Bontá Italian Restaurant & Bar, UE Square

This place felt like Garibaldi. Even the style of the decor relayed the same clean looks and the dining experience bore a close semblance. Speaking of which, I will digress and mention that the new French place by the Garibaldi group at Purvis Street, Gunther's, seems to have opened. The digression ends here.

 

The food at Bontá (#01-61, UE Square) was expectedly tame in the sense that nothing is really very different from the usual. The menu items looked the same after a while (angelhair pasta with lobster anyone?) but I'm don't know if consistency of templated menu is a good thing. It tends to get boring. But this is an early claim to things, since this is the first time I've visited. If the restaurant perseveres, changes are bound to roll in. I think. The most impressive dinner item was actually the bread. Impressive as it kinda wowed me. And no, dinner was not that bad. It was okay actually. One has to factor the law of diminishing returns in the due course of progress. The bread was so good, I asked for seconds which almost did me in after the starters of the Ocean Trout Crab Meat Rolls. But it was very good bread. Worthy of space in my stomach. The bread arrived hot in a cup much like a cupcake with a ceramic base. Beneath the crust was buried bits of walnuts and in the middle, feta cheese. It was seriously good stuff. With or without the olive oil and tapenade.

the bread

The starter of Ocean Trout Crab Meat Rolls wasn't really mention worthy. The trout rolls with the smooth and creamy crab meat felt contemporary Japanese. Beside a tiny handful of avocados, cherry tomatoes and an unidentifiable blood orange sauce there wasn't much to this dish. Didn't think much of it in the department of flavour.

the starter

the pasta

The homemade goose liver ravioli was heart stopping. It was full of cheese. Parmesan cheese sauce and scarmoza cheese melted over the top. The other heart clogging ingredient was of course the goose liver that spilt oil as I cut into the ravioli. As a whole, pretty enjoyable. I'm quite glad it didn't come in larger portions. 

For first visits, Bontá didn't feel impressive. It's not mediocre. Also not satisfying. The feeling I'm getting was neither here nor there.

Essential Brew, Holland Village

Essential Brew (269 Holland Ave, Holland Village) has been around for some years. Their food are fusion of sorts because they're paired with tea and flowers. I didn't think all of it were a success in the department of flavours. That being said, the food here wasn't bad. In fact, I wouldn't mind eating here again if I had to.

Some of the dishes were pretty good. Or maybe, I came here expecting little. Judging by how long this establishment has been around, I also think that this place is probably one of the early adopters of such tea and flower food fusion places. The only other place that I know of was actually Helio Cafe.

grilled tofu steak ($4.75)

nutmeg marinade prawns ($7.50)

The grilled tofu steak which I was told was good was actually good. It was was tau kwa with sliced mushrooms wedged inside. Tasted light and clean and a little salty which I enjoyed. Compared with the elaborate tau kwa tower from Buko Nero, this was less pretentious and represented better value for money in my not so humble opinion.

The nutmeg marinade prawns on the other hand didn't do as well. The prawns were decent if not outstanding. What didn't work for me were the overwhelming lemongrass and ginger in the sauce which totally overwhelmed any flavour from the nutmeg. Bad fusion. Confusion.

earl grey ribeye ($18.95)

honey mustard chicken ($14.95)

Earl Grey and steak isn't....two words that come together usually. Piqued my curiosity so I ordered it. The ribeye was quite decent. I opted for the medium doneness and it did turned out to be a very good medium. Was a little larger than what I expected. The accompanying sauce was an Earl Grey and red wine concoction. Neither of which came through sufficiently. The red wine flavour was thin. Even if it were to be robust, it would totally drown out the subtle tea flavour. I had only managed to detect very a faint taste of the Earl Grey after I was more than halfway done with the steak.

The honey mustard chicken too didn't quite live up in flavour to its name. The mustard flavour was a tad too light. It was however a nice honey chicken chop. The ball on the side was actually jasmine rice which had quite a strong flavour from the jasmine.

Long live Sharon!

Woohooo! Fresh from Holland!

Philadelphia fish & chips, Fish & Co @ Paragon

There's usually not much that's compelling for me at Fish & Co. The food standards like many restaurant chains have spiralled downwards. Their regular fish and chips (quite decent) and the seafood platter for two are probably the only items that I would come for and honestly, it probably wouldn't keep me coming back for much longer. Lately, I've discovered that the one at Paragon serves some items that are exclusive only to that outlet. That's what the Philadelphia fish & chips is about, stuffed with Philadelphia cream cheese which sounded interesting. It looked pretty much like the NY version or the regular one. The difference was just the cheese.

The resultant flavour was a little different from what I had thought. This was something that's probably worth checking out once, not something I'd be keen to come back for. On another note, the seafood platter here looked to have bigger prawns and the shellfish are scallops instead of the usual mussels. I'm not sure if that's something just from this outlet or things have changed.

the muse and the wild oat

Ever bar hopped for food? Well, bar food to be exact. I just did and the inspiration rose after chancing upon one of the entries by a local food blogger on a couple of locations that looked like they do pretty good bar food. The talk about days being filled with dealing with self-serving, obtuse lunkheads whom you’d rather be smacking in the back of the head with a baguette rather than working with rang peals of resonant notes in me. Or was it psychotic laughter. I get confused. As did the idea telling certain people what I think of them and the mention of stiff drinks. Lol. So I decided, why not take them on in a single fell swoop on a not so fell night.

Muse Bar at the National Museum was a place that I would never think about visiting if not for the article. Just not atypical of somewhere I would hang out. Menu turned out pretty decent. I hope these places mark the beginning of an era better bar food. The mini prawn laksa burritos were pretty good. There was really identifiable laksa flavour in the fried rolls. Not the most robust of its kind but was however definitive of laksa. 


Following which were the duo of mini burgers along with curried chicken wings. The mini burgers were quite decent tasting - the patties were actually dripping with juices.. The curried chicken wings had a soft and damp batter but commendable seasoning which made it moderately spicy and salty at the same time. The mojitos here were really bad. To be a bit more specific, it was a so damn lime-y with no mint and little hint of rum kind of bad.


Wild Oats (emily hill, 11 upper wilkie road, next door to Wild Rocket) in comparison was a much better spot to chill with friends than Muse was. There's more outdoor seats and the drink selection didn't look as dull. The ambience was much more pleasant me and I appreciated the non-intrusive music. Would probably re-visit. Tonight it's just for their bar food and a couple of drinks. Before I forget, I needed to mention that the Hoegaarden they served was probably the most chilled glass of the beer I've ever had. It was "more chilled than Ice Cold Beer" kind of cold and the glass wasn't even frosted to boot. Awesome but rather pricey at $12 for a half pint. Am genuinely curious how they got it so chilled.

The parmesan wings here features Gorgonzola sauce and chicken rice chilli sauce. Gorgonzola sauce was far too weak. The taste barely registered. The chilli however packed a kick which was a pleasant surprise. Something I could come back for. Feta cheese, tofu and spinach wanton sounded intriguing but there's a slip up with the cheese. I can't imagine not being able to taste feta cheese in a wanton that is suppose to contain feta cheese. The other other fillings were just tofu and spinach so how could the feta cheese flavour not come through unless there was none?What I didn't expect from the wanton was that the dominant flavour was actually tofu.


Got myself a pear cider. Very mundane kind of cider flavour and I couldn't tell it was from pear. I'll be back for the hot bitches the next time!

The Pizza Place, Raffles City

So, this was another recommendation. It was definitely more than a couple of people that had told me that this shop has the best pizza they've eaten locally. Seriously? Honestly, I didn't think it was a big deal. Unless we're talking about some specific topping which I have missed. The pizzas here were probably a little better than Pizza Hut. This picture is a half New York and half triple cheese. Despite enjoying meat, I thought the triple cheese was tastier. Would have been better if it was quattro fromaggio for me and maybe I'm a thin crust person. Did I miss anything?