Saturday, March 08, 2008

Another take on Barracks at House

C says:

For a whole slew of reasons, we celebrated W’s birthday really early on Saturday (Happy birthday, W!); it was quite last minute and we didn’t have time to plan one of our preferred potluck dinners, so we decided to eat out at Barracks since we figured it would be able to seat 12 of us at fairly short notice.

I’m sure by now everyone knows about our love affair with Barracks, particularly their Sliders/mini burgers. However I got increasingly nervous on Saturday night when it occurred to me that not everyone may share our exuberance over the fairly simply executed food here. Fine dining it definitely ain’t, and that’s one of the reasons we like it, but we have fellow foodie friends who are decidedly discerning diners (Haha! How’s that for alliteration?), and I was afraid they wouldn’t quite share our views.

Besides a run-in that W had with a baby bug, the evening started out well enough, with the appetisers going down well with everyone. The one-metre long sausage really was exactly that – a metre long and served in a metal tin to fit. We ordered the pork one and it was very good; even the kids liked it so we had another order.

*Newsflash* The American Sliders aka mini burgers are now available at dinner time in all their flavour permutations. We ordered the cheddar and bacon and the mushroom and onion ones to share as starters, medium rare of course, and those were fairly well received too.


Unfortunately, when the mains came things started going a little downhill. I ordered the Jamaican Jerk Pork Tenderloin, and unfortunately while there was nothing wrong with, it couldn’t live up to the mini burgers so I’ve decided to screw trying new things – I’m having the mini burgers as my main from now on.

W ordered the Bay Prawn Cappelini, and the pasta was a little overdone. M (of W & M) had the lobster linguine but I think it was a tad too spicy. M (of M & S) and J both had the braised lamb shank, after being advised by the waiter that their initial choice of lamb cutlets was a bit on the fatty side and not up to scratch. Unfortunately, apparently the lamb shanks were a bit tasteless and also no less fatty. Y ordered the Happy As A Clam – soba noodles with clam broth, but I don’t know how that turned out.


(clockwise from top: chai chocolate fudge cake x 2, brownie, sticky date cake, chocolate toffee cake, lemon macadamia tart)

We were able to try some desserts today, and I must say they turned out better than the first (and only) time I had their desserts. Must have been our choices tonight. I had the chai chocolate fudge cake, which was surprisingly light and moist, and a spoonful of the toffee cake was similarly quite positive.

Well, this has certainly reminded me that food opinions are nothing if not subjective. I think I’ll steer clear of strongly recommending any particular place in future, because I always get nervous if/when other people don’t quite feel the same way.

As an aside, one of their PR ladies kept coming up to our table to ask if everything was ok. It was fine the first time, but after the second and the third time it frankly got a bit creepy and overkill. Maybe she decided to target us because we were in a large group; I hope so, because when I next come back here with A alone I just want to sit somewhere, be inconspicuous and just enjoy my mini burgers and truffle fries.

A says:

The PR lady was quite hot but I’m sticking to the even hotter burgers.

Barracks at House
8D Dempsey Road
Tel: 6475-7787
Mon – Fri: 12 noon to 11 pm
Sat – Sun: 11 am to 11 pm
Trunch: 2.30 pm to 6 pm (sandwiches and desserts only)
Brunch (Sat & Sun): 11 am to 4 pm

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was not a baby bug! It was a scary bug! And I KNEW the dudes will find the PR lady hot! Heh

W

Anonymous said...

CH (of CH & B) had the veal and found it rather tasteless too

Anonymous said...

What other CH could there be?! Anyway the Happy as a Clam was okay but really nothing to shout about. A tad too salty. The Chai Chocolate cake was also okay only. Prefer the brownie. Come to think of it, I didn't ask J how he found the lamb shank. But nice chill out place lah.

Y

Anonymous said...

S of M&S: I had the mushroom risotto and I thought it was rather good actually. But then I'm having a cheese thing so anything cheesy is good. M's mushroom soup was watery and tasteless. I make better mushroom soup. I liked the PR lady though. She was sincere and she Was Hot.

atetoomuch said...

A still maintains that she's not as hot as the burgers.

Ok ok, I guess we have to qualify our raving of this place to their starters (well, most of them anyway). I'll still come back for a good burger and fry meal.