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Food & Beverage
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Yet another new shopping centre, yet another burger joint. With it's wildly successful outlet at Raffles City Shopping Centre, The Hand Burger has decided to open up a branch at the new 313 @ Somerset, which is the latest addition to Orchard Road's lineup of shopping malls.
The eatery is located at B2 of the shopping mall with its decor revolving around the extensive use of wood and of course mirrors to make the interior seem much bigger then it really is. Tables and seats are reminiscent of school canteens' long communal dining tables and benches. The menu isn't extensive, offering just over 10 different burgers. That's specialisation for you.
The Works Burger - As the name implies, this has all the bells and whistles thrown into it. Think "The Handburger Original" with onion rings, bacon strips and mushrooms. Absolutely terrific sounding if I may say. But hype/expectation usually precedes reality. First and foremost, the bacon strips were a little too hard and dry for my liking while the buns were blackened on the flat surface and probably had a little sweet onion jam on it but I would have preferred it lightly crisp along the edges. As for the beef patty, I appreciated the bits of fats present, which lended a nice chewy texture. However, the patty was overcooked, a little too dry and lacked the inherent beefy sweetness (It's supposed to be a sirloin cut!).
Side of Fries - Thumbs up for the skin that came along, which I personally like. But the fries were too soggy and didn't seem particularly fresh.
Service was decent but that could also be due in part to the lack of crowd on a Saturday afternoon. The burgers are not worth the premium in my humble opinion as they are neither big or particularly great. In short, I am not impressed and I won't be going back in a hurry. One thing I don't quite understand is the fact that they charge 10% service yet I am suppose to go to the counter to make payment after my meal? Is it merely a gimmick to increase the bottomline of the restaurant?
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Nara, with its original location at Goldhill Centre, has opened up a new outlet at Serangoon Gardens, to tap onto the revitalisation of the dining scene in the area. Helmed by Chef Ben Teo, who has almost 20 years of experience serving Japanese cuisine, Nara apparently has its fair share of loyal supporters.
The outlet at Serangoon Gardens is hidden in the back row of shophouses just a door or two away from Ministry of Steak. The place isn't big and can probably accomodate 30 odd people or so. Seats are spaced a little too close for comfort but at least you won't get to elbow your neighbour or eavesdrop on their conversation.
Nara Special Maki - This came at the recommendation of the manager (I believe) of the restaurant and with toppings of flying fish roe (tobiko) draped over soft, sticky sushi rice flanked by pieces of anago (which is alot finer then unagi), I found it delightful, especially with the light mayonnaise sauce that harboured a hint of wasabi.
California Maki - Usually the simplest stuff pose the most difficulty in making and California Maki is one such dish and I have had my fair share of really bad ones in Japanese restaurants in various countries. Nara's rendition was surprisingly decent (to me at least), with the rice very light and hinting of vinegar, coupled with the crunchiness of the cucumber and of course the flying fish roe (tobiko).
Shake Teppan - I'm not a big fan of salmon but at least this one was well grilled without the strong fishiness that I personally dislike. Of course the not cloyingly sweet sauce helped as well.
Nara Special Beef - Granted, the tenderloin was tender and definitely a pleasure to chew on, especially with the bits of fried garlic sprinkled all about. However I did find the sauce a little too sweet for my liking so perhaps they could cut down a little on the sugar. And $18 for a rather small plate of beef isn't exactly cheap.
Sukiyaki Nabe - Though chock full of ingredients, I wasn't too taken with this Japanese version of steamboat as it didn't seem out of the ordinary. The stock was flavourful but a little too sweet for my liking. I guess it all boils down to personal preference.
Tempura Soba - I didn't try the soba, but from what I gathered, it was, well, soba. I did try the tempura though and found the flour a wee bit too thick though it didn't retain much oil and seemed relatively light on the palate.
Gyo Somen - This is the first time I'm having fish noodles in a Japanese restaurant. I usually have them in Chinese restaurants that they come in a much thicker variant. Nara's rendition looked like mee kia, albeit way more springy with tons of bite. I appreciated the pieces of smoked duck breast that provided the necessary salt intake as well as the lingering smokey taste. Very good! A pity $15 doesn't get you much so you might want to order 2 bowls if you are hungry.
It has been quite some time since I last had Japanese food and Nara was a decently good choice to begin the plunge back in. Dinner for 3 cost almost $119, which isn't too expensive, considering the quality of food and the decent service (which did seem a little inexperienced at times). Nearby Sushi Tei now has a serious rival to contend with.
See all my pictures here.
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Was wandering around Thomson road after some grocery shopping at NTUC finest and chanced upon Hooked!, which has another outlet located at Rail Mall in the western part of Singapore. With Hooked! evidently being a seafood restaurant, I, as a meat lover and occasional fish consumer, had my reservations.
The interior is a cheerful yellow and blue with sketches and ornaments of sea creatures plastered onto the walls - very in tune with the seafood aspect of the restaurant. Some background music would have been appreciated though, as the place did seem a little too quiet and every whisper could potentially be echoed around.
Baked Rice - From my personal experience, not many places whip up a mean baked rice and Hooked! wasn't about to prove me wrong. Having said that, I would say Hooked! still managed to do some decent work on the rice, with the cheese gooey, a little chewy and of course, the relatively generous serving of seafood entrenched within.
Snapper Wrapped with Bacon - Although I am no big fan of snapper, I surprisingly took to this dish quite a fair bit. The delicate fish was nicely wrapped around in bacon, which had a nice crisp to it and contrasted very well with the texture of the fish. It would have been great if the fish had more natural sweetness though. A serving of rice and asparagus completed the dish.
Personally, I feel prices are quite reasonable at $33 for a 2 pax dinner, which came with 2 drinks. Having no service charge was definitely a plus and service was good, though it could have been due to the lack of crowds. Still, I would give them the benefit of the doubt.
See all my pictures here.
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I admit, I’m spoil. And I blame everything on Yanting. If I have not had better dim sum before, the ones at Wen Dao Shi might be consider pretty decent, but the truth is – they are not.
They need not be anyway, people come here for the nostaglic feeling of sitting by the roadside in the red district area. People come all the way here because there’s not much options when you suddenly have a craving for dim sum in the middle of the night. And people like it here because it’s unpretentious and affordable.
This is not a food review, it’s a night where old friends come together and have fun. I will tell you absolutely nothing about the food here, because on this night the food becomes secondary. But I can’t do that can I? You are after all here to find out more about the place, so here’s a few snippets about the dim sum:
For around ten dollars per person, we had quite a lot of food. There was the usual Siew mai & Har gau, the former was pretty decent while the latter did not impress. The skin of the shrimp dumpling cracked even before we picked it up.
You probably want to go with the fried stuff instead. The fried prawn dumpling that came with the mayo dip was pretty competent and the xiaolongbao was fairly average.
We had the steamed pork-ribs, and also the cheong fun. The rice roll came with a different type of sauce that I couldn’t make out, and there’s too little fillings inside.
If you are there, don’t bother to get the Char siew sou, the taste was completely flat – the puff lacked the crispy buttery flakes, and the char siew did not have the attributes to earn the rights to be inside the char siew sou. But I was surprised by the char siew bao, the buns were fluffy and soft, and it came pipping hot.
Since most places do not serve dim sum at night, and even for places that have dim sum for dinner, they close early and Wen Dao Shi is probably one of the few places that can satisfy your dim sum cravings in the middle of the night. While there are others who felt that the dim sum here is over-priced, on the contrary I thought that the pricing is pretty reasonable.
But the next time I have a dim sum craving? I will sulk, go to bed with an empty stomach, dream about it and wait till the next day for my favorite dim sum.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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It was down to Chinese cuisine and at Changi airport, choices were far and few. I was generally sick of Crystal Jade Shanghai Kitchen so Imperial Treasure it was. It definitely helped that I had a positive experience at Imperial Treasure Teochew Cuisine before.
Located in the main lobby of Crowne Plaza Hotel at Changi Airport, the restaurant utilizes a dark wooden paneled facade to portray an air of exclusivity and class. Plush cushion seats amidst a carpeted flooring complete the picture.
Roasted Goose - Geese are a scarce commodity nowadays, especially after the banning of birds from China and Taiwan during the bird flu outbreak a couple of months back. And I baulked at paying $30 for probably just a quarter of a goose. But I did so nonetheless and am glad that it turned out splendid. A thin layer of fat sandwiched between crackling crisp skin and succulent meat, lying in a shallow pool of oily fluid. If you are the sort to squirm in the presence of excessive oil, it would be in your best interests to steer clear of this dish.
Sauteed Scallops with Truffle Oil - I loved this dish, especially with the aroma of truffle oil. The four scallops were huge, juicy and came served on a bed of lip smacking egg white. There is actually an option of having this dish without the truffle oil (its quite a fair bit cheaper too) but my advice would be to stick to truffle oil.
Broccoli with Mushroom - I personally thought that the broccoli was a little undercooked, rendering it a tad too hard for my liking. However the plentiful mushrooms more then made up for it and overall a very decent dish.
A most gratifying dinner for 2 didn't make it past the century mark, standing at a shade over $90, which was still reasonable in my context. I did think that $3 for a bowl of rice was a little over the top though. Service was good and I can't really find any reason not to return.
See all my pictures here.
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Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?
We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.
How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.
Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.
The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.
This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.
I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?
It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.
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This is part of a series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
It started with another email thread again, this time Camemberu suggested to check out the famous Founder Bak Ku Teh and a date was set. I don’t usually write posts about hawker food. It’s not like I don’t eat hawker food, but the problem is I have too many backlogs of the nice places that I went recently.
Founder is one of the few popular choices that most people will think of them when you mention Bak Kut Teh. You know a place is famous when we actually queued up twenty minutes for a table by the road side of Balastier road, watching the others slurping down their warm peppery soup.
The fact that the walls are filled with the numerous photographs of famous celebrities, and there’s hardly any empty space for new photographs that they probably paste it over some of the fallen-stars. Or the fact that even when we left the place, there’s still a snake-like queue waiting outing for their turn to get in – just for a bowl of bak ku teh.
While the highlight of the show should be the pork ribs, but the pork trotters was even better. Surprisingly, the proportion of lean meat to fats was just right; there wasn’t much fats like the usual pork trotters. The meat was so tender that it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth splendidly.
We also had an pig organ soup that consisted of kidney, liver and small intestines. I like how the medium-rare liver retained it’s tinge of pink, and the robust flavour of the kidney, but the soup lacked the wow factor.
The Bak kut teh was quite a let-down – we were expecting a lot for the fact that we queued twenty minutes for this. Or for the fact that we ordered wrongly and had the normal tough pork ribs instead of the supposedly superior loin ribs. There was the usual side-dishes like youtiao, beancurd skin, salted vegetable, and braised taupok (beancurd).
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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One of the reasons why I hardly blog about Japanese food is because I always have difficulty in remembering all the mind-boggling names. I heard of Standing Sushi Bar a while back when it just opened, and the first question on my mind: “are there seats inside?”
The catchy name certainly helps to pique the curiosity of most people, and I found out that the theory of stand, order sushi and eat only applies to lunch where there are no seats. For dinner you can sit down comfortably (although it’s kind of cramp) and enjoy your sushi.
There was six pieces of the California roll ($6) each; since the others were saving up their stomach for the other courses to come, I had the lion’s share of it. There’s just something about California roll that attracts me; this is the kind of thing I could keep eating and still never get enough. Okay fine, that’s just an excuse – I’m a glutton.
SSB’s owner Howard made the selections, and he chose a platter of five nigiri sushi for us; Maguro ($2), Sake Toro ($2), Hamachi ($4), Aburi Hotate ($4), Shime Saba ($3). I particularly enjoyed the scallop which had a tangy sauce to further enhance the sweetness of it.
And how can we do without Sashimi? The Chef’s special ($25) will definitely delight all the sashimi fans out there; I bet you are already salivating at the prospect of putting the thickly sliced, fresh sashimi with a pinch of wasabi into your mouth.
I was particularly intrigued by the Anago nigiri ($6) when it arrived on our table. The long and slimy salt-water sea eel looks so tantalizing with a coat of sauce, and there was the challenge of gobbling it up with one bite.
I have mentioned it before, but girls seem to love their Salmon a lot. And the Salmon Yuzu Yama-mayo yaki ($15) will be the perfect choice; the fish crumbled at the lightest touch and it was tasty with the appetizing sauce, but I would prefer it to be slightly more charred on the surface.
Besides all the raw nigiri sushi and sashimi, there was also some cooked food available and we had the Mix Kinoko Foil Yaki ($10) which by all accounts, wasn’t cheap for just mushrooms, but I have to say it was delicious. There was the special-sauce-which-the-chef-absolutely-refused-to-divulge that is supposedly the success behind the three mushrooms.
And we also had the Tori Karaage ($6) which was quintessentially fried chicken wrapped with seaweed. After having so much raw food, it was nice to have some sinful, deep-fried food for a change.
Standing Sushi Bar has a pretty value for money set lunch, so if you are working in the area, check them out, but you have been warned – there’s no seats during lunch.
* * *
This is the first part of a series that I will be doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
It took me a year to finally visit Raw Kitchen Bar. Actually I dropped by when they just opened a year ago, but I did not have my dinner there back then. And despite staying just 10 minutes away from the place, it took me until now to pay them a visit. Yes, I’m a year late, but it’s better to be late than never isn’t it?
And boy oh boy, December is almost here. I like the year-end, for one it’s the month of celebrations with Christmas and New year, and I get to sum up my adventure for the whole year. Food-wise, this has been a fulfilling year, and I thought my winner for the best new restaurant is already decided, until I visit Raw.
Stepping inside, there’s just something different about this place. There’s the flimsy light bulb with different pieces of whimsical furniture to begin with. Then you have the quaint and charming backyard that looks like an awesome place to throw a tea party. The chef/owner Javier comes out and greet every table, all in all, you have the feeling of dining in the chef’s house.
The food is pretty good too. While we looked through the menu debating over spaghetti mentaiko, and commenting that the bun noodle sounds cute; we finally decided on the Capellini cream of ebiko and sauteed prawns ($19). Every slurp of the angel hair pasta seems to make its existence for your taste of the food. The portion might be a tad small, but it should be adequate for one person’s serving. We also like how the succulent prawns and flavorful ebiko enhanced the taste of the al dente pasta.
The Balsamic duck ($23) was a bit of let-down though, and not that it wasn’t good. The duck drumstick was firm and quite unlike that of a duck confit, but it had an uncanny similarity to the Chinese braised duck in terms of the smell and taste. We would probably enjoy it more if we did not have braised duck before; fusion dishes don’t work in this case, but maybe it’s just us. And for someone like me who usually don’t like mashed potato, the ones that came together with the petite drumstick here, was gorgeous in all sorts of ways.
The choice of the pizza was through an elimination method since there was only three to choose from. Spring vegetables pizza didn’t sound exactly appealing to us, and my friend did not want the mozzarella basil rosemary pizza, so we were left with the Prawns & chili pizza ($19). It was an irony that Raw Kitchen Bar was housed in the former premises of a firestation, wewe were about to call in the fire brigade for help – this pizza’s one kick-ass, fiery, spicy pizza.
This might not sounds convincing since I do not have high tolerance for chili to begin with; but even my friend who claimed that she grew up eating chili, agreed that this pizza was literally hot. And for the price, we weren’t expecting it to be so huge, which sort of compensate for the petite portions in the other two dishes.
Now I have a tough choice for the best new restaurant (among the places that I went to), and I know there’s probably a few more like Spruce & Hacienda (I have not been there yet) that will probably make the cut too. See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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It’s that time of the year again – the hairy crab season.
The October and November period is the time for harvesting the tiny crustacean; while they are definitely not the biggest in size, it is often touted as the king of crabs (maybe with the exception to the Alaska king crab).
Almost every decent Chinese restaurant will be offering this delicacy; it’s either you have this, or be square. And they are also not exactly cheap, the better quality ones can cost up from fifty to hundreds of dollars. I was invited to a tasting session by Food Junction recently – they are the first and only food court in Singapore to offer hairy crabs.
The highlight of the hairy crab is definitely the rich roe within; the main difference of the male & female hairy crab will be the latter having more roe.
Here’s the step by step guide provided by Food Junction on “How to eat Hairy Crabs”
Step 1: Lift flap on the underside of the crab. remove the heart.
Step 2: Pry open the toe shell to enjoy the roe.
Step 3: Remove gills
Step 4: Hold on to the legs & break the body in half.
Step 5: Cut crab leg into smaller segments.
Step 6: Push it through to the narrower segment of the claw into the other to extricate the flesh in the latter.
Step 7: Remove Pincer from crap and snip into smaller segments.
Step 8: Cut along the sides of the pincer to extricate the flesh.
The hairy crab set consists of one crab and ginger tea, with the necessary tools like the scissors and gloves (if you need one). We also had some side dishes of steamed pork dumpling (xiaolongbao) which I found to be ordinary; the skin cracks when I tried to lift them up. Order the fried pancake instead, it is a better appetiser and fares much better than the xiaolongbao.
To be honest, I’m not a big fan of crabs in general. I don’t understand why people spend so much time and effort to pry out so little meat hidden within the shell; fine I admit, I’m lazy – I don’t like to get my hands dirty! Anyway if you are keen to have a hairy feast, the hairy crabs will be available at three Food Junction food court (Bugis Junction, Great World City and The food place @ Raffles city) from now until 20th December; with the male ones priced at $18.80 and the female one at $23.80. I will like to thank Pris & Racheal and Food Junction for the invitation.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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