Shashlik @ Far East Shopping Centre

This is the first time I ventured into Far East Shopping Centre. Nestled on the 6th floor of this old building is a quaint restaurant that serves Russian cuisine, opened by Hainanese in the 80s. Upon entering this place, you'll feel like you're in a restaurant in Eastern Europe. The old-school decor is very 70s, and with young waiting staff populating most Western restaurants/cafes nowadays, you'll find that the majority middle-aged waiting staff surprising.

 

Anyway, Miss Alto suggested this place for our Christmas lunch, and we went along with Miss Soprano after our last caroling session. Adorned on the walls are plagues and awards received by the restaurant for the good food. Flipping open the menu, I got a slight shock from the prices. They have appetizers, steaks, seafood and desserts. We ordered a few dishes to share.

Before the dishes arrive, the customers are served a piece of bread each with butter. The bread was oh-so-soft, warm from the oven, I was content just with the bread and butter and soup below. 

Borsch soup $10 - Basically a soup with tomatoes, cabbage, onions, potatoes, and meat (beef I think?). That blob of stuff you see is sour cream, which makes the soup taste really good when you stir it in. If you don't like sour cream, the soup is also very yummy without the sour cream. There must be some ingredients that makes the soup so delicious, you just want to keep drinking it. I once had Borsch soup in a restaurant in Poland, though I can't really remember how it tasted...

 

Escargots a la Bourguignonne $28 for a dozen - You can request for half a dozen as well. These escargots may look average from the outside, but the meat inside is the largest I've seen. Firm and chewy, the escargots were fresh, though the garlic and butter taste could be more distinct.

Steak a la Russe $32 - We asked for recommendations for steak, and the waitress said this is one of their signature dishes. Miss Soprano doesn't like to take raw stuff (except for sashimi), so she opted for well-done.  Usually I don't like to take well-done for steaks because it almost always gets very tough and hard to chew. All of us were amazed at how tender this was. No hard-to-chew pieces, everything just glides smoothly down your throat after chewing all the juices out. I love this. It's probably my favourite steak out of all I've tried.



Shashlik (Beef fillet) $32 - Shashlik actually refers to a kind of kebab that was popular in the Soviet Union and central Europe and can be either beef, lamb or pork. We ordered medium done. This came on a sizzling hot plate, the meat was well-marinated and tender. Salad was served on a side plate, and you can choose to cook it on the hot plate.

Fish en Papillotte $28 - This is fish wrapped in paper, or called 纸包鱼 in Chinese. Also what the waitress recommended when we wanted to order a seafood dish instead of all steaks. This was interesting, it came looking like a giant paper curry puff. When you open it, it's actually a generous slab of white fish in sauce cooked in Chinese, perhaps Hainanese style, with tomatoes, onions, very yummy.  

 

Bliny with Brandy Butter Sauce $26 for 2 - We were surprised when a waitress rolled out the wooden trolley with a pan and all the ingredients and started to cook it right in front of us. It's basically crepes cooked with butter and brandy. Being a waitress in this restaurant is not easy - you have to cook in front of customers too! She does it skilfully.

If you like brandy and citrus taste, this dessert is for you. I don't really, so I didn't like this dish.

There were family and friends' gatherings when we were there. Not a full house on Christmas day lunch itself, but I suspect it'll be packed on weekend nights. They do take reservations.


How much was spent per pax: $55 (!!!) per pax.
Would I go back again? On special occasions.... because of the prices!

Address: 545 Orchard Road #06-19 Far East Shopping Centre

Tel: +65 6732 6401

Opening hours: 12noon – 3pm, 6.30pm – 10.30pm

Shots @ Ann Siang Hill

Tucked away on a little street of Ann Siang Hill is a coffee hideout called Shots. Was exploring around the area with Mr. Physics and he recommended that we go to this cafe for a cuppa coffee. I love this kind of cozy little cafes!

 

Very charming and cozy interior with tasteful art pieces hung along the walls, photography magazines on racks for browsing, youngsters playing Monopoly Deal (haha my favourite as well) and chilling out. 

 Besides coffee and desserts they serve main courses like pizza/pasta and sandwiches as well.

Chocolate lava cake $6.50 - Moist on the inside, a decent chocolate cake, though the lava is nowhere to be seen. I'm fussy when it comes to lava cakes, and I still think TCC serves the best one, their Dark Devotion is to die for!! Anyway, the so-called 'lava' in the middle of this cake was just slightly more moist than the other parts of the cake. Every bite we took we were waiting for the chocolate to flow out, when it didn't we thought, ok maybe it's not deep enough, so we kept eating and eating, but there was no chocolate lava at all.

 Cafe Mocha - $5.50

Tiramisu Latte - $6.50  The coffees are very decent, though I am not the most discerning when it comes to coffee.

 

Overall, a nice chill-out place with friends to have a catch-up session, or just to spend a lazy afternoon together. Read a book, play some cards there, no problem at all. Staff are friendly as well.



How much was spent: Around $9 per pax
Would I come back again? Definitely!

Oriole Cafe & Bar

 Had wanted to try this place ever since I saw on LadyIronChef that they had the "best fish and chips" in Singapore. Came here on Saturday night, and ordered the said dish, and satisfied my craving for pasta by ordering the garlic prawn pasta ($16).

Pardon the diluted colours of the photos, light conditions were bad at night, and the photo quality becomes pixelated under low light conditions. Anyway, the pasta was far too hard for my liking. This was slightly spicy, which was good. But the texture of the pasta really made it hard to chew and swallow. If you want garlic prawn pasta, the best bet would still be the one from Coffee Club. 

The fish 'n chips ($13; i think?) was mediocre. I don't know what LIC saw in this, no offence. At best this was not the slightest bit fishy, the meat was firm, amount of flour not too much. But I found it so-so; similar quality could be found somewhere else.

 

The live band started playing at 10pm, and it's good if you have nothing to say to your dinner partner and just enjoy the food and music. But if you're there for a catch up session, be prepared to shout across the table to make yourself heard - the volume of the music does not make for meaningful conversations to be carried out, unless you choose to sit outdoors.

Tried their chocolate mud cake the last time I was here, expecting it to be a lava cake. I could only  blame it on my false expectations, because it was not a lava cake, but a normal chocolate cake. It was a bit dry on the inside, though the chocolate was good.

 

Nevertheless, reading about reviews that raved about this place, I would still probably come back to try again, their brunch and coffee seem like a good choice to start with.

How much was spent: Around $20? I really can't remember :X

Would I go back again? Yes, but I probably won't order the above items again.

96 Somerset Road #01-01 Pan Pacific Serviced Suites

Tel: +65 6238 8348

Chili's Grill & Bar @ Tanglin Mall

The drought of entries has hereby ended with the end of exams, and now there's backlog again! Have been indulging my taste buds these few days. Ended up at Tanglin Mall on Saturday before going to church, wanted to have a small bite before leaving, so we entered Chili's. There're only two branches in Singapore, and we thought since we weren't going to the RWS branch anytime soon, we decided on this.

Chili's offers American and Mexican cuisine. Looking at the menu reminded me of the Mexican feast my friend E whipped up for a bunch of us after coming back from Mexico. Mexican cuisine is colourful and tasteful, and I find it uncommon in Singapore. I love the tiled tabletops of the restaurant.

 

Since we were not that hungry, we only ordered a starter to share. Starters and mains don't come cheap here, as the dish we ordered cost $21.90!

 

Triple Play $21.90 - Combo of three favourite starters, made up of chicken crispers, boneless buffalo wings and Southwestern eggrolls, and some celery sticks. I find myself munching happily away on the celery sticks. I'm not a fan of celery, but the dips make them really delicious. One thing I love about Mexican food is the dips! And E (the friend) definitely makes real yummy dips from scratch. Apart from sour cream, we couldn't tell what the other two dips were though, haha. Nevertheless they were all oh-so-good.

 

First thing we tried was the eggroll. Crisp, fragrant and filled with Mexican goodness of black beans, chicken and actually-I-don't-what. I was too busy chewing away and enjoying the tasty treat. I was nodding away in approval and I think a gentleman from across the aisle saw my satisfied expression and asked the waiter what we were having and he ordered the same too hahaha.

The chicken crispers looked like Long John Silver's chicken pieces from the outside, but not be fooled. There is so much less flour and the chicken so much more tender. I love it too! The buffalo wings though, I don't think I would ever want to eat it again. The sauce is much too sour for my liking. Nonetheless, I would recommend this dish if you're eating with, let's say, 4 people at a table, share the delights and other selections on the menu. 

How much was spent: $15 per pax

Would I come back again? Probably, if not for the location. So many more dishes to try out, but the location is really out of the way :(

Address: 163 Tanglin Road #02-23  Tanglin Mall Singapore

Tel: +65 6733 3317