Friday, January 24, 2014

Seoul Yummy @ Novena Square 2

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Located at Level 3 of Novena Square 2. Popular lunch spot for people who works in the vicinity.

drinks menu

lunch menu
interior

The place was definitely very very noisy during lunch hour. Usually, we'll just pick an item from the lunch sets that's priced around $10.

saba fish set
chicken kimchi soup set

The banchans (side-dishes) consist of kimchi, anchovies and bean sprouts. Liked the anchovies. Yums. For the saba fish, it's not the best version that I've tasted so far but overall, it was still enjoyable with the rest of the items.

Expect to spend about $12 per pax for lunch.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Burger VS Wings + Bar BWB @ Orchard Central

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Located at Level 11 of Orchard Central. Accessible via the lifts. This  American styled restaurant has only been in operations recently, though its premise is not new. BWB occupies what used to be an Italian restaurant's space.

Familiar, yet different.

have you BWB, yet?
ample seating capacity
private room

Its concept is pretty simple. Burgers (vs) Wings. Food Fight. Now, nope. Don't start throwing the food around, ya. Food fight here, really refers to which item gets the most orders. Will it be the Burgers or will it be the Wings?

ready to fight?

Looking at its current menu, they have at least 9 burger variants and 10 for the wings. Really spoilt for choice. As though that's not enough, with every main course order one can do an add-on ($4.90++ for lunch or $7.90++ for dinner) to enjoy BWB's tapas and dessert buffet. Quite the value for money!

menu

What could one get from the tapas buffet section?

onsen tamago in ponzu sauce
baked macaroni, grilled vegetables and sheppard pie
mediterranean beef salad

For me, I got my fix of greens (or pink).  Coleslaw, potato salad, lettuce, beef salad, tempura water spinach and pappadum with tomato salsa

plate with assortment of stuff from tapas counter

Happy hour is till 8pm, and they do have Stella on tap. Get a pint of this during happy hour for $11++.

say hi to Stella

Did someone say signature cocktails? Of course, we got ourselves one. Cocktails are priced at $14++ each. BWBartini was quite yummy. Sweet.

BWBartini
The Hero
The Challenger
Exotic Breeze


Feeling famished yet? Let's meet the heavyweights.

Tyson Peanut Butter Burger (@$21.90++)
Pacific Izumi Fish Burger (@$15.80++)
BWB Classic Heavyweight Burger (@$19.90++)

The burgers looked quite gorgeous. Its beef burger patties are using stockyard angus beef. Enjoyable texture, doesn't feel oily and well seasoned. The beef burgers came with crispy, salty streaky bacon, cheddar cheese, egg sunny-side up and brioche bun.

Wagyu Beef Black Burger (@$28++), pre-cut upon request (for sharing)

The Black Burger was huge. Loaded with ingredients. Most noticeable was the avocado. If all those burgers felt too macho for you, no worries. They do have a dainty looking BWB Mini Burger Sampler (@$20.50++).

cute, right?
grilled tiger prawn black caviar mini burger

Though the burger does not include fries, it is still worthwhile to get one to share. Was pretty amazed to find that the fries retained its crispiness, though it was left out in the open for quite a long while.

cheese fries

If burger is not up your alley, then perhaps, chicken wings might do the trick? Meet the lightweight contenders.

Cajun BBQ Wings (@$15.80++)
hot buffalo wings (@$15.80++) with sweet mustard and bbq sauce
spicy level: medium

Let you be warned. Spicyness of medium, is already quite spicy. The heat will sting at you right away. Good thing that it also dissipates quite fast.

Likewise, there's also the Sampler Trio Wings for the undecided. The chicken wing wrap actually looked more like a popiah. Inside of it was minced chicken and prawn. Didn't like the stuffed wings though. There was a very strong, herb taste that I didn't enjoy.

cajun, jambalaya and chicken wing wrap

To add to the fun element of this restaurant, there might be special offers from time to time. So, keep a lookout for it!

watch out for such offers when dining-in


There are mini cakes and ice-cream at the buffet desserts counter.

mini cheesecake, tiny swiss roll and fruit pate

Swiss roll was too dry but the mini cheesecakes were quite rich. Fruit pate was coated with sugar, hence very sweet but quite interesting. Skip the swiss roll and go straight to ice-cream!

french vanilla and blueberry ice-cream with crispy rice toppings

Thank you HGW and KitchenLanguage for the invite and for hosting the dinner.


Burger VS Wings + Bar

Location: 11-03/04, Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road, Singapore 238896
Contact No. : 6634 0423
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BWBSingapore

Monday, January 20, 2014

Osaka Ohsho @ Westgate

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Located at Level 3 of Westgate. Finally, so many makan places near where I stay. Tried Osaka Ohsho on a Saturday evening. Was there early, before 6pm so there wasn't any queue.

advert inside the restaurant
here to try this famous restaurant chain

The seats are very near each other. So, couples usually come and go pretty fast. Also quite popular with families with young kids.

just an elbow length space to manouvre

Every table has an iPad attached to it. Order the food through that device.

iPad to order
hardcopy menu to browse

Tried the Black Vinegar Fried Chicken set from the Healthy Japanese Specialties menu.

Black Vinegar Fried Chicken Set (@$15.90++)
fried chicken, lotus root, capsicum and plenty of aubergine

The set came with rice, gyoza and egg drop soup. Overall, the set was enjoyable though the fried chicken dish was quite oily. Ironically, it's from the Healthy menu. Hmm.

pork gyoza
minced pork and cabbage

The gyoza was smaller than expected. It's already adequately seasoned. If you like spicy, the chili oil was quite a good complement to the dumpling.

chili flakes and chili oil as taste enhancer

Friend had the ever popular Tenshin Han set. His took forever to arrive. It came after I'd finish almost 80% of mine.

Tenshin Han set (@$12.90++)

But it really looked very good.

perfect
very thick layer of eggs

Had a sample of the egg. Very good, I must say. Tasty, thick layer of fluffy soft eggs. I'd order this, the next time round.

This meal cost about $32+ for two pax, inclusive of 2 hot tea.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Ristorante Pietrasanta @ Portsdown Road

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This was one of the restaurants that we had identified to celebrate birthdays last year. But last year, we went to another Italian restaurant instead. So this time round, for the first birthday in our group, he chose to try this place. Yay!

Located at 5B Portsdown Road (Wessex Estate), and was visited by famous blogger Dr Leslie Tay in 2008.
To get to Pietrasanta, you'll need a car, or a cab. Parking is limited.

Had made reservations few days prior, so it was a breeze to get seated. If you're interested in bringing your own wine bottles, do note that corkage is $35 per bottle for wine and $50 for champagne.

menu
table setup

One could opt for sparkling, still or tap for their choice of water. Or, get a bottle of prosecco @$68++.

some bubbly for celebration

While waiting for our mains to arrive, warm bread was served. It looked like a topless pizza and tasted pretty good. Everyone at my table, loved it. Our guess is that if their bread is this good, this could be an indication of their pizza. A quick look around, saw many tables having pizza. The pizza here is of a good size and with generous toppings.

tasty warm bread
tomato bread dip

Indoor dining can get rather boisterous. Not a place for intimate conversations as the sound gets reverbrated and was rather noisy. Otherwise, one could opt to dine at its alfresco area.

Our mains consists of pasta and meats. So, first up. The pastas.

Tagliatelle al Nero Di seppia con salsa Di granchio (@$20.90++)

The squid ink fettucine with crab meat sauce was decent. Pasta was done slightly softer than al-dente. The tomato based sauce was refreshingly tangy.

Ravioli verdi Di spinach e ricotta (@$17.90++)
lots of spinach in ravioli, nice

Usually, I'd find ravioli pretty doughy. But at Pietrasanta, really liked how the ravioli turned out. Ravioli casing that's not too thick, generous fillings of spinach and tasted pretty good.

Then, the meats arrived.

Stinco Di Agnello brasato al Chianti (@$28.90++)

The braised lamb shank with Chianti wine was quite well done. Braised till meat is fork tender, flavourful and not gamey. Pietrasanta kitchen has a good control of seasoning in most of the dishes, resulting in good flavours that's not too strong.

Coscia Di anatra in dolce forte (@$26.90++)

Said to be traditional duck leg recipe from south of Tuscany where it is stewed in red wine, vinegar, raisins and dark chocolate. My first in having chocolate cooked in a savoury dish.

The duck meat was quite exceptional, and non of that duck gameyness. Sauce was reminiscent of chinese stew but smoother, a bit tangy from wine and vinegar and, to me, it had a sort of mysteriousness in taste that one couldn't put a finger onto.

200 days grainfed ribeye (@$42.90++)

Had the ribeye done medium rare. The meat was pretty much on its own natural flavour as there wasn't any sauce that came with this dish. Just the meat, some salt prior to grilling and its own natural jus.

birthday boy doing us the honour of cutting the meat
medium~medium rare

The mid-part of the ribeye has best texture, while the its edges has the best flavour. The salt rub was patchy for this one, hence some parts are really salty while others are mild.

We brought a cake to the restaurant, and Pietrasanta's friendly service crew helped to bring it out as a surprise to the birthday boy, complete with him cueing us to sing the birthday song. And if I remembered correctly, some of the other guests were also quite sporting in singing a phrase or two. Keke!

staff congratulating the birthday boy
yummy rainbow cake from LeChocolat


Service was friendly and most of the customers seemed like regulars. Closes early at 1030pm but noticed that patrons would still be coming in at 10pm.

Nice place, good food, friendly service and reasonably priced. Kudos to Pietrasanta.


Ristorante Pietrasanta

Location: 5B Portsdown Road, #01-03 Singapore 139311
Contact No.: +65 6479 9521
Website: http://www.ristorante-pietrasanta.com/
 
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