Food Hits 'N Misses

Recently visited 3 different restaurants that serve similar type of food. Here is just what I think of them.

Jack's Place at West Coast Recreation Centre. The food there was mediocre at best. The Potato Skins had too much potato on them, making it abit soggy instead of being crisp and fragrant. The Mushrooms With Slipper Lobster And Crab Meat did not fare well either. Could not taste the lobster or crab meat, and the cheese completely overwhelmed any taste of the mushrooms.

The Jack's Seafood Spaghetti was better. Quite a large serving of noodles topped with a tomato-based sauce and pieces of seafood. Too bad the dish did not come with grated Parmesan cheese.

I found the Chef's Salad alittle too meaty, with roast beef, chicken, ham, cheese, hard-boiled egg, and too little vegetables. It was filling though, and is a meal in itself. The roast beef was too thickly sliced and tough to the bite.

The Fillet Mignon accompanied by a baked potato and some steamed vegetables was ordinary. The steak was well-done but the chicken bacon was not crisp enough for my liking. And the steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots lacked imagination. Quite disappointing.

Mariner's Corner is located at the Maritime House along Cantonment Road. I have noticed it for some time, driving past frequently, but never had the chance to step in till couple of months ago. It was like stepping into the past. The restaurant gave me a feeling of being in the 80s, where it was hip to be seen in such a steak house.

The food here is slightly above average for the prices we paid. The biggest surprise is that they still have a salad bar, where you can help yourself to. Such a practice have since faded with the turn of the century. I especially liked the beetroot and the pasta salad. They even have cubed croutons and raisins to top your salad with.

The oxtail stew I had was not what I had expected. It came in a claypot and there were no vegetables in the stew, just plain meat. The accompanying vegetables came on a separate plate. As such the sweetness of the vegetable was missing in the stew. The meat was tender though.

The T-bone Steak faired better. It was a large cut topped with black pepper sauce, which filled the entire hot-plate. The baked potato and vegetables has to be served on a side plate as there was not enough space on the hot-plate. The meat was tender and cooked as requested. However, the dessert that came with the meal was quite miserable. A small piece on a plate that was too big.

Another restaurant that I visited in February this year was a much better find than the other two. It was located at Tanjong Katong Road, along a row of shophouses beside Goodman Road.

The food there was creatively presented, like the cute Hawaii Seafood Cakes, the Norwegian Salmon Fillet and the French Chicken Breast. The food was quite good too. Especially the chicken breast meat, it was so tender and so succulent and juicy, so unlike the normal meat that we get at chicken rice stalls.

But what is the most memorable were their desserts. The Red Wine Pear with Honey was tempting. I would have loved it to be a tad sweeter for a dessert though. However, the dessert that I would like to rave about is the Molten Chocolate Cake.

So far, it is the best molten chocolate cake I have eaten, and to top it off, it is made with Valrhona Chocolate. The dish took alittle longer to arrive, but the handsome manager Alex explained that they needed to bake it just right. When it came, the cake was still warm. I poked my fork into it and the melted chocolate just flowed out like lava from a volcano. Absolutely stunning and totally delicious.

Too bad, when I wanted to return for a second helping of the wonderful Molten Chocolate Cake a month later, the restaurant Figo's Grail had closed. Such a pity!