Pepper Steakhouse, Great World City

{ 200gm New Zealand "Wakanui" Tenderloin ($42) }

{ 200gm New Zealand "Harmony" Sirloin ($36) }

Steak Out, Victoria Street

 December is all about feasting, what with the slew of Christmas and birthday lunches and dinners in store - we decided we shouldn't really be eating out for the month! Unless, of course, it was to use up the vouchers we had bought prior >.<

 We picked up a couple of vouchers for Steak Out - previously Republic of Steak (not sure if it's renamed or replaced entirely) - 28% off a steak, soup, dessert and drink? Sounds like a good deal!

 Well as it turns out the soup and the drink could have been given a miss. Soup was ok - it had that mushroomy fragrance but texture too thick and Campbell-y. Drink was just a regular watered cordial of some sort.

 But of course, the main attraction was the steak - we both opted for the ribeye which comes with two sides and some strange brown sauce. Verdict?

 ... nothing great, honestly! I guess in 95% of eating spots in Singapore, steak is steak, and the quality is usually proportionate to what you paid for. Granted, I doubt I'll pay the $20 ala carte price for this again.

 But ... who would have guessed the real winner of the night was the signature chocolate lava cake!

 The color on the outside was absolutely weird - white and flaky as though mouldy. Either the frost from the freezer hasn't dissipated properly, and it's some weird icing sugar that looked like dust. Regardless, the cake was perfectly warm and lava-ey in the middle, and went impeccably with the ice cream (which was also lovely).

 All in all, if you're looking for ok steaks at a semi-decent price near SMU, then this will definitely be a good spot to come often. But if you're looking for a good deal on good steaks, then ... probably not. I would come again just for the lava cake though.

Steak Out

89 Victoria Street

View Larger Map

HGW Link (47% recommended under Republic of Steak): http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/republic_of_steak/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/steakout.sg
Rating (out of 4) : 

Hot Tomato, Causeway Point

 Dinner time! At Causeway Point too. Where can we bring our bellies?

 After the fascinating movie which is The Dark Knight Rises, we calmed ourselves down by indulging into some food at Hot Tomato. Lots of Hot Tomato joints has been popping up lately, with it's trademark being the $12.90 Steak 'n' Prawns combo.

 There's usually a queue whenever we pass by during dinner time, so was fairly surprised when there was none. We waited just a minute before being sent to a tiny table in the corner. It's one of those no frills, fast turnover places with what seems to be just mediocre western food.

{ Set (+$3.50) }

Garlic Bread, Soup, Drink

 Bread was just alright, very buttery but at room temperature. Soup like a slightly better version of some Campbell derivative. The drink was the main reason we got the set because anyway they charge for tap water. Granted it's only 20c.

 We got a single set top-up to share between the both of us. Generally palatable - it was more of a tummy filler / thirst quencher (lime juice was good and refreshing!) while we discussed the movie, but we didn't have to wait long at all until our mains arrived.

{ Pacific Dory ($8.90) }

Fresh fillet Dory lightly seasoned and grilled to perfection

 Fish for me tonight. This seemed like a really good deal. For under $9, I got two generous slabs of grilled, herbed dory atop several forkfuls of spaghetti and a decent-sized side salad. It came with some kind of tartar sauce which I didn't really touch. The flavours were quite strong by itself, in fact I think they could lose a bit of salt in this one!

{ Steak 'N' Prawn ($12.90) }

Juicy cut sirloin with succulent prawn, lightly seasoned with salt & pepper

 The 'trademark' steak and prawn combo, is honestly cheap for just $12.90. The aglio olio was just ... ok. Slightly overcooked and not much taste in the ways of oil, garlic or chilli. In fact I could barely call it aglio olio =.= Prawns were definitely NOT succulent - unfresh, powdery, hard and dry. Steak however was not too shabby, it is regular cut of sirloin with the regular steak-y taste you can get at Aston's or even a food court. Portion was generous however.

So yea food wasn't terrible but it wasn't great either. Definitely do NOT get the prawns, but the steak is passable for the price. Service wasn't great.

Hot Tomato (Causeway Point branch)

#02-11 Causeway Point

View Larger Map

Main website : http://www.hottomato.com.sg/
HGW Link (62% recommended at time of writing) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Hot_Tomato_Cafe___Grill__Causeway_Point_/
Rating : 

Steak Land, Sannomiya, Kobe

 We've been itching with the idea to try genuine Tajima beef while we were in Japan. While we were originally eyeing Steak Ron, we decided to go for a short trip to Kobe instead and check out the options available to us.

 While traveling in the Kansai region, it was almost a blasphemy if we did not go to Kobe for hunks of steak! 



 Just outside the Sannomiya station we were pretty spoilt for choice, but we opted for the pre-researched Steak Land. It's a pretty big spot with two separate dining areas, so you're pretty much guaranteed a seat even without a booking. The place was packed with people (mostly local businessmen and families) on a late Tuesday afternoon.

 I quite liked the Euopean-esque setting/feel of the restaurant. You may need to share a table with other people, which can be quite a pain if they smoke (and you don't)! (By the way my biggest gripe about Japanese cafes/restaurants is the indoor smoking.) Anyway, I digress... 

 Being pocket-conscious we knew we were not prepared to dish out >$100 for a meal (even if it is Kobe beef), so we triple confirmed that the lunch set was valid and that it was indeed genuine Tajima beef. The 150g steak set runs at just 2.980 yen ($48) and comes with rice, soup and salad. Their dinner sets goes up to ~$120, and at some other joints be prepared to fork out upwards of $300!

 Do take note that if the menu doesn't say "set", then it really does not come with anything else. As my sis didn't take beef, she ended up ordering 2 grilled prawns at 2,000 yen ($32) and it didn't even come with rice!

 The show began after he fried up some large garlic chips. Beef above is ~450g so it's enough for 3!

 I was already salivating at this point! We asked for our steak to be done medium rare.

 Thanks to it's awesome marbling, you don't really need much more than salt and pepper when teppan-ing it.

 At this point the aroma got a little heady @.@ the steak is sliced up into uniform slices and grilled on both sides.

 Sharp knife and soft Kobe beef, it's like a hot knife through butter.

 Look at that lovely colour! Good lord. Bite-sized pieces too, how convenient lol.

 And it's done!

 Served with bean sprouts and garlic chips, and a fantastic steak sauce for dipping, my first taste of genuine Tajima Kobe beef done teppanyaki ... fell a little short on my first bite. But the more you lather the sauce, the more pieces you shove in your mouth, you get that faint little tear in your eye ... at how soft, juicy and sweet the melting marbly goodness it gets. T_T

 Meat was tender and soooo juicy and adequately fatty. So damn good! It went incredibly well with the steak sauce and fragrant giant garlic chips. Initially I thought I wouldn't be full from the meal, but I was already very satisfied without really touching my bowl of rice! I thought this set was very worth it.

 Lunch set gets you all that for just $48! While it clearly wasn't the tip top grade of Kobe beef, for the price you can't get any better than that :)

Lunch hours : 11am - 2pm daily
Rating (out of 4) :