Sin Hoi Sai, Tiong Bahru Road

We've had dinner here at Sin Hoi Sai (55 Tiong Bahru Road, #01-59, tel : +65 6223 0810) once a while ago. We remembered the food being not bad so we came back in force.

If there was a dish I'd definitely come back for, it'll be their stir fried hor fun with sliced fish. It tasted pretty much like how it looked. Wasn't excessively greasy and I liked the saltiness.

Hot plate tofu was okay. It's not particularly outstanding but it wasn't badly done either.

Sin Hoi Sai serves their prawn paste chicken old school style. They don't come in just wings or mid wings. It's any part of a chopped up chicken that has meat. These had a crisp on the outside and were juicy on the inside along with a nice prawn paste flavouring. We had seconds.

I thought that the sambal belachan being a nice complement to the prawn paste chicken was mention worthy. 🔥

We ordered gong gong (also known as pearl or dog conch) because it was on the menu. These weren't that good eating for me as the meat wasn't so easily extracted from the shells. The snails weren't firm enough to survive extraction leaving half their bodies trapped and me unsatisfied.

There was a decent sweet and sour pork from their kitchen.

I particularly liked their sambal petai with minced meat. Both the crunchy stink beans and meat paired nicely with the sambal and was delicious with rice.

Will pass on the sweet potato leaves stir fried with fermented tofu the next time. There was too little fermented tofu flavour to do it any justice. This was simply subpar.

Cze char has got to have rice, no?

酸辣土豆肉丝饭 from Tian Fu Ren Jia (天府人家)

Nice. They were willing to tailor their existing dish that I could ask for a spicy and sour shredded potato and pork rice.  What clicked for me was the balance of sour and heat from those crunchy shredded potato which were further textured with both the pork and rice. With a fried egg, this made a seriously comforting dinner. 

Soya sauce chicken rice from Hai Kee Brothers

Encouraged by the previous visit we came by for their soya sauce chicken rice. Just to see if these guys would become another option in the vicinity when we needed it. 

What I enjoyed about their chicken rice was that it was well flavoured and tasty with and without their tangy chilli sauce.

Chicken was tender just like the last time and flavourful from the soya sauce. That flavour wasn't the same as Chew Kee or Chiew Kee since it was obvious that these two had their own secret blends for their soya sauce. Still I think this was tasty enough as an option.

The liver on the side looked exactly like the ones that they used for their rice rolls which were dry and somewhat powdery.

Sushi Kaishin, Robertson Quay

Sushi Kaishin (#01-04 Riverside Village Residences, 30 Robertson Quay, tel : +65 6733 3720) is located back in one of the usually out of sight lanes at Robertson Quay. Just next door to Unagiya Ichinoji which is located where Menya Shinchan used to be. Wow, that ramen-ya was from quite a while back eh?

We of course, stumbled upon the knowledge of their existence online. We were told by their staff that they've been around for five years. Guess we haven't been paying attention to this stretch for at least that amount of time. 

This was their "Fuji" sushi lunch. 12 pieces with salad, soup and fruit.

The black tile with gari. Not a fan of gari.

hata

ika

akami

hotate

chutoro ichi

kinmedai

soup

iwashi

tsubugai

otoro

uni ichi

anago

tamago

This was supposed to be the end. But we decided to add on extras of the chutoro and the uni nigiri.

chutoro ni

uni ni

I'm not going to go through all of them. Don't recall having had hata (grouper) before. It has a little more bite like kanpachi as compared to hamachi which is generally more tender. The maguro was on the whole delicious and the toro buttery. Loved the iwashi (sans ginger) and that grilled anago was unexpectedly ethereal. Definitely not forgetting the uni that was infused with oceanic sweetness.

What I also found out today was that I like kinmedai grilled more than the raw one.

I liked the food. Even though it felt a little light in the belly and heavy on the wallet. 

McGriddles is back

For a limited time albeit. Don't know if I'm imagining things but it felt like it's a little smaller.

But it is back.

Oh yes it is back.

The Ranch Steakhouse by Astons, Clarke Quay

Astons has gotten themselves a spiffier upgrade in the form of The Ranch Steakhouse (Clarke Quay Block B, #01-15, 3 River Valley Road, tel : +65 6256 0334). With their own fridge dedicated to dry ageing meat and no less. From what we've had, they've totally outgunned the Ruth's Chris experience.

Bread gratis was toasted rye and truffled butter. I couldn't complain. It's better bread and butter than many out there. We enjoyed munching these while waiting.

If I might say so, The Ranch has pretty good lobster bisque. I'd like to iterate at this point that the balance of flavour is not a specific metric but an accepted range of moderation. There's good balance here from the creaminess of the soup that had a crustacean punch not to be scoffed at. I'd come back just for this. 

I've never tried figuring out the spices that went into beef tartare I've had beyond what I could see or taste. This tasted a bit more gherkin-y with a nice tanginess without what I would associate as being spicy. 

That's the XO cognac on the side which didn't really change much of the flavour after we doused it over the tartare. We were told it was meant to kill bacteria on raw meat. We enjoyed this. Would have preferred a coarser texture but am not complaining.

We went with a 240 days grain fed ribeye and 150 days grain fed tenderloin. Both Australian Black Angus. To get the criticism out of the way for a start, I feel that they need to work on the char on the surface of their steaks. Needed more for that smoky kiss on the meat.

To cut into both the literal and figurative meat, both the tenderloin and the ribeye were tender and sufficiently salted for flavour on their own. That ribeye had had pretty nice marbling. Note to self : pepper sauce is nicer than the Périgord truffle one.

I'd skip the corn the next time. It's a little cheesy, a little sweet but I didn't think much of it as a whole. The bacon needed more presence as well. It just made me miss a good creamed corn.

But wait, there's their gratin dauphinoise. Something to be enjoyed while it was still hot and the cream hasn't settled into something cold and stodgy. This was nicely baked with a creamy richness over thin sliced potatoes and a smattering of charred cheese. I was shovelling this into my face even though I was stuffed so they must have done something right.