And my milkshake. Heh.

Rio Tapas

#01-77/80, TheShoppes Marina Bay Sands

2 Bayfront Avenue

Tel: 6688-7429

Opens 9 am – 12midnight weekdays; 9 am – 2 am weekends

Jimmy Monkey

2012-01-04T23:09:00.000+08:00

Csays:

Jimmy Monkey has a slightly expanded menu now. We stopped by for brunch on New Year’s Day,and I finally managed to try their Vegemite and Cheese Turkish Toast dipperswith soft boiled egg (they were out when we popped by one random day). A hadthe Hemingway, which is their version of smoked salmon eggs benedict.

I absolutely loved the vegemite and cheesesoldiers; then again, I’m quite partial to Marmite and Vegemite anyway (I leanslightly towards Marmite, personally). I-S Magazine has voted this dish one of2011’s 50 things to eat in Singapore before you die, and with good reason.These are really addictive – the toast is light and fluffy and toasted justright, and there’s just the right Vegemite to cheese ratio. A single softboiled egg doesn’t go very far in proportion to the amount of toast, butthey’re good enough on their own and don’t really need the egg.

The eggs Hemingway was good, but perhaps alittle on the tart side – not sure if it was from the hollandaise or thepoached eggs.

Coffee was great as always, but I’m makinga beeline for the Vegemite soldiers whenever I’m here.

Asays:

Decent food. Great service. Nice.

Jimmy Monkey Cafe & Bar
9 one-north gateway
#01-51 one-north residences
Tel: 6777-8470
Sun to Thurs: 8.30 am to 8.30 pm
Fri & Sat: 8.30 am to late
Closed Mondays

www.jimmymonkey.com

Wild Honey at Scotts Square

2012-01-02T22:58:00.000+08:00

C says:

Just an update on WildHoney:

1) They’veopened a second outlet at the newly opened Scotts Square

2) Thisoutlet actually accepts reservations

3) They havea few dishes that are only available at Scotts and not at Mandarin Gallery

Well, the point aboutaccepting reservations is a bit suspect, because they only let you have yourtable when your entire party is physically present and accounted for. When wetried to tell them that A was just parking the car, and we knew what we wanted toorder, they fobbed us off with a “yes yes, we’re just setting the table now”,but coincidentally the table was ready just when A arrived. We overheard someother people, who had also made reservations but were still left standingaround outside, getting quite frustrated as well.

The 2 dishes that areonly available here are the Aussie (a rib-eye steak sandwich) and theNorwegian. We were here with W and M – M ordered the Aussie and I had theNorwegian, while A had the European (eggs benedict) and W had the full Englishbrekkie.

The Norwegian is aneggs ben with smoked salmon, avocado and grilled asparagus. The brioche onwhich it rests is also grilled, adding a nice smokiness that distinguishes itfrom the regular European eggs ben. I actually prefer this to the European,because of the addition of the crisp asparagus.

They opened at Scottsfairly recently, so I hope the madness with the reservations was only atemporary hiccup, plus the fact that it was a Boxing Day public holiday. I hopethings calm down somewhat, because while you’re made to feel like they’re doingyou a favour by allowing you to dine there, you can’t deny that they serve somepretty good brunch offerings.

A says:

Great food. Greatcoffee. Great service once you get in. Unfortunately, getting in is the bigproblem. And honestly, it’s really not worth waiting an hour for.

Wild Honey at Scotts Square

3^rd floor, Scotts Square

6 Scotts Road

Tel: 6636-1816

Open daily: 9 am to 10 pm

Ramen Champion at T3

2011-12-29T22:57:00.000+08:00

C says:

Ramen Champion hasjust opened a second, slightly scaled-down, outlet at Changi Airport’s Terminal3. (Yes, that’s the terminal that’s connected to the MRT’s East-West line.) Wewere here on Wednesday night for a sending-off mission, and thanks to RamenChampion, didn’t have to endure soul-less airport food.

There are only 4stalls here, compared to 6 at Iluma. It’s also a bit of a cop-out because outof those 4, 2 of them are Gantetsu and Ikkousha, which also feature at Iluma.So you’re essentially left with just 2 new contenders – Riki and Gensuke. Rikiserves Jiro-style ramen, similar to my favourite Bario, andGensuke is Hakata style using thin noodles, a chicken-based broth andinterestingly, chicken chashu.

I’m not ahuge Hakata ramen fan, so we both went with Rika, and I also ordereda side of chicken wing gyozas. The chicken wing gyozas were quite interesting –they were like Thai-style stuffed chicken wings, only the filling was a gyozafiling. Pretty innovative, I thought.

I seriously love theJiro-style of ramen. It’s topped with a mountain of beansprouts and cabbage,and the chashu is sliced rustically thick, not thin delicate slices thatdisintegrate by the time you stir everything up. The broth is cloudy withgarlic, and I think a hearty dose of some good ol’ pork fat as well.

This is not for thefaint-hearted – it packs a serious punch and portions are huge after you’vemade your way through all the vegetables. I really enjoyed this while eatingit, and I think it’ll probably appeal to more people than Bario, because itdoesn’t have the thick chewy noodles that Bario uses (which I actually happento prefer). Having said that, the overdose of garlic really affected us after –I was gassy all night, and A even had a minor nosebleed, probably from theheatiness.

And I should alsopoint out that I was mistaken. Earlier I mentioned that I wanted either Barioor Taishoken to win, so that we’d have something new in Singapore in the formof tsukemen or Jiro-style ramen. Well, it turns out that a few old schoolplaces do already serve one, if not both, styles – apparently at Menya Shinchan at Robertson Quay andMiharu at Gallery Hotel.Still, that’s just a handful compared to the plethora of miso and tonkotsuramen joints. Once we recover from this recent ramen overdose, we’ll give thema try.

A says:

If you can handle yourgarlic, then the Riki ramen is awesome. Great char siew too. If I can’t have mytsukemen (dipping style) ramen from Taishoken or Tetsu, then this would be mychoice.

Lucky Peach

2011-12-28T22:02:00.000+08:00

C says:

Being fanboys of Anthony Bourdain, who himselfis a die hard fan of Momofuku's David Chang, we knew we had to get our hands onthe new food quarterly Lucky Peach, which is a collaboration between, amongstothers, David Chang and the guys behind Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations -Zero Point Zero Productions. The first issue completely sold out during itsfirst printing but McSweeney's, the publisher, has recognised the demand andreprinted enough to hopefully satisfy eager readers.

Simply put, the magazine is just downrightcool. It's actually less like a magazine, and more like a collection of foodessays. It's printed on thicker stock, isn't comprised of advertisements, andhas quirkier features and illustrations compared to regular food magazines. There’seven a recipe written completely in haikus.

The first issue is dedicated to ramen, andguest contributors include Wylie Dufresne, Anthony Bourdain and Ruth Reichl.The writing tone is equal parts informative and irreverent, but alwaysentertaining.

I've just finished issue 1 but already I can’twait to start on issue 2. You can order/subscribe directly from McSweeney's website,and in case you're wondering, yes they accept international credit cards andship internationally.

A says:

This is not lightreading. But then, nothing from McSweeney’s is. Still, it makes highfalutinculinary concepts much more accessible.

Pizzeria Mozza

2011-12-22T23:57:00.000+08:00

Csays:

Mozza at Marina Bay Sands is Mario Batali'scontribution to our celebrity chef dining scene. Comprised of a pizzeria andthe more formal Osteria Mozza, a table at Pizzeria Mozza at a halfdecent hour is almost impossible to snag at short notice. We tried a few timesin the past, only to be told that the only available table was at 10 pm or somethingludicrous like that.

On Thursday though, we were at MBS for Wicked, which ended just in time for usto nip across and get a table at 10.30. The place closes at midnight, and lastorders are at 11.

Since it was late, we took this as an intro to what they have to offer. We'llcome back again soon to sample more.

They have a selection of bruschettas - I ordered the chicken liver one, whichcomes with a slice of crisped pancetta atop each one. The livers were roughlychopped, and I like how they added parsley and lemon, which cut through theotherwise jelak-ness of the liver and brightened the whole dish.

The texture of the pizza here is interesting. The crust isn't super thin, yetit's not thick and doughy either. It's probably quite a high-yeast dough andbaked at really high heat, because the edges get very puffed up and crispy.There are quite a number of interesting combis, but we went for something light- the burrata pizza with slow roasted tomatoes and thyme.

The burrata itself was excellent, so much so that we just deconstructed it andhad the burrata on its own. The pizza wasn't too bad either; they have a whiteanchovy one, and one loaded with ther house-made cured meats that I wouldn'tmind trying.

A couldn't resist dessert; we decided on a caramel sundae with caramel icecream, marshmallow sauce and salted peanuts. This was pretty good. Themarshmallow cream was quite sweet but the peanuts added a nice element of saltiness.

Food was pretty good in general, but the one thing that stood out was theburrata. When we walked out we peeked at the menu for Osteria, and theirdedicated Mozzarella section is now calling to me.

Asays:

I like the pizza but it’s definitely notfor people who don’t like eating the crust. The desserts are interesting but maybeI’ll go for a conventional ice cream next time.

PizzeriaMozza

#B1-42/46Marina Bay Sands

10Bayfront Avenue

Tel:6688-8522

Daily:noon to midnight

www.pizzeriamozza.com/Singapore/home.cfm

Oriole Coffee Roasters

2011-12-21T14:50:00.000+08:00

Csays:

Jiak Chuan Road seems to be the newestculinary kid on the block. A tiny lane off Keong Saik Street, it's home to 2new establishments that opened within weeks of each other - Esquina, a tinytapas bar, and Oriole Coffee Roasters.

This Oriole outlet comprises mainly a coffee roasting facility, but they alsoserve old school breakfasts, snacks and cakes.

We tried both their egg dishes - a truffle scrambled egg served with tomatoesand toast, and a pair of 63 degree eggs served with toast soldiers and premiumlight soy sauce - basically, a high end version of that coffee shop staple.

The scrambled eggs had a nice truffle aroma when they arrived, butthey were quite generic hotel-buffet style scrambled eggs - slightly overcookedso the egg forms visible curds rather a smooth creaminess.

I quite liked my soft boiled eggs. I asked for a dark soy sauce and whilethey accommodated, they also diplomatically suggested that I try it with thelight soy instead. They were right; the light soy sauce was actually moremellow and paired better with the eggs.

Their home made kaya toast with butter wasn't too bad, but again I don't thinkthey were vast improvements over what you can get at your local coffeeshop.Their coffee is excellent though. The cappuccino was smoother and more mellow;the piccolo latte I ordered was quite strong and a tad less drinkable.

I would come back here for the coffee, but I don't think the food alonewarrants a special trip.

Asays:

Great coffee. The food’s pretty good, butreally nothing to shout about. Just go if you want good coffee.

OrioleCoffee Roasters

10/10AJiak Chuan Road

Tel:6224-5448

Monto Fri: 10 am – 6 pm

Dim Sum at Paradise Pavillion

2011-12-17T14:25:00.000+08:00

Csays:

I had one last voucher that I got fromsigning up for the Paradise Group privilege card - $25 off weekend dim sumlunch (with a minimum spend of $60). We didn’t have a stellar first visit here,but since we had the voucher we thought we’d give their dim sum a try. I’m gladwe did – their dim sum offerings were far more impressive than the peking duckand other a la carte dinner dishes that we had previously.

They have quite a comprehensive dim summenu. In addition to the usual items like siew mais and char siew baos, theyhave a selection of unique dishes that were interesting and surprisingly verytasty.

We had a char siew snow bun, which I thinkwas steamed then baked so it was light yet slightly crispy outside, with a nicesweet char siew filling. Another interesting bun was a pan fried bun withpeking duck, bacon and pineapple. This had so many different levels of flavour,from the smokiness of the duck and bacon to the surprising sweetness of thepineapple. The bun was super soft as well.

The scallop cheong fun was also very good.At most places, the scallop more or less merges with a seafood paste so youcan’t really taste anything besides a generic “seafood” flavour, but here thescallop flavour really comes through.

We had a crystal dumpling with peking duck,which was again better than expected. What we were really impressed withhowever, was the siew mai skewer. They creatively take a couple of siew mais,stick them on a skewer and grill them yakitori-style, complete with a sweetishglaze. This is not for siew mai purists, but I think it really works, becausethe skin gets a little crispy from the grill, and the sweet (but not cloyinglyso) glaze tied everything together.

Their custard buns, with the oozing saltedegg lava custard, were slightly disappointing. The filling was good, but thebuns were a bit too heavy and dense. We also tried their sesame mochi ballswith truffle and chocolate filling. I expected a milk or dark chocolate, but itwas actually a truffle-infused melted white chocolate filling that was almostlike condensed milk. Definitely an acquired taste, but I like the texture ofthe mochi.

They’ve somewhat redeemed themselves in mybook. I maintain that when they don’t try to overreach themselves with overlyfancy fine-dining, and just stick to what they do best, that’s when their foodis always satisfying.

Asays:

After a disappointing dinner herepreviously, I was really surprised by how good the dim sum here was. I wouldn’tsay it’s very traditional though. My fav dish was the siew mai on skewers. Naise!

ParadisePavilion

8AMarina Boulevard

#02-01Marina Bay Financial Centre

Tel:6509-9308

Lunch:11.30 am – 3 pm (Mon to Fri); 11 am – 4 pm (Sat, Sun & PH)

Dinner:6 pm – 11 pm daily

Ci Gusta

2011-12-16T22:05:00.000+08:00

C says:

Ci Gusta, an Italian gelato chain, has opened its first Singapore outlet at Anchorpoint, which I thought was quite a surprising choice of venue.

They serve artisanal gelato as well as tenero, which is kind of like a soft serve ice cream. The gelato comes in quite a range of flavours, whereas for the tenero there was only yogurt and mascarpone cheese.

We ordered the waffle with a scoop of salt caramel and one of Donatella - a chocolate hazelnut that tasted like nutella. The salt caramel was good but, like the vast majority of salt caramels out there, could have pushed the boundaries in terms of saltiness.

We tried the crepes with the mascarpone tenero. The mascarpone was really good - tasted a bit like a honey yogurt, and was nice and smooth and not too rich.

Unfortunately, while the ice cream was good, the waffles and crepes were disappointing. Both could've been cooked a bit longer; they were a bit too pale and soggy.

Bottom line? The gelato isn't so good that we'll make a special trip there.

A says:

The yogurt and mascarpone flavours are great. The rest are a bit average. The waffle looks better than it tastes. Luckily, the crepe tastes a lot better than it looks.

Overall, I’d say it’s worth getting some if you’re there, but doesn’t justify a trip.

Ci Gusta
370 Alexandra Road
#01-04, Anchorpoint
www.singapore.cigusta.com/index.php

Kazu

2011-12-11T14:35:00.002+08:00

C says:

Time flies so fast it’s scary. We were at Kazu last night with A’s friends, and were really blown away by how absolutely amazing the food was. I can’t believe that our last visit here was back in July 2006. It’s been more than 5 years!

We’ll come back again to take photos and do a proper post, but I was just so impressed that I had to do a quick interim post to highlight some of the best bites of the night.

The cold appetizer of angler fish liver with a ponzu jelly was an interesting choice. The liver had a creamy texture that wasn’t overly unctuous or cloying, and surprisingly didn’t taste fishy at all.
As for the skewers, the chicken hearts rocked. Better than the chicken livers, which were a tad overcooked. The foie gras was excellent too – creamy and well seasoned. There was a pork jaw and apple skewer that was also amazing. The pork was nice and fatty, and the sweet yet tart, slightly charred apple complemented it perfectly.

Dessert completely blew me away. I was expecting to like their salty chocolate ice cream, but wasn’t prepared for the awesomeness of their burnt caramel ice cream. I was literally speechless – it had a wonderful, slightly bitter flavour from the caramel that was scorched just right.

Kazu really takes yakitori to a whole other level; everywhere else just pales in comparison. We’re definitely planning to head back very soon.

A says:

Awesome food and surprisingly great service from our waitress. Definitely will be back once we get over our OD of yakitori. Must have the beef steak and the pork & apple again. If you’re ordering a lot, I recommend ordering the mini-burger and the fois gras, then stuffing the foie into the burger. Yes, I’m a genius. I am also getting very fat. Oh no!

Lawry’s The Prime Rib

2011-12-04T23:45:00.000+08:00

C says:

We haven't been to Lawry's in years; to be honest it's never really been on our radar, since prices aren't all that cheap relative to quality. One of A's friends bought us all dinner there on Sunday night for his birthday, so we got to check out the restaurant's relatively new digs in Mandarin Gallery.

Their signature salad is the Lawry's Spinning Bowl salad, so termed because they toss the salad with a signature dressing in a spinning bowl laid over a bed of ice. I guess the ice keeps the greens fresh, and the spinning ensures that each leaf is completely coated in dressing.

I pity the waitresses dressed in the French maid outfits and very unfortunately designed headpieces though. Neither ours nor the one at the neighbouring table did the salad performance with enough conviction to ward off the inevitable snarky comments.

We ordered some starters for the table to share. The seared scallops were ok, but the crab cakes were very impressive.

They're obviously known for their prime rib, but I'm not a fan of slow roasted beef. I tend to prize flavour over extreme tenderness, so I prefer steaks that have a good sear to them but still medium rare inside. I ordered the fillet mignon which was indeed all of the above.

A on the other hand loves prime rib. He had the Lawry's cut, which was 280g, and enjoyed every mouthful. I agree it was good, but I still preferred mine.

Desserts were a bit hit and miss. Their specialty dessert, the crepes suzette which was prepared tableside, was quite underwhelming. The brownie and mud pie were pretty ok though.

There was a slightly awkward moment though, when one of our friends discovered a fly in their red wine. Since we never noticed a fly falling in, we thought it may have come from the bottle. The manager wasn't very apologetic, and kept insisting that it couldn't have come from inside the bottle, and only offered a glass of house red as compensation. It was only after our hostess got quite firm with them, that they relented and either gave a discount off the bill, or didn't charge for the bottle of wine.

So, did this visit change our mind about Lawry's? To be honest, I still maintain that while I'm not averse to going, it still wouldn't be a place that I would consciously choose.

A says:

Lawry’s standard has declined dramatically over the years. While it’s improved somewhat since moving to Mandarin Gallery, I can’t say I’ve been reconverted.

Food-wise, my prime rib was great, and some of the desserts were not bad, but everything else was very ordinary and not worth the price. I guess what you’re paying for is the service with servers dressed up. And honestly, only two of the people serving us were any good. The rest were rather incompetent. Overall, I’d rate this as okay. You could probably consider it if you’re going for a special occasion and you want a bit of drama in the presentation. Just don’t expect too much from anything besides the mains.

Lawry’s The Prime Rib
333A Orchard Road
#04-01/31 Mandarin Gallery
Tel: 6836-3333
www.lawrys.com.sg

Ramen Champion at Iluma – Part 3

2011-12-03T15:44:00.001+08:00

C says:

Finally, Saturday marked our third visit to Iluma's Ramen Champion to try the last contender - Ganttetsu, serving Hokkaido miso ramen. Read about our previous visits here and here. (Iluma is a bit of a mess right now cos they’re renovating, but rest assured that Ramen Champion is still on the 4th floor.)

Their house special is a corn and butter ramen with a special blended miso broth. I expected to really like this, since the first time I tried a miso butter ramen was in Sapporo and I fell in love with it.

For some reason though, this one really didn't float my boat. Perhaps it was their miso blend, or the fact that they added a dollop of minced ginger, but somehow the flavour of the melted butter just didn't quite mesh with the rest of the flavours. The noodles were pretty typical; the char siew was sliced a bit too thin so by the time you mixed everything up, the slices more or less disintegrated.

On a related but separate note, for the first time I felt that same slightly ill, ramen-ed out sensation, that I last experienced after the miso butter ramen we had in Sapporo. Which leads me to the (possibly inaccurate and completely unresearched) conclusion that it's caused by the butter. Strange given that there isn't all that much butter; certainly less than most pasta sauces or even fancy French sauces.

So anyway, we have a winner! Although A's and my choices are different. My vote is a combination of my personal favourite, and a desire to bring in a new style into an already saturated miso/tonkotsu ramen market.

Bario's Jiro-style ramen gets my vote. I love every aspect of it - the broth that's slightly cloudy from minced garlic, the thick chunks of still tender pork belly, the mountain of bean sprouts, the perfectly cooked egg, and even the thicker-than-usual chewy noodles. I even like how they have a half portion of their signature Bario ramen, which is the perfect portion size to satiate your craving without overdoing it.

I submitted my vote in the boxes outside, and just tried voting on Facebook as well. (Actually, I tried to flood the voting channels but you can only submit one vote per Facebook account.) So far, based purely on Facebook votes it appears that Ikkousha has come out tops, with Tetsu in second place. Bario is third and Taishoken is second last.

I find that rather disheartening. I have nothing against Ikkousha, but honestly, do we really need yet another tonkotsu ramen in Singapore? Fine, Bario’s thick noodles may not appeal to everyone, but surely we could all benefit from the introduction of a good tsukemen place? And what better stall than Taishoken, the people who invented the style?

A says:

In order of my personal preference:
1. Tai Sho Ken. I love the light dipping broth. Some may find it salty, but it’s also a refreshing change.
2. Tetsu. The thick dipping broth seemed strange at first but rapidly grew on me.
3. Ikkousha. It’s good, but a bit forgettable compared to the rest.
4. Ganttetsu. I personally find the butter and corn too overwhelming.
5. Bario (didn’t like the noodles)
6. Iroha (Really didn’t like the soy sauce style broth)

Bear in mind that these are based only on each stall’s signature ramens.

Ember

2011-11-22T22:03:00.001+08:00

C says:

8 years!! Our anniversary is upon us again, as is our annual pilgrimage to Ember. The set dinner menu ($85 for 4 courses) again looked pretty enticing, and this year I had the brainwave to ask if I could have my standard Chilean seabass as my main course instead of the options on set menu. They said it wouldn’t be a problem but that there may be a surcharge. When we got the bill it was a pleasant surprise to see that they didn’t add any extra in the end.

For starters I had the grilled bamboo clam with black bean sauce; A had the prosciutto with figs. A’s was good in a predictable way, though frankly I’ve been spoiled by Spanish jamon, so for me, prosciutto will always be an inferior cousin. My bamboo clams were awesome – there was a nice smoky flavour and the shellfish wasn’t overcooked. I don’t think the black bean sauce really contributed much to the dish though; it was good enough without it.

A had the lobster with a lobster beurre blanc dipping sauce, and I ordered the foie gras with maitake mushrooms, poached egg and truffle salt (c’mon, how me is that dish!). The beurre blanc in A’s dish packed some serious flavour, but overall mine was way better. It was everything that you would expect a dish with those ingredients to taste like. Delicious.

A’s main was a beef tenderloin with a red wine reduction sauce and a variety of mushrooms. And for myself, what would our anniversary dinner be without Ember’s signature Chilean seabass with bacon and mushroom ragout? This was as outstanding as ever. A’s steak was good in a predictable way. The meat was refined and tender, but because it wasn’t a grilled hunk of meat, it lacked the beefy flavour of a (good) steakhouse steak.

I just realised we had the exact same desserts as last year – the banana tart and the caramelised pear tart. This time, A kept the original ice cream as it was a lavender and ginger ice cream, not a straight up lavender. It’s a bit floral on its own, but actually does work with the banana tart.

We always say we need to come back to Ember more often, but almost a year has flown by without us realising it. Still, never too soon to make resolutions for the coming year.

A says:

Always reliable. Always good. Although this time, C’s choice of dishes were all better than mine. Hmmpf!

Restaurant Ember
50 Keong Saik Road
Tel: 6347-1928
Mon to Fri: Lunch 11.30 am – 2 pm; Dinner 6.30 pm – 10 pm
Sat: Dinner only
Closed Sunday

Sarnies

2011-11-22T09:57:00.002+08:00

C says:

A and I had a (not so) leisurely breakfast at Sarnie’s this morning (I was on leave but he had to work; for a change, damnit) – a relatively new sandwich shop that opened up along Telok Ayer Street.

We came here primarily for the bacon and egg sandwich, which did not disappoint. The portion is huge for $7.50, and was piled high with crispy bacon and fried egg. My only criticism is that if you're not careful, you could seriously injure the roof of your mouth with the hard toasted edges.

A ordered the salmon bagel, which was also very good – very generous portions of smoked salmon for $7.90. The combination of smoked salmon, cream cheese and red onion was very balanced, and the bagel itself was good too.

Given the standard of their breakfast offerings, I’m sure their lunchtime salads and sandwiches will be good too. A says there’s usually quite a long line, so best to come either early or late.

A says:

One of the best sandwich joints in Singapore. And coffee is pretty good too. Awesome!

Sarnies
136 Telok Ayer Street
Tel: 6224-6091
Mon to Fri: 7.30 am – 5 pm
www.sarnies.com.sg

The Asian Kitchen LuGangXiaoZhen

2011-11-20T23:48:00.001+08:00

C says:

This branch of The Asian Kitchen at ION Orchard specialises in Taiwanese delicacies, particularly street food specialities. (I assume that’s what the name refers to, but my Mandarin abilities are sorely limited.) Since there wasn’t any queue at all, we decided to give them a try.

There were surprisingly quite a number of things on the menu that called to me, but we clearly couldn’t order all of them today. They sell limited portions of their famous roast pork every day, and since it was available we had to have it. We ordered their original “guitar duck” as well, and a stir fried tung hoon.

I was a bit disappointed with the duck, mainly because this was just like regular roast duck, and somehow from the description on the menu I expected this to be more like a crispy duck instead. Still, as far as roast duck goes, it was quite good – tender and not dry.

The roast pork was heavenly. The crackling was thick but pretty crispy, but what pleasantly surprised me was how remarkably tender and juicy the meat was. Pork belly has a tendency to be quite tough if it’s not cooked properly, but here it was almost melt-in-the-mouth tender, yet not overly fatty.

The tung hoon was another surprise. Fried with minced pork and diced mushrooms, this was very tasty without being greasy, which this dish has a tendency to do.

While this place probably won’t be our first or second choice when we’re in ION, now that we’ve discovered what it has to offer, it’s definitely another viable alternative when our default favourites are too packed.

A says:

We always avoided this place as it looked a bit blah. But I was happy to be proven wrong as the food here is not bad at all (except for the watery bubble tea). Like C says, not our first choice at ION, but a definite worthy option.

The Asian Kitchen LuGangXiaoZhen
#B3-22 ION Orchard
Tel: 6509-1128
Open daily: 11.30 am – 9.30 pm

District 10

2011-11-20T21:48:00.001+08:00

C says:

District 10 is now at UE Square, having moved from Windstedt Road in Newton a few months ago. It's actually part of the Bonta group; I'm not sure if it's always been, or whether a change also prompted its move.

It was pretty empty when we were there; probably a combination of it being Sunday night, and a rainy one to boot. Service was good, partially because we saw a familiar face who later identified himself as a waiter from another restaurant we used to visit. Quite impressive that he actually recognised us.

We shared 3 starters and a main of steak frites. On hindsight, our starter choices weren't the most properly thought out - way too carbo-loaded.

The chicken liver pate with garlic bread ($14) was so-so. The pate was pre-made in individual ramekins and arrived straight from the fridge. It was a bit hard at first and the layer of fat on top was slightly off-putting, even for me. The taste wasn't too bad, but the garlic bread could be better. It was over-toasted and hard, and was barely garlicky.

I was highly anticipating the parmesan and foie gras croquettes ($16) - can you blame me with a description like that? - but was quite disappointed with the outcome. I expected the cheese and foie to be integrated into the croquettes, a bit like those we had in Spain, but instead there was just a tiny cube of foie in the centre of a rather large croquette, and I think the parmesan cheese only made its appearance in the form of the sauce.

We ordered the ribeye, which was from Argentinian beef. At $29 for 200g this was fairly reasonable, but unfortunately the meat was tough, not particularly flavourful and wasn't very well seasoned. At these prices the steaks at Pepper Steakhouse are way better. The steak fries were good, but ketchup wasn’t Heinz...

The best dish of the night was the Black Angus mini burgers ($18 for three mini burgers). I was impressed that they asked for our preferred doneness, even for a mini burger. The patty was juicy and beefy, and there was a generous amount of cheddar cheese on top. This needs to be eaten hot though - it was awesome when it first arrived, but got a bit dry once it sat around for a while.

Besides the burger, everything else was a bit lacklustre; not sure if it was down to poor choices on our part. Even if we did go back, I’m not sure what else we’d order because we already covered all the dishes that called out to us.

A says:

Service was good. Ambience was nice. Food was good but not really great. The big surprise were the excellent fries that came with the steak frite. And while the starters/light bites may seem expensive at almost $20, the portions are big so it’s pretty worth it. I’d probably recommend this place for a drink with friends complimented by decent food.

District 10
81 Clemenceau Avenue
#01-15/16/17 UE Square
Tel: 6738-4788
Open daily: 11.30 am to 3 pm; 6 pm to 11 pm
(Open all day Sunday)
www.district10.com.sg

Triple O’s

2011-11-18T21:38:00.000+08:00

C says:

We got off work earlier today, so we made it to Triple O's at Asia Square before they could close early again. To be honest we're not familiar with this Canadian chain at all, so we just ordered what appealed to us and hoped for the best.

We ordered one combo meal, and the other burger just a la carte. A had the orignal Triple O burger, which comes with lettuce, tomato and special sauce, and I had the mushroom burger.

The burgers here are around Carl's Jr's price point - about $11 for the burger and $15 for a combo meal. It's definitely better than Macs and BK, but I think Carl's Jr actually makes better, more satisfying burgers. Triple O's are good but the patty, albeit quite flavourful and tasty, is a bit thin and hence dries out a bit.

The combo comes with fries and a soft drink, but for $3 more you can switch to their poutine and signature milk shake. Poutine is Canada's version of chilli cheese fries, consisting of fries topped with cheese and meat gravy. This was good but as expected, became a bit stodgy towards the end.

A had the chocolate milkshake. He wasn't expecting much cos it looked pretty thick in the cup, but it was surprisingly drinkable.

Generally, I found the food good but not great. It certainly won't become my go-to place if I want a good cheap burger, but if we have a burger craving while we're in the vicinity, this will be a convenient place to satisfy it.

A says:

Awesome milkshake. Everything else was pretty good, but definitely not worth the $11 price tag. My advice is to go round to Jewel Coffee to eat, then come here for a milkshake for dessert.

Triple O’s
Asia Square Food Garden
2nd floor, Tower 1
Tel: 6636-0002

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

2011-11-17T22:02:00.001+08:00

C says:

I guess atetoomuch is finally going places, if a reader deems our reviews worthy enough to pass off as his/her own. We recently discovered that substantial extracts of a huge number of our posts have appeared as someone else’s reviews. The similarities, down to certain turns of phrase that I think are quite “me”, are too close to attribute to coincidence.

Yes we’re annoyed; wouldn’t you be, if you discovered that the words that you worked (fairly) hard on were passed off as someone else’s? But at the same time I’m also amused. While some of the extracts are blatant copies, others simply don’t make sense.

Hmpf! Maybe he/she should try to copy this post too!

A says:

omgwtfbbq. No one copied what I wrote. I wonder why?

Jewel Coffee

2011-11-11T23:11:00.001+08:00

C says:

We planned to try Triple O tonight, the first Singapore outpost of a Vancouver burger chain. They've opened at Asia Square Food Garden, the upscale food court in the new Asia Square office building in Shenton Way.

Their official opening hours are till 9 pm, but when we got there at 8 on a Friday evening, they were inexplicably closed. They said they closed early cos there were no customers. ?! Shouldn't you at least hold out a bit later, especially on a Friday night? Black mark against them, even before we actually dine there.

Anyway, we decided to go to Jewel Coffee instead. We'd had their breakfast and coffee but not their all-day offerings.

A had their Ribeye Hero, a ciabatta sandwich with slices of ribeye steak, mushrooms and cheese. I'm not a huge fan of sandwiches but this was toasted so it was hot, the bread was soft so it didn't chafe the roof of my mouth, and the meat was really tender.

I went with the Mushroom Medley linguine, which indeed had a medley of mushrooms - a very generous amount of buttons, shitakes, shimejis and oyster mushrooms. It was served on a bed of baby spinach that became slightly wilted from the heat of the pasta, which helped to move it from salad territory.

The sauce was a simple aglio olio, but because there was a liberal sprinkling of shaved parmesan on top, it melted and merged into the sauce as well. The result was a delightfully moreish, earthy dish that wasn't overpowered by garlic. Very good.

Because my pasta was vegetarian (you can opt for additional chicken breast for $4), we had to have some sort of side and it was a toss-up between the chicken wings and the pork cubes. We eventually decided on the less predictable pork.

The cubes are deep fried pieces of pork collar, marinated in a powerful blend of 14 spices. It was decidedly Asian, and I detected either har cheong paste or lam yu. It comes with kicap manis, a sweet dark soya sauce, which had a subtle underlying heat from being infused with chillies.

I must have burnt my mouth a few times because these arrived piping hot, but man, they were good. I'm not usually one for sauces with my meat but the kicap manis paired with the meat amazingly. Perhaps my only criticism is that the pieces were a bit too big - something more bite-sized would've been easier to eat, and they could maybe have been cooked a little less.

Service was excellent too, though maybe because they were the owners so they probably had a vested interest. I dare say we probably had a better meal here, than if we had gone to Triple O.

A says:

The steak sandwich is a bit on the expensive side but great. The mushroom pasta is awesome for just $10.90. The coffee is very distinctive. And the service is great. Rock!

Jewel Coffee
1 Shenton Way
#01-17, One Shenton
Tel: 6636-9452
Mon to Fri: 7 am – 9 pm
Sat: 8 am – 5 pm
www.facebook.com/jewelcoffee

Good Ol’ Cafe

2011-10-30T21:34:00.003+08:00

C says:

Somewhat at a loss for an appropriate dinner venue, we ended up at Good Ol’ Cafe with A’s parents on Sunday night. Good Ol’ Cafe is the sister restaurant of HooHa/The West End, which we only recently discovered. They opened Good Ol’ Cafe quite recently, and while they serve pretty similar fare, Good Ol’ Cafe supposedly focuses a bit more on French preparations and presentation/plating.

It’s located at YESS Centre, right next to Korean Charcoal BBQ joint Ju Shin Jung. Unfortunately, the disparity in the customer volume is that much more apparent as a result. Ju Shin Jung is bursting at the seams on weekends and still has a fairly steady clientele on weekdays. On the other hand, I’ve never seen Good Ol’ Cafe with more than 4 tables occupied on any given day.

They have something like a tasting menu – for $48, you get a selection of their starters, followed by either a laksa or an aglio olio spaghetti, then downsized versions of 2 main courses, followed by dessert. Enough for 2 people to share if you’re not hungry; if you’re atetoomuch, you top that up with an additional order of rack of lamb.

For the starter sampler, we had a mushroom soup, escargots on toast, smoked duck salad, salmon tartare, a crab cake and a fried prawn wonton/ravioli. The soup was pretty decent – thick and quite mushroomy, and the tartare and duck salad were ok as well. There was only one escargot on the toast but the creamy sauce wasn’t bad. The fried items were so-so.

The laksa, again a cute little tasting portion, was surprisingly good. We had just had the “Katong” laksa at Holland V recently, and the one here was definitely comparable. The seafood was quite fresh, and the gravy was rich yet not too thick and heavy; still very much a drinkable broth.

The downsized mains were still very decently-sized portions. 4 meaty ribs for the BBQ ribs, and a palm-sized tenderloin for the steak. The ribs were nice and tender; the tenderloin was better at The West End. In fact, a 200g a la carte order of tenderloin here costs exactly the same as the steak at Pepper Steakhouse, and quality and taste-wise the one at Pepper is far superior.

The rack of lamb was good, but somehow it lacked the oomph of the one we had at The West End as well.

Desserts were a mini sampler of tiramisu, lemon cheesecake and oreo cheesecake.

Again, service isn’t as fine-tuned as The West End. Waiters are a bit slow on the uptake, although they definitely do try hard.

If I were craving similar food I’d rather head to The West End. I think I’ll probably only go to Good Ol’ Cafe if we were there for Ju Shin Jung and couldn’t get a table.

A says:

Service was poor at first but rapidly improved. The taster menu was an interesting introduction but food-wise, it’s just a little bit fancier than HooHa/West End. Honestly, I think I prefer the original though.

Good Ol’ Cafe
27 West Coast Highway
YESS Centre, #01-16/17
Tel: 6777-7600
Open daily: 12 noon – 2.30 pm; 6 pm – 11 pm
www.goodolcafe.com

Paradise Pavilion

2011-10-29T22:16:00.001+08:00

C says:

We're generally fans of the Paradise Group. Their casual outposts like Paradise Inn and Paradise Dynasty are regular haunts for us, for their tasty and value for money offerings. That's why we decided to get their Paradise Group card, and in the process received a voucher for $30 off their signature peking duck.

The restaurant, located at Marina Bay Financial Centre, was surprisingly packed on Saturday night. Somehow I expected it to be mainly patronised by business types on weekdays and empty on weekends, but there were quite a number of family dinners there.

Their peking duck is prepared and served like the one at Imperial Treasure. The premium skin is served on its own and meant to be dipped in sugar, and they serve the breast meat and thigh meat sliced separately as well.

Their duck is roasted with apple wood, meant to impart some fragrance to the meat. Comparisons with Imperial Treasure's duck are inevitable, and unfortunately Paradise's falls short. Yes you do get the apple wood aroma but the duck was overcooked. The meat was a bit tough and dry, and even the cubes of premium skin didn't have the airy crispiness of the Imperial Treasure one.

At $88 – $20 more than Imperial Treasure's, I don't think it's worth the mark-up. They don't even give you the option of a second preparation for the remaining meat for a nominal sum, which is pretty much par for the course at most other duck joints.

In fact, the general impression was that the hefty prices aren't justified by the quality, or lack thereof. Sure, there were some good dishes, in particular the roast pork and a prawn and vermicelli claypot with a rich garlicky stock, but almost everything else we had, we've had better elsewhere.

Somehow it feels like it's trying too hard. The decor is too fancy and looks a bit forced, and the cooking doesn't quite match up to the ambience it's trying to create. Imperial Treasure has better food for lower prices, and if I were to spend this much, I'd rather go to Chinois by Susur. I think we'll stick to what the Paradise Group does best, which is simple yet well executed home-style cooking.

A says:

Er... the service was good and the food was decent, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a traditional dinner. It seems like a place for fancy degustation versions of a Chinese meal. And maybe for client lunches.

Paradise Pavilion
8A Marina Boulevard
#02-01 Marina Bay Financial Centre
Tel: 6509-9308
Lunch: 11.30 am – 3 pm (Mon to Fri); 11 am – 4 pm (Sat, Sun & PH)
Dinner: 6 pm – 11 pm daily

Pepper Steakhouse & Bistro

2011-10-28T22:11:00.001+08:00

C says:

This review, and our experience of Pepper, changed dramatically in the last 15 minutes or so of our visit. We started out quite enthused, but by the end I was seething and couldn't wait to get out of there.

First off, Pepper is not to be confused with Pepper Lunch, the casual/fast food chain from Japan. Pepper Steakhouse is actually part of the folks behind The Pump Room (literally; the restaurant has been carved out of The Pump Room's premises at Great World City). They decided to open their own steakhouse, sourcing almost exclusively grass-fed beef, after being dissatisfied with the quality they were getting from their purveyors.

The restaurant is still pretty new - I think it's still only in soft launch phase, so from now till 30 November they're offering 15% off your bill. I guess just-opened jitters accounted for our experience, though to be fair if we judged them purely on their food they would still score pretty highly.

In addition to quite a selection of typical mains, they have signature steaks, currently from five different breeds. Besides their sharing cuts for two (an Entrecote and a Chateaubriand), the rest of their steaks come in 200 gram portions, and range from a very decent $32 to $38 (for the non-wagyu beef).

After much deliberation, we decided to try a ribeye from a New Zealand Harmony Prime Beef, and a tenderloin from a New Zealand Savannah Black Angus. Both medium rare.

It's usually the case that ribeyes are a more flavourful cut but tend to have a bit more bite, compared to tenderloins which are tender but lack much beefy flavour. But comparing the two, the tenderloin came out the clear winner in both departments. Much better texture and flavour, and even the colour of the meat was far superior. The ribeye was rosy, whereas the tenderloin was a deep red, almost burgundy - the mark of good aging. That's not to say that the ribeye wasn't good, it was; just that the tenderloin was much better.

You can choose from a selection of sauces - we picked wild mushroom and bearnaise, but firstly the sauces weren't good, and anyway the meat was good enough without any sauce.

The steaks come with free flow fries, but they're the thick cut steak fries. They're still quite addictive, and at least they serve good ketchup. We ordered a creamed spinach which was more of a sauteed spinach in cream sauce, but was pretty good anyway.

We ordered a starter of crab cakes with a watercress salad and mango chutney, which came in a decently sized portion and was pretty good. Wasn't bursting with crab meat but what do you expect for $18.

We tried the chocolate lava cake which was decent, but the cake had a weird alcoholic flavour to it that we couldn't put our finger on.

That was the food. Now on to the bad stuff. Firstly, I don't know if it was just this particular night, but we were plagued with screaming babies all night. And parents who were content to let them continue wailing.

Then the service. Food took a while to arrive, which was bad enough but still forgiveable. What wasn't, was the fact that I had to wait 15 minutes after giving them my credit card, for them to bring it back to me for signing. After 5 minutes I got impatient and started chasing them. After 10 minutes I started asking anyone who walked by and when still nothing materialised, I was really pissed. Finally when they brought the credit card slip there was nary an apology, and the waitress only muttered an insincere "sorry" to A, not to me although I was the one who was (a) paying, and (b) looking almost murderous by then.

So, food-wise yes, I think I would recommend Pepper for the quality of the meat and the price you pay for it. But if they don't improve the service then I don't think the food is worth the angst.

A says:

I hope this place just has teething problems because our service, while polite, was incredibly slow. As was the kitchen. And a 15 minute wait to pay is plain bad.

Food-wise, the crabcakes, spinach and harmony ribeye were good, while the savannah tenderloin was excellent. Everything else sucked. Especially the steak sauces (thankfully served on the side) and the horrible molten chocolate cake.

We’ll probably be back later next month (while the opening 15% promo is still on) to give them another chance. But if the service and the kitchen are going to be as bad, they’ll definitely get a not recommended rating.

Pepper Steakhouse and Bistro
1 Kim Seng Promenade
#01-66/67 Great World City
Tel: 6887-3229
Mon - Fri: 10am - 10pm
Sat & Sun: 9am - 10pm

Ramen Champion 2011 at Iluma – Part 2

2011-10-26T22:56:00.004+08:00

C says:

Ok, so our return visit to Ramen Champion happened a lot sooner than I anticipated…

On Wednesday night, we tried three more contenders. A wanted to try Tetsu, the other tsukumen vendor, and I wanted to try Bario. Since Bario considerately sells half portions of their famous Bario ramen, we were able to share one more bowl from Iroha.

Tetsu

Their specialty is the Very Rich! Paitan ramen - “paitan” being the Japanese way of referring to a milky soup (rather than century egg, as I’d hoped). Very Rich! is right. The consistency is more like a thick, almost starchy gravy rather than a soup, and even with the dipping method, it’s still pretty salty. The noodles are decent but the chashu is again quite forgettable.

Between the two tsukumen vendors, Taishoken is the clear winner.

Bario

Bario’s ‘thing’ is their thick noodles that are made from bread flour, which has a higher gluten content and therefore produces stronger and chewier noodles. Their signature Bario ramen comes with a few slices of thick chashu, a slightly cloudy soup and topped with a mountain of beansprouts. The egg is optional but I would highly recommended getting it as an add-on. They do a half portion of Bario ramen for $7, as opposed to the full one for $13.

I think opinions are mixed on this one. Wong Ah Yoke named this his least favourite of the six, and another friend didn’t fancy it either. Nor did A, who really couldn’t get past the thickness and chewiness of the noodles, but admitted that the broth was pretty good. On the other hand, it also had the longest queues out of all six stalls, unless that’s due to the “let’s just join the longest queue” herd mentality.

I personally liked it a lot. Yes the noodles were a bit disconcertingly thick, but no different from an al dente tagliatelle, for example. I loved the heaping mound of beansprouts, and the soup was flavourful without being too rich/jelak. I think the soup already has a considerable amount of garlic, so I would advise passing on the optional minced garlic if you want a cleaner flavour. The chashu was good, and the egg was excellent.

Iroha

Their black ramen is their bestseller, with a primarily shoyu-based broth. This is so far my least favourite. It didn't do anything for me at all. I’m usually not a shoyu ramen fan to begin with, and the slightly thicker consistency of the broth didn't help. The noodles were sort of in between normal ramen and Ikkousha’s thin noodles, and I guess were pretty nice and springy. The main highlight was the chashu here, which was sliced nice and thin, tender and had a good meat/fat ratio. Best chashu of the lot so far, but unfortunately everything else fell short.

So far for me, it’s a toss up between Ikkousha and Bario for first place, but since we've already tried five out of six, we might as well, for the sake of completeness, go one more time to try Gantetsu’s Sapporo ramen.

A says:

Bario vs Iroha vs Tetsu. Round 2. Fight!

Bario has awesome broth. But I hate the weird thick mee-pok like noodles.

Iroha has awesome char siew. But I hate the soy sauce broth.

Tetsu had a weird thick dipping sauce that I thought I’d hate but it really grew on me. It’s by far my favourite of this round.

Tetsu wins!

Ramen Champion 2011 at Iluma - Part 1

2011-10-23T21:59:00.003+08:00

C says:

Ramen Champion is an initiative where selected ramen chefs, all highly acclaimed in their local arenas, have been invited to ply their trade at Iluma mall for a year, from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012, with a view to one of them being awarded the chance to set up a permanent store in Singapore.

As you all know, until quite recently we were pretty ramen-ed out, which explains why we’d yet to head to Iluma despite the fair being around for 4 months now. It took a visit to Ippudo Tao to banish our ramen fatigue, and get us in the mood to give Ramen Champion a go.

The 6 stalls competing for the title of Ultimate Ramen Champion are:

- Ikkousha, whose specialty is Kyushu broth with Hakata ramen
- Taishoken, apparently famous for inventing tsukemen
- Tetsu, another tsukemen specialist from Tokyo
- Bario, selling Jiro-style ramen with thick chewy noodles
- Iroha, specialising in black shoyu and spicy miso ramen
- Gantetsu, the most “typical” of the lot, serving Sapporo-style miso ramen with corn and butter

Despite being pretty hungry when we got there, we only managed to try two stalls, so the jury is out on our favourite until we’ve tried at least another two more.

Ikkousha

I have a weakness for Kyushu-style ramen, which uses a milky pork bone broth. The noodles here are the thin Hakata-style – similar to our local mee kia. The broth was light yet quite deep in flavour, and the addition of a tiny dollop of minced garlic added a whole new flavour dimension. The soy eggs had a nice gooey centre, and the best part was the pork belly chashu, which was tender but still had a nice bite to it.

Taishoken

This is one of two stalls that serve tsukemen-style noodles, i.e. where the noodles are served separately from the broth and are meant to be eaten dipping style.

Interestingly, their noodles are somewhat of a cross between ramen and soba in texture. The broth on its own is really pretty salty but once eaten as it’s meant to be, i.e. as a dipping sauce for the noodles, the balance is just right. The broth is pretty complex too, since it’s made from a mix of chicken, pork and anchovies. The slightly fishy flavour is a bit disconcerting at first but it does add a nice body to the broth. The chashu wasn’t all that great though. The meat was braised so even though it was soft and tender, it also a bit dry.

Their system is akin to Marche – you get a card upon entry so it’s cashless inside, which is pretty convenient so you’re not trying to fiddle with your wallet and carrying hot soup at the same time. Just make sure you check your bill at the cashier later on. The cards are numbered, and the stallholder manually keys in your order into your card number. The information isn’t embedded into the physical card itself. My order didn’t register in my card number because they keyed in “140” instead of “148”, so someone else’s order could just as easily be mistakenly entered into your card.

Between the two I prefer Ikkousha, but watch this space; we’ll definitely be heading back to make our way through the rest of the stalls so that we can vote for our favourite(s).

A says:

Ikkousha vs Taishoken. Round 1. Fight!!!

Ikkousha is more like your standard ramen. The broth is rich and complex, plus it had great char siew and egg.

But for me, I prefer Taishoken with the salty soup that’s filled with flavour, without being too rich or heavy. Great to dip the thick, meaty almost udon-y noodles. The only negatives about this are the eggs (yolk not runny enough), and the char siew was more like the meaty chunks you find in stews.

Taishoken wins!

Ramen Champion
201 Victoria Street
#04-08/09/10 Iluma Mall
Tel: 6238-1011
Open daily: 11.30 am – 10.30 pm
www.ramenchampion.com.sg

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar

2011-10-22T22:59:00.001+08:00

C says:

With the opening of the Circle Line in our neck of the woods, Holland Village is now just a short train ride away and we can do away with the nightmarish parking that put us off dining at Holland V for some time.

We took our first ride on Saturday evening and tried Crust, located on Lorong Mambong just opposite Wala Wala. Crust is apparently an institution in Australia, and the opening of the Holland V store in August last year was their first international expansion. They pride themselves on serving healthier gourmet pizzas made with fresh ingredients. They have gluten-free bases available, and in Australia they’ve won multiple awards for their healthier offerings.

Immediately, healthy pizza to me sounds like an oxymoron, but if the pizzas here at Crust are supposed to be healthier, then sign me up for more, please. I was extremely impressed with all the flavours that we tried tonight. We each ordered a regular pizza, and for more variety we asked for half-and-half.

I had the Sausage Duo and the Wild Mushroom. The Sausage Duo has a tomato base and comes with both Italian and chorizo sausage, caramelised onion and roasted red peppers. This tasted the most like a generic pizza, though I was a bit thrown off by the sweetness of the peppers and onions.

The Wild Mushroom was really good – probably the best meat-less pizza I’ve ever had. It had wild mushrooms, asparagus and pine nuts on a béchamel sauce based, topped with truffle oil and shaved parmesan. The flavours went amazingly well; even the pine nuts added a nice nutty touch.

A ordered the Moroccan Lamb and the White Proscuitto. The lamb was a winner – slices of marinated lamb, red onion and baby spinach, topped with mint yogurt and a squeeze of fresh lemon. This tasted like a really good kebab. Best flavour of the night.

The White Proscuitto was interesting. Again a béchamel base, topped with sliced roasted potatoes, prosciutto, gorgonzola and fresh rosemary. The prosciutto used was quite salty and tasted almost like pancetta, but eaten together with the rest of the toppings, I thought this was pretty good in a unique, not your typical pizza way.

One of the best parts of the pizzas here is the crust. I think they dust the base with corn meal or something, because there’s a texture and a crunch to the crust that I’ve never had elsewhere, even with the thinnest crust pizzas.

The only downside is that there’s no indoor seating. There are limited tables that are under a few fans, that we managed to snag cos we were early. It wasn’t as busy as I would expect, for pizzas this good. They do takeout as well, and delivery to limited areas near Holland V. They’ve also opened a second outlet at Upper Thomson. I don’t think enough buzz has been generated about them, which is a pity because they’re a lot better than the substandard pizzas that are all too prevalent out there.

A says:

Not exactly cheap, but a very good selection of toppings. I recommend going early and getting a seat nearer the counter/away from the road.

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar
34B Lorong Mambong
Tel: 6467-2224
Mon to Thurs: 5 pm – 10.30 pm
Fri & Sat: 5 pm - 1 am
Sun: 5 pm – 11 pm
www.crustpizza.com.sg

The Wok & Barrel

2011-10-21T21:42:00.001+08:00

C says:

The Wok & Barrel is a quintessential success story. This used to be an apparently famous nasi lemak stall at Maxwell Food Centre, called Madam Tan’s Nasi Lemak. Owner Shen Tan did so well that she decided to open her very own restaurant at Duxton Hill. Since we haven’t tried the original one at Maxwell, we came without any basis for comparison, although we had read a number of good reviews from both her longtime customers as well as new fans.

They have a slightly different menu for lunch and for dinner. I think the famous nasi lemak is available as a set lunch, but at dinner time you have to order each component separately, i.e. the rice, curry, chicken wing, omelette, achar etc.

We ordered a plate of the rice, and the beef rendang. The rice wasn’t as rich and lemak as I expected, nor particularly coconutty, but I liked that it came with two different types of sambal. There was the usual sweetish nasi lemak sambal, and a fiery, more savoury sambal belacan that really packed a punch. No prizes for guessing which sambal we each gravitated towards.

The beef rendang was awesome. Every single piece of beef was super tender, and the sauce didn’t skimp on flavour at all. Although we want to try some of the other curries, like the mutton and chicken, I’ll be hard pressed not to order this again, it was that good.

Besides nasi lemak, they have a few other dishes that are modern takes on Singaporean classics. We tried the lamb char siew drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and served with crispy fries and baby spinach. This was another stellar dish. She used lamb neck so there was lots of flavour and just the right balance of fat and lean. The meat was perfectly done, and the seasoning enhanced but didn’t overpower the flavour of the lamb. The crispy fries were really good too – tasted like old school A&W curly fries!

Another lauded dish is her Bak Chor Mee Pasta, which would ordinarily have me dying to try it. However, after I read a few reviews and descriptions, it turns out that it’s just a nod to bak chor mee, and doesn’t actually have minced pork nor chilli and vinegar. It’s actually tagliatelle tossed with the chef’s signature five-spice pork. That being the case, I decided a whole plate of pasta wasn’t a good idea, and instead just ordered a plate of the pork on its own.

In comparison to everything else so far, this was a bit of a letdown. I guess it’s also not meant to be eaten on its own (we had long since finished our rice by then), because the five spice flavours are quite strong, and being almost like a pulled pork in texture, it became a bit too one note after a few bites.

Dessert was by far the most disappointing though. We ordered the Shendol – a coconut panna cotta topped with chendol jelly, drizzled with gula Melaka and served with red bean ice cream. It should have been really good, but everything didn’t really work. The panna cotta wasn’t light or wobbly enough, and the red bean ice cream was thick and slightly gummy, which really didn’t make for a good mouthfeel at all.

I would pass on desserts in future, but I definitely want to come back to try some of the other curries. And have more of that amazing beef rendang.

A says:

I can’t decide if it’s upscale nasi lemak or what happens when the chi-chi crowd pseudo-slum it with some old school dishes. Either way, the service is pretty good considering there’s no service charge, and most of the food is good, especially the beef rendang. Probably the only minuses for me were the bad (noisy) acoustics and the very dense and powdery ice cream (potong gone rough).

The Wok & Barrel
3 Duxton Hill
Tel: 6220-0595
Tues to Sat: 11.30 am to 10 pm
Sun: 11.30 am to 4 pm
www.thewokandbarrel.com

Restaurant Week - Gattopardo

2011-10-16T21:49:00.002+08:00

C says:

Gattopardo was the one restaurant we booked for Restaurant Week that we've been to before, and maybe it's not a coincidence that we had the best Restaurant Week meal here. It was the one meal that made us want to return because of the food itself, not in spite of a lacklustre meal but the lure of something better.

The 3 course dinner started with an octopus salad, a fitting nod to the restaurant's specialty which is fresh seafood. The octopus was a little on the tough side, but it was paired with the most amazing honey vinaigrette and slow roasted vine cherry tomatoes that were a mouthful of juicy flavour.

We decided to have one each of the mains to share. A ordered the baccalao tagliatelle with cherry tomatoes. This was a bit too understated, but I did like that they kept the flavours simple, clean and uncomplicated.

I went for the slow-roasted pork belly, which was amazing. The pork was melt-in-the-mouth fork-tender, but at the same time not overly braised so that it was like a stew, which I’m not too fond of. It still had texture and bite, and just the right fat to meat ratio. It was served with mashed potatoes and braised spinach, which again weren’t overcomplicated, and just paired with the pork really well without distracting.

Dessert was better than it sounded – a mascarpone cream with caramelised fruit and nuts. I expected candied cherries and the like, but it was quite a light concoction of whipped mascarpone, pineapple and a sweet balsamic syrup.

In our defence, dinner was quite light, and we ate at 6.30. My friend G had recommended the anchovy pizza here before, and while we were a bit too full to have it at dinner time, we ordered it for take-out and had it at about 9 pm… It’s a simple Marinara pizza with mozzarella, tomato sauce, anchovies and slices of garlic. You have to like anchovies cos they’re really hard core in this pizza – the bites with anchovy packed a huge salty/savoury punch, though overall I think this would be best appreciated when eaten piping hot.

Well, there you have it – our decadent Restaurant Week indulgences. Old faithful Gattopardo reminded us that Restaurant Week or not, they still never fail to impress.

A says:

This place is really hit or miss depending on what you order. I was surprised at how mundane my tagliatelle was, and equally surprised at how awesome the pork belly was. So really, who knows how any meal could go.

Gattopardo
11 Canning Walk
Tel: 6338-5498
Lunch: 12 noon – 3 pm
Dinner: 6.30 pm – 10.30 pm
www.gattopardo.com.sg

Restaurant Week – Casa Tartufo

2011-10-15T22:04:00.003+08:00

C says:

Casa Tartufo, as its name suggests, is a restaurant that specialises in truffles. About 75% of their menu features the ingredient in some form, though more likely as a sauce rather than shaved neat on top of the dish, so prices aren't too prohibitive.

We've wanted to try it for some time, but it always looked disconcertingly forlorn whenever we walked by. It doesn't help that the main patrons of Forum Galleria, and hence their potential customers, are families bringing their young children for all manner of enrichment classes. Not the best location for a pseudo fine-dining Italian restaurant.

Still, the Restaurant Week lunch menu didn't look too bad, and we figured Restaurant Week meant that there would be a few more tables than normal so it wouldn't feel too depressingly empty.

We started out with a beef carpaccio with shaved parmesan, arugula and truffle sauce. The other starter option was a vegetable soup so that was a no brainer... The carpaccio was predictable but not too bad.

Being atetoomuch, 3 courses seemed a bit skimpy so we had a look at the a la carte menu. Two appetisers called out to me - a burrata cheese with a truffle heart, and this dish that we ordered, scrambled egg with truffle and porcini mushroom. The egg was well scrambled - slowly stirred so that it was nice and creamy with no overcooked curds. I quite liked the flavourful porcini sauce as well.

We again ordered the same main course - the veal scallopini with mushrooms and truffle mash. The sauce for the veal was suspiciously similar to that for the scrambled egg. The veal was ok, but the mash had a slightly gluey texture, possible from the potatoes being mechanically rather than hand whipped.

Dessert featured truffle too. The profiterole was filled with a truffle ice cream which I found quite different, but actually very well balanced in terms of flavour. It's not easy getting truffle into sweets without it being overwhelmingly funky, and I think they did a pretty good job with this. The choux pastry for the profiterole was unfortunately way too hard and dry.

Portions were really small; I'm not sure if that was because of Restaurant Week, but $60 per person for what we had (including the additional egg dish) still seems a bit pricey. I'll give them another chance though.

A says:

The food’s decent, but far from spectacular, and it definitely doesn’t deserve the price tag. I think you’re paying for the swanky look of the place, but really, this place could do with a more casual makeover. Given the location, I think it would do well as a casual family restaurant (but for a chi-chi yuppie family).

Casa Tartufo
583 Orchard Road
#01-17 Forum Shopping Mall
Tel: 6836-4647
Lunch: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm
Dinner: 6 pm to 10 pm
www.casatartufo.com

Song Fa Bak Kut Teh

2011-10-14T22:48:00.000+08:00

C says:

This was quite an unexpected find. We were about to have a generic dinner at Central across the road, when we chanced upon this bustling bak kut teh shop on the corner of New Bridge Road.

It's run like a well-oiled machine, with waiters in uniform and name tags. I was a bit afraid that this meant rather soul-less food, like over-commercialised Ng Ah Sio, but thankfully I was proven wrong.

We ordered one large and one small portion of the pork ribs, the salted vegetables and you tiao. The pork ribs weren't quite as tender or flavourful as Founder, nor the soup as peppery, but all things considered this place comes a close second. The ribs still came clean off the bone, and the broth, when consumed piping hot, still packs quite a satisfying punch.

Avoid the you tiao at all costs though. They dish it out of a big tupperware and it looks like it's been there for ages. It’s dry and tastes pretty stale. A polished off the whole dish, and promptly fell ill after.

My vote still goes to Founder, but I must say this is much more convenient after work, and you don't have to wait in line for half an hour (or more) at peak periods.

A says:

Probably my pick for second best bak kut teh in Singapore. Service is good. The ribs are tender and giam chai is tasty. The only bad points would be the bad you tiao and the usual wait for a table.

Song Fa Bak Kut Teh
11 and 17 New Bridge Road
11 New Bridge Road: Last order 9.30 pm
17 New Bridge Road: Last order 10 pm
Closed on Mondays
www.songfa.com.sg

Restaurant Week - Gaia

2011-10-11T22:21:00.000+08:00

C says:

Gaia, located where Thumper used to be at Goodwood Park Hotel, completely wasn't on our radar and we definitely wouldn't have come if not for Restaurant Week. The menu, 5 courses for $55, looked pretty interesting, so I decided what the heck, and booked it for Tuesday night.

First course was deep fried sardines with caramelised onions. This was good until both of us got a mouthful of bones, probably from the tail of the fish.

Next course was a bit of a letdown - a pan fried ham and ricotta cheese timbale. It tasted a bit like christmas stuffing, and basically disintegrated when we tried to eat it.

The pasta course fared better, a home made tagliatelle with soft shell crab in a light tomato bisque sauce. I found it interesting that on its own, the pasta was just a tad underseasoned, but once you had it with the crab, the brininess of the crab added just the right amount of saltiness.

This time we both ordered the same main, cos the other option was a boring-sounding braised chicken leg. We had the oven-baked cod cooked in milk with grilled polenta, and this was the highlight of the meal, particularly for A. I had one slightly dry, overcooked piece of fish but the piece was excellent - really moist and flaky. The polenta had a very subtle flavour, but paired well with the fish.

Dessert was a traditional tiramisu, with half the plate covered in cocoa powder. Brought out the whimsical artist in me. Heh.

Gaia apparently serves fine dining Italian, though when we checked out the a la carte menu, the mains just consisted of various proteins, all served grilled with the same selection of sides. The pasta selection is fairly standard, but the appetisers look interesting and they have an entire page of buffalo mozzarella dishes.

Service was very good; polite and sincere even though we were one of the el cheapos there for Restaurant Week. When we asked to see the a la carte menu at the end of the evening, the waiter brought us one each, and even proceeded to take us through the menu to highlight the restaurant’s specialties.

A says:

Where was the door bitch? We waited like fools at the main door before realizing the greeting desk was in the 2nd room, beyond the bar. Hmpf.

After that first misstep however, service was excellent. The food was good too with the cod being the highlight. Although the restaurant week menu seemed very different from their regular menu. And aside from the page of mozzarella dishes, there was nothing on the regular menu that really called out to me.

We’ll probably be back to try the cheese, and because the service is good. But it’s not exactly top of my list.

Gaia Ristorante & Bar
22 Scotts Road
Goodwood Park Hotel
Tel: 6735-9937
Lunch: Mon to Fri & Sun, noon to 2.30 pm
Dinner: Daily, 6.30 pm to 11 pm
www.gaia.sg

Restaurant Week – Il Lido

2011-10-10T15:48:00.006+08:00

C says:

Singapore’s 3rd edition of Restaurant Week is on from 9th to 16th October 2011. Since we missed out on most of the good stuff during the second instalment, I decided to book on the very first day that they opened bookings to the public. Some choice places were already booked up, but we managed to get a few reservations at some restaurants that had quite enticing Restaurant Week menus.

I’d already planned for a few days off in October, and fortuitously it coincided with the first two days of Restaurant Week. A and I decided to have a “romantic” day out in Sentosa, starting with lunch at Il Lido. We’ve resisted coming to Il Lido for the longest time, since we’ve always had the impression that it was pretty poncey and fine dining. Since the Restaurant Week menu looked half decent, we finally took the plunge.

We started with an amuse bouche of poached smoked salmon with caviar and a sour cream sauce. Not bad, but nothing to shout about.

The appetiser was seared scallops with blueberry sauce. This was quite disappointing – the scallops were underseasoned so the whole dish tasted pretty flat.

We ordered one each of the main courses (we passed on the vegetarian option, of course) – the beef cheek and the seabass. The beef cheek was good – slow-cooked and tender without being overtly stew-like, and served with a green pea sauce. The seabass was baked en papillote (but plastic), but this was a tad too disconcertingly “steamed Teochew style” for my liking, as the broth was clear and slightly tart from the cherry tomatoes.

Dessert was a molten chocolate cake with a twist – served with a yogurt ice cream rather than vanilla. I liked the tartness of the yogurt ice cream, which tempered the sweetness of the chocolate somewhat. A begged to differ, though.

I maintain that set lunches and Restaurant Week-esque offerings may not necessarily show a restaurant’s full potential, and I think that goes for lunch today as well. The food was alright – good enough that I may consider coming back once more to try some of their interesting-sounding pastas on the a la carte menu, but it’s certainly not at the top of my list.

A says:

The view and service are great. The food less so. But the standard’s decent enough and having checked out the regular menu, the pastas look interesting and the prices aren’t astronomical, so we’ll be back... some time... I guess...

Il Lido
Sentosa Golf Club
27 Bukit Manis Road
Tel: 6866-1977
Open daily: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm; 6.30 pm to 11 pm
www.il-lido.com

The Canteen

2011-10-09T14:42:00.002+08:00

C says:

I think Canteen is probably one of the most underrated joints in Orchard Road. A was initially not a huge fan since he has issues with what he deems high end hawker fare. But once he discovered the waffles here, he's now a fervent convert.

My new favourite dish here is the soupy mee tai mak, which I order when I want to feel a bit more virtuous and don't want to indulge in the XO sauce mee tai mak. It's really simple - a clear broth with minced pork, meat balls and a poached egg, but somehow it just hits the spot.

A's default order is the waffles with whipped cream and maple syrup. On the menu it says it comes with strawberries but we always change it to sliced bananas. This is definitely on A’s list of top 5 waffles in Singapore.

Prices are very reasonable, and I love that because it's so underrated, it's a calm little respite from the chaos of Orchard Road.

A says:

I like the simple, no frills attitude of this place. And the service is usually very good, although this time, everything went haywire. Nevertheless, still one of my favourite waffles in town.

The Canteen
1 Scotts Road
#01-01B Shaw Centre
Tel: 6738-2276
Sun to Thurs: 9 am to 10pm
Fri & Sat: 9 am to 11 pm
www.lesamis.com.sg

Garrett Popcorn

2011-10-08T17:40:00.001+08:00

C says:

It's all my colleague S's fault for getting me (re)hooked on Garrett popcorn. She brought a bag of the Chicago Mix to work one day and I'd been craving it since then.

Good thing that Garrett is now everywhere, not just RWS. I satisfied my craving when I was at 313 Somerset the other day.

The Chicago Mix is a combination of two flavours - the Cheesecorn and the Caramelcrisp. It's a genius combi cos it really is the best of both worlds. The Cheesecorn is so cheesy that it stains your fingers neon orange almost immediately, but it has that trademark airy texture of popcorn. The Caramelcrisp is coated with a crisp slightly salted caramel glaze, and while too much is definitely quite cloying, the cheese and the caramel balance each other out perfectly.

My only criticism is that at $8 for a small bag, this really doesn't come cheap. Then again, it's not something we should be indulging in regularly anyway.

A says:

Popcorn’s good, but the portion sizes are too big for a normal person. I’d probably need to share with a few, or a dozen, people. After eating too much on my own, I’ve given myself a cough and constipation. Ewww...

www.garrettpopcorn.com/singapore-locations/

Penang Place Restaurant

2011-10-07T21:38:00.001+08:00

C says:

Penang Place Restaurant is a buffet restaurant located at Fusionopolis. We're usually not really big on buffet joints but we heard some good things about it, so we tried it on Friday night with A's family.

There were some hits and misses, but overall I was fairly impressed. The nasi lemak was quite fragrant and came with a good sambal. The beef rendang was very tender and the chicken curry had a thick, rich gravy, not the thin, diluted sort that you may expect from a mass produced buffet place.

The penang char kuay teow was very good too, and the prawn noodle soup had a surprisingly good broth, though perhaps a tad on the sweet side. The chicken satay was pretty tasty too, and very tender.

What didn't fare so well were the desserts. A's folks were mad for the chempedak fritters, but the rest of the desserts were very mediocre.

Dinner was about $30 per person, which A found on the high side but I actually found it quite reasonable given the relative quality of most of the dishes. Not somewhere we'll come back on our own, I don't think, since we're not really buffet people, but it's a good place to bring family.

A says:

What surprised me was that as a buffet staffed by part-time students, the service is fantastic. The main dishes were pretty good but the desserts were horrible. But would I regularly pay $30 for all-you can eat char kway teow, rendang and nasi lemak? Probably not.

Penang Place Restaurant
1 Fusionopolis Way
#B1-20/24 Connexis
Tel: 6467-7003
Mon to Sat: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm; 6 pm to 9.30 pm
Closed Sundays
www.penangplace.com

Wild Honey

2011-10-07T14:35:00.005+08:00

C says:

In my opinion, the most elusive table isn't at Valentino or even Buko Nero. It's at Wild Honey, a cafe in Mandarin Gallery that serves breakfast/brunch food all day long. They don't accept reservations, so unless you're willing to get there at 8 am, or spend about an hour just waiting, it's well nigh impossible to get a table on a weekend or public holiday.

Our first attempt was on Hari Raya Puasa. We got there before 10, expecting not many people being up and about at that time. We were sorely mistaken. We were told by the door b*tch that the wait was an hour.

We then decided that the only option was to go on a weekday, so off we went on Friday when I had a day off. Expecting it to be fairly empty, I was still surprised to see that there was a "short" 15 minute queue for a table. It's only because we agreed to a counter seat that we managed to get in without waiting.

There are no menus at the tables, only a big chalkboard next to the cashier where you order and pay; at least they do bring your food to your table. I ordered the European, their signature take on an eggs benedict, and A had the I Love NY, since it had scrambled eggs and smoked fish.

The eggs ben comes on thick slices of brioche, and instead of cooked ham, there's proscuitto and sauteed mushrooms. The eggs were perfectly poached, and the hollandaise sauce wasn't excessively rich, but the thickness of the brioche meant that the carb to protein ratio was bit disproportionate.

A's was right up his alley though, and I must say overall it was the better of the two. The smoked sturgeon was stirred into the scrambled eggs so it flavoured the eggs with a wonderful savoury smokiness. It came with a sesame seed bagel and a chive sour cream, and a couple of cherry tomatoes on the vine.

We also ordered a side order of bacon, and I must say that this was ridiculously good value. $5 for a veritable pile of bacon! Raw bacon from supermarket delis costs more than that!

The cappuccino comes dusted with a little cocoa heart, which I thought was a cute touch, and the flat white here is stronger than most.

The food here is good, but the queues really are prohibitive. They're opening a second outlet at the soon to be re-opened Scotts Square at the end of the year, so hopefully that'll alleviate the demand somewhat. Until then, I think it's strictly a weekday-off place.

A says:

The food and service are great, but it’s not cheap and the wait for a seat is usually horrible. Pros and cons. Weigh them out for yourself.

Wild Honey
#03-02 Mandarin Gallery
Tel: 6235-3900
Mon to Fri: 9 am to 10.30 pm
Sat and Sun: 8 am to 10.30 pm
www.wildhoney.com.sg

Breakfast in the CBD

2011-10-06T18:19:00.006+08:00

C says:

Over the period of the recent F1 road closures, we decided to come into work extra early to avoid the traffic mayhem, and had breakfast in the vicinity. Over a period of 5 working days, we tried three places so here’s a quick write-up on each of them.

Jewel Coffee

There’s been a fair amount of press about Jewel Coffee since it opened at One Shenton.
It's one of a number of artisanal coffee joints that have sprouted up recently. They have pretty good pastas and a yummy ribeye sandwich at lunchtime, but we had some of their breakfast fare – brioche toast, and pancakes.

Portions are hearty but probably not the most suitable for an everyday brekkie before work. They seem more appropriate for a lazy weekend brunch. They served salted President butter with their brioche, so big thumbs up there.

Their coffee is excellent. We both had the Brazilian beans which had a slight nutty, chocolatey flavour; it was strong, complex and not unduly bitter.

Basil Leaf

This is an unassuming little joint in the basement of The Sail. The coffee was ok, but what stood out, and had us coming back 3 times, was their English muffin or bagel with egg, bacon and cheese.

As far as bagels go, the one they use here is good, but I still prefer the muffin - less chewy and easier to eat in a hurry in a limited amount of time.

The Muffinry

A works across the street from this newly opened joint selling (duh) muffins of all kinds.

I much prefer savoury things to sweet, so I was psyched to try some of their savoury muffins. Those took a while coming out of the oven, so in the meantime we had the chocolate and the banana walnut ones.

They were good, nice and light, but they paled in comparison to the Green Eggs and Ham one. Chunks of ham and spring onions in a light fluffy muffin, this was a winning combination.

They have all sorts of interesting sounding flavours, like Apple Blueberry and Lavendar Lemon. My only criticism is that the muffins are quite small, so at $2.40 each, you don't get a lot for what you pay. Still, in the interests of making the most of your calories, I maintain that it’s better to have a small but really good muffin, than a big but mediocre one.

A says:

All good. Jewel Coffee was probably the best, but most expensive. Basil Leaf was a surprising find. And Muffinry has great muffins (like duh!).

HooHa / The West End

2011-10-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

C says:

Located at Pasir Panjang Village – the row of conservation shophouses at the junction of South Buona Vista Road and Pasir Panjang Road, HooHa and The West End are affiliated restaurants that seem firmly entrenched in the 80s and proud of it. We came here expecting nothing but a simple meal at a neighbourhood joint, and left very pleasantly surprised.

The decor is unapologetically kitsch, complete with wrought iron lamps with flickering plastic orange flames. As for the waiters, they’re a breath of fresh air. It’s unfortunately quite rare these days to encounter non-foreign talent waiters, especially in non-fine dining establishments, who know what they’re doing and actually care about doing a good job. The waiters here fall into that rare category, and one of the ladies serving us actually carried a pocket torchlight to help customers check their bill. Talk about dedication.

On their billboards, they proudly claim to serve “The best tenderloin steak in the region”. We've always mocked it - what region, the West? The Pasir Panjang Village region? Still, we had to see what the fuss was about.

It probably wasn't super high grade steakhouse meat, but it was still pretty damn tasty. The beef was tender, perfectly charred and still medium rare and juicy. The baked potato was a bit of a let down though.

A ordered the rack of lamb, and when he took his first bite he went so quiet that I thought there was something wrong. Turns out he was just stunned at how unexpectedly good it was. Again perfectly cooked, well seasoned and very flavourful.

We shared a brownie with ice cream, which was again very good in an old school way.

Besides their lofty tenderloin steak claims, I love how refreshingly unpretentious this place is. They’re not trying to serve fine dining or innovative cuisine; just very hearty and almost retro fare, done really well.

Given that they weren’t full on Sunday night, they’ve somewhat puzzlingly opened a third outlet, Good Ol’ Cafe, at YESS Centre right next to Ju Shin Jung. The menu is apparently similar, but with an emphasis on French cuisine. We haven’t tried it (it’s taken us this long to even try HooHa) but it looks forlornly empty whenever we drive by. Still, hopefully all three outlets will benefit from the opening of the Circle Line shortly.

A says:

The place looks dodgy, like a low-rent Jack’s Place. So we were very surprised when the food turned out to be of pretty good. My rack of lamb was especially awesome. In fact, the only letdown were the mashed and baked potatoes.

I’d recommend this place for a old-school restaurant dinner, a chillout neighbourhood meal, or a highly ironic steakhouse experience.

HooHa Cafe
220 Pasir Panjang Road
Tel: 6475-2210
Open daily: 12 pm to 2.30 pm; 6 pm to 11 pm
www.hoohacafe.com

Chinois by Susur Lee

2011-09-24T21:51:00.001+08:00

C says:

We're big fans of Susur Lee after watching him on the second season of Top Chef Masters. He was previously a consultant chef for Club Chinois and now he's back, again in partnership with the Tung Lok group, to open Chinois by Susur Lee at Resorts World Sentosa.

Most of you would know that because of A, Chinese food usually isn't quite our thing, and coupled with some lacklustre reviews that we've heard about the place, it definitely wasn't on our to-go list. Still, I had some Tung Lok dining vouchers that I had to use by end September, and when we realised they were valid for the a la carte menu at Chinois, we thought it was the perfect opportunity.

I like the decor - kind of an understated chic. It's classy without seeming too poncey, so you don't feel too out of place if you don't dress up. Having said that, I was quite horrified with the family who, between them, came in wearing torn denim shorts and a plain white tee more suitable for sleeping in.

There are a few set menus available, ranging from $80 to $120 per person, but we had to order a la carte to use the vouchers and I'm glad we did. We got a chance to try and share a bigger variety of dishes. Bear in mind that portions are quite small; we didn't eat all THAT much.

We started with the soya duck tongues with XO chilli sauce. Unlike the ones that we had at Jade Palace, the tongues here didn't have any bone or cartilege. They were perfectly stewed so they were soft but still had some texture, and served with a home made XO sauce and dried chillies. This was extremely tasty and at $10, pretty decently priced.

Their signature dish is a crab claw stuffed with abalone served with an uni sauce, but unfortunately they'd sold out so I'd recommend pre-ordering it when you call for your reservation. We ordered the other uni dish on the menu, a braised uni and asparagus broth that had amazingly complex flavours.

Being a Chinese restaurant, most of their signature dishes are in the seafood rather than the meat category. We ordered two fish dishes, both of which were outstanding. The marble goby with black truffle had an intensely flavourful sauce, from the truffle, garlic and a superior broth base. If we thought that was good, the oven baked cod was even better. It was served with egg white, salted egg yolk and a black vinegar reduction, which was both sweet and tart, that really brought the dish to life.

The baked mushrooms with a morel and soy milk broth were ok. The broth was interesting but the dish as a whole was quite ordinary. What did impress us, was the steamed tofu with preserved vegetable and garlic. It came with a fragrant soy sauce commonly served with steamed or fried fish, and it was so simple but the flavours were excellent.

The roast lamb loin with braised eggplant and jasmine rice was a bit of a letdown. The lamb had quite an overwhelming five spice marinade, and generally this was nowhere near the standard of the fish.

I have to reiterate that portions were small, so at this point A was still hungry. We ordered two more appetisers - a seared foie gras with smoked duck breast, and momotaro tomatoes with crab meat.

The tomatoes were pretty much an elevated crab mayo salad, but the foie gras was very good, especially if you don't like overly fatty foie. Somehow the one here was quite light so it wasn't too rich and jelak.

The dessert menu is quite interesting, with a mix of both Asian and Western desserts like a chocolate lava cake. On hindsight we should have had dessert here rather than the disappointing gelato at Candylicious.

Service was very good, with most of the waitresses able to speak good English. At lunch time they have a Dim Sum menu that looks pretty interesting too. Overall I was very impressed, and prices aren't prohibitive either. The total bill, before our voucher use, was $190, which granted isn't cheap but is no more expensive than a fancy dinner at most non-celebrity restaurants these days. I definitely want to try their dim sum next, and of course their signature crab claw.

A says:

I think the reason some people have been disappointed by this place is because they go expecting their usual Chinese-style meals. So the first thing you should know is that this isn’t going to be your conventional Chinese fare. It’s by no means molecular or fusion, but the flavours are interesting enough to be very unique.

Hits include the duck tongue, foie & duck breast, steamed tofu and the two fish dishes.

Everything else was by no means bad, just a bit mediocre, especially the lamb and tomatoes with crab.

The service is great here. And ambience-wise, the place looks quite classy, yet the atmosphere is fairly relaxed, which may be from the very eclectic customer mix. There were some well dressed patrons mixed with some people who looked like they just got off the boat. Although I hear this is common for restaurants at Resorts World. (I wonder how the Joel Robuchon customers dress).

Overall, a very good experience. I’ll definitely be back at some point, especially for the fish and duck dishes.

Chinois by Susur Lee
Hotel Michael, Resorts World Sentosa
26 Sentosa Gateway, #02-142/143
Tel: 6884-7888
Lunch: 11.30 am to 3 pm
Dinner: 6.30 pm to 11 pm
www.chinois.com.sg

Roadhouse at Dempsey

2011-09-18T22:13:00.002+08:00

C says:

Man v Food fans, we have our own burger challenge right here at Roadhouse in Dempsey - the Terminator, a 1 kg burger consisting of a whopping 5 200g wagyu beef patties. The challenge is to finish the entire burger on your own, including all sides, in under 20 minutes. If you do, it’s free; otherwise you have to pay $48 for the opportunity. Note: if you want to pass on the challenge and just share the Terminator with friends, it actually costs $68.

We had dinner here with A’s friends but everyone chickened out of the challenge in the end. On hindsight, given the size of the portions, I think finishing the burger won't really be a problem; it’s finishing it in the 20 minute period that’ll really be the challenge.

While waiting for everyone to arrive, we had some onion rings and the parmesan buffalo wings. The onion rings were huge, and covered with a thick but still very light batter. The buffalo wings come in 3 spice levels – Hot, Fiery, and Call 995. Needless to say, I went with the Call 995, and was very glad that I did. It had a good level of heat but not unbearably so. Any less than this would’ve been a letdown. I like the added element of parmesan cheese on the wings; added a nice savoury dimension.

A ordered the Juicy Lucy burger, which was a traditional burger with lettuce, tomato and pickles. Clearly they don’t use frozen patties here, because they acceded to our request for medium-rare doneness. I was pretty impressed with the burger – juicy and quite flavourful. I was just a bit surprised that for a 200g patty, it was rather small and not exactly very filling.

I had the Kurobuta BBQ ribs, which are apparently cooked sous vide here so they’re nice and tender. I ordered a half rack, since that’s usually more than enough for me when we have ribs at Tony Romas, Chili’s and the other usual suspect chain restaurants. Clearly, the portions here are not American diner portions because my half rack of ribs consisted of all of 5 ribs in total. They were good though – meaty, tender and glazed with the right amount of bbq sauce that had just the right balance of flavours.

Needless to say, we had room for dessert. A had the mudpie, and I shared a triple nut salted caramel tart with M. I don’t fancy mudpies very much, but the tart was pretty good. Another of our friends had the S’mores pie that was very good, albeit quite jelak, according to him.

Roadhouse definitely has potential, and I think we’re definitely going to return. Interestingly though, 2 of our friends had the same dish – the Chargrilled Monkfish – and had completely different views and experiences. M had nothing but good things to say about hers, that it was perfectly cooked, juicy and seasoned well. P, on the other hand, didn't enjoy it at all, and said hers was overcooked and dry. It’s surprising and slightly worrying that the same dish could elicit such different reactions on the same night, and for the same table.

A says:

The food is good, but the portions are actually quite small. Shockingly so given its reputation for having a 1kg burger. In fact, only the desserts come in impressive portions.

Overall, I like the casual vibe of the place and the service is pretty good so we’ll be back. A word of advice though, try not to sit near the kitchen at the back. You may end up smelling a bit greasy if you hang out too long.

Roadhouse at Dempsey
#01-07, Block 13, Dempsey Road
Tel: 6476-2922
www.roadhouse.com.sg

Ippudo Tao

2011-09-11T21:18:00.000+08:00

C says:

We’re usually quite slow to jump on the bandwagon of any new establishment. We prefer to give them a while for any kinks and teething problems to be ironed out, and to wait for queues to abate somewhat. Case in point – Ippudo, the ramen joint at Mandarin Gallery where queues of over an hour were par for the course when they first opened.

I’m not sure if the Mandarin Gallery branch still attracts long lines, but they’ve opened a branch called Ippudo Tao at UE Square. This outlet serves ramen as well as yakitori, but the ramen menu isn’t as varied as the one at Mandarin Gallery. Still, I’ll happily trade fewer ramen options for some grilled skewers and most importantly, no queues. We called on Sunday evening and easily got a reservation (I’m not sure if the Mandarin outlet accepts reservations).

We started with a deep fried young corn, since you don’t see that on menus very often. The corn was very lightly battered and topped with some herbed garlic. Interesting but not something we’ll order again, at least not before trying other things on the menu.

As for the yakitori, we tried the tsukune and the pork belly. The pork belly was nice and juicy; as for the tsukune, it was a bit too refined for me. I like my tsukune to have some texture from the chicken cartilage and stuff, but this was too smooth and didn’t have any bite.

We tried the original Ippudo Shiro, which was tonkotsu broth and Hakata-style noodles (thin and straight), and one of the Ippudo Tao specials – the Tao Kuro, with thick chewy noodles served in tonkotsu broth with added miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. I preferred the Shiro, which was lighter yet had a more complex flavour. The Tao Kuro packed more of a flavour punch, but was more one dimensional.

I remembered reading that they serve fresh garlic, but didn’t see any on the table. I asked them about it and sure enough, they brought a dish of garlic cloves and a garlic press. Choose one, stick it into the press and squeeze directly onto your ramen. The fresh garlic really packs a punch so use sparingly. And maybe not on a first date.

Because the ramen here was pretty light, we didn’t feel ramen-ed out the way we sometimes do after a particularly rich bowl of ramen. In fact, I think our ramen fatigue, which has plagued us since Hokkaido, has been somewhat lifted, and now I feel like venturing to Iluma to try the Ramen Champion stalls.

A says:

Great service and very good food. What I especially like is that the ramen isn’t overwhelmingly salty or thick like other places. This is probably going to be my favourite ramen place for a while.

Ippudo Tao
207 River Valley Road
#01-55/56 UE Square
Tel: 6887-5315
Mon to Thurs: 11.30 am to 3 pm; 5.30 pm to midnight
Fri and Sat: Mon to Thurs: 11.30 am to 3 pm; 5.30 pm to 2 am
Sun: 11.30 am to 11 pm
www.ippudo.com.sg

Smiths Fish and Chips

2011-09-10T21:12:00.001+08:00

C says:

A number of people have raved about the British authenticity of Smiths Fish and Chips, but we were loath to travel all the way to Tanjong Katong Road and hunt for parking, just for fish and chips.

So we were extremely pleased to find out that they recently opened an outlet at Balmoral Plaza. Apparently, so were many others, because the place was packed when we ventured there fairly early on a Saturday evening. We were a bit concerned that we’d either have to stand up and eat, or brave the haze outdoors, but the turnover is pretty quick and by the time the queue moved we managed to snag a table.

It definitely brings to mind an old school English fish and chip shop, just a lot brighter and cleaner. You queue up to place your order, and the portions are served in a completely no-frills manner, wrapped in plain waxed paper. There’s quite a comprehensive menu, from cod to haddock to dory to halibut, as well as sausages, chicken and salmon fishcakes. There’s even baked beans and mushy peas for the sentimental expat longing for a taste of home.

We ordered the cod and the haddock. At $18 and $17 respectively, prices are not exactly cheap. The cod was better than the haddock, in my opinion. The flesh was flakier, more moist and more flavourful. The chips were quite a let down. I know British chips are traditionally thick cut, not the shoestring fries that we’re used to, but a good chip can still be crisp outside and fluffy inside. These were just fried chunks of potato. Needed lots of ketchup, but hey, at least they use Heinz.

All in all, it was a bit underwhelming, and not really worth the price, in my opinion. The fish and chips at Two Fat Men are way better value, and assuming Greenwood Fish Bistro still has their promo of $10 for takeaway fish and chips, I’d much rather have any of those instead.

A says:

The atmosphere’s a bit crowded and chaotic. And the fish & chips we had, even at the $17/18 price range was above average at best. The batter was awesome though. And if I wasn’t concerned about having a heart attack, I’d just order multiple portions of the batter scratchings for $1 each. But overall, there’s nothing here that leaves me with an overwhelming urge to come back.

Smiths Fish and Chips
271 Bukit Timah Road
#01-02 Balmoral Plaza
Tel: 6737-9313
Open daily: 12 noon to 11 pm
www.smithsfishandchips.com

Iron Chef Roll Cake

2011-09-10T16:47:00.003+08:00

C says:

This is part of Isetan Scotts' Autumn Kyushu Fair, which is on from now till 19 September. Billed as a recipe collaboration with Iron Chef Sakai, it combines a super light sponge cake roll with a creme caramel-like pudding in the centre.

Out of the 4 flavours available, only 2 are pudding rolls - the maple syrup and matcha green tea. Two others are regular roll cakes - plain and chocolate.

We bought the maple syrup pudding roll, which was amazingly light notwithstanding the pudding centre. It had just the right amount of cream, and a distinctive yet not overwhelming maple syrup flavour.

Because of the pudding centre, the shelf life of the cake is at most 2 days, but trust me, it's so good that you won't have any trouble finishing it in less than that.

A says:

Super light, super tasty. The pudding centre is a bit weird at first, but the contrast in textures makes it much more interesting than a normal roll. I might try the green tea one if we’re in the area next week.

Hong Kong Street Sin Rong

2011-09-04T21:12:00.001+08:00

C says:

We read a pretty good review of this place in The Sunday Times a few weeks ago, and since it’s just a few minutes’ drive from home, we decided to give it a try.

Call us predictable, but we ordered the exact same dishes that were reviewed – the “sum lo” hor fun, Mongolian pork rib and chicken with salted egg yolk.

Sum lo hor fun is the recognisable dish offered at any establishment that also sells fish head bee hoon. A simple mix of fried hor fun, sliced fish and beansprouts, the dish looks deceptively plain but when executed well, it can be extremely tasty.

I was slightly disappointed with the one here. Perhaps I was comparing it to the more famous ones from the Holland Drive XO Fish Bee Hoon (which has since relocated to Dover Crescent) and Ka Soh, but I found the one here a bit lacking in the flavour department. There wasn’t enough gravy coating each strand of hor fun so it dried out pretty quickly, and the hor fun didn’t have enough wok hei. In addition, I found that the sliced fish wasn’t as fresh, and some slices were even un(der)cooked.

They pretty much redeemed themselves with the salted egg yolk chicken though. To me, this dish is a no brainer. I love fried chicken, and I love anything cooked with salted egg yolk. It’s usually prawns or squid, so it’s refreshing to have it paired with fried chicken here. I was totally happy with this, but A was less keen because the chicken wasn’t deboned.

Finally, the article’s third recommended dish was the Mongolian pork rib. This is a bit like the usual zi char staple pai guat wong, but with a twist. The sauce has a hint of cream and other spices, giving it a slight Western slant. The combination of flavours takes a little getting used to, but all in all this was pretty tasty too.

Some hits and misses so far, but overall we had a good impression of the place; enough to make us want to come back to try a number of other dishes on their rather comprehensive menu.

A says:

Not as good as the old Holland Drive/now Dover Crescent XO Fish Bee Hoon place, but still pretty good. Plus they have a much broader menu (and they give you a physical menu that’s easy to read as well). Thumbs up for some casual zhi char in Pasir Panjang.

Hong Kong Street Sin Rong
118 Pasir Panjang Road
Tel: 6474-7088
Open daily: 10 am to 2.30 pm; 5 pm to 10.30 pm

Chili’s at Resorts World

2011-09-02T23:43:00.000+08:00

C says:

A lack of half decent restaurants in Resorts World that were still open at 10 pm led us to Chili's on Friday night.

I've forgotten quite how huge American diner portions are. I shared two half racks of baby back ribs with W, A had his own Country Fried Chicken, and I ordered a portion of Buffalo Wings. We ended up doggy bagging almost all the wings cos it was a struggle to even finish the main courses.

We had a half rack of Original BBQ, and half a rack of Honey Chipotle. The ribs were very meaty and surprisingly pretty tender too. I preferred the Honey Chipotle sauce - it wasn't overly tart or sweet, and had a nice smoky undertone from the chipotle. Most importantly, unlike the BBQ sauce, it didn't drown out the taste of the meat.

The chicken was thicker than usual country fried chicken, but I think that's probably what made it so tender. Not something I'd normally order but it was very juicy and tender and the seasoning was good.

The wings were a bit of a disappointment. The flavours were quite muted, so the buffalo sauce ended up tasting almost like ketchup. I think the wings were also a bit overcooked; they were a bit stringy and not juicy at all.

Still, I guess Chili's has never pretended to be anything other than what it is - a dependable chain restaurant where you can get pretty decent generic fare. And as long as you don't go expecting anything else, you won't be disappointed.

A says:

For what it is – a generic American chain restaurant – it’s great. I like the selection of regular fare like ribs and country fried steak. Too bad they don’t have a decent iced tea.

Chili’s
Resorts World Sentosa
26 Resort Gateway
#01-072/073/074
Tel: 6835-9077
Mon – Thurs: 11.30 am to 10 pm
Fri: 11.30 am to 11 pm
Sat: 11 am to 11 pm
Sun: 11 am to 10 pm

Mooncakes 2011

2011-08-29T21:37:00.000+08:00

C says:

Yes, it’s mooncake season yet again. After last year’s slightly disappointing showing, I decided to forego Szechuan Court’s snowskin assortment, in favour of a few new kids on the block.

Since almost everything that the Paradise Group puts out generally doesn’t disappoint, I decided to try their snowskin mooncakes this year. They have a duo that features both types of truffle – of the chocolate and the fungi variety. The white one has a white chocolate truffle scented with white truffle, and the black one has a dark chocolate truffle with black truffle. Both were paired with white lotus paste and gold-dusted snowskin.

These were very interesting, though definitely an acquired taste. Whilst truffle paired with something sweet is not unheard of (think truffle honey), it’s still slightly disconcerting to have a faint musky truffle aroma lingering in the background of a familiar taste of mooncake.

The mooncake quality itself was excellent. The lotus paste was very refined, and the snowskin was really thin and soft (they dried out pretty quickly though, so eat them fast!).

Majestic Restaurant has some interesting flavours this year as well. They have a snowskin with kopi luwak (civet cat coffee) lotus paste, and a fresh milk snow skin with yuan yang (a mixture of coffee and tea) lotus paste. We opted for the latter.

The yuan yang flavour of the lotus paste was quite authentic, and it all but masked the usual lotus paste flavour. However, because there wasn’t any truffle in the center, I found it a bit too dense and heavy. What I like about the chocolate-centred snowskin mooncakes is that it’s really just a chocolate masquerading as a mooncake. The lotus paste complements it by adding a new dimension, but ultimately it’s still a chocolate.

My usual Raffles Hotel baked Mother of Pearl mooncakes are on the way, as are Jewels Artisan Chocolate’s salt caramel truffle snowskins, so I really better do double time at the gym for the next few weeks.

Mooncake season is until 12 September, so better hurry if you still want to catch any of this year's offerings.

A says

I’m not a fan of mooncakes at all. If anything, I’ll have a few of the snowskin variety. Please see C’s review if you want an opinion on this.

C says:

Isn’t that pretty much the case for everything that we review...?

Pique Nique

2011-08-28T21:38:00.005+08:00

C says:

Brunch at Pique Nique today has inspired us to come up with a new label for our posts - Disappointing. Not quite as harsh as Not Recommended, Disappointing is, well, exactly that - when you go with a certain level of expectation, and what you get is a completely meh experience.

We got there pretty early on Sunday, around 11.30, expecting it to get crowded later with the brunch crowd rush. We needn't have worried. There were at most 3 tables when we arrived, and it didn't really fill up over the course of our stay.

We'd seen the menu on Facebook and it had a lot of potential, but at the same time we've also heard less than positive things about both their food and their service. Still, we went with a pretty open mind.

Since Pique Nique is the creation of Chef Pang of Canele fame, I had high hopes for their salted caramel here. I ordered the buttermilk pancakes with salted caramel and whipped butter (there's the option of either whipped butter or whipped cream).

The salted caramel was good; there just wasn't enough of it. The pancakes were too thick, so the bits without the caramel were pretty bland. And I have no idea where the butter was.

A had the Hot Iron waffles with caramelised banana, chocolate fudge and vanilla bean ice cream. This was where things really started going downhill. The ice cream was rock hard, and after tasting it, it was suspiciously more like peanut butter than vanilla bean. We flailed wildly for the attention of a server, and when one finally came our way, after hearing what we had to say, she had the nerve to tell us to give her a minute, and proceeded to take another table's order!!

I was getting seriously annoyed, so I flagged down another guy who was nice enough to check with the kitchen, and got a fresh one made for us.

The waffle itself was good, but again the ice cream was too hard, the banana and chocolate fudge seemed to be perfunctory add-ons, and once again, the whipped butter was no where to be found.

We also shared the Breakfast Dog, which came with chopped tomatoes, relish, bacon and a fried egg. I was slightly disappointed to see that the egg was just unceremoniously plonked on top. The hot dog bun was nice and light, but other than that, it was quite ordinary.

The fries came separately, a bit later, and I must say they're very good fries. Very crisp outside but really light and fluffy inside. Unfortunately, the ketchup that they served didn’t seem to taste like Heinz. 'Nuf said.

So, will we go back? Not likely, but I won't really go so far as to damn it Not Recommended. Hence, Disappointing.

A says:

The menu looked right up my alley, but from what we ordered, only the fries and the waffle itself were good. And by that, I really mean just the waffle. The toppings were very blah and the ice cream was hard. I prefer the one at Canteen.

Service-wise, the local Chinese girl was super bad. Lousy attitude and blatantly refused to help us twice. The nice Filipino guy was so much more helpful.

Overall though, I can see why this place was so empty on a Sunday morning. Disappointing.

Pique Nique
#B1-01/02 Takashimaya
Ngee Ann City Tower A
391A Orchard Road
Tel: 6238-6705
Open daily: 10 am to 9.30 pm

AteTooMuch is on Facebook

2011-08-27T17:05:00.000+08:00

C says:

A reader suggested we put up a page on Facebook. So we did. Visit www.facebook.com/atetoomuch to Like our page and get updates. Or just click the Like button on the right.

A says:

Thanks to the 25 pioneer peeps who liked our page and got us our url. Now I need a PM and dev team to get all the other functionality working. Haha.

Berrylite Frozen Yogurt

2011-08-24T22:37:00.003+08:00

C says:

My friend S has opened a new yogurt place at Novena and has offered this promotion to our readers. Just flash this flyer off your smartphone (or print it out and present it) to enjoy the 20% discount on your yogurt.

At any given time, they have Original and 3 other flavours, which are constantly changing. When we went a while back, they had an awesome Chocolate Mint, but that sold out pretty fast. Currently there's Carrot Cake, Luscious Lemon and Strawberry.

A says:

atetoomuch has sold out! Now I’m waiting to start rolling in the dough. Or in this case, yogurt.

Berrylite Frozen Yogurt
Novena Velocity Mall
#02-41

Hippopotamus: An update

2011-08-13T22:16:00.000+08:00

C says:

We finally went back to Hippopotamus to try their steaks, this time with A’s folks. We thought we’d do a taste test, so we ordered the Prime Rib for 2-3 persons from the “Premium Meat” section, and the Ribsteak on the bone, from the regular section of the menu.

OMG, it was SOO bad that I’ve now concluded that probably the only thing worth having here is actually the Tartare Grill that I had the last time. Both steaks were full of sinew and fat, and were tough, tasteless, underseasoned and poorly cooked.

We ordered the dessert sampler, which came with tasting portions of a Floating Island, chocolate crepe, crème brulee, fruit salad and a mango sorbet. The Floating Island and chocolate crepe were passable, I didn’t try the crème brulee, and the fruit salad and mango sorbet were both afterthoughts.

To say this was disappointing is a huge understatement; I can’t remember when I’ve been this angry at such poor food.

A says:

Good service. Bad food. The only thing I can recommend here is the seared steak tartare.

Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill
6 Raffles Boulevard
#01-204/205
Marina Square
Tel: 6338-5352
Open daily: 11 am to 10 pm

Yumeya Japanese Restaurant

2011-08-09T21:14:00.005+08:00

C says:

We actually wanted to have a fairly simple dinner at Chikuwa-Tei tonight, but when we called to make a reservation in the evening, they only had a table for us after 8.30 pm. Not wanting to wait, we decided to try Yumeya, another Japanese joint just down the road that came recommended by one of A’s friends.

Unlike Chikuwa-Tei, where their standout items are clearly their chawanmushi and their sashimi (particularly the salmon sashimi), I’m not sure that Yumeya has any specialties. We tried to order a fairly wide range, just to see if any particular category jumped out at us.

We tried their sautéed mixed mushrooms, which were a mix of shitake, enoki and shimeji mushrooms. They came in a buttery white wine sauce which was good, but they were a bit too heavy handed with the garlic, which overpowered the flavour of the mushrooms.

The grilled chicken wings were quite good, but the Asparagus Butter Yaki (asparagus grilled in butter) wasn’t what I expected. I thought it would be a clean tasting dish, with asparagus just grilled with some butter brushed on top. It turned out to be almost a stir fry, with onions and some garlicky minced meat topping that again just overwhelmed the asparagus.

The scallop grilled with mayonnaise arrived with quite a fanfare of flames, but I’m not sure that the dish lived up to its presentation. It was as good as you would expect from scallops drenched in mayonnaise and grilled, but it just met those expectations and didn’t really offer more.

One of their more oft-reviewed dishes is the beef tataki, which again was decent but not outstanding. Rare slices of beef in a black pepper sauce, this was something that could be quite easily done at home, perhaps without the black pepper sauce which I don’t much care for anyway.

We figured we should also try some of their raw fish items, but these really didn’t come cheap. We ended up with the mixed sushi, which wasn’t too bad, but I reckon we could get just as good sushi at Itacho.

Finally (yes, we overordered again...), A’s choice (it figures) was a really weird rice with ume (sour plum) and green tea. I don’t think he expected it to be some sort of porridge. I wouldn’t order this again, though the sour plum did provide a refreshing change to the fairly heavily seasoned other dishes.

Prices aren’t low here, and the food, though perfectly passable, isn’t distinctive enough in my opinion to warrant spending that much, not when with a bit of advance planning, a simpler but much more satisfying meal can be had at Chikuwa-Tei.

A says:

Unlike C, I really liked the food here. The service is excellent as well. But I have to agree with C that comparatively speaking, I’d rather go to the slightly cheaper and more casual Chikuwa-Tei.

Yumeya Japanese Restaurant
33 Mohamed Sultan Road
#01-01
Tel: 6887-0282
Mon–Fri: 12 noon – 2.30 pm, 6 pm – 12 midnight
Sat & Sun: 6 pm – 2 am

Jimmy Monkey Cafe & Bar

2011-08-09T14:38:00.000+08:00

C says:

We read about this newly-opened cafe in IS magazine, and since it’s located at one-north residences, it made for a convenient brunch venue after our morning gym session at the nearby Fitness First. Coincidentally, it also owned and run by an old classmate of mine and her husband, a Melbournian who was keen to recreate a true blue Ozzie cafe experience.

Their coffees are compliments of a Slayer espresso machine, apparently Singapore’s first. A ordered the flat white, and I went for the Cortado. The coffee was quite strong and aromatic, yet not particularly astringent or bitter – the mark of a good coffee, I guess. Next time I’ll go for a flat white or latte though. I think my coffee palate isn’t quite ready for the potency of the Cortado.

I toyed with a few options and decided on the classic fry up, which on hindsight perhaps was too safe a choice. I liked the bacon and the sausage, but I found the sage mushrooms a bit of an afterthought. I’ll go with my other option next time – the vegemite and cheese toast soldiers with a soft-boiled egg.

A had the tartine with goat’s cheese, smoked duck and honey. The honey was surprisingly drizzled on the accompanying mesclun salad rather than on the open-faced sandwich; I would have preferred the latter, but overall it made for a pretty good combination.

They don’t take reservations for groups smaller than 5, which could pose a problem because it was surprisingly full at about 1 pm on National Day. Still, it’s quite close to home/the gym for us, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be back for a weekend brunch.

A says:

Excellent coffee. Decent food. Nice atmosphere. Easy parking at the condo. (Just tell the guard you’re there for the cafe, although unlike most condos, you have to pay for parking – keeps out the riff-raff I guess.) I wouldn’t say it’s fantastic, but it’s definitely made the list as a casual weekend option near our place.

Jimmy Monkey Cafe & Bar
9 one-north gateway
#01-51 one-north residences
Tel: 6777-8470
Sun to Thurs: 8.30 am to 8.30 pm
Fri & Sat: 8.30 am to late
Closed Mondays
www.jimmymonkey.com

Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant

2011-08-06T13:42:00.003+08:00

C says:

Steamboat is not exactly typical atetoomuch fare, mainly because A doesn’t quite like it, or rather doesn’t fancy cooking his own food. Still, I had some vouchers that I needed to use, and was pretty impressed with the food when I came here with the girls a few weeks back. So I dragged a slightly apprehensive A here on Saturday for lunch.

We had the pork bone soup, and quite a meat overload – short rib beef, kurobuta pork belly, beef tongue and luncheon meat. We also ordered some assorted mushrooms and spinach, just to be remotely healthy.

The quality of the meat here is very good, and I found the pork belly to be better than the beef, and at almost a third of the price, definitely much better value. The luncheon meat was good too, but then again I do have a weakness for it.

I also like the huge array of condiments that they present to you at the start, for you to concoct your own preferred blend of dipping sauce.

I adore steamboat, especially the soup after it’s been flavoured by all the ingredients cooking in it. I know it still isn’t A’s cup of tea, but I’m hoping today’s lunch has convinced him that it’s not all that bad, and that we can come back for more.

A says:

The food and service here are excellent. And that’s considering I usually don’t like steamboat. But then you also have to consider that this place is very expensive compared to your regular steamboat joints. So if I have to eat steamboat, this would probably be the place to do it.

Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant
#01-21 to 23, TripleOne Somerset
Tel: 6732-8231
Mon - Sat: 11.30am to 3pm / 6.30pm to 11pm
Sun: 11am to 3pm / 6pm to 11pm

The Jackson Plan

2011-08-05T21:51:00.007+08:00

C says:

The somewhat strangely named Duxton restaurant The Jackson Plan is actually named after Phillip Jackson, a surveyor who drew up Singapore’s urban town plans back in the 1800s. The tenuous link between historical urban planning and a modern gastropub is a connection to Singapore’s colonial past.

Despite the rather “hmmm...” name, I had high hopes for this place. After all, it sounded like a good concept – bringing a modern twist to classic gastropub food, and the dishes all sounded very enticing. Unfortunately, like all too many new establishments these days, it was let down by the actual execution of the food.

I’d read about their Mixed Scratchings, which is on their Bar Bites menu rather than their regular menu. Described in the article as a mix of pork crackling, potato peels and chicken skin, I expected a heavenly combination of sinful little crispy treats. Instead, what arrived were huge, badly fried sheets of indeterminate origin. I honestly didn’t know what we were eating. They were oily, and tasted like they’d been fried in less than fresh oil. They were also less than crispy, as if they’d been left in the open for a while.

I had all of 2 bites before throwing in the towel. For me to barely touch a plate of fried food is almost unthinkable, but I knew that if we’d eaten any more, we’d probably have gotten really bad sore throats. This was an epic fail, and set a disappointing tone for the rest of the meal.

They had a few off menu specials, one of which was the Portobello mushroom stuffed with wild mushrooms in a herb crust. The way the waiter talked this up, I was expecting way better. It was okay – you can’t really go wrong with mushrooms paired with more mushrooms and mayonnaise, but it was barely warm when it arrived, again giving the impression that it was all pre-prepared and sitting around.

In fact, that seemed to be a running theme. I tried the pigtails with home made baked beans, since the pigtails were actually slow cooked and shredded to almost like a rillette, shaped into discs and deep fried. This lacked seasoning, there were bone fragments in the patties, and again this was served at room temperature.

The mains fared only slightly better. The scallops, blood sausage and smoked cheese was the one dish I’d read about that made me want to try this place. However, any hopes that the blood sausage would resemble the ones were had in Spain were sorely dashed. The one here wasn’t as rich, and tasted a lot sweeter and more oatmealy. The scallops were ok, and the smoked cheese was more like a cheese sauce that was lightly torched. Best part of the dish was actually the pureed potatoes.

The saltmarsh lamb with champ was decent. The lamb was braised and quite tender, though perhaps lacking in fat, and the champ – Irish mashed potatoes with spring onions – was surprisingly good.

A had the burnt vanilla custard dessert, which was a very rich crème brulee; almost too rich for one person to finish. It also lacked a deep vanilla flavour.

This was an extremely disappointing meal. One redeeming factor is that they have quite a good selection of ciders. If we ever come back, it’ll be just for drinks; certainly not the food.

A says:

This was one of the most disappointing meals I’ve had in awhile. The service was great but everything else tanked badly. Especially the scratchings. OMG they were horrible.

The Jackson Plan
40 Duxton Hill
Tel: 6866-1988
Lunch: Mon-Fri – 11:30 am to 2:30 pm
Dinner: Mon-Sat – 18 pm to 10:30 pm

Bruno’s Pizzeria & Grill

2011-07-16T23:41:00.008+08:00

C says:

Knowing our love of rustic, unpretentious Italian fare, W recommended Bruno’s to us, and also knowing our aversion to driving and especially parking in the East, she and M volunteered to do the driving. We made a reservation on Monday for a 2nd (8 pm) seating on Saturday, so tables aren’t all that hard to come by.

Bruno is apparently a French guy, who decided to open an Italian restaurant because Italian food is more accessible in Singapore. Though not immediately noticeable, the menu does have a few sparks of French amongst the Italian dishes, like escargots and a mousse au chocolat.

We ordered the escargots, which came drenched in a very yummy herb butter. Some of the snails weren’t very meaty and were quite elusive when we were trying to dig them out of their shells, but they were very tasty.

Like most Italian restaurants worth their salt these days, Bruno’s has daily specials, and I like that they’re written on chalk boards, rather than depending on waiters to explain them, and risking not getting the full picture from a less competent waiter.

One of the specials was the burratine cheese, which was pretty much a burrata-esque cheese, served with arugula salad and slices of parma ham. The cheese was very good when combined with the parma ham, but lacked a bit of flavour on its own. The arugula was dressed with a nice sun-dried tomato and olive oil dressing, which was pretty good.

At M’s request, we ordered the eggplant parmigiana, which tasted a whole lot better than it looked. The slices of eggplant were really soft, and had absorbed all the flavours of the tomato sauce and cheese.

Since W has been here a number of times, she recommended the king prawn linguine with a tomato, cream and lobster sauce, supposedly their best pasta dish and one of their signatures. At $24.50 for 3 huge king prawns and a mound of pasta, this was amazing and fantastic value. The prawns had the most amazing head juice, the pasta was cooked perfectly, and the sauce was rich with the flavour of the prawns. While Valentino’s lobster pasta with pink sauce may be just a bit more richer in flavour, it’s also $43, and in my opinion, it may be almost twice the price but it’s not twice as good.

A ordered a very similar linguine – with scallops in a tomato cream sauce. Because this didn’t have the prawn/lobster element, the sauce was slightly thinner and more watery, and thus less flavourful too. They were very generous with the scallops though, so again very good value at $24.50.

We splurged a little and ordered the special pizza, which had black truffles and porcini mushrooms. Instead of a black truffle salsa which most places use, they used proper shaved black truffles here and the aroma was intoxicating. The pizza itself was pretty good, but I think I would have preferred if the crust was slightly more burnt and crispy.

They had unfortunately run out of the mousse au chocolat by then, so we ordered a panna cotta and the warm apple pie for dessert. The panna cotta was quite ordinary – creamy but I think slightly lacking in vanilla flavour.

We ordered the apple pie because it had a salt caramel sauce. It took quite a while, though the waiter did try to warn us. It was a puff pastry pie with a cinnamon and apple filling, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel. The caramel was more of a burnt caramel than a salt caramel; not bad but I think I’ll try some of their other desserts next time.

I’m definitely very keen to come back, for the prawn pasta again but also to try some of the other very enticing-sounding items. Parking is still an issue, so maybe we’ll see if W and M want some company the next time they come here...

A says:

Food-wise, it’s not quite as good as Valentino’s, but noticeably more affordable, at least when it comes to the seafood pastas. I’d say 80% as good and 60% the price. Do the math if you think it’s worth it.

Our friends also warned us that the service here is VERY slow but we didn’t encounter the problem on this visit. The large 12-person group at the next table did have a major issue as they were told they could not have dessert as another party was waiting for their table. They complained that they only took so long because the first order took over half an hour to come out. Since we got there only as they were being kicked out, we can’t verify if this was true. I guess that means you should book a late second seating if you want to enjoy a long meal.

Overall, I think it’s worth going for the quality of the food for the price. Just expect a long wait and hard-to-find parking spaces.

Bruno’s Pizzeria & Grill
338 Tanjong Katong Road
Tel: 6440-4525
Tues to Sun: 12 noon – 2.30pm, 6 pm – 10.30 pm

Brussels Sprouts

2011-07-10T22:42:00.000+08:00

C says:

Another place that’s been around forever but somehow has always been below our radar, mainly because A and I aren’t huge shellfish fans. However, I recently heard from my colleague S that the chicken wings here are also to die for. That alone was enough impetus to finally pay Brussels Sprouts a long overdue visit.

Yes, the wings were good – lightly breaded, well seasoned, perfectly cooked and still tender and juicy. And at $12 for half a dozen full wings, pretty good value too. But (and this is based on a purely subjective, personal preference) I still prefer my chicken wings unbreaded; just simply deep fried. Hence, Ikea’s chicken wings still hold the top spot in my personal list of best chicken wings.

I generally prefer mussels to clams, as I find that mussels are richer in flavour and hence have a tendency to get a bit cloying after a while. I’m therefore pretty pleased that at Brussels Sprouts, you can choose between mussels or clams, or even a mix of both, as I later found out.

We both opted for starter portions of the mussels/clams rather than sharing a main course portion, so that we could try two flavours, and also at $18.50, the starter was actually slightly less than half the price of the main portion ($38.50). I went with clams, in a white wine broth with butter, onions, celery and parsley. The clams were nice and fresh, and the broth was very refreshing, but it was a tad lighter than I expected. Somehow I thought the butter would feature more prominently.

A had mussels in a fish broth. For a cream-based sauce, this was actually still quite light. Very tasty without being too heavy, it tasted like a very light and refreshing version of a lobster bisque. I’m definitely having this with the clams next time.

Each order of mussels or clams comes with free flow fries, though I was struggling even to finish my own portion. Good fries, if you like the thick-cut variety. I prefer thinner ones myself, but objectively these were very good, and went really well with the mayo dip. NB: Don't bother asking for ketchup; it's NOT Heinz…

Portions are pretty big for the price, and a plate of half a dozen wings is really too much for just two persons, even if one of those two persons is me. They have a few sampler platters here that sound interesting, and we saw someone having a pretty good steak frites. I like the vibe here on a Sunday night; I assume it’s a lot more chill than the Friday/Saturday chi-chi crowd.

A says:

Great food and exceptional service. And while the prices may seem steep, the portions are large. If only they had a proper (i.e. cold) air-con section for us sweaty locals.

It’s amazing that it’s taken us so long to try it. We’ll be back to try the desserts soon I hope.

Brussels Sprouts
80 Mohammed Sultan Road
#01-12 The Pier @ Robertson
Tel: 6887-4344
Monday – Thursday: 5 pm to midnight
Friday: 5 pm to 1 am
Saturday: noon to 1 am
Sunday: noon to midnight
www.brusselssprouts.com.sg

40 Hands

2011-07-10T12:36:00.000+08:00

C says:

40 Hands, another joint within the Spa Esprit stable, is located at Yong Siak Street, a newly gentrified area of Tiong Bahru that now also hosts Books Actually and Strangelets. Unfortunately that also means that it’s pretty crowded on weekends with the cool, chi-chi set. When we were there at 10.45 am on Sunday, the last table available was a tiny one partially blocked by a pillar, and about two inches from the adjacent table.

Food-wise, I must admit that we came here pretty much on a whim, so I didn’t have time to do much research on what their specialties were. We only remembered cousin L telling us about their tau sar pau. Yes, apparently they get these made specially for them, so it’s not Khong Guan or anything like that.

At $2.50 each, these are quite pricey as far as tau sar paus go, but damn they’re good. They’re quite big, around 5 inches in diameter, and super soft and fluffy. They also don’t skimp on the tau sar filling, which is very smooth, refined, and just sweet enough. Sure they don’t come cheap, but I always maintain that if you’re going to indulge in something, anything, it might as well be a good version of it.

A ordered the salmon hash, which was completely unlike what we expected. Somehow I assumed that it would be a salmon version of a corned beef hash, i.e. with shredded potato. This was 2 slices of bread, served with a watery chowder of salmon and potatoes. Quite underwhelming.

Mine fared much better. I ordered the Eggs Cocotte, which had baby spinach, sautéed mushrooms and mushroom duxelles (a kind of mushroom paste), topped with two poached eggs. I think traditional Eggs Cocotte entail the eggs being baked in a dish together with the ingredients, so this was definitely a somewhat deconstructed version. Pretty tasty though, mainly due to the very flavourful mushroom duxelles.

The coffee here is good, so that coupled with the awesome tau sar paus will probably keep me coming back. Not sure if the food is worth jostling with the crowds for, so maybe once I get my ass back to yoga a few doors down, A can wait for me here and reward me with a hard-earned tau sar pau after my practice…

A says:

Great service. Great tau sar paus. Great coffee. But...

It’s very crowded, there’s a propensity for trendy posers and the stuff’s not cheap. And the brunch items are totally not worth it.

We’ll be back at some point to try the other menu items though.

40 Hands
78 Yong Siak Street
#01-12 (opposite Strangelets)
Tel: 6225-8545
Tuesdays, Sundays: 8.30 am to 6.30 pm
Wednesdays, Thursdays: 8.30 am to 10 pm
Fridays, Saturdays: 8.30 am to 11 pm
Closed Mondays

3 Inch Sin

2011-07-02T15:25:00.002+08:00

C says:

A few doors down from Relish on the second floor of Cluny Court is 3 Inch Sin, a little cafe that specialises in molten chocolate lava cakes. Lava cakes seem to have withstood the test of time. They were all the rage about ten years ago, then when every restaurant started having them on their menu, they fell out of fashion (at least for me). Still, they’ve miraculously hung on and I must admit that sometimes, when a restaurant’s dessert menu starts sounding too experimental, a simple lava cake with ice cream is the perfect fallback option.

3 Inch Sin takes lava cakes one step further, by making them in different flavours like mint, coffee and peanut butter, though still of course with a chocolate foundation. Their standard size is 3 inches in diameter, but they also make mini sizes, though they do warn that the mini sizes don’t have much leeway for an oozing chocolate center.

We ordered one original, and one chocolate mint. They were unfortunately out of vanilla ice cream (sacrilege!), so we had macadamia ice cream instead.

As far as simple lava cakes go, these weren’t too bad at all. I liked the chocolate mint, which tasted like an After Eight. The chocolate probably isn’t super high quality, but it’s dark enough to pack quite a chocolatey punch. I’m not sure that I’ll always forego Relish’s desserts for a lava cake here, but it’s always good to have that option.

A says:

Very good. Not as good as the ones C & I used to have at Tamade, but very good. But once you add the ice cream, it’s not exactly cheap considering the setting.

3 Inch Sin
501 Bukit Timah Road
#02-27 Cluny Court
Tel: 6314-1217
12 pm to 9 pm (Mon to Thurs & Sun)
12 pm to 10 pm (Fri and Sat)
Closed Tuesdays
www.3inchsin.com/home.html

The revamped Relish

2011-07-02T15:10:00.004+08:00

C says:

Relish, Chef Wilin Low’s (of Wild Rocket) burger joint has undergone a revamp of sorts. Citing a need to refresh and reinvent after the emergence of more burger players onto the dining scene, it’s toned down its decor slightly, and introduced a more well-rounded menu – retaining some much-loved burgers whilst including more pastas and main courses.

I’m extremely pleased about this, because I’ve always found myself preferring Relish’s other offerings rather than their burgers. Having said that, they now have a burger with an anchovy and garlic sauce that sounds pretty interesting. However, on Saturday we both decided to have their pastas.

I ordered the corned beef spaghettini, and A had the hae bee hiam spaghettini. Good use of spaghettini on their part, as it’s thin enough to withstand a more delicate sauce like my corned beef one. A’s hae bee hiam one was decidedly bolder in flavour, tasting like a slightly sweet XO sauce, but because the sauce was also quite dry, it held up well with the spaghettini too.

The best thing about Relish’s revamp is the inclusion of some Wild Oats favourites, most notably the Spam fries, served with kaffir lime mayonnaise. I’ve only tried it once at Wild Oats, and thereafter just made my own at home. These were better than those Wild Oats I had; the Wild Oats ones were a bit over-fried.

They have a selection of about 8 to 10 interesting beers, with suggestions on beer pairings with their menu items. We had a lychee beer, which was very light and refreshing; very easy to drink.

Most of the waitstaff were very friendly and polite, and one guy in particular was excellent, but we also got a rather sour-faced waitress who seemed like she was doing us a favour by serving us. She was the exception though. Food arrived really fast, making this a very viable option if we run out of ideas for a simple weekend dinner.

A says:

I was really impressed with the service this time. Our young waiter was attentive and eager to please. A big improvement from our last few visits when it was hard to get the wait staff’s attention.

Good food. Fun and interesting, without taking itself too seriously. Prices are very reasonable (for the area).

The specialty beers are also really interesting. They’ve even got some low-alcohol sweet gimmicky beers. Great for a girly drinker like me. I’ll definitely try the Taiwanese honeydew beer next time.

Overall, this could be our new go-to place for a quick, quiet and casual weekend dinner.

Relish
501 Bukit Timah Road
#02-01 Cluny Court
Tel: 6763-1547
Mon - Fri: Noon to 3 pm, 6 pm to 11 pm
Sat and Sun: Noon to 11 pm

The Japan Diet – 6 months on

2011-06-28T22:49:00.001+08:00

C says:

Some of you may have read about my Japan Diet trial from early this year. In case you’re wondering how we’re getting on and whether it works, we thought we’d give a quick update.

We’ve more or less kept with it for the past 6 months, and we recently did a repeat lipid test just to see if it’s yielded any results.

I’m happy to report that while I’m not sure about us losing heaps of weight, it’s certainly done wonders for our cholesterol levels. Both A’s and my HDL (good cholesterol) levels have gone up, and our LDL (bad cholesterol) levels have done down. Yes, we also started taking a fish oil and plant sterol supplement around the same time that we started the Japan Diet, so that may have contributed as well, but overall, I’m sure the Japan Diet played no small part in our improved results.

Looks like the Japan Diet is here to stay.

A says:

Vinegar rice! Yum.

Our trip to Spain: Best of the Rest

2011-06-26T21:40:00.007+08:00

C says:

Our previous posts were on the highlights of our Spain trip, which we simply couldn’t condense into an abbreviated summary of “the best of Spain”. In addition to those, there were a few other noteworthly mentions, which though they may not warrant separate posts on their own, certainly do deserve a shoutout.

La Boqueria, Barcelona

Also known as the Mercat de Sant Josep, this market is just off La Rambla, making it an extremely convenient breakfast destination. It gets pretty manic later in the day, so best to arrive before 11 am.

I like that this seems to be a proper market, that even locals regularly patronise, instead of the tourist trap that is the Mercat de San Miguel in Madrid. The array of produce, particularly the fruits and fruit juices, is astounding. And the jamon… oh gawd, the jamon. Stall after stall of cured porcine goodness, with all manner of piggy byproducts including full legs of ham of varying qualities, sausages and salamis. They even sell vaccum packs to take home, and I can vouch for the excellent quality of those – even better than at most tapas bars.

Pinotxo

Pronounced “Pinocho”, this is a veritable institution in the Boqueria. Run by the extremely affable Juanito, this was our go-to breakfast place every single morning. There doesn’t seem to a proper menu – it depends on what’s available that day, and Juanito’s always happy to help out. He doesn’t speak much English, and our Spanish doesn’t go far beyond “Dos cafe con leche” (2 coffees with milk) and “la cuenta por favor” (check, please), but somehow you’ll manage, and have a lot of fun in the process.

Their garbanzo beans are a speciality here, but I much preferred their almost underrated croquettes. They were only available on our first visit, and were some of the lightest, yet tastiest croquettes we’ve had.

They have something called chuchos (or something that sounded like that), which were a bit like croissants dusted with sugar, and filled with pastry cream. OMG. It’s no wonder that these were selling like hot cakes, with locals stopping by just to takeaway a couple of these. They may look nondescript but they were to die for. Light flaky pastry, giving way to a subtle custard filling. These were perfect with their cortados, or cappuccinos.

I love how Juanito was so encouraging when we took the trouble to order (or at least try to order) in Spanish. Getting the bill is even cuter, cos he relies on you to remember what you ordered, and he just tallies up the numbers on a memo pad.

Definitely a must-visit in Barcelona.

Casa Enrique, Granada

This rather random tapas joint was recommended by the Frommer’s guidebook. It’s literally a hole in the wall, and there are no tables, just dark wooden counters along the perimeter. We were a bit apprehensive, since again there wasn’t any English menu, but managed to order a plate of jamon and some pickled anchovies.

Both turned out to be awesome, and we really loved the whole vibe and feel of the place. The owner is a cool dude who, when not needed behind the counter, was doing crossword puzzles in his spare time.

Los Marqueses, Cordoba

Another Frommer’s recommendation, this was actually a lot more chi-chi than we expected. It was a bit intimidating being the only ones in the vast dining room, and the food did take quite a while, but it far exceeded our expectations. A couple of dishes in particular were real standouts.

Fried eggplant tempura-style with molasses seems to be quite a typical dish here in Spain, but most places just seem to serve cubes or wedges of eggplant drizzled with the sweet. The version here is adorable – the eggplant is sliced really thin, deep fried with a really light batter, and made to look like lollipops on wooden sticks. You pour the molasses on separately.

It may look really cute, but it also tasted great, partly because the eggplant slices were so thin, light and crispy. A found the molasses somewhat disconcertingly Asian, claiming that it tasted like the sweet sauce for soon kueh…

The risotto with baby squid and wild mushrooms was everything a good risotto should be – oozy, the rice still had some bite to it, really flavourful so the rice was still the star but was complemented very well by the squid and mushroom. Amazing.

As you can see, we certainly did eat a whole lot on this trip. Needless to say, we may be somewhat inactive on atetoomuch for a while, as we detox and try to shake off all that excess poundage.

A says:

C has pretty much covered everything. Chuchos from Pinotxo. Casa Enrique, with the really friendly bartender/cook/server/all-in-one dude (and supposedly one of the most famous tapas bars in Granada). Los Marqueses, a surprising find for a quiet (i.e. non-tourist packed) fine dining lunch on our day trip to Cordoba.

I’d probably also add Ferpal, a Spanish deli/breakfast joint in Madrid. We found this gem along the Calle de Arenal way too late. After many meals at the crowded, touristy Mercardo de San Miguel, this place was full of locals of all walks – from business men to construction workers. A sure sign that the food is good. Or at least good value. This will definitely be our new breakfast spot if we’re staying in the area again.

Our trip to Spain: Lolita Taperia

2011-06-22T21:55:00.001+08:00

C says:

For those of you who’ve seen Spain: On The Road Again, you’ll remember the episode where the whole group, including special guest Michael Stipe, had an awesome tapas meal in Barcelona. That restaurant was Inopia, and was run by Albert Adria, brother of El Bulli’s Ferran.

Earlier this year, Albert announced that Inopia was closing, as he and Ferran were opening 41º , a cocktail bar and Tickets, a tapas bar (getting a reservation at both is almost as elusive as El Bulli). Luckily, after some frantic internet research, I realised that Inopia still lives on, in the form of Lolita. It’s now run by Albert’s partner at the old Inopia, and apart from a few tweaks in the decor, the menu is still the same. Phew.

Again, our first trip here was so awesome that we came back a couple of days later to sample more of the extensive menu. So while we do eat a whole lot, these were consumed over two meals.

There’s an entire section of the menu devoted to olives and anchovies. Pity that on both days, they were out of the boquerones – a pickled anchovy, so we couldn’t try a tapas that combined salted and pickled anchovies. We did have a pincho with an olive, salted anchovy and Basque peppers, as well as a tostada with smoked anchovy and tomato nectar. Both were excellent.

Patatas bravas is a traditional Spanish dish that features potatoes and a spicy sauce. Most establishments have their own take on it, and hands down I liked Lolita’s the most. The potatoes here are sliced pretty thin, so there’s more crispy bits compared to the thick wedges that are served elsewhere. Super addictive.

The fried prawns here are awesome. Lightly floured but not as much as tempura, there are just fried till crisp so you can eat everything, including the head. Especially the head. Prawn head juice is clearly my new obsession. The flavour of these was amazing.

They have a mini burger with cheddar cheese, tartar sauce and pickles, which was fantastic as well. The patty was perfectly cooked, juicy and flavourful, and the flavours of the toppings just really came together. They also had a ham and truffle sandwich that was out of this world.

One of the things I’ll remember most about Lolita is the cheese. Yes, A may have gotten violent food poisoning as a result, but I attribute it to him eating the rind of one of the cheeses, which was probably not meant to be eaten. We tried 3 cheeses – a Saint Marcellin, the Torta de Canarejal, and a grilled cheese with truffle honey.

The first 2 were oozy cheeses, in particular the Canarejal, where the centre never really sets so when you lop off the top, the inside is nice and runny. It was really oozy and creamy, but not particularly potent. The Saint Marcellin, on the other hand, had the consistency of a soft Brie or Camembert, and was really quite strongly flavoured. Not for the faint hearted, but heaven for us. And the cheese with truffle honey? All I can say is, it was as amazing as you could imagine.

Their dessert specialties seem to be their fruits. On the first visit we ordered the pineapple with lime zest and molasses, and the second night we tried the strawberries with a caramel vinaigrette and orange zest. Between the two, I preferred the pineapple – the flavour combination, bizarre as it may sound, actually worked very well together.

W, who’s been to Inopia while Albert was still in residence, says that with the exception of a plethora of lipstick marks as their new trademark decor, everything still looks the same, down to the signature menu items. And based on the quality of the food while we were there, it looks like it hasn’t suffered much from Albert leaving.

A says:

The place is very popular with tourists and they don’t take reservations so turning up around opening time is a must to get a seat. On our second visit, we got there before they opened and there were already people waiting outside.

For a place that famous, it still has a very friendly, neighbourhood joint vibe with the staff and regulars joking and shouting around you.

Food-wise, it’s bite after bite after bite of deliciousness. Almost everything we had was great. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get enough of the cheese and ate the rind, which left me with one of the worst cases of food poisoning I’ve had in years.

Our trip to Spain: The Becerra Brothers

2011-06-20T22:45:00.001+08:00

C says:

Barcelona may have the Adria brothers (Ferran and Albert, who recently closed/left their respective restaurants El Bulli and Inopia, and opened a cocktail and tapas bar that’s booked solid till December), but in Seville, the Becerra brothers rule! Enrique runs his eponymous restaurant, and brother Jesus runs Becerrita.

Enrique Becerra

There’s both a proper restaurant and a separate bar/tapas section, and if you sit in the restaurant, you can’t order tapas. We did however clarify that if we were in the bar section, we could still order from the restaurant menu, so we had tapas, as well as an order of their signature grilled swordfish.

The swordfish was good, but still a tad overcooked for my liking. The sherry sauce was awesome though. This reinforced my view that given a choice, I’d go for tapas any time. At least the portions are small enough so that even if you end up ordering something that you end up not liking, you’re not forced to finish a huge plate of it.

This baby eel toast was definitely an “OMG” moment. The baby eels tasted like a more subtled, refined version of regular eel, and was topped with an aioli that was subtle enough not to overwhelm the eels. Amazing. We came back a second time and ordered one each.

The roast lamb with honey is another of their specialities, and I’m glad that it was available as a tapas portion as well as a main course. It was just enough for us to have a taste of it. It was more of a stew than what I expected, but I liked how the honey really came through.

We ordered a couple of smoked salmon-related tapas – there was a smoked salmon and cream cheese one, and another one with asparagus wrapped with salmon. The latter had a bit too much cream cheese for the amount of smoked salmon, but I quite liked the asparagus one.

The sangria here was lovely, and they also give you a dish of various olives and a bread basket, which we had to stop ourselves from polishing off. If you come at lunchtime, you can also order a tapas portion of paella, which is perfect if you come in a small group and your other dining companions don’t like paella.

Becerrita

I think overall, the tapas at Enrique Becerra were just slightly better than at Becerrita, but there were a few items at the latter that were particularly noteworthy.

First and foremost, brains. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this on the menu. I used to have brains when I was really young; my grandmother would cook them in a peppery soup, and once in a while, coat little morsels of them and deep fry them. However, as health scares abounded and we all started getting more health conscious, it got harder and harder to find brains in the market. I haven’t had them for at least 15 years, and more or less relegated them to my little box of happy memories.

I don’t even know if the brains at Becerrita were pig, sheep or veal brains. I took one look at them on the menu and ordered them immediately. They were simply prepared – sautéed in olive oil with garlic. I was apprehensive when they arrived. Had they been elevated in my memory so much that it could never be matched by reality?

I’m happy to say that they were as good as I remember. The taste is pretty unique and hard to describe; the closest I can think of is a cross between foie gras and bone marrow, but slightly firmer in texture.

It’s probably an acquired taste though. A tried it and admitted that it wasn’t too bad, but it was no where near how enamoured I was with it.

A’s favourite dish at Becerrita was the deep fried pork cutlet. This was a palm-sized schnitzel of tender pork filled with Iberico ham and cheese. Pork filled with pork. How can that go wrong?! Certainly the best “cordon bleu” cutlet we’ve ever had.

If you’re ever in Seville, a trip to either one, if not both, of the Becerra brothers’ establishments is a must.

A says:

Both places are highly recommended and worth visiting in Seville. We also had the good fortune to have ultra-helpful and friendly waiters at both restaurants. The baby eels are a must-try and one of the best bites of our entire trip.

Our trip to Spain: Carles Abellan’s Projectes 24

2011-06-18T18:23:00.013+08:00

C says:

Carles Abellan is first and best known as Ferran Adria’s protege. He worked alongside Ferran at El Bulli for many years, before branching out on his own. He has established Projectes 24, which comprises his first restaurant Comerc 24, and his more casual tapas eatery, Tapac 24.

Comerc 24

Since Ferran Adria and El Bulli are completely out of reach, we figured that our closest brush with Ferran’s molecular gastronomy genius would be a meal at Comerc 24.

Comerc 24 had the unfortunate challenge of having to live up to our DiverXO meal, and suffice to say that it didn’t. While I must say that the dishes were definitely interesting, this was an example of techniques taking precedence over fundamental flavours. Still, there were some dishes that made an impression, be it for how they tasted, or their sheer creativity.

One of the dishes that I admire for their creativity is the Dashi with Cockles, which had little spheres containing cockles, and topped with sliced okra. Each bite of the sphere was an explosion of brininess, filing your mouth with flavours of the sea.

This was one of my favourite dishes of the night. It was a simple dish of squid and green peas, but really showcased the ingredients at their best. The peas were apparently picked that very morning, and delivered to the restaurant just 2 hours before service. This really was an eye-opener – I normally hate green peas, and think that they contribute absolutely nothing to a dish besides adding colour. These peas, however, tasted nothing like the frozen peas that you get in fried rice. They were clean and fresh-tasting, with a lovely texture that bore no resemblance to the mushy interior of frozen peas.

The lightly chargrilled squid on top was somewhat secondary, but still good.

The Pizza 24 was an adorable little thing. Just about 5 inches in diameter, it was topped with mozzarella, tomato, arugula and tiny organic strawberries that were bursting with flavour.

I can’t quite figure out if this prawn was completely raw, or very lightly blanched for just a few moments. Probably the latter, hence giving it its colour. The highlight of this dish was the prawn head. It was filled with the richest, most intensely flavourful head juice. I just wish that it hadn’t been resting on a bed of salt, because the saltiness got in the way of my savouring every morsel of the prawn head.

This was a risotto-like dish, which they called field rabbit rice, where the flavours of the rabbit stock were infused into the rice. Being a rice/risotto whore, I again liked how this tasted, but A had the unfortunate experience of finding a bone in the rice, probably from the rabbit stock.

We raised this with the waiter, and weren’t particularly impressed by the offhand manner in which he brushed it off with a shrug and an almost insincere apology.

In fact, that’s how I found the service as a whole. It was a tad obsequious, and felt somewhat insincere as a result. They also made a big show about how the degustation menu was meant to engage the customer and be tailored to their likes and dislikes, yet besides asking us if we had any allergies, they didn’t really didn’t discuss the menu with us at all. As a result, we didn’t get a few of their specialities, like their take on a Kinder Egg or the roast pork, despite being assured that our degustation would comprise about 90% of the entire menu.

I don't regret coming here, since it was certainly a novel experience, but it does just hammer home where our preferences lie when it comes to “fine dining”.

Tapas 24

Tapas 24 is the casual sibling of Comerc 24, serving up unique and well-executed tapas in a relaxed, easygoing environment. It’s located just off the Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona’s main shopping street, and with its extensive opening hours from 8 am to midnight, this makes it an ideal place to seek some respite in between shopping.

We had some seriously awesome tapas here. In what seems to be a theme for our trip, we came back for a second meal to revisit favourites and so that we could try more dishes.

Two of their sandwiches are their specialities, and rightly so.

The McFoie is a tiny little burger, or rather more a sandwich than a burger. There’s a thin but extremely flavourful beef patty, sandwiched between thin Panini-like bread. The burger is tasty enough on its own, but it gets it name from the quenelle of foie gras mousse that accompanies it. Eaten separately, the mousse tastes quite clearly of foie, but when you spread some on the burger, somehow the flavours combine and you taste less foie, and more of just a rich unctuousness. The coolness of the mousse also adds a nice temperature and textural contrast to the burger. (Geez, how wanker do I sound…)

In Spain, or perhaps particular to Catalonia, they refer to a triangular ham and cheese sandwich as a Bikini. The Bikini here is lightly grilled, and has Iberico jamon, cheese and black truffle. An elevated grilled cheese sandwich but oh, so good.

This was lightly scrambled eggs with potato and blood sausage, and was pretty amazing. Excellent blood sausage, which was soft and slightly creamy, and had such a rich, deep, complex flavour. This was A’s first experience with blood sausage, and now he finally understands what the hype is about. Blood rawks! Heh.

This dessert is apparently a take on a traditional Spanish one, which features bread, olive oil, salt and chocolate. Here, it is fancily plated with quenelles of a deep, dark chocolate ganache, drizzled with good fruity olivey oil, liberal sprinkles of sea salt and thin crostinis. Good combination of flavours, but personally the chocolate was way too intense for me. A enjoyed it thoroughly though.

A says:

Excellent in different ways.

Comec 24 is very chi-chi and the tasting course is really a treat. Not as good as DiverXO and rather pricey, but worth trying if you can if you’re in Barcelona.

I highly recommend Tapas 24 if you’re out on the Passeig de Gracia, or as C calls it, the PDG (wah rau eh!). The food is great with the bikini and the McFoie being standouts. Unfortunately, you usually have to wait for a table, and the service isn’t great in a rush.

Our trip to Spain: La Gabinoteca

2011-06-14T22:26:00.000+08:00

C says:

Another recommendation from Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations: Madrid, La Gabinoteca is a funky tapas bar with really interesting and innovative tapas. We liked it so much that we came here twice. The dishes featured below are the best of both trips.

My favourite dish here was the egg, potato and truffle. With a description like that, what’s there not to like? It comes in a little jam jar, and they advise you to take a whiff when you first open the jar. The heady smell of truffle hits you and paves the way for you to savour the dish proper. I didn’t stir it too thoroughly, so that I could still taste each element, which all tasted great on their own but even better combined.

A’s favourite dish was the foie gras, crème brulee style. Foie is pureed into a mousse then bruleed. Sweet and slightly tart flavours, which traditionally are paired so well with foie, are added to the mousse in the form of green apple and pineapple, and the result is magic.

The chicken wings are marinated with soy, lime and garlic, and nicely caramelised, and served very considerately with disposable gloves.

Their Gambas Plan Fino is a prawn puree that’s spread in a very fine layer, topped with caviar, fried garlic and an amazing sauce, and just briefly broiled. Another interesting and absolutely delicious dish.

Dessert on the first visit was their signature Juan Palarmo. They provide you with a toolkit that includes brownies, ice cream, fruit and a canister of whipped cream, and you get to play artist and create your own masterpiece. We tried to create Egypt, complete with brownie pyramids and a raspberry sauce River Nile.

The second dessert we tried was a cheese cream, described on the menu as something that they learned at Restaurant Arzak. This was really good and a lot lighter than I expected.

The waiters here were really friendly, and one of them even ran after us when they realized that A had left his metro ticket on the chair. After DiverXO, this was possibly our second favourite restaurant of the trip.

A says:

Highly recommended. So good we went twice. Highlights include the crème bruleed foie gras, the jar of egg, potato & truffles, the cheese cream dessert, and the Gambas Plan Fino (prawn puree).

And the service and setting are also awesome. Towards the high end of casual, with an emphasis on good food and good fun. Good grief, that sounds like some bullshit copywriting.

Our trip to Spain – DiverXO

2011-06-12T21:32:00.014+08:00

C says:

Sorry for the radio silence. We were away for 2 weeks in glorious Spain, and have only just managed to find the time to write about some of our amazing gastronomic experiences there.

The best meal of the trip by far, and quite possibly the best meal we’ve ever had, was at DiverXO, David Munoz’s one-Michelin star restaurant in Madrid that combines Asian flavours with Spanish ingredients and techniques. David and his wife Angela, who runs front of house at DiverXO, are huge fans of Asia and Singapore in particular, and have brought their unique flavours to the World Gourmet Summit in Singapore twice.

I have to admit that being fanboys of Anthony Bourdain, we came to know about DiverXO after watching the No Reservations Madrid episode. Reservations are apparently essential, so I called 30 days before our requested date and managed to snag a reservation.

There is no a la carte menu, just 3 degustation menus – 7, 9 and 11 courses for 75, 100 and 120 euros respectively. Since we were on vacation and figured we wouldn’t be back in Madrid any time in the foreseeable future, we decided to go the whole hog and ordered the 11 course menu. Note: DiverXO doesn’t allow any photos of their food, as they feel that the element of surprise contributes quite substantially to the overall dining experience. As each course appeared and we were blown away again and again, I do see their point, so I’ll just try to describe the courses as best I can.

1)Edamame with a Peruvian chilli aioli

This wasn’t really a course, but a little teaser, similar to the complimentary peanuts that you get at Chinese restaurants. This was served in a cute little ceramic flower pot that looked like it was crumpled on one side. The aioli had a subtle but very distinct heat.

2) Tiger mussel with béchamel sauce, tobiko and topped with breadcrumbs

This was the official amuse bouche. It arrived in a little teardrop-shaped glass, with each ingredient layered almost like a parfait. There were some hints of soy sauce, but the béchamel sauce and breadcrumbs made it taste surprisingly like a typical gratinated baked mussel.

3) Fillet of hake with fried duck tongues

This is where the meal started getting really interesting. The hake was cooked perfectly, and flavoured with Sichuan pepper, which is more flowery than just heat. The duck tongues were a revelation – light and crispy, with a little bit of bite and not greasy at all.

4) Smoked tuna belly with bottargo and fried wontons

The tuna belly was again amazingly cooked – smoky and creamy at the same time. The fish was served with a black garlic puree, and topped with sheets of dried bottargo and fried wontons. Each tiny wonton was filled with a quail’s egg yolk, and my first bite into one of them, with a rush of oozing egg yolk, was just sublime.

5) Potstickers (guotie) with langoustines in a chicken broth

The guotie were filled with chicken and shitake mushroom, and to recreate the texture of the seared end of a guotie, these were steamed with a crisp circle of pastry attached to each one. They were served with poached langoustine, in a rich chicken broth.

6) Steamed bao stuffed with minced trumpet mushrooms

More unique dimsum inspired dishes, this uses a light Spanish flour to create a really fluffy bao. It’s coated with a light milk skin, and served with a thin crisp slice of ham jerky. Eaten together, the saltiness of the ham, sweetness of the bun and the savoury mushroom filling complement each other perfectly.

7) Peking “duck” part 1

DiverXO’s take on Peking duck is a slice of Iberico pork crackling in place of the usual duck skin. The thin crisp crackling is topped with cucumber puree and a hoisin sauce made from cherries. It’s amazing how each bite really tasted like a Peking duck pancake.

8) Peking “duck” part 2

This was served in an old-school Styrofoam burger container, and featured Iberico pork collar formed into a burger patty, and served Vietnamese style with a rice paper wrap.

9) Red prawns “fried backwards”

This is another of their signature dishes. Raw prawns are pounded paper thin and cut into two discs, which are then “fried” by having hot oil poured over them. Under the discs is a puree made from the flavourful head juice from the prawns.

10) DiverXO’s chilli crab

Angela herself came out to explain this dish to us, saying how they love Singapore and how inspired they are by our street food here. Their take on chilli crab uses Spanish pimentone in the sauce, and the egg element is provided by a poached quail’s egg. The crab, which is just the meat from sweet Northern Spanish crabs, is plated separately, along with a fried soft-shell crab. Finally, their take on the mantou element for mopping up the sauce is a light, buttery brioche. Amazing; best chilli crab ever, and it’s in Madrid.

11) Glazed monkfish with purple potato sheets and white asparagus

The monkfish was wok-seared, and apparently while glazing tends to overcook and dry out fish, Chef managed to find a way to glaze the fish while still keeping it moist. No s***. The fish was so impeccably cooked it was ridiculous. The purple potato came in the form of cellophane-like sheets that melted in your mouth leaving a distinct potato chip flavor.

12) Stewed beef with “non-fat fat”

This was the last savoury dish. It featured beef short ribs that were slow-cooked for 24 hours, then topped with a rice paper disc that’s meant to mimic the mouthfeel of fat without actually being fat, hence the name.

13) Raspberry chewing gum

The first of 3 desserts, this was a little rectangle of gelatinized raspberry paired with yogurt.

14) Violet ice cream with marshmallow

It took us a while but we finally figured out what this dessert reminded us of – ice cream potong!

15) White chocolate balls with celery foam and lime sorbet

The celery foam was a bit disconcerting at first, but the flavours of the chocolate and the sorbet more than made up for it.

Service was outstanding. Despite a slight language barrier, the waiters described each dish very well, and their easy banter made the meal that much more pleasant. The timing of the kitchen was also perfect. Each dish followed the next with just the right intervals, giving us enough time to marvel at the dish we just ate and to cleanse our palate, without any perceptible long wait in between courses. Despite the number of courses, somehow the courses were timed so well that we both only felt full at the same moment – right after we had our second bite of the beef stew, which incidentally marked the end of the savoury courses.

I think the reason we loved DiverXO so much was that it wasn’t just innovation for the sake of it. At the heart of it all, besides all the creativity and interesting techniques, it was just damn good, really tasty food.

A says:

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. One of the best meals I’ve ever had. And the monkfish was definitely the best cooked fish I’ve ever had. A must-try if you’re in Madrid (and can get a reservation). We’ll be trying to get seats for his next cooking engagement in Singapore.

AWESOME!

No Menu Singapore

2011-05-11T22:45:00.019+08:00

C says:

No Menu at Boon Tat Street is the latest of Osvaldo Forlino’s culinary undertakings. His first was Forlino at One Fullerton, where after it was apparent that his rustic home cooking was somewhat incongruous with the gilded decor and stuffy service, he went on to Osvaldo at Maxwell. He then parted amicably with his partner and set up No Menu, which he now runs with his entire family – his wife, mother, daughters and niece.

This post is actually a combination of two separate visits to the restaurant. Last Friday on our first visit, we tried their signature “no menu” – a 9-course degustation for $98, based on what the chef feels like cooking that day and what is available at the market. A week later we came with W and tried the a la carte/specials. We’ll take each in turn.

No menu

I felt vindicated after this meal. I recommended Osvaldo to A after a great work event there, but when we went there together the service and food were horrendous. This meal finally showed A what I was talking about. For the most part, the meal was excellent and just what we like – small portions and plenty of variety.

The first few bites were based on cured meats – a jamon-like ham on top of a Russian potato salad, and parma ham with melon. I much preferred the depth and complexity of the jamon, while A like the pungent saltiness of the parma ham.

Next up was an anchovy salad, followed by tomato bruschetta. The anchovy was surprisingly more tart than savoury, but acted as a pleasant acidic break after the savoury hams, and likewise with the refreshing bruschetta.

The great thing about the no menu is that you get a risotto course, which comes in the perfect size where risotto is concerned – just enough to satisfy and not enough to give diminishing returns. Tonight’s was a squid ink risotto with pieces of squid, which was very good. The seafood course was prawns and mussels in a Portofino sauce that tasted like the essence of the sea. Everything was very fresh and very tasty.

Next up was the pasta course, which was one of the highlights of the meal. It consisted of two pastas – a ravioli in sage and butter sauce, and fettucine with wild boar ragu. Both pastas were home made and were texturally fantastic, particularly the silky ravioli. Again, the portions were perfect and I like how the sauces weren’t creamy or too heavy.

You only get one choice in the whole no menu – either meat or fish for your main course. We both went with meat, which may have been a mistake. It was quite an uninspiring braised meat dish, which left almost no impression on me.

Finally, dessert was a duo of tiramisu and gianduja, which was pretty decent.

A la carte / specials

After this meal, we were really psyched to try their a la carte offerings, and their off-menu specials like they have at Valentino’s. So we dragged W there the following week for an early dinner (yes, they too have 2 sittings).

I almost always gravitate towards burrata if a restaurant has it on their menu, and I also inevitably compare it to the one at Valentino’s. The burrata here was pretty good – very creamy and oozy but somehow it lacked the richness and flavour of the one at Valentino. It’s served with parma ham, cherry tomatoes and salad, but at $50 I think this was pretty astronomically priced. I think the parma ham contributed considerably to the cost, which is ironic because I think the ham actually distracts from the taste of the cheese.

We also ordered the bresaola (Italian air dried beef), which was ok but came in such a huge portion that we were pretty salted out before our mains even arrived. W also commented that this should’ve been served with rocket salad and shaved parmesan, rather than a mixed salad.

The white wine mussels and clams were good, with a kick ass white wine sauce. The shellfish arrived from New Zealand that afternoon so there’s no denying that they were really fresh.

W had the lobster pasta but this was very disappointing. Instead of Valentino’s lobster pasta with pink sauce, where the sauce is the essence of lobster, this was prepared aglio olio style, so the pasta barely had any flavour of lobster at all.

A ordered the linguine with burrata, but again this was quite disappointing, with the pasta in an overly watery sauce with small morsels of burrata that could’ve been any other cheese.

I ordered another of the daily specials, a frog’s leg risotto. The first few bites of this were really good, then the risotto curse struck because of the sheer size of the portion, and I found myself really struggling towards the end. Didn’t help that there were loads of frog leg bones in the risotto.

On a colleague’s recommendation we ordered the panna cotta to share, and I must say at least it ended the meal on a good note. The panna cotta was creamy but not overly rich, and very smooth and light.

After both visits, it was clear to us that the no menu is definitely the way to go here. If I wanted to order a la carte/specials, then I’d rather head to Valentino’s.

A says:

The $98 No Menu set was way better. You get to try more stuff and it really fills you up. The only thing I didn’t like was the main protein dish, and that’s only because I don’t like my meat braised.

The daily specials we had for our second visit were great, but very expensive. You could probably get a meal equally as good at Valentino’s for cheaper.

And the one regular ala carte dish was pretty disappointing.

Overall, service is great if you have the right server and definitely worth visiting at least once to have the No Menu option.

No Menu Singapore
23 Boon Tat Street
Tel: 6224-0091

Eli Kirshtein at Krish

2011-04-08T22:41:00.000+08:00

C says:

We’re both big fans of Top Chef (the one with Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio, not to be confused with Masterchef), so when we found out that Eli Kirshtein, who placed 5th in Season 6 (arguably the best non-All Stars season), was in Singapore as a guest chef at Krish, we couldn’t resist checking it out. We figured – how often would we ever get a chance to sample the food of a Top Chef contestant?

Alas, I think his (and the show’s) reputation preceded him. We expected to be blown away, but instead we got fairly generic, not particularly well-executed food that would have been quite forgettable in any other context.

We ordered the $135 surprise 5-course menu, but it was hardly a surprise when everything that we got was also available as an a la carte order. We started with an amuse of a deep fried pork rillette ball with Tabasco sauce. Not bad, in a way that any deep fried meat would be; the Tabasco sauce was pretty subtle and could’ve been more aggressive to stand up to the deep fried rillette.

The next course was supposed to be octopus with watermelon, but it was changed to raw tuna instead. It was dressed with a honey vinaigrette, and the sweetness of both the dressing and the watermelon completely overwhelmed the flavour of the tuna. I could only taste the tuna by deconstructing and eating it separately from the watermelon.

The next course was my favourite of the evening – Egg 63, which consisted of an egg yolk cooked at 63 degrees, and paired with shimeji mushrooms, Chinese sausage (lup cheong) and a mushroom broth. The lup cheong actually went pretty well, with the sweetness pairing with the earthiness of the mushrooms. The egg was perfect – I expected it to ooze and muddy the clarity of the broth, but it had the perfect firmness yet all of the flavour of a runny yolk.

This next dish was a disappointment – shrimp with succotash. The sauce had some sort of crustacean extract and was quite flavourful, but the shrimp weren’t deveined, and had a really mushy texture. I didn’t know if they weren’t fresh or were somehow that texture because of how they’d been cooked. Either way, this wasn’t very pleasant.

The next course was a sous vide duck breast with turnips and beetroot puree. Expecting the duck to be super tender since it was cooked sous vide, again we were quite disappointed because the duck was quite chewy. Some bits were better than others, but generally it wasn’t the standard that I expected.

Dessert was an almond financier with coffee sauce. Surprisingly, this was another highlight of the meal. The financier was amazingly buttery, and went very well with the coffee sauce. At least the meal ended on a high note.

Is this the standard of the food that goes before the judges on Top Chef? I’d like to think not, at least not in recent seasons with the standard as high as it is now. I guess ultimately it’s about execution, and while on the show Chef Eli may have been solely responsible for the dishes he made, here he may have conceptualised them but the most important part, the execution, would have been done by a host of other chefs.

At least we were treated to dinner entertainment in the form of a neighbouring table, a clearly tipsy gentleman with his lady friend. Also apparently a Top Chef fan, he kept bugging the waitresses by asking Chef “Ellie” (as per his pronunciation) to make him a soufflé since he'd made one on the show...

A says:

Service was good. The decor was interesting. The sauces were intriguing. But the main component of each dish was just so average that I was very disappointed.

Maybe Top Chef had our hopes set too high but the food overall was far short of mind-blowing.

Except for the dessert. At least that rocked.

And a look at Krish’s regular menu was interesting enough to make us want to go back and give it a try at some point. I guess we’ll review that then.

Krish

9 Rochester Park

Tel: 6779-4644

Tues to Sat: 6 pm to 10.30 pm

Sun: 10 am to 2.30 pm

Closed Mondays

www.krish.com.sg

Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill

2011-04-03T22:26:00.000+08:00

C says:

I asked A to pick a dinner place at Marina Square tonight, but when he suggested Hippopotamus Grill, I thought he’d gone a bit loony. I was under the impression that this was another Malaysian chain restaurant, like Meatworks, so it was with some trepidation and very muted expectations that I approached the Hippo.

I’m ashamed to admit that I got it all wrong. Firstly, it’s a bona fide French chain, and more importantly, the food is actually pretty decent for the price. We started with the roasted bone marrow served with buttered toast. The marrow was well seasoned, but I think it was also roasted for a tad too long, because the marrow had started to render quite a bit of fat. Good effort, but I wouldn’t order it again.

We’d read some good things about their steak tartare, and I saw that they also had an option of a grilled tartare – their steak tartare already mixed with the egg, capers and other condiments, then very lightly seared on both sides. This is probably sacrilege to steak tartare connoisseurs, but for someone like me who still finds pure steak tartare a little too queasy, this is a perfect compromise.

The meat was roughly hand-minced so it still had some texture, it was well seasoned, and the beef itself was very flavourful. The grill added a nice smoky char, and also cooked the surface just enough to add some bite, yet still retaining the raw interior. Essentially, this was a very tasty, perfectly rare burger patty.

A ordered the Hippo burger, which had sautéed onions and gruyere cheese. The patty was a bit too thin to impart a whole lot of beefy flavour, and there wasn’t enough cheese either. Still, at $14.90 you can’t really ask for too much. The side salad had a kick-ass vinaigrette, but the potato gratin was a bit ordinary.

A was feeling quite retro, so we ordered the molten chocolate cake for dessert. I found this alright, but A was somewhat disappointed, mainly by the ice cream.

Because I came with absolutely no expectations, this turned out to be a pleasant surprise. They have a decent array of steaks here at fairly reasonable prices, and I’m quite keen to come back to try them. Maybe we’ll do a taste test of their premium vs non-premium steaks, to see if we can really taste the difference.

A says:

Unlike C, I had higher expectations for this place. But things started looking bleak when I arrived and saw the very open layout. Still for want of anywhere else as interesting in Marina Square, we decided to give it a try.

All things considered, it was a pretty good meal. The service was good. The seared steak tartare was great, but the Hippo burger disappointed for lack of cheesy flavour. The biggest disappointment was the rock hard ice cream with my molten chocolate cake.

Still, the steak selection looked very interesting so we’ll probably be back at least once to try them. I’ll reserve final judgement until then except to say that if ambience is a big thing for you, then maybe you should give this place a miss.

Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill

6 Raffles Boulevard

#01-204/205

Marina Square

Tel: 6338-5352

Open daily: 11 am to 10 pm