Bar-Roque Grill, Amara Hotel

A confluence of rustic themed modern rotisserie and bar that features a Stéphane Istel - chef, owner and previously from the Daniel Boulud group. Said chef hails from Alsace, a picturesque region of France along the borders of Germany and Switzerland. It would seem that, that heritage is what Bar-Roque (165 Tanjong Pagar #01-00, tel : +65 6444 9672) is here to offer.

They have tarte flambée. It was ok I guess. Pretty much what one can expect of cream cheese, onions and bacon on flatbread.

Their beef carpaccio was excellent. Flavourful thinly sliced beef that wasn't shy with the salt and nicely flavoured with toasted pine nuts and shaven truffle. It was also however very tiny in portions and for $25. I could have rolled up all that beef into one mouthful.

We decided to take on their sample meat platter for a taste of what Bar-Roque had to offer. From what they had done up, the Australian wagyu and lamb shoulders were excellent. Their pork with inadequately crispy skin fell flat on flavour, was sinewy and had to be rescued by the mustard. Challans ducks had lost everything French about them with a very Asian sauce slathered over. These aren't even close to the best ducks I've had. They did however, do a pretty decent roasted chicken.

And then, tiny mushroom raviolis which went through some confusion. We had ordered a main sized portion which the server had confirmed upon arrival. It was delicious from the cream sauce backed with fried shallots, but the portions were puny. A three year old would have had no problems finishing them. I mean, come on, those raviolis were barely larger than my thumbnails. Later, a second wait staff informed us it might have been a portion for sides. No one seemed to be sure. 

Apple pie was really good. I mean, exceptionally good. But at $66 for a whole pie, I don't think I'll buy from them. In fact, I don't think I'll be coming back.

Some sort of cheesy egg drop beef broth from Valentino's

I have forgotten what this is called but it seems to be some sort of beef broth - a rather clear one at that, which comes with fluffy egg bits beaten into them. If I didn't recall wrongly, it was one of their more expensive soups. The flavor was oddly, rather cheesy for something that was supposedly beef and egg based. Salty and cheesy. Not that I'm complaining, but expectations between the description, what I see and the taste are a little misaligned here.

Omakase Burger revisited

So, it seems that the flavour of the month here is their foie gras burger. That's the product picture above from their social media by the way.

As much as I had anticipated the misrepresentation that they did advertising it, the appearances still had me taken aback a little. Foie gras flavour? Sure - the word to describe the strength of that flavours is 'residual'. It was still a pretty well done thing with the juicy & beefy medium done patty that had tongues wagging when they first opened up. It's never going to win any semblance of an award for being a foie gras burger. Not by any stretch.

Now, the Mexican coke that they have. It tasted like the regular thing. Maybe the sweetness wasn't as cloying. Can't really tell.

Foie gras isn't exactly cheap and Omakase Burger also never priced themselves at what could be construed as basic level cheap already in the first place. This creates a predicament. Where a balance between keeping the liver amount "manicured" and maintain what is perceived to be a sweet spot for the price tag or - put enough of the gras that no one should ever doubt it for what it is with at the risk of a cost that will turn people away. What a pickle eh?

Ootoya in 2013

So, it's been a while since the last time. The menu seems to have changed and so has presentation. They used to cram their teishoku sets into a large tray. Now we get a smaller tray, and a big plate.

This was the first time with their blue fin tuna sashimi. The portions looked petite for what they were charging and the knife work a little amateurish. But the fish was smooth and the flavors were good.

Taking from a page of their shio-koji teishoku selection, there was some beef and pork. Shio-koji as I learnt is koji (a fermented culture of rice and/or soya beans) that is fermented in salt. The result is suppose to provide the same amount of flavor with less than half the actual salt content.

I was initially a little apprehensive of the beef from appearances, but it turned out to be pretty tasty. Fat laced with beefy flavors and uplifted by small bits of burnt ends. The pork belly was likewise really flavorful with delicious grease and soft fats, topped with char aroma.

Probably my favourite option of hijiki rice.

Why settle for one dessert when.......

...the second one comes for free! I don't know what's happening here. But we were told it's a one for one deal. The banana parfait remains the top pick for us while the green tea mousse thingy was pretty good as well. The roasted sesame on cream was nice.

Some's, Goldhill Plaza

I was brought to this place (189 Thomson Road, Goldhill Centre, tel : +65 6251 1278) by a friend who lives in the vicinity and during the first visit, this rather new shop was mysteriously closed even though it was supposed to be open based on their stated opening hours. We got lucky on the second try last week and I was pretty impressed by their crispy pork which featured oven roasted pork belly with a very crispy crackling. At that point, there was a hint of something familiar about the food, but I couldn't quite place what it was. They have apparently been in the business for four decades and was previously operating at Commonwealth.

This evening was second dips where the order was a little larger and we requested for the sambal which they only provide upon request. I'm not sure if it was that sambal, but certain things about the food clicked again and it dawned upon me that this could have been that stall at Tanglin Halt Food Centre which I had only remembered the number. I did a quick check with the proprietress and as it turns out, it was indeed them! Then it all came back to me, from the taste of the sambal to the way the roasted pork belly was fanned out across their plates and the fact that they took a long time to chop up some already cooked meat. Kinda like the moment you realized whom Keyser Söze was. This new location was certainly some makeover.

This second visit also saw some inconsistencies with the above mentioned roasted pork crackling. While it was a little less crispy compared to the first time round, it was also harder. Their signature ribs were unfortunately a bore and the duck was a so so kind of thing. The other thing I wanted to come back for was a pretty good wanton soup which the proprietress had to emphasize for a second time that there was no MSG or any artificial flavoring involved and all sweetness was natural, buffed with conpoy, lotus root and ikan bilis.

Fish soup noodles from The Ship

First visit to this other outlet of The Ship at Nex (#01-61/62, Nex, 23 Serangoon Central, tel : +65 6834 3833) now that the main one is under renovation.

I've been hearing about their fish soup noodles that they serve at lunch. Apparently, it's available daily for lunch. And it's really quite good. The fish broth that was filled with rice noodles was deep, savory and backed with a light creamy texture. I'm not sure if it's just fish bones or milk, I suspect there's some of the latter, but I don't really care. Pop in a few slices of the chilli padi and a few shakes of pepper, it becomes darn enjoyable.

I was also pretty impressed by the servings of deep fried fish slices on the side which were dry and crisp all the way.