At 1 Twenty Six in East Coast Park, you can enjoy a meal and drinks while admiring a view of the sea and the ships in the distance. The dining arm of this restobar goes by the name Coast, offering a communal dining concept.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because its sister, Roast at One Rochester, first introduced this dining concept where parties of two or more can share a lovely meal together.

Apart from an indoor dining area, 1 Twenty Six is mostly a restaurant without walls. That means no air-conditioning, but you do get a nice sea breeze blowing in.

We love the tent canopy pavilion at One Rochester, and are pleased to see it here, too. With the surrounding foliage, outdoor pavilions and the sea nearby, this place boasts a resort-like ambience that makes a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Communal dining

The menu comprises entree platters, main courses, salads and desserts/cheeses.

Nibble Platter

The Nibble Platter is an assortment of clams, cod brandade, soft shell crab, potato skins and Crudites (raw fresh vegetables).

The baby potato skins come with sour cream and ocean trout caviar. These are delightful!

The seafood items are even better. The soft shell crab is light and crispy, and goes perfectly with the chili mayo dip. These steamed Vongole clams come with an interesting garlic and herb crumb. It’s the first time I have seen clams prepared this way, and they taste slightly sweet and delicious.

Grilled cod fillet

To tie in with the seaside location, all the main courses are seafood. The grilled cod fillet is accompanied by a fresh fennel and blood orange salad. The boneless fillet tastes good drizzled with the sweet Beaujolais sauce, but is rather forgettable.

Spiced lamb shank

For our other main course, the waitress allows us to go for the spiced lamb shank which is not on the communal dining menu. The meat is very tender and falls off the bone easily. The generous portion and the nice sauce makes this an extremely satisfying dish for meat lovers.

French fries, Broccolini and herb leaf salad

Next comes the trio of French fries, Broccolini and herb leaf salad. These are not much to shout about, and kinda make me miss the cauliflower cheese gratin from One Rochester.

Artisan cheeses

In the mood for some rich and moist cheese? End the meal with a platter of artisan cheeses served with muscat grapes. Alternatively, you can opt for the Grande Assiette, which is a selection of petite-sized desserts.

Fancy a drink or two?

There is a nice selection of wines here. Ladies would like the Jabolet rosé wine that has a nice shade of salmon pink and tastes of berries.

For the TWG Tea, they are served in single cups rather than pots, which seems to contradict the whole idea of communal dining.

Have Your Say!

What do you think of coastal dining? Are there other restaurants you would recommend for dining by the sea? Share with us below!

1 TwentySix
Playground @ Big Splash
902 East Coast Parkway #01-26
Singapore 449874
(65) 6348 2126 | Website
Service:

Opening hours: 6:30 – 11pm daily, 10am – 3pm (Sunday brunch)

Posted by Veron in Food category | alfresco/outdoor dining, bar, East Coast Park, fine dining, live football, live music, restobar, waterfront, Western

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The up-and-coming C.Nai Hong Kong Cafe offer a few very attractive perks that help differentiate itself from the rest:

• Live band that plays Mandarin pop songs
• Live telecast of English football
• No service charges

Sound good? We think so, too! East Coast Park is fast becoming our favorite place to unwind (who doesn’t like the sun, the sand and the sea?) so we check out their outlet at Marine Cove. The restaurant is huge! Getting a table here poses no problem at all even during the evening chow hours.

Like Eighteen Chefs, making an order is fuss-free by means of jotting down the item numbers on the order sheet.

Fried carrot cake with XO sauce
SGD5.50+

The fried carrot cake looks and sounds super tempting on paper, especially when words like “secret recipe” and “XO sauce” are thrown in the mix. Gimmicky, but it works.

The carrot cake arrives as a stack of neatly cut cubes speckled with chili pepper flakes. Contrary to most renditions of this dish that leave you feeling heavy and stuffed, this one is really light and tasty! Yup, this simple little snack has instantly won us over.

C.Nai Gold Medal Macau baked rice/spaghetti
SGD13.80+

For the baked pasta dishes, you can choose between spaghetti or rice. Ignoring its cheesy name, I go for the 3-in-1 baked spaghetti, which comprises (clockwise from top left):

- Pork chop with tomato sauce
- Seafood with cream mushroom sauce
- Portuguese chicken chop

I love baked pasta, but to be brutally honest, this is nowhere near as delicious as it sounds. The best part is the pork chop, whereas the seafood is too chewy and the chicken chop is bland. Let’s just say I’ve had better Portuguese chicken. It does come with a lot of cheese, which is great.

Then of course, there’s the mandatory Hong Kong-style milk tea for washing everything down.

“Si Mud” tea
SGD2.30+

This isn’t any regular milk tea, but one that is made by specially filtering tealeaves through a pantyhose or stocking! Before anyone goes “ew!”, the filter merely resembles a stocking and gives a tea a smoother texture. It’s the same way with which Ya Kun makes their coffee with a sock. That doesn’t sound so bad now, is it?

Sure enough, the tea is more thinned down, but no less fragrant, with a wonderful milky taste.

Iced milk tea float
SGD3.90+

For something more indulgent, go for the milk tea float with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Have Your Say!

Are you a fan of these casual Hong Kong cafés or do you prefer the more traditional dim sum teahouses? Which is your favorite? Share with us below!

2 Restaurants

Currently there are two branches, both in the East Coast area, with one opening soon at Far East Plaza.

C.Nai Hong Kong Cafe Xpress
Marine Cove
1000 East Coast Parkway
Singapore 449876
(65) 6444 0123 | Website
Service:

Bus services: 13, 16, 196, 401
Nearest MRT: Eunos

Opening hours: 11:30am – 12midnight (Sun-Thur), 11:30am – 3am (Fri & Sat)

C.Nai Hong Kong Cafe
378/380 East Coast Road (opposite Caltex petrol station)
Singapore 428985
(65) 6440 3808 / (65) 6440 0083 | Website | Menu
Service:

Bus services: 10, 12, 14, 15, 32, 40, 10E, 14E
Nearest MRT: Eunos

Opening hours: 6pm – 3 am (Mon-Fri), 5pm – 3am (Sat, Sun & PH)

Opening soon

Posted by Veron in Food category | café, Chinese, East Coast Park, Hong Kong, live football, live music, Macanese

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This describes a typical scene at Claypot Fun. (The word “fun” is a play on the phonetically similar “饭”, the Chinese character for rice.) Managed by Jumbo Seafood, the eatery specialises in Cantonese-style claypot rice dishes. If you are used to the Singapore-style claypot rice that comes with Chinese sausages, vegetables and dark soy sauce, the Hong Kong rendition would prove a refreshing change.

Photo by JP Concept

Customers that come in instantly find themselves surrounded by the endearing ambience of the 1960s. Various aspects of the decor, from tiffin containers and vinyl records, to wooden furniture and vintage posters on the walls, help bring back the charm of the yesteryear.

Photo by JP Concept

Generally, a claypot restaurant is not the kind of place where you should expect a quick bite! The slow cooking nature of the dishes means a waiting time of at least 15 to 30 minutes.

When ready, the steaming hot food arrives in the traditional earthen pot which we notice is surprisingly clean! We double-check the sides and the base. All clean! Certainly not the charred and dirty way we like it. Usually such pots become burnt and black overtime from cooking over a charcoal stove. Without that, the dish somewhat loses that slice of authenticity.

Claypot rice with chicken & mushroom
SGD10.80++

Every small pot feeds two, whereas bigger groups can opt for the large pot for four. Ours comes brimming with meaty mushrooms and boneless chicken flesh. Succulent and well marinated, just the way we like it.

The seasoning of the rice, however, is rather bland and the aroma is weaker than expected. It is also missing that layer of burnt rice crust at the bottom which, for some, is the best part of a dish like this.

Fortunately, the “secret recipe” sauce comes in and saves the day!

Bottles of a specially-concocted light soy sauce are provided so diners can throw as much of it onto the rice as they wish. Our verdict: The more, the yummier! It is sweet and extremely fragrant. If you’ve ever had a sizzling hot plate at Pepper Lunch and loved their honey brown sauce Amakuchi, you would know exactly what I mean. This soy sauce has that exact same effect. With it, the otherwise ordinary rice explodes with flavor.

You can pick from 7 types of accompaniments with your rice, including frog and pork ribs.

Photo by JP Concept

The restaurant occupies the former premises of the now-defunct Mingles La’ Brassarie at Playground @ Big Splash.

Personally, I prefer the Singapore-style claypot rice. The smokey taste, the burnt aroma, and the dark sauce all add to the appeal.

Have you had any great claypot dishes lately? Share in the comments!

Claypot Fun
Playground @ Big Splash
902 East Coast Parkway Blk B #01-11
Singapore 449874
(65) 6440 7975
Service:

Opening hours: 11am – 11pm daily

Posted by Veron in Food category | Cantonese, Chinese, East Coast Park

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Anyway since we were too lazy to bring any food, dinner was at one of the many eateries at the park. First we checked out Big Splash. No interesting restaurants there, although we did find out that Mingles (which I’ve reviewed previously) had closed down, while the café next door was enjoying a thriving business.

We scoured the pub area for more dining options before finally settling for Kebab Station. It stood out from the sea of restaurants with its unusual offering — exotic Turkish cuisine!

Chicken Shish
SGD10

You can choose between chicken, lamb and beef for the kebab dishes. These are served in a variety of tantalising ways such as rolls, shish, baked rice and even pizza.

Fresh off the grill is our chicken shish kebab, an extremely colorful dish. The meat is perfectly seasoned, with flavors that still remain even when you get to the center of the chunky breast meat. It also carries that smoky taste from the grill.

The kebab portion is quite substantial, and is accompanied by rice and pieces of warm pita bread. The greens, peppers, tomatoes and sauces on the side also provide a welcome reprieve from the meat. And colors, too!

Gravy Kofte chicken
SGD12

For our second dish, we were deciding between the gravy musakka or gravy kofte. In the end we opted for the latter, which is a tomato-based gravy that sounds more appealing than the eggplant-based musakka.

Served piping hot from the oven, the gravy kofte chicken is baked in a thick tomato cream sauce, with cheese too. Unlike the shish kebab, this one comes with a very teeny portion of meat. Instead, it comes with a whole lot of this:

Lots and lots of vegetables and shrooms! $12 is a hefty sum to pay for a dish that is more vegetable than anything else, don’t you think?

Well, for a place that brands itself as a fast-food eatery, the prices certainly don’t fit into the fast-food range. I guess in this case you are really paying for the experience of enjoying an unusual cuisine. There aren’t exactly many Turkish restaurants in Singapore. Even Turkuaz at holland village has closed down.

At Kebab Station, the food is prepared by Turkish chefs in an open-concept kitchen. The outlet is pretty small and cramped, so it does feel quite stuffy, especially in the sweltering month of June. In other words, this isn’t the kind of place where you would enjoy a long conversation with friends over a cold ayran or hot Turkish coffee.

But hey, with the beach just a stone’s throw away, does it really matter?

Posted by Veron in Food category | East Coast Park, fast food, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Turkish

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The first of these new restaurants that I have visited is mingles la’ brassarie. Why? One reason — the lobster. The last time I got to enjoy a whole lobster was at the exclusive members-only tanglin club. Lobsters do not come cheap. So the moment I learned that mingles serve linguine with a fresh whole lobster at an affordable price, my heart was already there!

Lobster Linguine
SGD22.90+

Despite the lobster being a baby-sized one, I was pleased with the supremely sweet and succulent taste of its flesh. Yum! Lobsters and crayfish totally make my day! For the sauce, you can choose between white wine sauce and pomodoro sauce. Given a choice, I would go for a tomato-based pasta any day. The tangy taste complements seafood very well.

The linguine pasta, on the other hand, was slightly undercooked instead of al dente. That’s my only gripe with this dish, albeit a major one. I had to leave some of the linguine untouched because I actually had trouble finishing it.

Nonetheless, props to them for the super prompt service and short waiting time though; all our food came within 15 minutes!

Calamari Fritti
SGD9.90+

Another seafood dish that we had was the calamari fritti, served in the form of long strips rather than the usual rings. The squid is tender and nice, while the beer batter is light and crisp. Along with the sides of garden salad and a tartar sauce dip, this dish makes a nice appetiser.

Rösti with Spicy Italian Sausage
SGD16.90+

When ordering a sausage dish, you can specify the type of sausage you prefer from the 8 choices available. We chose a pan grilled spicy Italian sausage with our rösti, served with homemade sour cream. The sausage was overtly salty and didn’t taste very good in our opinion.

To complement these European dishes, the restaurant sports a European theme for its decor. One side of the wall is decorated with murals of famous sights around Europe such as the eiffel tower and london bridge. On the opposite side of the wall are mounted flat-screen television panels playing music performances of andrea bocelli. This choice of music seems rather odd, but maybe that’s just me.

Besides a main area with regular dining tables and chairs, there is also a smaller and funkier dining area with round and bright red chairs. Very cute!

In fact, this is perfect for hanging out during teatime from 3 to 6pm. That’s when they have a $16.90 ice cream buffet with free flow of New Zealand natural premium ice cream (18 flavors), freshly baked waffle cubes and a cup of hot coffee or tea. Doesn’t that sound sinfully yummy? With the sweltering heat these days, this treat sure is sweet relief.

In any case, there are still a number of other new restaurants to check out. I probably wouldn’t be making a repeat visit anytime soon. Meanwhile, recommendations for a sumptuous and affordable lobster dish somewhere are always welcome!

Mingles La’ Brassarie
Playground @ Big Splash
902 East Coast Parkway
Blk B #01-11/12
Singapore 449874
(65) 6346 3055
Service:

Bus services: 13, 16, 196
Nearest MRT: Eunos

Opening hours: 11am – 10pm daily

Posted by Veron in Food category | East Coast Park, Lobster, pasta, seafood, Western

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