[On the banlist] Jin Shan @ Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Haven't been updating the blog since laziness got the better of me, but I just had to write a review for this. Jin Shan is a Chinese restaurant, located on the main floor of the MBS hotel, which suggests it's pretty good. Unfortunately it's the opposite. To summarise Jin Shan, it has poor service, sub-par food but worse, it operates like a scammer. Wanna know why? Scroll to the bottom.

But to be fair, let us talk about Jin Shan does to draw customers. Other than its prime location to attract hotel guests, it has a reasonably priced 5 course lunch set for $38++.

Looks pretty good right? Sad to say that Jin Shan's lunch set is pretty bad, even if we disregard the fact that it's located in a five-star hotel.

Set B: Barbequed Trio Combination

 Very ordinary appetiser. Didn't help that the meat was on the cold side.

Set A: Dim Sum Trio

 One of the better courses of the set. Their dim sum is quite dainty and the ingredients such as the prawns that they use is fresh.

Set B: Minced Chicken with Millet in Golden Soup

Probably the best part of the meal, this soup is extremely flavorful and savory. The texture of soup is in a good place as it strikes a good balance of not being overly thick or thin. The presentation is exquisite, although the portion size is deceptively smaller than expected. Nonetheless probably the only enjoyable part of the lunch set.

Set A: Shredded Dumpling Delicacy in Supreme Soup

  A rather plain dish that pales in comparison to the richer flavour of Set A's soup. However, I would think that people who prefer more bland food would prefer this soup over the earlier one.

Set B: Fried Pork Ribs in Honey Sauce

 To be fair, I don't normally like my meat being sweetish (save for bakkwa), but this is pretty average. The meat was generally tender but "ruined" by the sugary sweetness. Would probably be better if it was converted to coffee ribs. 

Set A: Fried Prawns with Spiced-Salt

 The good? Huge prawn, generous amount of spices. The bad? Prawn itself could not be seasoned thoroughly and was not very fresh. Decent dish for prawn lovers.

Set B: Stir Fried Sliced Fish in Sichuan Style with Rice

Easily the worst part of the set. I don't know what they were trying to achieve with this dish. It says Sichuan style and has some dried chilli, but I taste no spiciness. What I got was dish that was sugary sweet that is far from being Sichuan Style. Simply bad.

Set A: Steamed Sea Perch with  Preserved Turnip and Noodles

 This is definitely a lot better than the fish and rice dish above. The sea perch is what the sliced fish above should have been. It's lightly seasoned and compliments the carbohydrate side, which is tasty on its own.The noodles was respectfully soft

Set B: Red Bean Soup

 Very average. No texture to the soup, overly sweet and barely any beans. 

Set A: Chilled Cream of Fresh Fruits Sago

 The fresh fruit was honey melon but that was only the flavour. It was pretty much eating foam laced with some sugar. Shouldn't be calling it cream or sago. 

Overall comments:

 For $38++, this five-course meal is pretty good... except the food is bad. What's worse was that the staff had the audacity of charging my party of 4 a $20 miscellaneous fee ($5 per pax). When asked what this fee was about, the staff mentioned it was because of the pickles and tea...Wait, what tea? Everybody only ordered water and we only had a measly mini-plate of pickled vegetables. How did it come up to $5 per pax? If this isn't scammer behavior I don't know what is.

 Only upon further investigation and firm words did the manager address the issue and reduce the charge to $11, with each person being charged $2 for water and towel ($1 for each item) plus $3 for the pickles.  In any case, the original charge was deliberately ambiguous. Even the revised amount had some cover up as many other five-star restaurants don't even charge for towels.

I normally already don't agree with Chinese restaurants charging for pickles/peanuts especially when many Western restaurants offer complimentary bread baskets. This meal with Jin Shan reinforced my opinion that it's about time consumers take a stand against being forced to pay for pickles that were not requested for. It's even worse when the restaurant tries to charge day-light robbery prices for it.

I would say that Jin Shan's practices are a disgrace to Singapore. I would feel extremely embarrassed if tourists who are less savvy with our practices even see this "miscellaneous" charge.

Honestly, Jin Shan should have better ways of attracting its customers. Yes, $38++ is pretty "value" for money for its lunch set. However, the $5 per pax "miscellaneous" charge is obviously a scam.

Jin Shan's food quality is sub-par. Its slow service didn't help it in any way. This is the last time I'll patronage this disgrace of a high-end Chinese restaurant.

Rating: Placed on my ban-list due to their unscrupulous practices

UNA @ One Rochester (Buona Vista)

 UNA is a Spanish restaurant located near Rochester Mall in Buona Vista in a little "village" of mid to high end restaurants. The ambience of the place is quite quaint as the restaurant is a colonial house with plenty of garden space and outside seating.

Normal bread (complimentary)

Starters: "Generic" Bread
I didn't know that they were serving complimentary bread, otherwise I may not have ordered the Pan con tomate. However, the complimentary bread were of different shapes and sizes, including bread sticks. Most were lightly toasted and was served with olive oil. A pretty good starter, and the bread is refillable.


Price: Complimentary

Pan con tomate

Pan con tomate (Lightly toasted bread with fresh tomatoes & herbs)

The main difference between this and the one above is the tomato "sauce" and the type of bread. This bread is crispier and tastes lighter (not a bad thing). But the highlight is the "sauce" which is not overly thick and provides a comforting "cold" that contrasts well with the warm bread. The tomato is light on the flavoring and is mainly there for the texture.


Price: $11

Pimentos de padron (Sweet Spanish peppers – fried & sprinkled with sea salt)

Quite a good starter if you like vegetables. The crunchiness of the lightly grilled pepper and the sprinkled salt makes this a must-try.


Price: $15

Grilled octopus (Smoky tender grilled octopus on a bed of ratte potatoes with paprika) 

The octopus reminded me of a more tender (and less chewy) abalone. Quite a unique taste. While the octopus was nice to eat and I would recommend ordering this, be warned that this dish's portion is ridiculously small and its price is on the high side. 

Price: $32

Suckling Pig

Suckling Pig (Crispy roast suckling pig served with mashed potatoes & quince jelly)

The skin was exceptionally crispy while the meat was very tender. Portion size is decent (the picture doesn't do it much justice). This is better than My Little Spanish Place's suckling pig.


Price: $38

Pluma Iberica

Pluma Ibérica (Grilled pluma Ibérico pork with a smoky sweet marinade)

It's supposed to be pork but it tasted more like those overly tenderized (and fake-tasting) beef. But to be fair, it was because I didn't like the sweet marinade. I would definitely recommend the suckling pig over this.

Rating: $40

Pluma Iberiuca (left) Pluma Iberica (right)

 Grilled whole sea bass (sea bass slow-grilled with a dry rub of sea salt, garlic, shallots, lemon & green chilli)

The "highlight" of my meal. The sea bass was supposed to be like a baked sea salt type dish but unfortunately it it was uneven salted at certain parts. However, this was compensated by the crisp of the fish skin.  I like eating fish and I would recommend this for anyone with similar taste. This particular fish unfortunately had a fishy smell, but nonetheless was overall still enjoyable.

Price: $55

 Pork belly chop with charred rosemary (Pork belly slow-braised till tender & smoky)

Please don't order this unless you enjoy overly fat meat.

Price: $33

House wine:
The wine glass and the amount of wine given is extremely small. I do not recommend it given its price unless you truly love wine.

Price: $15

Churros & chocolat (Crispy churros with dark chocolate sauce & light honey ice cream)

I've tried quite a few churros in Singapore and this has quite good presentation. Hopefully taste-wise it was quite underwhelming as the inside of the churros were slightly uncooked. The ice-cream and chocolate dip helped mitigate this though. Maybe this batch just happened to be slightly under-cooked.

Price: $14

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Overall UNA is quite a chill place to have a meal and the ambiance is particularly good for dinner. Quality of the food is generally quite good and is representative of Spanish cuisine. However, prices of the dishes are on the high end and the portion sizes are generally quite small.

Cherry Garden @ Mandarin Oriental Hotel

This meal was probably eaten about more than a year ago but the food was decent. Service was so-so due to a certain staff who implied that we didn't order enough food.

1) Half Peking Duck- $50

2nd dish- fried rice

2) Soup $12 each (lotus root, hot and spicy)

3) Cod fish fillet -$20 each (2 pax)

4) Spare ribs with - $16 each (2 pax)

5) 3 BBQ meat combo - $35

4) Tofu with monkey head mushroom and spinach - $22

7) Cherry - $12

8) Bean paste pancake with ice cream - $16

Total price: $294 before discount

$250 after

Lawry's The Prime Rib Singapore @ Mandarin Gallery

The second part of the birthday meals was at Lawry's in Mandarin Gallery. There was a 1-for-1 main course weekday lunch promotion and it applied for main courses worth $100 or less. I opted for the Prime Rib Lunch (Specifically the $98++ Lawry's Cut -285g). I also ordered the Traditional Lump Crab Cake (2 pieces -70g each) which were on promotion at $19 instead of the usual $23. So here's what the Prime Rib Lunch included. 

Firstly, the

1) The Famous Original Spinning Bowl Salad

As the name implies, there's some spinning involved. The waitress seen on the left was starting to mix the salad, which was following by the spinning of the bowl on a bed of ice and a short performance whereby she assumed a ballerina pose to pour the dressing. Gotta give Lawry's the presentation points.





The salad was served on a chilled plate and an accompanying fork (which was chilled as well.) Now, as much as I enjoy meat, I do enjoy a good salad, especially one that is savory without an overly creamy dressing. The salad had a healthy variety of romaine and iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, shredded beets, chopped eggs and croutons. Portion size was pretty decent.

Rating: 8/10

2 pieces here

*Side-dish: Traditional Lump Crab Cake

On hindsight, ordering this was overkill but it still turned out to be really good. Now the promotion was basically $19 for these 2 crab cakes. It was well-fried with a healthy layer of crisp without making the crab filling overly dry. It was served with mayonnaise on the side which complimented this rather seemingly petite but filling dish. I would recommend this only if you're not going for the Prime Rib Lunch, simply because after eating this I was already starting to feel full. Would probably be good if you're eating this for tea and not ordering a main.

Rating: 8/10

2) Lawry's Cut (285g) served with Idaho Mashed Potatoes

Now, Lawry's should get an A for presentation. The first picture shows the grill that the chef and manager pushed to my table. The chef started to carve the meat and serve it fresh to me.

One portion

Another portion

As usual, I went for medium rare. This is technically not the steak that people are used to, rather this is meat at its "purest" form. There is very little seasoning (though you can always add the Lawry's signature pepper) which allows you to savor the meat. The meat itself is very tender and is easy cutting. While the meat doesn't pack that oomph that wagyu beef gives, the Lawry's Cut is probably many a meat lover's ideal cut. The mashed potato served is pretty good as well (better than the Bedrock one which I reviewed in an earlier post). Now serving-wise, it is definitely enough for a guy, especially if you also had ordered       the crab cake. 

    Rating: 8/10

3)Yorkshire Pudding
Sounds like a dessert but it's served together with the meat and is meant to be eaten with it. Now the best way to describe this is a cheesier but lighter French toast that is all savory. If the meat and mashed potatoes aren't enough, this is sure to fill your stomach.



Rating: 7.5/10

So to recap, the Prime Rib Lunch includes Items 1, 2 and 3 (Salad, Meat & Mashed Potato, Pudding). My choice of the Lawry's Cut was $98++ although there are cheaper and smaller cuts such as the English Cut (200g @ $83) and the California Cut (160g @ $73).

Overall, as a birthday meal, I enjoyed this meal was more than Bedrock Bar & Grill.  First of all, the one-for-one promotion was well-worth it and Lawry's is considered more high-end. Secondly, the ambiance in Lawry's is better, the place feels more open with a lot of sunlight and a window seat overlooking Orchard Road. Thirdly, the service is good, not to mention the "performances" of the waitresses decked out in the French Maid theme. Bedrock on the other hand seemed a bit more drab with its darker decor and less lively staff.

Food-wise, Lawry's is definitely more filling and you're getting a high grade steak.

Overall rating: 8.5/10 (boosted because of the ambiance, pretty good for lunch dates, and good value if you can use the one-for-one promotion.)

Bedrock Bar & Grill @ Somerset

Wow, a one year break of not writing. Guess I'm back?


Bedrock Bar & Grill (Somerset)

As part of my birthday meals, I went for Bedrock's 3 course lunch set (starter, main, and dessert), as seen below

With a party of 4, we went for 2 steaks and 2 seafood/poultry mains.

 Let's begin with the Starters:

 House Cured Salmon

Quite "pretty" for a starter. It's basically smoked salmon, which turned out pretty good. The portion size is about 3 fairly large slices, embellished with pickled radish and caperberries. The sharpness of the pickles helped to balance out the slightly over-salted salmon. Overall, a decent starter.


Rating: 7.5/10

 Char-grilled Baby Gem
Basically a garden salad, and I would consider it the most "normal" but satisfying of the three starters. I liked this dish because it didn't have the "generic" thick cream salad dressings. But of course, that's a personal preference.




Rating: 8/10

 Classic Lobster Bisque
Perhaps the dish that a lot of people may opt for because of the lobster tag in the name. But being bisque, it's more suitable for people who prefer a "soupier" starter. I found this dish slightly overwhelming especially with the sour cream mixed with the bisque. I would recommend it if you are fond of the lobster taste. Not so much for me though.



Rating: 7/10


Moving on to the Mains:

Woodfire-grilled Sirloin

 Perhaps this was what I was most hyped up about. As usual, I had my steak cooked medium rare. The portion size was decent, especially with a serving of mashed potato (not pictured). Taste was average, while the steak was moderately tender. The steak came with bernaise sauce. I felt that the sharpness of the vinegar complimented the somewhat "conservatively" seasoned grilled steak. However, others felt that the sauce ruined the purity of the steak. The mashed potato was average at best, particular because of the Worcestershire Sauce. Overall this steak was decent, but nothing to write home about.

Rating: 7.5/10

Confit Cornfed Chicken 

An overall good choice for non-beef eaters. The roasted chicken was rather tender and respectfully salted and was well-accompanied by a sausage and egg. I didn't particular find the chicken appealing to me because I prefer beef and I'm still having bad memories of an overdose of cafeteria roasted chicken when travelling in Spain. However, this chicken is definitely more tender than a cafeteria's standard.

Rating: 7.5/10 (if I didn't have bad memories of roasted chicken), otherwise 7/10 due to personal experiences.

 Baked Baramundi Fillet

Another good alternative for non-beef eaters. This dish's presentation is pretty good. Portion size is also good. I've no real criticisms of this dish. The fish was succulent and the salt seasoning was just right. But then again, I'm a fish lover who doesn't enjoy food that is overly seasoned.

Rating: 7.5/10

Wood-grilled Veal Chop
Texture-wise, veal is naturally more tender than normal steak. This was the same case, when compared with the steak mentioned earlier. I felt this veal chop was more appetising as well. However, the actual meat portion was smaller than the steak above but was well-complimented by the big tomatos and fries. However, I must point out that the veal was served to me rare when I asked for medium rare, and as a result the fries turned cold.

Rating: 8/10





Finally, the Desserts:

Toffee Pudding (with Gingernut Icecream), White Chocolate Eclair and Chocolate Tart (from left, clockwise)

The Toffee Pudding was quite well-done and the gingernut icecream complimented the taste and texture of the pudding. The Chocolate Eclair was frozen and was reminiscent of an ice cream cake. Pretty good when it melts in your mouth. The Chocolate Tart was more subtle (and less frozen), but was overall quite good.

Rating: 7.5 for all 3. Basically down to personal preference.

Overall, although Bedrock Bar & Grill didn't impress me with their service (the veal was supposed to be cooked medium rare but it turned out rare; and the waitress looked depressed half the time), the experience was still quite good. Don't get me wrong, the service is still considered average by Singapore standards. Food-wise is average as well, and the pricing is on the high side ($58++ for the steak and $38++ for the seafood and poultry). But I felt the meal overall met my expectations, partially because the 3 courses made the experience last longer. (it was my birthday meal so I wanted a longer meal). 

Overall rating: 7.5/10, 7/10 because the higher price should warrant better than average food.