Tapas Club, Orchard Central

Apparently the group D+1 Holding that opened Tapas Club (#02-13/14/15 Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road, tel : +65 3163 7577) holds the master franchise for Llaollao in Asia. Maybe it's why those yoghurt in the pineapple dessert tasted so much like them! 

I'm seeing that the management group is pedestal-ing this as a premium tapas restaurant. It's about as much a tapas restaurant as SEPA is a real bacaro, but hey, what do I know right?

Pretty decent grilled asparaguses wrapped in thin slices of pork belly. But of course it was Iberico pork belly. Of course I couldn't tell that too. I'm not sure if less salt is a trend around here these days but I'm pretty damned sure this dish would have benefitted from a bit more salt. Under salting these small plates is inexcusable.

We ordered these baby squids because they looked like they might have been grilled from the picture in the menu. We had also been imagining that they might have been the size of firefly squids but these were actually about half as large as those and were deep fried in batter. I didn't dislike this. I just didn't think they were that good eating. In retrospect, I wouldn't order these again even if they were half of what was charged for them.

Some anchovies with onions and peppers on some stiff coca bread. These were pretty edible I guess but nothing so special that I would return for. 

Things started picking up from their tuna tartare. That's tuna tartare with avocados, tomatoes, some black pepper and something that had citrus flavour. I rather liked this with that almond soup.

Cold cuts were pretty good. But cold cuts aren't an indication of cooking skills. These ones were rather thinly sliced though. One could also tell that the olive oil used on their pan con tomate wasn't exactly the the good fruity stuff from the flavour alone. I was quite disappointed by that.

When the lamb ribs arrived, I thought they were tiny. When we started on them, we realized that probably a good two third of what's on the rib was fat. Flavourful lamb-y fat. Then I was glad that those ribs were tiny. A little more meat in the ratio would have been nice.

The grilled sea bass was not bad. Garlic, chillis and I believe lemon infused oil. I was oozing oil from the pores of my face after this but I'm not complaining.

These guys do very nice patatas. The potatoes were in small cubes, had a very nice exterior crisp while the insides were slightly sweet. 

So here's the pineapple dessert I mentioned earlier. The menu described them to be sautéed with spices so I had thought it to be warm. But these were chilled. So I'm pretty sure this was assembled rather than prepared upon order. There was more discernible sour than sweet which wasn't what I was expecting.

Tapas Club was not quite La Taperia. The latter was classier and the food was tastier. All that name dropping of having the executive chef from Binomio (which I admit to knowing nothing about) and a Manuel Berganza of two Michelin star pedigree....I'm not feeling any of it here.

Yang Zhou Fried Hokkien Mee (洋洲福建苏东虾面), Beo Crescent

We noticed this stall (Lian Seng Eating House, #01-16, 40 Beo Crescent, tel : +65 6273 0429) from a while back and decided to try their Hokkien mee which almost everyone else in the coffee shop seemed to be having. If the address looked familiar, it's probably because the location is at the very same block where the nameless Hainanese curry rice and noodle stall is at, but in the other coffee shop with that Seng Kee vegetarian noodle stall.

The noodles weren't too bad, but it wasn't on par with the Serangoon Gardens stall at Redhill Food Centre which had a more robust prawny flavour from the stock. Yang Zhou's noodles had a creamy texture. The chilli that they provided was pretty good and somewhat unusual from what's normally offered. That was a tangy element to it which reminded me of the type of sambal used for barbecued stingrays. Kicks butt with the noodles.

Re-visiting iO Italian Osteria

Here's back in iO and a couple of noir filters shots from the iPhone. Coming back and seated where we were allowed me to absorb the decor in a different light from the first visit. These full glass panels and industrialized theme ceilings brought back memories of Beef & Liberty.

I noticed that they have a house brew on menu. It wasn't as smooth as the server described it to be but I suppose they're not known for beers. 

We grabbed some gnocco fritti off their board featuring weekend specials. That's the fried bread stuffed with cheese and some salumi - a trio of fennel (finocchiona perhaps), chilli and pepper salami along with some shaven prosciutto of sorts. Looked and tasted like speck. More bread would have been nice.

That's spinach spatzle with Fontina fondue, braised onions and bacon bits. The sauce made the pasta deliciously buttery and cheesy.

There was baked stingray with a honey citrus sauce thing. I don't think it was fresh stingray. The texture of the meat didn't feel like it. Possibly a frozen fish but I cannot be sure. But the sauce made up for the slightly lacklustre textures and as a dish, it was quite enjoyable.

Their pistachio tiramisu was nice. But then again, we were expecting it to be so because Etna.

Chicken dum briyani from Anjappar

This was Anjappar at Westgate (#04-08, 3 Gateway Drive, tel : +65 6566 5545). I wasn't in the mood to run through the menu and thought that it was probably a good time to just fall back on a simple dum briyani to see if these were good here.

How did that go? The rice was light and fragrant from the spices while the chicken was tender. Would be fair to say that it was a competently done chicken dum briyani. But it didn't wow me. I realized that I had actually been more impressed by the one at Shami's much more than this. The chicken thigh I had gotten wasn't very meaty too. But maybe it's because these guys don't use the GM birds? *cues flashback of stringy quail*

A vanghi bath from MTR 1924

Something a little out of our usual ways, we came by to MTR for lunch and got ourselves a vanghi bath - a Southern Indian dish of brinjal rice. This isn't available everyday though and if my memory serves, just Tuesdays and Fridays. Now I didn't dislike this but I very much prefer their pudina bath because it was a much more savoury rice dish. This however was more spicy so to speak - a lot more warmth and some tanginess which I believe is from tamarind that was used. Wouldn't have minded if there were more brinjal in it. Well, at least I've tried this. I'll pick another of their rice dish the next time.

Didn't/couldn't pass on their rava idli. So good, especially with that splash of ghee and that warm sambar. I have gotten a conjoined twin today so yay, more idli!

Pete's Place, Grand Hyatt

I haven't stepped into Pete's Place (Grand Hyatt Singapore, Basement Level, 10 Scotts Road, tel : +65 6732 1234) for ages. While my memories of the place are a little hazy, the restaurant looked like it hasn't changed since then.

We happened to order food in the time slot where a free round at the salad bar is available as long as main courses are ordered. One would come to the conclusion that the salad bar is more Sizzler than Basilico. There isn't much to be excited about from the small spread; but hey, we got ourselves some vegetables.

Their vitello tonnato looked unusual. The tuna sauce didn't look or taste like the usual creamy variety. That sauce looked like it was chopped up bits of tuna mixed in olive oil. It was a little...watery. I wonder if it's some regional variety or an older technique that I've never encountered before. Those caper berries were also very sour.

There's was a burrata pizza with anchovies. The creamy cheese a counter to the fish and the chopped tomato base. The latter of which was surprisingly enjoyable. Surprising for me that is. Don't expect Neapolitan styled crust here. They did mentioned that a 48 hour dough that is made in house was used and the baking is done in a brick oven.

The restaurant claimed that their spaghetti carbonara didn't have cream. It got us interested. The pasta was a little wet for something that didn't have cream. I was expecting a little more punch from the cheese and pepper. The flavours were a little less intense than I had hoped for but it wasn't a bad spaghetti carbonara.

Tiramisu was okay. The ladyfingers were quite thoroughly soaked and the espresso flavours were getting through. But I couldn't tell if there was any liquor involved.