Boulevard (Millenia Walk)

Located right smack in the middle of Millenia Walk is Boulevard Bar so surprise surprise, it is banker/yuppie central on weekdays. It’s not a big place (where Baker’s Inn used to be) and to be honest, I find it a tad too packed during corporate crowd happy hour sessions.

This was a Sunday and Szeto and I had just bought a ton of wines from the Carrefour fair (see earlier post). We wanted somewhere quiet to chill out at before heading home (for weekly breathe-it’s-Monday-again therapy) and Boulevard looked like a good place. Well, mainly because it was fairly empty, save for two or three patrons.

We didn’t feel like beer, so we had a bottle of wine (surprise surprise again) to share. I can’t remember the name of the bottle we had but it was the house red. Nothing mind-blowing but it was fairly pleasant though $70+ a pop (if memory serves me right) is a tad inflated in price.

Food! I really needed some after all that wine tasting (and swallowing) at the Carrefour fair. The menu had a mix of western and local favourites, so we picked one of each.

First up, the fried carrot cake. It’s the white version (versus the sweeter black type) and came in a good portion. Not too oily, well fried with generous amount of egg and large prawns – it was rather tasty, although more chai por might have been nice. In typical bar grub fashion, it was rather salty (and I have a high threshold for salt). Oh vell, I have long accepted this as a ploy by bars to make us thirsty and order more drinks.

I was still hungry (third surprise surprise?) so I added an order of prawn aglio olio. Again, the prawns were large and succulent, but the pasta was over-done. I don’t like soggy pasta. Could have been a bit spicier though. I suppose if you do order this you could leave special instructions to correct this.

Overall, Boulevard seems like a cool place to chill out at (on weekends) and to mingle and be “seen” (on weekdays after work). I would go back to try the other food offerings. But given the limited wine list, I’d order a beer, rather than wine
.

Royal Room

Some friends had earlier invited us to watch the F1 practice runs from a private area at Durty Nellys they had cordoned off. But very frankly, the noise from the F1 cars were beginning to get on the nerves – argh cut it out already. When somebody suggested moving onto Royal Room at Pan Pacific Hotel, the rest of us unanimously agreed. Get us away from this racket, and into some air-conditioning please!

Royal Room is a new bar/lounge concept by the same folks behind Filter Members Club. It’s in the same space as the old Stereolounge, but if you ask me, I think Royal Room looks more chic – I am so in love with the designer Philippe Starck, Tom Dixon and Kartell lamps.

Picture courtesy of www.greatnewplaces.com

It was pretty quiet at 10pm on a Friday night (F1 weekend) but the crowds soon filled up the place. Not that we needed a crowd, given the party mood our group was already in. Like at Filter, music was great. And it got better as the night progressed. Some of my friends started dancing on the sofa, thanks to the Magnum Belvedere Vodka Bottle we ordered.

Ever the glutton, I got hungry midway into the party. “Can we order some food?” I whined. The kind manager passed me the menu. Fwahhh. Definitely not your usual pub grub – forget nachos, chicken wings and fries. The offerings here included Blackmore Full Blood Wagyu Beef Tataki, Fresh Canadian Oysters with Caviar, Seafood Ceviche, Seared Hokkaido Scallops, Octopus Carpaccio, Unagi Kabayaki with Ikura (“Kaba-what?”).

I decided to order the least atas sounding items on the menu – sausages and mash, and the crab cakes. They weren’t very cheap but to be fair, the food was really quite good! I love the caramelised onions that came with the sausages and mash. The crab cakes too, hit the spot – kudos for the generous shreds of crab meat.

Happily satiated on supper, I proceeded to dance the rest of the night away. Great place to hangout, I like it better than Filter. At least over here there’s space to dance. And yes, the crowd here is pretty hot looking haha.

Yu Champagne Bar

Call me suaku but I’ve never been to the Marina Bay Sands Waterfront. Kind of silly, actually, given that I work in Raffles Place and I’ve been to both Osteria and Pizzeria Mozza.



Well, better late than never.



I like how breezy and open the MBS Waterfront is – lovely for hanging out after work. In case you are interested, there’re a few sessions of a light (laser) and water show every night from 8pm. It’s free.



Me, I was there to check out Yu Champagne Bar. It’s not a very big place and outdoor seating is limited, but we were early and got a table with good “fengshui”. There’s a good variety of cocktails and beers, and Irene (who’s in the wine business) says the wine list is good. Hmm. I’m a very price elastic type of wine drinker. I found the bottle prices to be rather expensive, similar to Oyster Bar pricing. Fortunately for us thirsty types, they do a good happy hour before 8pm. It was $15 bucks for 1-for-1 glasses of the house wines (an easy Chardonnay from dunno-where).



We ordered a whole bunch of bar snacks to share. First we had the fries with spicy creamy sauce. The sauce tasted like chilli crab sauce, nice! But $8 is a bit pricey. Next, we had the crispy tofu cubes. Yucks, not nice.



The two platters we ordered fared better. The dim sum platter came with about 7 types of dim sum, including steamed prawn and pork dumplings, fried spring rolls and this fried sesame pocket thingy with prawn fillings. I really liked the mixed meat platter with a trio of char siu, roast pork and roast duck. Not a large portion but very tasty. I must go try the Chinese restaurant downstairs some time.



Yu Cuisine is owned by the same people behind Bosses at Vivocity, so we knew we HAD to order the crispy aromatic duck. We had mostly girls present, so we ordered conservatively half a duck ($25). Very good! The meat falls apart like pork floss and the skin is crisply divine.



Great night out chilling out with the homies!

Quaraba'r (Siglap)

I was on half day leave and Dee was free, so we decided to pop by our friendly neighborhood bar for some happy hour one-on-one girly catch-up. We met at 6pm and were the first customers there – yay the whole place to ourselves! Not for long though, because by 7pm+ the place started filling up.



Quaruba’r is as good as neighbourhood bars come. They have excellent happy hour prices and the wine selection there is surprisingly quite varied. I had a very pleasant bottle of Errazuriz (Chilean) sauvignon blanc at $68.



The pub grub there is more than decent and portions are hearty. Yes that huge plate of nicely fried and fresh calamari was only $9! The fish and chips I had there the last visit was respectable too. I will try the beef burger the next time I’m there.



The jazz band comes on around 9pm+ and they are pretty good. All in all, Quaraba’r has never failed me. It is friendly, cosy and familiar, the perfect place for a can’t-be-bothered-to-dress-up night out with old friends. Gem of the east?



Definitely.

La Maison Du Whisky

3 whisky lovers found malt/grain heaven at La Maison Du Whisky last Saturday night. We used to walk past it, slightly intimidated, back when it was just a retail outlet. Now that they put in a bar and seating, we found ourselves instinctively walking in.



Why haven’t we discovered this place before? Wow the whisky selection is really impressive - I know I say this quite often but “I wish my home bar looked like this!” Equally impressive was the décor – dark wood panels, lush leather seats and warm inviting lighting. Uh oh, I am so coming back here (often).



We eagerly started on our whisky journey. Starting from one end of the Scotch spectrum, I had the Aberlour 15 year single malt whisky – typical Speyside (also home to Glenlivet, Glenfiddich and the Macallan with heavy emphasis on fruit notes, with a hint of vanilla. A nice one to start off with.



Ling had the Springbank 10 year old, a great introduction to the Campbeltown style - mildly briny with some iodine from the sea. I took a sip and indeed, it was very pleasant. Ndee loves the peatiness of Islay scotch and he went straight for the Ardbeg Uigeadail from the Islay region (where my favourite Laphroaig and Lagavulin hail from). A whopping 50 – 60 ppm (parts per million of phenol), he was literally “smokin’ after one sip. Heh, next time, try the Ardberg “Supernova” - 100ppm phenol!



Feeling a bit peckish, we ordered a chocolate platter to share. Nice! I love pairing whisky with chocolate, they go so well together yums. To end off the evening, we order an apple brandy -

Christian Drouin calvados 15 years from Normandy, as well as the Pappy Van Winkle family reserve 15 Year Old Bourbon Wood. Hmmm.. love.



We were having such a lovely time that when the bartender announced at 12 midnight that the bar was closed, we couldn't help but pout. Oh well, it's ok, I am sure we will be back very soon!



(PS. Check out the not-for-pregnant-lady- consumption sticker on the bottle)

Sauce

We really like Overeasy, and so when we heard that The Butter Factory (TBF) group had opened a new concept bar & grill at the Esplanade, we were psyched to check it out. Unfortunately, our experience fell flat. So much for expectations.

It’s supposed to be “a modern take on the traditional all-american backyard cookout, with a garden party atmosphere” but eeiks, fake grass is not cool! I didn’t like the outdoor area. The indoor area was a bit nicer, I liked the cutsey mini sofas and the bar was nicely done up. Service staff looked very young - enthusiastic (place was two thirds empty) but clearly inexperienced.

Ok, on to the food. First of all, the bar menu was the most uninspiring I have seen in a long time. The most interesting item might well be the luncheon meat chips but that can only take them so far. It was quite a letdown compared to Overeasy’s bar menu where I would be spoilt for choice on what to order.

We decided to order from the main menu, comprising various snacks and grill items, and a trio of sauces accompanying each item. I ordered the Classic Dog ($12) – chicken sausage in between two hotdog buns garnished with onions and pickles. The accompanying sauces were BBQ, chilli cheese and balsamic beans. The sauces weren’t too memorable but I was starving and the sausage was pretty tasty.

HS had the Rib Eye ($30) and he muttered, at first cut, “These guys don’t know what medium rare is”. Oops. The steak came with a trio of pickle & herb, mushroom orzo and rosemary roast sauce. HS barely touched the sauces so I’m not too sure how they tasted. I don’t think he really enjoyed his meal though.

There are some interesting sounding sauces such as coffee bourbon, flamed peppercorn, truffle spread and jalapeno tartar which you can order separately at an additional cost (cant remember how much - $2 - 3?) but we didn’t see the need to try these. Sorry for the lack of food pics but the lighting was dim and the pics on my lousy iPhone 3 were terrible.

Alcohol wise, I first ordered a glass of the house white wine – Xanadu Dragon Range unwooden chardonnay ($8 during happy hour) – it was bleh. Don’t order it. The Marrenon Chardonnay “Les Grains” 08 we ordered was a tad better and at $57 a bottle I can’t complain.

Hmm I know it’s early days yet but I cant help feeling disappointed. Let’s hope they buck up because if not, there’s really no reason for me to make a return visit.

Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine and Caviar Bar

I’ve never been much of a vodka fan but when the opportunity came up to attend a vodka tasting event at Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine and Caviar Bar (wah quite a mouthful of a name), I jumped at it. Buyan has been on my to-go list for a while, and I was curious to see the vodkas which the Russians are so famous for.

We were a bit early for the tasting but this gave us a chance to mingle with Alex from citynomads, the bartender and the sommelier – all very nice and friendly people. That, plus the fact that they serve 45ml shots here instead of the regular 30ml shots - I think this could be my new favourite bar!

Whilst waiting, Alex initiated us to a rum shot (which he) called “Flirt”. Basically you take a wedge of lime, dip coffee powder on one side and cane sugar on the other, put it in your mouth, give it a good chew and down the shot of rum. Amazing! I’m not even a fan of rum but I wanted seconds *grin*

By the time the vodka tasting started, we were slightly buzzed so I decided it was time to sample some of the food. As mentioned by the earlier reviewer, the menu came on ipads and there were detailed desciptions and pictures, which made ordering easy. I decided on the Herring Under Fur Coat – a salad of chopped herrings mixed with potato and beet root, and doused with (was it mayo?) sauce. It was rather yummy, this dish and it went well with the shots of vodka.

We had 6 shots of vodka in all. The more memorable ones were the sibirskaya vodka from Siberia and this chilli-infused vodka name of which I can’t remember. I’m no vodka connoisseur but they definitely tasted smoother than the Smirnoff and absolut vodkas I was familiar with. Fortunately, to line our stomachs, they served up some traditional khachapuri (cheese baked with bread). Hot from the oven, this was gooey cheese goodness!

For dessert, I ordered the breaded baked apple. It was quite a novel idea – a whole apple baked into a crispy crust. It was quite tasty but the apple was a bit sour. The next time around I will order the blini pie instead.


I know it sounds excessive but we couldn’t leave Buyan without trying one of the finest Russian vodkas, the famed Beluga. At $45 a shot it was pricey but Ndee was in a happy mood (we all were) and he offered to buy the shots. I guess my vodka palate had really evolved throughout the night, because I could really taste the difference in the premium vodka – it was silky smooth, very subtle and elegant – well worth the hype (and $$$).

Surprisingly both Ndee and I only had mild hangovers the next day. Now I understand how the Russians can drink so much vodka – it’s not a myth, the good ones really don’t give bad hangovers! Anyway, I am definitely going back to Buyan to try out more of the food. And have another shot of “Flirt” *runs hands in glee*

Sabio Tapas Bar & Restaurant

We had an hour plus to spare before a vodka tasting event at Buyan Russian restaurant., so I figured it would be a good chance to check out Sabio, a relatively new Spanish joint just a few doors down from Buyan on Duxton Hill. I think it’s fantastic how they cleaned up this formerly dodgy area and the many interesting dining/wining destinations which have sprung up.



The décor of Sabio (picture below courtesy of Sabio Tapas Bar and Restaurant) was as authentic as Spanish bars come, I felt like I was back in Madrid! Long bar counter with plenty of side ledges to put drinks/tapas plates, nice mix of local and expat crowd, a buzz in the air that was befitting of a lazy Saturday evening.



The waiter promptly came to take our drink orders once we were seated. The drink list was fairly interesting with a respectable selection of Spanish sherries and wines. I decided on a dry amontillado sherry at $18 to start the night. Hmm, they were a bit stingy with the serving, not worth the price.

The huge leg of iberico belotta jamon (made from Iberian black pigs fed on acorns) they had at the counter looked very tempting but I recently had a jamon overdose so decided not to order that. It was a bit early for a full meal so we just ordered a sausage and cheese platter to nibble on. The platter wasn’t too bad but I was a tad disappointed it was so heavy on the chorizo and there were only 4 tiny silvers of queso.

After finishing my very tiny glass of sherry, I ordered a glass of albillo from Ribera del Duero at $16. It was not as good as I would have liked it to be but at least it was a decent serving. Ndee had a glass of red sangria which he said tasted like fruit punch.

Hmm, I would re-visit this place again to give the hot tapas menu a try, simply because I really liked the ambience. But I have this nagging feeling that they need to improve the food. It was also expensive, our bill for the above came up to $100.

Ndee said the face of the matador on the wall looked like that of the owner of the bar. If you do visit the place, let me know if you agree, haha.

13 Wives

It must be nice to open a bar with the cocktails inspired by one’s lost loves.

Kampong Bugis is one of those places that’s actually very near my home but it’s so obscure that I will never think of venturing there, much lest have a party on a Saturday night. But it was AL’s big 30th bash and the princess has requested to celebrate there.

13 Wives is part of an old building which also houses Kilo (new restaurant on my to-try list) and Loysel’s Toy, a coffee joint opened by the same guys behind Papa Palheta. The bar is only open on weekend evenings, apparently. It’s an al fresco area with wooden tables and benches, a bit old skool. Sorry, no pics to show.

There's 13 signature cocktails here, inspired by each of the 13 "wives". On this occasion I did not try any of the cocktails because we BYO-ed our own sangria, but the few people who had them said they were quite good.

My verdict? I think it's a bit of a stretch, calling it a waterfront bar. Seriously, it seemed more like a "lokang" (drain) view. But I suppose the bar is worth checking out if you are into the eclectic. Reminds me of my primary school canteen outdoor area haha. To be fair, it can be a nice quiet chill out place. But not one I'd personally hang out often at. Maybe I'll try a cocktail the next time after dinner-at-Kilo.