One afternoon a friend of mine asked if I wanted to try this never-had-before steak place in Orchard Central.
Admittedly I was a little surprised.
Surprised not by the suggestion that we have steak for dinner- my friend loves his beef- but by the fact that there was a steakhouse bar in this shopping mall on Orchard Road.
I had not known.
But, yes, there was.
Armoury Steaks & Craft Beer Bar sits on the 11th floor of Orchard Central, and although it may seem kind of quiet- the location not being on the main footfall area- the place is spacious, has a charming sort of ruddy country- wine cellar decor, and which makes it great for dinner and drinks with friends.
It's the kind of place you go to when you have a dinner party or are celebrating a birthday.
It's also the kind of place you go to when you want to organize networking sessions and can book half the place down.
They've got a great view of Orchard Road, by the way, and if I'm not wrong, there was space for some sort of a live singing session.
We were here for their Steak Buffet.
Rated as the best steak buffet, and the longest running one in town, the menu offered diners interesting selections you otherwise might not expect.
It was the kind of menu where you were recommended to have either an open mind, or to be clear what it was you wanted.
I don't know what exactly it is that diners come expecting.
Could it be that they were hoping for more variations of different cuts of meat?
Could it be that perhaps they hoped for selections of pork and chicken and venison and fish beyond the offerings of (mostly) beef?
Maybe it is so that different palates and different dining habits have different expectations.
To come for the steak buffet here at Armoury means you must be ready to have meat, meat, meat, and lots of it.
Doesn't matter whether you're particular about the kind of meat there is, you just have to be mindful and in the here for it.
Because, really, that's the main of what they offer.
There were Free Flow Steak Cuts.
There were Unlimited Meats.
And there were Unlimited Buffet Bar Platter and Sides.
For the Steak Cuts you could order as much Ribeye or Striploin as you liked. The weight of each serving was 150gms, and I think it had been anticipated that each diner would probably order one of each because whilst 150gms a ribeye or striploin might be considered too little, 300gms combined together would be more than enough.
That didn't mean you couldn't have as much of Popcorn Chicken, Oven Baked Dory or BBQ Pork Belly either.
I'm pretty sure there would have been tables who ordered a plate of each- just for the fun of it, or there might be tables (like us) who decided we'd skip the popcorn chicken and the dory and just go straight for the pork belly.
It wasn't too bad.
A tad on the oily side for some, maybe, but the portion was generous, the meat was well prepared, not very very salty, and had just the right amount of fat in each slice. One must have this hot when the plate arrives at your table though. It feels different on the palate after it turns cold.
I guess that's the challenge when everything comes to you at the same time.
You don't know in what order exactly you're supposed to have your food.
Should you have the steaks first or should you finish up this plate first or should you have both at the same time?
Etiquette demands that you finish one plate before going for the other, so that's what I did, alternating between my Steak Cut (mine was the Striploin) and this plate of pork belly where I ate each slice slowly.
In between these two plates there were the Bar Platter and Sides.
You've got quite a couple of choices here when it comes to the sides, by the way.
Expect some variety of East-West fusion here, where, besides the Western usuals of Greens, Tater Tots, Buttered Corn and Fries, there's Mantou.
We decided on Tater Tots and Buttered Corn.
My friend likes Tater Tots.
I like Buttered Corn.
And even though we considered having a plate of fries, Tater Tots are nicer to eat and harder to find, so we got two of those instead.
Come to think of it, a part of me thinks we should have gotten the Mantou.
Maybe it would feel a little out of place, like who eats Mantou with Steak, but there was the Pork Belly, and, who knows, I might have been able to make a fusion Kong Bak Bao out of it.
Perhaps I will.
When I go back there next time.