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 

Food: Buffet Town

Food: Buffet Town

Was looking for a review to do today and manged to find out that I have slated to review before but didn't have a chance. Thankfully I ate at this place not more then 2 months ago so I can still remember the associated points to review about! So this place is none other then buffet town!

Its a pretty crowded and popular place that has been around for a while under raffles city (NOT AT RAFFLES PLACE MRT). The nearest MRT station for this place is City Hall station and you always see a queue outside of it especially before it begins its buffet sessions which are afternoon lunch and dinner only. It's an international buffet and I have some pictures that I took below that you can refer to!

So all in all how did the whole experience feel for me? Read on to find out!


So these are the pictures of the food we ate

Has soup, rendeng meat, sushi, snippets from every cuisine

 So like any international buffet this place has the obligatory cream of mushroom soup and on the japanese side they have all the sashimi from salmon as well as the tuna flavors

Some potato some fish and carrot cake plus ham

 Really many various types of food here, all these are already pre cooked and you just have to collect them up from the warmers

Of course international buffet has the thin crust pizzas, 3 types here

 3 types of pizzas being the seafood, meat type and the margherita which is like some vegetarian pizza

Cooked chicken

 There was actually also a station whereby they will directly cook some of the food choices provided there, they provided seafood which i believe is squid, then chicken and some veggies, so you can get the guy to freshly cook some meat from you

Adding the asian flavor to the mix

 Has also the satay cooking area right beside the cooked chicken area but for this you had to wait awhile because it was always empty. The moment the satay is done its quickly wiped off by other hungry customers

Some of our own cuisine

 The laksa that they cook relatively fresh for you! obviously the soup is already pre made! Pretty milky taste but overall its not the spicy type

Finally some spaghetti

To top it off there is also spaghetti from the Italian side of the world although pizza should be from there too!

Besides this, there were some other items not pictured here which are cold seafood choices Chilled Prawns, Mussels, Big and Juicy Freshly Shucked Oysters, Scallops, White Clams and Slipper Lobsters which is also advertised on the website. It didn't seem supremely enticing to me but if seafood is your thing this might be what brings u here.

There is also desert and drinks provided from cute little cakes down to crepes and ice cream which is about 4 varieties and fruits all that. Drink choices included soya bean, coffee and tea as well as a lot of ice teas peach green lemon and the rest of the soft drinks

Overall, the taste of the food however to put it bluntly is pretty ordinary. Nothing particularly stood out from its outside counter parts. Satay tastes better outside, laksa better outside etc. Probably not a surprise for a place that tries to cover everything. Sadder part was the foods that were already cooked like the potatos and rendang meats were not particularly hot either which doesn't feel as tasty. 

Probably, the only thing that has going for it is its variety. Its variety is pretty vast with at least 15 choices for even the most picky of eaters such as myself and I think there are about 25 to 30 choices of food out there. Nonetheless, you won't be very impressed with the taste of the food no matter what you eat. Just to clarify again, I didn't eat the seafood so especially if you don't eat seafood like me, your rating would probably be similar.

Food 3/5

Atmosphere 3/5

Sitting place wise the whole area is pretty well spaced but being buffet style there will be people walking past your area especially if you sit in the center section. The other areas are all at the sides which means you will be pretty far away from at least one station of the food.

There is little interaction with the waiting staff and some of the cooks tend to be doing their own things sometimes which means its hard to ask them about what you are supposed to do with the food at this station such as the teppanyaki cooking station whereby they just leave the food there without telling you explicitly that you need to pick the food and pass it to the staff. The staff also don't tell you when the next batch of satay is ready neither is there a visible queue. So these will make it slightly more disorganized then usual.

There is a lot that can be done to improve the customer service and overall feeling but its still passable as it is not unpleasant.

Price 2/5

Prices range from $26.80++ on a weekday lunch to $41.80++ for a weekend dinner. 

This for the quality of food and service atmosphere, is pretty crazy especially for the weekend dinner section. Put simply, there is probably no way the food you eat will feel worth the $41.80 dollars excluding the plus plus. 

Only plus point is that drinks and dessert are all provided in house at no extra charge but worth it? I don't really feel so.

Accessibility 3/5

Perhaps the only obviously positive point of this place is that it is near. However, this place has strange popularity that means that you might need to try to reserve a seat during peak periods or you need to queue up or reach there earlier just to secure your seat.

It didn't fail in this category due to its ease of getting there but there is little ease to getting in. Also they follow the end time strictly which means once you cross the 3 pm mark for lunch and 10 pm mark for dinner, there is nothing left for you as they pack up. So if you don't get in at 1 pm for lunch or at 7 pm for dinner, you probably should just come back another day.

Overall

Food: 3 (Variety is "vast" but food taste is nothing impressive at all)

Atmosphere: 3 (No clear instructions on what to do, confusing, not too attentive staff)

Price: 2 (Extremely overpriced for the standard of food honestly)

Accessibility: 3 (Near MRT, doesn't mean you will get in though)

Overall: 2.75 (A barely passable score. I'll put it bluntly, I have no reason to go back there to eat ever again and even if my friends were to suggest it I probably would tell them that there are other places to eat compared to this place. Nonetheless it is still ok to eat on a weekday lunch if you really have no where else to go. I have absolutely zero reasons to eat a weekend dinner there though. Keep your expectations low if you are going there and maybe just try to convince yourself that you are there for variety)

Been there before and don't agree with the score? Post your comments below!

Here is its website if you want to check it out!

Disclaimer: Since this is a neutral or slightly negative review, I would like to say that all this is just words of opinion based on the dishes we had. Its not a professional review but the first impressions of a layman as per blog objective. So please don't be offended if you are a staff from there!

Food: Empire State Restaurant

Food: Empire State Restaurant

Good day to all, heres the first of a few food reviews that I have backed logged up to this day. This food review is on this western/italian cuisine type of food called Empire State Restaurant.Ate this at the Woodlands Branch and I am sure there are a few branches over the country that you can check out at the website below. Here is their icon or logo or something.

So is this place worth the visit? Read on to find out!

Food 2.5/5

This place is supposed to be famous for their empire burger which is pictured here

Its a giant burger that obviously will be too much for our Asian appetites but nonetheless at 22++ SGD if you are really hungry you probably can eat it. I didn't order this unfortunately so my food review will be based on what else i managed to eat which is pictured below.

Looks huge eh! Well its not as big as the burger

For me I ordered the next best choice which according the name, should also be one of their signature dishes cause its the EMPIRE HD for Hotdog! not High Def...

Look at it and it really looks very nice and cheesy but look closely you will realise that its only one portion that was with the cheese. The bacon is fine, texture and all but all in all the whole dish wasn't very special. There was no extremely strong taste of the sauce or anything and the fries obviously was just plain. The hotdog itself at best, just felt like another hot dog. Its not like those from that hotdog fast food joint with its RIPPERS and stuff. Nope, its merely just a hotdog.

Cheesy Penne

The other dish that we chose was supposed to be like some very cheesy type of penne thingy. That was what the name of the dish was supposed to be.. like 3 cheese pasta or cheesy pasta or something. Unfortunately at best, I would say that the dish didnt live up to its name. Worse of all, the pasta sauce was actually considered watery. Like someone put in sauce and added a bit too much water to it. Wasn't satisfying and at best it is just barely passable.

Fries with 4 sauces?

This was where it was totally sad for us. We ordered a fries that was suppose to come with various sauces. In the end, there was one mayonaise like sauce, another holder with chopped up tomatoes, another with olives and one more with a grand sum of 2 and a half piece of a pickle. Yep.. How is this supposed to work? ITs not a sauce is it? or is there some method to eat that I dont really know? Its probably that.. but overall, its not tasty at all... it might have been slightly cheesy but I really didnt know how those other 3 holders are sauces. The Mayo i still understand though...

Atmosphere 3/5

Atmosphere was average. It was the type of open seating whereby the seats are inside the shopping centre themselves. That means that this shop doesn't have an entrance per say and shoppers can just walk through the two eating areas as there is a walking path right in the center. Of course it has air-con and all that and I guess its just some style but all in all, there are better ways to do it.

Also given the two distinct areas belonging to the shop, the staff may sometimes be pretty hard to call over. I guess you could still sit there and buy their desserts and sit and talk but there are other choices like The Coffee Bean etc. The staff as a whole, are alright but it is obvious that they are slightly understaffed during the time we were there.

Price 3/5

Here is the receipt and the amount we spent for two people. Oh look... water is chargeable... Not sure why there is a need to charge for water in Singapore.. you can count it under service charge seriously.

Its not expensive per say, but its not really worth it. The fries for $5.90 was quite a bit and we actually didn't manage to finish everything. But overall I would say that quality to food taste, does not really match.

Accessibility 4/5

Perhaps the only good point of this eatery, its totally near the woodlands MRT station and also didn't have too many customers which means you can probably get a seat with no problems. But its most likely because the food is not distinct enough and tasty enough to attract the crowd. Still, it works in their favour...

Overall

Food: 2.5 (Overall,  its just passable. You won't be put off, but you will really expect more)
Atmosphere: 3 (Average atmosphere, you will feel that it can be improved)
Price: 3 (Charging for water? Not entirely cheap either for the quality)
Accessibility: 4 (Good location, easy to get to, probably won't have a queue so you can start your dinner faster)

Overall: 3.125 (Surprisingly the score is above 3. I would say that you could choose this place if you really wanted western food or italian food and you don't want to queue and just want to get dinner over and done with. Yea that would be the best explanation for this place at this point of time. Eat there once and see for yourself and if its ok type of food, then you can come more often. For me though, not entirely impressed and probably won't revisit unless there is a strong impetus.)

Here is its website http://empirestate.com.sg/ in case you want to try it out. Maybe try out some other dishes and tell me if it is better...

Disclaimer: Since this is a neutral or slightly negative review, I would like to say that all this is just words of opinion based on the dishes we had. Its not a professional review but the first impressions of a layman as per blog objective. So please don't be offended if you are a staff from there!