Vittles, Sembawang Cottage

I first visited this place (369 Sembawang Road, #01-05 Sembawang Cottage) some time back for their Moo Moo Burger. Came back for dinner just to check out other things on the menu. Even though after that first visit, I didn't think much of them.

In retrospect, my feelings about Vittles hasn't changed. Have mixed feelings about them. I'm thinking that I probably wouldn't come back.

I ordered the pistachio herb crusted lamb rack. Looked impressive. Left me unsatisfied. A few things come to mind. Firstly it was quite difficult to eat with a fork and knife. Meat didn't come off the bone easily and they didn't have the correct the knife for it

The crust of the lamb was mostly breadcrumbs. I thought "pistachio herb crusted" was misleading. Didn't taste any pistachios or herbs.

The meat was well done for most parts. Doneness was somewhat inconsistent. I ended up having to use my hands after sawing between the ribs which made it messy. Not impressed.

I initially thought the Emperor Oriental Chix Salad to be gimmicky but I ended up liking it. The salad was filled with crackers, bits of lettuce, strips of radishes and carrots with ground peanuts. It was served chilled with plum sauce. The only gripe I had was the description from the menu which mentioned 'succulent chix breast'. It's just shreds of chicken meat and the portions were pathetic.


Calamari was run of the mill and chewier than I like them. Just plain old breaded calamari.


In spite of the way it looked drenched in that boring looking brown sauce, their ribeye actually turned out to be better than I had imagined. They managed to do a proper medium rare. The brown sauce according to the menu was a red wine sauce. Not bad tasting. For what they charged, this could give Aston's a run for their money. Wouldn't mind eating this if I came back but from the way things look, I don't think I'm likely to.

Borgo, Bukit Timah

Did I say that I liked this place? This probably means that at some time in the future, I'd like to come back again because the food's pretty good. Well maybe there was just a little thing about the difficulty in getting the attention of the wait staff when the restaurant was crowded. Borgo (789 Bukit Timah Road) embodies a character of Italian food that I admire. A character which is starting to creep into scarcity. Good old fashioned heartiness. The prices here are "atypical" of most decent Italian restaurants here. No painfully kind to the wallet but a fair amount to pay for and reasonable for what you get. I hear that this place does excellent pizza too but I've not had the opportunity to try them. This first visit was promising and boded well for re-visits.


The bread here was quite a bore. Understandably, that wouldn't be the only yardstick to measure the restaurant.

Scamorza Dello Chef

Scamorza cheese - had a chewy texture like mozzarella. The ones here are the smoked variety and hence tasted like a smokey mozzarella. The scamoza dello chef was essentially baked scamorza topped with sauteed mushrooms and chopped.....well, greens. What it was, was a flavour bomb of smoke, salty milkiness and mushroom. I thought this was pretty good.

Gnocchi with pumpkin sauce

The gnocchi here looked hand made. The sizes weren't consistent. These soft potato and flour nuggets were coated with a thick sweet pumpkin sauce. They also appeared pretty small compared to previous ones that I've had. I liked it with the shaven cheese and bits of bacon that created a contrast from the sweetness. Does anyone think that those look like corn kernels?

Bistecca Alla Fiorentina

This steak was nice. At $58, it was a hefty 700g serving with a side of sliced roasted potatoes. And some salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Didn't really think so much of the rosemary which tends to be a little overwhelming but the meat was pretty good. The striploin side was noticeably more chewy than the tenderloin section which I personally preferred. I had thought that the striploins were suppose to be more flavourful but the differences between that and the tenderloin was barely discernible to me. Steak was done medium rare with a nice char on the exterior. I thought this to be pretty good even if it didn't quite score well with juiciness.

Lava cake

I had originally thought this to be one of those ubiquitous molten chocolate cakes that everyone out there is doing. It turned out to be a little different. And a little gimmicky. Cake gets doused with Grand Marnier and is then flambéed on the table. The aftermath left a soft, warm and rich creamy cake...... that had a surprisingly weak chocolate flavour. That, I did not expect. I was hoping for a full bodied chocolate thingy, this didn't do it for me.

Dian Xiao Er, Changi Airport Terminal 3

Running behind a wall of hanging greenery known as the Green Wall at the baggage collection area of Changi Airport Terminal 3, is a small mall space with restaurants call 3 Top. Dian Xiao Er which is known for their tasty herbal roasted ducks have gotten themselves a shot in that place and business looked to be pretty good already for an airport that has not yet begun operations. The airport is currently on open house and open to the public for tours and this would be one of the few restaurants that are already up and and churning their own crowd. It seems like most of the waiting/service staff in this restaurant are from China.

Fried rice with seafood and XO sauce ($10.80)

Dian Xiao Er does a pretty good fried rice with XO sauce. XO sauce is actually a mildly spicy seafood sauce made from dried chopped seafood like fish, shrimp and scallop that's cooked with onions, garlic and chilli. Some very usual suspects for flavouring in Chinese cooking. The flavour of the rice turned out to be slightly bland rather than saltish. I thought it was a little too greasy. Apart from what is seen in the picture, there were actually some prawns and squid in the fried rice.

grassland styled roasted lamb ($15)

I had thought that grassland styled roasted lamb sounded interesting, but it turned out to be disappointing. Firstly, the meat doesn't look roasted at all. In fact, one can tell that the meat was merely stir fried in some spicy sauce. And that meat was so marinated and well cooked to the point that it had become an unidentifiable meat substance. If you're into lamb for their flavour, you should just avoid this because I thought it was a waste of money.

duck roasted with 10 wonder herb ($12.80 for the small portion)

The roast duck here is one good. Good means that given the opportunity, I will definitely eat them again. The skin had enough crisp and fragrant duck fat underneath over meat that was quite tender. This option with 10 wonder herb contains codonopsis, foxglove and licorice roots and I actually thought that I detected a faintly sweetish taste of cinnamon in the sauce. I'm not generally big on Chinese herbal dishes, but this, I will come back for again.

The Tavern @ Tanglin Club

Wowzers, The Tavern has decent prime rib at less than half the price tag at Lawry's. What's more, the standards of the meat here were almost comparable. We're talking prices like they do at Hog's Breath. Unfortunately, this was located at Tanglin Club (5 Stevens Road) and one would probably never be able to visit unless you knew a member that would bring you in.

At 380g, their Gentleman's Cut at $38 was a decently sized prime rib. That was served with sides of carrot sticks, steamed Brussels sprouts, baked cauliflower with cheese, Yorkshire pudding and a baked potato with the works (if you need to know....butter, sour cream, spring onions and bacon bits). There's also the option for some strong English mustard if you wanted. No complains about the food at all but the Yorkshire pudding from Lawry's was fluffier. The medium rare doneness that I asked for here was more like medium but I'm going to be forgiving on this one.


The Lady's Cut at approximately 280g was similar to the Lawry's cut in weight. Came with similar sides as mentioned above, costed less than half of Lawry's charges and we got ourselves much better service.

What kinda floored us were the spreads which accompanied their breads. A small selection of sliced breads and crackers were available. If you're wondering from the picture above, they had beef fat, herb butter and pork lard. The lard was fragrant without being overpowering and creamy like kaya with bits of the fried stuff in them. Herb butter tasted of honey. This place would be good for returns just for the lard spreads and prime rib alone.

The Tapas Tree, Clark Quay

The enduring memory from this restaurant besides the paella (which was recommended by a friend) was the blotchy service which made me undecided about how to feel about them. My impression of tapas definitely didn't come out well after having tried some of them over two consecutive nights. I'm wasn't close to being impressed. Perhaps I didn't order what's good on the menu, but then again, shouldn't it all be good? Allow me to rant. I called to make reservations at approximately 3.45 pm on a Friday afternoon and I was told that they were filled up and subsequent probing confirmed that there was no more seats to be had for the night. However, I did decide to try my luck and sure enough, there were seats available. What's with that? On the first night, recommendations from the service staff was done with a total lack of interest. On the second, a waiter was quite helpful in getting the seats and recommendations. The place also needed better air conditioning for sure. Indoors.

There was a nice selection on menu. Some of which, were actually pretty tasty, others were passable and the rest just downright boring. Didn't make me feel enthusiastic about returning any more.

chorizo fritos

trio de pinchos (marinated pork, beef and chicken skewers)

berenjena y tomate con queso parmasano (baked stuffed aubergine and tomato with parmesan cheese)

solomillo al jerez (tenderloin cubes in dry sherry)

The chorizos that were fried in olive oil tasted like sour and salty sausages. It wasn't spicy much and were pretty unremarkable. The tenderloin cubes in dry sherry were quite juicy and not cooked to death. I admit that I had very little hopes for them until I popped the first. There was accompanying gravy which tasted like something from tze char stores. In fact the whole dish tasted like a Chinese stir fried beef with bell peppers, mushrooms with a hint of wine. Wasn't I had expected but it was pretty good. Probably better with rice. For $15, I did expect more meat.

paella valenciana

paella negra

I thought the paella were pretty good. I've not much basis for comparison apart from the pasta version from Esmirada. The valenciana featured seafood like mussels, squid with additional of chicken compared to the regular one. To my surprise, there was pork belly too. The rice was piping hot and loaded with meat and crispy rice bits at the bottom. Reminded me of claypot rice. I didn't taste any saffron in it and most of the flavour involved tanginess. The negra which was the squid ink variant was very much filled with squid ink flavour (and squids too) and it was probably the blackest rice dish I've ever come across. It was more thickly coated than the squid ink risotto at Pasta Brava. Something to watch out for to avoid if you're out on a date.

Goat's cheese salad, Irish stew and fish & chips

Dinner at Molly Malone's again. I thought the goat's cheese salad on toast here was pretty good if you're into pungent cheeses. The stinky cheese had enough kick plus it was rich and slightly creamy. The salad it came with was nicely tossed. Dressing had a clean taste in spite of appearing like Thousand Island.

I don't really know what's definitive about Irish stews but I'm guessing it's the lamb and root vegetables like onions, potatoes and carrots. And Guinness. That's the impression I have of them anyway and this one was actually not bad. The lamb was pretty tender. The stew was served with a bowl of real mashed potatoes which were delicious. By real, I meant that it did not come from powder. It's just a hundred percent finely mashed potatoes with some butter where the earthy taste was still detectable.

It's kinda tough to find good fish and chips here. These ones at Molly Malone's are probably one of the better ones I've had around. Other memorable mentions include Fisherman's Wharf and the next in line would actually be Fish & Co already. I'll have to try the Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro to draw another line of comparison. The menu here states pacific dory and it's a nice fish and chips with crispy batter. The fish was served hot and came in pretty good portions. For $16, I would say that it's decently priced. Doesn't the golden brown beckon to you?