V8 Cafe (Bugis Junction)

V8 cafe is located at a corner of Bugis Junction. Unless you have heard of it or happen to walk pass, chances are that you would not have seen it. Pop by for lunch during a weekday on 2 different occasions. Not too crowded. The most 70% occupied.

Lets start with the first visit.

V8 Cafe Menu (a)

V8 Cafe Menu (b)

As it was my first visit, the item that caught my eye was V8 Cafe Signature Dish. After all, the signature dish is the item that will be the differentiating factor.

As it was during lunch time, the dish comes as a set along with soup and drink (Ice Lemon Tea).

Soup of the Day

The soup of the day was Cream of Mushroom. Somehow what I notice was that it was half filled. Nothing comes free does it? =) It was a decent mushroom soup.

V8 Cafe Signature Dish $11.80

In the V8 Cafe Signature Dish, the main item was the grilled chicken which was accompanied by whipped potato, coleslaw and carrots (boiled).  The cheese did not overwhelmed the taste of the chicken. In fact, it complemented the taste. Inside, the chicken is tender and juicy. Outside the skin was crispy at the side. Thought that it was quite an average. But if it is the signature dish for V8 Cafe, then I will disagree as there is nothing special. You can get a similar item at other restaurants or western stalls in coffee shops.

Overall, service and ambience was good. If you find the background music too loud, you can request for the volume to be lowered. Food wise it was average.

Next will be on the 2nd visit. Again, similarly about 70% occupied.

Part of the Menu

Ordered the Chicken Cutlet $8.80. As it was lunch time, the meal came along with soup of the day and drink (Barley).

Soup of the Day

The soup of the day was Cream of Mushroom again. Was half-filled. This time the soup was not as decent as the previous time. It was quite salty.

Chicken Cutlet $8.80

The Chicken Cutlet was served with salad and onion rings. Just 3 pieces of onion rings which were oily. The chicken cutlet was even more oily. Not a decent dish.

Overall, service and ambience was good. But the food this time was way below average – terrible.

V8 Cafe (Bugis Junction)
200 Victoria Street
#03-29/29A Bugis Junction
Tel: 6333 4434
Opening Hours: Daily 12noon – 10pm

Jack’s Place (The Heeren)

I have been patronising Jack’s Place for a long time. It is started by a Chinese from Hainan who learnt how to cook by joining the British Army as a cookboy! Used to visit its first outlet at Sembawang, called Cola Restaurant. Today, it has evolved to include several concept restaurants such as Eatzi Gourmet, Seafood Harvest, Brewbaker’s, Hoshigaoka and Jack’s Place under the JP Pepperdine Group.

Jack’s Place is currently has 15 restaurants in Singapore and specialises in western cuisine such as steaks. Decided to visit its restaurant at Heeren.

Normally, I go to the Jack’s Place restaurant at Ang Mo Kio. It is always packed. This time as we were going to town, I made a reservation at Heeren. The place was quite empty with only 3 other table occupied. Not because the food here is lousy, but more of Heeren lacking a solid/reputable anchor tenant to pull the traffic in. Inside, it is  a cozy environment with dim lighting and their signature white and green checked table cloth.

Menu

Daily Set Lunch

The Daily Set Lunch is only from 11am to 230pm. The set lunch includes garlic bread, soup of the day, tea/coffee and dessert. For main course, you can order the items in the Executive Set Lunch or the main courses for the individual day. Do note, the main course for that individual day might include steak, but it does not come in a hot plate nor does it come with baked potato (instead it will be mostly with fries).

I used to aways order the NZ T-Bone Steak with Brown Sauce. How with the price increase I have recently switched to (1 year back) to NZ Ribeye Steak with Brown Sauce (Executive Set Lunch).

Utensils

From the utensils you might have guessed what was ordered.

Garlic Bread

Soup of the day (vegetable)

Vegetable Soup with chunks of chicken. It was not as bad as I thought, but I still prefer Cream of Mushroom Soup.

Escargots in Shells (half dozen) $9.50

Yes, the utensils were meant for the escargots so that it can be easily extracted. Sauteed with garlic and butter, it was then baked. Was an average dish, there was too many garlic.

Executive Set Lunch: NZ Ribeye Steak with Brown Sauce $16.00

Requested for extra brown sauce. The steak accompanied by the brown sauce was delicious with steam greens and baked potato on the hot plate. Anyone know how to make the brown sauce?

Tea

Dessert

Awesome meal! I love eating at Jack’s Place. A satisfying delicious meal that starts from soup to mains to dessert at such an affordable price. Where can you eat such good tasting steak at such prices! Moreover, the service was very good. Warm water got refilled promptly. The store manager will come to you and check if the meal was good and if there was anything he can help. Normally, in other outlets, the staff will be so busy that they will not even check on you. So kudos to the store manager at the Heeren outlet. Will I be Back? Definitely!

Jack’s Place (The Heeren)
260 Orchard Road
#05-06 The Heeren
Tel: 6738 8683
Opening Hours: Daily 10am – 10pm
Website: http://www.jacksplace.com.sg/ (the 15 outlets location are listed in there)

The Handburger (Raffles City)

The Handburger. Name in such a way because everything here is made with ‘their hands’ and all natural ingredients. I would love to find out and debate if this is really the case. But well, lets not go into that.

Set Menu

Burger Menu

I order the set, The Handburger Original ($7.80), Onion Rings and Iced Lemon Tea. So the set will cost $7.80 + $4.00 + service charge 10% + GST 7%.

Iced Lemon Tea

Onion Rings

The batter coating the onion rings is quite unique, not something that I have eaten else where. Seems to have been some herbs mixed in it if my taste bud is right. Best to have it when it is just served, when it is warm and crispy.

The Handburger Original

The Handburger Original consist of  beef patty, cheddar cheese, sweet onion jam, barbecue sauce, lettuce, tomato and of course the caramelised onion buns that sandwich these ingredients. Quite like the caramelised onion buns, moreover the buns were soft. Moreover, my beef patty was juicy and tender. So unlike those from fast food chains, where the processed beef patty tends to be dry and hard. But whether The Handburger did their burger from scratch such as mincing the beef, that I do not know.

The Burger Dessert $6.50

The Burger Dessert consist of chocolate patty with macadamia nuts, apple cream cheese, strawberries sandwiched by 2 donut buns.  Kudos for the presentation and creativity. It looks nice, colourful and maybe cute. But well, sadly, it did not suit my taste bud. Quite a weird combination. And the donut bun was too hard. For me, I do not really care about presentation, so long as it taste delicious, relatively healthy and affordable or at least value for money.

Overall, The Handburger concept is very similar to Burger Bench Bar. Where they spot a distinct market gap and is addressing it. So kudos to both entities. Even their prices are quite similar on the high end.

Raffles City Outlet
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-77/78 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: 6334 4577|
Opening Hours: Daily 11.30am – 9.30pm

313 Somerset Outlet
313 Orchard Road
#B2-17/18/19 313 @ Somerset
Tel: 6509 621
Opening Hours：Daily 11.30am – 10pm
Website：http://www.thehandburger.com