[Tasting] COCA Leisure Park Kallang

My first time at COCA although I have long heard about this restaurant. Been around for as long as I can remember! Was blessed to be invited for a tasting at COCA Leisure Park Kallang by Jennifer Yeo Consultancy.

Located at Level 2, the restaurant was easy to locate since it was either at this end of the escalator or the other.

entrance

buffet

typical table setup

Doing the regular buffet dinner, priced @$49++ per pax and with about 70 items from the menu. Diners would be able to order through the tablet device on each table.

For the hotpot soup, the staff recommends us the new Laksa broth and Hua Diao Phoenix Pot.

let's see the soup

Laksa and Hua Diao Chicken Hotpot

While waiting for the ingredients to be served, diners could get their sauce from the sauce counter. Remember to mask-up when moving there. Noticed that when staff was not busy, they would assist the customer in mixing the sauces.

COCA original sauce (front) and my original anyhow made sauce (back)

for Hua Diao Chicken soup

Thanks to the staff who prepared the Hua Diao Chicken for us.

immersive experience

all in

let it simmer

suitably dressed

For drinks, one could have the option of lemongrass, lime juice or water chestnut. It is refillable.

water chestnut, lime juice

let's begin!

thinly sliced meats, seafood, prawn paste, dumplings

Fish Fillet 鱼片

Fish Maw 鱼鳔

Green Noodle 菠菜面

Prawns 虾

Thinly Sliced Mutton 薄片羊肉

House Special Shrimp Paste 特制虾浆

vegetables, beancurd skin and mushrooms

table-full, so beauty-full

cooking the Fish Glue 鱼滑

The quality ingredients one gets from COCA, translated into a delicious meal. Fresh seafood is their strength and goes well with laksa and also the hua diao soup.

prawn paste

fresh prawns

If you would like to enjoy COCA Laksa Hotpot at home, here is the info and the order link is provided below:

Laksa Hotpot Set (Serves 3-4pax) delivery only - $88

- Complimentary Mala Fried Rice

- Complimentary Mala Fish Skin

- 2 soup base 两种汤底  (2 Liter each)

- Thinly Sliced Pork Collar 薄片猪肉 200g 

- Chicken Fillet 鸡肉片 200g

- Prawns 鲜虾 8pcs

- Chicken Meat Paste 鸡肉浆 80g

- Shrimp Wanton 云吞 4pcs

- Fishball with Roe 鱼包蛋 4pcs 

- Chinese Cabbage 大白菜 200g 

- Local Lettuce 生菜 100g 

- Emperor Shiitake 皇帝椎茸 100g 

- Green Noodle 菠菜面 2 portion

- COCA Chili Sauce  COCA泰式辣酱 (200g)

Thank you COCA for hosting the dinner, and special thanks to COCA staff at Leisure Park Kallang for your care.

COCA

Address: 5 Stadium Walk #02-01, Leisure Park Kallang, Singapore 397693

Website: https://coca.com.sg/

Contact:

62413833

Business Hours:

Daily: 11:30am–3pm, 6–10:30pm

Order Online: https://cocahotpot.oddle.me/en_SG/product/8a818ed07f3442ca017f3ed8f28d3f85

Meatsmith @ Telok Ayer

It was deja vu, all over again. The thing about eating out at Telok Ayer on weekends at popular places like this one, could only mean one thing. One needa queue even when there is a reservation. Our 8pm reservation saw us queueing till an hour later and that was because we were lucky for the previous party had kindly vacated their table after an hour of dining. We know, because we were there when the food was served to their table, to the time that they left.

alfresco dining

Kona Big Wave Golden Ale @$12++

bacon wrapped cheese

Meat Platter for 2 @$90++

Our order was plenty. There's starters and meat platters plus additional ala-carte order of beef short ribs and hangar steak.  The meat platter consists of brisket, pork ribs, brisket springrolls, buffalo wings, pastrami burnt ends and pork belly burnt ends. Plus, it came with corn bread!

Pork Ribs

Pastrami Burnt Ends

Brisket

Whoa, the meat platter sure was strongly flavoured. Not that I wasn't expecting it but still, I was somewhat caught surprised by the pork ribs. Possibly due to the sauce, me thinks.

I liked the springroll brisket more than the brisket itself. The pastrami burnt ends was nice to nibble on. The corn bread was my favourite! The pickles were lovely too and it helped to take off some of the greasiness. Well, ice cold beer works too!

Corn Bread with smoked butter

Next, we enjoyed the Hangar Steak. Loved the salad that came along as well. This meat had an enjoyable chew to it and tasted of its natural flavours.

300g F1 Wagyu Hangar Steak @$38++

tender with a chew

Best meat of the night? The vote went to Beef Short Ribs, hands down. It was just wow. Right up my alley, this one.

Beef Short Rib @$48++

can't wait to get some

Fork tender, with some fats and tasted so good with that sauce. What was that sauce again? 

big bites, big love

The staff are friendly and ice water was topped up whenever we needed a refill.

MeatSmith Telok Ayer

Address: 167-169 Telok Ayer St, Singapore 068620

Website: https://www.meatsmith.com.sg/

Contact: 6221 2262

Business Hours:

Daily 11:30am–11:45pm

taan 炭 @ 30 Liang Seah Street

炭 means charcoal. Not sure if they really are using charcoal to grill the skewers but this place is quite happening! The shop itself is smallish but come weekends, when evening falls, taan's staff will setup more tables and chairs along the road. Streetside dining, in essence. The shop gets busy as early as 6pm and if you're any later, the wait time for a table will be depending on luck. Reservations are encouraged.

shopfront

Staff are young and the place has a lively vibe. Plates after plates of skewer mountain could be seen emerging from the kitchen and landing on tables after tables. Never ending. Expect a table to be seated for at least 2 hours.

There is an on-going promo where skewers goes for $1 before 8pm. Price ranges from $1.50 to $3 per skewer and mininum of 2 skewers per flavour. The flavours or rather the seasoning on the skewers are original, chinese spice, spiced salt, teriyaki and spicy miso kimchi. Chinese spice tasted like the xinjiang grill seasoning with cumin. 

menu with pictures

order skewers via this sheet

flavoured Kirin beer

If you're new to the place, the staff will take about less than 2 minutes to explain the ordering system. Which is just to indicate on the order sheet the skewers that you wish to have. There is buffet option as well. One would have to eat about 20 skewers in order for the buffet to be worthwhile. Hence, we decided on ala-carte.

buffet option and reservation number

There's non-alcoholic drinks as well as alcoholic beverages. My friends ordered fruit juice and green tea while some of us had beer. The drinks are served prettily.

non-alcoholic drinks; green tea and watermelon juice

Nothing beats ice-cold beer on a hot and humid evening. The Kirin here is the frozen foam top version and surprisingly, it has about 5 flavours to choose from: cranberry, yuzu, original, lychee and apple. I had the lychee version which is sweet (just as I liked it) while Ivan had the apple beer which is veering towards the tangy saltish.

Kirin beer

Let's start with satay! We had beef and chicken satays. Even for promo of $1 per stick, these would come across as pricey. Normal satay that one could get anywhere else. The chicken ones are better. The ends of the satay stick would be coloured differently to differentiate the meats.

chicken and beef satay (5 sticks each) @$10

Next up was selections under the Meat category. We got beef, chicken gizzard, chicken wings in special sauce, house special chicken ball, fresh prawns and shishamo and quail eggs. Some of the items such as shishamo, prawns and chicken wings in special sauce, it is better to order at least one stick per pax as these are single items and not quite shareable unless it is you one bite, I one bite that type. Hahaa!

pork, beef, gizzard, prawns and shishamo

I'd recommend the gizzard in spicy miso sauce. Nice chewy crunchy texture that's not overcooked. The spice level here was pretty mild so no worries even if you can't take spice. The beef and pork were generally rather tough.

chicken wing in special sauce

oyster mushrooms

broccoli

Enjoyed the broccoli and oyster mushrooms. Very likeable! The chicken balls were peppery and has a crunchy cartilage in it.

quails egg

chicken balls

There are non-skewer items as well and we ordered the eel rice and also non-buffet items such as the Yunan grilled pork neck and teriyaki cuttlefish. I'd say skip the teriyaki cuttlefish unless you wanted a jaw workout.

Yunan Grilled Pork Neck @$10.80

The pork neck was rather lean and sliced thinly. The sauce was a mixture of tangy, salty with a slight spicy kick towards the end. Lovely. Oh, not forgetting the salad that was served along with this dish. That was yummy as well.

teriyaki cuttlefish @$6.80

Best dish of the night were the eel fried rice and the fresh grilled oyster with minced garlic. The fried rice was of a single-pax main portion or sharing portion for two-pax. The oyster was served piping hot and the combo was similar to the chinese restaurant type of seafood.

Eel fried rice @$8.80

fresh grilled oyster with minced garlic (1 piece) @$5.80

If you would like to know how much would feed a 5-pax party, here's what we ordered:

food to feed 5 pax (2 guys and 3 gals)

Overall, we spent about $32 per pax for this meal. Thank you Ivan for the recommendation. Dinner with Kris, Shermaine, Alvin and Ivan. TGIF!