sQue Rotisserie & Alehouse @ The Central Clarke Quay

Located at The Central Clarke Quay, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street. The restaurant's outdoor area is pretty large, and we visited on a weekday evening. Their friendly service staff got us a table by the river.

menu

GSS at sQue

Father's Day specials

Happy Hour at sQue happens in two installments. First one ends at 7pm, and the next round begins at 9pm! And, they have an-all-day cocktail promo where one gets 1-for-1 for selected cocktails for under $20.

Got ourselves some beer and deep fried calamari to start with.

pretty, pretty Stella

Calamari Fritte (@$14.50++)

The calamari looked nicer than it tasted, which was unfortunate. The batter was too bland.

liked the red paper napkin

For mains, we had seabass, pork ribs and spring chicken. The seabass dish certainly made an impression on us. For being the smallest plate of main course, and with a high mash-potato to fish ratio. Needless to say, my colleagues who ordered this, were grumbling much...especially when the rotisseries meats came along.

Seabass Florentine (@$24++)

Pork Ribs (@$25++)

tender rib meat, falling off the bone

Spring Chicken (@$18.50++)

plump, tender, sweet drumstick~

The advice is...just stick to the rotisserie items and you'll not be disappointed. The pork ribs has the strongest flavours with well-marinated meat. Goes really well with the drinks.

Personally, I'd think the spring chicken was the most value-for-money. Its taste was mostly unadulterated, with the meat moist from its own juice. The honey mustard glaze on the skin-bits and back-bones was a teaser. Sweet and with some tangy-ness. Just that tiny hint to tease the tastebuds.

wilted spinach and mushrooms

The mushrooms and spinach were pretty tasty. However, spinach was unevenly seasoned with some parts more heavily salted than the rest.

Moscato D'Asti from Piedmont, Italy (@$20.50++ for 2 glasses)

Loved the moscato. Fruitty to the nose and easy to drink. Sweet~

Ordered a couple more finger food to share as we're still drinking. But I was still pretty stuffed from all the chicken!

garlic prawn squer (@$9.50++)

closer view of the prawns

fish fingers of dory strips, served with french fries (@$15++)

 

Ok, rotisserie items still trumps. Eat the garlic prawns with the sweet sauce (that looked like sambal btw...). Won't regret it. Dory strips were kind of bland. Batter problem? The fries that came along with the fish fingers was good though.

At 9pm, sQue will sound the bell to signal the start of Happy Hour Round Two! *Ding Ding*

Hahaha, we tried two more cocktails that was under the 1-for-1 promotion. Tried the Uppercut and Singapore Sling. First time getting acquainted with amaretto, a sweet, almond-flavoured, Italian liqueur. Overall, the cocktail was a very sweet orangey drink with strong whiff of almond. Don't expect too strong of alcohol, though.

Uppercut (vodka, amaretto and orange juice)

Singapore Sling

Zhen Gongfu (真功夫) @ Guan Yuan Wholesale Market, Beijing

It serves steamed Chinese food, fast-food styled. Guan Yuan Wholesale Market (官园商品批发市场) is located at Chegongzhuang Dajie, Xicheng District.

looks like a certain fast-food outlet

Went shopping at the wholesale market earlier and stopped by here for dinner.  Wasn't that hungry so shared whatever food that the others bought.

unmistakeable logo of Bruce Lee

dinner

steamed minced chicken rice

nice plate of lettuce

egg pudding dessert

No-frills fuss free place. Good for quick dinner. The simple looking minced chicken steamed rice was quite tasty. No real kungfu here. Just tasty simple steamed food served, fast.

Website: http://www.zkungfu.com/
 

老北京家常菜 (Old Beijing Home-style Cuisine) @ Andingmen, Beijing

Located at No. 130 Andingmen Inner Street, Dongcheng, Beijing. Chinese version: 东城区安定门内大街130号.

We were going to visit the night market at Nan Luo Gu Xiang when we chanced upon this eatery. Looked like a reasonable place to have our dinner (we didn't do any research so didn't know what to expect around this area) as it looked sizeable and there are local diners in it. Moreover, we're in Beijing... so should try some local cuisines, right?

big signboard, inside looked bright and there are local diners equals good signs, yes?

our table and menu

There were diners smoking in the restaurant even though there's a 'No Smoking' sign. Faints.

looks retro

local soft-drink (polar bear brand) - taste like Redoxon

local beer for the drinker

chrysanthemum tea for the rest of us

As usual, we left the ordering task to our senior manager and without fail, he'd order alot because he always asks the waitress whether we have enough dishes and everytime, the waitress would reply, "No, not enough." Hahhaa.

guess what we're eating

Frankly speaking, it was like an adventure eating here. Finally we found a dish that tasted good but we had no idea of what we were eating. Probably tofu. I hope it was tofu...

sweet and sour pork or chicken?

pork dish that looked innocent enough till still reddish meat (that looked raw) was discovered underneath...

best tasting but no idea what it was!

The sweet and sour dish was appetising and tasted most familiar. And its meat tasted pretty lean. It was like a snack that one could continously pop inside the mouth. The pork dish looked too raw for my liking. Didn't dare to eat. The tofu dish had a name that none of us could reproduce. Must be authentic local old Beijing dish (I guessed). Very flavourful, and its texture was like a cross between yam and tofu. Goes super well with steamed rice! The beancurd just melts in your mouth. Awesome.

stir fried mushrooms and green pepper

The green pepper lent a spicy edge to the mushroom dish. Nice! Was excited to try the zha jiang mian (炸酱面) here. Imagine the disappointment when it was served. The sauce was meatless! *Sobs* I guess, the restaurant's own recipe was to make it vegetarian styled.

zha jiang mian

pork dumplings

For pork dumplings, I'd prefer the way we eat it in Singapore. With vinegar and ginger. Always. It's a must for me. No these condiments, no shioks.

roasted duck

not crispy skin

The roasted duck here, well, let's just say that it was normal at best. It's definitely not the expected Peking duck standard. It's more like the hawker roasted duck kind of taste, but even so, it didn't taste as good as that. Perhaps, just not quite used to this retro taste. For good Peking duck, go for those that are freshly roasted upon order. Try 鸭王.

Having said that, the pancake skin here was nice. Had a hint of sweetness.

nice crepe skin

The remaining duck bones, we opted for it to be deep fried with salt and pepper. Similar to what we had at another restaurant but perhaps our expectation was too high... But it did taste like home-styled cuisine.

looked more like stir-fried with ginger and spring onions

All in all, we did finish the food. At least we tried Old Beijing home-styled cuisine.

the aftermath

印巷小馆 @ Lucky Street (好运街), Beijing

Located at Lucky Street, Chaoyang Gongyuan Road. Its address: 朝阳区朝阳公园路好运街1-8号(近三元桥). Pretty far from the hotel and we transferred a couple of MRT lines and walked quite a bit before even reaching this area.

Lucky Street is a stretch of road that has plenty of restaurants. Many cuisines such as Japanese, Western, Italian, Chinese etc can be found here.

restaurant's facade

Senior manager suggested this restaurant as he has been here before. Our group of 7 pax waited for about 5 mins before being shown to a tiny room at second floor. Many diners there that night, almost full house.

up to the private dining rooms

inside the room

paintings on the wall

 menu

Manager did all the ordering while we sat back and relaxed. As usual, jugs of plum juice to start off the meal. Almost all restaurants will tweak the recipe and it'll taste different from place to place.

homemade plum juice (suan mei tang 酸梅汤) - light brown coloured

pork with kelp

stewed beef

stir-fried lotus roots with gingko

Usual order consist of pork, beef and lotus roots. This time round, we're having fish.

deep fried fish, served with herbed salt

with bones

The herbed salt that came with fish tasted the same as those use to flavour the Xinjiang mutton skewers. Let's just say that pork, beef and chicken remained as safer bets (in terms of likeability) as compared to fish.

rice (米饭)

In Beijing, rice is served with a more than generous serving. The spicy tofu dish goes well with the white rice. Well, the beef and the pork too. As usual, we asked for reduced salt and oil kind of cooking.

sweet and spicy tofu

Ordered the shop specialty to try. A huge square of bread with its insides carved out to contain curry chicken. Took one bite of the curry and it was a no-go for me thereafter. The rest didn't seem to mind and commented that the bread was nice. Personally, the biggest turn-off was the very sweet tasting curry. It was just weird. Really.

curry chicken bread

The service staff carries a device that they can key in the ordered items and it gets sent to the kitchen immediately upon confirmation of the order. Hence, we got our food like within 10 minutes after we're done ordering.Wow.

But the bad thing about being seated in a private dining room, was that one gotta holler real loud to get the attention of the service staff. The term to use when addressing the service staff is '服务员' (fu wu yuan).