Lunch @ Wild Rocket

Wild Rocket at Hangout Hotel (10a Upper Wilkie Road) wasn't an easy place to find. Even with the aid of a mp, it was a much longer walk than I had expected up Mt Emily. The restaurant looked much nicer in pictures that I saw online than in reality. Sort of reminded me of Jaan. Anyways, there is a lunch 3 course here at $26++ that comes with a starter, a main and a dessert. I'm here today for the Wild Rocket Burger which is only available for lunch.

salad grilled aubergine, baby spinach and yasai dressing

deep fried soft shell crab with sweet thai chilli sauce

The starters for their lunch menu looked meh but since it came with lunch, we picked something. Those grilled aubergines are pretty much what they looked like. I had initially thought that the soft shell crab looked to be another boring item. To my surprise it was pretty good. Instead of being dried out, greasy logged and chewy, this was actually juicy and quite meaty. Quite impressed. I was thinking of just how much more unimaginative it could have gotten with their sweet Thai chilli sauce that was so cliche. That sauce was not bad with the crab. Never always trust what you think you know from the menus. Lol!

behold the Wild Rocket Burger

I liked this and I can see the possibility where I might just trek up this place to eat it again. The burger looked in real life a little smaller than I imagined, but the patty was thick like how I saw them in pictures. Any thicker, I wouldn't have been able to fit it into my mouth. It was so juicy that each bite I made had to be accompanied with the sucking of all the leaking juices that trickled down my chin. Damn juiciest burger I've ever had. The only condiments in it were sun dried tomato relish, some light mustard and sprigs of wild rocket. The sides that come with the burger are some token salad and papadum.

Desserts were a mixed bag with a very good "fresh Pandan infused" panna cotta with gula melaka taking lead over a much less interesting chilled black glutinous rice topped with coconut ice cream. I'm not too sure what to make out of the fresh pandan infusion since I've never actually had it before but the panna cotta did have a very distinctive flavour from the pandan leaf that can almost be described as 'invigorating'. On it's own, I thought it stood out well. The gula melaka was definitely an icing on the top. It wasn't overly sweet and was fragrant with crunchy bits of crystals. Nothing too heavy. The glutinous rice on the other hand I found uninteresting. The hint of coconut in the ice cream was barely discernible. Nothing special.

Risotto with seafood & lobster bisque from Menotti

This was quite good and filling. I counted 7 or 8 clams, a generous portion of squid and nice crunchy prawns. One could tell that the rice was cooked the proper way from ironically, the slight inconsistency in the doneness.

A few glimpses of Glutton Bay

Glutton Bay (Esplanade Mall) emerged after Glutton Square (Orchard Road) was closed and the premise is suppose to be representation of Asian food or popular local street food at its better. After a tryout, I was far from being impressed. To be fair, I did not manage to eat everything. But I do know of more than a handful of people who are able to recommend better players for most of the food representation. I wouldn't be too sure about Makansutra's term "top hawkers" which was definitely a very loose and superficial reference. It's a gathering spot for tourists to experience some local eats though. It's also tourist prices here anyway. Avoid the horrible sambal squid.

Muddy pub grub

Irish themed ale tavern/pub that has chunky chilli crab dip for chips. That's something to say about Muddy Murphy (442 Orchard Road #B1-01/01-06, Orchard Hotel Shopping Arcade). Well, maybe not so unusual here. I generally like Irish themed pubs because they normally do Strongbow on tap and I can find a couple of other reasons come back. Their bar snacks while was not amazing were things that I didn't mind . We had chips with chilli crab dip and green lip mussels tonight.

The chilli crab dip tasted like what one could expect from regular chilli crab sauce. It probably isn't as spicy, but it did taste the local and not just an attempt do a western rendition of the sauce. Don't expect Chinese restaurant standards. Those mussels we got were pretty fresh tasting, large and chewy - chewy in a good way that's full of bite. Something that the sweeter smaller varieties from Norway that Brussels Sprouts serve, doesn't have.

Marmalade Pantry, Palai Renaissance

Marmalade Pantry (Palai Renaissance, B1-08/11, Orchard Road) is a spiffy tai tai canteen secluded in the basement of a building laden with branded boutiques. I learnt of the ultimate beef burger and came here to try it. I had soup too. Service here on Saturday was pretty bad and the entire place looks pretty understaffed with only half the seats filled

The parsnip sweep potato and butternut soup was a bad call on my part. I didn't like it. For some reasons, I was expecting something like a butternut squash soup. It tasted more like a carrot flavoured dahl. Not something I enjoyed except for the cheese filled loaf on the side.

   

I thought their burger might have been better without the mayo but I'm not complaining. This was a serious heavyweight beef burger with a firm and thick patty accompanied by slices of gherkins. Made holding the burger together a tad slippery. Juice were dripping out of the patties as I ate. Quite impressive. The thick looking buns were also much softer than they looked and it was actually not bad. Though a bit pricey at $19.

Quarter chicken lunch at Kenny Rogers

We live in a world where commercial fast food restaurant chickens are sold by aged country singers and even long dead colonels. Kenny Rogers is but, another of those that used to have better tasting roasted chickens in the past, but has seen declining standards on their quality of food, very much like many other restaurants. It seems that all commercial food businesses are condemned somehow into a slow downward spiral which is a sad thing.


The chicken here is still edible actually if you asked me. The portions are however wildly inconsistent and very much dependent on the "luck of the draw". Sometimes, the portions can be just pathetic. The lack of consistency for that is a major drawback for me. Also, the signature roast chicken doesn't get into the lunch deals which offers the option of some chicken filet instead. I had to get the regular quarter chicken ($13.55 with tax) off the menu. Where's the deal here really? The people that decided on the menu of their lunch packages obviously didn't not care so much about what people come to this place for as opposed to how to sell meal boxes that cost less to produce. How much more obvious can that get when you throw in shitty lunch deals that make people not want to come back again after having them one time? So said my new Israeli colleague.

The side of macaroni with cheese and corn muffin fortunately still delivers.