Pique Nique

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

The Jackson Plan

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

Woori Nara

C says:

After hearing and reading good things about Woori Nara’s Volcano Korean fried chicken, we headed to Lorong Kilat to try it for ourselves. We ordered half a Volcano chicken (supposedly their super spicy variety), and a regular yum yum chicken with rice set.


As with all Korean restaurants, this came with a few sides. I guess we’ve been spoiled by the Korean bbq place near our house, cos the sides here were nowhere near as varied nor as tasty as the ones there. Clearly then, the meal wasn’t off to the best of starts.


A’s yum yum chicken set arrived first, and if this was supposed to be mildly spicy, I didn’t have high hopes for the volcano one. The chicken was more sweet than anything else, and even the rice wasn’t hot or fluffy.


The Volcano fried chicken really didn’t live up to my expectations. Sure, there was some heat but only a strange lingering pepperiness rather than any proper heat. The sauce was again just predominantly sweet, and my biggest grouse was that the chicken was just way too battered, so that all I tasted was batter drenched in a sweet sauce, and could barely taste the chicken.

Maybe that’s the style of Korean fried chicken, but if that’s the case I think I’ll pass, and get my Korean fix in the form of grilled meats or a simple kimchi soup nearby.

A says:

I like the sweet chilli sauce that doesn’t really taste killer hot, but leaves a strange stinging in your mouth and tummy when done.

But is it worth a special trip out to try? Er... not really.

Woori Nara
19 Lorong Kilat
#01-02
Tel: 6464-9282