Saturday, May 30, 2015

Harry's Bar @Clarke Quay, Openrice Food Tasting

I was invited by Reka from Openrice to a food tasting session at Harry's newest outlet at Clarke Quay. We will be sampling their newly revamped food menu that was introduced about a month ago. Brought a friend along (cos I don't drink) to also sample their alcoholic beverage.

The Bar has both indoor and outdoor sitting, same as every bar found in the area.





The indoor dining area has a British pub style decor, the dark wood furnishing and fixtures exudes a warm and cozy vibe. Great place for friends to catch up over a game of football with beers.









Our table, set with a simple bucket of cutlery, paper napkins and plates for sharing food. 






Everyone at the food tasting gets an Openrice 'door gift' set containing the tasting menu, stationary and a Openrice fan.  



Our tasting menu for the night...


First up, we had a trio of 'Small Plates' appetizer dishes paired with Harry's Premium Lager beer $13++, Harry's signature brew. 






The crispy Fish Cracklings $13++ served with aioli dip was addictive to eat. While the Harry's Signature Wings ($13++ for 6pcs, $19++ for 10pcs), coated with secret recipe spices and served with homemade chili jam, was fingers licking good. The star of the 'Small plates' had to be the Crab & Potato cakes ($16++ for 6pcs). Packed with generous amount of shredded Blue swimmer crab meat and mashed potato served with Sriracha tomato dip, it was moist and oozing with crabby sweetness...thumbs up.

Next up, we had one dish from the 'Platters' menu, Jalapeno Steak Sliders $13++ for 3. The Mini burgers with tender beef strips and charred bell peppers, served with Jalapeno cheese sauce, were a crowd's favorite.



All of the above were best washed down with a pint of Harry's Premium Lager, which was well received by fellow food tasters. Many would have seconds but, we're being served with another Harry's signature, Dirty Harry $16++, to go with the 'Big Plates' a.k.a. Main courses.

A concoction of Vodka, brown sugar and lychee liqueur with a dash of zing from freshly cut lime wedges, served with a sweet canned lychee. As I don't drink liquor, my friend downed both glasses of cocktail and still wanted more...so I guess it was delish!





For main courses, we had Chicken Masala $23++ and Crabmeat Spaghettini $23++. The pasta tasted pretty standard though, the crab meat flavor didn't really come through nicely. However, the Chicken Masala dish was surprisingly good. The excellent mix of Indian spices and tender chicken chunks, well infused with spice aroma, had us craving for more. We totally enjoyed dunking the fluffy charcoal bread into the aromatic thick gravy...immensely satisfying.

Lastly, dessert was served. Toffee Apple Crisp Tart $14++, with thinly sliced apple on crust pastry, drizzled with salted caramel sauce and topped with vanilla ice cream. I didn't like this dish as much, the pastry was not crispy and rather chewy to bite. The apple slices and vanilla ice cream was kinda ordinary.


Dessert was paired with a sparkling Cinzano Prosecco $13.50++ wine to end the dinner on a sweet note. This Italian bubbly, with enticing aromas of apple and peach, taste refreshing, dry and harmonious, with crisp fruity flavors and a clean finish.


Harry's Bar had wanted to change the perception of it being just a regular bar, a place to go for drinks only. They have put together an interesting menu with good potential. With some slight adjustments to its food recipe, it does possess a formula for success in the F&B industry.

We enjoyed the dinner tremendously. Thank you Openrice and Harry's Bar for hosting us!


Harry's Bar
3D River Valley Road #01-01 S179023
Tel: 6338 7331

Opening Hours
Sun - Thur & Non-weekend PH: 1200h - 0100h
Fri - Sat & Eve of PH: 1200h - 0300h











Thursday, May 14, 2015

Chabuton at Tampines One

Chabuton is a successful Ramen restaurant chain from Japan. This casual dining eatery had caused a stir in SG when it first arrived on shore, a perpetual queue is always seen at the first outlet located in Orchard. Now that the initial hype has died down, I finally got to try it at the branch in Tampines One.




Check out the realistic wax food replicas on display at the entrance. The restaurant is dressed in simple and no frills decor, with a huge jug of ice water for diner's disposal at every table.




The menu here is simple, only ramen and limited choice of appetizers to compliment the ramen dish. Their main selling point is that diners can customize their ramen's done-ness and soup's oil and salt level. For the signature Tonkatsu ramen, there is also a choice of normal size serving or a smaller size junior bowl at lower price.


I ordered a bowl of the Junior Tonkatsu ramen $8.30++ and topped up $3.50++ for the Soft boiled egg & Buta kakuni (braised pork belly).





The egg was nicely done with runny yolk, and the pork belly was well flavored but not too soft with a little bit of bite retained. As for the noodles, I've asked for less oil, less salt and noodle to be al dente...which was executed to my liking. The soup was thick and flavorful too.

My other side order of Kaki Fry $6++ (oyster fritters) was fresh and juicy, no complains.




Food variety here is rather limited though I like that the prices are pretty affordable for its quality. Service level is efficiently quick and no frills. That sums up my dining experience at Chabuton. I would say that this is a great place to drop by for a quick meal before shopping or a movie.


Chabuton Tampines 1
10 Tampines Central 1 #02-09/10 Tampines 1 S529536
Opening hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm
Tel: 6854 0335





Monday, May 11, 2015

Mother's Day Afternoon Tea at The Landing Point

We are back again at The Landing Point for afternoon tea, one of our fave places for tea. This time happens to be Mother's Day eve and the restaurant is offering a different menu just for the weekend. Instead of the usual 8 sweets and 8 savories, they are having 12 sweets and 7 savories tea set...we're gonna get a sugar rush!


We made advanced reservation via Chope and got instant confirmation. There was a baby shower event going on when we arrived slightly earlier than 3pm, the waiting staffs gave us a sofa seat near the corner.









We enjoyed a quieter ambiance there, however, it became a nightmare to get attention of the waiting staffs when we wanna replenish our food and drinks. Whats worst is that we are situated between two bigger groups of diners, and were being overlooked by the staffs constantly! The drinks that we ordered shortly after being seated came only after 30mins and multiple reminders...duh!

Selections of TWG teas and Coffee (hot/cold)

The food came before the drinks arrived, served on a 3-tier tray, containing two tiers of sweets and one tier savories. The scones were served separately by another staff.




Top tier - Carrot Cake & Lemon Cheese Frosting, Mother’s Love Chocolates, Mini Cupcake & Chocolate Cream, Double Flavored Macaron and Crème Brulee tartlet.




Middle tier - Mini Salmon Quiche, Herb Brie Cheese on Hazelnut Cracker, Smoked Duck Mango Salsa on Semi-Dried Roll, Purple Potato with Ricotta on Saffron Roll, Smoked Salmon Sandwich, Truffle Egg Sandwich and Semi-Dried Tomato with Mayo and Cucumber Sandwich.



Bottom tier - Coconut & Mango Cake, Kueh Lapis Cake, Lime Tart topped with Fresh Blueberries, Chocolate Opera Cake, Pistachio Financier and Rose Chocolate Mousse Cake.



For the savories, we only fancied the Smoked Duck sandwich, Truffle egg sandwich and the Smoked Salmon sandwich, which we ordered replenishment several times. We were less impressed with the sweets though. I quite like the tangy Lime tart and the Crème Brulee tartlet but didn't order extras due to slow service from staffs.

My order for 2nd round of drinks, Cafe Mocha with latte art. It was pretty good.


Near to the end of the tea session, we noticed that a special item was being served to the table beside us, we wanted to ask about it but the staff walked past us again and vanished quickly into the abyss! After some waiting, we managed to grab attention of another staff and voiced our displeasure to him. He managed to seized a few of the special items (not stated in the menu) for us and it turned out to be the best tasting savory item of the day!


The Mini Lobster Tartlet, a different rendition of their all time favorite Lobster Cornet was simply delicious! We think that it should be included in all special occasion menu for afternoon tea.

Our Mother's Day afternoon tea, ended much better than when it began. But we couldn't help but feel that their special occasion menu was lack luster overall in terms of taste and quality, and the slow service didn't justify for the price hike. We much prefer to come on a regular weekday afternoon and enjoy the original menu with Lobster cornet, Chocolate caramel tart and Lemon tart.


The Landing Point
80 Collyer Quay
Lobby Level, The Fullerton Bay Hotel
Singapore 049326

Tel: 6597 5277