Bar Bar Black Sheep

I have no idea what took me so long to make a visit to Bar Bar Black Sheep. I believe it has been on my foodie list for years. Well, it so happened that we were at Clarke Quay the other day and searching for a place to eat (and drink?) and it suddenly occurred to me that I had this place on my list!! And I can't believe I took so long to discover this lovely place. 

Just to manage your expectations, I wasn't blown away or anything, but we really enjoyed our experience here! And it's definitely a place to consider if you're looking for a place to chill. The ambience was delightful. Right next to the river along Robertson Quay, we picked a seat and dined alfresco. Thank goodness for the good weather that day, because it was way nicer sitting outside. BBBS has an extensive food and drink menu, which is already tempting me to go back for more. We ordered a couple of drinks (Kronenbourg blanc $8 glass/$13 pint) and sat back in our seats to people-watch.

They have at least four different cuisines at this bar - Indian/Thai/Local/Western. I was struggling to decide between Indian or Thai because they both looked so good. Went for Indian in the end since, as Sam says, I rarely eat Indian cuisine otherwise. I've heard some raving reviews about the Butter Chicken ($11) and it didn't disappoint! I'm actually not too sure what is the difference between this and Chicken Tikka Masala ($13) because they both taste pretty much the same to me. Equally tasty that is. And I ordered a serving of Garlic Naan ($3) along with it, and that was the best decision I made that night ;) The garlic naan was done really well! With a super generous amount of fresh garlic sprinkled atop it, the aroma was deeply infused into this favourite Indian bread of mine. Dipped into the the butter chicken sauce for heightened flavour and paired with a cold beer? THE BEST.

Sam ordered the Chargrilled Chicken ($19.90). Boring :P Haha oops. I didn't try it, but the portion looked really satisfying! 

Overall, the food and drinks here were very reasonably priced. Plus the fact that there was no GST/service charge despite the fact that they served the food to us! Now isn't that great ^^ Many reasons to come back for more.

Bar Bar Black Sheep

86 Robertson Quay

Tel.: +65 6836 9255 

Sun-Thu 12pm-12mn

Fri & Sat 12pm-2am

Breakfast weekends from 9.30am

Superheroes are back :D & the famous Santouka Ramen!

it's been almost a month since i got back and finally i get to see this group of people again! ^^ photos from sk's camera cos i was lazy to take out mine :p

just half of our group! can't wait for ngan & jiayee to get back :))) 

hotties with sunnies ;) haha bhb. we had tea at kki! (: will blog about that soon ;)

Dress: Forever 21 //

Clutch: Primark //

Bangles: New Look //

Sunglasses: Ray Ban //

i love my sunglasses from Ray Ban!!!! :D you have no idea how long it took for sam & I to find a pair of aviators that suited me. super happy with my buy! ^^ although i don't think it cost any cheaper in italy. but so worth it cos i love it! (: 

we spent quite a long time deciding where to go for dinner! from tim ho wan (decided against it because of the possible queue...but i'm so gonna try it SOON), to jumbo seafood (they wanted us to clear out by 7.30pm which meant that we couldn't sit and chill :/ ), to song fa bkt (another one i have to try soon!!! also looked crowded and hot). finally settled on Ramen Santouka! :D quite happy because i've heard of this place, vaguely, and it's probably existed for quite long. but it never really occurred to me to go there. and i was craving some ramen!! so glad that we came here ;)

look at that egg!!!! it was so delicious *drools*. it's really the very well-executed japanese egg which is slightly more than half-boiled inside (maybe 3/4? haha) so that the yolk is still gooey even though the outside is hard boiled. i wanna try making this egg someday! honestly i have no idea how long to boil eggs actually. haha :p anyway, this egg costs an additional $1.50 on top of your dish, and you HAVE to get it. (after that i was kinda scared of eggs though, cos i had like 6 eggs in the past 3 days or sth like that :O) they have different soup bases for the ramen, like shio/shoyu/miso/spicy miso, and they come in three sizes! i love that. i chose the smallest size shoyu ramen ($12.50), and it was just the right size for me! (: loved the robust broth and springy noodles, and i was so full after that!

what i would really recommend though, is the pork cheek ramen! it was SO GOOD. after eating my one pathetic slice of cha shu in my ramen, i tried one slice of sam's pork cheek. and it was so melt-in-your mouth tender! absolutely delightful! this is THE perfect dish with the broth-noodles-pork cheek-egg coming together in a harmonious blend of delicious flavours and you will not regret having this ;)

Ramen Santouka

The Central #02-76

Tel.: +65 6224 0668

Daily 11am-9.45pm

my gals <3 meet up more often please! ^^ 

headed over to Esplanade after that! wanted to go to Sauce, but it was full (saturday night feverrrr...) so we hopped over to Harry's Bar instead! haha what a day of traveling around :p luckily darling had the car ^^

thad joined us for dinner onwards! (: 

and because sam parked his car at mbs, we walked all the way to esplanade. and it was soooo beautiful (: i really love singapore's skyline! after visiting europe, i do realise that we have an AMAZING night scene (: so beautiful! and finally we have a nice photo at my happy place :') we've been there so many times but never really took a photo there! so happy <3 

Beer Market

i had no idea what this place was about before i came here! apparently it's quite popular haha. and why wouldnt it be, when they have $2nett fries and wings during their happy hour?! :O :O :O there, you took a second look right! it's so amazingly cheap! haha. sadly we didnt go there during the happy hour though!!! >.< cos we went there on friday, and they dont have happy hour that day. haiya -.-

but i really have to say that their food was pretty good! although we didnt get their fries or wings, we loved all the other food we ordered! and they drank beer too, but i still dont like it. i tried them, still dont like the taste :/ although they do taste SLIGHTLY better if i gulp rather than sip it. but uh, haha not my cup of tea. i only drank it cos i was thirsty haha. there was this strawberry beer that was quite interesting though! btw sorry for the awful picture quality, it was so dark there :(

while waiting for mel to arrive, we ordered an appetizer - mushroom tempura ($10). initially i was sorta reluctant to order this because it sounded so unhealthy!!! ever since summer started, i've gotten fat :( boohooooo :( but let's not go off track haha, the deep fried mushrooms with honey mustard dressing were such a good way to whet our appetite! i suppose since it was mushrooms, it felt relatively light, and was piping hot inside with lovely juices that made it absolutely delectable!

we ordered two pizzas to share among the five of us. i loved the teriyaki chicken pizza ($17)!!!! i didnt have much expectations for this place cos i just thought they would probably serve regular bar grub that was only so-so, but i have to say i was really pleasantly surprised! :) the pizzas were freshly baked, with a beautifully crisp crust that was just the right thickness. the chicken was succulent and there was a really generous amount of teriyaki sauce :D

the parma ham pizza ($19) wasn't as outstanding as the teriyaki chicken one in my opinion, but that isn't to say that it wasnt good! in fact, it gave off this 'comfort food' vibe which i quite liked! it had a subtle flavour of smooth cheese and the slivers of parma ham were delicious.

that's all we ordered, plus a few bottles of beer. and it was quite a good amount for the 5 of us! :) definitely will come back one day for their happy hour!

Beer Market

3B River Valley Road #01-17/02-02

Clarke Quay

Tel.: +65 9661 8283

Sun-Thu 6pm-2am

Fri, Sat & Eve of PH 6am-3pm

Happy Hour: Mon-Thu (6pm-8pm) & Whole of Sunday

En Japanese Dining Bar

ooh where can you get authentic japanese food at 50%?! :D when i heard that this restaurant had 50% discount on their sushi and sashimi, i made sure i dragged my family there to try it. we realised though, that after the the discount, the price was actually pretty much the same as what we would have at other japanese restaurants. the difference? this was AUTHENTIC. or at least, that's what i felt. i really loved the food :)))

okay, just let me give my two cents worth of this restaurant before going into the food part. 1) don't sit outside. it's just really hot. super hot. and stuffy. i attempted to sit outside for about 10mins and i couldn't take it after that. it feels like the air is super thick and heavy and hot, really unbearable. so even if they tell you that you have to share a table inside, just go for that option - anyway, the tables are huge, so there is no problem with sharing. 2) the service is rather...i don't know how to put it. it was definitely NOT GOOD, because the staff were just quite slow in responding to requests and stuff, but it did seem like they were really sincere, which i have to give them credit for. i guess all you can say is that it is inconsistent? or contradictory. haha i dunno.

yepps, anyway, that's it! the food made up for everything though xD woohoo! going back to the picture on top, we ordered the 7-kinds sashimi platter ($48.50 before discount) which included salmon, yellowtail, tuna, red snapper, octopus, swordfish and scallops. we also had an additional serving of salmon sashimi ($12.50 before discount) which explains the extra pile there. the sashimi was super fresh and delicious (: simple and good (:

we ordered several types of sushi - california maki ($10 before discount), salmon avocado maki ($11 before discount) and some unagi sushi which was a wrong order. yupp, they got the order wrong, and didnt even realise cos they charged us wrongly at the end. but i really loved the sushi!!!! this must be the best quality sushi i've ever tasted! they're made on the spot by chefs at this cool lowered-platform thing adjacent to the dining area. and the sushi is super soft and fluffy! each grain of rice is wonderfully fluffed up and the ingredients are all really tasty. it was really sushi made with love (:

the garlic fried rice ($10) is also the best i've ever tasted! i used to think the one at sushi tei was the best, but now i've found a worthy contender xD even before putting it in your mouth, you can smell and taste the aroma of the garlic. and every fluffy piece of rice is completely infused with the flavour of the garlic, it is SO awesome.

our wrong order of unagi sushi was meant to be soft shell crab maki ($12), so we decided to order it again. i loved the roasted crispy soft-shell crab in the sushi. it just makes all the other soft shell crab items in other jap restaurants feel overfried and less tasty in comparison.

and lastly, the most big shot item of the day - the buta kimchi fried rice ($12). i say it's a big shot, because we had to wait 45 minutes for it!!!!!! :O seriously?! it was plain ridiculous. we asked the waitress to check on it over and over again, and attempted to cancel our order, but they just kept saying that it was coming. 5 minutes rolled into 15 minutes, and we were pretty much full and ready to leave any moment. when it finally arrived, we were thinking 'this had better be good'....and guess what? IT WAS GOOD! :D it had a subtler garlic taste as compared to the fried garlic rice, and was balanced out nicely by the flavours of the kimchi. omgosh, it was worth it. although i would have preferred that we didnt have to wait of course, i have to say that i didn't regret waiting for this dish (: YUMMY!!!

so overall, i LOVE the food in this restaurant, but i do hope that the service would have improved the next time i come here (:

by the way, the 50% promotion is between 6-8pm daily! just look at the symbols on the menu (:

En Japanese Dining Bar

UE Square #01-57

Tel.: +65 6735 2212

Sun-Thu: 6pm-12am

Fri, Sat & Eve of PH: 6pm-3am

Peony Jade

walking down the length of shops along clarke quay, there are an abundance of restaurants to chose from for dinner! virtually all types of cuisines are present, right down to turkish cuisine, in the form of turkish ice cream haha. :P if you walk right down to the end of the row, without being lured by all the other eating outlets along the way, you'll reach peony jade, which is famous for its cantonese cuisine (& mooncakes!!). it's menu of seafood was extensive, but we didn't order any of it :P i thought the picture of one lobster dish looked exceptionally enticing, but it was really expensive O.O

i was slightly hesitant when mummy suggested ordering the braised dried seafood with pumpkin soup ($32 small), preferring to opt for the safer choice of hot & sour soup. but then again, it's always good to have a stomach open to new food right? so i went along with her choice, and my, i was pleasantly surprised! the soup was very flavourful, having been boiled with seafood like prawns, scallop and fish. slightly sweet from the pumpkin, it also tasted very much like sharks' fin soup! :O haha. YAY :D it was great to slurp down that bowl of tasty soup for the soul, knowing that we weren't killing any sharks in the process ;)

the pan-fried eggplant with hot garlic sauce and fish fillet ($18 small) came in a sizzling hot pot. the eggplant was fried till it was slightly crispy, but after being boiled with the sauce, it was wonderfully soft at the same time. such a perfect combination. the sauce was tomato-based, inviting comments like 'why does it taste like tomato ketchup??' well, it did, to a certain extent. but definitely a tastier version. uhh, one thing though, we couldn't find the fish fillet anywhere inside?

there were so many yummy dishes that day! but if i had to pick a favourite, it would be the braised homemade beancurd with golden mushrooms and dried scallops ($18 small). fried to a light crisp, each piece of beancurd was nicely cut into portions for easier eating. the sauce was lightly flavoured, and the beautiful golden mushrooms complemented the beancurd wonderfully.

the 'jing du' style pork spare ribs ($20 small) were slathered with a generous amount of sauce, just the way i like it :D the sauce was sweet and slightly sour and the ribs were tender and meaty. so yummy (:

by this point, we were really quite full already! the small portions turned out to be not-so-small after all. but the food was just so delicious that we kept going for more. somehow we managed to sweep the entire table (: and oh oh! the appetizer was really nice too!!!!!! i can't remember where i had a similar appetizer, i think it could have been at taste paradise. it was a handful of a variety of nuts coated with a glaze and covered with sesame seeds. absolutely DELICIOUS. :D anyway, the next dish we had was roasted crispy free-range chicken with szechuan hot sesame sauce ($30 half chicken). as promised, the chicken skin was nicely crispy, but the sauce was uhh, either non-existent, or just not spicy at all. i found that it was mostly a flavouring which they scattered over the top of the chicken. it was really tasty though! a mix of garlic, sesame and i dunno what else. but it was really really yummy.

and of course, one of my favourite chinese desserts. actually, when we were browsing the menu before we decided to enter the restaurant, the pan fried szechuan pancake with red bean paste ($12) was the dish that sealed the dish for me :P heehee. and it didn't disappoint :D beautifully crispy, with a fairly generous amount of paste. the only thing was it seemed to be dousha rather than red bean? they're different, right?? but it was nice anyway :D

Peony Jade

Blk 3A Clarke Quay#02-02

Tel.: +65 6338 0305

Lunch 11am-3pm

Dinner 6pm-11pm

Brewerkz

AHH i haven't posted in awhile! so busy these few days. i only have 10 days to play! plus all the work that i've got to do in preparation for ocip so its total madness these few days :O anyways, finally a chance to breathe and relax over the weekend and go out somewhere nice for dinner (: i've been wanting to try Brewerkz ever since Yi kept raving about the cheese sticks from the last time she went there xD

The nachos ($20) came piled high, topped with oozy cheese, salsa, avocado dip, sour cream and jalepenos. the nachos were crunchy and lightly salted, tasty on their own! it served as a great neutralizer to the overwhelming flavours of the other dishes towards the end of the meal when i was full to bursting.

the must-try fried cheese sticks ($19) which my sister recommended lived up to our expectations wonderfully. an oozy mix of mozzarella, swiss and cheddar cheese encased in crunchy breadcrumbs. absolutely sinful, but lip-smackingly delicious. eat it while its hot and oozy! (:

the two appetizers were enough to fill us up substantially. when the full rack of pork ribs ($54) was served, i nearly baulked at the size. it was a generous serving! (: the ribs were tender and the meat fell off the bone easily. mmm (: and there was extra bbq sauce provided which was great!

the grilled 1/2 chicken ($26) was yummy as well! drenched with the same sauce as the bbq pork ribs, this was another delightful main dish.

at brewerkz! (: blur picture :/

Brewerkz

30 Merchant Road #01-05/06

Riverside Point

Tel.: +65 6438 7438

Mon-Thu: 12pm-12am

Fri, Sat & Eve of PH: 12pm-1am

there was a pretty christmas tree at riverside point! christmas is cominggggggg! :D :D :D have to start writing christmas cards soon, whee! xD

went for drinks at octapas after that (:

Tapas Tree/Octopas

haven’t done a food post for quite a while! :P i wanted to do one on the Soup Restaurant a couple of weeks ago, but i was just too busy! xP school is really really crazy! staying in school till 10.30pm for projects is no joke O.o and midterms are next week!!!! yikes! i desperately need to mug :/ but i’m glad that i’m much more involved in school stuff in uni compared to jc/secondary school (: i will make sure i stay this way. although i’m busy, but at least what i’m doing is fruitful! :D although i REALLY REALLY don’t like meeting for projects…mostly it’s a waste of time :/ anyway! i’m supposed to be doing a food post! haha, spent too much time ranting instead :P whoops! i’m totally looking forward to my holiday btw - one more week to go!!!!!! :D

today’s dinner was at Tapas Tree in Clarke Quay, or now, it’s renamed as Octapas? took quite a while to find the place because of the change in name, but according to the directory and website, the name is still Tapas Tree. today was the start of celebrations for mummy’s birthday xD it’s this coming week, but sadly all our exams fall within that week, so we’re celebrating early! (: 

these were the drinks we ordered! from left: beer (i dunno what kind :P), sparkling sangria, apple mocktail and lychee martini! (: fun fun fun! :D

spanish food = tapas! there are different categories of tapas from cold tapas, to ones containing meat, seafood and veggies. we ordered one from each category (:

1. beef & chicken meatballs in tomato sauce - really tasty sauce! i think somehow all the spanish dishes have really tasty sauces xD

2. tomatoes with olive oil on focaccia - this was really really salty at some parts! O.o no idea why, but it was the least nice out of all the tapas we tried.

3. grilled mushrooms in garlic sauce - oooooh, GARLIC. need i say more? (:

4. grilled squid in balsamic vinegar - this was the last tapas we ordered but it was the MOST appetizing thanks to the vinegar (: yummy! 

5. beef tenderloin cubes with garlic and chili - wow this was really spicy!!! :O they used chili padi i think. but it was a really good kick, nice! 

i liked how the tapas all came in small portions (just nice for the four of us), so we could just try a little of everything.

lastly, for the main dish, we ordered the negra paella, which is squid ink rice (sorry for the poor photo quality…:/) it was really tasty, i have no idea whether it is the taste of the squid ink (does it even have any taste??) or some herbs, but it tasted really good. only thing is that the squid ink stains terribly! we all looked like vampires or a bunch of goths after eating it :/ 

overall, nice food with a nice ambience! :D you can chose either alfresco dining or to sit inside, there was supposed to be music, but for some reason, it only started at 9.30pm, and we finished dinner before 9pm -.- didn’t get to enjoy the spanish music! ): 

Tapas Tree

3D River Valley Road

#01-08 Clarke Quay

Tel.: +65 6837 2938

Mon-Thu 12pm-12am

Sat & Sun 12pm-1am

whee! the Singapore Grand Prix is back again! :DDDDD i have never managed to watch it live though! xP hopefully i’ll get a chance soon! so cool! :D