Home-made: Gigantic Burgers (2 types)

Bento Lunch Prep Done! Dky asked for hamburgers this week, so that's what he got!

Burger one is topped with egg and ketchup, burger two with bacon and BBQ sauce. The homemade beef patties comprise a half pound of lean beef mince EACH, as well as chopped up kale, carrots and onions. Thanks to the addition of some crisp, sweet vegetables, the burger patties are super juicy and moreish! Burgers sit on some rather nice foccacia buns from Swissbake and are accompanied by either a kale and bacon salad in sesame sauce, or a fresh mesclun salad with radishes, sweet corn nibblets and vinaigrette.

These half-pound cheeseburgers are MASSIVE! Even Roxy, the dog,  was stunned by the sheer size of it (and then she recovered instantly and demanded to jump on the burger bandwagon)...
— eating Cheese burgers

Breakfast that might just last all day

HUGE all-day breakfast - The Full Works

Set in a below-ground-level setting, under the main entrance of the Singapore Botanical Gardens, the unique setting was convenient, opening up from the underground parking. There is an industrial canteen feel to the decor cos of the spaciousness of the setting. Yet, along with the natural light, the orange and concrete feature wall nicely frames the kitchen on the far side of the entrance, lending an artistic visual that is complemented by foliage peaking out from the middle of the large group tables.

Once you've picked your seating, just 'chope' your table, grab a menu and queue up to place your order at the counter (waiting time of 15 mins that day). You can expect your food after a quick 5 mins wait.

The Full Works ($18, pictured above), from their new All-Day Breakfast menu, is the largest portion of breakfast we've ever seen! It very well could just last all day.. Mky took about 1 hour to finish it, even after apportioning a 1/3 of it to me. She noted that the breakfast menu structure has since changed from a review we came across dated just 2 weeks earlier. Previously, you could pick any 3 of their offerings for $8. Now you get to add additional stuff to a basic set, with the garlic mushrooms and chicken sausage being the premium items in the full works set. That aside, this is perfect for sharing.

Beef burger with fries, observe the sad patty, almost hidden by the toppings.

My burger order came with fries even though I didn't pay the extra cash for it. Initially I thought 'what a wonderfully nice touch it was', adding some fries to a woefully lonely-looking burger. Just as I was done taking a photo of it, a serving staff came with another burger (without fries), and took our previous plate away (sans one missing fry that Mky managed to steal!). I was a sad panda.. Incidentally, the burger with fries was then re-served to another customer, unaltered!

I wouldn't recommend their Beef Burger. The too-small patty was good and meaty but cos it was over-done, it just didn't satisfy. The bun was also a tad dry. Ample veggie slathered with sauce made the dish overall tasty enough yes, but for $8, there are better burgers out there, or other choices you can have from Food For Thought's menu.

Lonely Beef burger without fries

Vegetable Ratatouille, looks like curry right?

I loved the vegetable ratatouille though. Filled with thick slices of zucchini, carrots and onions, it made for a heavy side dish with its thick stew. It looked and tasted oily though, despite its vegetarian standing. One only hopes that it was olive oil and not vegetable oil we were eating happily.

Group tables with inset plants

Cool concrete decor

There is outdoor seating, and we did see some patrons with dogs on leash. We will be back again for the all-day breakfast for sure, and next time, it might be with pet in tow ;)

*Update*
Mky finally ate the two pastries (Banana Cake & Cinnamon Roll) that she bought from there. And the verdict is... 2 Thumbs Down! The pastries at FFT really suck. That's some strong negative views coming from her. Woops.


Food For Thought
1 Cluny Road, Singapore Botanic Gardens,
Tanglin Gate, #B1-00, S259569
Tel: +65 6338 4848

Eating with the Garden Slug

We went to try out The Garden Slug on a Friday evening. It's an eclectic little restaurant that comes off very laid back. Their unique list of appetizers, mains, desserts and even a small cider selection, has a substantial vegetarian slant. Their motto is an interesting "Eat Drink Don't Think". Cute! We received some surprisingly professional service from the young staffers there.

I went with the strange choice of a Sloppy Portobello Veggie Burger - it was a vegetarian choice. When the plate was laid down in front of me, I was aghast cos the only sides to my burger were huge raw celery and carrot sticks! I confess, I didn't expect vegetable sticks for sides, expecting some fries to come along if at all (it wasn't specified in the menu). However, with some encouragement from Mky, I dipped the veggie stick into the thousand island sauce and found that I actually didn't mind it at all. Quite refreshing really. It also helped that Mky's dish came with 2 other sauces.

The burger itself was composed of a large portobello mushroom and a "curry patty" (basically potato spiced with curry powder) sitting on romaine lettuce and a slice of tomato. For some reason I was instantly reminded of Cedele's excellent Chicken Chermoula Burger. Must be the curry. Well, being as how the Chicken Chermoula is one of my favourites, the Sloppy Portobello was immediately judged on a higher scale. I thought it was delicious, I just didn't think the burger bun was anything to shout home about - it just served its purpose I guess.

Mky had heard that the fried calamari rings at the Garden Slug was heavenly, but we didn't think we could finish an entire serving of it between us, so she went with the Battered Seafood Sandwich, which came with the aforementioned calamari rings, some potato wedges and more veggie sticks. The calamari rings were quite perfectly done - crispy batter covering the still soft and juicy squid ring. The potato wedges were as standard as potato wedges could be. The platter came with 2 sauces though, Ranch and Honey Mustard! All the better to dip those healthy veggie sticks into!

Her Seafood Sandwich was almost like a less sinful version of traditional Fish & Chips - with the battered hake fish in question served between toasted multi-grain bread with romaine lettuce and tomato. She liked her order well enough (well it was mostly friend stuff, who does not like fry-ups? =P )

Overall, the Garden Slug has some interesting offerings on their menu that we would like next and gets our "We'll be back!" vote!


The Garden Slug
55 Lorong L Telok Kurau, #01-59/61
Bright Centre,
Singapore 42550
6346 0504
justask@thegardenslug.com

Ramly Burger!

Eaten at Geylang Serai, Hari Raya weekend. yum yum..

Handburger

Handburger: cheap indulgence, but finding standards dropping. Check out the colour of the fried bits - a little dark don't you think?

The Works Burger was tall and imposing, delicious no doubt, but the fried bits on top (bacon and onion ring) were a little too overfried, I had to stop eating the crispy bits.
Mky's Chicken Caesar Burger was described as "grilled chicken" but we're quite sure it was deep fried. The tangy sauce/dressing and generous amount of meat saved it. Made for a nice dip for the fries too.
Chunky fries side dish is still very nice! Though we didn't eat it this time, the Pulled Pork burger still ranks up there from our last visit, with the Original still at the bottom.

313 Orchard Road,
#B2-17/18/19
313 @ Somerset
+65 6509 6214