The Ship, Shaw Centre

Being something of an institution for western food in this country, The Ship (1 Scotts Road, #04-34 Shaw Centre, tel : +65 6235 2235) sure brought back memories. It was about two decades back since I had eaten here the first time as a young lad impressed as I was with the restaurant. There was definitely something approaching reminiscence from the layout of the tables, the dimly lit ambiance; down to the round ubiquitous looking cold buns with the single serving portions of SCS butter.

It might be because of the places that I've been eating, but these oysters Kirkpatrick aren't too commonly found these days. They were however delicious with the jus from the shellfish soaked through the wilted spinach stuffed into the back of the shells providing a briny flavour throughout bolstered by the smokey aroma from the baked bits of bacon. So good that we had been ordering them twice in two visits.

The prime rib from The Ship was a first for me. I had never ordered them here and had never even realized that it was even available (only Fridays and Saturdays albeit). Nor was I expecting them to be served on cast iron hot plates. I have to admit it was an interesting and pretty enjoyable experience since it wasn't likely that I would be eating prime rib served like these - with their viscous brown sauce slathered over the top. The meat was kept much hotter than I'm used to but did not overcook because they were actually lying on a bed of sliced onions that literally took the heat from the plate. Yeah, a baked potato with the works on the side as well. And no, there wasn't any option for creamed corn or spinach nor Yorkshire pudding to be had.

The wrap up was an old school tart-ish and sweet mango pudding plus a serving of coffee with a small aluminium pitcher of evaporated milk. This simply screamed old school for me. That coffee tasted surprisingly decent. It probably wouldn't fall into the radars of any Java connoisseurs but it sure tasted better than some acidic double espresso with foam and milk concoction down at Loysel's Toys that didn't deserve to be call espresso.