Stuttgart Blackforest Boutique S-Café

Stuttgart Blackforest Boutique S-Café is located in the busy Orchard Road, but it is also hidden in one corner of Rendezvous Hotel Gallery, with a very low profile. 

The interior of the restaurant is styled in western style with some German elements, such as the iconic German wooden dolls, life-sized ones.  And to my surprise, they even have some live music. 

Single Portion Pork Knuckle, $22.80++

Coming to a German restaurant, of course I must order their famous German pork knuckle.  I have tried German pork knuckle in Frankfurt, German, Singapore's Brotzeit, and Brisbane, Australia,  and I like the pork knuckle here.  Why? 

First, their portion is 1-person portion, it is perfect for one to enjoy the pork knuckle without worrying about the waistline. They have options for 3-4 persons and more.  Second, their pork knuckle is not as salty as all the others that I have tasted before.  I think they have customized the salt level to suit the Singaporean taste.  Well, maybe it is not authentic, but it is a good modification, a healthier evolution.  Third, their pork knuckle is really good.  The skin is not only crispy, but it manages to have some fragrance too.  When the skin is crushed in your mouth, you can hear that crunching sound, and the fragrance lingers in your mouth.  The meat itself is tender, but not greasy.  Thumbs up for their pork knuckle.

Specialty Sausages, $19.80++

Another signature dish on their menu is their Specialty Sausages.  You can choose two out of three types of meat, beef, pork or chicken.  We opted for beef and pork. 

The pork sausage comes curled up nicely with a bamboo stick.  I am not really a sausage person, so I find the sausages are, just like sausages. 

The restaurant has 'Blackforest' in its name, and said to be famous for their blackforest cake.  We were just a bit too full on that day to try the cake.  Maybe next time? 

The food is good, the atmosphere is nice, I will definitely come back when I have a craving for German food next time.

When we paid for our meal, there was a mix-up though.  The waitress presented us with someone else' bill who was a bigger amount.  Lucky I did check my bill, and got it sorted out quickly. 

The Butcher's Kitchen at Suntec

The Butcher's Kitchen is located on the second floor of Suntec City Mall.  The place was previously occupied by an Italian restaurant, but it had since closed down.  The Butcher's Kitchen is part retail, part restaurant.  There is a small retail section where customers can buy their meat products.  Well, as the name implies, they are proud of their meat offers.

We decided to share a vegetarian pizza, and then each of us would get a burger each.  We also ordered our drinks.  My choice was a cappuccino, but a waitress informed me later that the coffee machine was out of order so there would be no coffee!

Vegetarian Pizza, $18.00++

The vegetarian pizza was not bad.  Thin, crispy crust, topped with tomatoes, capsicum, mushrooms, and other stuff.  And of course, cheese was absolutely a must.  The portion was kind of big, actually enough for two guys to share for a meal.

Burger Dog with Pork, $10,00++

My burger dog with pork was less satisfactory.  Does anyone know why it is called burger dog?  Anyway, the portion was big, but the patty was way way too salty.  It felt like one big teaspoon of salt had been added to the patty.

Service-wise, it was quite ok in general.  I must sing my praise for one of the waiters there.  He was in his late teens to early twenties.  He brought us the burgers, and then asked us whether we would like to have chili sauce and ketchup.  Soon he brought us the chili sauce and ketchup on my request.  I left the two bottles on the table as I was still eating my pizza.  By the time I wanted to pour some ketchup onto my plate, I found the sauce just refused to come out.  After a few tries, I decided to just settle with chili sauce, and left the ketchup aside.  Surprisingly, that waiter came to our table, and helped me get the ketchup out onto my plate.  I didn't know how he managed to notice this while he was busy all the time.

Overall, the dining experience was decent.  Probably ordering some meat dishes will give us more fulfilling experience. 

iSteak at MyVillage Serangoon Garden

iSteak is a popular western food place at MyVillage at Serangoon Garden.  During lunch, you will see lots of people who either work nearby or live nearby come in for a quick lunch.  The prices here are quite reasonable, and the food is quite decent.  Well, how did I know it?  Somehow it is not too pleasant for me to come here, as someone likes to choose this place for farewell whenever we have someone leaving us for greener grass.  I have been here numerous times.  The dinning environment is pleasant, large glass windows let in plenty of natural light.  We want to support this place also because they support people who are intelligently challenged.

Honey Ginger Chicken, $10.00

For this occasion, I ordered the honey ginger chicken, for $10.00.  Every main comes with two free side dishes, which I chose spinach salad and olive rice.

The chicken was grilled together with the skin, which provided lots of natural chicken oil.  The meat was just nice, fully cooked but not dry.  Honey and ginger combination is a bit interesting.  Honey neutralized ginger's strong flavor and taste.

There is no GST, no service charge here. The price you see in the menu is what you pay.  By the way, if you do patronize this place, just help yourself with a menu from any table or display, choose what you like and then go to the cashier to make your order and payments.  Then you will be given a number plate indicating your order number.  The staff will bring the food to your table.  For cutlery, it is self-service, you can get them from the cutlery station, as well as whatever ketchup, chili sauce that you prefer.  For drinks, you have to order separately at the drinks counter. 

Botanist at Neil Road

The cafe is housed in an old shop house in the Tanjong Pagar conservation area.  The sign is not very prominent.  We almost walked right past it without noticing it.

The place is quite small, with 5-6 tables in the alfresco area, indoors there was only the cashier, kitchen and product displays .  The alfresco area is just a stone's throw away from Neil Road, so sometimes it can be quite noisy when there is a lot of traffic.

You have to go the cashier to order your food and drinks, make the payment and then came back with a number plate for your order.  Surprisingly, there is no service charge, GST is included in the stated price.

Slow Cooked Beef Cheek, $24.00

I ordered their signature slow cooked beef cheek.  Well, beef cheek is the cow's facial muscle, which works really hard throughout a cow's life, munching grass.  This tough muscle transforms into tender stew after being cooked low and slow.  You could still see the coarse fibre-like tissues but it was pleasant to bite and chew.

Underneath the beef cheek was the truffle mash, which is mash potato cooked with butter and truffle oil.  Butter and truffle oil added layers of complex sensations to this otherwise common ingredient, in particular the fragrance, which enhances your appetite.

Piccolo Latte, $4.50

Other than food, this cafe is famous for its coffee.  They are by the Pacamara people.  Well, as if I knew what Pacamara are.  Frankly speaking, I have never heard of Pacamara, until now.  Obviously they are a well-known boutique coffee roaster in Singapore, providing good coffee to the Singapore connoisseurs.  At first, I wanted to try their cold brew, but then it was not available on the day of my visit (why?).  I ordered a piccolo latte instead.

I always wonder why there are so many different names for the same stuff, coffee is just coffee.  Piccolo latte is a kind of 'new' invention that became popular in Sydney about 10 years ago.  It is coffee with milk served in a small glass.

The milk tames the bitterness of the coffee, while retains the nutty flavor of the beans.  It is gentle to the stomach, stimulating to the brain, fresh for the nose.  It would be great to have it after meal, but too bad, they served it before my food arrived.  Still not bad.

Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience.  The staff were friendly, service with a smile.  The place can be noisy and hot sometimes, mostly due to its close proximity to the main road.  Food and coffee are both good.  My friend whose standard comment on food is always 'so-so', surprised me with an 'above average' comment for Botanist.

Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant at VivoCity

Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant has long been a go-to place for Spanish food here in Singapore.  We visited its VivoCity branch on a busy Friday evening.

Pulpitos, $16.80

We ordered a pulpitos as appetizer.  This is considered part of their tapas selection.  Tapas is a Spanish word to describe food that falls into the appetizer or snack categories.  Pulpitos is basically cooked squid marinated with some Mediterranean sauce.   The squids were brittle, the taste was a bit sour nevertheless quite appetizing. I did enjoy this dish, except that the portion was really tiny, what you see in the picture above was all that we had for $16.80.

Paella Valen for 2 pax, $43.00

For the main, we ordered the seafood rice, or Paella in Spanish.  Paella is another dish that is quite open for interpretation.  You will find many variations across the world, however, the basic ingredients are more or less the same.  The main ingredient is, of course, the rice.  Not the kind of Asian rice that we eat normally, but the Italian risotto type of short-grain rice.  For the seafood part, prawns and squids are normally the main ingredients.

For the authentic Spanish paella, the rice is wet & soggy, and worse, it will not be fully cooked and it is done intentionally!  Most Asians don't like it.  To cater to the Asian taste, Serenity modifies their paella so that the rice is fully cooked and less soggy.  Well, it is definitely inauthentic, but, frankly speaking, I like it.

The restaurant advises that normally it will take 30 minutes for the paella to be ready for serving, longer if it is on a busy day.  At the end, our paella came after 45 minutes.  My stomach was already  drumming in protest.  The rice was not bad, not too soft, not too hard.  It was cooked together with some squid rings, soaking in the flavor of the sea.  It was a tad salty to my taste, but still acceptable.  Prawns and mussels were cooked separately and placed atop the rice.  Portion-wise, it was just nice for two no-so-hungry stomachs.  For young army boys, probably one can finish the whole portion.

Overall, I think the restaurant provides an opportunity for locals to have a taste of Spanish food, although with an Asian twist.  The service was alright, but the price is a bit on the high side, probably it is also a bar.  I will still go back if I have a sudden craving for Spanish food.