Saturday, August 17, 2013

MASA Steak & Hamburg @ Robertson Walk


Everyone who like eating beef knows that Japanese grade beef are the world's best. And that is why a Japanese restaurant serving steaks and hamburgs would usually not go wrong.

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Heard many good reviews about the juicy hamburgs served here in Masa, so we made our way down here on a Sunday early evening. Most of the diners here are Japanese, but the service staffs are locals. One unique characteristic here is that you keep hearing the "slapping" sound from the kitchen, and apparently that is the sound made when the chef is trying to "slap" the beef hamburg into shape.

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Iced-Matcha Tea

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Nama Yasai (S$12) - Stick Vegetables with Soy Bean Paste Dip Sauce. Since we are having lot's of meat later, it will be appropriate to have some veges as starters.

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Shrimp Ajillo (S$12) - Sautéed Shrimp in Olive Oil with Garlic and Red Chilli. We were scared off by the oil. Too much olive oil here.

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Baked Onion Soup (S$14). It was very hearty. I think they did a wonderful version of the onion soup.

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Rice (S$3)

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Original Sauce - the sauce had a tangy kick to it.

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Masa Combo (S$58) - Hamburg Steak and Bite-Sized cube cut steak. This is the smaller 200g hamburg steak with steak cube. The steak was pretty tender, but the hamburg stole the show.

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MASA Hamburg (S$38 for 300g) - Here is another order of the 300g hamburg. As you can see, the outer layer of the hamburg is slightly crisp and cooked, while the middle is really juicy and pink. This got to be best hamburg we had ever. It was so juicy and flavourful. Highly recommended to all who love Japanese beef hamburg. This would really put all hamburger restaurants to shame.

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Wasanbon Panna Cotta (S$8) - We were too full, but insisted on ordering dessert. And we didn't regret. This was creamy and had a nice caramel syrup.


MASA Steak and Hamburg
#01-03,
Robertson Walk
11 Unity Street

Thursday, August 01, 2013

Jewel Café @ Rangoon Road


Rangoon Road, which is near Farrer Park MRT station, has been seeing many new cafes and eateries popping up.

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One of them is Jewel Café and Bar. It is usually rather quiet on weekdays, but come weekends, this place is packed for its popular weekend brunch.

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A cute sketch hanging outside of the café.

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The chef here was formerly from One Rochester and Les Amis. We visited this café twice. First time the food was really good, but on our second visit this time, we find that the food was not as good. Probably it was the ever-busy weekend brunch and everything was cooked in a rush.

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French Onion Soup (S$8) with a cheesy crust. We like the pippin hot onion soup which was full of ingredients. The cheesy crust added some different texture and flavours to the soup.

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Portobello White Mushroom Soup (S$9) with white truffle oil - The is the 2nd time we had the mushroom soup. Unfortunately, the soup wasn't as good as what we had previously during weekday dinner. A bit too watery.

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Umami Prawn Capellini (S$22) with grilled prawns, crustacean oil topped with special Umami "magic" dust. The noodles was firm and the prawns were fresh, but they could have added more flavours to this pasta dish.

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Port & Blue Cheese Burger (S$20) - Onion caramelized in port reduction, chunks of aged stilton and secret "magic" dust mix. Quite an ordinary burger, but the fries was crispy and good.

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For desserts, we had the Brioche French Toasts (S$13) with caramelized strawberry, blueberries and mascarpone. We find the French toasts rather average, and actually left of it untouched. So far, one of our favourite version of French toast is from Dean and Deluca.

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After 2 visits here, we find that the standard of the food here fluctuates. On our first visit, the food was very good, but the 2nd visit it was only average. A bit inconsistent.


Jewel Café
129 Rangoon Road