A friend introduced me to this place at Cineleisure Orchard, said that they had an interesting menu, an interesting ambience, and would I be keen to try.
At first I wondered if prices would be expensive, because, you know, Orchard, Somerset, everything.
But the menu showed regular brunch prices, plus, they had a most fantastic lunch offer, so, yep, we went.
What first caught my eye wasn't the food of the lunch menu, but that of their regular menu, which, amongst others, had very interesting mains.
There was something called a Prawn Quinoa Bowl, which in and of itself was already interesting, since there aren't many places that serve quinoa. Theirs had butternut squash, sundried tomato, pomegranate, prawn and kale.
There was also this dish called Pulled Beef Rigatoni which featured rigatoni (pasta), cherry tomatoes, something they called grana padano (I've no idea what it is) and pink sauce.
If I were going to eat it, it would be just to find out what grana padano was and what exactly went into the pink sauce.
There were more familiar dishes on the menu, some of which I might come for next time during the dinner hour, but for today the 3-course set lunch menu consisted of three mains for you to choose from.
There was a Chargrilled Sirloin Steak with Fries, a Bulgogi Pork Ribs Pasta, and a Fried Chicken with Japanese Curry.
All mains came with a salad and a small little dish of gyoza.
May not look like much, these little babies, but the skin was soft, smooth, and the meat inside juicy and tasty like what a proper gyoza should be.
For the mains, my friend chose the Sirloin Steak with Fries.
Me, I was in a dilemma.
On one hand I wanted the Fried Chicken with Japanese Curry.
On the other, however, I wasn't quite in the mood for anything fried, nor for mild, creamy curry.
So, pork ribs it was instead.
It was a good choice, if not a startling, stimulating one.
I had not expected the spaghetti to be spicy.
The menu didn't say.
But there it was- a very stimulating, surprising first taste that at once awakened my palate, my taste buds, my senses and my spirits, putting me in a bit of an unexpected, if not, alert mood.
Will I say I didn't like the spaghetti?
No.
It took a bit of getting used to, yes- I'm not usually comfortable with this amount of spice in my mouth, but once I adjusted, the taste was really good. The spaghetti (al dente they call it, I think?) had been done well, so clean was the pasta, and there was no sauce on the plate that would have made the noodles soggy.
What amazed me most about this dish was the texture and taste.
I have had ribs before where the meat is tough and dry and difficult to eat.
Not so here.
The meat on the ribs was soft, almost melt-in-the-mouth, yet, at the same time, not so soft that I couldn't feel the meat at all.
You know how shredded chicken sometimes feels like when it's cooked well? Yes, something like that. That's how the texture was, soft, tender, yet present at the same time.
It wasn't hard to cut the meat into bite size pieces with spoon and fork.
It wasn't hard to chew through the meat too.
Favorite part of the dish, however, had to be the flavors. I don't know how it's done. Maybe they dipped the rib into the sauce and then pan-fried it. Maybe they fried the rib first then dipped it on the sauce and then quickly fried it again.
Whichever method they used, it came out perfect. There was the sweet, savory flavors of the marination together with the meat, especially the skin, if I may say, and it made for a very wholesome, satisfying bite.
I loved the sweetness of the marination.
I loved the tender pork meat that I could slather some of the sauce over it with.
And best part, it made for a great contrast with the little bowl of salad that had come earlier.
Sure, the vegetables might not be the kind that I would choose had I seen them at the salad bar- I don't know what they are- and I still don't know what that little pink slice is, but the dressing was light, refreshing, sufficient, and the vegetables had that hint of a crunch.