Bouillon Gavroche, Mandarin Gallery

Brasserie Gavroche has opened a less pricey Bouillon Gavroche (#01-16/17 Mandarin Gallery, 333A Orchard Road, tel : +65 8522 0998) in town. While the restaurant is definitely easier on the wallet, one also needs to understand that the price tag commensurates with the quality of the food.

Decent warm goat cheese salad but that goat cheese...let's just say we've had better flavoured ones. These were crumby and tangy but not so much....goaty? Which I thought was the point.

There's crevettes sauce thermidor - or prawn thermidor. Not bad crustacean-y bechamel and those prawns were nice and smoky. Liked the mushrooms in it too.

Ordered their butcher's cut steak with peppercorn sauce. The cut of the day was sirloin. Meat's dry-ish...almost like dry aged meat on the interior surface but minus the funk and flavour. Quite disappointing. Going on record here that Ma Maison has better sirloin steak.

Redhill Prawn Noodle (85红山蝦麵 ), Redhill Food Centre

We were intrigued by the queue we saw Redhill Prawn Noodle (#01-95, Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) whenever we passed by. With that visible constant queue every time, it's gotta be good right? Right? 🤔 Ingredients were decent. Soup's lightweight, not the gao type but still adequately flavourful and pleasantly rounded. Mee pok was sadly soggy and saucing not memorable. The noodle quality is important - at least for me it is since that's the majority flavour/textural experience there. Maybe the thing here is not to go for the mee pok. 

Pang's Hakka Yong Tau Foo (小彭酿豆腐), Hawkers' Street @ Clementi Mall

This was the Hakka Signature YTF noodle dry from Pang's Hakka Yong Tau Foo (Hawker Street, #04-20/21/22 Clementi Mall, 3155 Commonwealth Avenue West) inside Hawkers' Street at Clementi Mall - the food court that has replaced the previous Boleh Boleh!.

Was actually on the fence for a little bit between that and the traditional bowl but curiosity on what's signature won.

There's a bunch of stuff that's maybe not seen in the "traditional" variety. That included some squiggly stuff that tasted like they were made of pork (or lard) and fish paste and some seaweed bitter gourd fish paste thingy. I think they did a good job flavouring up the fish paste with....dried sole maybe? 

Noodles were savoury and lardy. Soup wasn't the typical soy bean variety. Nicely done as a whole in my opinion. Will not mind coming back.

Dumpling mee pok from Xiang Jiang Soya Sauce Chicken (香江豉油鸡)

Been a while since we were here at Xiang Jiang Soya Sauce Chicken. Today was sui gao mee pok. The mee pok here has great texture - firm, thin and has a good bite.

Still impressive stuffings of prawn, minced marinated pork, strips of wood ear fungus and little chunks of diced water chestnut. Should ask for extra chilli the next time.

Yappari Steak, Wisma Atria

Yappari Steak has a new outpost in Orchard (#04-24 Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road). They're currently at the spot that used to be Kai Kai Sushi & Grill by Teppei.

The menu's adjusted a little. There is a 300g option for the karubi now which I've gotten today. One could also top up with foie gras. 😬 In retrospect, I didn't enjoy this as much as the last time I've had it. Maybe I never liked it that much previously in the first place. Noticed that they have hanging tender and was intrigued. Will try that the next time. 

One week+ later......

Came back for the 300g sagari (hanging tender). Or onglet. Couldn't resist the foie gras.

Pretty good. I think it might be my favourite cut from them with its mineral rich and beefy flavour. Came in thick chunks.

Slice and remove from the hot stone when it's at desired doneness. Eat with adequate salt to bring out those flavours.

Saravana Special Meal from Saravanaa Bhavan

First time dinnering at Saravanaa Bhavan. This was their Saravana Special Meal; pretty much a south Indian thali topped with a poori - hence a veritable platter of flavours coming from the spices in the soups and gravies and yoghurt to be enjoyed with bread and rice. There's a slew of other items on the menu at dinner which looked like things we could come back for.