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