Sari Ratu Indonesian Food, Authententic Nasi Padang @ 20 Pahang Street

Pahang Street is somewhere near Sultan Street and Baghdad Street. Recommended by Indonesian colleagues and hence, we trooped down for lunch. The place was rather small and packed during lunch hour. Found out that reservations can be made in advance.

Left it in the good hands of my colleagues to order. Waiting time for a table took up to 15 minutes. To order, just go right up to the food counter and pick your choices. You'll be given a paper slip with the items ordered. Payment can be made later, after you have had your meal.

teh botol

For drinks, had the Teh Botol Sosro which is a popular Indonesian drink of sweetened jasmine tea in a bottle. It was a huge bottle at 450ml.

rice is served

The mound of rice is of a smaller portion, which is alright considering we ordered up a storm of side dishes.

chicken in gravy (gulai ayam)

The chicken used at Sari Ratu is kampung chicken, so the meat is slightly tougher. The gravy was smooth and nice to eat with the rice.

sambal telor

potato chips

The red and green sambal were rather spicy but so shiok to eat with the rice. The other stuffs that we ordered included telur dadar (omelette), terung balado (spiced egg-plant), ayam pop (steamed and fried chicken) and sayur pucuk ubi (cassava leaves in gravy). All were nice except for the cassava leaves which was quite rough and old. My colleague was also dissappointed in his ayam pop as it didn't taste as good as usual.

little bit of everything, jemput makan~

Our meal costs about $15 per pax. My Indonesian colleagues like this place quite a bit.

Mak's Noodle 麥奀記 @ Westgate Jurong East

Had something light for late lunch, so was really going to check out the menu only. Then, was approached by the service staff and somehow, ended up trying its beef brisket and tendon noodles. Haha! Subconsciously, I had wanted to give this a try, perhaps?

view of the kitchen

chopsticks and paper napkins in the pull-out drawer of your table

Had heard from others that the noodles here is of a smaller portion. Just nice, since I wasn't very hungry.

Beef brisket and tendon noodle (牛筋牛腩捞面) @$10++

Verdict? The soup was a tad too peppery. The noodle was not well tossed, so one gotta mix it well. That bottle of spicy sauce goes well with the noodles. Sauce had hints of tangerine peel and not too salty. The meat was tender but the tendon could do with more time in the pot. And, addition of some green leafy vegetables would be good.

Dallas Restaurant and Bar @ Sky Garden Suntec City

Sky Garden at Suntec, is a long way to walk from City Hall MRT. There was a period of time when I wanted to try Dallas chicken wings. That period was when there was only one Dallas outlet, at Boat Quay. Then, there came another period of time when people were raving about the grilled corn. I wanted to try that too.

So, chose this restaurant to meet with HS 'coz she's treating. Yay! Moreover, we can use The Entertainer App here. Double yay!

The restaurant offers al-fresco area as well as the cooler, air-conditioned indoor dining. No prize for guessing which one we opted for. Liked the decor, and the indoor dining gave a rather classy feel.

seated by the window

browsing the menu

Happy Hour on weekdays lasts till 8pm. The cocktails which were originally priced at $18 or $19 are going for $12 during the magical hour. Ooh, so I got myself an 'Old Fashioned'.

Old Fashioned @$12++ (HH) - Maker’s Mark, sugar, orange & aromatic bitters

First sip, was like "Oh, whiskey." Haha, what was I expecting? Must have lost my mind for a while. What's the difference between scotch and bourbon? According to wiki, scotch is whisky made in Scotland and bourbon is whiskey made in USA. OoOooh... and bourbon is distilled from corn while scotch is generally from malted barley. So, all bourbon is whiskey but not all whisky is bourbon. OoOOohhh...

So Maker's Mark is bourbon whiskey and whiskey being whiskey, you'll know when you taste one.

For mains, we ordered ribs and cod fish. Food took quite a while to arrive and we thought that the ribs looked quite blackened! Don't be alarmed. A cut through the knife revealed tender flavourful meat, especially when chewed with some fatty bits. Nice.

Baby Back Berry @$30++ (half rack)

slow braised pork ribs that's easy to cut

The miso cod was pretty spot on with its flavours too. Pretty greens of broccoli and sweet peas, quick squeeze of lemon onto the vege and fish, and voila, we are so ready to devour. Miso sauce was very strong in flavours so a small dab of that onto the fish would be more than sufficient. Cod was lovely.

Miso Glazed Cod @$32++ served on a bed of mash, seasonal vege and a dash of miso paste

For desserts, we satisfied one of our curiousity and ordered the chargrilled corn. The corn was delish! A combo of something spicy, cheesy, creamy and savoury sweet. Recommended.

chargrilled corn @$6++ (cut into halves for easy sharing)

The spicy came from the chipotle mayo, and it has parmesan cheese, lime and smoked spices sprinkled onto the corn. Yummeh!

Thank you Hui Shan for the treat!