The Bark Cafe

On one evening after bike riding at Pasir Ris park, we decided to have dinner at Changi Village. It was Sunday. Changi Village was packed. I was pretty disappointed because I had my heart set on eating some bbqed seafood like Gong Gong (sea snails) and Sambal Stingray 😢 In Singapore, where ever there is good food it will often mean no parking. So we drove around and around trying to figure out where to eat and hubby remembered a place his colleague had brought him to but he had no idea of the name, he just knew it was around the same area. So after driving around for a while, he pulls into a small little carpark just in front of the Changi Chapel & Museum. And right beside it was a little restaurant called The Bark Cafe. The carpark was quite full so I guessed the food must be good and they must have their own regulars because the cafe is kind of situated in the middle of no where.

I didn't take photos of the interior, you can google it and you'll find pictures. It is a casual cafe with choices of Western and Asian food. The cafe has a nice ambience, good music, and is semi al fresco, where you feel like you're sitting in someone's backyard having dinner. It is covered from rain and elements, but there are no walls, so everything is pretty airy and outdoorsy. But it wasn't hot either as there were lots of ceiling fans.

On the menu there were typical Western choices of fries, fried chicken wings, pizza, pasta and grills. On the Asian choices, there were things like mee goreng, hor fan, etc. On inspecting the menu, I was a little shocked at how pricey things were. Most mains on the menu averaged out between $17-$19 with the most expensive dishes at about $27 for ribs or steak! I'm more used to cafes that price their items at around $14-$15 for things like pasta and fish and chips.

So we decided to order the below food:

Fish and Chips $18.90, because Caelyn had a craving for it. It's probably one of the most expensive fish and chips we've ever had. But thankfully it was a big portion of fish, and it was tasty. The fish was huge and tasted fresh with no fishy smell and it was so moist. The batter was also light and non greasy and wasn't too thick, just nice. So thumbs up for that. The chips were delicious, I was surprised there were hints of truffles in the chips. I wasn't sure if it was meant to be truffle chips, or did they just put the chips in a container that had been used to prepare truffle fries which they have on their menu. The side salad was also a pleaser as it was nicely dressed in a Japanese sesame dressing. 

See how big the portion is compared to Caelyn? The chips didn't look much but was hidden underneath the fish.

We also ordered the Cheesy Hamburger with a homemade beef patty, topped with fried egg and bacon, $18.90. Again, it was a pretty big burger. Hubby couldn't fit the whole thing in his mouth so he ended up cutting it up with a knife and fork. I thought the burger tasted pretty good. The bread was nicely toasted, giving it a lovely crunchy contrast to the meat patty which I thought was quite juicy and flavoursome. The bacon was also nice and cruncy. However, can you see that cheese in my picture? It would've been good if the cheese had been melted over the patty rather than just simply an added topping to the burger. I've watched enough Food Network and AFC channels to know what constitutes a good burger. I'm not saying it was bad, but could be improved. It was nice that they also gave a side salad (dressing was same as the fish and chips one).

The next dish we ordered was the Black Pepper Smoked Duck $18.90 which came with mashed potato and side salad (same dressing as above). At first look, I really liked the presentation. The duck was sliced like an accordian and you can see the fat had been rendered. The skin wasn't exactly crispy but had a nice glaze to it. There was some kind of sweet sauce on the plate which made the duck taste better when you smeared the sauce on it. The mashed potatoes was nice, but a little stingy. A bit more and the plate would've looked fuller. The duck itself was okay. Hubby thought it was a little chewy, but I thought it was fine and how smoked duck was probably supposed to be. However I thought it had this slight funny taste, maybe slightly gamey. Usually when I eat duck cooked in Chinese way it doesn't taste gamey, so maybe it's the method of cooking or maybe I'm completely wrong and the funny taste was the glaze or something. The taste lingered so much that as soon as I got home I had to eat some ice cream to wash away the taste. Overall this dish was okay, but I wouldn't order it again. 

We also ordered a Diet Coke and a pint of Heineken and brace yourself, the bill came to $83.10 after tax and service charge! That to me is one expensive cafe dinner. Would I go back again....maybe...if someone asked me to go with them, but we as a family probably wouldn't intentionally just go there again to have dinner. Service was okay, not much warmth but they were quick to accommodate our needs.

What I disliked though is how the food came out all at different times. Fish and Chips came out first, then only about 10-15 minutes after the fish and chips did the burger come out, followed by the duck at another 10 minutes after that. If you are dining with family, I'd say it's ok to eat at different times, but if you were dining with friends, it's a little awkward if you had to eat first while your friend is waiting for their food. You could wait, but then your food would end up being cold and unpleasant.

The Bark Cafe
Address: 1000 Upper Changi Rd N, Singapore 507707

*this is an unsponsored review

Thai Express Lunch Pics

Tom Yam Soup with Crayfish and Glass Noodles

Lemon Drummettes

Black Pepper Glass Noodles with Soft Shell Crab

Carnivore - Brazillian Churrascaria

The other day we had some vouchers for Vivocity so we used it to try a restaurant we hadn't been before called Carnivore. Carnivore is a Brazillian Churrascaria and in Portuguese churrascaria basically means bbq restaurant. The meats are skewered onto giant metal skewers which rotate on a hot fire. Once the meats are cooked, the passadors (meat waiters) come around your table with the giant metal skewer and a carving knife and slice the meat right onto your plate.

The meats are seasoned simply, often with just salt. Aside from meats there is also a cold buffet spread which included some marinated octopus (u know the red kind that they put on sushi?) and muscles on the shell. But it's not a lot of variety, and nothing impressive or worth mentioning.

I was glad that we had vouchers, because for this price I was severely disappointed and unlikely to go again unless I had some freebies. Tho the meats were good, they were extremely slow in coming around the tables and felt like we kept on getting just the same ones going round to us. The good meats like Beef Ribs hardly ever came out, between us we only had one piece of beef rib because the passador with the beef ribs kept running out of it. And unfortunately the beef ribs is the best meat there. It was tasty and tender and had a melt in your mouth feeling. Towards the end of our evening, I even noticed a few of the pasadors just standing around near the entrance to the kitchen, like they had nothing else to bring out to us or they were just surveying whether everyone still had some on their plates or not. I had imagined that the restaurant would've been more lively with lots of different passadors walking around the tables all at once. It was in fact rather 'quiet'. The passadors weren't that friendly either, supposedly they were directly employed from Brazil. Surprisingly the Singaporean local staff were more friendly. Drinks aren't included in the buffet price. And if you decide to order a juice drink (not those freshly blended ones) it is ridiculously overpriced at $8 and I think an alcoholic drink was about $14! Not bottomless either.

I have to admit, I am a carnivore by nature. I much prefer meat to veges. So I was really disappointed that I left unsatisfied from restaurant that called itself Carnivore. If you are a fan of Carnivore (the restaurant) I'm sorry if you disagree with me. This was just our experience, no harm intended :)

This was part of the yummy beef ribs.

Restaurant Hoshiogaoka at Isetan Scotts, Shaw House

We took our visiting friend for lunch here last week. The food was good and the service was good too.

Mellben Seafood Restaurant at Ang Mo Kio

My friends from overseas came back to Singapore for a short visit and we all had a get together dinner at Mellben Seafood Restaurant at Blk 232 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3. This place is famous for their Crab Bee Hoon soup. The Bee Hoon soups is delicious, it consists of a milky soup base with hints of curry leaves, melted better, thick bee hoon (rice vermicelli) and of course cracked crab.

Along with this, we also had a sweet and sour fish dish, crab cooked in butter sauce which was delish, crab cooked in pepper salt, prawns cooked in salted egg (yum yum), kangkong belachan, and a tofu claypot dish for the kids (all 7 of them)

This place is definitely a great alternative to eating seafood down at East Coast and is a great gem in the middle of the HDB heartlands. Great food great company! Miss you guys already A and J! And thanks for the dinner Y & YF!

Eating at Thai Express on actual Birthday

We ate at Thai Express on our actual birthday (mine and Edmund's bday) cos we had a $15 voucher. I like the food there even if it is a little over priced - especially the drinks. Because we had a membership card, at the end of the meal they gave us a bottle of wine. It's made in France but the weird thing is there's no year on it. Weird right??

Chiang Mai Mango Salad with Coconut and Grilled Chicken. This was quite nice. A nice change to the normal sour mango salad.

Salted Egg Fried Rice. Very yummy!

Green Thai Laksa...this was a bit of a disappointment, it was basically green curry with thick beehoon. It was nice, very spicy, but not what we thought it would be for a laksa.

Seafood Pad Thai. One of my favourite. I never get sick of it. Caelyn also loves it too. We ordered it for her and she finished pretty much 3/4 of the plate. Now days we have to order something just for her cos if we had to share our portion with her too we wouldn't be full.

California Pizza Kitchen @ Forum The Shopping Mall Orchard

If you're a big pizza lover like me, I suggest you try the pizzas at California Pizza Kitchen. I had only ever tried pizza from here once before in Indonesia, a long time ago, and I didn't remember what it was like back then. But I was so glad we tried it here because I tell ya, the thin crust pizza we ordered was to die for. The pizza was baked in a wood fired oven, hence it had that charred aroma to it and th ecrust was sooo crispy. I can't remember what cheese they used but it totally made the pizza. All through chomping down the pizza I kept saying to Edmund "oh this is so good" over and over again...hehehe. I think I had a foodgasmic experience =)

Service wasn't spectacular, really, would it hurt the waitress to smile a little bit??? And be prepared to wait for your food especially on a busy weekend. On the upside the kids get given some crayons and could doodle on the kids' menu which doubled as activity leaflet. Kids menu looked pretty good too, for $12 something they could choose a pizza/pasta and sundae. I spotted some of the kiddie sundaes floating around and it looked good and big enough even for the grown-ups to 'sample' =) Pricewise for the pizza, well u know it's not gonna cost you the same as pizzas in oz, but it's priced the same as Pizza Hut here. I think between $17-$22 (don't forget the plus plus). They also had an assortment of salads which you could order as a Whole or Half serving. I ordered a Strawberry Lemonade which was very nice, and as the general rule of thumb goes in most restaurants, profit is earned through drinks if you catch my drift. Anyway since price wise it's similar to Pizza Hut, I would rahter have California Pizza Kitchen any day - just too bad they're not as nearby as Pizza Hut.

(Click for bigger picture)

Strawberry Lemonade

Thin Crust Pizza

Half Eaten Caesar Salad. I had forgotten to take a pic before we started.

Tian Tian Huo Guo (opp Bugis) - Happy Pay Steamboat and Chef

The English name of this shop is weird - Happy Pay Steamboat and Chef?? I don't know the exact address of this place, but it's at the far end of Liang Seah Street moving away from Bugis Junction. I guess since the Marina South area closed down, everyone has now come to this place for there steamboat gathering. Along this stretch of read there seems to be an abundance of steamboat restaurants and most of them are outdoor seating with a very small amount of tables available for indoor seating. I don't quite understand why Singaporeans love steamboats so much especially because the weather is so hot and you end up bathed in sweat as you sit outside cooking your food in the steamboat. I must admit tho, I do like the cooking your own food bit, just like those table barbecues, but my preference would be to do it in an aircon restaurant. But since space is rather scarce in Singapore I can understand why most of the steamboat tables at these restaurants have spilled over onto the sidewalks.

I know can't see very well, but this pic is of another steamboat restaurant opposite ours. Looks nicer and bigger.

I had wanted to try this place for a long time and was happy when a friend suggested we have our gathering there. I think here you can choose to have table bbq and steamboat or just steamboat. Table bbq and steamboat combo is inside, whilst just steamboat tables are outside. The food for the bbq looked good tho, too bad we didn't get to try. I'm not sure if it's the same price if you do the bbq+steamboat combo.

Our group had chosen just steamboat, since there was 7 of us we had 2 separate steamboats, each pot containing two different type of soups. We had tom yam, herbal chicken and mala. The soups were all very good and tasted very rich after cooking all the stuff in them. But of course I'm pretty sure the soup was very MSG laden because we were really really thirsty during and after dinner. Suppose it doesn't help that the various fish and meatballs available for cooking also contain MSG, so basically you're getting a double dose of MSG for dinner.

The ingredients to put inside the steamboats were quite fresh, namely the clams, prawns, crab were very fresh - no fishiness. The chunks of fish were frozen type, but still tasted good. The thinly shave meats were also good, not very very tender, but good enough if you have teeth :p There were also several types of sauces available, as well as minced garlic, spring onions, pickled green chillies, etc.

Apart frm the soup being MSG laden, I have a few other gripes about the place. First, they were a little slow to refill the ingredients that had run out. The prawns and crabs were pretty much empty most of the time as people rushed to get them as soon as they came out and piled them mountain high on their plates. The meats were also half empty most of the time too, made me wonder if they were unprepared in the kitchen or was left like that on purpose so that you'd just fill up on the fish/meatballs, veges and noodles. Secondly I was surprised that even room temperature water (most likely tap water) was charged at $1 a cup! That's ridiculous even if you do get a free jug of lime juice for the table (not sure if this applies to min. number of diners at the table). Thirdly, empty plates were hardly cleared for you, hubby even had to take them away himself so we could have more room.

I was a little disappointed at the place as I had high hopes for it from the ads u see on tv, but I guess it goes to show not to trust tv ads. I wouldn't mind trying the other ones down the street tho, heard that they had free refills for drinks...hahaha. Miss the ones at Marina South, at least those were cheap (around $13) and filling and they also had cooked food like fried noodles, fried rice and sometimes chilli crab and satay. For $18+ here, it wasn't really worth it. (note: it's $14+ if u pay before 5pm and think weekdays are probably cheaper too).

(right)Liang Seah Street looking towards Bugis Junction