Freddie's Burger

I heard about this place and decided to try it out for lunch one day. The place itself was quite small and only had a few seats, but I didn't really care as I was buying back anyways ;)

I decided to go for the "Aussie" - grilled Australian beef burger with fried egg, cheddar cheese and smoked BBQ sauce. I'm a total sucker for curly fries so of course I had to order the combo meal at $6.50. There was a special promo for a dollar off a combo meal so that made the price palatable (sorry for the bad pun :P).


The burger itself was actually not bad. The burger and egg combination made it a substantial meal - my colleagues who ordered other burgers weren't as impressed with their burgers. The curly fries were just so-so.

Some Aussie colleagues were so inspired by our lunch that they went to buy them too!

Not great enough for me to want to eat it often, but a good alternative when I'm craving a burger but want something a little better than Burger King...

Freddie's Burger
1 Raffles Place
Unit B1-12 OUB Centre
www.freddiesburger.com

Spruce

Came here for brunch during my birthday celebrations. C made a reservation so we got a private room that was long and narrow with nice photograph Pros of the private room - erm, the privacy. Cons - stuck with just one server, and he just so happens to be a really lousy one... more on this later.

Of course boring, old me will order The Spruce Big Brekkie $16 (Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Roasted Tomatoes, Grilled Vegetables, Roasted Mushrooms with Toast and Butter) -


Oh, it was just normal. I was probably just craving breakfast that day, but I should so order other things than my usual... luckily, we ordered a few more things to share...

I read somewhere that the Ahi Tuna Tartar with Toasted Ciabatta and Avocado $21 was good so I made it a point to order it as one of the sharing dishes -


And it really was very very good! The tuna was very fresh and went really well with the avocado on the ciabatta toast. A bit on the expensive side, but a definite must order if you come here.

Also tried the Waffle $5 -


And Banana Hotcakes, Honeycomb Butter and Blueberry Syrup $13 -


Both were not too bad, but not spectacular.

Also tried the Creamy Macaroni and Cheese $7 -


which was quite yummy. Not too rich, and at a good price too.

I tried the Arnold Palmer -


when we asked the waiter, he told us that it was half lemonade and half ice tea. Apparently, and obviously enough, invested by Arnold Palmer the golf player. A nice refreshing drink! And perfect for me as I love ice tea and anything sour :D

So back to the service that I talked about in the beginning of the post... the server we had was completely hopeless. He took forever to get our orders, then half an hour later, comes back to let us know that one of the orders were not available. We were damn hungry and horrified to find out that half an hour later, the kitchen had not even started preparing our food! We asked him for some bread as we were seriously starving by this point, but by the time he brought the bread, the food already came. Not that the food came that quickly, but that the waiter took that long to bring us some bread!

We all liked the food - well-prepared, tasty and decently priced and hope to come back again to try more dishes... and hope that we get a better waiter the next time?


Spruce
320 Tanglin Road
Phoenix Park
Tel : 6836 5528

Morton's The Steakhouse

This post is long overdue for two reasons :
(1) This dinner actually occurred in Oct '08 *oops* and
(2) The fact that a friend of mine worked here a long time ago and I could have eaten here using his employee discount (50%!) but I never made the trip here.

Yup, I've never eaten at Morton's :)

The same friend is now working in a much higher position in the hotel that Morton's is in (and still have the fantastic employee discount :) so I totally jumped at the chance when a mutual friend organised a dinner here.

We had quite the VIP treatment - customized menus (there was also a birthday celebrant in our group), the GM of the the restaurant stopped by the table, a polaroids for each to bring back as a souvenir etc.

So the standard practice is the wait staff does a whole show and tell, with the whole menu recited from memory and it also included displaying various cuts of meat, live seafood (live lobster!) and fresh vegetables.

The first thing that is served is the Onion Loaf -


It's really yums, and not too oniony... but in a bid not to waste too much space on bread, I only had a pinch :D

We started off with Pacific Oysters on the Half Shell $36 -


and Broiled Sea Scallops Wrapped in Bacon with Apricot Chutney $33 -


The over-riding theme of this place is BIG. The oysters were big and juicy and so were the scallops. We also ordered the Colossal Shrimp Alexander which were made out of massive prawns, the biggest I've even seen! The Jumbo Lump Crab Cake seemed not to be as nice as the one served outside at the bar in the pavilion.

For main courses, we ordered a few steaks to try including Prime Ribeye Steak and Prime Cajun Ribeye Steak $89++ -


Oops, this one already had a piece taken out of it before we could take the photo... and my camera could not take a nice pic of the Prime Ribeye Steak because of the ambient lighting. The Prime Cajun Ribeye Steak was really really good. The meat was cooked perfectly and the cajun spices made this steak truly spectacular. The Prime Ribeye Steak seemed slightly boring after the fantastic Cajun Ribeye Steak. Again, huge portions - the steak was about 10 inches across :o

We also tried the Lamb Chops which seemed to be burnt... Way too much carbon on nearly every bite I had.

For sides, we ordered Sauteed Mushrooms $15 and Mashed Potatoes $16 -


We were quite stuffed but of course had to somehow make room for desserts. This was reinforced when the wait staff presented us with the selection of desserts *tadah!* -


Of course we had to order the Morton’s Hot Chocolate Cake S$25.00 -


Doesn't it look gorgeous? Taste-wise it was just ok, I guess I expected to be blown off my feet but such high expectations are hard to meet.

The whole meal was quite an amazing experience - great food of humungous portions... which I would not be willing to spend on if I had to pay the original price. But I guess this is one of those places that you just HAVE to come at least one time in your life :D


Morton's The Steakhouse
5 Raffles Avenue
4F Mandarin Oriental Singapore
Tel: 6339 3740
www.mortons.com

Cicada

Came here as part of my birthday celebration feasting, erm a few months ago :)

It's located at the up and coming Wessex Estate and it's next to impossible to get to if you don't have a car. The place itself is pretty nice, but not many tables considering it's got quite a bit of space, especially outdoors.

The menu was not all that extensive - I settled on the "Infamous Cicada Burger" $28.90++ :


It was actually not too bad - nice and juicy without being under-done. One of the better Wagyu Beef Burgers I've had... Didn't like the fries much tho - but that's probably a personal preference, I prefer the skinny crispy type.

The vegetarian-in-the-house ordered the only veggie option : the Moussaka -


It was truly horrible. We all agreed that it was the worse possible way to cook eggplant, no idea how they managed to make such a yummy veg so absolutely tasteless. The bechamel sauce didn't help the flavour at all. Yucks yucks yucks.

The meal was quite disappointing so we were hopeful that dessert would go some way in changing our minds. I settled on the Peanut Butter Brownie Crunch Cake -


I had high hopes when the dessert was served - doesn't it look gorgeous?? The high hopes were quite quickly dashed when I started eating it... it wasn't bad, but it was bizarre how a cake that looks like it would be so incredibly sweet, wasn't. Weird... and I read other reviews of this restaurant where there were pictures of this cake, and mine seemed to have an extremely thin layer of peanut butter :s

Service was also quite bad - the waitress who took our orders was so confused that she kept serving the dishes to the wrong person. And some dishes took an inordinately long time to arrive.

Recently tried Pietrasanta and that's a better option if you want to check out the restaurants in this area...


Cicada
7 Portsdown Road
Tel: 6472 2100
www.thecicada.com.sg

The White Rabbit

We came here for G's birthday celebration in July - yes, that's how far behind I am in my blogging. Thanks to X's connections *wink*, she managed to get a nice big table smack in the middle of the restaurant, despite the fact that it was only a few days notice... quite a feeat seeing this was quite soon after they just opened. A lot of hype about this place so I was quite excited to try it out.

The place used to be a church which was transformed into an indoor restaurant and bar area and an outdoor bar area. The stained windows were pretty (but I suspect it would have looked even better in the day with sunlight streaming in) and the mosaic-tiled floors were gorgeous too. Outfitted with simple chairs and tables, the chic place does take your breath away.

And now for the food... to start off, we tried a salad, which I have barely any recollection of -


Ok, the picture reminded me that there was truffles in the salad. The salad was not too bad, but obviously it was unmemorable.

For the main courses, I had to order their signature White Rabbit Mac & Cheese -


Yes, more truffles... The use of truffles contributed to the dish having an interesting flavour but it added to the "heaviness" of the dish and was impossible to finish by myself. I'm quite a big mac and cheese fan, but after this one, I'm inclined to think that cheapo is the way to go for mac and cheese. Or maybe my tastebuds are just proletarian :D

I tried a bit of the Mushroom Pasta -


which was similarly unremarkable.

For the desserts, we tried the Baked Alaska -


and the Strawberry Romanoff -


I was just slightly disappointed that the Baked Alaska was not lit in front of us - very 80s I know, but I miss the drama of this dessert! Tastewise, it was not too bad though... mostly it was a meringue and I never met a meringue I didn't like :) I've never had Strawberry Romanoff before so didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a simple dessert of thinly sliced strawberries with a sheet of what tasted like strawberry jelly, and a scoop of ice cream.

Such a long post and I haven't even gotten to my gripes about this place. First gripe - the service. I think we got special attention because of X's connections, but we still saw glimpses of incompetence. I asked the waitress whether the Mac & Cheese was vegetarian, and she said that it wasn't, but couldn't tell me what was in it that wasn't vegetarian. Someone further down the table asked the same question and was told that there were bits of meat in the Mac & Cheese. Erm, I sure as hell didn't see or taste anything vaguely resembling meat in the Mac & Cheese.

Also, I feel this place is somewhat confused in its identity. The food are of minute proportions and the prices are definitely in the range of high-end establishments, but the table settings (paper napkins :o) and the substandard service is more reminiscent of a bistro or deli. It certainly does not help that the food is very mediocre.

I'm glad I had the chance to come here, coz then I never have to come back here again. Well, maybe just to take in the atmosphere of the outdoor bar area...


The White Rabbit
39C Harding Road
Tel: 6473 9965
www.thewhiterabbit.com.sg

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge

I actually came here once a few years ago for tea and didn't have any strong impression of the place, except for the fact that it was populated by tea-sipping tai-tais. Looking for somewhere to have late lunch / tea with sis and mum and decided to come here...

Mum loves foie gras so we ordered the Foie Gras Salad $19.90++ as a starter -


It was surprisingly good, cooked perfectly, and a very decent-sized portion for that price. Totally melts in your mouth...

I had a very different dish for my main course, Roast Chicken $15.90++. I say it's different coz I don't think I've ordered roast chicken in years!


My main reason for avoiding roast chicken is I don't particularly like being served the whole chicken and having to deal with bones - but this one was boneless, yay! Reasonably tasty, the simple use of baby carrots added a sophisticated touch to the dish.

Sis ordered the Breakfast Set $18.90++ despite having had a breakfast set at Cedele the day before... sounds more like something I would do, eh? I think it's called Pytti I Panna on the menu; at least that's what its called on the receipt :)


It was just ok, not that great value for money I reckon - $18.90 for sausages and egg??

Mum loves salmon so ordered the Salmon and Potato Gratin $19.90++ -


Based on the name, I expected to see a gratin of salmon and potato, but it turned out to be a slice of salmon with a serving of potato gratin :D It was pretty decent, I only had a bite of it... but much better value than the breakfast set.

One thing that's mentioned in a lot of the reviews that I read is the Copenhagen Scones $6.90++ -


They were not too bad but there were the cake-y kind of scone - I actually prefer the biscuity type. The jam and cream were also not amazing. But a nice thing to have during tea... speaking of which, we ordered a pot of Earl Grey Tea $6.50++, how can you go to a tea lounge and not order tea? :D


I also ordered the Green Tea Cake $4.90++ after a long perusal of the cakes in the display case near the entrance -


It really wasn't very good. It was way more dense that I like my cakes... the Japanese tai tais at the next table didn't finish theirs either.

Mum also loves ice cream so she ordered a Sundae $9.90++ -


One interesting thing about this place is that they serve strawberry and mint-flavoured water - yummy and so high class! :D

As mentioned in most reviews on www.hungrygowhere.com, the service here is pretty bad... I would go so far as to call it abysmal. Seating was quick and our orders taken reasonably fast. Food came without incident... but thereafter it went downhill. It was near impossible to get the attention of the waitresses when we wanted to order more things, and we had to ask at least three waitresses, and wait over half an hour before we got our bill! Granted, that's not a bad thing when you are there to have a lazy afternoon tea :D

A good option if you looking for a place to chill out and read a book during afternoon tea. But beware the bad service may spoil what you expected to be a serene afternoon... just remember to be zen about it and chill :)


Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge
391 Orchard Road
Takashimaya Department Store
2F Ngee Ann City
Tel: 6735 6833

Oomphatico's

I was actually here twice - once in January and again recently in June. Ok fine, June is not that recent :P When I was here in January, it was for coffee so I didn't think it was worth blogging about. But after I had brunch here, I decided it was enough to make up a proper post :D

The menu here is kinda, well, confused. Besides all the breakfast dishes, there are also salads, sandwiches, pasta, soup, risotto and rice, pizza, pasta and noodles. It's confusing coz the dishes range from western (Spaghetti Carbonara) to Thai (Tom Yum Koong) to Fusion (A Thai in New York Sandwich - light chicken filet with basil sauce topped with a soft fried egg). Hence the many tags for this post...

But we were here during brunch so we stuck to the interesting sounding breakfast dishes. The Gorilla's Breakfast $14.00++ had olive bread, portobello mushrooms, arugula salad, sundried tomato and fresh mozzarella, served with fig jam -


Yup, in case you didn't already know, gorillas are vegetarian :D The bread can't be seen as it's underneath it all. I didn't try the fig jam but the other ingredients actually went pretty well with each other to make a very healthy and light dish.

The Pancake Lasagne $12.50++ is not quite pancakes or a lasagne...


Rather, it was zucchini, pesto and mango chutney between layers of crepes. Surprisingly yummy, yet another succesfully innovative dish! One gripe I had though - we ordered two of this and the second one came more than half an hour after the next one. Not sure if the waitress screwed up the order or the kitchen messed up, in any case, it was really annoying.

We also tried some desserts, Pom Pom (warm apple and raisin bread pudding with vanilla ice-cream) $8.50++ :


and Fragrant Attraction (delicate mounds of sticky rice cakes with spiced mango and coconut custard toppings) $10.50++ :


The bread and butter pudding was not bad but too filling for one person to finish on their own. Didn't like the Fragrant Attraction much, especially since I was recently in Thailand and really good mango sticky rice...

When I was here for just coffee, I had the Cafe Granita $9.50++ :


which I slurped up happily. Mostly coz I don't normally have this type of drinks (so fattening!), so when I do, I really enjoy it :D

Food here is interesting, and those dishes I tried were good. Might be worth coming back to try more dishes. It's got a nice atmosphere - perfect for a tete-a-tete with girlfriends or a family outing with the kids (especially since the staff are known to burst into song and dance and everyone are welcomed to join in). But do watch out for the spotty service...


Oomphatico's
163 Tanglin Road
#01-03 & 01-35/36 Tanglin Mall
Tel: 6733 9088
www.oomphaticos.com

Little Part 1 Café

K recently introduced me to this place and we've come here twice already :) I actually read about this place some time ago but could not figure out where to park so didn't bother coming. We ended up parking at Thomson Plaza and walking to the back door of the restaurant via the Thomson Plaza carpark exit.

The Mango Udon Roll $6.90 is an interesting vegetarian starter -


It's a rice paper roll with udon, mango, cucumber, avocado and mint leaves. The ingredients went together well to make a refreshing and light starter.

The Tofu Steak $5.90 wasn't what I expected -


The menu said oven baked tofu with wakame and assorted mushrooms so I wasn't quite expecting something with a sauce. It was still not too bad though...

The Salt & Pepper Calamari $8.90 was yummy!


It was perfectly fried - crispy and not overly chewy, served with a scrumptious homemade wasabi mayonnaise sauce.

The Little's Chicken Schnitzel $13.90 is their signature dish -


Huge serving! The chicken was coated with seasoned parmesan breadcrumbs and served with a clear wine sauce and mashed potatoes. I didn't like the wine sauce much so left that aside, but the mashed potatoes was really smooth, had bits of corn in it and were really good. A must try dish here!

The Bratwurst Brat $14.90 had a choice of sausages served with mashed potatoes -


Yet another huge serving! The sausages were tasty and served with the yummy mashed potatoes.

Little's Fish and Chips $12.90 was breaded dory served with chips -


I found it was a bit tasteless, which is weird as most reviews I've read said the seasoning is too strong.

K had the Four Cheese Fungi Crepe $12.90 -


which I took a bite of. Cheesy and chockful of mushrooms in a thin crepe - nice!

The Apple Crumble $7.90 with a scoop of gelato was really good -


The combination of a hot apple dessert and cold ice cream is just magic.

The food here is really good - huge portions at great prices. The chef obviously takes pride in every dish as you can see the care that goes into it. Mostly healthy too, with a range of vegetarian options. The place is a bit small so don't be surprised if you have to wait. The only thing that put me off before was the parking situation but now that I have a solution to that, I'll probably be back here a lot in the future :)


Little Part 1 Café
15 Jasmine Road
Adelphi Park Estate
Tel: 6451 7553
www.littlepart1cafe.com.sg

Fin Seafood Café

And so my journey of rediscovering fish and chips continues... we were looking for a place to have a quick lunch before watching a movie and settled on this place (coz we knew for sure there would something for Gerry the Pescatarian to eat here :).

We ordered the Calamari to share -


and I had the Fish and Chips Set Lunch which consisted of a soup...


Fish & Chips...


and dessert, which was tiramisu...


The fish and chips here was quite good! Again it makes me wonder why I stopped eating fish and chips. If I remember correctly, the set lunch was pretty cheap too. Service staff is a bit laid back but was prompt so no complaints... Good option for food in a mall where every other food place is pretty non-descript.


Fin Seafood Café
6 Raffles Boulevard
#02-226A/B Marina Square
Tel: 6338 2207

Seasons Reasons

Plenty of new places at the basement of Raffles City, but Auds & I decided to try this not-so-new restaurant tucked away in a corner.

For some inexplicable reason, I haven't had Fish & Chips in a long long time so I decided to order it here :


The Fish & Chips $14.80++ were not too bad - or maybe it's coz I just haven't Fish & Chips in a while... the fish was fresh and the batter not too thick, the thai chilli sauce was an interesting accompaniment to the dish.

Auds had the salad which had big big rings of onions - eek :


and the seafood nuggets which I had a bite of :


that were just ok.

The food here wasn't that great, probably won't come back here unless it's crowded everywhere else in Raffles City. This place did remind me though that I actually do love Fish & Chips - I kept ordering it after this :D


Seasons Reasons
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-72/73 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: 6100 0122
www.seasonsreasons.com.sg