Food: Carnivore Appetite

Food: Carnivore Appetite

Carnivore!! As the name implies, this is the place to go to to eat meat. We humans are supposedly omnivores except those people who are vegetarian, but once in a while we just have that craving to eat meat. All types of meat! So this could be the place to whet your appetite, or could it? read on to find out more!

First thing to note is that Carnivore Appetite is one of the few branches of Carnivore, BUT appetite is slightly different from the Carnivores in Marina Bay Sands and CHIJMES. The main difference is that this one is a buffet style where you are gonna have to go to the food and get it yourself. Unlike the other Carnivores whereby the cooks will actually bring out the meat on a skewer and cut it in front of your face. (NOT CUT YOUR FACE). The more important difference is the price! There is about a 10 dollars difference if you eat here compared to MBS and CHIJMES.

Aside from that, from the last time i ate at one of the other carnivores, I guess the only difference is also that the one at Appetite does not serve lamb. So take note that this review is only for the one at Carnivore Appetite, but you might roughly apply it to those at MBS and CHIJMES at your own risk!

This is the main draw of the place, meats around a heater

And here is the guy slicing the meat

Food 4/5

Here is what the food looks like on the plate

As you can see, it's still the same meat, the beef hump but this time there is the escolar fish!

So gonna chip in here and clarify, basically there are about 5 different types of meat, 2 beefs which is the beef hump and rump, one escolar fish, one chicken choice and also one pork choice! 

Escolar tasted really pretty creamy and smooth and if you do some read up it is said that this Escolar fish is particularly oil rich or something so not everyone can eat it. But if you can, the texture is pretty nice and tasty.

As you also can see from the picture above, the Beef we ordered was only of the Beef hump variety. The rump was somewhat hard in texture but maybe rump is always like that. The beef hump however, tasted fantastic and we had like maybe 5 or 6 servings of it. There was also a choice of about 6 different kind of sauce available and they tasted pretty fine but we roughly stuck to only 3 of the 6 sauces.

The rest of the meat was a good change of variety. 

The other buffet spread

There was also a line of maybe about 10 - 15 other dishes and also a salad bar sort of thing. The dishes ranged from other meats like sausages and there was soup, stew and risotto kind of stuff. Basically all these added much to the variety and overall gave a good spread of variety of the food present.

The drinks that were pseudo "1 for 1"

Had a bit of problems with the drinks at this place in that it was so called "1 for 1" when in reality, you could buy drinks at a slightly discounted price. Nonetheless even with the discount, the drink was gonna be about 6 dollars for 2 drinks which is pretty ordinary after all.

HOWEVER, do note that coffee and tea is served complimentary which means that you don't really need to buy a drink in the first place. There are also some people who would rather chill and drink there so it could also be an option.

ICE CREAM!! UNLIMITED ICE CREAM

 Finally, to sweeten the deal, at the end of everything, there is the ice cream!! Didn't notice any other desserts however, so I guess you could say the dessert options is lacking slightly. There was cakes though.

All in all, especially for a first visit to the place, the taste and choices of food is pretty good and you should be able to enjoy the taste of the food there.

To make things clear though, I did revisit the place in about 2 months later and the choice of food was almost 90% identical. So probably good to keep your revisits spread out.

Atmosphere 4/5

I went here twice so far and realized one thing, thanks to the place being relatively empty, it was a pretty calm and relaxing environment. The plates were all filled and there was a lot of spaces to choose from, the buffet area was restricted to one place so you would have minimal people walking past your table to get to theirs. 

The staff was quite eager to please and they collected your dirty plates relatively quickly. This is probably a good point of not having an occupied restaurant but it was indeed the current state of the place when I was there even during dinner times. 

Price 3/5

Its definitely not a cheap place with the price as follows directly from the website

Operating Hours & Prices:

Weekday Lunch: 12pm – 3pm
$19.90++ adult / $12.90++ child
Weekend Lunch: 12pm – 3pm
24.90++ adult / 12.90++ child

Mon to Thu Dinner: 6pm – 10pm (last order is at 9.30pm)
$29.90++ adult / $15.90++ child
Fri, Sat, Sun, Eve PH & PH Dinner: 6pm – 10pm (last order is at 9.30pm)
$34.90++ adult / $15.90++ child

For two people eating a dinner, it would probably cost you about upwards of 70 dollars. Judging from the amount I actually ate on that day which was about 5 pieces of meat which is smaller then your usual steak, and adding all the ice cream and stuff, you probably would find it hard to match the price you paid. 

Meaning unless you are super super starved, you probably cannot eat the equivalent amount of food for the price i.e. 40 dollars worth of food. The meat though nice, is also not fully premium type of meat as it is served buffet style and not cooked directly on the spot for a single share.

I personally think that they could lower down the price by about 5 dollars and the increased influx of people would be able to make up the lowered price, but that's just me.

Accessibility 4/5

This is really a easy place to go to via MRT and because it is situated inside a not as popular shopping center, you should be able to get parking easily if you drive.

There was also zero queue when you get there and you can have free reign and sit pretty much anywhere you want. Getting food is also speedy due to low customer traffic which is good for the consumer, but bad for business.

Overall

Food: 4 (Taste is there and variety is pretty good especially for the first visit)

Atmosphere: 4 (The seats were well spread out and the waiters were pretty fun and attentive)

Price: 3 (Pricey, especially the price of the drinks)

Accessibility: 4 (It's easy to get to and easy to get in. As a customer, hope it never gets too crowded)

Overall: 3.75 (This is a place that there is no harm going to once or twice, and the food is pretty unique and tasty overall with a variety that will not let you down. Of course it is slightly premium at the price so you probably can save it for special occassions. Of course try to find the meat that you like when you are there after trying everything and don't hesitate to keep ordering the one you like, if there is one choice that you like, it should be worth the trip already.)

If you want to find out more details here is the website 

Movies: Dracula Untold

Movies: Dracula Untold

Dracula! A story that has been told many ways, and sometimes it is confusing whether he is really real or not. He has been remade in games and is probably one of the clearer examples and origins of the common vampires that spawned shows like twilight. Nonetheless, with a name like Dracula Untold, is it really different and worth watching?!?!

For those who don't know, this is one iteration of dracula

Here is cartoon dracula

Well, fortunately for us today, our dracula is movie version dracula

but just for good measure here is another dracula

Here is game version dracula

Handsome little fella huh! but next question to ask is, is this Dracula story really an untold story? Lets read on and find out, especially since the answer is covered in the next section!


Storyline 4/5

I can't spoil the story for you because this movie story is quite a bit of fun. Nonetheless, lets say that this dracula tells a different story from what we usually believe and understand, just like how maleficent made us sympathize with the witch! Yep it is that kind of retelling of the story. But of course being made not by Disney, this movie will contain just a bit less lovey dovey or cutsie stuff.

The other point about this movie is that it focus on how Dracula came to become the person he is known by us to be and the "struggles" he met along the way. So it is more character development focused and the various twists and turns along the way makes it interesting to the end of this 93 mins flick.

Last point to praise is that this movie actually had many stops where they could very well have ended the movie there and then, however, this movie will then go on just that step further before reaching another possible ending spot and going on that step further again. As a result, this movie feels longer then it actually is because you get the feeling that "oh there is something more".


Character 3/5

Unfortunately for this movie though, the character development was not too well done and too greatly carried out. The first part of the movie (20 mins) was particularly for character building but it felt a bit draggy. Once it got to the action scenes however, it would be a bit more interesting but then in action scenes there is little character development.

Most of the development is on Dracula which is done above average well with only slight unbelievable or incoherent sections. However this meant that everyone else was greatly neglected and in essence its true. Almost everyone else in this movie would be someone unimportant and minor and you will not really feel for any of them.


Cinematography 4/5

Cinematography for this movie was done well. There are a few of exciting and impactful action sequences with good use of high shots and perspective shots to bring across the action flavor. It is almost towards 300 standards in terms of action sequences BUT it is highly lacking in the amount of action sequences. Most sequences could have really gone on much longer to show more of the power of Dracula and make it even more action packed.

Nonetheless given the short time frame, I would say the scenes and shots are done above average standards and will give you fair bit of entertainment and wow factors. That till you realised that they could have done so much more.

Just note that because Dracula only fights at night, some fight scenes might be too fast and too dark... not too many of them thankfully


Music 4/5

Music in this movie was there and it did have quite a positive impact in the overall feel of the movie. You can definitely feel that the music was helping this movie.


Spectacle 4/5

Storyline was good and flowing and it was kept exciting with enough twists and turns. Although there were slow sections especially in the beginning of the movie and some illogical portions of the movie and other aspects were not fully and properly explained. But nonetheless the gist and main purpose of the story line would keep you intrigued.

Action wise was also well done with good shots and sufficient scenes. So doing both well puts this movie above average on the spectacle department.


Overall

Storyline 4 (Sufficient twists and turns to keep the movie exciting)
Character 3 (Main character is focus of character development but not done completely well, all other characters feel slightly neglected)
Cinematography 4 (Good shots for actions overall, just a bit too few shots)
Music 4 (Present and adds a bit of immersion to movie)
Spectacle 4 (Action and story line segments are done well above average but still not excellent yet, still to do these two sections well it is pretty good entertainment value overall) 

Overall 3.8 (Overall 3.8 is a pretty fair score. Its a see able show, somewhat short but has sufficient entertainment value to be worth the time and money. Anyway it is only 93 mins long so it's not that big a investment. Action lovers and storyline lovers will be fine with the plot and the bit of action it brings. It should be fresh for most people giving the unique angle by which they are recreating the story.)