Kazbar, Church Street

Kazbar has been around for more than a decade if my memory serves. For a very long while, I had the impression that they (#01-03 Capital Square 3, 25 Church Street, tel : +65 6438 2975) were one of those Middle Eastern facades that's the excuse for a watering hole down in Far East Square. Then again, it's not like I'm never known to make mistakes.

Their food was pretty good. Pretty pleased by their shorbet adas (lentil soup) that was packed with those great cumin flavours. While we were pleasantly surprised how much a squeeze of lemon changed the taste profile of the soup, it was delicious both with and without the lemon.

Hadn't had one of these quite a while. Sure brought back memories of the much missed Banoo. While this was obviously missing the butter element, it wasn't too bad at all. The lamb koobideh was nicely spiced without being excessively so.

There was also a pretty memorable lamb shank on ouzi (spiced rice) and a generous sprinkle of cashews along with yoghurt. That ouzi (also cooked with lamb) was addictively delicious. Savoury with a good amount of salt paired with some sweet crunchiness from those cashews. Shank was tender but not so moist. 

A bak kwa kouign amann from Tiong Bahru Bakery

So these guys have a local flavoured rendition of their kouign amann and it was actually kinda nice. Sweet, buttery and importantly, getting sufficient bak kwa flavour from the little bits of the dried barbequed meat within the layers of pastry. 

Note to self, never get coffee here again. I always forget for some reasons how much I dislike their coffee. It's the acidic sour stuff. A waste of money in my books.

Never get coffee here again......

Never get coffee here again......
Never get coffee here again......

Never get coffee here again......
Never get coffee here again......
Never get coffee here again......

Teishokus from Ootoya lately

We hadn't been eating at Ootoya for quite a long while. Spoilt by Suju and I suppose in no small part - their declining standards of food compared to their heydays when there were pretty solid. Oshinko looked sad. Portions have definitely become smaller while prices have inched up slowly. But what's new right? We did drop by a couple of times because the menu has changed and we wanted to know if what's current was any good.

There were grilled whole fishes for their seasonal specials. I thought the chidai yaki (grilled crimson sea bream) was quite nicely done. Tender, reasonably moist and something I could see myself looking forward to.  

There's gyutan on the menu now. It's not bad but it's also not Sandaime Bunji.

On a limited run, charcoal grilled boneless chicken thigh with what they described as green onion sauce. It's more of a green onion salsa if you asked me. Delicious with the torimomo yaki. I just wished that there were more chicken.

Taiwan's 缘味古早味蛋糕 Grand Castella Cake in chocolate flavour

Seeing that there wasn't a queue in the earlier part of the day, I decided to get one of these chocolate flavoured cake from the Taiwanese brand shop at Raffles City. I'd admit that the smell did most of the part in convincing me though. 

On hindsight, I'm not a fan. I was hoping for the flavour to be more dark chocolate-y but I suppose that's just a mismatched expectation on my part. While I didn't think it was too bad fresh from the oven, that tastiness dropped a couple of notches after it has cooled down. Well, at least now I know...

Curry wanton mee from Cantonese Delights

Apparently curry wanton noodles can be a thing. It's not on the menu but I thought it made sense that these guys would be able to do it because it's ultimately made with the ingredients they prepared daily. A regular dry bowl of wanton mee with their curry ladled over. Pretty much the same as their curry fried chicken noodles. Don't forget to get the fried chicken cutlets.

Brasserie Gavroche 2018

This was an ad hoc decision over the last weekend to swing by to Brasserie Gavroche and it was quite the stroke of luck that we were able to snag seats without having to wait. We've been expectantly looking forward for their lamb sweetbread salad to make a come back to the menu but so far, we hadn't much luck.

This could be the first time I've had a poultry terrine. And from what I know, it was obvious that which particular poultry was being referred to. Now I'm not sure why that bird wasn't specifically referenced. Tasted like chicken. Not so much herby flavours from the herb jelly.

The heirloom beetroot was delicious. Sweet and earthy and refreshingly flavoured, bolstered by their dressing and some sugary walnuts.

Steak tartare was delicious too. This would fall under its own category of tasty since we've had numerous and quite a number of them were good in their own ways. 

Was torn between roasted quail and confit Pyrénées lamb shoulder confit. The lamb eventually won. This was so good. Tender fall apart meat laced with some fat for that lamb-y flavour and capped with a golden crisp crust. Salted and flavoured by the accompanying lamb jus. Kickass lamb jus if I might add.

Sautéed spinach with confit garlic on the side for that quota of greens in the meal.