B.R.O.T.H., Duxton Hill

Dinner with Junie and Lea. Nestled in the little urban jungle of Tanjong Pagar in the tree lined streets of Duxton Hill, sits a quaint little Australian restaurant within decades old colonial shophouses. Which many people probably doesn't even know exist. B.R.O.T.H. (21 Duxton Hill) is dressed in like a old English cottage. The place exudes a certain unique charm of the older world. Honestly, I like this place enough that I probably will want to come back again. It makes a very good place for a nice dinner date.

I was somewhat disappointed by the lackluster starters that this place offers. I should have listened to my inner voice and gone for the goose liver. Doh! Apart from this, the rest of dinner was enjoyable. The restaurant just needs to remember to get steak knives for steaks.

spinach & mushroom salad with raspberry dressing

crab cocktail with capsicum tomato relish & avocado

daily broth (clam chowder)

pork & anchovy fritters w/ apple, chilli & onion salad

The mains here actually looked more appealing to me than the starters. Running through, the only memorable item was the spinach & mushroom salad which I felt was a good light starter drizzled with a very nice raspberry dressing and topped with what I believe to be very fragrant fried shallots. The crab cocktail was quite disappointing as it wasn't really chilled nor warm. The meat lacked flavor and body and the accompanied dressing was boring. The clam chowder's decent with a generous amount of clams and carrots. The soup's flavor is a bit more on the milky side. The pork and anchovy fritters are just really normal fried balls of pork. I didn't taste anchovies and for $18, I really thought little of it.

lobster scallop, prawn and pork chop combo (off menu request)

Mr Dickson's macaroni baked w/ cauliflower and peas

fillet steak w/ blue cheese, crispy mushroom and shiraz

The macaroni's strange. It looks like a baked mash and it tasted more of potatoes and cheese than macaroni. I didn't detect any macaroni at all. Came with an nice crust with toasted cheese. The seafood and pork chops are pretty good too. There's not much to fault with the cooking. It's probably just the herb that didn't agree very well with me. The pork is otherwise exceptionally tender. The steak with blue cheese is, if you've guessed, good stuff. Pity that the photo doesn't bring that out. It arrived medium rare as I liked. The blue cheese was quite overwhelming in flavor and for me, it drowned out pretty much any other taste there. That includes any beefiness and the shiraz reduction.It was otherwise a very enjoyable tenderloin.

supernova pavlova with fruits and cream

sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce

The pavlova tastes better than it looks. It's a meringue with cream and fruits, however it's quite large. The sticky date pudding is recommended. This stuff is really fantastic. Maybe it's because it's been a while since I had warm butterscotch, but if you're thinking of desserts here, this is one warm cake to try.