Riverside Indonesian Restaurant, Riverside Point

I've been to this place on a few occasions. The restaurant has a set menu (that I always go for) which goes for $10 per person in a 6 dish set which comes with free flow of rice. Each of the 6 dishes comes with 2 separate options. The only qualifier for this menu was that the group must consist of at least 4 persons. The food in this place was mostly grilled and stir fried Indonesian styled dishes. For 10 bucks, I thought was a steal at this part of town. Definitely one of the more economically priced places for dinner. The below are a look at what one can expect.

Charcoal grilled red snapper

Charcoal grilled squid

Claypot curry chicken

Belacan kangkong

Otah

The grilled red snapper looked a little unexciting. It's probably because of how the photo was taken and also because it didn't really look visually appealing in the first place. It was however quite delicious. One of the things I like from the menu is the claypot curry chicken. Over the years, the standards seemed to have declined, but still retains enough of the good taste to make me drench my rice with curry and eat more than I usually do.

Sage, Robertson Walk

I've been eyeing this place that's sequestered in the second story of Frasier Place's inner courtyard for some time now. Never got about to coming down. Fatpig suggested lunch here. Quite glad I didn't wait any further to visit. Sage came about sometime in the middle of 2005. They've gotten a bit of renown with some of the local food bloggers. I heard that their annual dinner this year was held in this restaurant. That had stirred my curiosity. In retrospect, it would seem that this was one of those places where the experience was as good as the hype made it out to be.

Sage does an executive lunch at $25++ for a 3 course and $28++ for the 4 course. The lunches include a starter, soup, a choice of main and a dessert. The difference in the 3 course lunch is that one gets to choose to opt out of any of the courses. This made the 4 course much more attractive. The food was very enjoyable, albeit small in portions.

The menu for lunch I was told is rotated every fortnight. The appetizer we had for today was a seared yellow fin tuna topped with avocado mousseline, lumpfish roe and an aged balsamic glaze.

It was a very nicely seared tuna topped with what tasted like a fresh avocado puree. The dark sauce  I tasted, was the balsamic glaze. But the server claimed to be barbecue sauce (so who's wrong about it?). The lumpfish roe was more of a texture contrast to the avocado mousseline because I couldn't really taste it. It was on the whole pretty light. And I liked it.

Soup on the menu was a cappucino of cauliflower veloute.

I couldn't think of a better term to describe this but cappuccino of cauliflower cream. The soup was served piping hot with the foam that tasted like hot cream. Definitely a milky cauliflower. Brought a very nice warmth and perfect for a rainy afternoon like today. I was quite impressed with this.

The mains that we got for today were the pastilla of braised lamb shank with mascarpone cheese, Provencal ratatouille and cassoulet of summer beans and the braised beef short ribs topped with marinated shallots, puree of butternut pumpkin and brunoise root vegetables.

The braised lamb shank was wrapped in a thin pastry. Like a fried spring roll. It was delicious. Braised beef was nicely done and very tender. What got me was the butternut pumpkin puree which I thought was fabulous. It tasted exactly as was described. Buttery and slightly nutty smooth pumpkin which was very similar to the soup at Aerin's.

The meal ended with a very delicious dessert of vanilla panna cotta with Granny Smith apples and its own sorbet. The smooth and creamy vanilla panna cotta tasted like coconut to me. Not complaining here. Paired very well with the very fresh tasting and chilled apple sorbet which was nice like nothing I've ever had before.

PaPi, 5 Mohamed Sultan Road

PaPi, from what I've read stands for Pasta and Pizza. Located at 5 Mohammad Sultan Road. The restaurant is easily visible from the main River Valley Road. It's located in between Banoo and Patissier. Like Garibaldi, they're one of those shop house restaurants that provides valet parking for their customers. The place was about half filled tonight. Service was very attentive service despite the small crowd in the restaurant.

The menu looked rather ordinary. A mundane bunch of standard Italian pasta and pizza offerings. No real complains on the quality of the food but the portions were a little dainty. What made eating here a positive experience was that the food is freshly made, done with efficiency and of course, the good service. Their pizza had a thin crust which was great while it was hot. But that crust got soggy quickly. Pasta tasted very decent from what I tried.  The Tagliolini with shrimp and it's bisque "Papi" was appetising because of the semi spicy sauce which I thought was exceptional.

Dinner began with shared antipasti followed by the pastas and pizza. And a foccacia that tasted like corn bread.

"Vitello tonnato" Classic roasted thinly sliced veal served with tuna fish and caper sauce.

Grilled mix vegetables "Verdure" with sliced smoke scamorza cheese

The Vitello tonnato's tuna flavour drowned out the veal. I'm not sure if that's how it's suppose to work. Their grilled vegetables were decent, but the scamorza cheese that came with them appeared in ultra thin slices and only two slices at that. I had expected more of the cheese.

"Nero di Seppia" Tagliatelle with fresh squid ink sauce

"Papi" Tagliolini with shrimp and its own bisque

"Frutti di Mare" with basil pesto and mixed seafood

"Papi" with fresh tomato sauce, egg and truffle puree

Everything about the pasta and pizza here was quite nice. I wished that they could be more generous with the seafood in the Frutti di Mare which I thought was miserable. It looked almost like token decoration.

Liquid had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb...

This was an unplanned for dinner at Banoo with my old friend Eddie. With the memory of the tasty kebab koobideh still fresh from the prior visit, I decided to bring Ed down to check out more of the Persian food that this place served. Early dinner it was, we were the first 2 customers to step in at 6 in the evening with no one else yet in sight.

Kashk-e Baademjaan

The Kashk-e Baademjaan was a dish of roasted eggplant with fried onions, mashed together with mint and yoghurt sauce. It was served hot. Banoo's rendition of the minted eggplant mash came finely ground. The imagination of machines crushing these crossed my mind then. It tasted fine but as an appetizer, it didn't come across as appetising much. Beat their Naan-o-Paneer-0-Sabzi which I thought was too fresh and raw.

Kuftah

This curious giant meatball was the Kuftah and was not on the menu. It was introduced by the waiter and I remember having seen it in D's visit. I like meat so there wasn't a question to do or not. The Kuftah came with a broth like a spicy tomato curry which was great pairing with the butter rice of their kebab koobideh. The minced lamb ball had rice fillers which was different from the one that D had which was described to have potato filler. I thought this ball tasted pretty good. It was also large and pretty filling.

Double butter Kebab Koobideh

We couldn't not do their kebab koobideh. Today, I asked for an extra butter. This dish does come with the option for flat bread instead of rice as well. I personally thought that the rice was so damn good so I had the rice again. It was even better when it got buttered up. For $15.50, one gets a generously portioned and delicious meal of grilled mince lamb kebab with fragrant basmati rice. Sounds like an expensive nasi bryani? This was better than many nasi bryani out there.

Today's dinner came with a unexpected surprise. The proprietress of the restaurant brought over a dessert and mentioned that it was on the house. Wow, that was certainly a nice gesture. That dessert was by the way, the Sholeh-Zard which was made of rice, sugar, saffron and rosewater with cinnamon and almond bits. Something I had noticed from the previous visit but didn't get to try. It tasted like chilled jellied sago with rose and it was actually very good. The two of us, as stuffed as we were from the food still managed to finish it.

Miss Clarity Cafe, Purvis Street

We've been past this place on numerous occasions at Purvis Street, but have never walked in. Did stop once to look at their menu but there hadn't been any compelling force to step into the place. Now that I've finally done so, I've to admit that they do make a pretty decent risotto and bread pudding. With no disparagement intended, the interior of Miss Clarity Cafe was flushed with bright and cheerful hues of pinks and oranges and yellows and other shiny happy colours. It made me feel that everything is plastic...lol.

Red wine risotto with pan seared scallop

This almost looked like it came from across the road at Garibaldi. Almost there. The red wine risotto with pan seared scallop was pretty damn tasty. Something I could see myself coming back for. Liked the risotto pronounced creamy red wine flavour is laced with some something spicy I couldn't identify. It looked like porridge and tasted good.

Risotto Venere with steamed seabass and vegetable cream

The Risotto Venere with steamed seabass and vegetable cream trailed a distant second in comparison with the previous. This was cooked with the same black rice as bubor hitam so I was half expecting it to be sweet. It's wasn't. It tasted creamy and flat. Without any unique identifying flavour. Was also a little put off by the fact that the fish had scales and bones. That fish was also boring.

Theur bread pudding was another hit. I don't eat bread pudding much. Mostly because they often cold, too soggy or too sweet. This one was served hot, firm and not overly sweetened. It was delicious. Something to be enjoyed while it's still fresh off the kitchen.