Aerin's, Raffles City

Aerin's is located at Raffles City Marketplace. You know what stands out about them? The indigestibly long names for their dishes. I jest. Aerin's is run by the management that did Whitebait and Kale.

I walked in thinking with a misconception that it was just a new spiffy spots with forgettable food. I think I was wrong. I was initially unsure of what to make out of the menu. 

We decided to pave the way with soup. Wasn't much to choose from so it was easy to pick. Beside the Chunky Beef Goulash with Sour Cream and Butternut Pumpkin with Freshly Grated Nutmeg, the only other one Our Daily Soup which I presumed to be their soup of the day. They weren't kidding when they mentioneded 'chunky' for the beef goulash. This soup came with chunks of beef swimming in the goulash. Just look at the picture on the right. I thought that this is pretty damn good. The other soup we decided on was the butternut pumpkin. I was quite impressed. The soup was warm, smooth, buttery and sweet. The flavour exceeded ,u expectations even though I never really knew what to expect. I recommend it. I'm never saw myself being impressed much by soup but I was for this one. Too bad the foccacia was tough and chewy. All right! I'll say it, it's not fresh!

We had a shared salad, appetizer and a main course. The salad it was the Oven Roasted Pear with Brie Cheese, Walnuts & Semi Dried Tomatoes tossed in Honey Mustard Dressing. They restaurant menioned it was one of the popular choices. The roasted pears tasted quite different from how I imagined. I was expecting something softer. Instead it was only soft on the surface and was otherwise. crunchy. Unexpectedly pleasant though. Would have been great if they were more generous with the brie cheese. There were only two little pieces.

Our appetizer was the Deep Fried Risotto Balls filled with Mozzarella. The waitress claimed was good and a popular choice. I thought it was overrated. Not that it tasted bad. It tasted bland to me.

Onto the shared main course, which was Grilled Steak Pita Sandwich, Mushroom, Fries & Aerin's Piccadilly Sauce. This portions for this item was quite generous portions. The pita was quite thin. It got soaked and fell apart from the juices easily. I was thus robbed of my chance to eat it like a pita. I kinda like this one though. There was a decent portion of steak in the pita which was done medium well. Not sure about the Piccadilly sauce since I couldn't tell.

We had originally wanted to pass on the dessert, but we were convinced that the Apple and Rhubarb Pie with Puff Pastry and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream was a signature thingy. I yielded and ordered one. I was not the least disappointed. In fact, I was so not disappointed that I mean to go back there again to have it. The picture does not do it justice.

The crust is light, soft and buttery. The roof was all there was to the crust and it wasn't very thick. The inside was filled with apple, raisins and rhubarb which were overly sweet. Tasted juicy even and I liked the citrus flavour that were in there.