Muchas Muchachos (as transpired end June 2026)

Surprise update on Muchachos because we came back again.

To get the double cheeseburger before we can't get it anymore.

If anyone's wondering if it's juicy...

...wonder no more.

More of their country fried steak and buttery mash.

Trying their birria ramen for the first time. Sans cilantro.

Of places, Muchachos was definitely one of the last I'd expected to find an equivalent of a kickass 红烧牛肉面. I've never had a birria before and this was what it tasted like to me with that bovine depth, spicy greasiness and salt. A much better/more satisfying rendition of Chinese 红烧 beef noodle than what we've actually had in Taiwan. This was also just like how I remembered the beef noodle broth from Lai Lai back in the day when they were the Taiwanese beef noodle shop to be eating at.

Double cheeseburgers, burritos and country fried steak from Muchachos

I read that Muchachos is closing sometime towards the end of July. Which is a pity because I kinda dug their California burrito and breakfast burrito - a couple of things they have on menu that didn't have coriander/cilantro. But we didn't head down today because they were closing. I wanted to try their cheeseburger which I've been meaning to for ages. Now that we have, I've shifted from that sense of pity to something akin to sadness that they're closing.

Because what they did was nice. Cheese, nice coarse beef patties, pickles and lettuce without excessive saucing.

They didn't do fancy which was kinda what I've been looking for. Was it coincidental that this reminded me of the burger at the defunct One Night Only and Muchachos was part of them? Maybe I'm over reading this.

Also tried their country fried steak which I've also been curious about for some time.

Meat's tender, well done and has a bit of beefiness underneath a crust that reminded me of fried chicken. Quite peppery. The one thing I thought could have been improved was their gravy. Would have liked it richer and less starchy.

A couple of weeks later......

I knew I would be missing these so we came back for them. In the event that Muchachos never re-emerges somewhere else in the future, we'd have these last memories of them.

The breakfast burrito with maple syrup no less.

And the California burrito with hot sauce.

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.

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.

Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie, Dempsey Road

They're (#01-03/04, 13 Dempsey Road) apparently a chocolatier that has started incorporating chocolate into their food so we were here to try them.

That's the Chocolate BLT. What intrigued me was the 45% milk chocolate mascarpone which turned out to be really good. Sadly, the beef bacon was no good at all - it was tough, chewy and sinewy. Some parts weren't edible. Pretty sure it would have been much better with regular bacon but the food's Muslim friendly so that's never happening.

There's steak frites with 72% dark chocolate peppercorn sauce. Kitchen has obviously little experience with plating. Sauce appeared to be watery because of the juices from the meat. Meat's edible, not great quality and also had some chewy unswallowable parts. Adequately salted though. The fries were the best tasting things on the plate.

Was nice of them to oblige when we asked for more sauce because there was barely enough to taste. It's creamy, not bad tasting but also neither memorable nor dark chocolate-y. Felt more like milk chocolate without much discernible pepper.

Pan seared duck breast with chilli cocoa powder was mediocre. I'm not sure what's their definitely of sear because I wasn't tasting any of it on the duck.

Meat was lean and had a powdery feel to them. There's little to no fat under the skin and that skin was very chewy. There were bits of silver skin in them. Apricot gastrique on the side didn't taste bad. Reminded me more than a little of tamarind but I didn't think it worked with the chilli cocoa powder.

Quite a bit of stuff we couldn't chew and/or swallow.

Chocolate's not bad though. We were offered samples and ended buying some.

Back to brunch at Wooloomooloo Steakhouse

I mentioned coming back here for their burger. 

The butter with the onion focaccia is like the icing on the cake.

Their crustacean bisque is always a good choice.

One of the first course option in the brunch was an open faced beef gyoza with avocado. Beef's really tender but the flavour was almost totally muted by the yuzu mayo.

There's a Australian wagyu carpaccio which was pretty good tasting. Not so much because it's wagyu but more of the combination flavours with the tuna sauce and sweet pickled onions. That and the textures from the diced onions and not too salty crispy capers.

So here's that double cheeseburger. Special sauce on the side.

Nice, hot and meaty between buttery buns.

Picanha from Pure Black cattle. Meat's beefy and metallic, tender and chewy at the same time. Much like skirt/flank. The sweet glazed carrots that came with it was awesome. 

Sticky coffee pudding with vanilla mascarpone to end. Pretty good.

Josh's Grill, 313 Somerset

We've eaten at Josh's Grill once at Bugis a few years back. Food was decidedly decent. This was our first time at their 313 branch (#B2-15 to 19, 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6235 0594). Menu seemed a little different from the last time.

There's butter beer - tasted like root beer with melted vanilla ice cream. Non-alcoholic if anyone was seriously wondering.

Tomato soup's not bad. Texture was velvety creaminess and flavour's tangy from the tomatoes. I kinda enjoyed it.

Nice tasting oysters with garlic butter. My only gripe was that these were pretty puny. I could fit 3 of them in my mouth.

Something called cheesy melts fried chicken cutlet - basically fried chicken cutlet with melted cheese. Said cheese was brought out separately in a cast iron pan still bubbling and poured over the fried chicken when they served it. Nice.

Josh's Grill has a series of steaks in their menu under J's Steaks. 250g served on a hot plate with a lightly sizzling pool of what I initially thought was butter. Presumably, J is for Josh rather than the clown prince of crime. 🤡

That stuff bubbling on the plate didn't exactly taste like butter. Don't know what it was. Ribeye has low marbling so it's edible, not great. Meat seemed barely salted. What's not good was the creamed spinach. Those were really fibrous and chewy