Osvaldo Ristorante Italiano

C says:

Chef Osvaldo Forlino, formerly from Forlino restaurant at One Fullerton, has finally struck out on his own. He left Forlino earlier this year, saying he preferred to run a rustic family eatery compared to the fancy fine dining restaurant that Forlino had somehow become. When I found out he was opening his own place, I couldn’t wait to try it, because when we went to Forlino back when he was still there, I remember thinking that the cooking was rather incongruous with the fancy decor and service.

Having been to Osvaldo’s twice now, I’m extremely confused. My first time was a few weeks ago, for a corporate dinner, and it was one of the best Italian meals I’d had in recent memory. Instead of ordering off the menu (quite a challenge for a party of 20), Chef brought out a selection of antipastis and pastas for us to share, followed by seabass and a huge Florentine steak for our main, and finally chocolate mousse for dessert. One of our party was vegetarian, and we were suitably impressed that Chef himself came out personally to serve her portion, explaining in detail what he had prepared for her.

For me, the highlight of that meal was the porcini mushroom and sausage risotto – an oozy, gloopy mound of perfectly cooked rice in a rich fragrant sauce. I was so impressed with it, and indeed the rest of the meal, that I wanted to bring A here to try it for himself.

Having failed to snag a reservation on Friday night (we tried calling at 6.30, to be told that they were fully booked till 9.30), we came here on Monday night and were surprised to find that it was also almost full.

I have to say that if tonight had been my first experience, I would have written it off without a second thought. It’s only because of the huge disparity between my first and second visits that I’m confused enough to want to give them one more chance.


The risotto that I was so looking forward to was a pale shadow of the one I had before. Instead of being oozy and almost creamy from the starch in the rice, tonight’s had distinct rice grains in a watery sauce – almost like mui fun. And this was after I sent it back, because when it first arrived the rice was undercooked. Clearly it was done in a hurry, without the constant stirring that’s required to create a truly good risotto.


A ordered the spinach and ricotta ravioli in a butter, sage and parmesan sauce. This was good but nothing special, but I wonder whether it’s because it may not have been the smartest thing to order.


One of my complaints, which I’ll elaborate in a minute, is the service. Asking 2 different waitstaff about the specials yielded different responses. The first time, we were told only about the vongole, and a tomino cheese wrapped in parma ham. The second time, we were also told that there was one more serving of a roast suckling pig. The cheese and ham was alright, but again nothing special since we’ve had similar (and possibly better) versions at Valentino and Pietrasantra.


The suckling pig was a letdown. Yes, the crackling was thin and crispy, but we were given 3 tiny portions from the rib section, with little to no meat at all. It was garnished with grilled eggplant and zucchini, all of which were underseasoned and seemed a bit perfunctory. The biggest shock was finding out, at the end of the meal, that the rather sad serving of pig was $45 – quite a rip-off, if you ask me.

I do think that Chef Osvaldo means well, and his intentions are to establish a welcoming, family-style restaurant. Unfortunately, if that mindset isn’t conveyed to the front of house, he may be in danger of recreating the same ambience from Forlino that he precisely wanted to avoid.

I got the impression that we were dismissed by the waiters as cheap non-drinkers who were out for a pasta and didn’t know any better. I saw an adjacent table being served a platter of parma ham and twisted mozzarella and if there’s one thing that upsets me, it’s when (a) I’m not immediately told of the specials and I have to ask, and (b) when I do ask, I’m not informed of the whole picture.

The waiters need to be more informed as well. We were deciding on a cheese, and our waitress recommended the Gorgonzola, saying it was a “nice soft cheese that’s the basis of a tiramisu”. ???!!! Blue cheese tiramisu? Oh dear...

Well, there you have it. Sorry for the rant but I needed to get it off my chest. I think we’ll give them one more chance, but my initial fears that this place would give Valentino a run for his money are completely unfounded.

A says:

What a letdown...

Osvaldo Ristorante Italiano
32 Maxwell Road
#01-03 Maxwell Chambers
Tel: 6224-0978
Mon-Sat: 11.30am-2.30pm, 6.30pm-10.30pm
(Closed on Sun)

Spizzico

C says:

We failed to get a reservation at either Osavaldo Ristorante or Pasta Brava at short notice on a Friday night, so we decided to try Spizzico, the Italian restaurant in UE Square, since we’re moving out of this area soon.

Because this wasn’t our first or second choice of restaurants for evening, I must admit we didn’t go with the best of attitudes. We just wanted to have a quick dinner, and I guess our intentions were apparent, because they clearly dismissed us as not worth their trouble. Even though the restaurant was more than half empty, we were shown to a table outdoors, right next to the dusty road. Possibly the worst table in the house. When I asked if we could sit indoors because of the heat, they dismissively said that there were no more tables for two indoors. Yes... and they couldn’t spare a four-seater for us because they were simply beating away the crowds... right...


To start, we shared the mixed bruschetta, which turned out to be slices of cold cuts on barely toasted slices of baguette. The only one that was good was the tomato one.


They have a pretty extensive menu – too many choices, in my opinion, because it took me ages just to peruse it and make my decision. I ended up having a flat pasta with seafood in a saffron cream sauce. This was similar to Pasta Brava’s stracci in appearance and components, but somehow it just wasn’t as refined. But I’m being fussy; this was a perfectly decent dish if you looked at it independently.


A chose the gnocchi, which was described as being cooked in a pink sauce. My understanding of a pink sauce is that it’s a combination of tomato and cream sauce, but this was just a plain tomato sauce. This was pretty boring, and the gnocchi was really heavy. I tried a few mouthfuls and they immediately sank like leaden weights in my stomach.

While there’s nothing really wrong with the food here, I find that it lacks heart and soul in its execution. Prices are pretty decent though, I must say. If you drink, they have a set dinner with free flow wine, which sounds like a pretty good deal.

A says:

Very average.

Spizzico
#01-13 UE Square
81A Clemenceau Avenue
Tel: 6333-6174
Open daily: 11.30am – 3.30pm; 6pm – 10pm

Burger Shack

C says:

Burger Shack at King’s Arcade is Island Creamery’s foray into savoury food. Just like Island Creamery, this place is student central – they even have special student discounts so they clearly know their target clientele.

The menu isn’t overly ambitious. They have an original beef burger, a Ramly, a pulled pork, a chicken and a Portobello mushroom. Each burger is between $6 and $8, and add-ons like cheese and bacon cost $1.50 extra each. You can also choose to swap your burger bun for butter rice, but the soft fluffy bun is one of the best things here so I won’t suggest swapping.


We tried an original with cheese and bacon, and a Ramly, and ordered a side of shoestring fries. The original was quite good – I liked how the patty was nicely chargrilled, and as always, what doesn’t taste good with bacon?

In contrast, the Ramly was quite a sad excuse for a ramly burger. The patty didn’t have the same charred goodness, and the fried egg was dry and a bit rubbery. Ramly burgers should have sweet chilli sauce and mayonnaise. I didn’t taste any mayo here, and the chilli sauce was more like a sambal and just downright wrong.

It was almost as if both burgers came from two different restaurants. The fries were really good though. The patties here are a bit on the small side, but I do like the soft sesame seed buns. Just steer well clear of the Ramly.

A says:

The fries are a must-try. I like the buns although the base reminds me more of soft Texas toast. As for the main burger components, I’d say yes to the Original and no to the Ramli.

My biggest disappointment was that they don’t serve milkshakes. Very surprising considering it’s owned by the Island Creamery guy.

Burger Shack
559 Bukit Timah Road
#01-01 King’s Arcade
Tel: 6466-3477
Tues – Sun: 12 noon to 10 pm
(Closed Monday)

Ichiban Boshi revisited

C says:

With so many new Japanese restaurants springing up just waiting for us to try, until tonight we hadn’t been back to our previous old faithful Ichiban Boshi in more than a year. Frankly, I think their standard has been gradually deteriorating; either that, or the standard of rival as well as new sushi chains has steadily improved. I’ve been growing less and less enamoured with their thin slivers of fish paired with huge portions of densely-packed rice.

A however, chastised me for becoming too atas, and casting aside the humble eateries from our dating days. Fine... so to humour him we went back to the Great World City branch for dinner tonight, since we had to pick up some sushi for a friend’s housewarming.

While the standard sushi (salmon, maguro, unagi) was pretty decent – they seem to be using smaller chunks of rice now, the aburi sushi platter of their new ‘gourmet sushi’ menu reinforced my current views. At $25 for 8 pieces, this didn’t come cheap but while they certainly tried, this was just executed so poorly.


The uni was a bit fishy, but my main complaint was that they smothered almost every piece of sushi with so much sauce that you could barely taste the fish, let alone the fact that it had been aburi-ed. The tai sushi was drenched in a very salty miso sauce, and worse still, the yellowtail was doused with sweet chilli sauce. Sacrilege! Who puts sweet chilli sauce on sushi, especially in those amounts?! At least they didn’t commit the ultimate sin of saucing the otoro, but this still wasn’t as melt-in-the-mouth fatty as the aburi otoro at Sushi Tei.

I think they simply tried too hard with that dish, when they could have just kept it simple and done what they do pretty well – simple, no-frills sushi; average quality at decent prices.

A says:

The gourmet menu items are to be avoided. Just go for the affordable $2.10 sushi dishes and you’ll have a decent meal.

Ichiban Boshi
#B1-07 Great World City
Tel: 6734-3433
Mon to Sat: 11.30 am – 10 pm
Sun: 11 am – 10 pm

Canton-i

C says:

We met my dad for lunch at ION today, and since my dad has a rather unadventurous palate, that meant no Japanese food or funky street food. We ended up at Canton-i on the third floor – a Cantonese eatery serving everything from roasted meats and wanton noodles, to porridge and dim sum.

We assumed it would be like a generic Crystal Jade sort of place, and were very surprised at how good the food was. I ordered the duck noodles, A had a plain noodle, and we shared a platter of roast pork and char siew, and some dim sum.




Be warned that they describe their plain egg noodles as “wanton noodles” here, so when you order Plain Wanton Noodles, all you get are plain noodles, not even some wanton in the soup. Besides that minor quirk, the noodles were pretty good. They had a good bite to them – nice and springy. We did notice that the sauce served with the dry noodles had a very strange aftertaste, like a hint of coriander, that didn’t exactly wow us, but other than that no complaints. I took a bite of my dad’s beef brisket noodles and they were very good.


They do their roasted meats pretty well. The duck that came with my noodles was tender and very tasty, but it was outshone by the roast pork and especially the char siew. The roast pork nicely seasoned with a thin crisp crackling, and the char siew was glazed with honey and roasted so much that it was almost black and bursting with caramelised goodness. It was also one of the fattiest char siews I’ve ever had, which just added to the incredible flavour.

A ordered the red bean buns, and they came shaped like little piggies! How adorable! This dish would be great for little kids, and it actually tasted pretty good too – very generous with the red bean paste.

We also ordered yam puffs, cos they’re my dad’s favourite dim sum. This was old school wu kok at its best – the filling was deliciously moist, and the fried yam outer layer was light, fluffy and crisp. In contrast, the egg tarts were decent but not as good as everything else.

Prices here aren’t the cheapest – about $20 per person, but quality is excellent. Geez, yet another good food place at ION. We’re too spoilt for choice there now!

A says:

Excellent! Top marks for service and food. And the fattiest char siew I’ve ever had in my life!

Canton-i
#03-14 ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
Tel: 6509-8368
Daily: 11 am to 10 pm
www.canton-i.com

Mietta’s

C says:

We had an off day today, and decided to finally try Chef Angelo Sanetti’s (ex-Michaelangelo) new joint for lunch.

Unfortunately the location is a real downer. We knew it was on Arab Street, but failed to check exactly where, so A was driving around the roads surrounding Arab Street trying to find parking. Turns out the place is directly opposite Golden Landmark Hotel (yes, that end of Arab Street), so A tried parking in Golden Landmark Hotel. Another big mistake – the Hotel’s carpark has stolen the crown from Burlington Square as being the worst carpark in Singapore. Anyway, if you’re planning on driving there, park at Raffles Hospital – it’s just a short 5-minute walk.

Citibank has an ongoing promotion till February 2010 – a one-for-one promotion on their usual $45 set lunch, which is a very good deal. I like the fact that the set menu is standard, and you only get the promotion if you pay with Citibank, unlike menus that are only designed for certain credit card holders, because I always think the quality for those menus is compromised.



Unfortunately they were having some problems with their suppliers so some of the items on the menu weren’t available. To start with, A had the calamari, and I had the mushroom medley – a thin slice of toast topped with mushrooms sautéed in butter with garlic and topped with arugula. There was a huge disparity between mine and A’s. Mine was superb, whereas the calamari was bland and quite chewy.


They had issues with their seafood and duck breast suppliers, so that eliminated the prawn penne, slipper lobster tagliatelle and magret de canard options from the menu. A had the gnocchi with duck confit in a pesto cream sauce for his main, and I had the braised baby lamb shank. My only experience with gnocchi so far has been the one at Valentino, so in comparison this one was a little mushy for my liking.


The lamb shank was heavenly. I was quite surprised – I’m not a huge fan of braised lamb shanks because they usually end up tasting quite similar. This one came with a nice rich jus, and more importantly, it was ridiculously tender yet flavourful at the same time. If I had to find a flaw, it was that the sides were a bit uninspired, though the artichoke puree did add a nice acidic tinge to the otherwise rich meat.



A had the tiramisu for dessert, and I had the Chocolate Delice – cold chocolate ganache on a macadamia cookie dough disc and served with strawberry sorbet. I couldn’t handle more than half of mine; it was way too rich and chocolately for my liking. The tiramisu was ok, but Perla’s is much better.

The food here is far superior to Michaelangelo’s post-Chef Angelo, but because of the location I don’t know if it can survive long term. Business wasn’t great for a Friday lunch, and while the food was quite good, I’d still rather go to Valentino’s or Pasta Brava.

A says:

Definitely recommended, especially for value. Unlike other places with shrunken set portions, everything we got for our set lunch was regular-sized.

While the food is very good, I wouldn’t say it was spectacular. Overall, I’d recommend this as a place for a good hearty meal.

Btw, the parking at the hotel opposite is horrible. Your best bet is parking at Raffles Hospital and making the short walk over.

Mietta’s
126 Arab Street (opposite Golden Landmark Hotel)
Tel: 6396-5493
Lunch: 11am - 2pm
Dinner: 6pm - 10.30pm
(Closed for lunch on Sat)
(Closed on Sun)
www.miettas.com.sg

The Market @ Central

C says:

Next to Yamakawa Super (that mecca of Japanese snacks) in the basement of Central is a new niche supermarket with all sorts of imported goodies, like funky Special K cereals, pasta sauces and cool brands of chocolates and biscuits that you don’t see in standard supermarkets.

Connected to the supermarket is a small dining area with a pasta and soup counter. Basic pastas go for a mere $8, with a $2 surcharge if you want one of their home-made spinach or squid ink pastas. Top-up another $5.90 for a set which gives you any soup and salad.


We decided to try as much variety as possible, so one of us opted for the set, we had one pasta with their basic tagliatelle, and another with the squid ink tagliatelle. We went with the smoked salmon salad, and the clam chowder. The salad looked pretty basic but the dressing was quite well balanced so this turned out better than expected. I know if it was canned or freshly made, but the chowder was pretty good and quite generous with the clams.


A had the basic tagliatelle with a tomato cream sauce with chicken and sundried tomatoes. I found the sauce a tad too creamy; I would’ve liked slightly more tomato flavour, but the pasta was very well cooked.


I had the squid ink tagliatelle with a bacon, mushroom and cream sauce. I think it’s worth adding the $2 for the squid ink pasta because it adds a depth of flavour that the basic one doesn’t have. Again it was cooked to a perfect al dente. I think next time we’ll try the squid ink pasta with a tomato-based sauce, and maybe the spinach pasta with a cream-based one.

They initially mixed up our order, pairing the squid ink pasta with A’s tomato cream sauce instead. We deliberated just accepting it reluctantly, but before we could decide, the head waiter came back and acknowledged their mistake, and asked if we wanted to change, which we agreed. I know it was their mistake but still, it was good of them to admit it.

Very good value for the quality that you get. Plus you can go shopping at the supermarket and Yamakawa Super while you’re there. What more reason do you need?

A says:

The Pasta & Soup place RAWKS! Cheap and good.

There’s also a Jap food counter here which I might try at some point.

The Market @ Central
#B1-28 The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
Tel: 6222-9060
Sundays to Thursdays: 11am to 10pm
Fridays to Saturdays: 11am to 11pm

Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant

C says:

This is the second branch of Watami to open in Singapore, the first being at ION Orchard. This is the restaurant that closed their queue at 8.40 one evening, forcing us to go to Aoba Ramen next door instead. When we found out that a second outlet had recently opened at Central, we were quite psyched to try it. Finally, we thought, a chance to try it without the horrendous queue at ION.

Alas, there was also about a half hour wait at Central, but we put our name down and explored the rest of Central in the meantime. It was with considerable anticipation that we finally took our seats, placed our order and waited for the food to arrive.

Given the hype of the endless queues and P’s recommendation, this fell sorely short of expectations. We ordered quite a wide range of food, and none of the dishes made any impact whatsoever.


The Sushi Grandeur was a selection of their ‘premium’ sushi – teriyaki eel, scallop topped with mango, and salmon. This was pretty boring and lacklustre, and at $10.80, it wasn’t very cheap given the standard.


The grilled scallop and mushroom fared slightly better, but really, you can’t cock up scallops and mushrooms tossed with butter and bacon.


We tried the seafood garlic rice in a stone bowl. This looked promising, what with the sizzling sounds of rice being nicely charred to a crisp on a hot stone. While the rice did get nice and burnt, the dish on a whole was completely under seasoned. We had to add quite a bit of soy sauce before there was any semblance of flavour.


There were 2 good dishes, though I don’t think they were enough to redeem the others. The mentai cheese tamago yaki – omelette filled with cheese and mentaiko and lightly grilled – was light and well-balanced between the savoury filling and the sweet egg.


Another pretty good (but very filling) dish was the okonomiyaki. This was filled with cabbage, sliced pork and noodles. This tasted really good when it first arrived piping hot, and my first mouthful yielded a wonderfully fatty slice of pork. Unfortunately once it cools down it gets a bit heavy and stodgy.

Service isn’t horrendous but I think they just can’t cope with the crowds. We had to ask time and again for soy sauce and serviettes, though to give them some credit, they did look like they were trying.

The Watami Group is a Japanese chain which is apparently quite popular in Japan. I can only guess that they’ve franchised their operations outside Japan to a completely independent franchisee, because I can’t imagine that food of this standard can ever attain a loyal following amongst the Japanese with their discerning palates.

A says:

It’s not bad but I really don’t see what the fuss is about. There are some standout dishes (like the scallops) but I definitely wouldn’t queue up for it.

Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant
6 Eu Tong Sen Street, The Central
#03-82/83/85/102/108/109
Tel: 6323-3398
Open daily: 11.30 am to 11 pm
http://www.watami.com.sg/

Itacho Sushi

C says:

Itacho Sushi, a sushi chain originating from Hong Kong, has taken its home country by storm, and is now looking to make some inroads into the Singapore market. Good for them, I say, because I was quite impressed when we tried it on Sunday night.

It’s very much cha chan teng style, where you mark your order on the order forms at the table. The good thing about this place is that the nigiri sushi is sold per piece, so you don’t have to get pairs and you get to try even more varieties.

The sushi was surprisingly good. Prices are generally very decent – a piece of aburi salmon belly sushi is only $1.70, for example, and the fish to rice ratio was a lot better than many of the other sushi chain restaurants (the thin slivers of fish atop huge chunks of rice at some branches of Ichiban Sushi spring to mind). This is taken to extremes with the anago (sea eel) sushi – an entire anago fillet on top of a small portion of rice, at only $6 a piece.


Other things we tried were a soy-marinated salmon sushi (80 cents), fatty yellowtail sushi ($2.70), sushi with aburi scallop and cod liver ($2.80), aburi mackerel sushi ($1.60), crab meat salad ($4.50) and an agedashi tofu with fried sakura ebi ($6).


Service was excellent. The waiter at the door was one of the most well-spoken Japanese restaurant waiters I’ve ever come across, and when one of the waitresses made a mistake with an octopus dish that I’d ordered, she volunteered to change it, even though I’d taken a piece of octopus already, without any complaints or questions asked.

Don’t compare this with premium Japanese restaurants, but if you take it for what it is, i.e. a chain sushi restaurant, then for what you’re paying, the standard is really quite high. Props to A’s friend KH for recommending this place to us. We’d never have thought to try it, given the wealth of other choices at ION, but now I’m already quite keen to go back for more.

A says:

Superb service and the food’s not bad. Definitely an option at Ion (although I still prefer the duck from B4).

Itacho Sushi
#B2-18 ION Orchard
Tel: 6509-8911
Sun – Thurs: 11 am to 10 pm
Fri – Sat: 11 am to 11 pm

Hatched

C says:

Hatched, as the name suggests, specialises in eggs. In almost every shape or form. There are apparently about 30 different egg dishes on the menu, which is heaven for all of us who have a craving for breakfast foods at unexpected times of the day or even week.

The place is owned by A’s cousin, and it only just opened its doors on 19th September at Evans Lodge, a few doors down from Prata Cafe and Wine Company. The place was packed when we were there on Sunday morning, but we just about managed to get a table without a reservation. To avoid disappointment I would recommend making a booking on weekend mornings, given the fact that the restaurant has barely been open for 3 weeks and already there was a steady stream of customers.

The menu is divided into categories based on how the eggs are prepared – scrambled, poached and boiled, to name a few. Egg lovers are really spoilt for choice, because there are so many enticing items on the menu. Eventually, after much deliberation, A ordered the smoked salmon scramble, and I had the Rossini – scrambled eggs topped with pan-seared foie gras. Both were served with toast and sautéed potatoes.


A’s turned out to be more salmon than egg, which is actually a good thing, but I think a small part of A wanted a heaping pile of scrambled egg. The egg was actually stuffed inside rolled-up slices of salmon.


On the other hand, my scrambled eggs were served in a separate bowl topped with a slice of foie gras. Given the rather generous portion of foie gras, I thought this was a pretty good deal at $18. My only comment was that the egg and foie gras could’ve been a little more seasoned, but after a few sprinkles of table salt it was fine.


Being atetoomuch, we also tried the eggs Benedict. I like that you can order a portion of just one egg for $10, or two for $16. It allowed us to just have a taste without being overstuffed. Again, this was pretty good – the hollandaise wasn’t as rich and creamy as I would’ve liked, but it’s a lot healthier this way so no complaints.

Given that they’re still finding their feet, service was quite fast and very polite. This is a refreshing addition to our dining scene, and I’m quite looking forward to more occasions where I can have breakfast foods at dinner time.

A says:

The food is good and the prices are great... until you see the small portions. At least they give you a healthy portion of very tasty potatoes to help fill you up. Give it a try.

Hatched
26 Evans Road
#01-06 Evans Lodge
Tel: 6735-0012/13
Tues – Thurs and Sun: 8 am to 10 pm
Fri – Sat: 8 am to 12 mn

More ION Street Food

C says:

The early bird catches the worm. Or in our case, the takoyaki and Arinco King salt caramel roll. We got to ION at 11 am, and the basement food stalls had only just begun their business. We decided to take advantage of our early start, and try all the stalls that normally have snaking queues when the crowds build up.

Gindaco Takoyaki

For me, that meant making a beeline for the renowned takoyaki stall. Ever since it opened, it’s had a Donut Factory effect – scores of people would queue for the fried balls of batter, cabbage and octopus.

When we got there, we were so early that a queue hadn’t even formed yet, and they were just about getting the first batch of balls nicely browned. We placed our order, and were told to return in 5 minutes to pick it up.


Well, I still wouldn’t queue for too long for these, but I must say they’re a whole lot better than Takopachi, the other takoyaki brand that’s available in many supermarket food courts. Takopachi offers a number of fillings (octopus, bacon and cheese and prawn) whereas Gindaco only has octopus, but Gindaco certainly focuses on executing that one variety well. The outside is browned and crisp, and when you cut into it – I would advise not biting into a freshly cooked one cos it’s steaming hot – the batter is remarkably light. Quite a contrast with Takopachi’s dense and soggy interiors.

I’ll definitely have these again. But only when there’s no/not much of a queue.

R Burger

In contrast, this was such a disappointment. Having read good reviews and seen the long queue when we were last here, we headed for the stall while it was still quiet, and ordered the R Burger – a beef patty with shiso leaf, pickled daikon in a steamed mantou bun.


I really didn’t like the flavour combination – essentially the shiso leaf overwhelmed all the other flavours, with the daikon second and the beef patty a distant last place. I didn’t care much for the mantou bun either. I know it’s meant to be a light and fluffy alternative to a regular burger bun, but I found it a bit sticky and unpleasant – kinda like pau that’s gotten a bit wet whilst steaming.

Arinco King


You can’t miss this stall, with its larger than life salt caramel roll, a hint that this is clearly their specialty. Snagging one of these is apparently almost an art form. More often than not, when you go at peak hours it’s sold out, and when you try to go early like we did, the rolls aren’t ready yet. So we placed an order at 11.30 am, went shopping and picked it up at around 1 pm.

Each portion is $18 for a roll that’s approximately 6 inches long, and about 3 inches in diameter. Soft vanilla sponge is rolled with Chantilly cream and scorched caramel, and drizzled with salty caramel.


I have a salt caramel obsession, so this was close to heaven for me. I’m quite picky about my salt caramels. I think so far, Canele’s salt caramel macarons and Cafe Caramel cake have the best salt caramel blend. They’re daring enough to push the boundaries of the saltiness level of the caramel.

I must say this gives Canele a run for their money. The flavours in the roll are surprisingly complex. The salt caramel topping is pretty close to Canele’s, and the caramel within the roll is slightly burnt so it’s nutty and a little bitter, but not past the point where it’s downright burnt.

The roll is quite big, so if you’re counting your calories (and who isn’t, these days), don't worry, you can spread them out, because this keeps in the fridge for about a week.

A says:

Gindaco Takoyaki – the staff at the takoyaki were really efficient and friendly, but I really didn’t find the balls that great. Worth a try, but only if there’s no queue.

R burger – yuck.

Arinco King – very good. Whether it’s worth the $15+ price tag is questionable though.

The Prime Society

C says:

I’m not sure which of A’s atas friends suggested this place, but we found ourselves here on Monday night (Hari Raya Puasa). We were a bit apprehensive because before dinner, we were checking out the website, which is quite frustratingly smart-ass.

Still, we went with an open mind, and dinner was generally better than expected. Our table of 12 was seated right in front of the open kitchen, which meant we could see our steaks being cooked, but also meant we ended up smelling of steak by the end of the night.

It’s certainly not cheap – a decent cut of steak starts at around $45, which prices slowly increasing depending on the cut, origin and whether the cow was grain or grass-fed. Most of A’s friends had the rib fillet; A and I shared a whopping 750 gram rib on the bone.


This was a huge hunk of meat, but much of the weight was in the bone. It was grilled really well, with a nice charred exterior and quite rare inside. However, we weren’t raving about the meat as much as those who had the rib fillet. I guess there was less fat in our cut, so the meat, though well cooked, tasted a tad one-dimensional.


Dessert was an absolute rip off. The chocolate trio consisted of a crème brulee, chocolate tart and ice cream. The tart was the size of a 50 cent coin and tasted like it was store-bought. The texture of the crème brulee was like pudding – not very pleasant at all.

Comparisons with Morton’s are inevitable, and I think what this place has going for it is that it’s less intimidating than Mortons, and it’s cheaper. You don’t get the whole Morton’s experience though. Service was pretty slow, though I guess to be fair to them, it can’t be easy catering to a table of 12. It was worth a try, but I don’t think it’ll be the first place I think of when I have a major craving for steak.

A says:

I wasn’t blown away by the meat. But at least it’s cheaper and less stuffy than Morton’s. I must say the service is very friendly and efficient. If only the prices were equally friendly.

Note to self: skip the desserts.

The Prime Society
10 Dempsey Road
#01-20
Tel: 6474-7427
Lunch:
Tues to Fri: 12 noon to 3 pm
Dinner:Daily: 6 pm to 10.30 pm
Brunch:
Sat and Sun: 11.30 am to 3 pm
http://www.theprimesociety.com/

Home-made curry puffs

C says:

Not, not made by me. This is actually the name of the stall at Toa Payoh. For those of you familiar with the Bukit Timah area, this is the pyramid curry puff that used to be at Bouganvillea Park, near the bus stop. It moved when they decided to spruce up the park (though in my opinion it doesn’t look all that much better now), and for years I wondered if she re-opened anywhere.

Finally, a couple of months ago an article appeared in the Sunday Times, featuring the ex-Bouganvillea Park pyramid curry puffs. After Bukit Timah, Madam Moh opened a stall at Balestier, before settling at her current locale in Toa Payoh.


Maybe childhood food memories play a big part, but to me this is the best curry puff ever. The pastry is paper thin yet not too fragile, crisp yet not too oily. She’s extremely generous with the filling, which consists of potatoes, a wedge of hard boiled egg and tender chicken thigh pieces. This is how Old Chang Kee curry puffs used to be, before they exploded into the global brand they are now and became machine rather than hand-made.

Now that I’ve re-discovered Madam Moh, I’m going to make a point to patronise her stall every once in a while. I’ve even taken down her number so that if she ever were to move again, I’ll know where to track her down.

A says:

Curry puffs aren’t my thing. I’m more into Powerpuffs. Fighting crime, trying to save the world...

Home-Made Curry Puffs
Block 19, Toa Payoh Lorong 7
#01-264
Tel: 9389-4408
Closed on Mondays

The Handburger

C says:

Newly opened at the Raffles City basement by the folks behind The Soup Spoon, The Handburger offers an array of gourmet burgers at prices ranging from around $13 to $18. The decor is simple, and I quite like the wooden block-like chairs that tuck nicely away under the tables.

They have quite exotic burger varieties, including a tea-smoked duck burger, duck confit burger and tandoori chicken burger. Being our first time here, we decided that one of us should try the original before veering off to the exotic ones. So I had the Original Handburger, which consists of a 170g sirloin patty, tomato, lettuce, cheddar cheese, caramelised onion jam on an onion bun. I chose to have mine with fries.


It didn’t bode well when my request for a medium rare burger led to much confusion between the server and the kitchen. The server looked at me blankly, and told me their burger is normally cooked 70%. Figuring that was more like medium or even medium well, I asked for 50% instead. More confusion as that was relayed to the kitchen. Finally, the head waiter came to me, and confirmed that I wanted it medium rare. Isn’t that what I said all along?!

Against this backdrop, I therefore didn’t expect much when the burger arrived. To my surprise, it was actually very good indeed. Perfectly cooked patty, the bun was nice and soft, and the onion jam added sweetness but not in a cloying way.


A ordered the Reuben, which had slices of corned beef, swiss cheese and an egg on a basil bun. He chose the chilled stuffed tomato as his side – a peeled tomato was stuffed with coleslaw. I found this a bit too cold for my liking, but it tasted good. I think the Original was better than the Reuben – I found the basil bun a bit too experimental for me.

The coffee here isn’t great, but overall this was a surprisingly good find. Next time if we’re really hungry, one of us can try The Works burger, which is the Original with added mushrooms and bacon. Mmm...

A says:

Props to my dad for mentioning this place to us (although what he said was, “Wah! Burger so expensive one ah?”).

The waitress we got was a bit blur but everyone else seemed to know what they were doing.

C’s burger was better than mine but it has to be eaten fast. The patty goes cold and lifeless if you don’t gobble it down. But a big treat for me was the chilled tomato stuffed with coleslaw. Totally unexpected and totally a refreshing change from fries. Not for everyone but a definite must-have for me.

Anyway, this is my new favourite joint in RC. My next goal is to go hungry and try the desserts and/or milkshake.

The Handburger
#B1-77/78 Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge Road
Tel: 6334-4577
Sundays to Thursdays and PH: 11.30 am to 10 pm
Fridays, Saturdays and eve of PH: 11.30 am to 10.30 pm
http://www.thehandburger.com/

En Grill & Bar

C says:

For the month of September (and, according to one of the waiters, for October too), En Grill & Bar at UE Square is having a really good deal. $24.80++ for an a la carte buffet of their skewers. At first when I heard that there was a selection of 20+ skewers, I thought they’d pick 20 basic ones from their menu. But when we inspected their regular menu, it actually had less variety than the buffet menu. And when you look at the prices of the regular skewers, this is a really good deal.



To start with, they give each person a selection of 5 skewers. After that, you can order as many as you like. We tried quite a number – bacon-wrapped scallop, prawn wrapped in pork and shiso leaf, asparagus bacon, enoki bacon, unagi, and beef with grated radish and ponzu sauce.


The prawn was good, and the beef was a nice medium-rare and went very well with the ponzu-soaked grated daikon. But surprisingly, the best skewer of the night was the cherry tomato and cheese wrapped with bacon. Each bite exploded with flavour, and tasted like really good pizza.

Service is polite, but they missed out a section of our order, so we were waiting in vain for quite a while. Only when they came to ask us if we wanted more, did we realise that they forgot a part of the order. Our re-order arrived pretty quickly though.

Generally, nothing really blew me away, but at that price for all-you-can-eat skewers, of pretty good quality, I really can’t complain.

A says:

The surprise of the night was the cherry tomato and cheese wrapped in bacon. Excellent. Everything else ranged from good to not bad. The service was great (even though the waitress missed half our rather large order the first time, the food came quickly on the re-order). Just a side note if you’re sitting indoors, the ventilation isn’t perfect so while you’ll definitely not smell, be prepared for a mild lingering odour of grilled meats.

En Grill & Bar
207 River Valley Rd #01-60
UE Square
Tel: 6732-6863
Opening Hours:
Mon to Thurs: 6 pm to 2 am
Fri, Sat & Eve of PH: 6 pm to 3 am
Closed Sun
www.endiningbars.com/grill

Zen Japanese Cuisine

C says:

Zen is part of the En group of restaurants, and like En Japanese Dining Bar, Zen has a pretty killer a la carte buffet comprising both shabu shabu and regular items. However, unlike at En where the shabu shabu is, if not the star of the show, at least on par with the other items, here at Zen I’m willing to trade in the shabu shabu to provide more stomach space for the other dishes, which are excellent.


The one dish that I think makes the whole buffet worthwhile is the aburi salmon sushi. The sushi is perfectly sized – small amounts of rice with fairly decent slices of salmon belly, lightly torched for a smoky flavour and topped with a dollop of mayonnaise. I think A and I had like ten pieces each...


Two other items which are worth ordering at least one portion each are the grilled sirloin steak with ponzu sauce, and tenderloin beef cubes with mashed potato. The tenderloin cubes are so tender they really melt in your mouth, but I actually prefer the sirloin because it has a bit more texture and more importantly, a more pronounced beefy flavour.

They do a really good daikon salad as well, and their asparagus with blue cheese sauce is interesting and very addictive. It comes with perfectly toasted baguette slices to mop up the blue cheese sauce.

Desserts are included in the buffet too – cheesecake, coconut crème brulee, and vanilla and chocolate ice creams. I like the cheesecake, which was light, not too sweet and a perfect end to the meal.

Service was generally very good all night, except for a puzzling occurrence – every single one of our orders turned up, except for the garlic fried rice and crab ‘mui fun’. We had to remind them twice for both carb dishes, which was pretty odd. You’d think that it was in their interests to bring the carb dishes first to fill us up so that we don’t order enough aburi sushi to feed an army.

The strange thing about Zen is that their buffet costs more on weekdays than on weekends! From Mondays to Fridays it costs $52; it’s $42 on weekends.

A says:

RAWK!!! I have to waddle out of here every time.

The service can be a bit slow though so place a big first round order and be prepared to wait. Just don’t over order and get flooded with stuff right at the end.

Note to self: don’t order rice again. It just fills you up too much.

Zen Japanese Cuisine
205 River Valley Road
UE Square #01-75
Tel: 6732-3110
Mon – Fri: 12 noon to 2.30 pm; 6 pm to 12 mn
Sat, Sun & PH: 6 pm to 12 mn
www.endiningbars.com/zen

Kith - an update

C says:

We went for brunch again today, and it was somewhat more disorganised than last week. Food took a while, and they seemed to have run out of quite a number of items. At least they were upfront about it when orders were placed, though. We had a lazy day ahead of us, so we didn’t mind the wait while we read the papers. I think our food arrived after about 20 minutes.

Until they sort themselves out with (hopefully) expanded premises, don’t come here if you have limited time and aren’t prepared to wait. But if you can be patient, the coffee here is still worth the wait. Had the flat white again today and it’s still one of the best cups of coffee I’ve had.


And haha, it may be coincidence, but this week the sandwich came with tortilla chips, not crisps! A was mighty pleased :)

A says:

I like the place but my recommendation remains to go at a less busy time or wait till they have expanded into larger premises.

Kith Cafe
7 Rodyk Street
Watermark @ Robertson Quay, #01-33
Tel: 6341-9407
Open daily: 7 am to 7 pm
www.kith.com.sg

15 Minutes Cafe

C says:

Thanks once again to cousin L for recommending this place. Located at Lasalle College of the Arts’ swank new premises in the heart of town, this casual dining place serves pretty tasty and very reasonably priced food. The large area it occupies and the vast high ceilings give it a good sense of space, making it very conducive to just chilling out and nibbling.

The regular menu features items like a very decent-sized burger, complete with egg, cheese and mushrooms, and side of very good fries, for only $12.90, shaker salads that come in a jar for under $10, and a selection of pastas and pizzas for around $9.90. In addition, they have a separate tapas selection which is laid out at the counter. You’re supposed to pick and choose, then pay for them at the cashier.


We came here on Saturday night with A’s gal pal T and her bf D. On L’s recommendation A had the burger. For $12.90, the burger was pretty good. The patty was quite juicy, not dry, and while I think it would benefit from some bacon, at that price I really can’t complain.


I had the southern fried chicken wings, which were really good – they tasted like the Ikea ones! The rest of the stuff I had was picked from the tapas counter. We had a selection of bruschettas – one with buffalo mozzarella and trout pate, mushrooms duxelles with blue cheese, and torched smoked salmon. Prices ranged from $2.90 to $5.90, and I think the mushroom one was the best, though all of them were pretty good.

I would recommend coming slightly later, say past 8 pm. We were there just after 7, and some of the tapas selection wasn’t ready yet, like the mini wagyu burger than is served on a fried mantou bun, blue cheese wings and a breaded fried lambchop (confusingly termed the Lambchop Lollilop). Those appeared halfway through our dinner, so we couldn’t risk trying the wings, but I would’ve liked having the whole selection to choose from at the start.


The blue cheese wings were quite interesting. In addition to the blue cheese sauce, it was dusted with chopped mint, which helped to brighten up the flavours. Still, because it was battered then fried, I found it a bit heavier and oilier, and actually preferred the basic fried wings that we had earlier.

Desserts are quite no frills here, with simple things like no-bake cheesecake, trifle and chocolate mousse in little plastic cups, for around $3. We tried the cheesecake, which had a dusting of “roasted soil” on top – crumbled cookie bits. This turned out better than expected.

All in all, we had a very pleasant experience here. The ambience is great, food is good and really reasonable. One of the few places these days that you can go to for austerity drive food without compromising on taste. Needless to say I’m already itching to head back to try the other items in their tapas selection.

A says:

Mad props to cousin L for the recommendation. I really like this place. Good atmosphere, good food and super easy parking in the basement (you get there via Prinsep Street).

The regular dishes are very reasonably priced although if you go crazy on the “tapas”, the bill can add up. Having said that, the tapas dishes are the best things here. I’ll be back to try more soon.

15 Minutes Cafe
1 McNally Street, Blk D, #01-01
Lasalle College of the Arts
Tel: 6333-5915 (reservations accepted only for evening)
Mon – Thurs: 10 am to 11 pm
Fri: 10 am to 12 mn
Sat: 11.15 am to 11 pm

Hana Hana Japanese Restaurant

C says:

We came here on Friday night intending to have a fairly light Japanese dinner, because my throat still isn’t faring too well. Instead, we were informed that their a la carte buffet, which usually costs $33++, was going at a very reasonable $29.90 nett. We figured our bill would amount to something close to that per person if we ordered off the regular menu anyway, so decided to go for the buffet (argh).


The buffet includes sushi, sashimi, yakitori and tempura items so it’s pretty good value for money. But the quality is pretty basic, so don’t expect premium ingredients for that price. The grilled yellow tail head on the buffet menu was also too good to be true – it was the head, not the collar (cheek), so the meat isn’t as meltingly soft.

Still, the food is decent and service is good. They were apologetic that the food took so long, and when we called for the bill after we were stuffed, they thought it was because we were unhappy with the service/the wait, because in their opinion we didn’t eat much at all. Imagine that!

A says:

The food’s pretty standard but takes very long to prepare. This might be because of the two large groups taking advantage of the buffet deal though. It’s a very good deal after all.

The service is friendly although a bit blur. A note of caution, the place doesn’t have great ventilation so prepare to smell of the place if you sit near the open kitchen.

Hana Hana Japanese Restaurant
223 River Valley Road Tel: 6738-5858
Lunch: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm
Dinner: 5.30 pm to 2.30 am
http://www.hanajap.com/