Fire Station - Hillside Gastro Bar

Not too bad but better ambience for drinks

Had the opportunity to dine here by invitation to review the place by SWW. 2 hungry ladies with a huge appetite :)

Spider Tempura ($14) – The soft shell crab was thankfully not oily but the batter was a little bland. The miso sauce was too sweet though, although unique. The side of salad was very well tossed with balsamic vinaigrette.

Baked stuffed Paris Mushroom with escargots ($14) – I do not take escargots but the mushrooms were very fresh and breadcrumbed very nicely. It was a big portion too, with 5 well-sized mushrooms and side of salad too.

Steak au Poivre ($30) – The order of medium rare was done quite well, with the crust nicely charred. No heavy ‘beef smell’ too. The accompanying side of petit vegetables (diced carrots, celery and zucchini) were well sautéed. The mashed truffle potatoes taste quite bland actually, with no hint of truffles at all.

Pan seared seabass ($26) – The seabass was very fresh and it came with the skin very nicely crisp. There were the sautéed vegetables too, and came with 3 potatoes medallions; simple but good. The accompanying apple cider sauce didn’t quite taste like apples although the apple bits in it helped with the identity.

Mahalo Sorbet ($12) – This pineapple sorbet was more sweet than sour / tart, but was very dense unlike the usual sorbet which I liked. Serving it in an actual pineapple was a unique touch though.

Apple Crumble ($12) – The tart and crumble tasted freshly baked and thankfully not cloyingly sweet as typically others. The apple was diced too finely and too cooked though; couldn’t quite taste the crunch in it. The accompanying vanilla ice cream was Haagen Daz so nothing to complain about.

Coffee – Good and thick coffee.

Grapefruit Juice – disappointingly, it was not made from fresh grapefruit but instead from a can, and it came with a dead ant in it. They offered to replace it but we felt we could finish it so we declined.

The presentation of the food was better than expected to be honest, as the place looked more like it was for drinks than actual dinner.

When we arrived and wanted to order our starters, we were told that out of the 4 choices offered, 2 were not available. I felt they should have told me in advance, perhaps at my point of reservation. Only after asking were we offered the option to select other starters from the rest of the menu (as we don’t take foie gras and didn’t want mushroom soup).

A few of the other starters were not available as well, which quite surprised us. It was only after the MD Victor Tan explained that they were in the process of changing their chef that we understood. The staff could have been better trained to explain the situation to diners, otherwise people would not possible have understood why 4 out of 9 items were not available from a single section alone.

They should also have steak knives as we had some trying time with the steak. Other than that, service was quite okay as the place was hardly full on a Thursday night.

It’s a nice quiet place which makes it very suitable for chilling out and romantic dates. Perhaps it helped that it was a cool night when we were there. Live performances by a solo singer provided some good music too.

There were no direction signs when you reach Bukit Timah Road, so you just have to ask the guard. understood the intent is to avoid overpublicising the place and rather for word to be spread through the smaller but more effective word of mouth.