The Tastings Room @ Marina Square

Located at Level 1 of Marina Square, at the road level (small lane between Raffles Link and Marina Square). Bought the Groupon voucher, so needed to utilise it before end of the year.

wine menu

indoor seats

set meals

The voucher (priced @$39 nett per pax) entitles for a 3-Course Meal + 110ml glass of Drotsdy Hof Cape 2010 Red Wine. Only 2 choices available, so we tried both.

For starters, we had the Seafood Smoked Vine Tomato Soup and the Prosciutto de Parma with Texture of Melon.

Seafood Smoked Vine Tomato Soup

has a slice of fish, a prawn and a squid ring

The soup was pretty sour and robust. Certainly wakes the taste buds up! Tasty and seafood was fresh.

a dash of pepper for the soup

Prosciutto de Parma with Texture of Melon

loved the drizzling of balsamic vinegar

Liked the rocket leaves, melon and prosciutto. Gladly ate all the greens! The melon wasn't that sweet though. But am not sure whether this portion is the same size for ala-carte starters. If yes, then $17.90++ seemed like a high price to pay for this portion.

Service crew was friendly but somehow lacking still. Our wine went missing and didn't appear till half hour later, and that was after reminding the staff about it. The interval between the starters and main course were about 39 minutes apart.

red wine

The wine was drinkable, not too spicy and not too tannic. Nice. The 110ml drinking portion seemed quite little. Hahaa, more wine please.

After quite a wait for the main courses, was feeling rather famished.

18-hours slow braised beef cheek

nice cheeks

duck confit

The beef cheek is nicely tender. Liked the parts with abit of fats. Flavour was good, and fully absorbed into the meat. The duck confit was served with mashed potatoes, french beans, peach slices and dried cranberries. Yummy and doesn't feel oily at all. However, the beef cheek had stronger flavours so that became my favourite for the mains.

For desserts, we had the Tiramisu and the Mango Jivara Mousse Cake.

Mango Jivara Mousse Cake

Tiramisu

The dessert portion was also small. The Tiramisu turned out to be sponge cake layered with ice-cream. So, it's like eating ice-cream cake. Preferred the Mango Jivara Mousse Cake. Subtle mango flavour on moist cake.

Perhaps their usual Set B (@$38++) would be more enticing if diners can choose their own starters, mains and desserts that are not limited to just 2 options.

Launch of the Kronenbourg Eiffel Beer Tower @ The Coastal Settlement

Was invited to witness the unveiling of the Kronenbourg 1664 Eiffel Beer Tower, an iconic innovation by Carlsberg Singapore. The launch party was held at The Coastal Settlement (TCS) a new establishment (casual dining restaurant, cafe and bar) located at 200 Netheravon Road. The date: 14th December 2011.

arrival at The Coastal Settlement

restaurant, cafe and bar amidst lush grenaries

the stage is set

 Had some time before the launch, so went around exploring the restaurant.

chandelliers lighting the bar area

ice-kachang maker at the bar?

knick knacks

retro looking stuffs

there's a bicycle in the shop

sturdy bench

Christmas is around the corner~

wine bottles

thirsty? How about a BLANC?

Got myself a bottle of Kronenbourg BLANC 1664 (yup, the blue bottle, so pretty!), a specialty white beer that has a clean refreshing taste. Carbonated, light, crisp and citrusy. Just don't forget that it still has an ABV of 5%. Kronenbourg 1664 beers are brewed from Strisselspalt hop (also known as 'caviar of hops') and water from Vosges Mountains., hence the clean smooth taste.

my BLANC

small cute cone savoury canapes, tasty morsels these ones

Soon, it was time to gather for the much awaited launch and all eyes were upon the stage.

Left to right: Mr Bart Lim (General Manager of Carlsberg Singapore), Mr Lee Choon Khim (Managing Director of The Coastal Settlement), and the lovely Ms Kelly Latimer (emcee for the night)

moment of the launch!

Upon the light up, confettis fell from the ceiling and dancers suddenly rushed in.  Can-Can dance performance! My first time seeing one too. Shrieks, twirls, colours and lots of skin and legs. Ahem.

a blur of colours from the energetic dancers

Can't show you too many pictures of the can-can dancers. This is a food blog after all! Hahaa! Let's play nice, shall we.

After the dance performance, the Kronenbourg 1664 Eiffel Beer Tower was finally revealed for the first time, in the world. This iconic innovation is a 1m tall replica of Eiffel Tower and holds 3L of beer, and has four taps instead of just 1! Woohoo!

ta-dah!

Let's take a closer look.

illuminated tower, with blinking lights at the top

ready, get set, pour!

four taps, four times the sharing fun!

cheers!

The Kronenbourg 1664 has a much stronger taste of bitter lager. Dense and smooth as well. Yums.

The night was filled with music, merry making, good food and lots of Kronenbourg beer!

talented Ms Joanna Dong and her accompanist

belting out Jazzy tunes

Went to explore abit the outer side of the restaurant. The area seems quite big. Alfresco and indoor dining are available.

restaurant facade

for moms and kids to take a breather?

Then, it was time to head back indoors for some more food and beer.

bottoms up!

bevy of pretty Kronenbourg girls

5 lucky draw winners went home with their own Kronenbourg 1664 Eiffel Beer Tower!

Almost too quickly, the night came to an end.

cheers to good beers and a new iconic beer tower

Thanks to the good people of Communications DNA, especially Denise, Deva and Shirlynn, for the invitation!

The King Louis Grill & Bar @ Vivocity

Located at Level 3 of Vivocity. They have weekdays lunch time express sets at good pricing, so thought of giving it a try.

weekday Four Course Lunch sets

utensils

Am not sure but found the decor to be somewhat kitsch.

there's a tiger in here....?!

castle on the wall?

Anyway, lunch sets comes with a soup, a drink and a dessert. My friend ordered the pork chop set while I had the sirloin steak set done medium rare. For drinks, we wanted root beer but it was sold out. Sold out?! At like what time, 12+pm? Anyway, no choice, settled for iced-lemon tea. For soups, we ordered mushroom and pumpkin soup.

mushroom soup

pumpkin soup

Frankly speaking, we were quite impressed with the soups. The pumpkin soup had natural sweetness and it tasted pretty mild and light. The mushroom soup is more packed with flavour but not too thick. The soups were enjoyable.

But was quite let down by the iced lemon tea. In fact, it tasted like a watered down lemon tea water with remnants sprite taste mixed in it?! Yuck.

regretted ordering this

Luckily, main course looked presentable enough and tasted alright.

sirloin steak

pork chop

Our mains came with coleslaw, vegetables, and a mix of potatoes and sweet potatoes. Thumbs up for the fresh salad and coleslaw. Tasty. Thumbs up for the baked potatoes and sweet potatoes. The mixture of tubers gives interesting texture and some sweetness to our carbo fix.

Was not impressed by the meat though. Think it can be further improved. The steak did not have much flavour to it.

sirloin steak, medium rare

Had a bite of the pork chop and it tasted quite lean. Probably a good deal because there were 3 pieces of meat in that set!

Anyway, we were by then, ready for desserts. Luckily, we were not disappointed.

ice-cream!

I had the mango flavour while my friend had the chocolate chip. The mango flavoured ice-cream was nice and not too sweet. The chocolate chip ice-cream tasted more like oreo's and my friend liked that one more. The ice cream was quite a big scoop too, unlike some other places that gives you a puny scoop for their lunch sets.

chocolate chip ice-cream