Muddy Murphy's Irish Pub @Somerset, Triple One

Located at the back of Triple One Somerset, this place's pretty secluded. Away from the main shopping area e.g. Cineleisure and Triple One Somerset, this place can easily hold a candle to any of the nice glitzy restaurants in the mall. The entrance is just a prelude to what's inside the pub. The interesting quirky decor on the exterior will provide a little idea of what's inside. Once you step in, you feel like you're being transported to those English wooden cabins in movies. The interior is almost entirely of wood finishings, even the walls, which totally adds to the rustic look and feel. There weren't much people on a weekend, which can be good if you're looking for somewhere for a quiet date, or friendly chatting, instead of blaring music.

We were given a table with a real life-sized rocking chair as a seat! I thought that was pretty cool. They've a wide range of drinks such as beers and wines, and a very proper food menu, although this place seemed like its more for drinks:

Rosti Potatoes ($5)

6 pieces of deep fried rosti potato.

Beef & Guinness Pie ($18)

Potted Prawns ($16)

A 160g serving of fresh prawns sautéed in lemon juice, tomato puree, cream, pepper and garlic, served with home-baked sourdough bread and butter.

What's underneath?

Potted Prawns ($16)

Tadang!

La Trappe Witte Trappist Beer ($10 nett)
The world’s first and only Trappist white ale that continues to ferment slightly after bottling. Brewed using only water, wheat, and hops. As usual, beer to go along our meals.

Beef & Guinness Pie ($18)
It's got a huge pastry hat, which means the pie fillings underneath must be equally huge. And yep, we're not disappointed. There're bacon bits on top of delicious, fragrant mash potatoes and carrots on the side. Note, this whole dish can be pretty filling. The pastry hat is quite crisp, and dipping it with the saucy pie gravy is extremely satisfying.

Potted Prawns ($16)
A 160g serving of fresh prawns sautéed in lemon juice, tomato puree, cream, pepper and garlic, served with home-baked sourdough bread and butter.

I thought I had ordered the wrong item, as it looked more like a soup dish. It came with sourdough sliced bread on the side with Anchor butter. When I first tried the soup (or gravy) it was quite thick. Then, I tried dipping the toasts into the soup, and hey, it tasted good. Finding the butter a waste and but found it weird to go with such soups, I spread a bit of it on the toast, and tried dipping it again. Hey, it tasted much better. Eating the prawns on the side, the taste of this dish is really rich! I counted at least 8 very chewy fresh and certainly decently-sized prawns.

Oh no, these 6 pieces of deep fried Rosti Potatoes ($5) looked like Pizza Hut's potato bites. And they tasted like it, (they're made of the same ingredients anyway). There's nothing interesting about this dish....

I love the looks of this place! Plus the warm friendly service, and best of all, all prices nett, no extra GST or service taxes! I'd be back again.

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Verdict:

Food: 3.5/5

Service: 3.5/5

Ambiance: 4/5

Total Score: 4/5

[1- Never visit again, 2-Won't visit unless there's no other option, 3-Perhaps, 4 & 5- Yes!]

Good for? Couples, Groups

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About it:

Muddy Murphy's Irish Pub

Address: 111 Somerset Road, #01-02 TripleOne Somerset, Singapore, 238164
Menu: http://muddymurphys.com/menu_cat/salads

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Ollie Cafe @Somerset, Orchard Gateway

Wondering what to early eat in town one day, we suddenly remembered this oddly-located cafe. It is oddly located, because it is surrounded by restaurants and this is the only one that has a totally different décor. That's not the only thing that caught our attention. In fact, we have walked past this cafe several times, and were debating whether the truffle aroma came from this cafe, or Saizeriya just beside. But we do not remember Saizeriya serving Truffle-related dishes, hence we deduced this place, and made a mental note to come here, (but definitely not top of the list...) The cafe has quite brand new equipment and are definitely not cheap, so we hoped the food is just as good! They serve all-day brunch, salads and burgers. There's quite a well-stocked coffee work-station, and we even spied some exotic coffee tins.

The waitress was really friendly and helpful, serving us iced waters the first thing we arrived. The water comes from the most interesting jug ever. Inside the jug, there are lots of mint leaves, lemon slices and ice. The end result of the water? It could pass off as a diluted Mojito. In the end, we had three glasses of that water each.

Not really hungry, we ordered an Ollie Signature Salad ($11.90) and a Pied-a-piper Burger ($17.90).

Ollie Signature Salad ($11.90)

When the Ollie Signature Salad ($11.90) came, we were impressed-- with the portion and the presentation. It's pretty colourful and vibrant. Like the presentation, the flavour is also an interesting mix- there's sweet juicy beetroot chips (looking much like Dorito's wavy chips), very fresh crispy varieties of greens, a tad sourish sun dried tomatoes, and plus tender bites of grilled chicken breast chunks. And nope, I'm not yet done. Atop this wonderful mix, there is a layer of fresh blended creamy avocados, plus a half-jiggly 63 degree egg (all that hype!), and finally, rounded off (literally) with triangles of toasted Pullman sliced loaves. I suppose you had to spread the avocado on top the toasts, and maybe the egg, and then pile it with the greens and reds (tomatoes, beetroot) and take a big bite. But there just wasn't enough toasts to go around for the entire bowl. So we had to finish the rest with our fork and spoons. It's perfect for a girl's dinner, but definitely not for those who are looking for a light meal. It's very filling! Not only that, you will feel very healthy. And probably the best thing is the price. For $11.90++, the quality is quite above average. We didn't catch any withered leaves among that garden!

Pied-a-piper Burger ($17.90)
Choice of beef or chicken patty. Upgrade to Wagyu for an additional $8.

Well, the Pied-a-piper Burger ($17.90) is a slightly different story, having picky taste buds for good beef burgers. It took abit of time to arrive, but when it did, we were once again, impressed with the presentation and portion for a cafe. First thing, it's huge. The cheddar flowing down from the middle of the burger made it looked like some spewing yellow volcano. The fries were slightly over fried and excessively crunchy, perhaps due to the way it was fried- with an air-fryer. Like the salad, the greens, Portobello mushrooms, onions and even the toasted buns were really generous. If you are not picky about beef and are a cheese lover, then this dish will suit you. If you're those who love, say Triple O's Burgers, you will know what I am talking about. The beef patty is tough and rubbery. Yep, you have the choice of having the patty chicken or beef, or have the beef upgraded to Wagyu beef for an additional $8. But that's a total of $25.90, which is something I can possibly eat at &made. Well, probably not the burgers here.

As the kitchen adopts an open concept (not that there's any crazy fires or smokes), the truffle oil could get overpowering. Sitting too close to the kitchen will possibly cause the smell to stick to your hair. Nope, not the Truffle smell, but the oily kind of smell. Opt to sit slightly further away, and have a better view of what's happening over the interesting coffee and kitchen stations. If you're looking for chill-out cafes in the bustling heart of town, this's the place to be.


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Verdict:

Food: 2.5/5

Service: 3/5

Ambiance: 3/5

Total Score: 3/5

[1- Never visit again, 2-Won't visit unless there's no other option, 3-Perhaps, 4 & 5- Yes!]

Good for? Couples, Groups, Family

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About it:

Ollie Cafe

Address: #B2-10, Orchard Gateway, 277 Orchard Rd

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Fish Tales @Somerset, Scape

Have been seeing this name at a few places- magazines, groupon deals... and as we were looking for a place for a quick bite before my show at Cineleisure, this cafe at Scape is quite ideal.

It wasn't difficult to find this place. You could see that they've spent quite an effort on the décor. Seats are ample on a weekday. It's a self-order & buzzer service, quite straightforward. The menu is not complicated. You might want to flip it over to see their selection of Risottos.

We tried the Original ($9.90) and Cheesy Affair ($10.90).
Basically the Original looks like the Cheesy Affair without the sauce, so you could imagine it...

Cheesy Affair ($10.90)

While chomping, we noticed in small prints that you could change your fries for pasta for just an additional $2! Would have changed it if we were told at the counter... On the whole, while prices are definitely cheaper than Fish & Co's, their quality is comparable. The Cheese one is filled with Nachos Cheese.

Practically oozing out of the fish. If you love Nachos Cheese, then this's perfect for you. The fries are done just nicely as well. There's a few combos you could choose from, $3.90 for a drink and soup, $7.90 for a drink, soup and additional ice cream, from none other than Salted Caramel, from Upper Thomson Road.

Do come here if you are not too picky, rushing for a movie and want something other than fast food at Cineleisure.


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Verdict:

Food: 3/5

Service: 2.5/5

Ambiance: 3/5

Total Score: 3/5

[1- Never visit again, 2-Won't visit unless there's no other option, 3-Perhaps, 4 & 5- Yes!]

Good for? Couples, Groups, Family

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About it:

Fish Tales

Address: Level 2 Orchard Link, Scape, Singapore 237978
Menu: http://fishtales.com.sg/wp/wp-content/themes/fishtales/download/FISHTALES-Aug14-Menu.pdf

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Level 2 at Killiney @Somerset

I had always wanted to try this place. Being so obscure, as you had to climb the stairs to reach the second floor, plus the extensive menu and store front on the first floor, somehow these attracted me... and I did, tonight. Feeling kind of peckish, we went ahead, abit late for dinner, at 9+.

We were expecting them to tell us it'll be last order very soon, but nope, there were quite a few other late diners as well. It's one of those cozy, dimly-lit place, but the decor could probably be improved a bit.

Go for the tall tables. The view's pretty interesting from the second floor, overlooking ABC (Artisan Boulangerie Co.). There are many people walking around, crossing the roads, all in a very different part of town- the residential part. The street's also buzzing with all sorts of people from different countries, because of the petrol station and 24 hours NTUC Fairprice supermarket just beside. If it's the afternoon and you had a book and a coffee, this place's perfect for a quiet time-out.

We were greeted warmly when we first arrived and requested for warm water due to the rainy weather. The server (possibly the manager, due to his attire) politely obliged and gave us a mugful of warm water which we were quite grateful for. He handed us the menu, the same one we saw at level one, and left us to read through.

We ordered:

 Parma Ham, Aragula with Truffle Oil Pizza ($17)

 Hand-crafted Wagyu Burger ($21) (+$10 Foie Gras)

You may add Streaky Bacon for an additional $3, or Egg (Egg??!!) for $3 as well.

 Braised Beef Cheeks ($26)

The Parma Ham, Aragula with Truffle Oil Pizza ($17) has one of the thinnest and crispiest crust ever. The truffle oil's generous. We could smell the rich aroma when the dish reached our table. But the generosity stops there for this dish. The Aragula seemed kind of dead. The Parma Ham was thinly sliced into six strips, on top of the six pieces of cut-pizza. As the crust is thin and there are not much fillings, the pizza seemed more a starter for sharing than a main dish. If you're feeling super hungry, I'd suggest you to go for the mains.

The  Hand-crafted Wagyu Burger ($21) was much better in terms of presentation. The plate was filled with fries, salad, and the decently-sized 200grams Wagyu beef patty burger. We requested medium rare, and it was to the right doneness. Being requested for doneness of a beef patty is a good thing. It probably means the patty is freshly-made, and not some supplier or overnight stock. The beef patty was juicy, but the flavours could be amped up further. The rest of the fillings was alright, but we had some qualms about the cheese, as we thought a different kind could have been used, and it could be melted even further.

Next up, the Braised Beef Cheeks ($26) was also an average dish. The meat was tender, the sauce goes well with the dish, and the mash potatoes provided the extra starch to fill you. Among all the three dishes, we thought this one is the best... but we wouldn't come back here as there are other establishments nearby offering similar food...


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Verdict:

Food: 3/5

Service: 3/5

Ambiance: 3/5

Total Score: 2/5

[1- Never visit again, 2-Won't visit unless there's no other option, 3-Perhaps, 4 & 5- Yes!]

Good for? Couples, Groups
Price for mains: $15++

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About it:

Level 2 at Killiney

Address: 117A Killiney Road, Singapore 239554
Menu: http://www.1-altitude.com/#!Stellar/Menu 
Price Range: Starting from $30++ (Mains) Tasting Menu available.
Diners have free entry to the rooftop bar. 

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Yayoiken @Somerset

There're several outlets across Singapore, and this one's pretty unique, in that MK steamboat restuanrant is just beside it, creating a big and spacious feeling.

Order using an iPad!

Fancy ordering ice water with this iPad?

Yofu Hamburger Set ($15.90)

Miso Katsu Set ($14.90)

Miso Katsu Set ($14.90)

Using an iPad to order, even ice water, the food here is just average. I was reminded of Saizeriya- the potatoes, the hamburger steak, the vegetables. And I was also reminded of the stark price difference, even though there's free flow rice here. The mains' portions are just enough for one bowl of rice. A second top-up would be too much.

I'd not come back here again...


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Verdict:

Food: 2/5

Service: 3/5

Ambiance: 2.5/5 

Total Score: 1/5

[1- Never visit again, 2-Won't visit unless there's no other option, 3-Perhaps, 4 & 5- Yes!]

Good for? Casual dining

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About it:

Yayoiken

Address: 313 Orchard Rd, #B3-33/34, Singapore 238895

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