my family has a funny habit of visiting places repeatedly within a short period of time. just so you know, we visited tripleone somerset once a week for three consecutive weeks (this being our third visit) to explore the different restaurants there. oh btw, for those who drive, you'll be glad to know that parking there is pretty affordable compared to other carparks in the orchard road area, which is one of the reasons why we frequented that place so much :P haha.
we were first attracted to bilbao's by the really friendly service staff (possibly the boss) who came out to greet us with enthusiasm when we just walked past during our first visit at applebee's. because of that, we decided that we had to visit this place again for a meal (:
the day we went there, they were having a special promotion where the saffron rice with seafood was going at a heavily discounted price of $10 per portion, compared to the original price of $50! definitely, the portion was significantly smaller, but considering we were not very hungry then, the two small plates we got were just enough to satisfy the five of us. the rice was fragrant, scented with the saffron spice, and there was a variety of seafood on each plate like prawns, mussels, clams and cuttlefish. since it was going at just $10, we obviously didn't expect much seafood, but i would think that the $50 version has much more.
before that, the meal kicked off with a complimentary plate of crusty, yet fluffy, bread, with pieces of ham inside! (: the ham added a surprise element to this appetizer, and the sauce that came with it was really interesting, i'm not entirely sure what it is. but it tasted like a very light kind of cream sauce.
we ordered a couple of tapas. sorry for the awful picture quality. i didn't have my camera with me (how on earth could i forget?!) so i had to use my phone, and the lighting was pretty bad. anyway, we had the basque sausages slow cooked in white wine ($9). this was perhaps the weirdest dish we had that day. the sausages were really quite odd! the texture was sort of chunky and gritty, definitely unlike the sausages we're used to. i also felt that the white wine sauce could have been tastier, because it tasted pretty average to me.
we had intended to order another dish, but instead what we were served was the prawns with garlic tapas. the smell was delicious, and so we decided not to pursue our original order haha (: the prawns were fresh and cooked perfectly, the fragrance of the garlic infused into the meat. simple and yummy.
the meatballs madrid style ($25) came recommended by food reviews, and it didn't disappoint. lovely minced meat rolled into balls of tasty goodness. there was very little sauce, and the meatballs tasted great already without it, but as usual i tried to pour as much sauce as i could on my meatballs, and they complemented it perfectly. the only possible gripe i could have was...i wanted more!! haha.
the oxtail stew in red wine sauce ($38) totally didn't look like a stew at all! where was all the soup/sauce? haha. despite its appearance though, it was a lovely dish :D the meat was so tender and soft that it just fell off the bone. sooo yummy (:
and to round off our meal, we ordered the platter of desserts ($20), which is a sample of the desserts on their menu. actually the only thing i tried was the apple tart, which was a soft baked apple on a crusty tart which was pretty yummy! i ALMOST tried the cheesecake before yi yelped with shock when she put it in her mouth. i practically dropped my fork when she did that. anyway, it totally put me off it, and to add on, i gave it a sniff and it smelled pretty odd? :/ usually cheesecakes are made from the soft and sweet types of cheese, whereas this one smelled of really strong cheese, the savoury kind. seemed really weird, i refused to eat it. the custard was said to be quite nice too, although i didn't try it because i was too full already.
altogether a pretty decent meal (:
Bilbao Restaurant and Gastrobar
Tripleone Somerset #02-16
Tel.: +65 6737 0150
Mon-Sat: 12pm-3pm
6pm-11pm
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