Backdated entry - Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill

Lynn found this place in Marina Square quite by chance, and she fell in love with their blue cheese sauce. So she felt that she absolutely HAVE to drag me there again. She was late (again), and I was left waiting for her at Hippo munching on their homemade potato crisps. I like. Of course I didn't leave a whole lot for her... how can I not finish a small dish within 30 minutes?

Their menu had 2 pages of steaks. One was dedicated to the "prime" meats, the other for regular, more affordable steaks. We ordered their squid sticks (as opposed to calamari rings, theirs are strips), beef carpaccio with goat's cheese and a prime ribeye (I think) meant for 2-3 pax off the prime meat section. Lynn went like "it's for 2-3 people lei", and my reply was "we ARE 2-3 people..." LOLZ! For their steaks, we can choose 3 sides, and since we ordered a big steak, we were allowed 2 sauces. So we chose ratatouille, potato gratin and baked potato for sides, and opted for their Roquefort cheese sauce (blue cheese sauce) and Bernaise sauce.

The squid stick was a little soggy but much better than countless restaurants' frozen squid rings (see this post). The beef carpaccio was so-so, but Lynn really enjoyed the goat's cheese that came with it. I'm not a big goat cheese fan but I think I accepted about a third of it. Our steak came with its sauces on the side, and we were 2 happy girls. For the price here, I think their steak was decent. Much better meat quality than the chain steak restaurants, and the blue cheese sauce was sublime! Right, we're blue cheese fans, so our views are skewed. But the 2-3 person servings suits us just fine. The ratatouille and potato gratin was very good, and went well with the meat. Baked potato was a little dry and forgettable.

Squid sticks

Beef carpaccio with goat's cheese

The MEAT - you know its decent stuff when it doesn't arrive flooded in sauce

Side dishes of baked potato, ratatouille and potato gratin

Dessert "platter" - sorbet, fruit salad, crepe with chocolate sauce, creme brulee, and floating island

We finished up with their dessert sampler (I can't remember the name off the menu). Fruit salad and sorbet were your average Joe's. The crepe was a little too chewy and the chocolate sauce pretty normal. Their creme brulee was quite happiness inducing. We may just order a big one next time. I liked the creamy floating island, which if I'm not wrong is some marshmallow floating on a creamy sauce. Lynn's not a marshmallow fan, but I loved it.

Liked Hippopotamus enough to bring my girlfriends over for dinner once after this visit. We tried their fried platter, it was better than a certain Uluru's for sure. But I simply can't dig out what's in it from my useless memory. Since my beef kaki (Lynn) wasn't present, I tried their regular section beef skewer thingy with 4 types of steaks - hanger, skirt, sirloin and ribeye (I think). I wasn't really sure which piece was which, and I think I didn't enjoy it quite as well as the prime meat. This time round I ordered their green beans for one of my sides choices. Too mushy for my liking. I like my beans crunchy. CA wasn't a beef eater, so she had grilled fish with Bernaise sauce. It was pretty good, despite the expertise of this restaurant obviously on the meats. They only had a fish and 2 chicken dishes that are non-beef. And since CA is a dessert lover, she enjoyed the dessert sampler.

Hippopotamus is a fuss-free grill with decent 'regular' steaks and pretty good prime meats. Their prices aren't exorbitant so it's a good place to go to when you're craving good steak, but not as painful on the pocket as places like Morton's...


Update:
We returned again last year, only to find that their standard dropped very drastically. The steak wasn't blissful, the sides were mushy and portions were small. And that was after I introduced others to go! It's so sad when restaurants are unable to keep up their standards. It's been written off our favourites list.