Revisit: Coastes

Nothing really informative, just wanted to post this picture cos all 7 of us went to Coastes and ordered the same thing. 

Seemed like that day this was the only appealing thing on the menu - Croissant with smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and avocado. 

Very filling (and value for money) portion I must add.

#01-05 50 Siloso Beach Walk

62749668

Two Blur Guys

mmm this was a good burger. Meat to bun ratio was perfect, good size ( I judge this by how comfortable I can bite into my burger) and nice flavourful beef. (I got the prime beef burger). Best thing was the nice soft bun. Best of all, very reasonably priced.

My only gripe -why no fries!

Apple crumble, which wasn't great. Skip the desserts here. 

Headed over to Tippling Club where we ordered this cool whisky based cocktail with cigar smoke. 

Is it me or are bars starting to push out these really gimmicky drinks? Ah well at least they are fun to drink.

Orchid Hotel

1 Tras Link #01-13 

Singapore 078867

Tel: 6636 4183

Hanare

Hanare, Teppei's sister restaurant is located just a stone's throw away from Orchid Hotel! Go there for bars chirashi without the queue (at least I didn't have to)

So one gets two option - bara set (chirashi set with free flow limited side dish) or the buffet (about 20 different types of dishes). I dont think anyone would actually go for the buffet? It looked pretty sad, in fact the in all, the decor made the place seem very make-shift and temporary, think IKEA furniture haphazardly put together. 

4 side dishes - tamago, daikon n carrots, salted veg and salad (with sesame dressing!). 

Ok here we go. Chunks of salmon, tuna, swordfish, scallop and salmon roe, very very generous portion considering the price ($17.60). However I thought the fish was over-seasoned and I would have preferred just clean chunks of fish.

Although for that price, can't complain much eh. I think I will stick to my Chikuwa Tei

99B Tanjong Pagar Road

6222 1976

Wooloomooloo Steakhouse

Came down to Wooloomooloo for restaurant week and wow, no regrets. You may know that I have had several ho-hum or bad experience with Restaurant week, with the exception of this place. I am glad that I have found another worthy contender for 'best restaurant week meal'

Menu. We went with the crab tower and steak (duh). I must say I had my doubts when walking in because how good can steak be if it costs only $55 (and part of a set meal)? 

Piping hot onion bread which tasted heavenly with the butter. We wolfed this down in no time 

Very generous crab tower stack (all crab!) that was sweet and delicious. Paired perfectly with crunchy asparagus over tangy hollandaise sauce. The sauce was great, now I am tempted to come down for brunch. 

Filet mignon with roasted potato. No there wasn't just one potato wedge, the rest were hidden under the steak. I was surprised that we got a substantial chunk of meat. The steak was great, well cooked and seasoned.  Though we were told that for restaurant week, portions were smaller than usual - perhaps they can consider introducing these portions (at this price) as a regular item. Much more palatable. 

Wooloomooloo graciously allowed us to "upgrade" one of our desserts to their chocolate lava cake. One of the better lava cakes around, dense and rich and altogether too much for me (yes I am too old to eat that much chocolate).

We had a very lovely evening with excellent service. One of the best overall meal I had this year (Restaurant week or not) , in terms of service, ambience and food. 

2 Stamford Road, Level 3, 

Swissôtel the Stamford,

Singapore 178882

Ramen Bari Uma

Finally taking the long trek to Tanglin Shopping centre to try this ramen. The place was surprisingly  packed despite its relatively ulu location.

Amused by this sign. 

No doubt I was served by a very enthusiastic auntie who kept telling me to finish my ramen to read the words at the bottom of the bowl. Unfortunately, I could not; nonetheless she brought out an empty bowl so that I could read it. (Some chinese words). Too cute.

On to the ramen. The tonkotsu broth was very thick and savoury, a bit too thick in fact. The noodles and char shu were passable, the thick slices of meat were not my favourite, I prefer the more thinly sliced char shu typically served. 

Gyoza were pretty tasty and juicy. 

Overall, pretty good ramen but not in my top 5. 

Tanglin Shopping Centre, 19 Tanglin Road, #B1-01/02, Singapore 247909 

 68874484

Savour 2014

Savour was held at The Promontory @ Marina Bay instead of the usual F1 Pit building. I am not a big fan of the new location, sure you no longer have to walk up and down the building but its so much smaller, resulting in a much more restrictive experience. The Jason's hall for instance was about half the size of last year, there were also fewer areas for classes. 

It was blazing hot as usual. Walked around with them cold beers most of the time. The rest of the time - hiding in the Nespresso tent

Sneaky photo of the very fine Emmanuel Stroobant. Unfortunately, wasn't a fan of his tempura foie gras, way too greasy. Perhaps it was the weather, not a dish you would want to eat under the sweltering sun. 

Ok on to the food

Crab meat linguine from &Sons 

Really good sized portion and delicious.

Roast Cod from &Sons

Not as melt in your mouth as I had expected. Thought it was slightly overcooked. 

Combo Platter from Forlino

5 cheese tortellini, pork cheek, and a chocolate macaroon with passionfruit coulis.

The tortellini was great, the rest were so-so. Not a fan of the dessert, too soft and mushy (more texture pls!)

Braised Beef cheeks

Cant beat the holy grail that is at  Bistro Du Vin. Maybe I should stop trying other versions.

Meat platter from Stellar 1-Altitude

Rib eye, roasted pork and short ribs. A pretty expensive plate but wow this was good. The ribs and beef were tender and seasoned well while the pork was juicy and crackling good. Favorite dish of the day.

Need to get my ass back to Stellar for more of this.

All in all, Savour is still a fun food festival with the opportunity to try tons of dishes from  various celebrity chefs but I somehow feel the experience this year very much muted from the previous years.    I do hope Savour 2015 brings forth a more scaled up version. 

Genki Sushi @ Chinatown Poin

Oh this was so much fun. In a bid to improve productivity and reduce the strain on manpower, Genki Sushi "employs" these train tracks to deliver sushi right to your table. Just place an order on the iPads and a couple minutes later woosh, your order right at your table, pick it up and the trains go back to the kitchen to pick up the next order.

So much fun to eat and watch the trains moving back and forth. In fact, we only interacted with the waitress once, to pay our bill.  There is even a slot on the table for clearing of plates, really impressed with such effective use of technology.  thumbs up to innovators who instead of whining about lack of manpower, high levy etc find ways to solve their problems. 

Anyway I thought the food was good and cheap, especially compared to other sushi chains 

*cough sakae cough*

133 New Bridge Road
#02-33 Chinatown Point
Singapore 059413
6702 0900