House@Dempsey

As with most restaurants in Dempsey Hill, House is tricky to find. Tucked away below ground level, it takes some searching to unearth this gem. But when you get there, and discover the lengths taken to inject a new kick into its menu, it is definitely worth the effort. With a quaintly decorated cosy interior and nestled in lush green surroundings, House exudes a laidback aura that invites you to sit back, relax and enjoy.

The menu overhaul has introduced quite a number of new dishes, with many more mouth-watering photographs that makes it a pleasure to browse through. Try the Wagyu Spring Rolls for a start! These delicious crispy wagyu rolls tease your eyes as it does your taste buds. The richness of the smooth minced wagyu marinated with maple and soy envelopes and spreads through your mouth with a creamy flavour. The slightly crumbly consistency is a delight, making this a texturally interesting dish. Paired with a massive pile of fresh green papaya salad, this is a well-balanced dish to begin the meal with.

Two of the new main dishes on the menu are the Roasted Chilean Cod Fish and Hanger Steak with Croquettes & Wild Mushrooms. The cod fish is absolutely fresh and cooked beautifully with a crisp seared top and is soft and firm inside, falling apart easily with the prick of a fork. It is roasted with turmeric, producing a slightly smoky aroma and comes with a lovely sweet date sauce, as well as seared chorizos for a spicy kick. The presentation of this dish is visually arresting with its height – topped with a refreshing apple and celery salad to complement the fish.

House does its beef wonderfully. The hanger steak is sliced to rather thin pieces, whose appearance might prompt some scepticism. But just place it in your mouth, and any uncertainty is instantly quashed. Despite its thinness, each slice of the steak is seared just so, such that it is slightly pink, and perfectly tender. The taste is slightly gamey, but this just enhances the essence of the steak further, and the salts rubbed on the meat help provide a nice antidote to this. While the highlight of this dish is obviously the steak, the croquettes are so delectable they can’t help but bask in the limelight as well. Bursting with creamy ham béchamel, the blend of potato and bacon is so smooth and velvety that it is impossible not to fall in love with them!

House is famous for its fries as well, and we highly recommend the truffle taro fries and pumpkin hazelnut fries! Honestly, it is really difficult to choose amongst the four varieties, on top of their popular original truffle fries. But the two recommended are absolutely the bomb. Atypical from your potato fries, these can be considered the “healthier choice” being made from yam and pumpkin. But they are no less delicious, and in fact, taste even better with their outstandingly unique texture and lovely toppings. Try them, and you will know what we mean.

*This is an article i wrote for reserveit.sg (: Try out their online reservation service, and you can check out more articles there!

I also wrote a post on this place way back in 2010 i think!! omg wow, i havent realised i've been writing this blog for such a long time ^^ how time flies :D

House 

Blk 8D Dempsey Road

Tel.: +65 6475 7787

Lunch: Mon-Fri (12pm-3pm)

Tea: Mon-Fri (3pm-6pm)

Dinner: Mon-Sun (6pm-10.30pm)

Brunch: Sat (11am-4pm) & Sun (9am-4pm)

Dempsey Brasserie

i haven't been to dempsey in quite a while! the restaurants there are forever changing. anyway, interestingly, the reason why i was attracted to this place was because of their specialty dish - the mussels pot! actually i'm not really much of a seafood fan, but i'm definitely starting to appreciate it.

their mussels were SO fresh and super duper tasty! air flown from Boston Bay, Tasmania, the meat fell away easily from the shell, and even those of us who aren't really into seafood thoroughly enjoyed it. we ordered the starter pot ($20), and i have to say it was pretty huge already. you have a choice of sauce - Vin Blanc, Mariniere and Siam. we chose the vin blanc which had shallots, garlic, parsley and dry white wine. this came with a choice of fries or bread. we opted for bread, which we used to mop up the sauce. DELICIOUS!

this was a sumptuous meal we had! tried a lot of dishes haha. zhen had the scrambled egg and shaved truffle served with buttered toast ($12). whao, when the dish arrived, the waves of the truffle aroma were totally emanating from her plate. it was so addictive. the scrambled eggs were nicely done and i loved the huge cherry tomatoes that came with it!

one of the best dishes we had was the burger board ($18). super duper cute mini prime Angus cheese burgers with skinny fries! the burgers were really well done. the beef was fragrant and juicy, good job done since small pieces tend to get burnt/ too hard quite easily!

the eggs royale ($22) is very similar to my favourite eggs benedict, but instead of ham, it comes with smoked salmon. yi said the bun was a little tough though! but the egg was pretty well done :)

the Big Brasserie Breakfast ($24) is a big plate of all your favourite breakfast foods - eggs, back bacon, forest mushrooms, grilled cumberland sausage, roasted vine tomatoes, grilled brioche, butter and jam. for those who need a wake-me-up after a rough night, try the Big Hangover ($24), which is their big brasserie breakfast + dempsey bloody mary + a glass of Berocca. think it'll help wake you up? ;)

my smokey pulled pork burger ($25) was quite interesting too! i felt the pulled pork was a tad tough, but i suppose that's the texture of it anyway! the fries were addictive!!!

grandma's pancakes withe maple syrup ($12) was nice! :) the pancakes were lightly sweet on their own, and fluffy. perfect with dipped in the maple syrup and eaten with the fruits on top.

Dempsey Brasserie

Block 7B, Dempsey Road #01-03

Tel.: +65 6473 4500

Mon-Fri 4.30pm-1am

Sat 10.30am-1am

Sun & PH 10.30am-11pm

La Salsa

i just love the group of restaurants at dempsey hill. the atmosphere there is just so specially cosy, and the place is like sorta cut off from the rest of the world, in a little neighbourhood of its own. usually my family's go-to place for mexican food would be Margarita's, but as usual, i wanted to try somewhere new so we decided to try La Salsa! :) and i have to say that it was pretty good! after all, if you don't try new places, you'll never discover new stuff right?

starting off with the most interesting (or maybe just unconventional) dish we had, were the Crab Cakes, which cost a jaw-dropping $30 for 4 pieces. yup papa nearly fainted when he saw the price, but i persuaded them to order it anyway. hehe :P and it was a great choice! sweet and tender crab meat beautifully shaved and packaged in a crispy breadcrumbed cover, served with a dollop of dill and garlic mayonnaise - the combination of textures from the crunchy exterior to fluffy interior was absolutely divine! :)

as always, i can't do without nachos. haha i'm becoming too predictable aren't i? :P oh well, i can't help it! despite the fact that i love trying out new stuff, there are favourites that can't be forgone (: the Cheese Nachos ($12) were crisp and well done, no sogginess here. but i felt that the amount of sauce could have been more generous. the nachos were covered with melted cheese, tomato Mexicana, sliced jalepenos, sour cream and guacamole, but there wasn't nearly enough topping to go around. i suppose there has to be a give-and-take between the crispness of the tortilla chips and the amount of sauce, but if you ask me, i'd rather have SOGGY chips with lots of cheese & sauce! haha. oh one more thing, for an additional $3-$5, you can add more toppings like beans, mushrooms, meat or prawns.

since mexican food is synonymous with fajitas and tortillas or wraps of any sort, we just had to order the Steak Fajitas ($32). it was a super fragrant hot plate of sizzling beef, with a generous amount of sauces on the side for your to spread liberally in your fajitas. pretty good! :)

we also ordered a Chicken Burrito ($20)! :D haha i think they're so cute. this was an awesome dish - i was so amazed how they managed to stuff it to the brim with the chicken filling, together with cheese, mexican rice, chili sin carne (what is this??) and topped with sour cream, guacamole and tomato mexicana. ooh my, the smorgasboard of tastes was simply delicious! :D

the good thing about ordering two appetizers and two mains to share is that we have room for dessert! or sometimes, we force ourselves to make space, cos it just looks soooo tempting! :D

unfortunately, i think this is one area which La Salsa should probably work harder on. the Chocolate Fondant ($10) was tiny. okay, i suppose maybe i shouldn't have expected so much. but i still felt it could have been better! the chocolate was flowy, but it wasnt sufficient. the cake scored in terms of richness though :)

the Churros ($10) too were tiny! i mean, i can get a LONG stick of it from one of those random stalls in a shopping centre for a fraction of the price, and they're not bad either! this was pretty alright i suppose - they were really crispy! and the chocolate sauce that came with it complemented it nicely.

La Salsa

Blk 11 #01-17

Dempsey Road

Tel.: +65 6475 6976

Weekdays 4pm-1am

Weekends & eve of PH 4pm-2am

Cafe Hacienda

ooh i haven't had a yummy brunch for the longest time! ever since i went to manila, i've been 'deprived' of my weekly sunday brunch haha. i never knew that prive and cafe hacienda are related! but apparently they are sister cafes, according to the website? anyway, prive is every elusive and exclusive. i've been wanting to go there since last year, but somehow we never ever manage to do so :( apparently they do not pick up their phone, so we can't even call to make a reservation? sigh. anyway, we went to cafe hacienda this weekend and it was pretty good! :D

starting off with the biggest and bestest, we had the ULTIMATE BREAKFAST ($17). actually this was my least favourite! haha. i didn't really eat much of it. the set includes two eggs (cooked in your preferred style), sausage, bacon, mushrooms, roasted tomato, baked beans, arugula and toast. i was wondering what arugula was, since it was supposedly present in almost all the dishes. realised it was the veggie. haha. it was quite nice i think! the only things i tried from this plate were the mushrooms and the baked beans. loved the mushrooms. seasoned with herbs and black pepper, the mushrooms were as tasty as they smelled :D i didn't really like the baked beans though. probably because i tasted capsicum in the first mouthful, so it's kinda my biased opinion :P haha.

fluffy pancakes ($13.50)!! haha we are always in search of the best pancakes xD i've no idea what the verdict is anymore. where can you find the best pancakes? please comment and share!! :D the pancakes here are pretty good. i loved the fluffy texture (yay, it's always good when a dish lives up to its  name (: ) i liked the strawberries that came with it too, and there was this cute little honeycomb thingy (which is malt sugar) on top. and the WHIPPED CREAM. omg. it was really goooooooooooooood! light and airy, i couldn't resist it, even though i always try not to eat all this cream :P

and my favourite! eggs benedict ($13.50). seriously. ever since i tried my first eggs benedict last year, i think i've fallen in love with this dish. there is just something so satisfying about nibbling at the toasted english muffin, avoiding the egg at first, enjoying the hollandaise sauce, bacon and ham. then when i can't take it anymore, i prick the lovely wobbly poached egg and all the lovely goodness inside oozes out, and i scramble to mop it all up with the rest of my muffin. absolute heaven :)))))

and that was my lovely breakfast on sunday (:

Cafe Hacienda

13A Dempsey Road

Tel.: +65 6476 2922

Daily 9am-11pm

Opera in the Park & Barracks, Dempsey Hill

If you read my post last saturday, you would have heard about how my family and I went to the Singapore Botanical Gardens one week earlier for Opera in the Park -.- anyway, today we were back again, this time on the correct day to attend the opera. I’m not one to really appreciate these sort of things, but it was quite a pleasant experience (: as long as I receognise some songs, I’m happy.

Anyway, we left before the concert ended because we were STARVING. And back we went to Dempsey Hill (haha, seems like we have no creativity :P) since it was nearby. This time, we went to Barracks Cafe at Dempsey House, which we had planned to go to for my sister’s birthday a couple of weeks ago, but did not manage to because I (the blur one, as you will find out soon enough) got the address wrong ):

I realised that Dempsey House is really cool! It’s a Beauty Emporium, Cafe and Bar all in one! For fans of the Spa Esprit Group, you will LOVE this place (:

So, lots of items on the menu sounded soooo interesting! I settled for the Jamaican Jerk Pork Tenderloin ($24).

(sorry for the lousy picture quality :P)

The pork was tasty, however, I was slightly disappointed with its texture ): Since it was a TENDERLOIN, I naturally expected it to be tender, yet, it seemed rather overcooked and hard.

 

Z ordered the House Rib Eye Steak ($30) which was delicious.  I regretted not ordering it! :P It was juicy and succulent, with a gorgeous homemade gooseberry port-wine sauce. There was a hint of vinegar, and let me tell you, I LOVE vinegar. Therefore, I loved that dish (: I couldn’t help stealing numerous bites of that wonderful steak. Oooh, yummy!

Other dishes ordered were…

1.  Red Snapper ($25) – good if your taste is like my mummy’s, light and simple.

2. Herb Crusted Lamb Rack ($32), which I didn’t try because you know I don’t like lamb xP

3. Mushroom Risotto ($24) – OH MY GOSH. I almost fainted when it arrived at our table! It smelt reallyyyyy cheesy! >.< It contains pecorino cheese (no idea what that is) which I assumed caused the smell. Oh gosh. We all got a huge shock. Anyway, according to Y, it didn’t taste as cheesy as it smelt, but…I think I’ll pass.

We also tried the truffle fries ($9) which were supposed to be ‘legendary’. Pretty nice, but not THAT special. I guess I don’t really know what truffle tastes like, so i couldn’t really appreciate it fully, but there was a subtle taste of…something? Mostly it was just like your regular fries :P

Then it was time for dessert! :D Barracks Cafe displays all the desserts for the day (since not all of those on the menu are available), which is a complete visual feast! We were most tempted by the chocolate goodies, and ordered a chocolate tart and hazelnut chocolate cake.

Ooooh, look at that, start drooling (: The chocolate tart was chock full of chocolate, with a beautiful crunchy biscuit crust. Just PERFECT. (: I didn’t manage to get a picture of the slice of hazelnut chocolate cake because we attacked it too quickly! :P It was HUGE! and really tasty too! It was rich, velvety and chocolate-y. So decadent (: And i love nuts, so all the hazelnuts in it were an additional bonus for me! (: 

All in all, a generally satisfying meal, with ESPECIALLY WONDERFUL DESSERTS! :D 

Barracks Cafe

Blk 8D Dempsey Road

Tel.: +65 6475 7787

Lunch: Mon-Fri (12pm-3pm)

Tea: Mon-Fri (3pm-6pm)

Dinner: Mon-Sun (6pm-10.30pm)

Brunch: Sat & Sun (11am-4pm)

Villa Enrique

Villa Enrique is nestled in the little enclave of Dempsey Hill. A spanish restaurant that serves up traditional fare in a cosy atmosphere. I went there for dinner with my family today, after visiting the Singapore Botanic Gardens for an opera concert that turned out to be next saturday -.- anyway, since Dempsey Hill was nearby, we decided to pop over for dinner. 

We stared with a tapas platter (shown above) which is a sampling of 5 cold tapas and 5 hot tapas, some of which are not on the menu. Each little piece was bursting with flavour and successfully whet our appetite for the main courses that followed. My only gripe - most of the meats were cured, which meant they were EXTREMELY salty. Thankfully, they came on a little slice of toast which slightly alleviated the saltiness.

Oh yes, before our tapas, we were served a delightful basket of bread. When you are starving, a tiny bun is a great saviour,  isn’t it? (: The bread at Villa Enrique came with garlic spread, instead of the usual butter, which added an interesting kick to the bread. Yummy!

The main courses followed. We ordered three to share among the 5 of us, and it was enough to fill our tummies to our content (:

First up was the tenderloin beef. Honestly, what i loved most about the dish was the SALAD. Drizzled with balsamic vinegar (*squeals!!!!*), it was crunchy, tasty with just the right amount of sourness to make it so appetizing (: The potato cubes that came with the beef were awesome as well, and so were the mushrooms which were so tasty and melt-in-your-mouth that i was picking out as many as i could find.  The beef itself, on the other hand, was slightly disappointing as i hoped that it would be more tender.

Next, was the squid ink paella. Its a slightly sticky, short-grained rice, which is ALL BLACK in this case, due to the squid ink. It was very fragrant and each mouthful was so infused with flavour, it was easily my favourite dish of the day (:

Finally, the lamb shank. Let me clarify, I DO NOT like lamb, but in this case, papa said that it was nice, and made all of us try it, which was why I took a bite. Surprisingly, it was not that bad. The taste of lamb was rather muted (phew!), and the meat was juicy.

The decor of Villa Enrique was cosy, and I loved this painting that was the feature of the restaurant.

Villa Enrique

Blk 10 #01-23

Dempsey Road

Tel: +65 6476 2311

Lunch: 12pm-2.30pm

Afternoon Tapas & cocktails: from 5pm onwards

Dinner: 7pm-12am (Mon-Thu & Sun)           

7pm-1am (Fri & Sat)

Villa Enrique

Villa Enrique is nestled in the little enclave of Dempsey Hill. A spanish restaurant that serves up traditional fare in a cosy atmosphere. I went there for dinner with my family today, after visiting the Singapore Botanic Gardens for an opera concert that turned out to be next saturday -.- anyway, since Dempsey Hill was nearby, we decided to pop over for dinner. 

We stared with a tapas platter (shown above) which is a sampling of 5 cold tapas and 5 hot tapas, some of which are not on the menu. Each little piece was bursting with flavour and successfully whet our appetite for the main courses that followed. My only gripe - most of the meats were cured, which meant they were EXTREMELY salty. Thankfully, they came on a little slice of toast which slightly alleviated the saltiness.

Oh yes, before our tapas, we were served a delightful basket of bread. When you are starving, a tiny bun is a great saviour,  isn’t it? (: The bread at Villa Enrique came with garlic spread, instead of the usual butter, which added an interesting kick to the bread. Yummy!

The main courses followed. We ordered three to share among the 5 of us, and it was enough to fill our tummies to our content (:

First up was the tenderloin beef. Honestly, what i loved most about the dish was the SALAD. Drizzled with balsamic vinegar (*squeals!!!!*), it was crunchy, tasty with just the right amount of sourness to make it so appetizing (: The potato cubes that came with the beef were awesome as well, and so were the mushrooms which were so tasty and melt-in-your-mouth that i was picking out as many as i could find.  The beef itself, on the other hand, was slightly disappointing as i hoped that it would be more tender.

Next, was the squid ink paella. Its a slightly sticky, short-grained rice, which is ALL BLACK in this case, due to the squid ink. It was very fragrant and each mouthful was so infused with flavour, it was easily my favourite dish of the day (:

Finally, the lamb shank. Let me clarify, I DO NOT like lamb, but in this case, papa said that it was nice, and made all of us try it, which was why I took a bite. Surprisingly, it was not that bad. The taste of lamb was rather muted (phew!), and the meat was juicy.

The decor of Villa Enrique was cosy, and I loved this painting that was the feature of the restaurant.

Villa Enrique

Blk 10 #01-23

Dempsey Road

Tel: +65 6476 2311

Lunch: 12pm-2.30pm

Afternoon Tapas & cocktails: from 5pm onwards

Dinner: 7pm-12am (Mon-Thu & Sun)           

7pm-1am (Fri & Sat)