Sharing our dining experiences: June 2013

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Manhattan Fish Market @ Century Square

For Fish lovers out there, the Manhattan Fish Market will be an excellent choice for affordable lunch or dinner. With its extensive seafood menu, there are a lot of option to choose from.

I have bits of scepticism when it comes to chain restaurants but since I love fish dishes, I was intrigued to give it a try.

Ho and behold, to my own surprise, I love the dishes at Manhattan Fish Market, especially their Garlic Herb Rice.
I commended how Manhattan offered variety of cooking of their menu from deep fried, poached, baked, grilled, flamed and combination.

Staff were quite attentive, able to explain what was in the menu, promotion and about the portion; though a bit of forgetfulness in one or two small issue but overall, they performed well.

I do like their interior design, its clean industrial flooring look and wall brings the spaciousness and fuss-free ambience yet with the colour option and lighting, it does give a modern feel to the place.

With the mushrooming of fast food joints around our shopping malls, it is quite refreshing to find a restaurant which offer a healthier option in an accessible areas.

Love to be back to try their flamed dishes which looked so good in the menu.

Clearly, the Fish should be the Logo

This really reminds me of New York haunts

The extensive menu

They came up with this ordering sheet but instead of bring it to the cashier and make payment, you still hand it out to the staff. Perhaps, this to avoid any mistake in taking the order?

Industrial wall concept with good lighting

Simple idea of lighting yet striking the modern feel to the place

View to the kitchen

Cutleries holder stays true to the concept

The Mushroom Soup

It was quite a bowlful but tasty

Ice Lemon Tea

Fried Country Mushroom

I love mushroom and deep fried cooking, gave me both in one combo and I was hooked

The cajun honey mustard dip in sauce complimented the mushroom well

the Small Flame

Flaming prawns and grilled dory fish fillet with the famous garlic herb sauce, accompanied with broccoli and carrot. Another thing I like about Manhattan is their serving of broccoli and carrot on the side

Grilled Dory Fillet with Garlic Herb Rice

My current fave, the tanginess of the herb chili sauce to pour over the fish and rice was lip-smackingly delicious

This was the normal portion which had 2 fillet but if you order the promotional menu, it would serve 1 fillet which I think was just nice portion

Sea you Soon!

Manhattan Fish Market Century Square
2 Tampines Central 5#01-37
Century Square Singapore 529509
Tel: +65 6782 9983

http://manhattanfishmarket.com/

Opens from 11 am to 10 pm

Monday, June 10, 2013

The Goods Diner

The Goods Diner was the first start-up before they branched out as Goods Café. Had been hearing how good it is but was too lazy to visit the Diner due to its location. Unless you are working or staying around the Fairgrounds/Kuningan area.

Lucky for me, my host was able to drive me around there, even though, our initial plan was not the Diners but Lucy in the Sky which was on 2nd floor. However, I felt it was such a disappoint at Lucy within less than 5 minutes; we decided to abort the visit and went to Diner. It was a heavenly contrast indeed! Was so happy to have my meal here.

The staff were excellent; they were courteous, professional, attentive and friendly. I could not find fault with their service at all.

Food selection as we know are a mixed of local and western; I would say most of it were good, at least from what I'd tried. Always order their Arnold Palmer Ice Tea to go along with the meal at The Goods.

What I liked about the Diner was the spaciousness of their restaurant with its high arc ceiling in simple and rustic décor yet feels modern.

It is obvious why the Good Diner is still popular amidst the stiffer competition in Jakarta F&B scene nowdays. I would love to visit the Diner for the Nasi Goreng Kampung which was no longer available on their Café version.

Nice Signage

Full height window from street view

The Big Menu but it was well organized

Spaciousness of the restaurant and loving those big arches

Simple furniture yet feels modern

Simple black shelving unit for the planters, works as divider to dining area here

Arnold Palmer Ice Tea...afterward, I was a bit confused with their normal Ice Tea, seemed not much difference ??

The Calamari, it was good! 

Shrimp Scampi Angel Hair

Grilled Shrimp, Garlic, Chili Flakes

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pasta; somehow, The Goods has done it so good. The grilled shrimp with aglio olio style angel hair pasta was not like other pasta. It was not oily, springy, tasted the spiciness but not that spicy and that garlic aroma was so inviting

General Tsao's Chicken

Marinated ginger chicken, sweet and sour sauce, chinese fried rice

It was another good dish to try!

Penne Duck Curry Linguine

Duck crackling, lychee, cherry tomato, thai red curry

An interesting combo to make a tasty pasta indeed!

The Goods Diner

Fairgrounds, SCBD Lot 14

Tel: +62-21-5152969

http://www.thegoodsdiner.com/

Opens for :

Weekdays from 8 am to 11 pm

Weekend from 8 am to 2 am

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Salt Grill by Luke Mangan @ Jakarta

When I read Salt Grill by Luke Mangan was going to open in Jakarta, it really caught my eyes. It seemed Jakarta F&B scene really caught investor eyes to open this upscale fine dining restaurants.

Following the same concept as his latest opened restaurant in Singapore, Salt Grill Jakarta is located on top floor of the Plaza, latest skyscraper of office building and prestigious apartments link to a upscale shopping mall, Plaza Indonesia.

Turned out, Salt Grill was not the only restaurant on the Altitude, name of this top floor area. There are 3 restaurants here, including Salt Grill; all related to Singapore restaurants. Gaia by Oso Ristorante presenting North Italian cuisine, Enmaru presenting Japanese cuisine and Salt Grill with its modern Australian cuisine.

I was surprised to see how all restaurants were quite packed that night. Interesting concept indeed, three different designs yet blended in quite well as one area.

Our table proved to be a good table indeed, I loved how Salt Grill Jakarta had a different concept than the norm. Instead of putting the table right to the window, it was pulled back and gave us a different perspective of the Table by the Window phrase.

The price was exactly on Singapore standard, I was indeed surprised, my host mentioned, it considered too steep then as in norm, it should have lower price than Singapore. It made sense as cost of living there is still lower than Singapore.

Service was good, same excellent standard as in Singapore restaurant. It seemed they were trained well, still got a sense that they were still a 'newbie' but they did know what to do and offered.

All of us ordered the same dish that night so not many photos to share here. Next round, I would be happy to visit Salt Grill again and other restaurants at the Altitude.

These restaurants at the Altitude are really the game changer in Jakarta F&B scene. It is getting more excited to visit Jakarta for its dining venues. But, it also made me amazed on the confidence in opening such a fine dining restaurants with steep pricing in a city where social gap is still huge yet they do see the market for those who can afford to dine here day by day.