perth: toastface grillah, barrack street.

went to perth during the national day holiday, and even though there were some screw ups with the flight (*cough* SCOOT *cough*), it's been a great trip (with lots of eating). it was winter in perth, and while i expected it to be cold, it was even colder than i'd expected, because of the incessant rain.

fatcat ice cream bar, bedok.

i've heard so much about fatcat ice cream bar and have wanted to try it for so long. glad that the opportunity finally presented itself.

we were there on a weeknight. i was somehow expecting it to be crowded, but thankfully it wasn't. seating was limited, but we managed to get a table for four. spent a while paging through their menu- i wanted to try one of their plated desserts at first, but none caught my attention, so we ended up getting two waffles to share.



of course we had to have their signature charcoal waffles (even though i know the charcoal doesn't actually add any flavour), adding $1 for the salted egg sauce. the other waffle we got was the original brown butter one. we spent a while faffing about trying to decide what ice-cream flavour to get. my mum isn't the most adventurous person, so my sister and i were wary about getting the more out-there flavours for fear that she wouldn't eat it. i tried the butter beer because it sounded interesting, but it wasn't something that i would want to keep eating. so we stuck to the safer choices- strawberry cheesecake and blackforest (which was really more chocolate).



the waffles were served a while later. sadly the brown butter one came with chocolate sauce drizzled all over- one of my pet peeves, so i only ate a bit of that. the waffle's texture wasn't the kind i'm fond of- a bit too airy and crisp.



the charcoal one suffered the same fate. the salted egg yolk sauce saved the day, though. i found myself dunking bites of the waffle into the salted egg yolk sauce, which was more savoury than sweet.



not sure if i'll make a special trip back for their waffles. perhaps for their plated desserts, though.


fatcat ice cream bar
block 416 bedok north avenue 2
#01-25
http://fatcat.sg

tanuki raw, kapok.

i've heard so much about tanuki raw and their truffle yakiniku bowl. finally got to try it, but i don't get the hype. at all.

it was a saturday night when we went over for dinner. the queue system was confusing to start with- i thought that we could just go in a grab any available table, but apparently we had to queue up. the queue was right at the entrance, which we'd missed because we came in from another entrance. thankfully the wait for a table wasn't that long.

we all got a foie gras truffle yakiniku bowl ($23) each and added one of their rolls, the confit de canard roll ($13) to share. my sister went up to the counter to order and pay, and the food was served to our table moments later.



we all eat with our eyes first, and the plating of the bowl itself seemed rushed and messy. there was sauce splashed all around the sides of the bowl, and i found myself trying to pick out the least messy looking one for a photo. it was good that the bowls were served quickly, but taking an extra few seconds to just present it properly would've made all the difference.



my favourite part of the bowl was actually the foie gras- it was buttery, creamy and delicious; everything foie gras should be. the US black angus short rib pieces were a shocking letdown, though. it was basically bland and didn't taste like much at all. i suppose the truffle soy sauce did help to add some flavour, but let's face it- beef doesn't need much seasoning to be yummy. the rice was just average, though the onsen egg did help.



the confit de canard roll didn't do much better. i get that it's a fusion dish, but there are good fusion dishes, and there are those that fall into the other end of the spectrum, and this, unfortunately, was the latter. the shredded duck confit sounded good on the menu, but in reality it was more like a canned-tuna-ish paste. the dot of spicy brown butter miso on top made me do a double take; i didn't know what it was until i went back to look at the menu again. but perhaps the thing that annoyed me the most was the filling of the roll. it was something fried, which again, i couldn't taste because it was overpowered by the miso on top; but the fried element was limp and cold, which really defeats the purpose of it being fried. they'd probably fried it a while back and left it there. after going back to look at the menu i realised that it was actually fried mozzarella. nope, couldn't tell at all.

service was pretty much nonexistent as well- i don't quite get why they charge for service, to be honest. ordering and payment was done at the counter, water was already placed on the table (and we had to go up to the counter to get extra cups) and every time we needed something we found ourselves going back to the counter.

i can't see myself going back. they need to take more pride in their food. the foie gras was good, but i could have that elsewhere, really. not sure if it was a bad night for them, but sorry tanuki raw, i'm striking you off my list for good.


tanuki raw
111 middle road
#01-05
http://tanukibar.com

ah bong's italian, tan quee lan.

having been to the original outlet at tiong bahru, i've been wanting to visit ah bong's second outlet at tan quee lan since it opened earlier this year, but somehow i only managed to earlier this week. i have to admit that the pull factor was mainly that they were offering porcini filled tortellinis as a special that day, and that sounded really good. i was supposed to meet C at suntec for dinner, so finally, the stars aligned and i managed to visit ah bong's.

they've taken over gastrosmiths' old space, and having been to gastrosmiths, it was kind of weird to know that it's now not there anymore. the decor was very no frills- simple and clean, with a chalkboard up on the wall displaying the menu, which changes day to day. the space was small and cozy, with most of the tables taken up.

ordering and payment was done at the counter. C wanted the atas duck ragu ($16) as her main, but they were out, and were replacing that with angus beef instead. i, of course, went for the giant tortellini in truffle cream ($18).



we got two starters to share- the comfort eggs ($8) and the cauliflower gorgonzola soup ($6). the soup came first after a brief wait. it looked nondescript, but turned out to be deliciously creamy, with a slight hint of the cheese. the comfort eggs came slightly later, and was indeed worthy of its namesake. mangalica sausage and mushrooms formed the base, topped with two perfectly poached eggs and dusted with parmesan and a drizzle of truffle oil. we wiped it clean in minutes.



our mains came a while later. my giant tortellini came first, and at first C was startled by the seemingly small portion, and was joking that i'd probably need to go have another main. there were just five large pieces on the plate. strangely enough, i was really full afterwards- i suppose the size of each piece made it a substantial eat. the tortellini were quite delicious- i particularly liked the porcini filling. the pasta itself was on the thicker side, though. i found out later that it wasn't handmade, but i suppose at $18, that's too much to ask for. i liked how light and minimal the truffle cream sauce was- i hate it when pasta is swimming in sauce.





C's angus beef linguine was hearty and delicious as well. she actually commented that there was too much beef (!) for her liking. happily enough she tasked me with finishing it, and i willingly obliged.



we also got a 73% dark chocolate orange cake ($6) for dessert. interestingly enough, it came dusted with sea salt flakes, which we really liked. i'm a sucker for desserts that aren't too sweet (though admittedly that sounds ironic), and even better if there's a sweet-savoury contrast, which was exactly what this was. it was also the perfect size for sharing, given how stuffed we were after the pastas.

service was friendly and personable. at the end of the meal, the owner himself came up to talk to us and ask how we found everything. it was kind of like having a meal at a friend's place, in a good way- there was a homely, comfortable vibe that you just don't get most places. i'll keep an eye out for their daily specials- definitely going back again soon.


ah bong's italian
103 beach road
#01-02
https://www.facebook.com/abitalianTQL#

the lab, jalan pisang.

the lab

sunday market, lim tua tow road.

i'd bought a groupon, intending to use it for their weekend brunch, but seemed that it wasn't to be (mostly thanks to my procrastination). so seeing that the voucher was about to expire, i decided to just go with their weekday menu. i went with X for lunch on a sunny thursday afternoon. it was about ten minutes' walk from serangoon mrt, and under the blazing sun, we were complaining about the walk nonstop.



i was initially already set on the duck confit ($19) but a peek at the neighbouring table distracted me into considering the wagyu burger ($22) as well. it looked really good (fried egg!) but i don't eat fries, so i still ended up with the duck. X was indecisive (as usual), but eventually decided on the salmon ($22) (which i predicted she would get, anyway).



my duck came slightly before X's salmon. being kechap manis glazed, the sauce was slightly on the sweet side. the duck confit was perfectly cooked though, and it was quite meaty as well. it also came with crispy baby potatoes, haricot fine beans, a side salad and some roasted cherry tomatoes. i appreciated the sides- they went really well with the duck, and made the dish more substantial.



X quite liked her miso marinated salmon as well. it came in a pool of creamy sauce (lemon butter, according to the menu), which i found to be quite off-putting.



portions are on the small side for mains, so we figured that we could probably share a waffle between us. it was really cheap anyway- $7 for an waffle, which came with a single scoop of ice-cream. X chose earl grey for the ice-cream. i wasn't expecting much, but the waffle turned out to be one of the best waffles i've eaten so far. it wasn't the crispy, airy type i hate. instead it was more substantial, and had the fragrance of buttermilk. my only complaint was that it was just too unevenly cooked- some parts were blonde, while some parts were a browned crisp. i much preferred the blonder bits.

i'd come back, actually, for the waffle. the mains were alright, but not something that i'd return for. i should probably make it a point to come back for their weekend brunch menu, given how much i liked the waffle.



sunday market
22 lim tua tow road
http://www.sundaymarket.sg

the beast, jalan klapa.

it seems that i always return from a trip with a new (usually hard to find in singapore) food that i'm obsessed with. from the berlin trip, it was blinis, and this time, from perth, it's cornbread. thankfully cornbread doesn't seem that difficult to hunt down- i did a google search and promptly discovered that the beast was serving cornbread. i realise that i've walked past it several times without thinking about eating there. best of all, their brunch menu looked tempting (pulled pork! waffles!) and so i went for sunday brunch with my sister. brunch is only offered for weekends though, but happily enough it runs to 5pm, which makes it a brilliant plan for a late lunch.

we made reservations, which was good, because even though it wasn't packed, the indoor table seating seemed to be limited. the rest were all counter seats, or outdoor (not a good plan in this heat).



interestingly enough, the brunch menu had a DIY option- perfect for (picky) people like me. for $22 you get to pick and build your own plate. i was torn about which carbs to choose, and kept oscillating between cheesy grits, cornbread, and the cornbread waffle. we initially wanted to get a cornbread ($8) to share, since it came with cranberry sauce and whipped honey butter. upon asking the waiter, though, we realised that the cornbread was actually the same size as the one offered in the DIY plate, and the said cranberry sauce and maple butter was actually the same ones offered in the sauce section of the DIY plate. kind of confusing, and we wouldn't have known without asking, because the DIY menu stated bourbon maple butter sauce while the cornbread was described as being served with whipped honey butter . the waiter who took our orders was really nice though! he told us frankly that picking the cornbread as part of the DIY plate was more bang for our buck, and even offered to give us both sauces, free of charge. we didn't need it in the end, since we each got one, but it was nice of him to offer.



so after much deliberation, i got the cornbread paired with pulled pork & bacon, two poached eggs, pickled watermelon and the balsamic cranberry sauce.



the food was served really quickly, and we were both startled by the generous portions. my plate came with a generous mound of pulled pork, topped with a slice of bacon. the cornbread was different from what i'd expected- i'd expected a more savoury version, like the one i had in perth, but the beast's one was sweet. the sauce provided was sweet as well, so i found myself not needing the sauce. i couldn't help but compare it with what i had in perth, and of course, that version won out, being a sweet-savoury combination, but this version wasn't too bad as well. the rest of the plate was quite delicious as well, especially the pickled watermelon, which added some freshness to the plate.



my sister liked her plate as well. i tried a bit of her ribeye, and was pleasantly surprised by how tender and well cooked it was.

i'll come back to try their dinner items sometime. the food was pretty good, with generous portions. i left feeling stuffed all the way to dinnertime. service was excellent as well. still, the cornbread wasn't quite what i was looking for- i'll have to look elsewhere then, it seems.


the beast
17 jalan klapa
http://www.thebeast.sg

the rotisserie, telok ayer.

was in the CBD and didn't know what to eat (for once)- confounded by the multitude of choices, perhaps. i was wandering around looking at the different choices (there are SO many things to eat) and the rotisserie's monthly special, ribs, caught my attention. i've been to the rotisserie several times (but not recently) and really loved their panini, so i decided to give the ribs a go.

the burning oak, bedok marketplace.

needed a quick dinner in the east side, and remembered that i've always wanted to try the burning oak's wagyu donburi. they've recently started offering it for dinner as well, not just lunch, so that suited my purposes.

they had a variety of different donburis on offer, but i already knew what i wanted- the wagyu and foie gras donburi ($18). i was given a buzzer after i paid, and i hung around for about fifteen minutes before it finally rung. as i was waiting i noticed that their business was really pretty good. every few moments people would come up to order- a feat given that there were plenty of other choices around.

i'd asked for less rice, but the guy who took my order said that the portion of rice was pretty small already. i insisted, though, and he relented, scribbling less rice on my order chit. the rice that i got was still a sizeable amount, though (for me).



the wagyu beef slices (MBS 6) were cooked perfectly medium rare, with a glorious, slightly crispy char on the outside. it had just the right amount of fat for it to be tender, but yet not overwhelmingly so. they were generous with the foie gras- it came in a fat slab, and best of all, had the same smoky char. the bowl also came with the requisite onsen egg (what's a donburi without an oozy egg, really?), pickled daikon and ginger. furikake, spring onions and sesame seeds were also sprinkled over the rice. the only thing i didn't like was the sauce, actually. there was enough sauce to give moisture to the rice, but it was just way too sweet. the rice was... well, just rice. nothing much to shout about, unlike at other japanese places, but at this price point, no complaints.



for the price, this was a really good no-frills beef donburi. i'd come back in a heartbeat to try their other donburis and skewers- there's an iberico pork one that looks promising. i love atas hawker stalls! cheaper price, with just as good food, making it really value for money. yum.


the burning oak
348 bedok road
#02-16
https://www.facebook.com/the.burning.oak.singapore/

twenty grammes, north bridge road.

wanted needed some dessert after dinner in the city hall area, and after googling i found twenty grammes, which suited our purposes nicely. made our way over, found the place to be quite filled (it was saturday night, after all) but we managed to snag a table. we got one of the small round tables- i mean it when i say small- it was a squeeze even to put all the things we ordered. thankfully there were only three of us.



we got the belgian waffle with a single scoop of salted caramel ice-cream ($9.50) and a charcoal waffle with egg yolk sauce ($8.50) to share. as expected the charcoal waffle was really more for show than flavour, but interestingly enough there was actually a difference between the regular waffle and the charcoal one. i found the charcoal one just slightly more crisp, but it lacked the fragrance of the regular one. for some reason, though, the charcoal one went better with the salted egg yolk sauce- the regular one was just a little too sweet to be matched with the sauce. also would've wished the salted egg sauce to have more salted egg flavour, but it wasn't too bad. still, though, i would much prefer the regular waffle (it's not a belgian waffle, but it's okay since i don't like belgian waffle anyway).

i also got a flat white ($5) to go along with the waffles, but it wasn't the type i like- not enough body and way too milky.

not a bad place overall to get desserts, but it got a bit crowded and loud as the night wore on. still, for waffles, my favourite remains as creamier.


twenty grammes
753 north bridge road
#01-01
https://www.facebook.com/twentygrammes/

baja fresh, rendezvous gallery.

i have this thing for mexican food, and singapore is surprisingly not lacking in good mexican options, so baja fresh has never been a place i was excited about trying. but then i saw that they were having a groupon promotion, and being the aunty i am, i decided that there was no harm trying it. i got a $30 voucher for $15, which essentially meant that everything we got would be half-priced. went along with X, pondering over the menu for a bit, before finally deciding on the pork carnitas tostada salad ($14.95). X got the pork carnitas quesadilla ($15.95 for a grande). both mains came with a side of tortilla chips, which X was extremely pleased about.



our food came almost immediately. X was taken aback at first by the presentation of my tostada salad, but she ended up liking it more than i did- i gave practically the entire tostada to her. my salad was alright- guacamole, sour cream, beans, pico de gallo and pulled pork piled on top of romaine. nothing particularly stood out- it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good as well; it was just meh. miles away from the other mexican places that i've tried in singapore- i was left wondering if they'd survive, given how empty the entire place was throughout our meal.



i ate two pieces of X's quesadilla in exchange for the tostada, and well, i suppose nothing much can go wrong with pulled pork and cheese. again, it was alright, but not particularly memorable as well.

i was pretty surprised to be charged for service- it was essentially a self-service restaurant. we went up to the counter to order, paid, and just waited for the food to be served to our table. salsas were available free flow on a counter.

with the groupon, we paid less than $10 per person, which i found reasonable. i'd be pissed if i were to pay full price for the food we had, though- for the same price point i'd be able to get much better mexican elsewhere. don't think i'll be back in a hurry.


baja fresh
rendezvous gallery
#01-03
http://www.bajafresh.com/singapore/

naughty nuri's, capitol piazza.

naughty nuri's has been on my to-try list ever since they opened, but i wanted to wait until the hype'd died down before going. i've never been to the one in bali, but hey, it's ribs, and i love ribs of any sort.  i made a reservation for a saturday night dinner with R and C. glad i'd bothered to make a reservation, since i saw a group getting turned away when we were waiting to be seated- looks like they're still as popular.

it was an easy decision regarding what to get- the babi rock anthem platter ($88), since it had everything we wanted. it also made more sense to get the platter rather than individual items, since the items were expensive on its own ($24.80 for six pieces of prawn?! really?!). i'd seen the menu online, and remembered the platter to cost $68, but R pointed out that the $88 one included a full rack instead of a half in the $68. still, they seem to have increased prices quite a fair bit (i'm comparing it to reviews i'd read from other bloggers who visited earlier this year), so i guess it's good that we're finally visiting now, rather than later.



i was expecting a wait, but our food came pretty quickly. the platter included a full rack of their signature pork ribs, 6 pieces of indo buffalo drumlets, 6 pieces of prawn panggang, half chicken panggang, squid bakar, charred corn, smashed potato with pork scratchings and homemade achar. the portion was pretty large (it was supposedly for four people, but we're gluttons, so...) and i was super full at the end of it. the table favourite was definitely the pork ribs, which were coated with a sticky glaze and was fall off the bone tender. it was even better with a squeeze of lime- the acidity made the flavours pop. the runner-up for me was the grilled squid, which had charred bits- my favourite. the only thing i didn't like was the drumlets, which i found way too fried and sweet; just not my kind of thing.



we didn't expect the smashed potato to actually be fried- i was expecting a mash, actually. and we also didn't expect pork scratchings to actually mean crispy pig ears. we'd ordered a separate portion of the crispy pig ears because i just wanted to try it, and hadn't realised that the platter actually already included it. thankfully we realised halfway through, before they actually served the pig ears, and we were allowed to cancel it. it was good, though- crispy and coated with curry powder, it was very more-ish.

one thing, though- strangely enough, the food wasn't exactly piping hot. i think they had some issues with food service times as well- the table beside us had already finished up their platter before the mie goreng came, and they were so annoyed with the situation that they sent the food back. i think i would be too, so thank goodness it didn't happen to us. otherwise service was pretty good, i felt- the waiter was attentive and it was easy to catch his attention.

maybe because i came with no expectations (i'd read some pretty bad reviews), i was pleasantly surprised by the food, especially the ribs. (i hope they don't increase prices some more, though.)

naughty nuri's
capitol piazza
#01-84
https://www.facebook.com/NurisSingapore/