Birthday edition dinner: Equinox

Oh dear... I'm getting more and more behind at blogging. But ignoring my usual preference for chronological order, let me slot in Lynn's birthday dinner before I resume my catching up.

As you will know from the previous post, we went Shima for a teppanyaki buffet lunch. We must be completely mad. How did we think that we can handle a buffet lunch followed by the typical huge birthday dinners we always have? So after lunch, we tried to walk off as much of lunch as possible by shopping in Takashimaya. Then we rested in Breeks for a drink and to eat the Hello Kitty cake I baked for her (goodness!). Yes, it was a small cake. But it still took up space nonetheless. So you can imagine how 'not hungry' we are when we arrived at Equinox for dinner.

And still not knowing when to draw the line, we took FOUR types of breads to share between us... Anyhow, on with the food critique. We had onion and cheese bread, French baguette, black olive, and I couldn't catch the last one. These were served with seaweed, as well as, regular butter. We only liked the onion, the rest were pretty umimpressive. And both agreed that it was a pity the bread weren't warm.

Bread and butter

The bread was followed by a complimentary canapé. Baked raisin with mascarpone. It was sweet and savoury at the same time, though we couldn't quite place what the savoury portion is. Since I hate raisins, I only ate a few small raisin-free scoops before I pushed what's left to Lynn. It was nice and creamy.

Complimentary Canapé

And our madness continue. We were soooo tempted by soooo many items on the menu, we decided to go for THREE starters and one main course, and Lynn super craved mac and cheese so we ordered that too. Then after we painstakingly shortlisted three out of so many tempting starters and placed our orders, we were told that to utilize the Amex Platinum card discount (50% for two pax, yo!), we had to order two main courses. So... we actually placed order for one more main course! Remember, we weren't hungry!!

So here's our madness in detail. Pan seared foie gras. It wasn't as blissful as we wished for, but still was a nice huge piece. It was aromatic and livery and buttery, sure. Just wasn't melt-in-the-mouth enough.

Pan seared foie gras

Next up is my newest favourite cheese since Valentino. Burrata cheese. Theirs was served with a nice mixed salad. The cheese was creamy and yummy and I love love love it. Then came along our all time favourite. Lobster bisque. Theirs seems to have a little too much cognac. It was a little too bitter. But we dig the chunks of lobster in it.

Burrata cheese

Lobster bisque

Then came along our mains and the side. Black truffle mac n cheese. YUM! It was rich, it was velvety, it was fragrant with the aroma of truffle, it was everything you can ask for in a mac n cheese. Only problem? I didn't have the stomach space for something this rich. I managed two mouths, and Lynn picked through half of it, and I think that was the furthest we went. Poor mac n cheese, it really wasn't its fault.

Black truffle mac n cheese

The mains. The black cod was lovely. It was nicely done, delicate and milky, the way cod fish should be. But by now, my stomach was overflowing. Cod being an oily fish, I was unable to fully enjoy it. I felt sorry for the fish. Lynn helped me with half my piece. The sour pickled vegetables that were served with it was great at cutting my 'gelatness'.

Black cod

Finally, our beef. Wagyu ribeye steak. It wasn't very Wagyu in the sense it didn't have that strong aroma that usually comes with Wagyu. Moreover, it was a little too salty. But overall, we liked the char and the flavor. This I managed to finish without help from Lynn.

Wagyu ribeye steak

The service at Equinox is impeccable, as expected. The food is actually very nice too, if not for our incredibly full states, we would have enjoyed it more. I actually forgot to take picture of the complimentary slice of cake that the waitress brought us for Lynn's birthday celebration. That was only managed after a few cups of tea each, and needed more tea to wash it down. Price-wise, it's expected that Equinox pricing is pretty steep. Come on, where else in Singapore can you dine with that kind of view from the 71st floor? (Maybe Ku De Ta, but that's another story.) But thanks to Amex, that meal was made affordable for a special occasion. Still, I doubt it's the kind of place I will come without the Amex discount.

Equinox Restaurant

2 Stamford Road

Singapore 178882
Phone: +65 6837 3322
Email: reservations@equinoxcomplex.com

Chapter 55

This is a new western restaurant that opened up at what we called a jinxed location at Tiong Bahru. It's predecessors were mostly overpriced, lousy food and dodgy-ly decorated food places that we didn't bother giving a second chance. And all of them closed down for obvious reasons. So we were quite curious to see the renovations going on for Chapter 55. And even more excited to see the sign that says "one-for-one weekday lunch". =)

So on day 2 of opening, we went to check out the lunch. To be clear to readers, the one-for-one does not apply to the entire menu. But quite a decent selection of the menu falls under the one-for-one deal. And as expected, its the cheapest items that you get free. So if you chose 4 dishes, the 2 cheapest comes free. And the eligible items are not limited to main courses. It is applicable to some appetisers too. But bear in mind since appetisers are generally cheaper than main courses, if you want to be really 'worth it' about it, may not be the best option.

The truffle fries does not fall under the one-for-one, but we decided to order it anyway. They are pretty good fries! Crispy shoe string fries with fluffy centre, I loved them! Down side is the truffle oil are not mixed in very evenly, so you get that occasional fry that is uber fragrant, the rest are just regular very nice fries.

Truffle fries

Their pastas were served pretty quickly. The vongole smelled amazing when it arrived. E thoroughly enjoyed it. J found her mushroom Aglio Olio a tiny bit on the bland side, but she still liked it anyway.

Vongole

Mushroom aglio olio

The non pasta mains. Goodness. 30 minutes after ordering, no sign of FQ and my food! After several times badgering the waiter, we finally got our food a good 45-50 minutes after ordering. Bad! But I chalked it up as teething problem on the kitchen's part. It's day 2 of operation after all. My sea bass was very nicely done and the mash potato puree was an interesting touch.

Sea bass

We didn't really liked their coffee. It was too bitter, and J said that was over burnt coffee. Not that I know anything about coffee...

Latte

The most impressive thing about them? The gelato counter. Their flavors are interesting enough, and seems to change often enough for you to want to sample quite frequently. It's so nice to have a gelato place within walking distance from work for horribly hot days!

Gelato!

We went back on a separate occasion one week later, because S wanted to go. This time round I thought the kitchen should have sorted out its teething problem. And initially, I was impressed by my beef lasagne that arrived 10 minutes after ordering. But wait. We ordered TWO beef lasagne. And the second one didn't arrive til more than 30 minutes later. Guess the first one was a wrong delivery from another table. Oops. So needless to say, by the time the others' food arrived, I had long finished my lasagne. But timing aside, the lasagne IS very nice. The tomato sauce was perfect, only complain is the serving size is a little on the small side. NOT ENOUGH!!

Beef lasagne

We tried their buffalo wings this time round. Pretty good. Unfortunately my wing was slightly pink near the bone, something I feedback to the lady boss. She took the feedback very good-naturedly.

Buffalo wings

We also got fried calamari this time. Nice! The batter is not overly thick, and the squid cooked just right. Not too soft, not to chewy. Perfect.

Calamari

E tried the breaded pork ribs. It turned out just to be a deep fried pork cutlet. Nothing amazing. And if I didn't remember wrongly, it could do with a little more seasoning. But this was 5 months ago. I may have remembered wrongly. Hahaha

Breaded pork ribs

Overall I do like their food. It's the waiting times that is keeping me away. JK have been back twice for their dinner now, and both his wife and him loved it. He swears by their pizzas, which I haven't try. Maybe 5 months on, their kitchen speed have improved. Maybe it's time to give them another chance one fine day. For now, I'm quite happy to stop by occasionally for gelato. =D They're always quite full when I drop by, so I think this joint is here to stay and break that chain of 'unlucky' eateries to occupy that 'cursed' space. 

Chapter 55

55 Tiong Bahru Road, #01-37,
Singapore
Tel: 6221 2219

Platypus Lobster Shack

It was E's birthday celebration, well, much belated. She didn't have any craving in particular, and S's friend has a share in this lobster roll joint, so we decided, why not? It turned out to be restaurant/bar kind of joint, and E usually disliked noisy places. So with the loud music and all, she was getting a headache. But since we had already made reservations, we decided to just quickly eat and go elsewhere to chat.

So as the name suggests, this place specializes in.... Lobster! Mainly East-Coast style lobster rolls. But even their non lobster rolls items have a lobster theme. That said, they do have a few non seafood items if you have friends, like me, who are allergic to seafood but would love to just come here with others who love seafood. There are things worth coming for here, we'll see.

We ordered a urchin and lobster bisque to share. I tot the urchin was just going to be in the name, but no, you do get a faint taste of the urchin in the creamy soup. It lends a very Japanese touch to an otherwise very Western soup. Interesting fushion, I like!

Urchin and lobster bisque

We also ordered a starter size Crustacean Bowl to share. With Uni creme, poached lobster, some rice, and a ton of other seasonings that are again, very Japanese in nature. A little reminiscent of salmon roe cream (mentai) with cheese. Rich, seafoody, fresh, and yummy.

Crustacean bowl

Lobster roll! I ordered the Piquant Garlic lobster roll, which doesn't have mayo. Trying to make some efforts at cutting down on my calories. Anyway it is seasoned with lemon marinated garlic. All lobster rolls are served on a tray, with a fresh salad on one side, and truffled chips on the other. The chips are nice!! That's what I meant by the non-seafood people have something worth coming for. Although a tad oily, but that's only because it's home made chips. The truffle flavour is strong. The lobster rolls are yummy too. The lobster was sweet and juicy, nicely done. The bread was soft and fluffy, just the tiniest bit toasted to give it a nice soft crust. But I think, I will not try to act clever and go mayo-less again. Lobster roll without mayo tastes... lacking. Hahahaha!!

Piquant garlic lobster roll

Zoom in to the roll and chips

Actually the serving isn't huge. I mean, it's a lobster roll, so you can't be expecting huge portions. From their website they claim that each roll contains the meat of a 4-500g lobster. I just discovered that they have a Platypus Restaurant at Bugis Junction which serves pasta and such on top of lobster rolls. Maybe that's a better option for more variety, especially for the non-seafood people. But I spotted mac and cheese and a duck roll in Lobster Shack that looks friendly enough. May just bring FQ there yet. 

Platypus Lobster Shack

China Square

3 Pickering Street
Nankin Row #01-31

Singapore 048660
Tel: 6438 7961

Verve Pizza Bar (Marina Bay)

My family and I went for the Cavalier show at Marina. After the show, we wanted a simple dinner before heading home. Since we all parked at the open carpark beside the show stage, the most accessible place to dine was actually Verve Pizza Bar, right beside the carpark. Moreover, it seemed to be vegetarian friendly enough, so we settled for there. Since all the seating is alfresco, and it's pretty late at night, and I didn't bring my camera and had to rely on my phone camera, I apologise for the poor photos.

First up, french fries. No truffles, no garlic. Just good ol' fries. Ordered more for my nephew's benefit than ours, but he didn't eat alot of it so we gained from him. Regular fries, not much I can comment on.

Fries

My mom and I shared a somewhat interesting sounding pizza. Enzo - peking duck pizza. How fusion is that? Turns out it wasn't very Chinese flavoured after all. But the influence is there. Sweetish sauce, duck meat pieces, and topped with cucumber and spring onions. My mom enjoyed it, I found it not bad.

Enzo - Peking duck pizza

When there's my bro and me, there's always fried chicken wings. We CANNOT resist. But their's were so-so. Crispy, yes. Seasoned, yes. That's about it. It wasn't those super nice ones. But it's not bad. It's very hard to make bad fried chicken wings... agree?

Fried chicken wings

The hubby went for the Franucci, a tomato, mozzarella, basil pizza. It looked good! He polished the entire pizza off alone, which is impressive by itself. Then he amazed us further by ordering a pasta, and finished that too! I tried a mouthful of his pasta, which I forgot to take a photo of. I like it! Their pasta are homemade fresh pasta. The texture is nowhere like those dried kinds we get in supermarkets and find in almost 90% of the restaurants in Singapore. I love fresh pasta!

Franucci - tomato mozzarella basil pizza

And of course I managed to forget to take photo of my sis-in-law's pasta before she mixed it. But here's a look at their yummy fresh pasta. Urgh, the poor lighting is soooo not helping the food look nice. Ok, and my poor photography skills.

Aglio olio linguini

I like their pizzas for the thin-crusts, and love their homemade pastas. Overall, we liked it. In fact, so much so that the hubby asked me a few weeks later where else got sell pizza and pasta like the one we ate after Cavalier one. You see, he doesn't remember places very well, so it's no surprise he forgot the name. For him to actually remember the food he ate after Cavalier, it goes to shows how much he enjoyed it. 

Verve Pizza bar

11 Marina Boulevard
Ground Floor
Marina Bay City Gallery
Singapore 018940

The Provision Shop

LF suddenly asked me if I wanna join her and SH for lunch one day. Considering I finished my breakfast at about 11am, her lunch invitation at 11.30am was a little early. But I decided that sure, I can tag along and see what small meal I can get.

It was a good 10-15 minutes walk from our lab to the Provision Shop. The cafe is a very small place, with limited seating capacity. So in a way it was good we went early before it became crowded. The menu is pretty small, with a few sandwiches, a few brunch food, and a few pastas. Both of them opted for Eggs Benedict with salmon. The bread, though what I would call 'square bread', was thick and crusty and seemed homemade. The eggs were poached beautifully, and smothered in the hollandaise sauce. And they were really generous with their salmon. All for a pretty affordable price.

Eggs Benedict with salmon

Because of my late breakfast, I was too full for a full lunch. So I opted for a Perogie. With ham, onions and cheese, what's there to not love about it? But it was really quite small, so I think I was hungry in about 2 hours. But that's my own fault for having a late breakfast.

Perogie

I was so happy with the meal that I mentioned it to E when I returned. And another fine afternoon, when we happened to be free for a longer than usual lunch, a bunch of us trooped over for lunch. This time, many of us went for their pastas, which are homemade! I love homemade pastas!!!

The lagsane was a little sadly small. But since it was HY who ordered it, it's ok, since she's not a huge eater. And that mountain of greens piled on the lasagne suits healthy her fine. The carbonara looked a little pale, in my opinion, and a little too watery. AF didn't comment much on it, so I wasn't sure if he liked it or not. I vaguely remember him saying it wasn't filling enough....

Lasagne

Carbonara

I actually liked my beef ragu pasta very much. The ragu tasted fabulous, and I loved the texture of the homemade pasta. And I guess with the beef chunks inside, this plate was a lot more filling than the watered down carbonara and the small lasagne, so I must say I was pretty satisfied.

Beef ragu pasta

If I return, it's most probably for the pasta. I'm such a sucker for the homemade stuff. But then, I'm such a sucker for so many things. Haha!! But do take note of the small capacity, and the fact that you will leave smelling like the cafe due to not so impressive ventilation.


The Provision Shop
Blk 3 Everton Park #01-79
Singapore
Tel: 6225 9931

Haramiya Japanese BBQ

Ok, this will be a highly contradictory post. Because although they are supposedly a Japanese BBQ restaurant, I opt to call them a... confused BBQ restaurant. But confusion aside. we love their food. We found this place really by roaming through Clarke Quay Central after gym, and settling for this because we were wanting meat, and what better way to satisfy meat craving than a BBQ buffet.

Buffet menu

The reason I call them confused? I'm seeing the standard Korean BBQ food and sides in a JAPANESE BBQ joint. First confusion: spicy bean paste and lettuce for the BBQ meats, kimchi as starters. Whatever happened to edamame, raw cabbage and non-spicy miso paste?

Bean paste chilli, kimchi and lettuce

Then off the cooked food menu comes the next two confusions: bibimbap and kimchi soup. Mainstays of Korean cuisine, in a supposed Japanese restaurant. Contradictions aside, the bibimbap was actually quite yummy. You may be wondering why we ordered rice in a buffet. It's because we came after gym workout and were ravenous! Moreover two person to a bowl of rice wasn't too bad. The kimchi soup was nice too. Warm and mildly spicy, it was pleasant to slurp while waiting for our other food to cook on the grill.

Bibimbap

Kimchi soup

The meats were less confused, although the few I showed here had western influences. Garlic chicken with cheese - we weren't impressed. Kaburi beef with butter garlic - while the Kaburi beef was yum, the butter garlic was forgettable. We did love the scallop though. It grilled beautifully and was sweet and delicious.

Scallop, garlic chicken with cheese

Kaburi with butter garlic

Food not shown included the salmon in foil pack, which ended up very overcooked by the time the accompanying mushrooms were cooked. We really loved the Kaburi beef and Rosa beef. The Kaburi with bone was also nice. These beef didn't dry out into tough pieces after grilling, but retain their tenderness and juiciness. Pork wise we ordered pork toro and Samgyeopsal (Korean sounding again, doesn't it?). Although as far as I'm concerned they both refer to pork belly in different languages, the pork toro came as rectangular slices of well marbled fatty pork, whereas the Samgyeopsal was an entire length of pork belly in its three layers. Weirdest thing is the Samgyeopsal was served on a bed of kimchi. Really? Did they expect me to eat kimchi that had a piece of raw meat sitting on it? Or did they expect me to grill the kimchi? Between the two we preferred the pork toro and spammed it quite a fair bit, as it grills into a very juicy bite. 

Grilling food

We liked their potato with butter. I think we got corn with butter on a separate occasion and liked it too. Their ginger chicken was bland and hopelessly dry. The pumpkin came as slices, which on our first try were too thick and didn't cook through by the time they burnt on the outside. But on a second occasion it was the perfect thickness and cooked nicely.

Potato with butter

We've been there twice, and both times left stuffed and satisfied. They have a 10 items per order rule which they aren't too stringent about. And their grill is the kind with the ventilation vents at the side, so you don't leave smelling like BBQ. Unfortunately our gym had moved to a new place, so chances is we're less likely to be back for post-gym dinners. But I still like it and may just bring my colleagues back.


Haramiya Japanese BBQ
6 Eu Tong Sen Street #03-87

The Central

Singapore 151897

Tel: 6534 9468

Lele Pot

We are always up for trying new things at lunch. Once, on the way to another place for lunch, we walked pass Lele Pot. Upon checking out their set lunch menus, we decided, why not? The set lunch were going at less than $10. Seemed like a decent deal for hot pot. You choose a set you wan, then choose your soup base and your carbo.

Set lunch menu

I got the beef set (of course!) with herbal soup and tang hoon (glass noodles). Granted, the set comes cheap for a reason. It's a big plate of mostly veggies, with three beef meatballs, a few thin slices of beef, and imitation crabsticks. The mini pot of soup took forever to boil, from that little canister of (candle?) fire. That said, the soup was a nice, rich, herbal soup, which I really liked. The thinly sliced beef cooked very fast, so they remain nice and tender. For a $10 lunch? Not bad at all.

Beef set

On rainy days they can get pretty crowded since everyone want hotpot on rainy days. And be warned, you come out smelling like hotpot. This joint is opened by a Mediacorp actor, so while you eat you can look at the photographs of himself with all the (more famous) actors. Even several overseas celebrities.


Lele Pot
58 Seng Poh Road

#01-23 

Singapore 160058 

Tel: 6222 9442

Artisan Boulangerie Co. (Great World City)

I needed to go to the bank, and since banks operates office hours, it had to be done at lunch time. So I dragged my slacker buddies J and FQ to Great World City with me during lunch. They browsed for lunch place, while I settled my banking stuff.

I, have a weakness, for soups. Despite a bad experience with tomato soup Lynn and I had once, I still do order tomato soups occasionally (whereas Lynn have sworn off tomato soup ever since). ABC's tomato soup was thick and tangy, and I liked it. Warms the belly. The crusty bread that came with it was so so though.

Tomato soup

J ordered the portabello sandwich. It looked good!! She liked it, and gave me a mouth to try. The mushroom was thick and juicy. Perfect for mushroom lovers, or vegetarians who wants a 'burger'. I went for my usual Eggs Benedict, with smoked salmon instead of canadian bacon. The poached eggs were nice and runny, the hollandaise sauce tangy and creamy. I don't think I'll ever criticise eggs benedicts anywhere, unless some joint try to be funny and give me overcooked eggs.

Portabello sandwich

Smoked salmon Eggs Benedict

FQ, our breakfast lover, went for the ABC breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sauteed mushrooms and side salad. As if it wasn't big enough, it had three chunks of crusty bread served at the side. He was happy, and really enjoyed his breakfast for lunch. The eggs were creamy and perfect. Bacon, if I didn't recall wrongly, was a little on the too salty side. Other than that, it was a plate of happiness.

ABC breakfast

Bread for ABC breakfast

Overall we liked it. I guess if you're a bread lover or a breakfast lover, this is a nice place to chill and chat. The water, salt, pepper etc are all self-serviced, which is sometimes a good thing since you don't have to spend your time trying to get the servers' attention. They have ALOT of baked goods options, breads, tarts, cakes etc, which we didn't try. Only downside was we got a sofa seat. Although nice to chill, it was a little difficult to eat a proper meal from a low coffee table. 

Artisan Boulangerie Co.

#01-23, Great World City
Singapore 237994
Ph: +65 6887 4062
Open Daily from 10 am to 10 pm

Lenu (Vivocity)

It was a Friday night after our weekly swimming session, and we arrived at Vivocity pretty late (for a Friday) at 8 plus pm. Took a while to find a parking lot, and found that almost every eatery had long queues. We initially wanted to go for steamboat at Jpot but was informed of a roughly 45 minutes wait. Post-swimming, not good. We were ravenous.

So we roamed, and spotted the pretty empty Lenu. JP said it is pretty good, so we decided, why not? I was so hungry I really could eat anything at the moment. So we got a table immediately, browsed through the menu briefly, and off the few of them went to off to place order at the counter while I did the lazy girl thing and just waited at the table.

The rest returned with our drinks and starters, that they grabbed off the fridge at the counter. We munched on the cold starters while waiting for our noodles. Cold marinated cucumbers (凉拌黄瓜) was cold and crunchy, perfectly seasoned. The pickled cherry tomatoes I liked less, but that's because I personally don't like pickled stuff. The rest of them liked it anyhow.

凉拌黄瓜

For noodles I opted for the one with everything. Mixed beef brisket, shank, tendon with thin noodles. Nice rich beef broth, with tender beef pieces. The noodles were springy, just the way I like. Only problem? Serving may be a little too small for a post-swim dinner. But the hot soupy noodles really hits the spot, after a cold swim. Plus it was a rainy night too, hence the whole package was ideal.

Mixed beef brisket, shank, tendon with thin noodles

I liked Lenu for the lack of crowd, but still decent food. It's not lavish like some of my meals can be, but still satisfying. Great for those wanna-treat-yourself-but-not-too-expensive meals.