FIRST TASTED: Canopy Garden Dining @ Bishan Park, Singapore

One random communication with my busy friend inadvertently led us to this hidden restaurant in a park. Singapore has quite a lot of parks like this one, and to be frank, I think it’s quite good that they maintain the natural bit when they are developing the country, unlike most of the countries that neglect this.

Anyway, our main objective today is, of course, Cari Makan. Some hardships had been put in for this dinner. First up, my friend did a thorough survey online and suggested this place, due to the good comments he found online. And then, it’s the location of this Canopy that is located right in the middle of Bishan Park, which means there’s no bus allowed to go in and hence, we have to walk in. What makes it worse is that it’s happening in a rain! This restaurant better be good!

After 10 minutes of walking from the bus stop, we’re here in Canopy Garden Dining. Below is the quick review that I have for this place.

Ambient / Environment:

To me, I always think that it’s quite romantic to go to a restaurant located in the middle of a park or some sort. Places like this are always best to go and have a dinner with your partner (but this time round, we have no lady companion, that’s very sad), whereby you can have a short walk in the park and have a short talk with her. I don’t know why I think this way, maybe I am a bit old fashion, forgive me if you think otherwise.

Before entering the restaurant, the smiles from the waiters & waitress were indeed bringing warmth to our hearts. The tables and chairs in the restaurant were equally spaced out. You can choose to seat inside or outside. I suppose both sides are comfy. We chose to sit inside, because of the rain. The yellowish lighting inside the restaurant was kind of romantic, could be brighter though.

Food:

4 of us ordered 4 main dishes and a salad as starter.

First to be served was Smoked Duck Salad. Looks good, isn’t it? The vegetable was fresh enough, the saltiness of the smoked duck balanced the tastelessness of the vegetable and there’s also some cheese and almond flakes added in to garnish and infuse a different texture into this salad. The portion is too small though.

First main dish to be served was Lobster Pomodoro. It’s practically spaghetti fried with lobster meat, tomato and a little bit of basil. The first impression of this Pomodoro being served to me was “Gosh, it’s huge!” Thank god, we had 4 people to share the load. The noodle was nicely cooked, the lobster meat was fresh and tender, and the sauce was refreshing. My only criticism is that this Pomodoro could be served slightly drier. Despite that, this is a very good dish to be served upfront, as it opened my appetite wide up.

Next up was the Grilled Ribeye (medium well, as my friend doesn’t like to bloody look of a medium rare steak, so do I). It has a common look, just like any other Grilled Ribeye we have ever seen- a piece of steak with 2-3 side dishes. The success of a steak is highly dependent on the skill of the chef who prepares it. I must say this was a pretty good one. The entire steak doneness was balance and consistent, better controlled than the one I tried in Grill Bar Steak House. The meat was soft and sweet when it’s in my mouth.

Followed by the Grilled Ribeye was the Yorkshire Pork Rack. Not really a rack to me, just a stick of rib bone with a huge chunk of meat sticking on it. Again, the chef’s grilling skill is good! The meat was nicely grilled, not too dry, and not chewy, the meat taste was still there. This Pork Rack was served with mashed potato. Unlike those mashed potato we normally have which is done by powder, this mashed potato was specially prepared, and I could still feel the potato particles that are not completely mashed. The sauce tasted exactly as the sauce of Grilled Ribeye though.

Last to be served was the Sakura Chicken, which is nicely named and nicely presented. Looks promising, isn’t it. I always say “Never judge anything by the look of it, what’s in it is more important than the outlook of it” Apparently, I was right. This chicken was the greatest disappointment of the night. It’s just too dry and juiceless. It’s totally bland when it’s delivered into our mouths. Avoid it at all time if you ever come by this place.

Verdict time- Would I come back to this restaurant?

Probably not in the near future, as none of the dishes (that we ordered) really amazed me in any way, they are just average. And, this dinner was not particularly cheap either. For the same price we were paying for, I believe there are better ones out there for me to explore! No doubt, it’s a great place for a couple to have a lovely and romantic dinner, but it’s just not for me, at least for now. I am a busy man who is seeking for good food and my future partner (pm me if you’re keen… :)) at the same time, hence, no time shall be wasted on average things.

FIRST TASTED: Poulet @ Jurong Point, Singapore

Every once in a while, I will be calling my friends for a simple dinner and the venue would normally end up at the places that are closest to all of us, e.g. Jurong Point, Jcube, Imm, JEM or wherever (Singapore is not big anyway).

This time round, we ended up in Jurong Point. We were quite bored with the food in Jurong Point. That kind of motivated me to look for something new. I looked up the internet and found that there’s an eye catching and nicely named restaurant called Poulet. I browsed deeper on this restaurant and realized that it’s a French restaurant. To be honest, I was never a fan for French restaurant, as French cuisine always gives me some kind of formality which is not relaxing at all. I hate being formal. To me, you simply can’t get to enjoy if you are refrained from doing something.

Since we were running out of choice, I was determined for this time and looked further. I was surprised by the introduction on the website of the restaurant – First French casual dining restaurant chain concept in Singapore.

Well, since it’s not formal, why not? And here we are! This was the first try of French cuisine in my life. The following is the quick review of this restaurant.

Ambient / Environment:

Maybe we were there early or maybe this restaurant is newly opened, we didn’t see the crowd that you might see in other typical restaurants in Singapore. I like the feeling that you can just walk in, take order and eat without queuing. Since there wasn’t a need for queuing, that means there weren’t much people in the restaurant either, that also means that it’s quieter in the restaurant as there are less people talking.

There’s even a tree in the restaurant! 

Services:

Since there were less people to serve, waiters and waitresses there, to me, were more attentive than those who work in a busy restaurant. They tend to put more smile on their faces, which is also good. Some of them tried really hard to recommend us the foods that they have never tried. Thumbs up for them!

Food:

We have ordered 3 main courses and 2 desserts. I was thinking of ordering another appetizer, but my friend stopped me from doing so.

My habit- I requested desserts to be served first. The first thing to be served is the Tiramisu in a jar!

Looks good, isn’t it? This is one of the best Tiramisu I have ever tried so far. It’s soft, but not mashed. The coffee taste is strong, so strong in fact I couldn’t taste any rum in it, it’s either overwhelmed by the coffee taste or there isn’t any rum at all. It would be best if there’s rum taste in it.

Second up is this Banana Bread Pudding.

This thing was served very hot at the bottom with a scoop of ice cream on top. I wonder why they do it this way. The banana taste of the bread pudding was not really perceivable. And then, the ice cream on top of the hot Banana Bread Pudding, they might as well put vanilla sauce on top, it doesn’t make much of a difference to me. My friend suggested that this thing could be baked longer, darker and drier. On top of his suggestion, I think this Bread Pudding shall be served with only minimal heat. By doing so, I believe the scope of ice cream on top could bright up the Bread Pudding more.

After the desserts, 3 main courses were served. We ordered the signature Poulet Roti-half (practically half of the signature roasted chicken), Oxtail de Bourguignon and Iberico Pork Belly.

Poulet Roti-half looks like a plain roasted chicken delivered with some creamy sauce. That’s correct, partly. That is, no doubt, half of a roasted chicken, but it’s not plain. In fact, it’s flavored, seasoned and nicely roasted. We were all surprised by the tenderness and juiciness of the chicken. The creamy sauce was a master piece. It’s not the kind of super strong taste creamy sauce that will disgust you after a few bites. We were all impressed by this surprisingly good roasted dish.

Oxtail de Bourguignon looks pretty good, isn’t it? I believe it’s been braised for long hours. The taste of the sauce was all seeped into the meat. The meat was soft; there wasn’t a need to munch it at all. Another thumb up!

The last one was Iberico Pork Belly. This dark color sauce was a bit sweet and sour which stimulates the appetite. The yellowish thing on the left was not sauce; it’s very fine mashed potato, I believe they put some cheese in it too. This mashed potato just melted in our mouth. One short fall for this dish, to me, is that the pork belly was not soft enough. It’d be good if it just melts in our mouth.

3 in a row..

Would I come back to this shop?

I believe there isn’t much French restaurant has the same casual concept as this. The foods served here were all above average (at least for the foods that we ordered), the price was friendly enough, the service wasn’t bad either and most importantly, there’s no queue! It seems like a nice place for a small group of people to have a proper dinner and nice chit-chatting session in Jurong Point. I will definitely come back to try out more.

C@li M@k@n Roadtrip- Batu Pahat, Rengit & Muar…

Would you go to a place that’s about 100 km away from where you stay for the sake of coffee? Frankly, I wouldn’t do that, yet… I know there are plenty of hardcore food seekers doing that; I would do the same, one day… What I would do instead, I would do some survey online and look for other local delicacies near the area we wanted to go, sometimes it’s gotten a little bit farther than we thought though.

This time round, my cousin suggested Rengit coffee, immediately I got attracted by this two words- Rengit is one of the places I have never been in Johor; coffee is one of the drinks I adore. Here we are, in a lovely Sunday, we set off for this C@li M@k@n road trip!

Our original plan was to set off after lunch to only two places- Rengit for coffee and Muar for otak-otak and fish fillet mee hoon. I am a bit greedy; I always want to make full use of my time to make a trip more meaningful. Hence, I set off a little bit early to Batu Pahat for lunch.

The place where I had my lunch is strongly recommended by my colleague, it has a funny name- Restoran Bariani POWER! A bit provocative, but I like it! It’s a shop selling Nasi Briyani (but this shop names all their dishes “Bariani”). My colleague’s suggestion to me is that always go for “Nasi Bariani Gam” if they have it. “Nasi Bariani Gam” is different from ordinary Nasi Bariani, as it is being cooked together with meats, hence, the rice will be having the taste, sweetness as well as the essence of the meats. It’s simply awesome!

After having this sinfully scrumptious local delicacy as lunch, we moved on to Rengit- the main purpose of this road trip (the famous “DAGAN Rengit coffee”). From the outlook of this shop, it’s rather apparent that the owner opens this coffee shop for fun. I could bare notice that it’s a coffee shop! Outside of this shop is covered by those special, quirky and artistic stuffs, as if it’s a shop only selling all those stuffs. When I stepped in the shop, it gave me a totally different feeling. Quite amazingly, the shop is full of people, which makes me wondering- how on earth did they find this place? Anyway, we were there for famous Rengit coffee and here it is!

The coffees that we ordered were all being made and served by Vietnamese style (I believe all coffee sold in this shop will be served in this manner). The coffee smell was very noticeable. The first sip of it was refreshing, bold and strong. All the way to the bottom of the cup, no sourness found, which means that the coffee bean is fresh. That’s very good. This may be not the best coffee served, but for the price you are paying for, the special way the coffee is being served, the straightforward manner this shop is being run, the passion felt from the owner and the odd feeling that you get when you first enter this shop, all of these is making this visit totally well worthy. I would definitely come back for coffee! This shop does sell some simple food that didn’t really amaze me though.

After this enjoyable coffee shop, we headed north to Muar for otak-otak. Muar is famous with otak-otak and there are many people selling it, each has their own taste. Since we reached Muar quite late, we went for the safer choice- it’s the place that we went before, a corner lot of terrace houses, mass producing otak-otak that taste a bit spicy and slightly harder than other otak-otak. The combination of spiciness and the texture is what we like. Another objective checked! We then moved on to Muar Glutton Street and unfortunately, it’s pouring with rain! Since there’s nothing much along this street, we decided to go to our final destination- Jin Jin Restaurant.

Jin Jin Restaurant is one famous shop in Muar. We are here for fish fillet mee hoon. This is it!

We’ve ordered some other dishes listed on the menu as well.

The food here is quite average, good portion, not too pricey, full of people, but the food was being served rather slowly, we literally need to wait for the next dish to be served. That’s quite a shame, especially when you see the fleet of chefs that they are having.

All in all, this was yet another enjoyable meal which put a very satisfactory full-stop to this trip!