By the Fire, Alibabar Hawker Bar, Katong

Met Stef for a nice cozy meal after work at Alibabar Hawker Bar and ordered from By the Fire. Alibabar is a no-frills, simple, dining place, similar to a coffee shop concept. There are a few stores inside and you place your order with the store you want before finding a seat. It was a nice cool night so we sat outside and decided to order from By The Fire. This joint is set up by the same people behind Immanuel French Kitchen which was really awesome when I tried it so I just had to come around to try By the Fire after Stef recommended it.

I had a great time chatting about work and life, travel plans, random gossip and stories over delicious food at By the Fire and moscato at Wine Connection with Stef. Thanks for another good recommendation!

Scotch Egg. THIS WAS HEAVENLY. Runny egg yolk hidden in a layer of crispy batter. Was really good!

Seaweed Pasta. Al dente and yummy with bits of shrimps and seaweed inside. Not much substantial ingredients if you are looking for some but the pasta was good nonetheless. I felt a little thirsty after having the pasta though. 

Pork Cheek with Potato Salad! Extremely well-grilled on the outside (so crispy!) yet so soft and tender within. No stringy bits, no tough bits and no frozen porky taste. This was so good!

I took a bus to Katong and walked down to Alibabar Hawker Bar. It is directly opposite i12 Katong Mall at the junction facing Awfully Chocolate. It is hard to miss! If you are afraid of the humidity and heat which make the nights of Singapore unbearable sometimes, choose a table outside under the fan.

125 East Coast Road

Mon - Fri: 15:00 - 22:30

Sat - Sun: 15:00 - 23:00

+65 91854824

Immanuel French Kitchen and Stew Kuche

The boyfriend and I used to drop by this coffee shop in Alexandra Village for De Burg Burgers once in a while for their yummy burgers. De Burg Burgers has since relocated to CT Hub (still closed though), and Immanuel French Kitchen now stands in the shop space previously occupied by De Burg. The coffee shop seems more lively now with a variety of stalls selling french food, ramen burgers, seafood, fried chicken, and of course the anchor tenant - Stew Kuche. My parents were keen to try the food in this coffee shop so we drove down for a family dinner one evening.

The coffee shop was super crowded that Saturday evening and we milled around aimlessly searching for a table. It was getting really chaotic and many families with small children were wandering around searching for a table as well. A middle-aged man eventually pointed us to a table outside. Once settled into our seats, we picked up the menus from Stew Kuche and Immanuel French Kitchen and studied them happily. 

The menu at Immanuel French Kitchen was short and simple. Stew Kuche's menu was extensive and I was lazy, so no picture of their menu.

We ordered 3 dishes from Immanuel French Kitchen (Pork Belly, Duck Leg Confit, and Smoked Duck Salad) and 1 from Stew Kuche (Linguine in Pesto Sauce with Grilled Chicken). I joined the long queue at Stew Kuche to place my order and received a little stand with a number on it which I brought back to our table. There was no queue at Immanuel French Kitchen so I placed my order quickly and received a buzzer. The buzzer rang when my food was ready and I returned to collect my food. 

The Pork Belly below ($16.90) braised in Kakuni Style served with mushrooms, onsen egg, and potato foam was delicious! The Pork Belly was very well-braised, tender, juicy, and the fats simply melted in my mouth. Fantastic dish! The potato foam was interesting too, it tasted like foamy mashed potatoes.

The French Duck Leg Confit ($15.90) was good too! I am always mildly amused by the small portions in French food but I was surprisingly full from the duck leg confit. The duck leg confit was very soft and tender inside, and nice and crispy outside. It was a good dish but if I could only choose one dish at Immanuel French Kitchen, I am definitely going back for the Pork Belly instead. 

My mum wanted her greens so we got the Smoked Duck Salad ($9.80) which consists of smoked duck breast served with mixed greens and tossed with orange mustard dressing. I am not a big fan of salads but I have to say that this was pretty good!

So the one dish we got from Stew Kuche was Linguine in Pesto Sauce with Grilled Chicken. We watched as people around us ordered the Pork Knuckle from Stew Kuche and contemplated doing the same. But it was not exactly a healthy dish and my brother was not with us that evening to finish up the food so we gave the Pork Knuckle a miss. We will be back for the Pork Knuckle! The linguine in pesto sauce was all right, not very tasty, and the linguine was slightly soggy. I guess pasta is not their forte. The grilled chicken was good though. Juicy chicken with a slightly charred crispy skin. 

We ordered one pint of Hoegaarden ($11) and washed all that meat down with ice cold beer. Fantastic dinner with the family! We will be back for the Pork Knuckle at Stew Kuche and more beer. 

Bukit Merah Lane 1

Immanuel French Kitchen

92973285

Tue - Sun: 12:00 - 14:30, 18:00 - 21:30 

Closed on Mondays

Stew Kuche

62766445 (you can call to reserve a table)

Tue - Fri: 11:00 -15:00, 17:00 - 22:00

Closed on Mondays, except public holidays

Saveur, Purvis Street

Saveur has two outlets, one at Purvis Street and the other at Far East. I have always wanted to try Saveur but the large crowds at both outlets succeeded in justifying my procrastination. It was not until my friend and ex-colleague from HDB suggested we meet up at Saveur did I finally make my way down. 

The outlet at Purvis Street (across the road from Bugis Junction, a short walk from Raffles Hotel) was situated near my office so I managed to reach shortly after 7 pm. My friends snagged a table at the back so I could head in and sit down immediately. I was told that Saveur used to have only one shop space along Purvis Street but had since expanded. Thank goodness for the expansion! 

We ordered a Saveur's Pasta, a Salmon Confit, and Mushroom Cappuccino as starters to share.

The Saveur's Pasta was pasta tossed with chilli oil, fine-chopped Japanese konbu, sakura ebi, with minced pork sauce. The pasta was done al dente, springy and delicious. The Saveur's Pasta may look simple and unimpressive, but it was definitely a winner. 

The Salmon Confit was equally good. The slice of salmon was sweet and tender, and went perfectly well with the lemon vinaigrette.

The Mushroom Cappuccino was my friend's favourite item but I found it pretty ordinary. Granted, it was served like a cup of cappuccino with foam on top but it tasted like a watered down version of mushroom soup.

We each had a Duck Confit as our main dish. The duck leg confit sat on a bed of home made mashed potato, and sauteed shitake mushroom. The duck leg was done very well. It was crispy on the outside and really tender within. I was especially fond of the shitake mushrooms which were so soft and well-marinated!

We ordered a Salted Caramel Lava Cake for dessert. It was so delicious! Warm salted caramel spilled out of the cake when I sliced it, going perfectly well with the soft moist cake. It was sweet and salty all at once. The cake was a wondrous end to a fantastic meal at Saveur. I will definitely be back. 

If you are walking over from Bugis MRT Station, exit near the Intercontinental Hotel and cross the road. Head towards Purvis Street. Turn into Purvis Street and Saveur will be on your left.

#01-04 Purvis Street

Taratata Bistrot at Keong Saik

Keong Saik used to be known as a red-light district in this area but recently I have been hearing about the new restaurants and cafes springing up along this street. We were thinking about places to check out one day after work and decided to settle for Keong Saik. I was mighty pleased that I managed to squeeze in a gym session before catching the train down to Tanjong Pagar to meet Stef for a late dinner.

Was obviously the wrong choice to meet at Tanjong Pagar Mrt because it was a horribly long walk to Keong Saik. Completely my bad as I thought Tanjong Pagar Mrt was the closest mrt station to Keong Saik. It was not. Outram Park mrt station proved to be much nearer. Alight at Outram Park, exit at the Cantonment Police Station, cross the road and walk towards the shop houses. Keong Saik is this little street nestled among the shop houses.

We walked up and down the street a couple of times, trying to decide which restaurant to pop into. We were initially keen on trying Keong Saik Snacks but the restaurant was crowded and the waiting list was long. So we contemplated going for Retrospective or Taratata Bistrot since both received rave reviews. We eventually decided on Taratata Bistrot because I wanted to try something special.

The restaurant has a very nice laid back atmosphere and warm cozy ambience. However, we realized that it might not have been the best choice after stepping in. There was a table of really rowdy (and extremely drunk) customers sitting at the front of the restaurant, screaming, shouting and basically behaving like drunk adolescents despite a combined age exceeding 400 years old. Frankly, if you are intending to get drunk and disgrace yourselves in public, be more considerate and do it in a KTV lounge, pub or club. Try not to do it in a nice French restaurant because you are just spoiling the experience for everybody else. Plus, I can never figure out why would anyone want to get drunk on red. It's red wine! You are supposed to savour it, and not down glasses like there is no tomorrow. 

The food was awesome though. We ordered the Duck Confit and Chicken Simmered in Red Wine to share. The Duck Confit was great, crispy on the outside and extremely soft and tender on the inside. I'm usually quite wary of duck as I always find the texture of duck meat too tough for me. However, the Duck Confit here was so soft and tender, and so completely unlike duck meat! The Duck Confit came with White Beans Ragout which was really tasty. The mix of white beans, mushrooms and bacon was great.

The Chicken Simmered in Red Wine was a large chicken thigh braised with mushrooms, potatoes, bacon and lots of garlic. The chicken itself was very fresh and soft, completely absorbing the essence of the red wine sauce. The dish was really very fragrant. The potatoes were soft and tasty and I love the mushrooms!

The rowdy bunch retired for the night (boy was I glad) and the restaurant resumed its peace and quiet. We decided to have dessert here as well so we ordered a Pear and Chocolate Cake. It was really unique! Imagine a layer of rich chocolate on a bed of soft pear slices with a pear sorbet on top. Marvelous!

Service was attentive although they did forget about my red wine. The experience at Taratata Bistrot would have been amazing if not for the rowdy bunch of adults guilty of inappropriate behaviour. The food is really good and I would definitely recommend it to my friends. However, I would pop my head in and look out for drunks in the restaurant before settling down in future. 

35A Keong Saik Street

Poulet Restaurant at Bugis+

The parents and I were trying very hard to decide between Poulet Restaurant or Yayoiken at Bugis+ (formerly Illuma). My dad eventually dug a coin out of his pocket, flipped it and the coin decided on Poulet Restaurant for us. So that was where we went for some French food.

The queue in front of Poulet was always amazingly long, so I was very thankful to find out that there was no queue that particular evening. Or rather, the queue had not started forming yet because shortly after we settled down and ordered, we glimpsed a queue of about 8 people beginning to form outside the restaurant.

Poulet's specialty is definitely the Poulet Roti (roast chicken) so that was the first thing we ordered. We took a full chicken for good measure as we were uncertain about the size of the portions. We also ordered the Iberico Pork Belly as another main course to share, the salad de Paris, sauteed wild mushrooms, fries and mash potatoes as sides. 

Salad de Paris was pretty decent, with some crunchy nuts tossed within. I like the salad dressing as it was tasty and light. 

The fries were all right. Nothing to rave about, but nothing to complain about either. They were just decent thick fries.

The sauteed wild mushrooms were chewy and tasty at first and the hard boiled egg with a soft yolk gave the dish an interesting twist. However, after a few bites, I realized that the dish was really very oily. The last few mushrooms at the bottom of the plate were sitting in a pool of uninviting oil, and it became so bad that I had to squeeze the oil out of the mushrooms. I wouldn't recommend this dish, not even if you like mushrooms like I do.

Finally the main course - Poulet Roti. The chicken was quite tender at certain parts but rather dry and tough at others. The cream sauce at the bottom of the bowl was tasty but the taste does not grow on you. In fact, after dipping my chicken in the sauce a few times, I began to feel that the sauce was just too creamy.

I forgot to take a picture of the Iberico Pork Belly but I have to say, the pork belly was pretty good! It was obviously slightly fatty but the fats do melt in your mouth and the meat was really tender.

To be fair, I was quite disappointed with my meal at Poulet. With the constant crowd milling around the restaurant, I would have thought that the food would be more inviting. 

Level 4 Bugis+