The Wine Company @ Dempsey

Has been to The Wine Company multiple times but mostly at night and at the alfresco area. Was recently invited for a lunch get-together session with a cosy group of wine aficionados. We were early a few minutes early, and the place opens at 12 noon.

business hours

The indoor dining area was comfortably cosy, and on a weekend, only one service staff was in-store.

no one's here yet

bar counter

Since we were early, it felt like we had the whole restaurant for ourselves. How cool was that! Hahaa. Well, at least for that half hour or so, we enjoyed our privilege.

menu

The design of the menu was somewhat disjointed from the vibe that this place was giving. Nevertheless, never judge a book by its cover!

I had the honour (or stress) of choosing the first bottle. Let's start with something light so naturally, that'll be a white. Since there are three ladies in the group, I'd go with something semi-sweet. So, ended up with a Steigelmann Gimmeldinger Meerspinne Riesling Kabinett Halb-tr 2014.

Steigelmann Riesling Kabinett 2014 @$55.90

It was fruity, and tasted of apples, peaches and honey. Very likeable and thank goodness the rest enjoyed this too.

Ordered some finger food to share while we enjoyed the conversations and the flow of the Riesling. The light bites included seared tuna which was rather good with the generously coated pepper at its sides. The pork belly and squid were well fried and oily food, tasted better with wine.

Pepper Seared Tuna @$9.90

salt & pepper squid @$9.90

deep fried crispy pork belly @$7.90

Also ordered the nam yee chicken wings, which was tasty but unfortunately, the drumlets came with a red center. Meaning that the drumlets were either too frozen or its thicker center actually needed a bit more time in the fryer...

nam yee chicken wings @$9.90

Next up, we also had a bottle of red. Ivan chose the Shiraz. A South African Bushmanspad Shiraz 2015. Surprisingly, the tannicity was alright, full bodied, drinkable and tasted of cherries and dark chocolate.

South African Bushmanspad Shiraz 2015 @$59.90

When foodies gathered, what did we do? We had more food! Quite amazing that we still did main courses! I think the food here is decisively fusion.

Yong Tau Foo Capellini @$8.90

Pig Trotters Bee Hoon @$6.90

The capellini may be a tad salty, but since we were having wine, it balances out rather nicely. The pig trotters bee hoon was a tad too sweet but enjoyable nonetheless. Hot food and wine, yes please.

And then, we did a charchuterie platter. Wow. Am amazed by the amount of food that we could eat (or rather, had eaten!).

Charchuterie Platter @$24.90 (half) or $34.90 (full)

The platter consisted of pickled gherkins, truffle salami, chicken liver pate, pancetta, prosciutto, cheeses; cheddar and morbier, olives, mustard, jam, dried fruits, nuts, crackers & crispy baguettes. Loved the mustard, jam, the pate, the salami and the cheeses. Yums!

Lovely friends to enjoy the good wine and food. Thank you Elle, Cindy and Ivan!

[Media Invite] Wah! Kungfu 蛙功夫

What comes to mind, when you hear the name "Wah! Kungfu"? Probably thought it's either an exclamation about martial art or manga? In Chinese, its meaning is a tad more apparent as the word '蛙' in 蛙功夫 means kungfu frog? Well, its mascot is literally that!

Located right at the exit of Chinatown MRT, this place was easy to find. Just look out for that brightly lit bullfrog signboard peeking out of a window.

signboard

Wah! Kungfu is a contemporary Chinese restaurant that serves up flavourful mouthwatering spicy Hunan-style specialty grill, BBQ and stir-fries, and its interior is pretty much bar-like (夜店风) with neon lights, manga-style graffiti'ed wall-panels and its mascot of butt-kicking kungfu frog. Kitschy? Very. Fun, nonetheless.

guess you know my name

We were invited for a tasting session and got a chance to meet up with the owner of Wah! Kungfu. Young entrepreneur (probably in his late twenties or early thirties) and currently, he has three shops that serves Hunan-specialty food but with different concept and themes.

We were ushered to Level 2 where the lights are a bit more manageable. Service staff wears cutesy frog-ears and they are earnest in their work.

level 2

Its menu is single page and double-sided. We pretty much gotten their signature dishes that night and am happy to report that it was good.

The spice level for its pot/grill items is less spicy, medium spicy and very spicy. However, the very spicy version was still manageable as long as you have a jug of that kumquat lime juice nearby to quench some of those fire.

toy frog on every table

menu

For food, we had the bullfrog with soup, bullfrog on flat grill, BBQ chicken wings, BBQ lamb, BBQ fish, fresh crabs and shrimps in a pot, and some add-ons of stewed intestines and QQ shrimps.

平锅牛蛙 - 怪辣味 （flatgrill bullfrog - special pepper) @$39.80

The Special Pepper flavour bullfrog plate looked fearsome with all those red chilies piled ontop of it. Truth be told, it has a rating of 3 chilies on the menu which is the spiciest level. The meat has been deep fried and then recooked with the spices and hence, more flavourful. Indeed, it was tasty and its spicy level, was manageable. However, it is also more oily as compared to the pot with soup.

泡锅牛蛙 (香辣味) Bullfrog with soup (spicy flavour) @$39.80

My favourite bullfrog dish that night was the spicy flavour in the round pot with soup. Alhough, it similarly had a 3 chilies rating on the menu, it didn't come across as fiery as perhaps the soup helped to balance out the spicy flavours. Also, I liked it as one could taste more of the sweetness from the meat when it was cooked in this manner. Very yummy and goes well with rice.

drinks (left to right) kiwi fruit juice, plum huice, kumquat lime juice and pomegranate juice

外婆酸菜味 (pickled mustard) @$39.80

If you prefer something that is medium spicy and more of a appetising sourish tangy taste, can opt for the pickled mustard flavour. However, this version was not as sourish as we'd prefer and the soup came across as a tad too salty for my liking. This was the least spicy amongst all the pots that we've tasted.

There are side-dishes that one could add-on to the frog pots. For example, the stewed intestine, or the QQ shrimps. For us, we were happy to munch on these on its own as it was already very flavourful as it is.

stewed intestines @$9.80

QQ shrimp @$11.80

Items from the BBQ/grill section were also good. Particularly, I enjoyed the BBQ wings and the lamb skewers. So good! The wings were dry-rubbed with peppercorn salt and it has a bit of that ma-la (麻辣) numbing factor after a while. These are salty so get ready a drink before tucking into these moist and juicy wings.

BBQ mid-wings ( 考鸡翅）@$2.20 per skewer

The lamb skewer were tender and reminiscent of those 新疆烤羊肉串.

lamb skewer @$1.20 per stick

What happens if you don't take bullfrog? No worries, as there's still fish and crabs to choose from.

招牌烤鱼 (barbeque fish) @$35.80

The spicy hot grill fish has a fairly large fish on the plate. Probably 800gms to 1kg of seabass. The fish was fried and then cooked in the spicy broth. The flame will keep it bubbling for a while. Best enjoyed with a friend or two and with a bowl of rice.

fleshy

Another favourite of mine, was the Crab and shrimps pot. The crab was fresh and the spices actually accentuated the sweetness of the seafood. Very good. Unfortunately, the shrimps were overcooked in this one.

虾蟹一锅 (fresh crab and shrimps in one pot) @$38.80

We have seen two petite ladies sharing a pot, so it is possible to enjoy the food here even though in a smaller group. Just take your time to chat and savour the food slowly. After all, the night is still young.

Food portions at Wah! Kungfu is generous, and expect strong flavours throughout. Recommend the kumquat lime juice to quench thirst (and fire), the spicy flavour (round pot) for bullfrog, the fresh crab pot, the BBQ wings and lamb skewers.

Click here for Hungrygowhere promotion.

Thank you to HGW for the invite and Wah! Kungfu for hosting the dinner.

Wah! Kungfu 蛙功夫

Location: 74 Pagoda St, Singapore 059233
Website: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/wah-kungfu-chinatown/
Contact:  +65 62255981 
Business Hours:
Daily: 11:30 - 23:30

The Armoury x Yellow Cup Coffee @ South Beach Avenue

Cosy and casual young vibes all round, The Armoury x Yellow Cup Coffee is a business where the brothers are in-charge. This is a place where you get craft beer, burgers and coffee all under one roof. Chanced upon this place during one of the weekends, and with Happy Hour prices, got myself a Hawaiian Kona draft beer to try.

on tap

hmm

happy pricing

sampler

The cool thing about this place is that the people here are friendly. The craft beers on tap are mostly American and if you weren't sure of what to get, they were alright with offering a sampler if you're already bought a drink or if you ask really nicely.

They have Rogue ale the hazelnut brown nectar one, Stone IPA and coffee stout amongst others. Have had those elsewhere so this time round, chose the Kona Golden Ale.

Aloha

The beer was light and balanced, pretty easy to drink though it was rather early that day.

Kona Golden Ale (4.4% ABV) @$6 (HH)

For food, we sampled the Beer Battered Chicken Cutlet on Waffles for savoury and for the sweets, we had the Berry Ricotta Pancake (special order and depends on availability of ingredients, as the on-menu version was matcha).

Beer Battered Chicken Cutlet on Waffles @$21

The beer battered chicken had nicely crisp batter that was music to the ears. Yums! It had a bit of salted egg lava drizzled onto the cutlet, served with sunny side up which oozes nicely when sliced and some dots of ricotta cheese. On the overall, the chicken thigh was well marinated and tasty but it was also a bit on the sweeter side. Preferred it to be more savoury and perhaps with a touch more of spice like chili flakes or chili padi. The waffles was nicely eggy. Would have loved to bite into these chicken cutlet again!

I'm the only one with beer while the rest were happily sipping their honey or nutella latte. Then, I got a spoonful of nutella to try. What did I do? Why, have it with beer of course! Surprisingly, this combo works. In fact, it works extremely well with the Hawaiian Kona beer.

nutella and golden ale, because I can

The coffee here is from Yellow Cup Coffee and using the La Marzocco machine.

coffee counter

for that intense flavour

coffee

And, the Berry Ricotta Pancake had like 3-stacks of pancake in there and topped with lots of seasonal berries; we got blueberries, strawberries; raspberries, yuzu gel and mascarpone cheese.

Berry Ricotta Pancake @$22

We were stuffed from eating too much that day with Fynn's being our first brunch stop.

young vibes

Worth checking out if you are in the vicinity, as they do have a good selection of drinks and good food. Or, drop by for a drink and casual chat with the young bosses.

drinks menu

Orchid Live Seafood @ 1 Bah Soon Pah Rd

"Miss, the place that you're going...sounds quite ulu-hor?"

That was what the taxi uncle said after the address to the destination was given. Yes, GPS was switched on and we arrived at the destination but it looked more like a nursery (plants) from the outside so we overshot and went further up. Had to make a u-turn since the unit numbers were getting larger.

Turns out, it was right at the entrance to this road. First impression of this place? It felt like an out-of-town place somewhere in Malaysia.

alfresco otherwise turn towards the right for the air-conditioned restaurant entrance

live seafood tanks

Pretty old-school eatery and chef's recommendation are plastered all over the air-conditioned restaurant for easy reference.

old school feels

Dinner was gathered by Justin and everyone had common motive; which was to try the lobster porridge. Of course, since there were 6 of us, we ordered some other zichar (煮炒) dishes to share as well.

coconut water

For the lobster porridge, one could choose whether it's for 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 pax. The difference is on the weight of the lobsters combined that'll feed those numbers of pax. Smallest would be 600g while largest would be 2kg. Price of live seafood will commensurate with weight.

Besides lobster porridge, we ordered dishes such as sambal kangkung (morning glory), stevens chicken, chili mussels, crispy tofu with topshell and a plate of hokkien noodles to try.

sambal kangkung

crispy tofu with topshell

chili mussels

The mussels were so plump but the sauce a tad too watery for me. Spice level was very mild. The crispy tofu was pretty ordinary...can skip. Perhaps a hotplate tofu would be better in terms of taste.

Our favourite dish? The stevens chicken. It was so good that we did a second order for this. Think we did medium x 2. Perhaps next time, a large portion from the start?!

Why we loved it? Served piping hot with crisp skin and moist inside. Adequate seasoning and mildly sweet on its skin. Not too oily.

stevens chicken

The porridge for 6 pax, was incredibly huge. A heavy pot was brought to tableside and the staff will help to dish out lobsters and to set it aside to prevent it from cooking any further. Porridge is then portioned into individual bowls. There were copious amount of porridge and broth available for thirds and fourths!

lobsters removed

lobster porridge is served

The essence was all in the broth. Comforting on a wet rainy day. A man who had finished his dinner with his family, walked past ours as we were about to start and he commented that both our tables ordered the same things. Hahaa! Guess so since most of the stuffs that we ordered were stated as chef's recommendation.

communal dining

Parking is available at this place. Otherwise need to grab since this is nowhere near any MRT.

Expect to spend about $50 to $60 per pax, if getting any live seafood.

Thank you Justin for initiating and Bel for getting the reservation. Communal dining with Justin, Bel, Kai, Cae, Tiara and Jen.