Bedrock Bar & Grill, Pan Pacific Serviced Suites

Hmmm, this was a place (96 Somerset Road, #01-05 Pan Pacific Serviced Suites, tel : +65 6238 0054))) that I wouldn't mind returning to. The service was very professional in a way whereby it was almost personal yet not intrusive. I'm hoping that that wouldn't be a one off thing but in any case, the food was also part of the reason why I would look forward to returning. With a streamlined menu that had a focus, I somehow have a feeling that this was one of the restaurants that got their priorities right.

They had a flat bread that was freshly baked just before serving. This was one point up for starters which also featured some (baked?) garlic that was aromatic and soft in a creamy way that the cloves could be spread like soft butter.This was one of those things that I had to be wary about in a good way since it made one stuff themselves way too much before the other food was served. These guys even offered refills for them which I couldn't refuse.

We had their applewood smoked tomato soup for starters which was probably one of the best if not the best representative of tomato soups I've had. The consistency was creamy without having actual cream and I thought that it struck a good balance of being smoky and tart without being overly so. What I liked about it too, was that it wasn't heavy for a starter.

We couldn't pass up the roasted bone marrow on toast and it arrived just like I imagined it. What won us over was that it was heart clogging rich, gooey and hot..... robustly flavoured on top of well buttered toast sticks. I've always held that the sensation of having roasted marrow akin to eating foie gras.

The focus of Bedrock Bar and Grill apart from their whiskeys are of course, the steaks. We landed ourselves a 300g dry aged striploin and a 400g Australian ribeye. Place was a little dark and my hands were definitely not the surest with a camera, so the pictures here didn't quite do justice to how they really looked. To make things short, they arrived at a very nicely done medium rare, firm yet juicy with beefy flavour. And hey, they're also much easier on the wallet than Morton's is.

I sometimes get confused between hunger and gluttony, so I didn't know which of it made us decide to top the order up with a side of their mac and cheese which the server recommended to be something we had to try. Mostly, we were sold because he mentioned the use of blue cheese. The blue cheese that was used was unfortunately a tad weak, but the pleasant surprise was that the server had actually anticipated that and offered extras of that blue cheese sauce that they used. The cream at the bottom of the dish was rich, but not heavy at all. The crusty Parmesan over the top was definitely icing for the macaroni and did I forget to mention, that it was "perfumed" as such things are often described, by truffle oil.

The steaks were accompanied by a selection of house made sauces, none of which was put to good use by us except for the pinot noir which made a pretty good dip for the bread. That was not to say that the sauces were bad, but we were coming here because we enjoyed beef for the intrinsic meat flavour and the irony of robust sauces is that they defeated that purpose. We did managed to try them and found the Béarnaise to be pretty good, if different from other Béarnaise sauces that we've had. The chilli oil was a little too...Asian for steaks.

The dessert was unfortunately not impressive. This was supposed to be a red velvet cake and the pieces of beetroot in the otherwise ordinary cake coated in cream cheese made them taste a little strange. It was a little letdown here considering that the rest of the dinner brought smiles to our faces. Not a dealbreaker here. I'm sure they have something else that can redeem this for us.

Lunching at Aoki

Don't think I have very much to say about the food at Aoki at this point since a picture paints a thousand words. It was expectedly a great lunch. Light, yet leaving me more stuffed than I had expected and a satisfied customer. Looking at the vibrant colours of the food, the care taken into presentation.... I couldn't really say it any better doing justice to the flavours.

Mentaiko pasta from Ma Maison

I was at Ma Maison recently and had this ordered again. This time round, the flavors of the mentaiko turned out to be much more pronounced than I remembered them. It was almost like having them for the first time again and going "wow, this stuff is pretty good".

Ichibantei Hamburg & Steak, Liang Court

This was a relatively new place opened by Ichibantei right next to themselves at the basement of Liang Court. From their name, one can easily surmise what is the specialty. 

The hamburgs were pretty decent even though they were a little more charred than I was expecting. That charred exterior appeared to have sealed all the juices of the meat within. Even though the meat was well done. The hamburgs come in a few size options and are served with unlimited rice and bread with butter. 

I wasn't a fan of the demiglace sauce. Preferred the onion sauce since it didn't overwhelm the flavour of the hamburg. Now there's one more hamburg options beside Ma Maison.

Kim Dae Mun Korean Food, Concorde Hotel

I remember having eaten at this stall (100 Orchard Road Level 1, Food Court, Concorde Hotel) many years ago when they were operating out of a food court down at Orchard Point. At that time, I had no clue what Korean food was about and that it was probably just all bulgogi and the impression that was left behind from their chicken bulgogi was that these guys were pretty damn generous for portions.

Today was a different experience altogether. Perhaps it was the hour that I was there. The stall did look a little washed out from what I remember but was still drawing Korean customers. The food was certainly not wow-ing as I was hoping for but I guess that for their price point, they were above the run of the mill "Korean" stalls in food courts. I couldn't help but feel that it tasted much more localized than I was hoping for. Especially that jab che which reminded me of char kuey teow. The spicy beef soup was passably decent.

If you're still reading at this point, the Korean food stall down at Koufu at Toa Payoh Central does a much better kimchi than this one. Little of the fermentation process must have been undergone from ones here and it too tasted washed out.

Fried oyster and curry rice

Just an updated look on these freshly battered and fried as you order them oysters that can be gotten just outside Meidi Ya. I'm still hard pressed to find better than these fat juicy ones.