[Media Invite] Element On Tras Street and Element @ Amara Hotel Tanjong Pagar

On which occassions do you dine in hotels in Singapore? For most locals, perhaps during weddings, or to seek out buffets, high-teas, or for other celebratory occassions like anniversary, birthdays etc. Amara Hotel has been around for the longest time and the restaurants that I usually associate with it, are Hyang-to-gol and Thanying. Nearby and within hotel vicinity, there's Bar-Roque Grill which recently was awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Was invited for a hosted tasting at Amara Hotel and we tried Element on Tras and Element Restaurant. If you walk in from the hotel lobby, you'll find Element Restaurant at the lobby level. Element On Tras Street (EOTS) is the alfresco extension of Element Restaurant. Bar is open from 12pm to 1am while dinner hours are from 6pm to 1030pm. Serving Spanish fare and there's about 17 tapas on the menu, with a couple of soups, starters, mains and dessert. Cuando pienso en España, pienso en tapas y sangria.

Element on Tras Street

Element on Tras Street (EOTS)

kitchen

Happy Hour till 8pm, and one could quench their thirst with draft beer, house sparkling, housepour wine and selected spirits for $10. Cheers! Enjoy the lively music and view of the street from EOTS.

House Sparkling @$10++ /$15++ (HH/Non-HH)

The house sparkling (Piccini Prosecco Vino Spumante Extra Dry) was nice and bubbly, and one sort of wish that the weather would be kinder. Maybe beer would work better in our humidity. Nevertheless, music was lively and company was great.

As there were only three of us, we sampled 4 items from the tapas menu. The usual classic order would be meatballs, gambas (prawns) and pulpo. Which we did.

Brava Meatballs @$14++

Pulpo ala Gallega @$18++

Thought it tasted of blue cheese in the beef meatballs but later on, found out that it had been stuffed with goat cheese. The sauce was spicy tomato and contains pork but it wasn't spicy at all. Flavour of the goat cheese made it interesting but the meat a little dry.


Enjoyed the pulpo quite a bit. The sliced octopus was tender and strongly seasoned. Goes well with wine or sparkling and of course, beer! I think I ate the whole pan of these.

Gambas al Ajillo @$15++

Mini Hamburguesas de la Casa @$16++

When comparing price points and value, I'd go for the mini hamburgers where one gets dry-aged beef burgers with its solid patty done medium rare. The buns was a bit of a letdown though as it was rather dry and not fluffy.

dry-aged beef patty in house dressing

On the tapas menu, there was an item that I was interested in but had forgotten to order, was this Provolone a la Plancha; grilled Provolone cheese with raspberry coulis, honey mustard and balsamic reduction. Let me know if you had try it.

Element Restaurant

If you're interested to know what Element Restaurant has to offer for its current buffet line, here are some photos:

sushi and sashimi counter

cold seafood section

cooked cold seafood

breads

cheese

cooked food

The dishes that I've enjoyed was the pasta cooked upon order at the pasta station. Chose a carbonara and mini raviolis (pork and spinach). Simple in taste and prepared with heart. There is also ramen station if you like but I'd prefer the pasta.

carbonara cooked ala-minute

from ramen station

From cooked food section, I liked the braised pork with black fungus quite a bit, stir-fried beef and salmon mini croquette. The mutton rendang was rather nice too.

braised pork with black fungus

stir-fried pepper beef

salmon croquette

There were french onion soup and ginseng chicken soup available during our visit on a weekday night. For the sashimi, we sampled unagi, cooked prawns, octopus, ika, salmon, maguro and mekajiki. Usually I will skip the ika as I believe it should be eaten very fresh or cooked.

sashimi platter

For dessert, I tried the mango pudding and tiramisu. No complaints there. The staff brought us jackfruit creme brulee and it was a surprise taste as I wasn't expecting this flavour.

tiramisu

jackfruit creme brulee

Thank you Lindy and Amara Singapore for hosting the tasting session. Enjoyed the introduction to Element on Tras Street tapas and its flavours of Spain, and hope to see new menu on the buffet line in Element Restaurant.

Amara Hotel

Address: 165 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088539

Reservations and enquiries:
Tel: (65) 6879 2607
Email: fnb.sg@amarahotels.com

 

Element on Tras Street

Business Hours:
Restaurant
Lunch (Monday to Friday), 12pm to 2.30pm
Dinner (Monday to Saturday & Public Holiday), 6pm to 10.30pm

Bar
Monday to Friday, 12pm to 1am
Saturday, Sunday & Public Holiday, 3pm to 2am

Element Restaurant

Business Hours:

Breakfast (Daily), 6.30 am to 10.30 am
Lunch (Monday to Friday, except Public Holiday), 12 pm to 2.30 pm
Weekend Lunch (Saturday, Sunday & Public Holiday), 11.30 am to 2.30 pm
Dinner (Daily), 6.30 pm to 10 pm

Buffet Lunch (12pm to 2.30pm, Monday to Friday)
Adult (12 and above): S$49++
Child (5-11 years old): S$25++

Buffet Dinner (6.30pm to 10pm daily)
Adult (12 and above): S$65++
Child (5-11 years old): S$32++

Brunch (Saturdays/Sundays & Public Holidays – 11.30am to 3.30pm)
Adult (12 and above): S$49++
Child (5-11 years old): S$25++

Weekends Only

Element on Tras Street: Breakfast Set
From S$15++ per pax

Element: Breakfast Buffet
Adult: S$25++ per pax
Child (6-12 years old): S$12++ per pax

Opening hours:
Weekend breakfast: 7am – 11am

[Media Invite] Mi Si Hunan Cuisine Restaurant 密斯湘菜馆 @ 9 Mosque Street

Located at 9 Mosque Street, this Chinese restaurant that serves Hunan cuisine, is right next to Wink Hostel. Most of us would have been pretty well acquainted with Shanghai., Guangdong or Sze Chuan foods but Hunan cuisine seemed to be still quite rare in Singapore.

shopfront

The restaurant was fairly relaxed when I arrived at about 7pm on a weekday. The shop is quite spacious and I suppose larger groups could enjoy a quiet meal in one of their private dining rooms. Not sure about the minimum spend required though.

What's Hunan cuisine characteristics? According to one of their staff, Hunan cuisine characteristics are  '酸' (sour) and '辣' (spicy). When further pried, she divulges that the spicy level had been toned down for local tastebuds. Aww...think we can't handle the heat? Well, most probably, I can't!

dining area

The kitchen is helmed by a native Hunan chef but the rest of the staff are from other places. For this invited tasting, we tried about 8 dishes of Mi Si Hunan Cuisine Specialty and local favourites.

menu

The sizes of the dishes here are either medium or large. Bring along some friends or enjoy with family. We had lamb soup, spicy sweet potato noodles, house-specialty Hanging Fish Head (not as morbid as it sounded), stir-fried green peppers with sliced pork, cauliflower basket, spicy frog legs, pork ribs and hotplate beef. Eaten with a bowl of steamed rice, of course.

feast

How about some beer to start? One could choose Tsingdao (青岛), Yanjing (燕京). The last I drank a Yanjing beer was way back in Beijing. This was slightly stronger than the one I had many years ago.

cheers

Let's take a look at the dishes. The hotplate beef was awesome! So flavourful and appetising. Spice level that'll give you the feels. Everything was deemed as 微辣 or mildly spicy. However, not all are equal. For example, the hotplate beef was definitely spicier than the Hunan style fried pork!

铁板孜然牛肉 (hotplate cumin beef) @ $18.80++

农家小炒肉 (Hunan style fried pork) @ $14.80++

It was also interesting to have carbs on carbs. Like the spicy sweet potato/tapioca noodles.Google translate says 红薯粉 is sweet potato but the menu wrote tapioca...Someone please enlighten me, thank you.

加了酸豆角的红薯粉 (tapioca/sweet potato noodles) @$15.80++

孜然排骨 (cumin pork ribs) @$18.80++

The pork ribs was of those dry-rub kind and since its ends were nicely wrapped with aluminium foil, one could pick it up without dirtying much the fingers. Paired well with the ice-cold beer. Meat, I like. Cumin, is a wonderful seasoning.

one for me

One dish that exceeded expectation was the cauliflower. Deceptively simple yet big in flavours. Was it just soy sauce, spring onions and chilies? It was so good! Texture was just right too. Soft but it doesn't crumble, yet not crunchy too.

大盆花菜 (cauliflower) @$10.80++

The house-specialty fish was served by hanging the pot with chunks of fish head in broth and simmered over a small flame. The official name is 第二代吊锅鱼头 but why wasn't it translated as second generation hanging pot fish head? Hmm. But I heard the staff said that the sauce/soup is from Chef's special recipe.

第二代吊锅鱼头 (fish head with special chopped chili in a pot) @$24.80++

The soup would bubble up and boil and the staff will turn off the fire in about 10 minutes after that. The soup was sourish, spicy and shioks. But oily too! Song fishhead is used for this dish.

spicy sourish fish head

Another dish that I've enjoyed was the fried frog with pickled vegetables. Super smooth, tender and sweet flesh. But looking at the price, I think the fish head would be more value for money. But the frog legs were good!

老枟酸菜跳跳蛙 (fried frog in pickled vegetables) @$31.80++

Lastly, the one dish that I didn't like was the lamb soup. The soup, I really disliked as the gamey smell and the flavour of the soup was just a no-go for me. The lamb meat was tender though.

lamb soup

All in all, Mi Si offers hearty food that's both spicy and sour. The heat from the spice was pretty bearable. It was just enough to give a mild jolt to the tongue and warmed the tummy. Quite shiok. If you could order just three dishes, here would be my recommendation; Hotplate Cumin Beef, Fish Head Pot and Cauliflower. Actually these three dishes are enough to feed a family of five.

Thank you to Mi Si and Hungrygowhere for the invite.

[Media Invite] 8 Korean BBQ @ The Central Clarke Quay

This is their original outlet when 8 Korean BBQ first opened in Singapore way back in 2013. Known for their Mangalica pork bellies marinated eight ways, 8 Korean BBQ also brew their own makgeolli. Yummy! Nearest MRT would be Clarke Quay MRT station, alight and the shop is located at Level 2 of The Central.

mandatory signboard shot

Saw that now, they have added samgyetang (ginseng chicken) to their Lunch Special menu. It's rare to see black ginseng chicken in Singapore, yes? Wonder if they serve it with a shot of ginseng liqour.

new alert lunch special

Another new item in the menu is the Cheesy Pork Ribs. My first time having pulled cheese pork ribs. Guess it's a fun way of eating! Though the insides of my head was really proclaiming about the calories, the calories! Hahaa!

Cheesy Pork Ribs @$32++

When you're ready, the staff would turn on the heat and slowly, the mozarella and cheddar cheeses will eventually begin to melt. Do remember to turn it off before it starts boiling. Burnt cheese is no joke. Wonder how they'd scrub off those burnt bits...

It was really fascinating just to watch the cheese melting and starts to bubble. That is if one is not too preoccupied with the side dishes. Alas, they don't have the yummy baby potatoes here. For the banchan, there's fish cake, cucumber kimchi, pickled radish and lotus root.

twirl the cheese, round and round

The pork ribs were tender and well marinated. Tasty enough on its own. The cheese was just a fun way of eating this. Hmm, we should have rolled the fish cake with cheese too. Or maybe, rolled cheese in lettuce?

playing with my food

At times like this, a shot of makgeolli would be nice. The yucha makgeolli was really nice and I think the alcoholic content of this would be low, probably similar to beer. The citron makgeolli was easy to drink, very frothy and had bits of the fruit peel in it.

Yucha Makgeolli (유자 막걸리) @$35++

Lets's line the tummy with some rice. How about designing your own bibimbap? If you want this, please order by 2pm and is available from 1130am to 230pm only. Opt for your favourite meat and there's a poach egg sitting on top of the rice. Quite unusual, considering most will do sunny side-up.

Design your own bibimbap @$10.90 upwards (only during lunch hours)

 

mix it well

tasty bibimbap

For crowd favourites, one must order the colour pork belly set. For a group of 5, you may want to get the 4-colours set. Larger group, one needs the 8-colours set! Those thick bellies looked good. The available flavours are Wine, Original, Garlic, Herb, Miso, Curry, Red Pepper Paste, Kalbi. These are in the order of light to strong. For the 4-colours set, the strongest flavour we had was the curry.

4 colours set @$58++

let it sizzle!

cover it all up and await

peek-a-boo

hana deul set, go!

Staff would do the grilling, so sit back and sip on the yucha makgeolli. Am not sure why, but most of my friends crave for army stew. Why? Please tell me why! I mean, it's just ramyun, spam, onions, baked beans and cheese. However, by far the most intense flavoured (and smallest in size!) army stew was from Joo Bar. Quite shioks, that one.

army stew (included in the 4-colours set) @$24++

And, of course, for the finale we had dessert. The 'bibimbap' bingsu, signature of 8 Korean BBQ. There's  tiny marshmallows, crunch, mango and strawberry cubes, azuki beans, kiwi and housemade milk ice. Preparations would take approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Great to share with a group of friends.

Bibimbap Bingsu @$28++

chocolate sauce onto the bingsu

We enjoyed it as it is. No mixing for us! Am just waiting for the day when someone pours chocolate fudge all over this and when it touches the ice...whoa, chocolate crust. Hahhaa!

Thank you Shermaine (@littletinysun) for the invite and 8 Korean BBQ for hosting.