Riverside Indonesian BBQ, Food Opera @ ION Orchard

Here's a grilled chicken and squid set from the Riverside Indonesian BBQ at Ion's Food Opera (ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn #B4-03/04). It seems that their outlets/franchises hasn't changed very much over the years, consistency not withstanding. Which is actually a good thing. Apart from the price hikes. I'm pretty sure that the coconut laden gravy that they had used back in the old days at Riverside Point was tastier, but that being said, the existing concoction that they do are still delicious over the moist rice. I guess a huge draw for the queues would also be because of that sweet dark sauce that they use to baste the chickens over the grill. And that not so spicy sambal with onions and ikan bilis which comes in handy when the gravy runs out. Speaking of which, are they serving coconut rice these days or was I mistaken?

Kola Seafood, Sin Ming Drive

No, this wasn't ephiphanic and I'll try to cut down on the verbosity.

In many ways, a cze char joint like Kola Seafood (36 Sin Ming Drive) epitomizes a true face of local food. The stuff that you eat pretty often. It's not always all good or bad about what they serve. It's often a range in between. There are always degrees. A place where we experience the good, the bad and the ugly in the lock, stock and barrel of local dining. Where one may not be so incentivised to wax lyrical like what mainstream media loves doing, glaze over the eye in an explosive orgasm of flavors and c....ompliment the chef for a job well done.

It is a place run by locals, visited by locals and will probably not be visited by anyone but mostly locals by virtue of location. As of this point, this location is not yet even registered in OpenRice.

Okay, to their signature fried rice. It contained what many people like about a wok stir fried rice over a burning flame. Something that can be translated into the wok's breath or as many locals (or oldies) will call it wok hei. Or simply carbon. Quite a bit of it there but that's generally where most of the good ended. As with many signature items, it's an unimaginative mash up of bits that they threw in. Too damned greasy if I you asked me. Greasy fried rice are also pretty much everywhere, agree?

This was sliced fish with hor fun and bean sprouts. It's pretty okay if one doesn't compare. Fish slices were decent and for a small portion, it was actually pretty large.

The obligatory greens came in the form of stir fried nai bai with garlic and some crispy silverfish. It was pretty much what it looked like.

This was the most interesting item we ordered. Crayfish tails in salted egg yolk sauce. What I liked about this was that the crayfish were de-shelled. What I didn't like about it was that I've had frozen crayfish purchased in bulk and cooked at home that had better texture. Maybe they need to sear this more. Or drop the coating of flour on the meat.

I would credit the gravy for being pretty good. It was spiked with a hit of chilli padi, some curry leaves and black pepper. I guess a bit more generosity with the salted egg would have made it rip roaring good and a larger threat to the cholesterol which we're trying to keep lowered. In fact, I thought this was probably better than Uncle Leong. It's a pity that the crayfish meat was mediocre.

Spizzico Ristorante Italiano, UE Square

Spizzico (81A Clemenceau Ave, #01-13 UE Square, tel : +65 6333 6174) is yet another one of those locations that I've passed by dozens of times and have never popped in, in spite of the curiosity. So it happened this time round with a last minute reservation on a Friday night and we managed to get a table.

The restaurant was cosy, reminded me of the defunct Al Forno Trattoria and Da Luca. The owner seemed to be a rather affable chap making his rounds constantly checking on needs.

These are rockets and mascarpone cheese rolled up in Parma ham. Pretty good, I liked that there were two levels of sweetness; one from the mascarpone and the other form the reduced balsamic glaze which worked with the saltiness from the ham.

Scarmoza cheese was delicious too with a tangy mushroom sauce and truffle oil. Actually, the charred and chewy cheese was the best part of it.

Spizzico's squid ink risotto was good. Rich and luxuriant with squid ink flavours good that is - has scallops still juiced up in their natural sweetness, a generous amount of squid and a couple of crunchy prawns. Good for returns.

And then a tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce. The cut of the meat was thick and hefty, medium rare below the surface approaching almost rare in the middle. The steak could definitely have benefited with more generosity with their sauce for a piece of meat that size. Like what they do at Valentino. There's got to be enough to go around.

Tiramisu is a little dry. I like a bit more moisture.

As boring as I might have made this sound, I actually quite like what we had here tonight.

The Oyster and Crab Restaurant, 100AM

As the name implies, The Oyster and Crab Restaurant (100 Tras Street, #01-08, 100AM, tel : +65 6543 6507) focuses on recipes that make use of oysters and crabs. The food is Japanese and they do stuff like pasta, sushi, sashimi, teppanyaki, tempura and limited kushiyaki. The crabs I hear, are flown in twice a week from Hokkaido. But that wasn't really what we had been eyeing. We were looking forward to being oyster-fied by dinner. So we ordered their oyster set which sounded pretty good on menu.

To fast forward into retrospect, the oyster set simply wasn't oyster-ly enough for me. Portions were a little small. The quality was decent enough that if portions were more generous, I would have been impressed.

First item up were a couple of oysters. The left, which came nude was from Hiroshima. Large, juicy and laced with brine and some sweetness. The other which if you noticed, was not served on shell came with spicy grated daikon, spring onions and ponzu. Both were pretty tasty in their own ways.

Following was a mini plate of sashimi and oyster zushi done two ways. The fried one wasn't so good. I couldn't even tell that it was oyster. The raw oyster gunkan simply tasted like the ponzu-less version of the previous starter with rice and seaweed. I was hoping that the maguro would be good but I guess it was just simply what they could fit into the cost of the set. Likewise for the shake, it should have been belly meat. Not the regular leaner cut. Where's the pride eh? Apparently absent. In this country, that's quite understandable. So nothing much to look forward to folks.

Then came an agedashi tofu strapped by seaweed with a fried oyster and a tempura-ed crab leg. This was very nice. The starchy broth was flavoured by a light shoyu and bits of crab meat. This dish turned out comforting. 

This onsen tamago was not part of the set. It was ordered separately and came very late. The tamago was certainly ugly looking. But the molten yolk on the inside with the sweet uni laced with ponzu together was almost orgasmic.

And then fried rice. Not enough bits of oyster in them. It was relegated to being very ordinary and could have floored people simply with more oysters and salt. Them oysters are the point to this set and the theme of the restaurant isn't it?  Why such a half fucked effort? 

Last food item was an oyster dobinmushi.

There was an oyster in the broth, but no oyster flavours. The lonely oyster was tasty though. Restaurant also needs to be more conscientious about things like serving dried out lime.

Not Yubari King for sure.

It's mixed feelings about the place here. I'm not saying I'm never coming back, I just thought that with some small adjustments, it could have been pretty good value. Not against the idea of giving them another go sometime.

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.