Mariners' Corner

This little known gem hides in Maritime House at Cantonement, just 5 minutes walk away from Outram Park MRT. I was introduced to this restaurant by my FYP (Final Year Project) supervisor, who treated me to lunch here upon completion of my project. It's a Hainanese-run steak and seafood restaurant, with decor not unlike what Jack's Place used to be. Think a little dim, checked table covers, colorful placemats and small candle.

Been here a few times because their steaks are decent, and affordable. You can get a good-sized steak for for dinner at less than $20, and just a small top-up gets you a soup of the day, a limited but adequate eat-all-you-can salad bar, coffee/tea and dessert. The lunch set menu range from about $9.00 to $20.00, with soup of the day, coffee/tea and dessert. They are quite well-known for their snail sausages. The escargots are pretty good too, basked in garlic butter sauce. Surprisingly better than the ones at Les Bouchons. Lynn and me concluded that the shell is necessary for yumminess.

This time round we went for lunch, and ordered the escargots, a grilled dory fish with mango salsa, and a beef combo set. The soup of the day was cream of broccoli. We both have pretty low threshold for salt, but both found the soup too bland and in need of extra shaking of the salt shaker. Their dory was soft and flaky, but the mango salsa was way too garlicky and was condemned to a corner of the plate untouched. The combo had steak, chicken and salmon. This time round the steak was full of tendon, plus we knew about a necessary discount and ordered medium rare to get a medium steak. We got it off the hotplate in a hurry to prevent further cooking. The chicken was average. Salmon was good - soft and flaky. Stuff here usually arrive drenched in sauce so do ask for it on the side if you want to control the amount of sauce you eat. You can leave the vegetables and onions on the hot plate longer for soft, sweet grilled veggies.

Escargots

Dory fish with mango salsa sauce

Beef combo set

All these for less than $45. But I left the restaurant smelling of grilled food thanks to the hot plate. I suggest to go for dinner instead of lunch so that you can head home and hit the showers.