665°F in the Andaz (by Hyatt): Halal-friendly high-end steakhouse.

👍 Charcoal-grilled meaty goodness, cosy dining area, terrific view.
👎 Expect to smell like BBQ for a little while after.

665°F is a steakhouse on the 38th floor of the 5-month old Andaz Hotel (by Hyatt). It's two main selling points are Halal-certified meats (and sustainable seafood), and a Pira charcoal oven: no sous-vide or pan-fried heresy in this kitchen!

I'm not too sure what the difference is between this Pira oven and the somewhat-more-well-known Josper oven, though. They both burn charcoal in an enclosed oven, so are the differences only with branding? Do let me know in the comments if you know!


665°F is a surprisingly small restaurant: Other than another row of tables behind the photographer in this photo, there's a private-ish room off to the left which seats another eight diners or so. In practice it makes for quite a cozy dining experience, perfect for romantic dinners.

What might not be quite so romantic, though, is because the entire space is so small, the grill aromas from all that meat does spread through the entire restaurant - somewhat like a Korean BBQ joint - so be ready to have some meaty scents linger on your clothes and hair for a little while after.


The inside of the garlic bread to start the meal was drenched with melted butter and therefore delicious; I would have liked a stronger garlic flavour however.


Crab Cakes (s$13 each) were pretty good! The crabmeat used was the non-lump variety, though.


Each steak comes with a choice of Béarnaise, Green Peppercorn or Mushroom sauces: We tried the first two. The peppercorn sauce was nice, if a little salty considering that the steak itself was already well salted, but I didn't much appreciate the béarnaise (didn't like adding cream to steak).


The first steak: Grain-fed, Black Onyx, Rangers Valley Rib-Eye - s$80 for 340gm - was cooked and seasoned perfectly, with the right amount of char on the crust. Perhaps it was missing pepper, but you're free to add your own (or add a dab of that green peppercorn sauce).

No complaints about the cooking, then, but the meat itself was somewhat mediocre: A tad bit sinewy in places, and with neither the fatty mouthfeel you get from higher MBS meats, nor the strong beefy flavours you normally associate with grain-fed Angus steer.


The Tajima Wagyu Sirloin - s$75 for 240gm - was predictably a lot more tender, with a terrific oily mouthfeel from the MBS 8-scored marbling. This meat was also a little lacking in the strong beefy flavour that I prefer in my steaks, but that is perhaps to be expected from Japanese cows.


Both steaks were served medium-rare as requested. I also liked that they were rested just enough for the fibres to re-absorb all the juices without having the temperature drop too much.


Just one side dish tonight: Green Asparagus with truffle butter (s$14). It was ... decent? It's as competent a dish as Asparagus with butter can be, I guess.


Our bill came up to around s$230 for two (after service charge and taxes), which is pretty comparable to other steakhouses in the city. I think that if you're after a more cozy, personal dining experience, and/or if you like watching chefs at work, then 665°F can't be beat. But if you want to focus more on the steak, then Morton's or Wolfgang probably provides a little bit more satisfaction.

665°F is on the 38th floor of the Andaz Singapore. Check out their website for full menu and to make reservations. No pork.

Salted & Hung - Delicious Modern Australian Cured & Grilled Meats.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Under normal circumstances this would be a stark reminder on how powerless us common plebs are in comparison to the aristocracy; demonstrated particularly bitterly by a certain Malaysian Official #1 whose identity is all but known to anyone who cares.

But this is a food & travel blog, not a political one, and Salted & Hung is a restaurant, not a hall in parliament, so let's skip the melodrama and move on to the food!


This Modern Australian-ish restaurant on Purvis Street (in between Bugis Junction and Raffles Hotel) specializes in cured & grilled meats, and serves up all manner of cured, grilled, smoked and pickled dishes in relatively small portions designed to be shared by the whole table.

There's also an interesting sub-focus on the 'path less traveled' - i.e., cuts of animals that aren't commonly served in Singapore such as tripe, tongue and sweetbreads. Oh, and they actually cure most of their meat in house.


We start off with Crab ($23): A nice portion of fresh, vinegary crab meat, made awesome by a dollop of creamy, briny uni, and thin sliced apple. The asparagus being served cold was a little unusual to our palettes, but other than that this was a faultless start to the meal.


Next up: Pork Jowl ($18), which was a bit of a disappointment. The jowl was garnished with samphire and dandelion (both of which are new ingredients to us), and thin slices of chewy abalone. Overall the dish was seasoned well and had nice flavour, but we couldn't get over just how chewy both the pork and the abalone slices were.


In contrast, the Iberico Secreto ($32) ranks right up there as one of the best pork dishes we've ever tasted. Secreto is Spanish for secret, so Iberico Secreto roughly translates to "a secret cut from an Iberico Black Pig." Google seems undecided about where exactly this secret cut comes from, but in any case this particular hunk of meat on our plate is tender, juicy, tasty, cooked perfectly sous-vide and then seared. The pickled kohlrabi (sort of from the cabbage family) is sweet with a hint of sour, and is a great accompaniment to the meat.

The only downside? This dish is a special and not a regular menu item.


For our sides - we ordered the Kale ($14) and Black Mash ($10). The Kale is cooked & tossed in a cheese sauce and is served with some nicely toasted pine nuts - not too bad for a vegetable dish.

The Black Mash, as you might have guessed, is a pot of mashed potato that owes its midnight black colour to squid ink and charcoal. It's an amazing experience: The brain insists that something so black and served in a pot (with a leaf on the side, no less) should taste like soil and dirt, but the tongue says it's rich, creamy, mashed potatoes with just the right sprinkling of salt.


This restaurant isn't cheap: Five plates and two soft drinks came in and just under $130 - and the darling and I have small stomachs. Regular appetites could easily do four plates each. Overall, we really enjoyed our dinner, though, and wouldn't hesitate coming back again.

Salted & Hung is located at 12, Purvis Street, and is open for lunch & dinner on weekdays, and dinner only on Saturdays (closed on Sundays). Non-halal.

Soy Garlic Fried Chicken at Bonchon Chicken (Bugis+)

"It is not just Chicken, it's Bonchon Chicken" ... or so goes Bonchon's advertising tagline. Originating from Korea, the franchise has also spread its' wings to the Philippines, Thailand, and the USA, where it's been apparently garnering huge raves.

What we didn't know was that Bonchon has actually also set up shop here in Singapore - at the first floor of Bugis+ (formerly Iluma), so we hitched a train ride to Bugis and ordered up a Large Combo of 10 wings and 4 drumsticks for SGD21.90 to see if the food lives up to the hype!


There are two flavors available - Soy Garlic and Hot Sauce. What's interesting is that the flavors are incorporated into the deep-fried batter, so you get all the flavor but not-so-much of the mess. The large combo also comes with 2 side dishes - we go for edamame and coleslaw.

Verdict? While we enjoyed the crispiness of the batter and the Asian-influenced tastes, we didn't feel close to being blown away. To make matters worse, our batch of drumsticks were pretty badly overcooked. I'm not sure if you can see it in this photo, but the tops of the 'sticks were dry, hard and tough.


Overall, a pretty big disappointment, then. If they can adjust their cooking time and/or temperature I might give them another shot, but dry and hard chicken is inexcusable, especially on a juicy part like the drumstick. Having never tried the outlets in other countries I can't comment on how authentic the fried chicken here is; but for the Singapore version you'd be far more satisfied at 4 Fingers instead.

Also, while we tend to make huge concessions with regards to service in what is essentially a quasi-fast food joint, the service standards here are simply atrocious - standing in line for a good ten minutes being ignored by the entire wait staff isn't fun.

Bon Chon is located at #01-03, Bugis+ Shopping Centre, Bugis.

Ramen Champion's Bario and Iroha (Bugis+)

Ramen Champion, in a nutshell, is a Ramen Food Court. There are two shops in Singapore so far - the one in Changi Airport's T3 has four shops which we covered in two previous posts here and here.

The outlet in Bugis+ (formerly known as Illuma) is much bigger, better decorated, and houses six separate Ramen chefs. Ikkousha and Gantetsu also have their presence in Changi, so today we'll be sampling two of the other bowls of noodles.


Chef Kiyoshi Kurihara's Menya Iroha is perhaps the most decorated of all the chefs here, having won the People's Choice award at the Tokyo Ramen Show for an impressive three years running (2009, 2010 and 2011).

We try his recommended Black Negitama Ramen (SGD14.95, regular), which is a thick shoyu based broth. Surprisingly, the broth doesn't really gel with our tastes. There's a lot of black pepper in it, which does overpower the taste of the other ingredients, and we're not really big fans of thick soups.


We then move on Makoto Iwasaki's Ramen Bario. The noodles served here are Jiroken (Jiro style) - which is so different from other ramen shops that some purists even insist on calling it just "Jiro" (without the "ramen").

So what's the deal? Well, for starters the noodles are thick - almost udon-like. There's also a HUGE amount of it, with an equally huge serving of bean sprouts. This particular Ajitama Ramen (SGD14.50) has won awards for being the "Ramen that Most Young Men Like" (I'm sure that sounds better in Japanese); regular Joe's who don't have a teenage appetite will find it likely impossible to polish off the whole bowl.

Taste wise it's pretty good and very porky. Shame that the quantity of meat doesn't match the huge serving of vegetables and noodles.


Unfortunately I can't imagine myself ordering either ramen bowl again in the near future. For Iroha, it's simply a matter of preferences; I prefer my broth more soupy rather than thick. I enjoyed Bario's taste more; but the humongous serving size means that guilt kicks in because I can barely polish off half the bowl.

Ramen Champion is on the 4th floor of the Bugis+ Shopping Mall. Non-halal.

Our Ramen Rankings:
Superb!: Ippudo & Santouka
Delicious!: Nantsuttei, Tampopo & Keisuke Tonkotsu King
Solid: Shin-Sapporo, Keisuke, Gantetsu, Gensuke, Riki, Ikkousha & Bario
Below Average: Marutama, Menya Musashi & Menya Iroha