All posts tagged: Beef

Nabehide Japanese Hotpot Dining @ Alexandra Road

Nabehide Japanese Hotpot, above established eatery Gyukaku, was a surprise find through Palate, where members can get 50% off if 2 of us dine. So, on a Friday night, we were glad to find a new healthy hotpot restaurant that was quiet and spacious for us to have a good chat. Nabehide Japanese Hotpot is a colonial building almost a century cold, right outside Anchorpoint (opposite Queensway and IKEA).  Because the building is so old, no fire is allowed, so the owner and management took effort to import all the heating equipment (cast iron pots using charcoal to heat) from Japan that allows for quick and clean heating without fire. This means the quality meats can heat slowly and be kept warm, rather than being overheated quickly. However, the heat spreads out quickly and evenly, which makes the heating rim on the table warm but not hot, so you don’t have to afraid of burning yourself on the sides while cooking. Nabehide is born out of a need to serve the folks who are looking for …

Nana Thai Restaurant @ Far East Plaza

After an awesome trekking trip to Nepal, we went to Far East Plaza to get my beauty fix and decided to try Nana Thai Restaurant, which is different from the one at Golden Mile. The Curry Fish Head ($28) is one of their signature dishes. It’s only one side of the fish head, but it has lots of ingredients like daopok and crispy dried bean curd skin. While the fish was very fresh, but the sauce was too coconuty for me. Still prefer the curry fish at Novena Peranakan Cuisine. Since the restaurant is Thai, also tried the Tom Yum Soup with Chicken ($10). Didn’t taste very authentic to me but spicy and sour enough. This store is more like local Singaporean tze char than Thai store. The Sambal Kangkong ($8) was very nice with mini prawn shrimps. My favorite dish! Claypot Beef Rice ($7.50) was good value and tasty, with soft and tender beef. Second favourite dish, though it tasted very Chinese and not Thai. A little pricey for tze char, but good spicy …

Wheeler’s Yard @ Lorong Ampas

Wheeler’s Yard looks out of spacious Melbourne, but can be found in our backyard along Balestier Road. Wheeler’s Yard – The Bicycle Atelier, as its names suggest,  is a workshop space for urban bikes, with even handmade frames from talented mastercraftsmen. They also have a small but extremely cute selection of kid’s bikes. Wheeler’s Yard – Exterior Shots: Wheeler’s Yard – Interior Shots: The Flat White ($5) was decent, more on the milky side. And their cups are so prettily branded! They also serve some beers, and N had his usual Asahi ($8). The cafe is still new (<1 month old when we visited), so they are running on a manual ordering system e.g. they will call out your number and you run into their counter to collect the food. The menu is also fairly straightforward. Between 4 of us, we tried the most popular mains. Decent coffee and food – my personal favourite was the Steak sandwich, but such a pretty spacious place to hangout just next to the Park Connector. I would go back again just …

La Cuisson @ Princep Street

La Cuisson used to be based out of a coffee shop in Holland Village, but have been open at 44A, Princep Street since Sep 2013. Translating, La Cuisson should be “The Cooking”, and the food definitely impressed for the value. Incidentally, the chef, Kenneth Lin, were just featured on yesterday’s Straits Times! Their menu starts with “Charcuterie”, which is preserved meats, but in modern day, charcuterie are prepared for their flavors derived from the preservation processes. Good thing there were 4 of us, so we could try a bigger variety. We had the Charcuterie platter ($22), which comprised Foie Gras Terrine, Country Pork Terrine, Pork Head Terrine, Chorizo and Saucisson, and I like their flavours in the above order too. For mains, first up, we shared the Shoulder Tender 200 grams ($28), which is a 200day Grain Fed Australian Angus. Then, we had the Sous Vide Pork Chops 300+ grams ($33), which is cooked at low temperature served with a pork and ham jus, apples, roasted tomato, yam puree and corn salsa. I personally felt the apple …

The Garden Slug @ Telok Kurau

We have been to Garden Slug a few times on weekends to bring my dog along for a ride and meal. I love the simple, no frills decor of this 7 year old cafe, and the fact that fluffie can have a meal with us! TGS Mixed Grill – Platter of Ribeye Steak strips, Lamb Loin, Bratwurst, Real Mash™ & salad ($39.80) for 2 to share. Very JUICYYYYYYYYY Lamb without the gamey aftertaste! Pan-seared Dory Fillet ($18.90) – Fresh fish and salad, with sweet mash potatoes I will definitely be back for great freshness and food value, especially when I want to bring fluffie out! Forgive the camera phone shots as it was hard to shoot with fluffie moving around! — The Garden Slug Address: 55 Lorong L Telok Kurau, #01-59/61 Bright Centre, Singapore 425500 Phone: 86888575 Email: justask@thegardenslug.com Operating Hours: Mon – Tue: 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm Wed – Thu: 10:00 am – 10:00 pm Fri – Sun: 9:00 am – 10:00 pm

Restaurant Ember @ Hotel 1929

Ember is a small, modern and unpretentious restaurant located in Hotel 1929, which offers Western/Fusion Ember cuisine. Some of my favourite girlies treated me to Ember to my birthday last week. Short to say, FINE quality food, as expected from Chef Sebastian Ng from the Marmalade group’s Pierside Kitchen & Bar and prior experience in Four Seasons Hotel, Raffles Hotel and pasta training at Piedmont Italy as well as training stints at Hotel De Mikuni in Tokyo. Chef Sebastian is known for his pastas, meats and seafood, which reflects in the mains we ordered. So thankful to be treated my friends to fine exquisite food. Definitely not the cheapest meal, but WOW, I enjoyed the exquisiteness and details in every dish. All the dishes were cooked in a way that brought out the natural flavours of the ingredients. Complex yet complementary combination tastes. I heard the set lunches are the best value for money so hope to be back to try it some day! I also like how they tired local Singaporeans on their serving crew which …

LOWERCASE @ Lasalle College of the Arts

I had to give LOWERCASE 3 tries before I finally tried the food. The first time, we assumed the cafe would be open for coffee on a Sunday and we headed down and it was closed. The second time, on a Friday night, we headed down at 830pm since their Facebook said they were open till 1030pm but was told it was closed already!! I wrote to them to feedback on the opening hours, and one of their partners, Mr J, was nice enough to explain the situation and we decided to try LOWERCASE again with a group of friends on a Saturday evening. LOWERCASE is nestled in Lasalle College of the Arts and has a huge 5000 square feet space compared to the regular hipster cafes.  Their mission statement – “Lowercase is a melting pot where food, art and community come together” – is a good summary of what they are starting to look like, where random art pieces are displayed among tables of people eating. LOWERCASE seeks to promote talent by setting the stage for budding …

Wrap & Roll @ Ion

It was a rushed Friday lunch so my friends and I decided to all travel from our respective offices and meet in centrally located Ion for quick lunch. My Vietnamese team mate recommended Wrap & Roll (Ion branch just opened in Sep13), and she recommended is because she said it is quite authentic Vietnamese flavor (of course no where near Vietnamese price). Given Vietnam are known for their rolls, we shared the Minced Pork & Mushrooms in Steamed Rice Paper Rolls which was quite yummy. It is textured a lot like chee cheong fun. I noticed most of the tables ordered rolls to share as well; definitely be trying different flavoured rolls next time. For main, I had the Stir Fried ‘Pho’ Noodles. What I really liked about this dish was that it was very healthy; it was 40% vegetables, onions and carrots making the dish very crunchy. It also had lesser carbs than usual Asian meals so less food coma tendency after lunch. My friends had other mains. Miss S tried the Beef Hot Pot …

Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill

One of the rare non-DSLR evenings, so bear with the camera phone quality pics. But we had pretty good grill at Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill so I wanted to share it. N was having meat cravings and since we have Palate discounts, we headed over to Marina Square for 1-for-1 Starters/Mains! The service on first impressions wasn’t great. The servers were all so busy trying to turn the tables, they didn’t acknowledge us at the head of the queue. We waited for 5 minutes before someone told us to hold on for another 5 minutes. This is a very small detail, but I really like their chips! Tastes home made 🙂 They give free chips and bread on the house. Interesting starter – Bone Marrow served with bread ($11.90). This was all N’s after 1 bite for me, but for meat and innard lovers, this is a decent quality dish for the price Next up, French onion soup (8.90). Again, decent quality but after the best French Onion soup in Singapore, this pales in comparison. The …

French Ladle! – Special Bistro Review

“I want to be a social entrepreneur!” “I want to run my own company and make my first million by 30.” I am pretty sure many of us have heard these comments or even utter them ourselves. But how many of us are actually willing to plan and make sacrifices to achieve what we say we want to achieve? Today’s bistro entry is special because “French Ladle” is one of my closest friend’s dream since secondary school. Miss L has been talking about opening a café since we were 13! And I admire her boldness in quitting her corporate job a few years ago to pursue culinary arts in Sunrice academy. Her first startup in a hawker setting did not take off, but she didn’t give up. Instead, she persevered through really tough uncertain times to finally open the French bistro café concept she has always wanted- French Ladle at 2 Pandan Valley  597626. She epitomizes one of the reasons why I started this blog – to encourage and remind all of us that if …