Superb Roast Duck and other ducky dishes at Duckland, United Square.

👍 Extremely well executed Roast Duck, with great balance of fat and crispy skin.
👎 Dining area is very busy and noisy.

A really short and sweet post from us today, covering one of the Tung Lok Group's most recent contemporary restaurant concepts: Duckland!


Located in the basement of United Square, Duckland's signature dish is - of course - the Roast Irish duck, but it also has quite a number of imaginative east-meets-west crossover-style duck-themed dishes. Being a shopping mall restaurant, the dining area does tend to be a bit busy and noisy, but at least reservations are accepted so you don't have to queue.


Speaking of said crossover dishes, we started off with the Duck Liver Terrine (s$15), served on crispy toast and rum-infused marmalade. It's a delicious starter, but it does take a little time to get used to combining these Western flavours with the Eastern style main course.


The star of the show is - naturally - the Roast Irish Duck (s$28 half, s$50 whole). Duckland's execution is superb: The breast portion of the duck is sinfully fatty (as you'd expect from the Irish duck), but the skin of the leg/drumstick area is crisp and delicate: almost as crispy as a good Peking duck. Seasoning is on point, too.

Duckland serves their roast duck with raspberry jam, sriracha, and mustard, but we very much preferred just having it with the gravy made from the duck drippings.


Duck Rice (pictured above) is an s$2 add-on; Duck Broth (pictured below) is a s$4 add-on. We'd recommend adding on the rice (to have a Roast Duck Rice "feel"), but we felt that the duck broth was somewhat mediocre & uninteresting.


Unfortunately it was just the darling and I visiting, so we didn't have the stomach to try the other items on the menu. When we return we've got our eyes on the Duck Confit & Waffle and the Duck Fried Rice. Oh, and if any of your dining party doesn't eat duck, there are also non-duck dishes like the Good ol' Fish and Chips and Irish Lamb Stew.

Duckland is at B1-09&64/65 United Square Shopping Mall, and opens daily. Reservations recommended; Non-halal.

Look See Eat

Experimental Global Cuisine at the Tippling Club - 8th Best Restaurant in Singapore.

To the darling and I, food should be fun above all else. We sometimes do feel that fine dining can be a bit too stifling, a bit pretentious. So we love coming across restaurants like the Tippling Club which doesn't take itself too seriously, and yet serves up food good enough to get the 8th best restaurant in Singapore spot on the Acqua Panna / San Pellegrino list.

Located right smack on Tanjong Pagar road, the open-kitchen restaurant with its adjoining bar is hip and trendy - none of the stuffy, starched napkins and thrice-ironed tablecloths you'd normally expect from fine dining establishments. That's totally fine with us, though; Gives us the chance to just enjoy the food without worrying about which fork to use next or whether we inadvertently commit any dining faux pas.


As is pretty much the norm, dinner prices are out of the reach of our limited dining budget, so we pay a visit during lunchtime for the much cheaper $43 (two-courses) or $58 (three-courses) set lunch. Not mentioned on the menu are a couple of "complimentary" amuse-bouche type snacks, starting with Chef's rendition of the Singapore Curry: Puffed rice (like unflavoured rice krispies) on a light, fluffy, airy curry paste. It's an interesting, yet altogether unfamiliar taste & texture combination.


Second snack: Smoked and charred peppers with a soy wasabi dip. The black char is, of course, an illusion -- these slices of capsicum aren't actually burnt black. Rather it's in a very light, crispy batter (not unlike a good tempura), blackened perhaps by charcoal or some other food colouring. We liked this quite a bit, but the uneven sprinkling of salt combined with the very salty soy/miso-flavoured dip meant some nibbles were a lot saltier than others.


Before the actual food comes, we're given a palate-cleansing tomato, basil and olive oil ... concoction (for lack of a better word). It's cold, tangy, and very refreshing.


On to the (main) food, then! The first appetizer is the Wagyu Beef Tartare with hazelnuts, mustard paper, truffled egg yolk and a crispy bread that's reminiscent of 油条 (you tiao, dough fritters). While we loved the plating, the presentation and the flavours, we thought that the egg yolk muddied the texture a little bit. In hindsight we might have eaten the beef with just the brioche and ignored the yolk.


The Pan Seared Foie Gras is a $15 supplement, which we gladly paid because we almost always order foie gras if we see it on the menu. In this rendition the sweetness comes from peach puree (delicious, perfectly balanced with the fat from the liver) and slices of white peach (disappointingly mushy ... but then again we haven't been able to get a single nice, firm, sweet peach in this country up until now).


On the recommendation of the (particularly aloof) waiter, I order the Slow Roasted Mangalica Pork Collar with chanterelles and milk skin. Another imperfect dish: flavours were good, and I thought the milk skin was interesting, but the pork itself was so dry in some parts that I had to lather it liberally with the gravy to compensate.


The inconsistency carries over to the Tarragon & Prawn Risotto. The balance of flavours, and the chunky prawns, crispy shrimp and prawn paper were absolutely spot on, but I was disappointed that the rice itself was a tad bit undercooked. It strikes me as a strangely rookie mistake to serve risotto whose rice grains are still a little hard / powdery in the center.


Anyways, all is forgiven with the desserts! The Cherry Ripe Souffle comes with a cherry-flavoured chocolate souffle - delicious fluffy cherry-chocolate mousse, and a eye-wateringly sour mini cherry sorbet magnum. I adore sour things so I totally loved it, but if you're not so big a fan then this might not be the best choice of dessert.


Pear Tart 2015 is a delightful play on the senses. You get two slices of (real) pear, and a mock pear sitting on a bed of crushed puff pastry. Well maybe it can't even really be called a mock pear. It's a mound of caramel ice cream / gelee encased by green gel made to look like a pear. We like this a lot - it's playful, it's delightful, but most importantly still tastes delicious.


The meal ends with assorted petit fours - the most notable of which was a rectangle of sweet tofu. Which totally worked and was totally delicious!


Overall, we come away with mixed feelings. While some of the dishes were very imaginative, and the food was overall very good, we were a bit let down by the few shortcomings here and there. Whether it's dry pork, crappy peach or undercooked rice, we felt these were mistakes that a restaurant of this calibre simply shouldn't be making.

Perhaps we could chalk it up to just a 'bad day in the office' for whichever chef cooked up our food?

The Tippling Club is on 38 Tanjong Pagar Road and is open for lunch and dinner on weekdays, and dinner only on Saturday. Reservations recommended. Non-halal.

The Coastal Settlement - Great Hangout/Chillout place in the East

When one mentions hanging out or chilling out over food in Singapore, the areas that usually spring to mind are the prime suspects like Holland V, Dempsey, et al. For those of us in the East - or those of us looking for something a little more casual - there's a lovely place near Changi Village called The Coastal Settlement over on Netheravon Rd.


The restaurant/cafe is huge, with what seems like tables for over 200 guests sprawled over air-conditioned indoor and al-fresco outdoor areas. The decor is generally retro while also being quite hip at the same time. A side note that when we visited for dinner, the outdoor areas are very dimly lit - we saw more than one table needing to whip out their cellphone LED's to illuminate the menus. The indoor area also tends to get a little noisy thanks to the lack of noise absorbing materials. Buyer beware!


The menu is predominantly Western casual fare - things like burgers, pizzas, fries and ribs with some Asian staples mixed in. We start off with an order of Portobello Fries ($15, served with white truffle mayo dip), which is thick chunky cuts of mushrooms battered and deep fried. It's pretty good, although the portion is a little too big for two non-mushroom lovers.


For mains, we decide on the Wagyu Beef & Mushrooms Thin Crust Pizza ($23). We're thrilled that the pizza comes absolutely loaded with ingredients. The choice of sauce base - a caramelized onions and white wine reduction cream sauce - goes great with the beef and mushrooms, but also soaks its' way through the entire crust, so this is a pizza that you really need to eat with a fork or knife.


Continuing the beef theme, we also try the Cheeseburger ($26, add $3 for a fried egg on the side) - 180 gm of Wagyu Beef Patty medium rare with onions, sweet bacon, salad and thick-cut fries. Personally I'm not a fan of excessively thick burgers - this one is too thick to take bites out so I had to resort to using a fork and knife. No fun lah! Taste-wise the burger was pretty competent, though, and the sweetened bacon (maple?) was an interesting touch.


We're stuffed at this point so we decide for just one dessert to share - the Blackforest in a Jar ($9). It's basically a chocolate brownie sitting at the bottom of a jar with chocolate crunchies, cream, cherries and other assorted ingredients lathered on top and served cold. It's an interesting combination and one that I wouldn't mind having again.


All in all, food's above average and ambience is nice - this is a good place to come and chill out and take your time with your meal. The bill came in at $100 for two people which does feel a little on the pricey side, and service perhaps is a bit lacking (it's hard to get a waiter's attention at times).

The Coastal Settlement is at 200 Netheravon Road. It's perhaps a bit inconvenient to get here via public transport. Open Tuesdays to Sundays 10.30am till Midnight; Closed on Mondays.

Lazy Saturday Brunch at House, Dempsey Hill

Oh wow this is only the second post for 2013, we're already three weeks into the new year! Between work and a few wedding photo sessions we simply haven't had the time to sit down and write proper blog posts.

There is always time for Brunch on weekends, though, so today we jumped in the car and headed over to House over at Dempsey Hill to laze the morning away!


Relaxing isn't complete without food, though, so we start off with an order of Curry Mustard Fries (SGD9). I'm not sure where the 'mustard' comes from since these are topped with a huge amount of curry powder, paprika and sea salt - but no mustard. They're nice and savory without being overly salty (like most of McDonald's shaker fries varieties).


House apparently serves "Singapore's Best Tou Sar Pao" (self-proclaimed, I believe), so we order one to try. At SGD2.50 it's not the cheapest Pao around, but it is pretty good. Bread is nice and fluffy, the Sar (paste) is smooth and has a nice balance of bitter and sweet.


Cappucino and Latte (SGD6 each) to wash down our breakfast - we thought the coffee here was good, but as we're not java aficionados, your mileage may vary.


Moving on to the meaty (as in, substantial) stuff - Eggs Benedict (Poached Eggs on biscuits with ham, baby spinach and Hollandaise sauce, SGD18). We weren't sure what ham was used, but it was distinctly absent taste-wise. If you weren't paying attention you possibly wouldn't even have noticed it was there at all! Other than that the eggs were well poached and nicely sauced.


We very much liked the Asparagus, Serrano Ham & Crumbed Egg (SGD22). Asparagus was nice and well cooked, and complemented the saltiness of the ham. We also liked the crumbed soft boiled egg with its' shaved sea salt and deliciously runny yolk. Would certainly order this again the next time we're here.


The overall bill came up to a not-exactly-cheap SGD74 for two people; but practically all the eateries in Dempsey Hill are priced pretty upmarket anyways. House is at 8D Dempsey Road, Singapore. We'd recommended taking a cab here if you don't have wheels as it's one of those annoying-to-get-to-by-public-transport places in Singapore.

Weekend Brunch is served at 11am-4pm on Saturdays and 9am-4pm on Sundays. Call them up at +65 64757787 to make reservations. Non-halal.

* All photos in this blogpost were taken with the Google Nexus 4 because we forgot to bring our DSLRs :(

Festive Plates of Pleasure at 10 @ Claymore, Pan Pacific Orchard

People always tell you that "with age comes Wisdom." What they don't tell you, is that reduced metabolism, appetite, and stomach capacity also come along for the ride. I mean I'm not old, I'm just now treading water into "medium adult" territory, but even then I find myself going to buffets less and less because I simply can't whack as much food as I used to.

Nevertheless, a good buffet once in a while is still awesome, just that the goal is slowly shifting from "stuff my face with as much food as possible" to "sample and taste the different foods on offer," ha ha!


Pan Pacific Orchard's 10 @ Claymore Restaurant serves up a relatively limited buffet spread, complemented by what they call "Plates of Pleasure." These plates are basically quarter-sized versions of ala-carte dishes, which you can order unlimited servings of.


Their cold appetizers station consists of salmon and tuna sashimi (nice and fresh), some assorted cold cuts, and parma ham with melon, which was pretty delicious. We ended up eating a lot more parma ham than sashimi. A selection of different breads and cheeses are available for you to mix-and-match - starting from mild cheeses like Camembert and Brie, and all the way up to Blue cheese.


The salad bar has some decent variety although strangely enough, we forgot (subconscious desire to skip the veg? Hmmm) to mix up a salad for ourselves.


The two carving stations for the day were a leg of lamb (pink, moist, juicy and tender), and the mandatory Turkey breast (seeing as it was Christmas eve). I'm personally not a huge fan of turkey because it's often cooked up really dry, but the turkey here was nice and decently juicy. Well, as juicy as an (almost) fat-free poultry breast can be.


For the hot foods station, the only dishes that stood out as being "nice" were perhaps the braised lamb shank, barbecue'd Pork Ribs, and the Singapore Chili Crab. The other dishes were forgettable at best.


Moving on to the Plates of Pleasure for the afternoon - House Pressed Chicken Snail Sausage, Penang Aromatic Spicy Prawn Noodle Broth, Norwegian Breed Wild Farmed Salmon, and Victoria Gippsland Natural Fed Tender Cut Angus Beef.

The surprise of the afternoon had to be the Prawn Noodle, which was delightfully faithful to the bowls you'd get all around Penang island. The steak was also nicely flavored and grilled, and it being served with truffle mashed potato was a bonus. Unfortunately the chicken sausage was rather run of the mill, and the salmon (is there even such a thing as "Wild Farmed Salmon?") was a little dry and overcooked.


Moving on to desserts, we really liked that the fruits counter had more participants than just the 'standard' watermelon/papaya/melon combination. Other cakes, pastries and tarts were overall pretty nice stuff, except for the log cake which turned out to be a durian log cake. We don't eat durian :P


For SGD58.00++ per person for lunch, we thought that the buffet was pretty good value for money. What we don't get in quantity is more than made up for in quality (considering the price we paid, of course). The restaurant was also not too crowded, so it doesn't get cramped or noisy.

10 @ Claymore is located in Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel, and gets its' name from the Hotel's address: 10 Claymore Road. Call up 6831 6686 for reservations. Non-halal.

Eighteen Chefs - Noble Cause, Subpar Food.

Eighteen Chefs is a restaurant (chain) with a difference - its' founder Benny Se Teo started the restaurant with the aim of providing troubled youths and ex-convicts a place to earn an honest living, and thus act as a stepping stone to re-integration into society. Is there any restaurant out there with a cause more noble than this one?


Unfortunately, that's about all the good I can say about it. The restaurant is a "no frills" concept which means that you have to order at the counter, pick up your own condiments & cutlery, etc. Which in itself isn't a bad thing, as long as the food is good.

Main courses can be ordered with a Combo - the Combo B (SGD3.80) adding on a can of soft drink and a bowl of the soup of the day. We're guessing today's soup was cream of vegetable - emphasis on the "guess" bit because the soup was pretty much plain cream soup with some onion and other unidentifiable random vegetable bits floating around.


In hindsight, the Snack Platter (SGD11.30) was probably not the best of choices; we were hoping for some creativity but found absolutely none. The fries, chicken & fish nuggets and onion & calamari rings tasted pretty much exactly the same as if you had picked up frozen bags from the local supermarket and deep fried them at home.


For SGD6.50, the Bolognese Cheese Fries was the only dish we ordered that was decent. Yes, I know it looks a little messy, but it had a very nice balance of meat, bolognese sauce and two different cheeses. Not gourmet by any measure, but would do nicely as an afternoon tummy filler. The fries did get a little soggy towards the end, though.


My Tom Yum Seafood Aglio Olio (SGD13.80) was another disappointment. I've never been served Aglio Olio with Fusilli. Nor have I ever been served tougher pieces of squid (the bits of squid in the dish were literally like chewing on rubber). The peas were a questionable choice as well, and the mussels weren't cooked with the pasta but just placed on top (very plain tasting, hardly any seasoning). At least the prawns were fresh!


Overall, at about SGD18 per person the darling and I come away with a bitter taste in our mouths. No matter the charity angle, food needs to be good in order to warrant a second visit, which will most likely not happen. Shame too, because we did see some interesting fusion items on the menu like the Cheese Baked Chili Crab and Root Beer Battered Fish & Chips.

Eighteen Chefs has three outlets in Easpoint Mall, Tiong Bahru Plaza (covered in this review) and Fusionopolis Way. Certified Halal by MUIS.