Uno Beef House

One day, while heading to our favourite bak chor mee store at Toa Payoh, I just wasn't in the mood for noodles, but my hubby was. It's been a long time since I've had a decent coffee-shop western food, so I gave the western food store next door a shot. The store seemed quite confident of itself, taking up almost half of the whole coffee-shop space. As I stood there, looking at the menu for their steaks, I was shocked to find out that the cheapest cut, which was a sirloin, was a whopping S$11.00.

What?? Has it been that long since I ate western at a coffee-shop? Am I that suaku? Is it inflation? Or has the stall owner gone mad? I wanted walk away, but then I thought, maybe, they are so good, that they are confident enough to charge that ridiculous price at a neighborhood coffee-shop? I was intrigued. So I ordered the beef sirloin and waited.

As I waited at my table, the staff gave me my cutlery. Haha, so nostalgic!

When my dish arrived a few minutes later, another wave of nostalgic hit me. The hot plate cow! It's been so long since I've had a steak served in a hot plate cow! Haha... But after the initial "awww...", a delicious looking steak appeared. Looks promising!

When I ordered, I noticed that they don't serve fries, which kind of bugged me. I love my fries with my steak! But then I noticed this little ball on the plate. When I cut it open, it turned out to be mash potatoes, rolled into a ball, and fried! And it was YUMMY! Ooo... I could eat a few of those!

Next comes the ultimate test, how was the meat? I ordered medium, but was skeptical that a neighbourhood stall cook could achieve that. When I cut the meat right in the middle, my skepticism was confirm. It was almost rare! A little disappointed, but I didn't expect much, so I just carried on eating from the side of the steak. But I was super impressed a few minutes later. As I was eating, the hot plate continued to cook the meat, soon, the meat became PERFECTLY cooked.

Genius! They intentionally under-cook the steak! Oh by the way the meat was quite tender, the pepper sauce was tasty, not too spicy, so it didn't overpower the beef. Other than the beans (which I didn't like), it was a very satisfying meal. Definitely worth going back again. Next time, I'll even try their more expensive steaks!

Uno Beef House
Block 51, Lorong 5 Toa Payoh,
#01-60 Singapore
Opens Daily: 11.30am – 10.30pm

New Ubin Seafood Restaurant

Hubby found this great eatery lunching out with his friends, he loved it so much, we brought our parents there for dinner one weekend.

Well, it's a seafood restaurant, so of course we have to order their crab! Chilli crab at S$32.00, the kick ass chilli sauce was sweet and spicy and perfect with their fried mantou at a S$1 each. YUMZ!



Another one of their signature dish is their battered fried oyster tossed with salted egg yolk. Sounds gross, but it was surprisingly delicious! The oyster is cooked thru, but still moist. When tossed with a thin layer of salted egg yolk, it's slightly salty, crunchy on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside. Such contrasting textures and flavours!

Salted Egg Oysters S$12.00


Next is smoked duck with baby kailan. I'm not really into the smoked duck, but everyone else seemed to like it, so I guess it's just me.

Baby kailan S$12.00


Perhaps their most popular house special must be their Rib eye steak. They would char grill it, diced it up before serving with caramelized onions and potatoes. The portions were so big, the whole family could share it! The meat was moist and smoky, and the onions were sweet and great with the red meat.

Rib Eye Steak S$51.00


Aha! There's a part 2 to the steak dish! They would use the juices and the fatty bits of the steak to make this awesome beef fried rice. It was super tasty and very rich in flavours, but I think that night, the chef may be a little heavy handed on the salt. A little too salty to eat much!



There was also Orh nee, or Yam Paste, which was my favourite. I must have been too excited until I forgot to take photos. In fact, I love it so much, I'm glad my daughter wasn't interested in it. I get to eat double the portions! Haha...

Overall an enjoyable dining experience. The location was a little ulu, but I think it's a great and affordable place to bring the whole family out for dinner.

Block 27 Sing Ming Road
Call 1st for reservations! 6466 9558
Click here for website

Bel Mondo - South Italian Cuisine (Tomahawk!)

We didn't dare try this the other time as it looked like something Fred Flintstone would have for dinner. Seriously, you would need to share it with someone, and I just wasn't interested. The last time we tried such a gigantic piece of meat, we were at Morton's The Steakhouse. The so called "famous" piece of steak was overcooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside. It was overpriced and don't taste good at all! But Hubby wanted to try, so I gave in and went for it.

Introducing, the Tomahawk special. According to my research, this is a new type of cut that is like a giant piece of ribeye that comes with a huge bone. At Bel Mondo, it's aged and cooked to perfection, medium rare, and sliced for easy consumption.



It was good! The meat was surprisingly tender! The steak was just simply cooked with salt, pepper and rosemary, but it was full of flavour. The portion was just nice for 3 persons, or 2 very hungry foodie. :) After you are done with the meat, the waitress would even bring your plate back into the kitchen and they would slice of all the meat of the "flintstone" bone for you. Of course, you can munch the meat straight off bone with your mouth too, but I was in a nice outfit, so, let them do the work!



If the steak was good, the meat off the bone was excellent!!! It's more charred, so it has even more flavour, like little gems! This could be a dish by itself. But honestly, we couldn't finish everything, just about 90%. It's also not cheap. This dish cost $98, but it worth every dollar. 一分钱，一分货 :)

Steak Pasta

Cobby (My Hubby) made this dish, he was inspired by Jamie Oliver when he made those delicious looking steak sandwiches. But instead of sandwich, he used pasta, cause it's more filling for our dinner.

We used ribeye steak, added some salt, pepper and oil and pounded it flat. By pounding it, it cooks faster and it also tenderised it. Grill the steak on a VERY HOT grill, or frying pan. There's no need to add oil onto the pan as there's oil on your meat. Let it grill for about 1 and a half minutes on each side (for medium), remove from pan and let it rest.

Meanwhile, the pasta is boiling in the pot, cooking according to the packaging instructions.

While it's boiling, stir fry some anchovies with chopped onion till the onion is soft and brown. THEN you add the garlic, cause if you add too early, the garlic would be overcooked, turns brown and bitter!

Add in the cooked pasta and a little bit of the pasta water into your onion mix and add in a little chicken stock. Stir fry for awhile till there's a little bit of sauce left. (the pasta will continue to absorb in the liquid even after you dish it up)

Slice your rested steak and place it on top of the pasta, serve with a freah green salad on the side. Presto, perfect steak pasta. Enjoy.

The WestEnd Boutique Restaurant

Located at the corner of Pasir Panjang village, this little restaurant is one of our favourite places for a good steak or western food. The relaxing ambience also makes it a great place to just relax after work with good food and drinks under the starry sky (there's in-door seating of course).

Two of our utmost favourite dish would be their Tenderloin Steak (S$34.90+++), and their Rack of Lamb (S$29.90+++). Which was also their specialty.

The tenderloin steak dish is very simple, no fuss. Just the steak, your choice of potatoes and ratatouille.

Cobby's favourite

Seldom do you see restaurants serve ratatouille with steak, so it's delicious and interesting. The steak is simply grilled and served with your choice of sauce in a separate bowl. Their black pepper sauce is the recommended sauce, but the others are just as good.

The meat is very tender and flavourful, so it does live up to its bold motto of having "the best steak in the region" Honestly I think it taste way way better then what I had in Morton's The SteakHouse, which for your info, cost about S$98+ per plate. -_- Go figure...

Another one of my favourite is their rack of lamb.



Lamb is not a favourite of many due to its "lamb-y"smell, but I like lamb. But it's hard to find a well made rack of lamb as many don't know how to cook it, resulting in dry, over cooked meat. But you should really try their rack of lamb. The meat is super tender and moist, and every piece is lined with oh-so-sinful-yet-delicious fat. You can choose between the brown sauce and mint sauce. Personally, I think the brown sauce is the perfect match. You slice out some meat, some fat, some brown sauce and pop it all into your mouth....

OOOoooooooo....

The combination is a burst of flavours and textures that would make you faint with pleasure and hungry for more!

Miss CoCo's favourite..

Interestingly, this restaurant has another dish that is worth mentioning. The local specialty, satay. Yes, it may be a western restaurant, but their local delights are just as good. The satay is simply delicious! The meat is moist, tender and very well barbequed. Served with a warm, super nutty satay sauce, onions and cucumber, this dish is a great appetiser.

Always check what is their soup of the day. Sometimes they get a little too creative and you get something like "cream of pineapple". Errr... no thanks.

But the more normal ones taste pretty darn good.

One of their more "normal" soup - Cream of corn - Super yummy!

Oh, all main dishes come with warm bread rolls with butter, which taste great by itself or with soup. So now you should have enough reasons to love this place. So next time you are around the area, do drop by. You won't regret it!

To find out more about their location, menu, etc, check out their website.