Wildfire Kitchen + Bar, Evans Road

I wanted to describe this place (26 Evans Road, tel : +65 6734 2080) as nice. But after a moment's ponder, it's not nice. It's looks just like any other establishments opened up in recent years that everyone's labelling "hipster". So it is in the context of this place and time - just another. What drove me here though was the theme of burgers and steaks in a casual environment with beer. That up there was Sankt Gallen orange chocolate stout. Yes, there was that orange at the front that morphs somewhat into a bitter chocolate. Apparently, they're a Japanese brew. Interesting....

Wildfire does various burgers to cover various bases. The regular varieties don't have pedigree stated on board but the more expensive ones are their full blood Blackmore wagyu burger and another that features dry aged Hunter Valley Angus beef. I had the former, thought it was quite nicely build with a 180g patty enveloped with melted cheddar, butterhead lettuce, some gherkins and caramelized onions. All between nicely browned brioche which was sturdy enough to hold the meat and juices. Honestly, I didn't care very much about the their "Signature Master Sauce". It just tasted like mayo and this setup honestly, works with no sauce. 

But I don't know if they knew that.

The meat was nice, coarse minced and had an odd aged aroma. But the balance of the flavours didn't quite work out ideally for me. There was too little sear and salt to support the meat. Maybe they didn't like their customers leaving with a carcinogenic cholesterol spike, but it certainly downplayed specifically, any quality to the meat that they had used.

As I was finishing up the last of this, I was reminiscing the "Travis" burger and the other from Butchers Club Burgers, both of which I felt kicked more proverbial ass.

I had been expecting to be impressed by their Blackmore Wagyu minute steak. It was a little more than minute, and the doneness was well over the medium rare that we requested for. Honestly, I have no idea what cut is a minute steak, but I intelligently hypothesise that it's not one of those with sufficient fat in the meat to bring out the wagyu-ness? It tasted like a very nice piece of char grilled beef, albeit overcooked. Absolutely lacks that trademark flavour though.

Nice? Yes. But not impressive. And certainly speaks of how slip shod things are when you actually bother to boast the pedigree of your meats to and yet, failing to cook it properly to request.