Cafe de Amigo, Funan the IT Mall

Heard this place mentioned a few times and decided to check it out with my brother whom uncharacteristically asked me out for dinner. Nothing against my bro, but he's usually not into traveling out to eat unlike me. Lol.

What I read about this place was that it had recently shifted from Specialist Shopping Centre to Funan. This restaurant is located on the 2nd story and relatively easy to find. Overheard from a conversation from the neighbouring table from ours that it was just opened here about 4 weeks back. The restaurant looked pleasant, had a wine section and even private dining rooms. Each seated table was served with a basket of warm baguette. Warm baguette with butter and sugar sure tasted good. :p 

The menu is separated into specials, salads, soups, mains, desserts and wines. The specials looked interesting.

Angels'n Horseback

These fritters which were from the specialty section of the menu were interestingly called Angels'n Horseback. They'r oysters wrapped in bacon which are breaded and fried. Actually quite good. The bacon wasn't overly salty and the oysters didn't have too much of the oyster-ly flavour. I've had some bad experiences with fried oysters previously so I suppose this is me being twice shy. These here were fortunately pretty good and definitely worth a try. 

Oysters Florentine

The Oysters Florentine were served shortly after the orders were made. So I'm guessing that they're all prepped to baked and they were also not baked for an appropriate amount of time. If you're wondering why I thought so, it's because the cheese didn't melt properly. Even though there were char marks. These oysters were shucked, filled with creamed spinach before the oysters are placed back into the shells and covered with parmesan cheese for baking. The menu described the creamed spinach as spinach moose. Hmmmm......moose. On the whole, they were decent. Just not remarkable.

This was when we waited really long before the soups were served. Choice of soup for tonight were the French Onion and the Not the Same Potato.

French Onion soup

Not the Same Potato soup

Damn straight this ain't the same potato soup. This was the first of these kind of potato soup I've ever had. This tasted like just a potato flavoured starch that's made from powder. I had this very distinct impression that everything was pureed by machine because of the creamy smooth texture. Didn't think it was that good tasting.

The French Onion soup was on the other hand was heart warming. I found it odd that it was served in a small clay pot instead of a regular soup bowl. It's also starchy but the flavours of the onion were robust. There were also shreds of real onion in the soup. What made me happy was the generous portion toasted cheese.

An unexciting dish of Soft Shell Crab

An even more unexciting Seafood Platter

I was disappointed with the Seafood Platter. It was sad and it's not a platter. Not even close. It's a piece of fish, a single prawn and a piece of squid. It's not even Fish & Co. In fact, I felt cheated. The garlic sauce used tasted suspiciously like the jarred variety used in food courts teppanyaki. Totally unimpressed. In fact, I'm negative about it and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Apple pie

I liked this apple pie. It came with light flaky crust topped with thinly sliced apples and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It would have been nicer if the apples were thicker sliced. It all went down quite easily even though it was big.

In retrospect, Cafe de Amigo was a bunch of hits (Angel's N Horseback, French Onion soup and maybe the apple pie) and misses (the rest). Would have thought a bit better of them if they were less expensive. Couldn't shake the feeling that most of what made dinner filling were fried flour and oil.

Seah Street Deli, Raffles Hotel

Lunch with Junie today at this NY styled deli located at the perimeter of Raffles Hotel.

What we ordered today were beefy.

Tornado in a bowl

That's what this salad was called. Tornado in a Bowl. And it came with the option of blue cheese dressing which I liked. Above the bed of lettuce, were generous slices of roast beef, mussels, prawns, avocado and bacon. This was my second time having this. Recalled that there seemed to be more roast beef during the previous time. I meant, it was "jaw aching from all that chewing" amount of roast beef. A salad that's worthy of recognition as meat dish.

Beef pot roast

Seah Street Deli served a delicious pot roast of beef. This stuff actually tasted better than it looked. Because it's thin sliced, the meat was tender and juicy. Their brown sauce was tasty. Came with a small portion of mashed potatoes on the side which were pretty decent. This is something that I could return for.

Ribeye steak

The steak at this place was passable. It also tasted better than it looked. I was actually apprehensive about the quality after having seen the first slice off the steak which reminded me vividly of E.Blackboard. In spite of appearances, it was honestly not too bad. Strange but true. The steak came with a side of a dry baked potato that's topped with sour cream that also felt a little too dry. The boiled broccoli and cauliflower were just that but topped with toasted almond slices.

Pumpkin tart

Their pumpkin tart was a disappointment. I ordered this because I remember seeing it on the menu the last time I visited. The disappointment was my fault. Perhaps I've been imagining butternut squash instead of pumpkin. Not sure how I got that thought in my head. This pastry was compact and the fillings did have pumpkin flavour - though it wasn't how I imagined it to be. The cream topping was unexpectedly dry.

Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie, Robertson Walk

Canelé, in the interior perimeter of Fraser Place @ Robertson Walk along Unity Street is an establishment of the Les Amis group. You know, the place that you'd come for cakes, confectioneries, chocolates, pastries and other sweets wrapped in dainty pretty boxes. Also somewhere to have quiet tea over conversation. Dropped by for dessert here with Junie after Banoo. We were deciding between Chocolate Factory further down or here. With the saying that 'nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd' in mind for some reasons, I decided against Chocolate Factory over Canelé because it was less crowded. I don't enjoy waiting and queues. Certainly am not big on crowds.

L'amour

Junie got the L'amour, which was rose petal ice cream with lychee, raspberries, a rose macaron and some really sweet rose meringue (the pink twigs). I thought it epitomizes rose with its flavour and colours. It's not bad tasting. Apart from the meringue, the rest of the items in there were actually subtly fragrant and not overwhelmingly sweet. The citrus in the lychee and raspberries were a good flavour balance to the rest of the dessert.

Earl Grey

That's the Earl Grey embedded with milk chocolate shards and topped with raspberries and raspberry jelly. There Earl Grey in the ice cream was easily overpowered by the raspberry jelly. I had to remove those milk chocolate shards to actually scoop anything. Presentation was obviously style over substance because it was a hassle to eat something that was setup like this. I'm not so much of a milk chocolate person, so I didn't really think much of them. Dark would have worked a lot better for me.

I did spy a quiche on the top of the cake shelf which really got me curious. But, it was quickly out of sight and out of mind.

Banoo, 7 Mohamed Sultan Road

Dinner tonight with Junie at Banoo. I've been hearing about this place for months, specifically about the lamb kebab koobideh. Tonight, I finally got to see what it's all about.

Banoo is a Persian restaurant along Mohd Sultan road. The interior of the restaurant was decorated with what looked to be Middle Eastern-ish ornaments but I'm just guessing since I haven't been to anywhere in the Middle East or Iran myself. Made a reservation for 8 p.m. to avoid having to wait or queue for a seat, however the place was actually quite empty when I arrived. Only one or two other tables were occupied.

Not having been here before, I didn't know what to try apart from the lamb Koobideh and hummus. The result were some hits and misses though there's a good chance that I will be back just to have the lamb Koobideh again. It's as good as the people whom have recommended me have described.

Since it was a first visit, I thought that we shouldn't miss trying the appetizers...

The above was the hummus. It's mashed chick peas with lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and tahini. This was delicious. I'm not sure how to describe this. I've had them before at a few other places including a pretty good one from The Original Sin. The chick pea paste which was a little creamy tasted lightly salted. It was accompanied by flat bread and what appeared to be Turkish bread. I'm not sure. This was really good.

I didn't find Naan-o-Paneer-o-Sabzi enjoyable much. It was a flat bread wrap with mint and basil, onions and feta cheese. It was served deconstructed. The best part about it for me was the feta cheese. The pile of greens which the menu described to be fresh basil also contained coriander, a vile herb that I thoroughly detest. I wonder how they could forget to mention that. The onions were rather sharp which meant that I could only eat a little before finding them overpowering.

This was the much talked about lamb Koobideh. This was every bit as enjoyable as I thought it would be after hearing so about it and imagining how it might taste every time I see it on picture. The minced lamb kebab was spiced and made into a tubed shaped roll and grilled. Texture was quite tender and the flavours were a mix of the lamb and the marinade, neither overpowering the other. The basmati rice was very delectable especially with the melted butter. I should have asked for more butter. This was one of those rice that made me want to overeat.

This above was the kebab barg, made of grilled beef fillet. It didn't taste bad except that it was overdone resulting in it becoming quite chewy. I generally enjoy beef so I thought it wasn't too bad. Just too well cooked. But that's probably just me.

The baklava wasn't on menu but the waiter specially pointed that out while we were browsing for dessert. I was aware that they do have them from D on his visit so I wanted to try it. They're a compact filo pastry filled with crushed mix nuts drizzled with syrup - something yellow which I couldn't really identify. Aside from the excessive sweetness, it didn't taste bad. This was my first baklava so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

And that's the Banoo Special. I recommend against this unless one is into into a nutty toasted rabbit food like thing soaked in syrup. It was mostly made of fried and crushed vermicelli with sesame seeds and a some nuts. To be eaten with the syrup which results in either being dry (if you use the syrup sparingly) or sticky sweet (if you're generous). The bits of the vermicelli got stuck between my teeth and every ridge in my mouth. I didn't enjoy this at all.

That's being said I would like to re-visit Banoo again. If just for the lamb Koobideh. There's probably a couple of other things in the menu which I don't mind checking out.

Crab Shack, Thomson Road

This place is seriously crabbed. Almost everything edible on the menu is crab or contains crab meat. Crab Shack is located along Thomson Road and the unit that houses this eatery looks to be previously a coffee shop that has been through very brief renovation, leaving hints of what it used to be before it became the "crabery" it is today. I came to know of this place from a good friend of mine (whom I had dinner with) who are pals with the owners of this place, so decided to check this joint out for evening chow.

I don't normally enjoy getting my hands dirty or dealing much with bones or shells with my food, so the orders were pretty much crab meat items. Besides those, the only other thing that Crab Shack sells are flower crabs which you can order piece meals like chicken from KFC. The tables of this place all come with a bucket of eating utensils which include a nutcracker and a slim crab pick.

These above the crab croquette. Coming from a place that specialises in serving crabs, I kinda expected a lot more out of the croquettes. In fact, I was thinking somewhere along the lines of the delicious crab cakes that I had at Riciotti, but it apparently wasn't close. These croquettes have breaded texture and creamy insides which contains, well, a faint hint of crab flavour. That is pretty much it for this. No morsels of meat detected. I'm actually quite disappointed.

The soft shell crab with chicken floss were quite decent. The crabs that they used for were actually rather small. It's usually larger sized crabs which are chopped into smaller pieces, but these are small enough that you can finish each crab in about 2 large bites. The chicken floss which were slightly crispy were a nice touch.

What's in the basket above are some members of poor stone crabs which will never pinch anything again. The stone crab claws were a fairly unmessy eat if you're armed with a cracker and a suitable pick. The shells were not as tough as the larger mangrove crabs and do not contain much sharp ridges like flower crabs. So they're fairly easy to crack open to get to the sweet meat inside which I thought was pretty good. I've had good and bad crabs and these frankly are not bad. But I feel that they're a little small, which meant that there isn't that much of meat to be had. Beats eating flower crabs though.

The crab au gratin is a small bowl of crab meat in a creamy mix containing shredded crab meat and chopped water chestnuts which are topped with cheese and baked. This small dish came scaldingly hot and was actually quite tasty. Again, I thought it might have been better with larger portions.

This is the crab spaghetti and was one of the mains of Crab Shack along with crab baked rice and the piece meal crabs. Everything else before were actually appetizers. Seriously. The portions of this spaghetti wasn't very big and neither was the taste. What they used was a very boring tomato based sauce, probably jarred variety and a very familiar shredded crab meat sauce on top of the pasta. The menu mentioned sun dried tomatoes and I'm positive these in the spaghetti aren't those. It was totally unremarkable. Pasta Mania does pasta better, so I don't really think much of this. For less than $8 I can think of better places for pasta, albeit without shredded crab meat sauce.

All in all, I would say that Crab Shack serves averagely food at affordable prices. It's decent at a point where you can probably come by and get some bites (beware the small portions), however nothing really stands out. And since what was ordered tonight was more than half of the menu, there isn't really much else to keep me coming back. Unless one enjoys the arduous process of picking out tiny scraps of meat off flower crabs where I personally find that the effort negates whatever joy gotten from eating them.

Here's a little trivia from the waiting number from the table.

Do you really want to hear me say Menotti again?

As chance would have it, I ended up here again. I didn't come here for their desserts as an original intent. Just an after dinner sit around and chit chat with old friends. Was actually thinking of just coffee. Browsing the dessert section of the menu, I came across something I haven't had before. Olive oil gelato. I just had to try.

It did look very ordinary. Could have easily been coconut, lemon or just milk. The first taste of the gelato reminded me of toffee. That quickly dissipated as it melted and the flavour morphed to that of olive oil leaving behind an almost subtle delicate bitter aftertaste. A rather interesting combination.

That's the San Pellegrino Blood Orange Soda. Never had blood oranges before but if the taste of the drink was any indication, there was a slight hint of grapefruit or pomelo at the start and ended up a more tangy and zesty orange.