Its great to see Manhattan Fish Market in a less centralized area like Pasir Ris because first of all, i'm nearer to the East and second of all, this was one of the first restaurants i tried when i started out.
Straight to the point, the restaurants main competitor will be Fish and Co. Their generally a little different in terms of preparation and so far, my impression of MFM is that it has more fried items.
Fried country mushrooms ($9.90) - 6 button mushrooms covered in batter and deep fried. Its as good as ever but i did find that this time, it cooled a lot faster as well. Probably due to peak hour and the fact that lots of people were there. Which led to it being prepared earlier to meet the demand.
Main Platter for 2($33.90) - The platter for 2 used to go for $29.90 but has since increased their prices since then. You get the usual HUGE piece of fish, fries, garlic rice, flaming prawns, calamari and mussels. Its actually a pretty big portion to be honest and big eaters need apply to finish it. The fish is still one of the better ones, thick, sweet and lightly battered. I could have 2 pieces if given the choice. The prawns are average but the mayo like sauce is excellent with the rice. mussels and calamari were equally well done. To me, this is still a good platter of food.
Overall billed clocked in at $46.40.
A hefty sum to be sure but still under the acceptable range.
However, if it continues its upward trend in pricing, i'd find it hard pressed to find an excuse to return before long.
Au petit salut is helmed by chef Patrick Steuberger from Switzerland. Having garnered various experiences overseas in multiple countries and various michellin star chefs as tutors, Patrick returned to Au petit salut as executive chef in 2005. With such an impressive resume, its no wonder the restaurant was introduced to me by my boss.However, i maintain that reputation remains as reputation until put to the actual taste test. How will it fare i wonder?
Upon entering, you will find that the restaurant exudes a form of rustic charm for its location and the design of it exterior. Seemingly a colonial building that has yet to be teared down and located in the deep recesses of a mildly wooded enclave, its like stepping back in time to a less busy era where life was a little less complicated. In short, i felt relaxed the moment i parked my car.
The restaurant is a rather intimate affair with the interior seating about 30-40 people and the al fresco section seating around the same number of people. When i made my reservation, the restaurant was fully booked due to a corporate function but they made concessions since i only needed 2 seats.Decor wise, minimal is best for this place but i'm quite pleased with the simple and clean approach used.
The restaurant is a rather intimate affair with the interior seating about 30-40 people and the al fresco section seating around the same number of people. When i made my reservation, the restaurant was fully booked due to a corporate function but they made concessions since i only needed 2 seats.Decor wise, minimal is best for this place but i'm quite pleased with the simple and clean approach used.
My choice of starter was the foie gras as usual. For the price, i'm surprised at how big a portion the foie gras was. In short, this would easily have cost more then $30 on ala carte given the size. Quality wise, it was also a surprise since the Xeres vinegar and red onions actually managed to enhance the taste of the foie gras by adding a sourish and sweet taste. The spinach also managed to neutralize the oily taste somewhat. However, make no mistake, this is still a sinful and oily dish but one thats done well in both quality and quantity.
My gf had this soup and i had a taste, i can't remember what vegetable it was but i can tell you it tasted fresh, sweet and appetising.
Half dozen baked Burgundy snails with tomato and garlic butter - Feeling a little adventurous, we ordered an addtional serving for appetiser which was these little critters you see here. Snails. First off, i've never tasted these things before and was warned that they come with a weird and sometimes pungent smell when done wrong. However, this rendition i tried was optimistic. The tomato and garlic butter was baked well into the dish and managed to cover the pungent taste. There was still a hint of the slimey texture of the snail but otherwise, the majority of the taste went to the garlic butter. It was quite alright actually.
Filet de boeuf sauce moutarde et herbes fraîches - Pan seared beef tenderloin of about 150gm served with mashed potato mustard and herb sauce. The beef itself was a little overcooked on the sides but got better towards the middle since my order was for medium rare. The meat near the middle was tender and succulent with a generous smattering of juiciness. The herb sauce fared pretty well but bordered on being too salty. Mashed potato was excellent, supremely smooth and easy on the palate but some may find it too milky.
Guinea fowl and pork sausage served with melted cabbage and bacon, brown jus - My gf's dish, i only had a small taste of this but i found it salty and sourish. Not exactly something i would like. For the record, my gf didn't like this much either.
Fondant chaud au chocolat - Ah....fondants. Something i would soon stop ordering since i now know how to make it myself. Their rendition was pretty good, nice and crispy on the outside while warm suitably flowing on the inside. The chocolate is just right, not too sweet nor too bitter. This went well with the chocolate sorbet but horribly with the reddish fruit (i suspect raspberry).
“Mont-Blanc” vanilla ice cream, chestnut purée and meringue - Well, this didn't go too well. Being my first mont blanc and all, the vanilla ice cream was the only thing passable while the chestnut puree tasted like sweetened yam. Utterly disappointed given the rather flashy name.
Hazelnut tart with orange marmalade and vanilla “Crème Anglaise” - Another disappointment in the dessert department, this hazelnut tart was once again, rather lacklustre in weird in the taste department. Its also warm and the thing that looks like ice cream isn't. It tastes like orange cream and didn't go well with the tart at all.
Total bill came up to $131 for this meal.
In the end, the meal was still satisfactory even though one main dish and 2 of its desserts were rather lacklustre. Service was excellent while the relaxed atmosphere would have been complete if the corporate event was not ongoing while we were there. I did realise that all of the dishes that didn't live up to standard came from the $30 lunch menu while the $58 lunch menu was generally better in standard and taste. Maybe a difference in price means a difference in quality?
For this years Christmas Eve celebration, i managed to go out with a couple of friends who has been asking forever to have an outing. And i'm glad i went for it. First of all, thanks to all the people who came that night, it was great fun and lets do it again soon.
So it was that this restaurant was decided upon for the gathering. I was skeptical at first but these were quickly dispelled when i had my first bite. The restaurant itself was located right next to Tao's to the left. There's another steamboat place on the right called Ju Ju Steamboat restaurant so make sure you don't get confused.
The meal we had was the buffet menu at 27 .
The selection is decent to say the least, there's the usual cooked food menu and the non cooked food menu and a variety of soup bases to choose. Our choice were the winter melon and the herbal chicken soup base. Both were pretty good but the winter melon tasted much better. The herbal chicken soup was rather bland tasting.
The selection of items included the usual prawns, chicken, beef, pork, eggs and veg.
The beef is of paticular mention since it tastes really fresh and good. If not for the buzzing flies, the beef was something to really eat much off.
The interesting items were the char siew pau, custard buns and the har gao(shrimp dumplings), which required you to boil them before eating. The pork dumplings were interesting as its the first time i had BBQ pork dumplings that need to be boiled. Even more surprising is that it actually tastes pretty good. Along with the custurd bun and the shrimp dumplings as well.
The chili cockles are worth a mention too. Spicy and sweet. One can easily eat this whole bowl straight off.
Overall, i'd say the meal was rather good in general. Service can be slow when the crowd sets in and the plates can really pile up quite quickly. However, the quantity of items served and the hit items make up for it.
And when good company is around, food just tastes better.
Cheers and happy new year people.
Experiences can be a funny thing. It changes your outlook on life and brings different priorities to light which you might never have noticed otherwise.
For this year end, the teambuilding event my boss decided upon is one which is pretty interesting, a place to learn to cook and after that, eat as well. Whats not to like?
Palate sensations is an interesting concept cooking school which has some big name chefs doing the teaching and guiding processes.
Our chef for the day is Ms Lynette Foo who does the teaching for Western/Australian cuisine. And our meal consists of our own, handmade pasta, and choclate souffle (aka molten chocolate cake)
The entire experience of making the dough involved everything right from the mixing of the dough to the choice of pasta to make. Suffice to say, it was interesting from start to end.
The chocolate souffle was most interesting to me since i love desserts and eat this every chance i get. To my horror, it was so easy to do and uses reasonably cheap ingredients that i'm just shocked how much i'm charged for it outside. Easily 8 to 9 times more then what its worth.
The coordinator or chef is amiable and facilitating. The food we made were reasonably tasty and good. And the environment is very condusive and comfortable.
The one night course and 3 course meal took 4 hours and cost upwards of $68 per head for 7 people. Interesting? Yes!
Expensive? Very much so. Fun? Yes! Try again? Let me do a rain check on my wallet before i answer that. Well, no. Its too expensive and out of the way to do again for me but its an experience everyone should try once at least.
Christmas is just around the corner and i was fortunate enough to be invited for a food tasting session at Jia Wei restaurant for their Christmas set menu. Jia wei, literally means a taste from home and is championed by acclaimed chef Lee Tuck Seng, who has forty years of culinary experience under his belt and is no stranger to multiple culinary awards. Special thanks to Keane and Grand Mecure for this wonderful experience.
The interior is a portrait of soft lighting and simple chinese furniture with thankfully rounded tables and surprisingly comfortable chairs. Minimalistic but comfortable, the rounded tables make conversation easy and brings people together much better then the normal rectangular ones found elsewhere. To me, thats a plus.
Roasted Walnut with sesame - This is worth a mention because its made in house, is very fragrant, crispy and pleasing to eat.
The dim sum appetiser reminded me of similar offerings in taste paradise and the hai tien lo trio albeit of a totally different category. The siew mai is rather big and came with a suitably decadent decor of gold foil. It doesn't add to the taste but it sure is nice to look at. The pork taste is rather strong in this but otherwise, it was a nice and regular offering. The second item is a prawn and scallop dumpling which is generally well received by all at the table. I found the crunchy prawn sweet and fresh while the scallop complimented and enhanced the taste further. Definitely something to try. Next up is the prawn and mango roll which had too much mango for my liking since it covered the taste of the prawn and finally, the last item is the deep fried prawn dumpling. Bascially, its good but rather oily. Not a bad start and this gave me high hopes on the restaurants dim sum lunch offers.
1=SGD 0.0587
Straight to the point, the restaurants main competitor will be Fish and Co. Their generally a little different in terms of preparation and so far, my impression of MFM is that it has more fried items.
Fried country mushrooms ($9.90) - 6 button mushrooms covered in batter and deep fried. Its as good as ever but i did find that this time, it cooled a lot faster as well. Probably due to peak hour and the fact that lots of people were there. Which led to it being prepared earlier to meet the demand.
Main Platter for 2($33.90) - The platter for 2 used to go for $29.90 but has since increased their prices since then. You get the usual HUGE piece of fish, fries, garlic rice, flaming prawns, calamari and mussels. Its actually a pretty big portion to be honest and big eaters need apply to finish it. The fish is still one of the better ones, thick, sweet and lightly battered. I could have 2 pieces if given the choice. The prawns are average but the mayo like sauce is excellent with the rice. mussels and calamari were equally well done. To me, this is still a good platter of food.
Overall billed clocked in at $46.40.
A hefty sum to be sure but still under the acceptable range.
However, if it continues its upward trend in pricing, i'd find it hard pressed to find an excuse to return before long.
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Upon entering, you will find that the restaurant exudes a form of rustic charm for its location and the design of it exterior. Seemingly a colonial building that has yet to be teared down and located in the deep recesses of a mildly wooded enclave, its like stepping back in time to a less busy era where life was a little less complicated. In short, i felt relaxed the moment i parked my car.
The restaurant is a rather intimate affair with the interior seating about 30-40 people and the al fresco section seating around the same number of people. When i made my reservation, the restaurant was fully booked due to a corporate function but they made concessions since i only needed 2 seats.Decor wise, minimal is best for this place but i'm quite pleased with the simple and clean approach used.
The restaurant is a rather intimate affair with the interior seating about 30-40 people and the al fresco section seating around the same number of people. When i made my reservation, the restaurant was fully booked due to a corporate function but they made concessions since i only needed 2 seats.Decor wise, minimal is best for this place but i'm quite pleased with the simple and clean approach used.
My choice of starter was the foie gras as usual. For the price, i'm surprised at how big a portion the foie gras was. In short, this would easily have cost more then $30 on ala carte given the size. Quality wise, it was also a surprise since the Xeres vinegar and red onions actually managed to enhance the taste of the foie gras by adding a sourish and sweet taste. The spinach also managed to neutralize the oily taste somewhat. However, make no mistake, this is still a sinful and oily dish but one thats done well in both quality and quantity.
My gf had this soup and i had a taste, i can't remember what vegetable it was but i can tell you it tasted fresh, sweet and appetising.
Half dozen baked Burgundy snails with tomato and garlic butter - Feeling a little adventurous, we ordered an addtional serving for appetiser which was these little critters you see here. Snails. First off, i've never tasted these things before and was warned that they come with a weird and sometimes pungent smell when done wrong. However, this rendition i tried was optimistic. The tomato and garlic butter was baked well into the dish and managed to cover the pungent taste. There was still a hint of the slimey texture of the snail but otherwise, the majority of the taste went to the garlic butter. It was quite alright actually.
Filet de boeuf sauce moutarde et herbes fraîches - Pan seared beef tenderloin of about 150gm served with mashed potato mustard and herb sauce. The beef itself was a little overcooked on the sides but got better towards the middle since my order was for medium rare. The meat near the middle was tender and succulent with a generous smattering of juiciness. The herb sauce fared pretty well but bordered on being too salty. Mashed potato was excellent, supremely smooth and easy on the palate but some may find it too milky.
Guinea fowl and pork sausage served with melted cabbage and bacon, brown jus - My gf's dish, i only had a small taste of this but i found it salty and sourish. Not exactly something i would like. For the record, my gf didn't like this much either.
Fondant chaud au chocolat - Ah....fondants. Something i would soon stop ordering since i now know how to make it myself. Their rendition was pretty good, nice and crispy on the outside while warm suitably flowing on the inside. The chocolate is just right, not too sweet nor too bitter. This went well with the chocolate sorbet but horribly with the reddish fruit (i suspect raspberry).
“Mont-Blanc” vanilla ice cream, chestnut purée and meringue - Well, this didn't go too well. Being my first mont blanc and all, the vanilla ice cream was the only thing passable while the chestnut puree tasted like sweetened yam. Utterly disappointed given the rather flashy name.
Hazelnut tart with orange marmalade and vanilla “Crème Anglaise” - Another disappointment in the dessert department, this hazelnut tart was once again, rather lacklustre in weird in the taste department. Its also warm and the thing that looks like ice cream isn't. It tastes like orange cream and didn't go well with the tart at all.
Total bill came up to $131 for this meal.
In the end, the meal was still satisfactory even though one main dish and 2 of its desserts were rather lacklustre. Service was excellent while the relaxed atmosphere would have been complete if the corporate event was not ongoing while we were there. I did realise that all of the dishes that didn't live up to standard came from the $30 lunch menu while the $58 lunch menu was generally better in standard and taste. Maybe a difference in price means a difference in quality?
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So it was that this restaurant was decided upon for the gathering. I was skeptical at first but these were quickly dispelled when i had my first bite. The restaurant itself was located right next to Tao's to the left. There's another steamboat place on the right called Ju Ju Steamboat restaurant so make sure you don't get confused.
The meal we had was the buffet menu at 27 .
The selection is decent to say the least, there's the usual cooked food menu and the non cooked food menu and a variety of soup bases to choose. Our choice were the winter melon and the herbal chicken soup base. Both were pretty good but the winter melon tasted much better. The herbal chicken soup was rather bland tasting.
The selection of items included the usual prawns, chicken, beef, pork, eggs and veg.
The beef is of paticular mention since it tastes really fresh and good. If not for the buzzing flies, the beef was something to really eat much off.
The interesting items were the char siew pau, custard buns and the har gao(shrimp dumplings), which required you to boil them before eating. The pork dumplings were interesting as its the first time i had BBQ pork dumplings that need to be boiled. Even more surprising is that it actually tastes pretty good. Along with the custurd bun and the shrimp dumplings as well.
The chili cockles are worth a mention too. Spicy and sweet. One can easily eat this whole bowl straight off.
Overall, i'd say the meal was rather good in general. Service can be slow when the crowd sets in and the plates can really pile up quite quickly. However, the quantity of items served and the hit items make up for it.
And when good company is around, food just tastes better.
Cheers and happy new year people.
Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!
For this year end, the teambuilding event my boss decided upon is one which is pretty interesting, a place to learn to cook and after that, eat as well. Whats not to like?
Palate sensations is an interesting concept cooking school which has some big name chefs doing the teaching and guiding processes.
Our chef for the day is Ms Lynette Foo who does the teaching for Western/Australian cuisine. And our meal consists of our own, handmade pasta, and choclate souffle (aka molten chocolate cake)
The entire experience of making the dough involved everything right from the mixing of the dough to the choice of pasta to make. Suffice to say, it was interesting from start to end.
The chocolate souffle was most interesting to me since i love desserts and eat this every chance i get. To my horror, it was so easy to do and uses reasonably cheap ingredients that i'm just shocked how much i'm charged for it outside. Easily 8 to 9 times more then what its worth.
The coordinator or chef is amiable and facilitating. The food we made were reasonably tasty and good. And the environment is very condusive and comfortable.
The one night course and 3 course meal took 4 hours and cost upwards of $68 per head for 7 people. Interesting? Yes!
Expensive? Very much so. Fun? Yes! Try again? Let me do a rain check on my wallet before i answer that. Well, no. Its too expensive and out of the way to do again for me but its an experience everyone should try once at least.
Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!
The interior is a portrait of soft lighting and simple chinese furniture with thankfully rounded tables and surprisingly comfortable chairs. Minimalistic but comfortable, the rounded tables make conversation easy and brings people together much better then the normal rectangular ones found elsewhere. To me, thats a plus.
Roasted Walnut with sesame - This is worth a mention because its made in house, is very fragrant, crispy and pleasing to eat.
The dim sum appetiser reminded me of similar offerings in taste paradise and the hai tien lo trio albeit of a totally different category. The siew mai is rather big and came with a suitably decadent decor of gold foil. It doesn't add to the taste but it sure is nice to look at. The pork taste is rather strong in this but otherwise, it was a nice and regular offering. The second item is a prawn and scallop dumpling which is generally well received by all at the table. I found the crunchy prawn sweet and fresh while the scallop complimented and enhanced the taste further. Definitely something to try. Next up is the prawn and mango roll which had too much mango for my liking since it covered the taste of the prawn and finally, the last item is the deep fried prawn dumpling. Bascially, its good but rather oily. Not a bad start and this gave me high hopes on the restaurants dim sum lunch offers.
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