Singapore House

Hi everyone,

I hope you've all had a great weekend like I have! This past weekend, I celebrated 2 very important milestones in the lives of a few people in my life.

My Friday night was spent celebrating the joint 21st birthdays of a sister of one of my closest friends in the world, and her friend who actually went to the same primary school as me. It was so much fun, though I must say being underaged at a 21st birthday truly sucks!

I spent Saturday night celebrating my godfather's 60th birthday. He chose to celebrate it at Singapore House. I'd actually never heard of this restaurant before, mainly because it's on the side of Adelaide which I rarely ever venture to. I looked it up and saw lots of comments on the gorgeous decor so I was very excited to visit! The menu also looked interesting, particularly the 'Street Food' section.

I'd just like to point out that this won't be a proper review - I just wanted to share my experience with you. The lighting was SO dimmed that I struggled taking nice photos of all the dishes and I really didn't want to be the only person on the two tables of 60 people taking photos of the food with a larger-than-usual camera, complete with flash! I did manage to snap a few, though I gave up because there were so many dishes. I tried my best to make what's in the photos more visible but my photo editing skills are rather abysmal. Be warned, photography enthusiasts!

You can probably tell what I mean about the lighting!

There was a set menu for the night: 

Pappadums, Raita, Mango Chutney

ENTREE

BBQ PORK Hoi Sin sauce and mixed herbs

SATAY CHICKEN and cucumber

BAKED MUSHROOMS with cumin, cheese and chilli jam

CRISPY DUCK BREAST in plum sauce chilli sauce

PRAWN AND RICE NOODLE SALAD with Asian dressing and paw paw

MAINS

BUTTER CHICKEN in a creamy tomato sauce

SALT AND PEPPER SQUID fresh chilli, spring onions and oyster sauce

KING PRAWNS in red curry and pineapple pieces

OVEN ROASTED OCEAN TROUT wrapped in banana leaf with coconut red curry, lime and galangal

BEEF RENDANG coconut rice and fresh lime

Rice and Naan to accompany mains

As you can see, there were so many dishes! Everyone at the table originally thought we would be ordering individual dishes but we were actually sharing all the dishes. There was SO much to taste and I had to really pace myself :P

These pappadums are way better than the ones at Beyond India. They're very thin, crisp and definitely less salty, making them a lot more enjoyable. I really enjoyed it with the raita which was lovely, fresh and light, but the mango chutney was a lot richer than I expected and not as sweet as the one from Beyond India. 

Now for some nicer photos of some entrees...

All the kids had a separate menu, and this was my little brother's Singapore Noodles. I had a taste and it wasn't bad! I did enjoy the flavours as well as all the different vegetables and textures in the dish. My only complaint would be that it was a little oily, but that could just be my personal preference.

Crispy Duck Breast 

The skin was definitely crunchy and the meat was very tender, which all tasted great with the very rich glaze-like plum sauce.

Baked Mushrooms 

This is what I had my eye on when I thought we were ordering separate meals. I'd say the stand out element was the chilli jam - it had a good amount of punch (I think a little more wouldn't have hurt!) and complemented the mushrooms really well.

Orange Blossom Sherbert 

and Sir Raffells Iced Tea

I'm not too sure of the exact name of this but it is a pomegranate cocktail. It was delicious! The sweet pomegranate juice disguised the flavour of the alcohol in it (tequila, if I remember correctly) making it a very refreshing drink.

That's it for the photos of the food. I really wish I'd been able to snap a few more but it became too difficult. A few other [positive and negative] stand out dishes were:

Satay Chicken

The meat was very tender and I loved the satay! It was filled with chopped peanuts so it was rather chunky, but that's how I like it.

King Prawns

I loved the flavour of the curry - it wasn't too rich and the prawns were very nicely cooked. I'm not usually a fan of pineapple in curries, though.

Beef Rendang

I absolutely loved the rich flavour of the dish, but it was a real pity that the meat was dry. Also, the coconut rice was served as a hidden mound under all the meat and sauce, but it was extremely mushy and stuck together in globs. Not very nice!

After dinner, I took two of my family friends over to visit the famous Butterfly Room. 

 The magnifying glass on the sign allowed people to see the intricacies of the butterflies. I've never seen anything like this before in Adelaide!

 The entrance to the room is via the big red arch, which has lots of facts and images painted over it in white.

 How beautiful is it? Every single one of those butterflies was real, I'm pretty sure. They were all beautifully preserved in their labeled frames. I think this would be a pretty cool setting to dine in.

 There were so many butterflies of different sizes and colour. 

So gorgeous! The two family friends I took with me were 5 and 7 year old girls, so they were basically in a dream world. 

And of course, we finished off the night with some Muratti's. Yum!

Overall, I'd say I had a great experience at Singapore House. The service was a little slow but I don't blame them at all for it since we had such a huge number of guests and there was so much going on! However, the staff were very friendly and attentive which of course contributed to everyone having such a great night. A few of the guests actually commented on the food being a little too salty, which I'm not sure is true, or due to their own personal preferences or just a one-off occurrence. Who knows! If I'm ever given the opportunity, I do think I will come back for a visit in a smaller group of people, just to get the full experience. I would recommend giving this a go if you're up for something different for lunch or dinner!

Enjoy your week and I'll see you again on my blog in a few days :)

Vy

xo