feizhu's Reviews
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The interior isn't anything too fancy and sports wooden furniture, halogen lamps and a partially open concept kitchen with an island top and lots of overhanging pots and pans where you can view your bread being kneaded and baked. Window blinds provide cover from the adjacent pedestrian walkway. Overall a pretty cosy place if you happen to secure one of the booth seats.
Complimentary Flat Bread - Served with a clove of roasted garlic and butter, the piping hot flat bread came fresh out of the oven; warm, chewy and reminiscent of naan.
Classic Lobster Bisque - Relatively rich but salty even with the rather amount of chive cream, the lobster bisque boasted no lobster meat and the dubious honour of pairing best with a glass of water.
Confit Corned Chicken - This tasted like the chicken version of duck confit (duh!), just a touch more moist and a little less salty and flavourful. Accompanied by a sunny side up and crunchy, mildly salty sausages. Overall a very palatable dish but nothing to go wow over.
Woodfire Grilled Sirloin - At $58 for the steak set lunch, this was pretty good. Relatively flavourful with a touch of salt and done medium as per my request. Meat was tender but not as juicy as I would have liked it to be. Topped with a creamy Bearnaise sauce and a side of slick and buttery mashed potato. Bread Street Kitchen, Morton's and Ruth Chris still does a meaner piece of steak but for the price, I really can't compare or complain.
Sticky Stout & Toffee Pudding - This dessert was pretty interesting - A scoop of gingernut ice cream (not a fan of ginger but this was pretty mild) plopped atop a rather sweet toffee pudding with a significant stout aftertaste. To counter the sweetness, tart red berries were placed alongside. Decent finish to our meal.
HGW happened to be running a promotion during that period so we got $10 off each set lunch ($28 for non steak and $48 for the steak variant). Food quality came across as decent (steak was a notch above that) and so did service. I'm honestly not inclined to return, given that Bistro Du Vin does a reasonably good steak for lunch as well and offers a more compelling value proposition in my humble opinion.
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Benjamin Browns, or BB for short, sits on the first floor of the relatively quiet Forum The Shopping Mall and by virtue of an earlier reservation, we managed to snag a corner table. Seating is rather limited (probably ~ 20-30 pax) and there was a queue to get in after we were done with dinner.
Carbonara - This wasn't my first choice but since they were apparently out of their "Benjamin Burger", I had to make do with this. And it wasn't a great choice; less than al dente pasta coupled with creamy but a tad watery base. Only consolation was the generous serving of bacon slices. Nothing like La Strada's.
Nutella Banana Milkshake - And the primary reason behind our choice to dine at BB, their over the top milkshakes. Honestly it was no great shakes (pun intended) and definitely didn't look as pretty in real life as in those instagram photos (presentation came across as a little slip shod). It was essentially diluted banana milkshake topped with layer upon layer (3 to be exact) of sliced bananas, whipped cream and sugar crackers (which looked and tasted suspiciously like they were from Khong Guan), finished off with a brownie as the crowning glory and a chocolate wafer wedged by the side. Pretzels adorned the side of the glass, held together by a layer of gooey nutella. Overall this was a giant sugar rush and too much of it made me a little sick. Lesson learnt - share it, hence the 2 straws provided. Definitely not worth the $16 though.
My share came up to about $42 which wasn't quite worth the money in my humble opinion. Food was average at best and even the much vaunted shake fell flat. Service was also found wanting. One of the wait staff was obviously unsure about the menu and had to repeatedly come back to us about the food we ordered. Conclusion? Yet another run of the mill place hyped up and glorified by social media.
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One of the many dining areas littered around PasarBella but the biggest and the only one on the second floor with a bird's eye view of the various stalls below. But regardless of where you sit, the fumes will get to you so be prepared to smell of food when you leave the place.
Classic ($10) Fried Chicken ($5) - This grilled sandwich evidently didn't live up to the hype. For starters, the bread, though sporting a slight crisp on the surface, came across as a tad too thick and dry. The gooey mozzarella and sharp cheddar had a nice gooey texture but failed to make much of an impact with a less than generous serving and muted tastes; which was overshadowed by the taste of the ordinary tasting fried chicken. Overall still a palatable grilled sandwich but definitely not in the league of Toastface Grillah, at least in terms of taste and price.
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Situated within the world's largest glass greenhouse, Flower Dome @ Gardens By The Bay (free buggy ride and entrance), Pollen occupies two levels within the dome, with the upper level (terrace) serving up a selection of dishes in a garden like, cafe setting and the lower level boasting a proper restaurant with a dessert counter where you can choose to have your desserts and/or view them being prepared. I appreciate the novelty of dining in a chilled greenhouse surrounded by nature and sunlight but would appreciate more greenery being incorporated into the restaurant. Still cosy nonetheless.
Complimentary Bread - The homemade white sourdough bread sported a crusty surface with a lightly spongy center and came served with hummus and mustard butter; both of which I'm originally not quite a fan of. However the mustard butter surprised me; smooth and creamy with an ever so slight hint of mustard. Pretty decent.
Amuse Bouche - Our amuse bouche for the afternoon. a steamed bun with Gorgonzola and truffle oil - fluffy and chewy with a hint of truffle oil and a mild pungency of the cheese. A rather interesting and decent start to our lunch.
Cured Trout, Dill Sago, Japanese Cucumber, Ikura, Yuzu - Topped with frozen (by liquid nitrogen) cucumber (tasted like sorbet) for that smokey visual effect, the cured trout had a delicate sweetness to it coupled with firm, mildly chewy flesh. The saltiness came courtesy of the ikura (fish roe), balancing out the mild rawness from the cucumbers. Nice.
Seared Foie Gras, Poached Quince, Walnut Cream ( $12) - Though quivery, the foie gras could do with a little more searing on the surface whilst the sweetness of the walnut cream and walnuts helped to cut through the gaminess. The latter also provided a nice crunchy element. What was new to me was the quince, which tasted a little like peach to me, albeit a little tougher. It apparently belongs to the same family as apples and pears and can't be eaten raw. Most interesting.
Roasted Barramundi, Cauliflower, Grapes, Curry Cream - The roasted barramundi was pretty good; crisp skin coupled with firm, flaky flesh and drizzled over with a non spicy curry sauce, all on a bed of deliciously roasted cauliflower. I'm usually not a huge fan of fish but this was interestingly good.
Roasted Butternut Risotto, Honey Croutons - Although I liked the butternut risotto for its creamy al dente-ness, chewy honey croutons and crunchy pistachios, I couldn't quite get over the fact that there was no protein in it; a vegetarian option. Portions were quite substantial and too much proved a tad nauseating, to me at least.
Salted JAAL Chocolate - The JAAL in this dish presumably stands for Jason Atherton Andres Lara, the name of the owner and the pastry chef. Not that it had any bearing on this dessert, which featured an overly salty salted caramel fudge mixed in with chewy rice krispies, peanut powder, cocoa soil and topped with a scoop of unsweetened cocoa ice cream. The end result? Lots of drinking water required.
At ~ $143 for 2 pax, lunch was a pricier than your average set lunch affair but I guess the complimentary entry into the Flower Dome ($12 for residents) and buggy ride does make up for it. Food overall leans towards fusion and comes across as competent but not wow. I was honestly expecting a little more in terms of flavours. Service was good though and I personally like the relaxing feel of the restaurant. Will I be back? Maybe, but probably not in the near future.
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Occupying one of the small shophouse units along East Coast Road, just opposite Roxy Square, Carvers sports an industrial chic interior complete with overhanging halogen lamps and heavy steel chairs. One gripe I had about the place. We were seated next to the fold-able doors with the glass panels and could make out second hand cigarette smoke seeping in from outside (we later found out that there was a "designated" cigarette disposal tin just outside and folks from adjourning units were disposing of their cigarettes there as well).
Pork Get In My Bellay! - As amusing as this dished sounded, it was average at very best. The pork belly came across as very crisp and way too dry; on a bed of crisp bread with a splattering of siracha mayonnaise for that spicy but less than useful kick. Finishing this proved quite a chore and we gave up after a while.
The (AWOL) Sergeant - Grilled to a medium rare with a mildly salty bovine taste, the beef patty came topped with melted cheddar and a layer of caramelised onions for a dollop of sweetness; sandwiched between two mildly crisp burger buns spread with a thin layer of butter and mustard. Overall pretty decent but I personally would have preferred the buns without the mustard. The additional streaky bacon ( $3) came extremely crisp but was way too dry for my liking (it felt like I was eating a cracker instead of bacon).
Truffle Fries - Crisp and topped with grated cheese, served with mayonnaise but where's the truffle oil?
At $44 for the both of us, it wasn't expensive but the food was rather disappointing. The beef burger was the only thing that was decent (but nowhere as good as Suprette's) and I don't foresee myself ever returning again. Once again, so much for the hype...
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