Cozy Steak Place

I first read about Les Bouchons on The Travelling Hungryboy’s website, where he promised “an unpretentious French place specializing in Steak Frites”. Well that was enough to sell it to Mr Greedy Glutton and I, so we took our hungry stomachs off to Ann Siang Road.

This was actually the second time we tried to get in here – the first time it was fully booked (not surprisingly when you see the limited number of seats) so I rang ahead this time and booked a table. Well, I fell in love with this cozy little restaurant as soon as I walked in – it was exactly as we’d anticipated – unpretentious, undeniably French… and the food smells wafting through from the kitchen were amazing… There was even a table of Frenchmen on the table next to us, just to complete the ambience!

This is definitely a carnivores-only place, with a very limited menu of Steak Frites and very little else (well, with the exception of a couple of Lamb dishes, and a couple of Fish dishes). We dithered over whether to go for the 1kg “Cote de Boeuf” Prime Rib for two, but I eventually settled on the Grilled Rib Eye Steak with “Vigneron” Butter,

while Mr Greedy Glutton went for the Grilled Sirloin Steak with Herbs. All the plats here come with a free-flow of crispy frites, and a side salad.

Well what can I say? The steak was delicious, the fries were delicious, and washed down with a nice bottle of Red, we had ourselves a fantastic evening in this lovely cozy little hideaway.

I almost don’t want to tell too many people about it in case it becomes so popular that I can’t get a table… but Les Bouchons has definitely become my number 1 spot for Steak Frites in Singapore…

Les Bouchons – 7 Ann Siang Road

A New Lunch Option

It was girly lunch time again and this time we made our way to the recently-opened, much anticipated PS Café at Palais Renaissance. First impressions of this place are very favourable – the high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, tiled floor and Parisian café-style seating gave the restaurant a breezy, classy, European feel.

Unfortunately having been seated there for a few minutes, you would have been forgiven for thinking you were actually in Europe (outside, in the winter), it was so cold in there. In their defence they did offer pashminas to wrap around our goose-pimpled limbs, but I can’t for the life of me understand why it’s necessary for the room to be quite so arctic.

Anyway, back to more important things than climate control… the food. We kicked off with a shared starter – the crudités:

These were really fantastic, fresh, crunchy vegetables with two different dips – a curried lentil one, and I have to confess to forgetting what the other one was…

The main courses we chose were a bit of a mixed bag really. I opted for the King Prawn Caeser, which was one of the better options – a large bowl of crispy leaves, smothered in a rich dressing with plenty of bacon, a soft sticky egg and generous sized prawns.

Other options, whilst tasty, were rather miserly in the portions and I dread to think what some of our other halves would have done with the tiny morsels of food provided for the Poached Salmon:

And the Lamb Kebabs:

I’m afraid I have another criticism of this new venture – there wasn’t a single vegetarian option on the menu, leaving my vegan friend in a bit of a sticky situation. They did eventually rustle her up a salad, but I can’t help thinking this is a bit of an oversight.

Girls being girls, and this being the P.S Café (and their portion sizes being what we have already discussed), we of course continued to enjoy coffee and cake and I wolfed down a rather delicious Lemon Tart.

Unfortunately I have now discovered another restaurant with an annoying ‘No photographs’ rule… and so the camera had been banished to my handbag under the table by this stage… so you’ll just have to trust me when I say it was good…

P.S Café, Palais Renaissance - http://www.pscafe.sg/palais.html

Birthday Brunch

It was Mr Greedy Glutton’s birthday so a group of us headed to the Ritz Carlton’s Greenhouse restaurant to try out their Champagne Sunday Brunch.

What is immediately attractive about this brunch over others is that it runs for longer – 11:30am until 3:00pm, instead of the usual 12:00 to 3:00, closely followed by their champagne selection – a choice of Vintage Moët or Rosé Moët. Not only this, but they also have a cocktail bar included in the free flow, with Mojitos and Caipirinhas muddled up to order. Throw in a bright and airy atmosphere, live music, fantastic spread of food and exceptionally friendly and helpful staff and we quickly saw we were on to a winner.

As always, I kicked off with a few oysters to whet the appetite:



Unfortunately most other people also decided the oysters were a good start-off point, and downside of the Greenhouse is that most of their stations provide food to order (oysters are opened, sashimi and roast beef are sliced, pancakes are tossed, and chocolate puddings are baked – all to order), Whilst on one hand this is obviously a positive aspect as the food is fresh, it meant there was a long queue wherever you went – perhaps that’s why they allow you the extra half hour.



Moving on, my next stop was the Barbecued Lobster station –freshly cooked and with a self-serve helping of thermidor sauce, making it probably the best I’ve had at any brunch in Singapore.

A momentary willingness to at least attempt to be slightly healthy led me to the Salad station, where I piled on the Caeser salad, asparagus spears and salmon:

Before moving on to the Sushi/Sashimi station where I loaded up myself up:

This lead nicely onto the Meat station, where I was served some beautifully cooked roast beef, a fantastic lamb cutlet with mint sauce, crispy pork belly, and some Chinese-style spare ribs.

Then it was time to move on to the Dessert station, where I just couldn’t decide between the strawberry and crème anglaise stuffed pancake with a choice of ice cream… or the molten chocolate cake with choice of ice cream… so yep, you guessed it – I took both…

This only left room for a selection from the fantastic Cheese station,

before we sat back and enjoyed a few final mojitos before closing time… (fantastic mojitos by the way, with your own brown sugar swizzle stick to stir into so you can adjust sweetness to taste).

Well, what can I say? A fantastic spread indeed and lot of fun was had by all… in fact we’re already planning our return visit…

The Greenhouse, Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore - http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Singapore/Dining/Greenhouse/Default.htm

Special Indian

It was Mr Greedy Glutton’s birthday eve, so being the loving and doting wife that I am, I booked us a table at Song of India, somewhere he has been dying to try for a while.

Set within a colonial black and white bungalow, with its pillars and chandeliers and modern art-clad walls, this is certainly a notch above the rest when it comes to class and style. Unfortunately though, it was one of those atmospheres where I felt the need to lean across the table and whisper to my other half, as there wasn’t much of a buzz about the place.

The menu too was certainly a notch above the rest, particularly the Starter section. After much deliberation, we decided on the Lahsooni Jhinga – Jumbo prawns stuffed with spiced crayfish and shrimps in a garlic enhanced tandoor marinade, and the Til Ke Aloo – Tandoori potato buckets stuffed with peppers, cheese, sesame and pine nuts.

These were beautifully presented – shared up between us and elegantly served on long plates, complete with decorative swirls. And they were completely delicious. Not only this, but they also bought us an amuse bouche – an upmarket version of a chaat in its own crispy little basket.

Moving onwards to the main courses, the menu wasn’t quite as inspiring, featuring all the usual favourites – Chicken Tikka Masala, Rogan Josh, Goan Fish Curry etc etc. We opted for their Chicken Tikka Masala

and the Kashmiri Rogan Josh.

Both of these were exceptionally good examples of these famous dishes, and you could really taste the distinctive flavours of the various spices within. However, at the end of the day – it was just a Tikka Masala and a Rogan Josh…

We did however team these with the Kuttu with Appam – mixed vegetables in coconut curry with fluffy rice hoppers, which was slightly more unusual, truly delicious and a great accompaniment to the richer meat dishes.

Washed down with a bottle of Kanonkop Pinotage

(we visited the vineyard whilst on honeymoon in South Africa and therefore become very excited when we spot one of these on the menu), this was a really fantastic meal.

However, for the prices they charge, I’m not sure I would justify returning for a ‘curry’. Instead I would be tempted to come back and make up my meal from their imaginative starter menu… and then I feel you might be in for something rather more special…

Song of India - http://www.thesongofindia.com/

Post-Yoga Dim Sum

It was post-yoga on a Friday afternoon and we were all hungry and ready for a large helping of dumplings... so we went to the closest possible spot, Crystal Jade Palace and dug right in, going for all the usual favourites:

Har Kau

Xiao Long Bao

Rice Roll with Shrimp

Char Siu Bao

All of these, it has to be said, were top notch. We also tried their Pork Dumplings Teochew Style, which were fantastic and have become a new favourite:

And the Crispy Pork Belly which was luscious:

As you can see, we weren't shy in our ordering, but it was all so fantastic, there was nothing left to go back to the kitchen I can assure you.

In fact, we went on to order dessert - the waitress recommended these little fun bags, describing them as being sesame and peanut - I'm not entirely sure what they were, but they were uber-sticky and oozed sweet black 'ink' all over the plate (if anyone can enlighten me, please do!)

And of course we had to order everyone's favourite - Custard Buns, which were so awesome they had five women round the table moaning with ecstacy...

My usual dim sum hangouts tend to be Crystal Jade Dining In at Vivocity, and Yum Cha at Chinatown (mainly because I'm lazy and they're easy to get to)... but I think I have now found a new favourite... courteous service, a classy surrounding... but most importantly, fabulously fantastic food... In the words of Mr Schwarzenegger: "I'll be back!"

Crystal Jade Palace - http://www.crystaljade.com/CrystalJadePalaceRestaurant.htm

Bali Dining in Style

Still in Bali and fine dining seemed to be the order of the day… so this time we took a quiet stroll along the beach and ended up at the luxurious Legian hotel. First stop was the Pool Bar for cocktails. Set right above the beach, this is the perfect venue for a pre-dinner tipple, sipped to the sound of the crashing waves.

Having enjoyed the Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris at next-door’s fabulous Breeze bar the night before, I had to give the Legian’s Pool Bar the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of my cocktail-enjoying presence and so ordered the same. I am happy to report that they were just as fresh, just as alcoholic… just as tasty.




As was the Royal Mandarin, and the Mojito... A successful start to the evening.



Having supped a few of these, we made our way round the infinity pool to not-very-imaginatively-named The Restaurant. Thankfully the name is the only thing lacking pizzazz at this restaurant – the wine list, the food, the service and the ambience were all second to none and we had ourselves an exceedingly enjoyable evening.

Between us we managed to sample most of the menu I think – I kicked off with the Prawn Croquette with Pea Puree, Japanese Bail, Watercress and Sesame Vinaigrette;



Mr Greedy Glutton opted for the Cappellini Pasta with Freshwater Shrimps, Prawn Oil and Konbu;



and the Greedy Guts chose the Truffle Risotto with Seared Scallops and Black Truffle Oil



and the 36 Months Aged Jamon Iberico with Bruschetta respectively.



We also threw in a Carpaccio of Organic Baby Zucchini with Pine Nuts and Parmigiano Reggiano for good measure (because we’re greedy like that).

Onwards and upwards we moved onto the main course – a fantastically crispy Fillet of Sea Bream with Aubergine Caviar, Tomato Confit and Potato Rosti pour moi;

The Oven-Roasted Lamb Loin with Organic Green Beans, Semi-Dried Tomatoes, Braised Shallot and Thyme Jus for Mr Greedy Glutton (and for once it was I who suffered from food envy);

Mrs Greedy Guts chose Grilled Mayura Platinum Full Blood Wagyu Striploin with Watercress and Rosemary Oil (Score 9, if you know your stuff) – I recently wrote bemoaning the over-use of Wagyu on Singaporean menus here, finally I came to understand what the fuss is about… here was a true melt-in-your-mouth, outstanding steak;

And the Braised Wagyu Cheek with Truffle Mashed Potatoes and Tamarind Jus for Mr Greedy Guts, which I believe he proclaimed to be the best dish he had ever eaten, and continued to talk about for days later.

I, of course, tasted all of the above meals and can safely say that they were all superb…

Now I’m sure most people would have been satisfied with the above, and indeed we were all fairly brimming with food, but after the quality of the starters and mains, how could we not opt for dessert? We tried to be sensible by ordering two to share – the Baked Chocolate Molten Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

And the Selection of Farmhouse Cheese … with a few glasses of dessert wine too…

But you know what? They were so good, we ordered seconds of everything… So the Greedy Gluttons and the Greedy Guts together again… and living up to our names in style…


The Restaurant at the Legian Hotel - http://www.lhw.com/property.aspx?id=507