Brussel Sprouts (Robertson Quay)

It was the second time I visited this restaurant/bar. Somehow, the second visit impressed me less than the first. Brussel Sprouts is known for their (surprise!) mussels/clams and fries. Nothing to do with the actual brussel sprouts, so no idea why it is named so. Their mussels/clams comes in a great variety of flavors, and free flow fries.

I can't remember what flavor mussels we got the first time round, cos that was years ago. I remembered the codfish I ordered back then as the best western-styled codfish I had in my life. It was melt-in-your-mouth soft, with no hints of fishiness overpowering the natural 'milky' taste of the fish, which I like. I remembered the fries as pretty good thick cut fries that came abundantly to our table of 12, despite our ordering only 2 orders of mussels. I remembered the mediocre steak that someone else had, and the fact that the only vegetarian option was a salad for my poor hubby, who later filled his stomach with fries.

This time round I dragged my colleagues (and ex-colleagues) there to celebrate S's birthday. We arrived after a long walk from Clarke Quay because we got miserably lost, thanks to the not-so-helpful Google Maps app. The outdoor seating didn't help, but a waitress was nice enough to accede to our request to turn a giant fan to face us. And we had to very annoyingly ask her to turn it away when our food came, because we couldn't eat with our hair in our faces. But she was so sweet about it, telling us 'No worries!'.

We ordered two starter size mussels, one is a Meridionale (saffron, tomato, garlic, herb de province, olive oil, butter, onion, parsley. Thank God for online menu!), the other a Mariniere (white wine, cream, butter, celery, onion, parsley). Both were recommended by the servers. If you bring your parents here and they're the kind who don't eat 'ang moh' food, fret not, there are plenty of local flavors such as Laksa, Black Pepper and Nonya. We also ordered a Fish n Chips, and Belgium Wings to share. Since we were sharing the mains, the codfish didn't seem like a good sharing dish, we passed.

The mussels arrived pretty quickly, and we were digging in in no time. Maybe these two flavors weren't what we ordered the last time, or maybe when the same plate is shared among 12 pax you only get to sample a little. This time round it was shared among 6 pax. I found the mussels less exciting than I remembered. In fact, I think the mussels at Mad for Garlic excited me more. I did drink quite a fair bit of the gravy from the Mariniere though. It was pretty light and with the zip from the white wine, could pass for a more watery kind of cream of seafood soup. The fish and chips were the standard oily fish and chips, and the wings were passable. We had a lot of the fries because again, sharing among less people, and the fish also came with fries. So we actually didn't order a lot, but were quite full pretty quickly. I must add that in the first place this group of friends aren't quite as greedy as Lynn and I.

Meridionale with its fries

Belgium Wings

Mariniere with its bowl for throwing empty shells

Fish and chips

Must say that the service here is pretty good though. We brought a cake with us, and when we asked for it, the waiters formed a crowd around the birthday girl and sang her a birthday song, whistles and all. Even after we're done singing and were starting on the cake, one of them came back with a lei for the birthday girl. So although the food the second time round didn't make as huge an impression on me, I may not write it off yet. Partly because I still remember the codfish, partly because their service is worth going back for, and largely because there's Laurent Bernard Chocolatier right beside it for sweet end to a dinner. =)