The Fat Cat Bistro @ Jalan Riang

The Fat Cat Bistro was featured in a popular local magazine recently, so we were inspired to try a new place for our weekly dinner. From Lorong Chuan MRT (meeting point), drive along the road and turn right into Jalan Girang. After which, at the next first turning, turn into another part of Jalan Girang again (the signboard says it's that road name....), after which drive straight and, turn right into Jalan Riang. The place is bright and chirpy and easily recognizable.

table settings and bar view

They have 3 food partners; Thai Yai (Thai food), Tiffin (North Indian food) and Flamin' Grills (western). We ordered naan and mutton curry from Tiffin, and the rest are mostly from Flamin' Grills. Didn't get anything from Thai Yai, because we just had Thai food last week. Happy hour (or as they call it, puuurfect hour) ends at 730pm (weekday). So make your drinks order from The Fat Cat Bar, pronto!

I had the Long Island Tea ($12 after happy hour, $10 during). Suffice to say, it gave me enough buzz for that one hour.

Long Island Tea

colourful cutlery basket

mutton curry

naan

The mutton curry was flavorful and the meat fork tender. Enjoyable, flavorful, not very spicy and not too oily. Served with pappadum as well.

For the meat main course from Flamin' Grills, it is served with 2 complements (side dish). We chose baby carrots, broccoli, mashed potato, baked potato and french fries. My friends had grilled chicken and grilled dory fish.

grilled dory with baby carrots and mashed potato

grilled chicken with huge broccoli, and baked potato

Though the baby carrots were sweet, I didn't like it because it was rather soggy and limp. We were quite surprised by the broccoli, certainly a very generous portion of vege!

My striploin came last. It looked good. Thick cut of meat, served with cream spinach and french fries.

striploin steak, medium rare

looked juicy from the outside

striploin

cream spinach

But the first sign of trouble, was the difficulty in cutting through the meat. The doneness was also uneven as some parts are medium and other parts more rare than medium rare. As a result, the meat was very chewy. Hence, when the friendly kitchen staff came to enquire, this was feedback accordingly. Immediately, he asked if I would like to have the dish changed. I declined and told him to just take it as a feedback for improvement.

But I think he went back to the kitchen to report to his boss and soon, another gentleman came over to understand the issue, and to offer an explanation. Once more, he too kindly offered a replacement order. I wanted to decline again, as I had already finished 60-70% of the dish but he kindly insisted that I should get a better experience from my visit. He offered to change it to ribeye, as he assured me that this cut would be more tender. I was impressed by their generosity and swiftness in handling a customer feedback. =)

The ribeye fared better, and it was also gentler to the jaw. I liked the cream spinach, as it was soft (but not too mushy) and healthy tasting. Generous portions as well. Another thing worth mentioning, was that the friendly Flamin' Grill staff came by again to check if I was happy with the meat. Certainly made me feel cared for as a customer. Keep up the good service!

For desserts, we had the chocolate lava cake with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Sweet ending to our meal. Overall, an enjoyable experience and a good place to chill. The prices are certainly wallet friendly. We paid about $23 per pax (incl. of 1 alcoholic drink)

Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin @ ION Orchard

Located at B4 ION Orchard, Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin is a joint serving deep fried items and oyakodon. The way it works here is that before grabbing a seat, customers need to place order at the counter and make payment and take a holder with an assigned number.

seems like an old brand

I ordered the black pig katsu curry rice. The set comes with miso soup.

black pig curry rice

smooth and luscious curry

large pieces of meat

kurobuta

The meat was not as moist and tender as I liked it to be, so that was a little disappointment. The miso soup was light and smoky, and has pieces of pork and thin daikon in it.

My friend ordered the oyakodon, and the egg looked fabulous. Maybe next time can try that.

runny egg yolk

Expect to pay about $17 per pax.

Jai Thai @ Clover Way

Went to this place via car. Quite out of the way, if you ask me. Visited on a Friday night at about 7+, and there were still seats available.

Ordered the Family Set B (@$39++), and it consists of tom yum soup (red), fish cakes (4 pieces), fried tilapia fish in thai chili sauce, fried mixed vegetables (carrots, cabbage and leafy greens) and fried chicken with cashew nuts. The set comes with 4 plates of plain rice, and can be changed to pineapple/olive rice at an extra $1.50 per plate. The set doesn't come with any drinks, so we ordered thai iced tea and iced lemon tea.

welcoming pillar adorned with certficates and awards

fried chicken with cashew nut

olive rice.. no, those are not uni! not sure what it was actually....

tom yum soup

seafood tom yum soup with fried fish

Overall, the food was nice. I liked the tom yum soup best! But it needs to be drunk while it is still hot. The pineapple rice fared better than the olive rice. Olive rice was a little too hard. Pineapple rice has more flavor to it, though a little sweet. But plain rice goes well with all the dishes too. Soft and fluffy rice. Yums!

fishcake

The chicken with cashew nut was only so-so. The chicken pieces were thin and not meaty, and the cashew nuts found were far and few...Stir fried vegetables were nice and has enough 'wok-hei' but can be oily. The fishcake texture was very nice. Bouncy and chewy. The fried fish with chili sauce is non-fiery. It was quite sweet.

sorry, forgot to take picture while it was still in 1 piece...

thai iced tea

Service was adequate, although they forgot our drinks initially. Set B can feed 3-4 people comfortably. We paid about $16 per pax for this meal.

Barcelos @ Novena Square 2

Located at Level 2 of Novena Square 2. We were there at about 1+pm, and there was a  sign that states something similar to "Please wait here before seated." So we waited, but no one bothered to attend to us. Hence, the advise is just to saunter right in and be visible, and request to be seated. At our point of visit, Barcelos was probably just one fourth occupied.

We went in a party of 6 pax, so we were seated at some remote corner. This area has lower chances of a service staff passing by. Anyway, we ordered a family pack (1 chicken with 4 sides @$49.95++), and a quarter chicken meal (1/4 chicken with 2 sides @$13.90++). For drinks, we ordered soft drinks and iced-lemon tea (@$2.25++).

straw

ice lemon tea (non-refillable)

serving plate

We were asked to choose the marination sauce to have for the chicken. So we chose all 4 sauces (tangy lemon, mild peri, veri peri and supa peri in ascending order of spiciness level). For side dishes, we ordered spicy rice, potatoes with sauteed mushrooms, potato wedges and salad. The side dish serving was good! Quite substantial.

potato with sauteed white button mushroom

potato wedges

salad

All the side dishes were good but the spicy rice was not up to expectation. It was not spicy and it was a tad too dry! It looked like briyani rice but minus the moist and fragrance.

family pack chicken (behind salad bowl), with flags to denote marination sauce

peri sauce family line-up

I prefer the mild peri sauce mixed with veri peri. Tangy, and spicy. Yums! The chicken meat was tender and flavourful. Even the breast meat was good! The meat was firm and slightly moist.

potato wedges, salad, sauteed potato mushroom, spicy rice and chicken with peri peri sauces

Ebiboshi Shotengai @ Illuma

Ebiboshi Shotengai is located at Level 4 of Illuma Bugis. It comprises a cluster of foodshops and you can get oden, shabu-shabu, noodles (ramen,udon, soba), teppan, tonkatsu, sushi and sashimi, kushiyaki and desserts amongst them. Of course, the other attraction is its automated ordering system using a pen-like electronic device.

Japanese food-street decor

interesting ceiling lights

The interior of the shops are cosy, but depending on where you are seated, you may end up with smokey and oily smell...

The service crew are generally helpful, and all beginners will be taught on how to use their ordering device.

point electronic device to such labels, and you will hear corresponding responses

The menu looks extensive and it has almost everything that you can find in Japanese foodshops. We ordered sashimi (salmon, maguro and hamachi 3 pieces each) + mekajiki (4 pieces), oden with curry rice, deep fried salmon curry rice, beef teppan, kani (crabstick) salad and yakitori set (5 pieces).

napkin

cute dainty plate

sashimi

kani salad

The sashimi was alright except for the maguro which has 'veins' and that made it rather chewy.

my favourite hamachi

dipping sauce

appetising salad

The food quality is somewhat similar to other Japanese food-street concept eateries in Singapore. I find that it was somewhat ok, but nothing quite stands-out.

oden with curry rice

beef teppan

yakitori

I had the yakitori as mains, and discovered that the meat sticks were better than the bacon wrapped ones.

meat yakitoris, the mayo one was tasty~

bacon wrapped (asparagus/enoki)

There were ample seats, and the place was quite empty on a Sunday evening.  We paid $28 per pax (there were 4 of us) for the food and green tea. Didn't order any desserts as we were stuffed.