Riverside Indonesian grilled squid rice

Here's a grilled squid rice from the Riverside Indonesian BBQ store at the Kopitiam at Plaza Singapura. I've some mixed feelings about it. It was on one hand pretty darn good with the mouth watering sweet dark sauce and the coconut ladened curry sauce on the soft steaming rice. It tastes just like the chicken curry served at the restaurant down at Riverside Point. What I didn't like was that the squid had been so hastily grilled that there was barely any char fragrance. The squids done at the mentioned restaurant were grilled to much better standards. And that curry was only a little ladleful.

So I can't decide if this was a good thing or not, but I guess I wouldn't mind having it again and I'll be sure to ask for an extra ladleful of the curry if I do.

Shish Mahal, Albert Court

Beside the ill fated attempt at findg Gorkha Grill some months back (does it even exist anymore anyone?), Shish Mahal (180 Albert Street, #01-20 Albert Court, tel: 6837 3480) was our second foray into Nepalese food. To be more precise, this place does both Indian and Nepalese. We weren't too impressed with the chicken momo which was in many ways like Chinese xiao long bao.

We had an order of the garlic prawns which weren't sure was Indian or Nepalese. The prawns were quite crunchy and de-shelled (yay!). Their starchy sauce was unremarkable and the garlic flavour fell short of what I expected from garlic prawns. Definitely had a much better rendition at Mango Tree.


There wasn't much to comment about their tandoori chicken (which was quite tender), the boti kebab (some chewy lamb heavily marinated in a tandoori paste that left nothing of the meat's original flavour) or the chewy cheese naan. I don't think we'll be coming back though.

Mini sliders from Barracks

This was my second visit to Barracks (8D Dempsey Road, #01-01 to 06 Tanglin Village, tel: 6475 7787 / 6479 9212) and I have returned (mostly) for their sliders ($22). During the previous visit, I had a foie gras ravioli soup which turned out quite disappointing with a single wanton like ravioli that didn't taste like it had any foie gras inside. But that's not what this was about; it's the sliders that took centrestage for this time. These tiny burgers were delicious. Small, thick and hearty patties with a choice of toppings along with the sides of truffle oiled fries and sugared sweet potato nibbles.

I like beef and burgers and generally tend to pick on the quality of the patties and the doneness. No measureable yardstick except my gut. I liked these sliders enough that I didn't even think to pick on the well doneness of the meat. Still tasted good. Perhaps, the blue cheese and bacon topping needed a bit of improvement. That blue cheese which was more creamy than pungent. No complains for the subtly accented truffle aioli which kept the beefiness of the patty intact along with a light buttery truffle flavour. Great stuff. I'm definitely coming another time.

Barracks does have a bunch of cakes that one doesn't often see in run of the mill cafes and confectionery. They're however, not always as interesting as they're described. Specifically the zucchini chocolate which really didn't taste like it had shredded zucchini. There was an apple cider and butterscotch cake which wasn't too bad. The hot butterscotch was what made it good and there's really nothing of apple cider in the taste if you're looking for that.

I recommend coming for the sliders and truffled fries.

Waffletown, Balmoral Plaza

Waffletown (#01-02 Balmoral Plaza, 271 Bukit Timah Road, tel : 6836 6536) definitely looked old school as an establishment with barely discernible air conditioning. It reminded me of fast food restaurant from a couple of decades back with a service person at the counter taking orders just a couple of meters from the kitchen crew, yet using a microphone to get the orders processed. The food was well.....ordinary. As greasy fried chickens went. We don't have much doing fried chicken beside KFC and I thought it would be interesting to see what they're about.

There wasn't anything good enough to warrant another visit. The small meat patties from the burger with cold buns taste like the frozen variety made with an unidentifiable meat substance which is something that I don't normally like about burgers. Even McDonalds is better if you're talking about taste. The waffles were rather ordinary as well and they charge for extra maple syrup and butter. Oh well. Now I know.

Creperie des Art, Prinsep Place

I thought the crepes here (44 Prinsep Street, #01-02/02 Prinsep Place, tel: 6333 5330) weren't too bad and would have been better if they weren't so pricey. But of course, I'm no expert on crepes and haven't had any from France, so I wouldn't be able to make comparisons. Actually, the crepe does kinda reminds me of the crispy edges of dosai. It's not the same of course, but I wouldn't say that I cannot draw parallels. Interestingly, there was some French apple cider which they served in a mug instead of the usual glasses. I wonder why is that.

saint caradec

trois vallees

complete du pays

crepe suezette

A starting salad of creamy goat cheese on toast and mesclun was pretty decent, but unexceptional. Of the few crepes that I managed to try on this first visit, the ones that were noteworthy were the galette saint caradec (creamy leeks and scallop) and the trois vallees (Rebl0chon, Rocquefort and goat cheese). The former had creamed leeks that were sweet along with sweetish and savoury scallops while the latter packed a decent punch with the tripartite of pungent cheeses. I didn't really like the crepe suezette which reeked quite strongly of the alcohol and it didn't help much that the pear sorbet tasted very much like the Grand Marnier used for the flambe. Haven't had crepe suezettes apart from the delicious one from Lawry's but this lacked the cream or butter which I was looking forward to.

I probably wouldn't mind try some of the other stuff here, but I thought that a bunch for crepes for a hundred dollars was quite expensive.

Ramen Santouka, The Central

We seem to be getting a number of chain outlets from Japan that are opening up here. Decided to give Ramen Santouka (6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #02-76 The Central, tel: 6224 0668) a check out; decked in a hype dampener. The shop itself turned out a little different from what I had in mind after hearing numerous comments on the place. Apparently, many people have different concepts of what a small place is and most of them have navigation issues to think feel that the unit is cloaked in any level of obscurity. And for those of you out there who're doling out helpful commentaries on the accepted mode of payment, I paid by Mastercard.


This turned out to be pretty good. While I wasn't floored, I thought that it enjoyable enough that there's a good chance that I could be back. What was special about them was the ultra tender pork cheeks from their toro niku ramen. I had in the shio option for the broth. The thin slices of pork cheeks, served separately from the ramen were salty in a good way. There wasn't anything special about the noodles which I felt were a little too soft for my preferences. The rich broth was kinda nice, but sat in heavily after a while. I'll be hard pressed not to order the toro niku again should I re-visit.


This charhan shoyu set (fried rice and shoyu broth ramen) came with less soggy noodles than the toro niku bowl. I found this shoyu broth to be more enjoyable in comparision with the shio which became flat tasting after a while. The soft slices of fatty pork here was in it's own ways, pretty delicious and had an enjoyable smoky aftertaste. The charhan was just what it was. I tend to be favourably disposed towards fried rice so I thought it was pretty decent.


I liked their eggs as well. The komi tamago on the side wasn't too bad despite the fact that I was really hoping for a runny yolk. I guess I can forgive that since it was a just dollar which was half of what I was charged at Ken's which also, didn't have a runny yolk.