decided to try out this quaint roadside restaurant/bar-ish place for dinner & was pleasantly surprised with the generosity of their fish portions! got the bara chirashi don ($28+) and mentaiko salmon don ($28+). fish was fresh - salmon was creamy and tuna didn't have the iron/blood taste. would be back again to try their $10 magheritas and $18 happy hour tiramisu cocktails next round !!! vv worth with the 1-1. 8/10!!!
🍟 we also ordered curly fries on the side but unfortunately that was a miss :-(
wasn't expecting such a pretty & classy interior for the price that they are charging - thought it was gonna be more like a isteaks steakhouse type of environment but so glad that i was wrong! this place is totally date-worthy. they have cocktails going for 2 for $20 (wtf right? only $10 per cup) and mocktails for 2 for $12! the mocktails we had were grapefruit fizz and lychee lemonade, both of which were super yums but grapefruit >>>>!! the flat iron steak ($24++) was very delicious and juicy, but multiple pieces had tendons/veins that made it hard to cut up or chew at times which was a pity - 8/10. really great service, welcoming to burpple beyond users. you get to choose a side & a sauce with your steak. i chose the cream spinach based on many good reviews but found it rather mid in terms of flavour, although the spinach was very soft. my friend got the mash and i found it very fluffy & yummy but she found it just average because she preferred one that was more buttery (so personal preference?). super recommend this location & will defoooo be back again!
when the platter first came ($36), i thought it was going to be too little but they were actually pretty generous with the meat! the prawns were large and the beef + chicken were substantial. they offered different soup bases (chicken or tomyum) at no added cost too. the soup was perfectly sour and spicy, although it was pretty salty. would recommend having some water to dilute the soup maybe. variety is great too. after discount - $25.20, can truly feed 2-3pax comfortably. location is just a little inconvenient, ~5 mins walk from bedok mrt. staff v friendly & trusting, only pay after you're done. recommend!
tbh i felt like this place was kind of scammy - if 1 chicken katsu rice is $15.80, top up $4 to create a set, shouldn't the 1 for 1 be $19.80? i understand that redeeming a set is compulsory to utilise the burpple beyond deal but we were charged $21.80, no questions asked, simply because burpple lists the savings as $21.80, but it is also a known fact that the savings burpple states are only an estimate and tend to be on the pricier items on the menu. it's only a matter of $2 but more so about the dishonesty and the lack of ability to justify to us why they're charging us $21.80 rather than $19.80. it becomes less of a 1-for-1 anymore.
moving on, the curry was completely watery, almost a soup/chowder like consistency LOL. when we mixed our rice in, it was almost like eating muifan... but anyway to give credit where it is due, the chicken cutlet was crispy, juicy and tender without being overdone. i enjoyed that quite much. the gyozas that you must add on are alright, just your average frozen gyozas with limited filling.
overall, this store's only saving grace is perhaps its katsu, but right opposite there is another store (shiroi tonkatsu) selling the exact same thing for only $13.80 with refillable rice, salad and miso soup so would we be back again? absolutely not.
first thing is RLY AMAZING SERVICE 😫🙏🏻 tbh literally alm HDL standard type of care in the way they talk to u, except that they tend to want to clear your plates before you're done which is abit 😮💨.
anw, next thing would be that they do their meats much better than their pasta & pizzas (at least from what we tried - truffle carbonara iberico & smoked salmon pizza).
starting off w the good (all the josper grillers...):
💖 the striploin steak ($25++) - juicy and flavourful, albeit a little overly salty.
💖 lamb shank ($25++) - absolutely fall off the bone tender. alot like elevan strands' actually if you've had that!
💖 honey glazed pork ribs ($22++) - crowd fav among those i went with. had a good charred flavour & perf amount of fattiness w the meat so that it wasn't too dry
💖 habanero spring chicken ($23++) - menu said a little spicy but i (a mala xiaola eater) lowkey DIED. while my other friends found it tasty & fine
💖 the mash that came with some dishes were SOOOO yummy i couldn't stop eating it
the not so good:
🫣 truffle pasta ($18++) - boring & the portion was small. the iberico in it was kind of weirdly QQ also. made me feel like i was eating rat meat 😮💨
🫣 smoked salmon pizza ($18++) - pretty sad for a pizza with the super hard crust & limited ingredients on top. would give this one a hard pass
🫣 fries were kinda soggy & meh
cocktails!!!! NO to the strawbs mojito (tasted sm like minty cough syrup), YES to sea breeze & vodka sunset.
bill came to $162.60 for 6 mains, 3 cocktails, 1 wine & 1 canned green tea after burpple beyond. pretty affordable i'd say. w/o drinks, it would have only been ~$15/pax! price is steep w/o discount though. highly recommend.
pros:
- generous w acai (felt like i was eating acai for days)
- generous w granola & peanuts (???
- alot of interesting toppings (eg protein/milk powder, yoghurt)
- unlimited toppings too that we didn't manage to take advantage of because of order anxiety so we just got the fixed combination acais :--(
cons:
- because it's so HOT in sg & the stand is in the middle of nowhere (push-cart-y), the acai melts super fast while they're still preparing it so by the time you get it the top is already slightly melted
- drizzle is SUPER minimal, it's the complete opposite of thesummeracai so if you're a person who enjoys drizzle with each bite this might not be for u. i think the drizzle was literally only on the top of the cup
- pricey? w/o burpple beyond i feel like L size was already $14.90 & u still have to top up for their fixed combi acais if it includes certain fruits (eg strawberries) that are usually given free in acais. their L size was also pretty comparable to the acai affair's M size so the savings is not exactly HALF
tip: BUILD YOUR OWN ACAI BOWL. don't go for the fixed combis bec that's not worth. not sure if that would end up reducing the amount of acai u have in your cup though saw a review complaining about that so 🥲
recommend score: 3/5 - good for acai lovers (literally ACAI lovers) but for topping with a side of acai lovers, u may not enjoy this too much :-( still a nice decent cup of acai!
we previously tried blanco court from northpoint city (yishun) & were rly impressed by the food, so we excitedly visited their outlet at 18TS, but were sorely disappointed this round. not only was the staff's attitude abrasive & aloof, simply not responding when we tried to place an order at the cashier, the beef slices given to us were full of veins that couldn't be chewed :-( the sauce was also much less flavourful. that being said, the soup was still super good. if you'd still wanna visit, i would recommend giving the mala beef noodles a miss (we ordered that since it was one of the burpple beyond options) & sticking to their standard beef noodles. otherwise, you might enjoy their food better at northpoint instead 😊
v underrated place! the burrata tarte flambe (thin crust pizza) was honestly pretty well done & the burrata was a solid yums/10. the pork ribs was well balanced with sufficient fattiness to make it tender but also enough meat. generous portion of the pork ribs too! these 2 mains fed 3 of us and came up to a total of $33.26 after burpple 1 for 1, a v affordable amount. would rly recommend this place - it's so sad that we were the only customers there throughout, rly hope they can get abit more popular ⭐️
was told that it was burpple's regulations that we were not allowed to only use two 1 for 1 vouchers to order 4 mains if we had 5 pax. we could only either order 5 mains (two 1 for 1 voucher + pay full for the 5th main) or order 6 mains (3 1 for 1 vouchers). didn't rly make sense to me as i had previously used 2 for 2 at other outlets so it seemed abit scammy already right from the start. anyway, the staff was kind of rude when he told us about the drinks available, prefacing it w "i'll repeat this twice."
if the service was not something we wouldn't come back over, the hamburg patty inside the burger + in the omurice hamburg set was soooo gamey 😐😐😐 didn't even wna eat >1 bite of it...
the pork katsu & grilled chicken curry rice was not bad, quite average but the curry was pretty standard (like any other jap curry just that this is darker in colour) so nothing noteworthy. the supposedly WAGYU katsu was also very meh - tasted like normal beef or not even as good as that actually.
friend said that the snow crab omurice ($27) was not bad actually except that the crabmeat inside the shell was a tad dry. otherwise the sauce was infused w crab flavour pretty well.
total bill was $103.40 after service charge for a group of 5, which wasn't expensive but $20 for a meal like that... 🫠
all in all, considering the location, service, price & taste, we wouldn't revisit this place again.
ordered the gastrorelief (ingredients: coriander honey + grapefruit + some jello thing) for $5.30 before disc ($3.95 after disc) which is a p decent price for the size BUT there is no coriander taste 😭 i know alot of people hate coriander but it's coriander honey for a reason...this actually j tastes like honey water.... and the grapefruit doesn't provide the drink w any citrus sourish taste except when u drink the actual pulp up which is... scrimpy to say the least... so nah...
definitely something that can be made at home!! quite a simple drink but it's rly just a smoothie lor nothing rly much like boost or anything but for $3.50, the portion is p decent 🫡 not my first choice of drink
went in not expecting much because it's zichar in a hotel/atas kind of place but wow this rly was quite an impressive meal!! the mantous ($2.40/4pcs) were soft and pillowy on the inside with just the right crisp on the outside!!!! better than haidilao's if i do say so myself 😎 the red curry fish fillet ($26) was not overfried so it was crunchy without being hard/scratchy to the mouth + the flavour of the curry was sooo good & lemak (p spicy tho!); the sg chilli style prawns ($26) that are supposed to be a rendition of sg's chilli crab was okay - not rly spicy nor tomato-ey & the prawns were a little mushy, so average (wouldn't get it again tho); the grilled rojak kangkong w squid ($24) was SO good with so much wokhei & some rojak flavour wow!!!!! delicious fr 😋😋😋😋 last but not least the hakka red wine chicken claypot ($28) was not overpowering with alcohol flavour and the chicken was tender & generous in portion. yummy meal!!!! drinks were not diluted either. would be back again w burpple beyond, else it's kinda pricey for the portion given~
ps: they charge 50c for water & for the wet tissue packets!
