Brizo Restaurant
Park Hotel Clarke Quay
1 Unity Street Singapore 237893
http://www.parkhotelgroup.com/phcq/Lifestyle/Dining/Brizo/tabid/436/Default.aspx

Park Hotel Clarke Quay

Nasi goreng

I had lunch in the Park Hotel’s Brizo restaurant. The Park Hotel Clarke Quay is located at the historic Singapore River and close to the Central Business District. Choosing from the à la carte menu, I selected nasi goreng. This arrived with a very nice presentation of the rice topped by a fried egg. There were small skewers of cured fish with a satay sauce, and fried vegetables on the side, all accompanied by some prawn crackers. Happily, the dish was as good as its presentation suggested it might be. The fish with satay sauce was nicely hot and very tasty, whilst the rice was similarly flavourful without any sign of being greasy. It isn’t exactly nasi goreng as I know it, but it was a very acceptable take on this classic dish.

Cost & conclusion: It was $16 plus GST/taxes (about 17%). Really an excellent lunch and worth trying if you stay in this hotel.

Some photos:

The bedroom at Park Hotel Clarke Quay

View from the bedroom

Qantas A380 meal in Premium Economy London Heathrow to Singapore

London to Singapore

Qantas Airbus A380 double deck

Inside the A380 in Economy Premium

Qantas A380

My flight this time was on a Qantas Airbus A380. My first flight on this aircraft, which was sadly in premium economy only. As you can see from the photos, the premium economy cabin looks quite good – with wide seats and a respectable amount of legroom. BUT (and its a big but) be aware that the seats in economy do not recline by much. It isn’t just a matter of not having a flat recline, but that you can only recline by a few centimetres – in fact, if there is any extra recline above standard economy class, it is not noticable. So forget about getting any sleep on board in this class, or even really having a comfortable position from which to read a book. There really isn’t enough room for getting much work done with a laptop either – which really makes this class of travel a big waste of money (none of the reasons for paying extra apply here – unless it’s just some burning desire to be seated on the upper deck).

As for the food, well, let’s say it wasn’t really anything to write home about. I had fish (cod, I think, but I’m not prepared to swear to it) that was covered in some green crusty stuff that didn’t have much flavour. This was accompanied by some roast potatoes and courgettes, which were OK if uninspiring. Alongside this, there was a rather plain salad and a bread roll, plastic-wrapped crackers with butter. Now, if we were comparing this to Eurostar or even to my recent experience of Lufthansa’s offering on a recent long-haul flight in business class, then I could say that I did quite well on this Qantas flight. But that’s comparing against the lowest of the low. Overall, the food onboard the Qantas A380 was edible, but certainly not worth buying a higher class ticket for.

The meal

Average food...

The rest of my experience on the A380 was quite good. It was a very new aircraft so still had that showroom “new car” smell to it. And I would say that it was quieter and had noticably better air quality than other, older, widebodies like the Boeing 747. So if you happen to be travelling on a route that has an A380 flying, its worth your while to try it. Just don’t get suckered into premium economy – this is NOT a business class alternative, and for the “extra” you get over standard economy (which as far as I can tell is nothing except a slightly wider seat) is is absolutely not worth wasting your money.

British Airways lounge Terminal 4 Heathrow
TW6 3XA 

Whilst waiting for my flight from London to Singapore, I spent some time in the BA lounge in T4 (since moved to T3, I think). It wasn’t quite as comfortable as some of the new lounges in T5, but still not bad and the food is the same in both. See the photos below of the salad bar, pastries and (the usual) bacon rolls.

Salad bar

Pastries and bacon rolls

Boulevard Brasserie
40 Wellington Street Covent Garden
London WCX2E 7BD

Boulevard Brasserie is located next to Covent Garden Piazza so within easy reach of the theatres, the Royal Opera House, the London Transport Museum and incidentally from the office. It got some bad reviews on London Eating, especially for the service but actually the service was all right, and the food too. It reminds me also the bad reviews Le P’tit Normand got, which were absolutely not founded. At least it shows in these two cases the restaurants do not write fake positive reviews as we see too often.

We went for the prix fixe lunch/pre theatre at £11.95 for 2 courses which is available between 12 and 7pm. As starters you have the choice between the soupe du jour, the goat’s cheese and caramelised onion tarte, the duck parfait with toasted brioche and homemade fig chutney, the wild rocket and parmesan salad and the egg florentine, wilted spinach with poached egg and hollandaise sauce.

For the second course you get the choice between the Donald Russell minute steak with béarnaise sauce and fresh cut fries, the poached salmon with hollandaise and new potatoes, the classic chicken Kiew with pommes puree, the traditional salad Niçoise with tuna in extra virgin olive oil and the spinach and ricotta ravioli with a sage butter sauce.

We chose the egg florentine and the duck parfait, followed by the steak and the salad Niçoise. As drinks we had a glass of red wine (£4) and a glass of grapefruit juice (£1.95).

Duck parfait

The duck parfait was good. The slice was thinner than usual but actually it was fine. I am just mentioning it in case some big eaters are expecting a large slice of the parfait The toast was good and the fig chutney good too, not too sweet. Nothing like the weird chutney I had at The Prince Albert.

Egg florentine

The egg florentine was very good. It was perfectly cooked – firm white with a just-liquid yolk. It was served on hot steamed spinach (not at all salty, unlike my recent horrific experience with a very similar dish at Joe Allen) and a nice creamy hollandaise sauce.

Donald Russell minute steak with béarnaise sauce

Massive bowl of fries

The steak was good, nothing special but not bad either. It came with a HUGE bowl of fries, it could have fed two people easily! They were thin and crispy, as I like them. The béarnaise sauce was good and creamy but they could have been more generous with it.

Salade niçoise

The salade niçoise was quite good. It was not exactly the size you’d expect to get in France, but its ingredients were fresh and it was nicely seasoned. I would happily take this dish again.

Cost and conclusion: it was £33.58 including service. It was a decent lunch, especially when we know how things can go wrong in this Covent Garden area. And the service was fine.

Le Bouchon Bordelais
5-9 Battersea Rise
London SW11 1HG

Le Bouchon Bordelais

Another view

Inside

Le Bouchon Bordelais is a restaurant located on Battersea Rise, not far from the popular Pizza Metro located on the other side of the road. It has a terrace on the foothpath, useful for smokers. Inside, on the left side it is the bar where you can go support the French football team 😉 and on the right side, isolated from the bar, is the restaurant area. It is nicely decorated, feeling normally French and not overdone like in some restaurants.

We ordered as starters the Vol au vent garni de St Jasques et Trompette des Morts (Scallop and trompette des mort vol au vent) and La Frisee aux Lardons Oeuf Poche (curly Endive Salad with Lardons and a Poached Egg). As main courses we had the Filet de Loup de Mer, Pommes Ecrasees aux Cebettes, Pomery Beurre Blanc (Panfried Seabass Filet, with Crushed Potatoes and Spring Onions,  served with a Mustard Butter Sauce) and an Escalope de Veau servie avec Cepes sautees et Pommes de Terres en Raclette (Veal escalope with garlic sauted ceps, potatoes with raclette). The desserts were a tarte tatin and a chocolate fondant. As drink we had a bottle of Badoit and a glass of red wine (Merlot) which was decent.

One thing to mention here. We both wanted the 2 courses mushroom based menu at £25 but my first choice for starter which was the Terrine de Campagne , servie avec Chanterelle et gelee de Porto (Farmhouse Country side terrine served with chanterelle mushrooms and port Jelly) was not available and the main course I first chose which was the Filet de Cabillaud servie avec Girolle Sauce (Pan fried cod filet, spinash with pan fried Girolles in garlic) was not available either. I was told they were not available 3 minutes after we ordered. More precisely I was told after 3 minutes the main course was not available so I chose another one (the panfried seabass) and then the waiter came back to tell me my starter was not available either. Well, in a normal restaurant they tell the clients about the missing meals when giving the menus so it was a messy start from the cook who should have told the waiting staff about it. At least the next clients were told about the missing meals early enough.

Not great bread

One thing I really find annoying is to pay for bread, especially in a French restaurant. It reminds me the cover charges in Italy for the bread and butter and I do not think I have ever paid for bread in a restaurant in France. Right, we are not in France but in the UK – but even in London most other French restaurants do not charge for bread… Well, here the bread was on the dry side which really was annoying. At Bellevue Rendez-vous or Le P’tit Normand you get excellent bread and they do not charge for it.

The starters

Scallop and trompette des morts vol au vent

Curly Endive Salad with Lardons and a Poached Egg

La Frisee aux Lardons Oeuf Poche was not bad, with nice bacon and a perfectly cooked egg but unfortunately there was too much dressing so some croutons were soaked with vinaigrette and not crispy at all.

The scallop and mushroom vol au vent was quite good, though the mushrooms weren’t terribly noticable (I think they were in the sauce). Actually it was a solo scallop inside a nice flaky pastry vol au vent. The scallop itself was a bit salty, but it combined well with the very un-salty pastry, so overall was a nice dish. It was accompanied by some steamed spinach, which went rather well with the mushroom sauce.

The main courses

Veal escalope with garlic sauted ceps, potatoes with raclette

Panfried Seabass Filet

The panfried seabass fillet was good, with a lovely buttery sauce. The flesh was firm and tasty. My minor complaint here is about the skin which could have been crispy, like at they do so well at Chez Lindsay in Richmond. Here it was somewhat soggy.

The veal dish was a little bit uninteresting. I can’t really say bland, since the mushrooms were a bit too salty and the veal had quite a strong flavour also. The potatoes certainly were bland though – in fact some boiled and halved potatoes held together in a circular arrangement with a small amount of over-grilled cheese (not at all what I had expected from something described as raclette). Overall, not offensive, but far from the best veal dish I’ve ever had (which is a shame, as veal can be a very nice meal).

The desserts

Chocolate fondant

Melting chocolate

Tarte tatin

The chocolate fondant was excellent. It was nicely presentated, the chocolate was melting well when the shell was broken and it was not too sweet. It was matching well with the ice cream.

The tarte tatin was quite good – a good choice of apples (neither too sweet nor too bitter) and a freshly made pastry base. I think just a little overcooked though, which was a bit of a shame as the pastry was thus a bit dry and hard on the edges.

Cost and conclusion: it was £83.50 including the 12.5% service charge. Average food, nothing outstanding and the prices on the high side. The service was friendly and polite but obviously the communication within the staff isn’t very efficient.