Boston Seafood Shack

Boston Seafood Shack is in No.1 Vista Exchange Green, #01-16, Singapore, inside this newly built building called the The Star Vista . The restaurant is very inviting with its paraphernalia of decorations of life savers and lobsters and other sea creatures plus nettings with a red and white colour theme. This place has seatings outside as well as inside the unit.

A waiter greeted me with the menu outside the restaurant, probably stationed there to invite shoppers in. I was rather disappointed that it only had 2 pages and not a very long menu. When I entered, I was more surprised to see a counter on one side where you are supposed to place your order. It gave me the impression of a fast food joint masquerading as a restaurant with semi-restaurant prices. Perhaps the rental for this space is high??

Nevertheless I braved on not wanting to disappoint my companions who gamely expected the best. We ordered the Grilled Salmon Burger, Chicken Teriyaki Burger and Atlantic Cod Pasta.

The Teriyaki Chicken Burger was large enough by Asian standards with its generous letttuce and tomato slices. Bountiful sesame seeds on top the burger which is not too thick. The chicken tasted somewhat bland and slightly dry. The sauce just managed to seep thru the skin of the chicken to remind you that it is teriyaki sauce.

The Grilled Salmon Burger was nothing a fifteen year old boy could not fit in his tummy in 13 mins. Salmon was a tad dry but had good taste of teriyaki sauce and sufficiently moist for its entirety. The burger itself was smaller in size than the one that came with the Teriyaki Chicken. We had to order a basket of fries as a side and it came in a tiny basket which I felt is not worth its price.

 

 

Next was the Atlantic Cod Pasta. There was nothing Atlantic about it. It came with a light creamy sauce that was not too overpowering in its richness so those who are slightly lactose intolerant might be able to take it. I wish the cod came without the skin because it left black little pieces in the pasta that did not look too appetising. But this is my personal preference. My other peeve was it came served in a waxed paper base in a plate but because the pasta had sauce, we ended up eating bits of paper. Not good.

Overall, I will not go back again unless I am feeling rich, lack of time and need a quick bite and not fussy over eating bits of paper.



 

Vineyard@Hort Park Singapore

Part 1

Vineyard at Hort Park is located in a park in 33 Hyderabad Road #02-02 Hort Park, Singapore. Tried there with my two kids after a long hike today (17 October 2012). The restaurant was not too crowded but had some customers there from work and a group of Japanese mummies.

The setting inside is dark wood so if you are lunching in the restaurant, you will feel like the whole place is dim. If the weather is not too humid, and you enjoy the outdoors, there is a verandah which you can lunch in. I opted for Ginger Ale and Lime juice each costing SGD $6 sitting inside only because it was going to pour and we had spent two hours in the hot sun hiking earlier.

Here's what I ordered with the kids:        
Kids Fish and Chips
French Onion Soup
Classic Caesar Salad



The Kids' Fish and Chips were delicious. Its batter for the fish were done not too oily and thick. It was not as light as if you were eating tempura version either. The chips were probably from the frozen kind so nothing special about that. The portion was suitable for a five-year  to a ten-year-old boy. Tartar sauce was the accompaniment.

 

 



The French Onion soup was a light broth with lots of onions and did not taste too salty like in some other establishments. There is no layer of mozarella or cheddar on top of the soup nor a baked crust. Instead Comte cheese sits on two slices of oven toasted bread and served with the soup on a wooden board. A nice touch.

 



Caesar salad had the fresh romaine lettuce with segments of double boiled eggs, tomatoes, croutons and fried bits of bacon drenched in ranch dressing. Wish they hold back the dressing a little bit because it tend to be soggy from too much dressing at the bottom of the bowl.

It was a pleasant lunch experience which cost me abt $GD $70 inclusive of tax and service charge of 10%. Expensive for lunch with two kids if you know what I mean. Thank god the kids did justice to the fish and chips. :)

Stay tune for a dinner round....





Map from Google

Ricciotti

My food buddy wanted to check out this newly built structure which is called Star Vista next to Buona Vista MRT station, Singapore. It is on this newly constructed road called 1 Vista Exchange Green. We scoured the unusual open corridors of the Mall and wondered how the Mall is going to withstand the rain. The shop frontages will be wet! This will affect customers of Ricciotti too , as we chose to sit inside the restaurant that approximately holds 30 pax and more outside.  They have their earlier setups in Riverwalk and China Square, and Star Vista is the one that includes Grills. It is one of the Garibaldi Group of Restaurants ( I got these info from the websites after I got home).

Anyways, we got in without having any prior knowledge of who they were and whether there were sister restaurants elsewhere in Singapore. We ordered the pizza, mussell and crabmeat spaghetti. I did not take down the names of the dishes but the ones we ate were the "Signature Dishes".

The pizza crust was nice and chewy if you like it that way. Not too thick and not too thin. It had bacon, mushroom and the standard cheese and tomato base with an egg left runny in the middle. The texture overall is good but a tad too salty for me.

The orange colour of the spaghetti dish was a bit off-putting. It looks too artificially coloured and it is not because the crab meat was orange. It had a thick creamy base but not of the carbonara sort although it had egg mixed into it. The consistency grew thicker when left on plate a little longer.

The service was great and swift enough. The noise level inside was too loud for comfort if there happens to be a big group of friends enjoying themselves. Perhaps they can cushion the noise bouncing off the cement screet floors with some cushioned chairs??  Price was acceptable for its type of menu but can do better with the quality. I did have the Mussells in White wine and I was told they were Belgium Mussells. Well the mussells were tender and and not chewy, cooked just right. They could do with one more tablespoon of white wine in the broth if you asked me :) Sorry no pics, because I was too hungry and walloped them before I realised it.

I wrote this review not knowing it was their third and I had never patronised the other two. The dinner was paid out of our own pockets and no one sponsored me to write this review neither am I acquainted with any of the owners and staff of this outfit.