Food: Wang Dae Bak

Food: Wang Dae Bak

There are many different type of BBQ that you would experience in your time. There is the traditional BBQ where you go to the beaches and have a nice charcoal fire and cook stuff like chicken, satay, hotdogs etc. Then there is the Thai BBQ which is also known as Mookata. Then you have the Korean BBQ. Korean BBQ is distinguished from the other type of BBQ by the style. For Korean BBQ, you will see much less sauces unlike the Chinese steamboats like in Haidilao and other steamboats in Chinatown. Korean BBQ is also distinguished by the larger meat sizes and the presence of scissors. Usually for Korean BBQ you will be able to see large meat slabs like steak, and then they will give you scissors to cut it down to size.

Wang Dae Bak is one of those Korean BBQ but Ala carte style situated in Chinatown area. There are two stores under the same name pretty close to each other but for the purpose of this review we will be talking about the one along Cross Street. The other store is along Amoy Road.

So how did the food go, read on and find out.

Charcoal BBQ. NO GAS!

The two possible location, mine was Cross st.

The menu cover. Looks premium.

Food 4.5/5

We ordered two different types of meat, rice wine, a mushroom set and also a seafood pancake for a 2 person meal.

For all patrons, similar to other Korean establishment, Korean side dishes are also provided at no additional charge and are refillable. They also give some sort of water that is not your normal tap water although for all intents and purposes it did just take like water.

The side dishes choice

The side dishes tasted pretty good, in fact one of nicest bunch of side dishes I have ever eaten from a korean restaurant. It tasted authentic and didn't taste like something just out of a pre packaged container. Nonetheless the 3 side dishes at the back, I had no clue what they were and didn't touch them at all. But since none were chargable, it's all good.

The next interesting thing about the food portion of this is that for all the hot plates, there are two sections that they will fill and refill with eggs. So depending on how cooked you like it, you can wait longer or eat them liquid. Of course just as the problem with hot plates, it will happily get stuck to the side but since its refillable its probably no issue.

Liquid egg cooking in the hot plate. Yum yum

The taste of the egg wasn't the usual also in a good sense. It tasted pretty nice as if they had added something else to it. It's a good additional touch and I didn't see this in any other korean BBQ shop.

 Before we get into the main dish proper, this was one of the other side dish that we ordered, the seafood pancake.

Note: Its more like chinese carrot cake then pan cake.

Do note, this pan cake is huge and should not be eaten by just 2 persons. Or else you will have no other room in your belly for the other dishes. That and eating too much of the same pancake also gets kinda stale in terms of the taste. This pancake size is probably meant for 4 or more people. The sauce however, was one of the nicer sauces I have eaten.

Now lets get into the main dishes. there was a good selection, from beef, pork to chicken choices with various grades and prices. The portions did seem to varies also. I honestly was surprised that the portion was so small. Take a look at the meat on the wooden holder on the top right. Yep that is one portion. The meat right one the hot pan, yep also one portion. But we will scrutinize this further later.

Ah the traditional korean BBQ meat

How it looks when it is cooked, look at the egg

Taste wise however, this would probably be one of the better tasting meat I have tasted. My general impression of korean BBQ is that the meat slabs are generally tasteless or at least are not marinated, and if I am not mistaken, these meat were not or did not seem marinated too. However, the overall taste of the meat was pleasing and I did enjoy the taste.

Rice wine and serving cup

 Let me just state clearly, I am not a wine or alcohol drinker. I think I do not have taste buds for alcohol and so far, all the alcohol that I have drunk has never tasted pleasing to me in the end. Nonetheless, at least the presentation is cute for this rice wine and all in all, I did not factor this into the rating to be fair.

 Overall, the food has a premium taste to it and it is generally better then that you get outside. Also the no fuss choices and variety that it has to cater for tastes and budget. You will probably go home thinking that this meat is indeed a step above the usual.

Atmosphere 3.5/5

Charcoal. They mean it.

Like what was said in their name card, they proudly proclaim that their food is cooked by charcoal and I am compelled to believe that cooking with charcoal does add some difference to its taste. This adds to the overall enjoyment of the food. Wait! what are you asking? Does the charcoal make you smell?

Go away charcoal smell!

Thankfully, there is this nifty device that i am sure you seen before in other restaurants to help you in this aspect. Actually, in the end, I still did smell of charcoal although I would have to say that the suction device probably did help me slightly. So if you plan to come here to eat, make sure you are prepared to go back directly after, or you concoct some way to remove the smell after.

Water???

Here was the water that  I was talking about early. Free flow, but its not transparent. With the korean words in front it would seem that this might not jsut be like water, although it tastes more or less the same thing. Nonetheless, adds to the korean experience.

Service wise, the personnel here are fine, and will respond IF you managed to get their attention. However it seems like their store might have been slightly understaffed on that day and the staff were focused on getting tasks done, so there would be some bit of effort that you will need to put in to get them. But once you get them, they will attend promptly and solve your problems

Another additional perk was towards the end of our meal, the staff (might have been boss) placed a bowl of veggie / cold dish veggie on our table. I had no clue what it was but it was not charged and I guess was just a token of appreciation from the kitchen. (or we were just guinea pigs testing out new food) Unfortunately, we were too full, (I repeat again do not buy the pancake if you are just two people) and we didn't have the stomach to try it.

Personal space is pretty good and you won't feel like you are too near other people's table during your meal. They even allow you to keep your bags in the chair you sit on! So the only way your things get stolen is OVER MY FAT BODY! Or if you just forget to take it back cause its out of sight and out of mind.

Price 3/5

This part is basically the deal breaker. This place is not a place I would consider cheap. For two pax we ate about SGD $110 for 2 types of meat, 1 mushroom set, 1 seafood pancake and 1 rice wine. If we were to factor out the rice wine which is about 20 dollars it would be 90 for 2 people which is 45 per pax. My only issue is that the meat amount is really low as you saw in the food section. For some reasons, the other meat choices that we saw were served, seemed to have a larger portion then ours but at the end, we didn't feel like we ate enough of the meat and for some reason felt like we had to ration our way through.

We did not order more meat because the seafood pancake (again) was a killer and it made us well stuffed. So you know what to do with the pancake... Nonetheless, it was good that the side dishes, water and egg were not charged which makes the place seem less greedy overall.

Accessibility 3/5

With it's location near a MRT station near the central of the country, it is safe to say that this place is quite accessible. There are a few parking lots nearby and you can always call to book places (in fact i would recommend u do that). Do note that when we ended our meal around 7, there was already a crowd building. The good point about ala carte BBQ is that people will not stay as long, but still, being a small place and even two people groups will take out their common table that can sit up to 4, it might take you awhile to get to your seat if you come too late. The waiting area is also outside and you can see other people eating so it will be hot and slightly torturous. Do plan properly and maybe just save yourself the hassle and book.

Do note that the place is not entirely easy to find and even from the MRT you will need to walk a little more then 5 minutes to get there. Chinatown MRT is generally getting a bit more messy and harder to navigate in the recent years

Overall

Food: 4.5 (Food definitely tastes premium, pricey and nice)

Atmosphere: 3.5 (Good attempt with some hiccups or places to improve, but it will not frustrate you so it is somewhat acceptable)

Price: 3 (Premium taste comes with premium price, and somewhat small portion at least to me)

Accessibility: 3 (Near the MRT, there are parking lots but there will be the queue. At least you can reserve it. Try to go only after you did reservations)

Overall: 3.5 (It's a good place to try once in your life to have an idea of how authentic korean BBQ should taste like although the price you pay is somewhat more steep. All in all a place you should go at least once in your life to try, and if you think that the price and taste is there, you can come more often. In my opinion however, this will be a place more reserved for those rare special occasions and not a place you will select to go on a whim or a craving.)

Thanks again for reading my post. Hope you guys find this place useful. If you have other recommendations please comment and I may take a look at them when I am thinking of places to go!

Food: Mitzo Restaurant & Bar (Grand Park Orchard Hotel)

Food: Mitzo Restaurant & Bar (Grand Park Orchard Hotel)

Introduction

It's been a while since I did a review, but today's review is going to be focused on something different from the usual lay man fare. Today's review is about some unique dining in hotel restaurants. Hopefully as time goes by, I am able to afford more of these hotel dining and test them for my readers so that you can decide whether or not to come and what you should be expecting!

So for my first review, its the Mitzo Restaurant &  Bar, located within Grand Park Orchard Hotel.

Menu cover

To set the expectations clearly, basically this place is supposed to be a fusion of Cantonese food with cocktail... wait.. one is food, one is drink... what's the fusion there? Ok... so basically, come to this place expecting to eat Cantonese styled food in a non Cantonese like place BUT also you can have some alcohol to drink! Also the styling of the place is hardly Cantonese/Chinese which you can see further down in this review. So I guess in the classification of restaurants this is still considered a fusion....

Food 

So overall, how did the most important aspect fare? Let's split it completely into everything possible

Tasty unique mixed nuts

 Like many chinese eating places in Singapore, the first item on the table are the nuts. Apparently these nuts are not chargable and they are actually mixed nuts if you take a close enough look. It tastes slightly more premium then your usual nuts but was slightly on the salty side if you ask me.

Interestingly, i remember that alcohol is supposed to be taken with nuts so if this is your practice, perhaps this will improve your overall experience.

Mmmmm... roasted char siew

This roated char siew is realy good. The internal portions are soft and juicy which practically melts in the mouth while hte outside skin is crispy! How is it possible to make such differing textures in one dish, this is a question only the chef can answer!

Mmmmmm dim sum, 4 different flavors

A dish possibly meant for two, this dish has 4 different flavors given, one generic prawn wrapped in skin, one siew mai with baby abalone on top, crab roe dumpling and the green version of the siew mai but i cannot really remember what meat it was at this point of time. Taste wise however, its nothing too unique, i guess the ingredients are expensive in itself but no spectacular difference over the usual fare from a dim sum restaurant.

Wagyu beef!! woohoo

Premium beef, cooked in black pepper! Some people are not really fans of this cause it will mute the taste of the meat itself but for me, black pepper makes everything taste better. The texture of the meat its there, soft and tender which is what you would expect from Wagyu itself. There is that fried net thingy at the back that unfortunately, didn't add anything besides aesthetic value to the dish itself although i would imagine some other restaurants are able to fry it and make it nicely crispy to eat with the meat. Not the case here though.

FRIED RICE?? Come Restaurant eat fried rice?

Fried rice, the carbohydrate choice of this meal. Of course it is charged at a restaurant price. That being sad, its quite filling for two persons and the texture of the rice does taste that bit more premium.

Mocktail!

This is the other highlight that yu are supposed to be enjoying over here. In fact within moments of sitting down the bartender actually came over and introduced himself and his menu. In the end, I just told him i wanted something sour, as sour as possible and this was produced, a mixture of orange, pineapple and probably some other citrus things.

Cocktail!

We also ordered a cocktail and for this order, we just requested something that is not too sweet but refreshing. This was the final product.

All in all, for mock/cock tail, as I am not really a professional at this they were pretty ok in the end, but nothing that would make it stand out from some of the other cock/mock tails that I have drunk.

Overall, the taste of both food and drinks, I would give it a 4 out of 5 points as nothing tasted bad and there were some dishes that did taste premium.

Atmosphere

Nice and clean set up, well spaced with cushions all around

As you can see from the overall decor, its very well spaced with a lot of sitting clusters but all the seats won't be too close to each other. The tables are also very wide and there is more then enough space for all your dishes and to sit very comfortably. The waiters are very eager to serve and let you know what is their best dishes are. Its also a very quite place without too much of a crowd when we were there making the place somewhat conducive for a chit chat after the meal.

Has nice light effects and your tables are well lit and big

You can even see the cushions provided at the seats that tells you how much time you should be spending here after the meal itself to just drink and chill. Just like any pub or bar though, there could have the occasional person that is talking too loudly as was our case over there but having a lot of tables helps as you can easily just move to another location and be less disturbed.

Overall, a very comfortable place to dine in giving this place 4 out of 5 points

Price

Unfortunately I forgot to record the price but off hand this is what I remember. 

Dim Sum set - SGD $48

Wagyu beef  - SGD $48

Roasted char siew - SGD $15

Egg fried rice - SGD $20

Cocktail - SGD $20

Mocktail - SGD $18

Total price was $180 nett so since the above numbers do not add up to them, I must have made a mistake in one of the dishes there.

It's quite clear cut that this is not going to be a cheap meal and the cooking method used as well as drink prep is probably top of its class. However I still can't shake off the feeling that i was paying a bit too much extra for not as a significant enough level improvement in terms of the food taste. Hence I would give this a 2 over 5. I will give some recommendations on how to make the entire thing more value for money at the conclusion of this.

On the bright side, this place does have several promotions so do take a look and see if there are any applicable promotions to you when dining there.

Accessibility

With its location being more or less along the orchard stretch and between the orchard and somerset MRT stations, this is a very easy place to organize a meet up and chit chat session with your friends.

Add to it the ability to reserve for a seat as well the lack of a queue which allows you all the way in, there is no problems getting a place to eat here.

Of course being in the orchard belt does make parking somewhat difficult for those who drives, but overall, this place has much going of it in terms of accessibility, winning it a 4 out of 5 points.

Overall

Food : 4 (Good taste in most of the food, but not everything is superb yet.)
Atmosphere : 4 (Very comfortable atmosphere with good service staff)
Price : 2 (Premium food at premium prices, i would still consider this taking a toll on the wallet)
Accessibility : 4 (Very easy to get to, and very easy to get in. Able to reserve for a peace of mind also.)

Overall:  3.5 (Overall, would say this is an interesting experience at a slightly more premium price to pay but may overall be worth it if you like cocktails and a comfortable place to sit and chit chat for a good part of the evening. Its quite a interesting mix of cantonese cuisine and alcohol which makes it unique from other standard drinking places which may be the draw that you need. All in all though, my idea for them to further improve is to market the place as a gathering and drinking spot for friends, and lower down the prices of the food slightly which will be easily made back by people ordering more then one drink while they are there. The atmosphere and seats are already nice and comfortable so they should make full use of what they have.)

That's my review for my first pricey dining spot. Do let me know if you have also visited the place and share your comments!!

http://www.mitzo.sg/