Fish & Co Dessert

Fish & Co has a separate menu on the cakes they are selling. Though they do not have a lot of choices and 2 of them were not available when we visited them. We had ordered: Carrot Cake and New York Cheesecake.

Dessert Carrot Cake:

Presentation:
A large slice of carrot cake with white choc on the top and in between the layers. Pistachio nuts bits were sprinkled on the top layer.

Taste:
The carrot cake has a relatively strong carrot taste, as expected, and contains a mild cinnamon flavour. Inside the cake are pecan bits which adds crunchyness to the rough texture already present in the cake. The white choc gives the cake the sweetness which is slightly over the limit.


New York Cheesecake:

Presentation:
The cake that came was very different from the picture in the menu. The one in the menu is just a cheesecake with caramel poured on top of the cake. What came was one with a choc top layer. The cake was about 2 inches tall.

Taste:
This cheesecake is very heavy in flavour and the chesse taste is plentiful. The texture is very creamy and just taking 1 piece of the cake will be enough to make a lady feel quite full and sinful.

Fish & Co Main dishes

I believe the chain restaurant, Fish & Co, requires no introduction. They have been around for many many years and many people will have ate at the restaurant before. However it is only my 2nd time at the restaurant.

Recently I ate at the restaurant with my family. We ordered quite a number of items: Cream of Mushroom Soup, Grilled Calamari, Al-fungi Spaghetti, Salmon in Cajun style, New York Fish and Chips and 2 desserts: Carrot Cake and New York Cheesecake.

Food
Cream of Mushroom Soup:

Presentation:
A plain looking soup with the bits of mushroom mixed in the soup.

Taste:
The soup is not too creamy and thick. The soup is thick with the taste of the different types of mushrooms.


Grilled Calamari:

Presentation:
The calamari are cut, grilled and served in a small pan. There are also white sauce at the bottom of the pan which are sprinkled on after they are done grilling.

Taste:
The calamari are grilled to the right tenderness. Each piece of calamari is a bit bland in taste, which also means relatively healthy. However this dish must be finished while it is still hot, once it got cold, the calamari will become very dry.


Al-Fungi Spaghetti:

Presentation:
Pine nuts were sprinkled on the top of the spaghetti and there quite a big portion of mushrooms in the spaghetti.

Taste:
The flavour is very weak, and salt needs to be added to bring out the flavour. However, it is also not oily and the spaghetti is cooked just right. The pine nuts gave the extra crunch into the dish and is a welcomed addition.


Salmon in Cajun style:

Presentation:
A colourful dish that comes with Cajun Salmon, chips and carrots and melon salad. The fish is topped with white cream sauce.

Taste:
Though the salmon is done with cajun style, it is not spicy but still has the unique salmon taste. For people that do not like the fishy taste, it is advised not to order this dish. The melon and carrots salad are done just right, with the external being soft while retaining the crunchy texture inside.


New York Fish and Chips

Presentation:
A big piece of golden brown fish that comes with Chips and topped with white sauce.

Taste:
There are cheese in between the slab of fish which melts upon frying. The melted chesse gave the fish the right saltish level. The outer crust is crispy but does not get detached from fish meat inside.

Fish & Co Service Attitude:
Their service level are considered to be on the good side. They tell you immediately what the soup of the day, after we had made ourselves comfortable in our seats. The staff was always giving us a smile when serving us. One other thing is that the waitress remembers my warm water and when empty tops it up with warm water instead of cold ones. I was told that other branches of Fish & Co also provides similar or even better service.

Fish & Co Cleanliness:
The cleanliness level of the cutlery is as the normal standard. However the seats are the areas that are slightly dirtier. There were crust crumps on the bench seat where i was going to occupy and i had to clean up the little mess myself. So next time watch where you are sitting.

Ratings:
Food Presentation: 2/5
Food Taste: 2.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Cleanliness: 2/5
This is a good place for gathering, food is ok though not exceptionally good. If run out of alternatives, this would be a acceptable place for makan.

Changing Appetites

It was after my national fireworks shooting and people were trying to rush home. I wanted to avoid that so i decided to walk around Marina Square area for food. Everywhere was packed with people.

I saw this restaurant with its huge letters "Changing Appetites" and with words "The All American & Dessert Cafe". I like dessert and so decided to give it a try.

Since i am alone, i managed to get a seat very quickly.

The menu looks good and i took some time before being able to decide what i want. The choices were quite a lot with explaination on each one.
Finally, I ordered a Honey Grilled BBQ steak and a Frankenstein Mudpie, both of which were recommended on the menu.

FOOD:
Honey Grilled BBQ Steak:



Presentation:
Nice and quite appetising, there were nachos crackers, onion carrots and cucumber salad, a piece of pineapple on top of the steak, a small cup of bbq sauce and a scoop of mash potatoes.

Taste:
Lets start off with the salad. I skipped the onions as i dont like them. The carrots were hard and cold, but luckily not old, else it would have tasted even more terrible.

The steak is totally bland in taste, even with the sauce on the outer layer fails to cover the bland taste. The bbq sauce porvided did little to add to the taste.
The whole steak is full of veins and i really had a hard time cutting it even with the steak knife provided. With all these veins, I also had a hard time chewing the pieces that i put in my mouth.
The pineapple is one of the best in the whole dish.

The nanchos were those that can be bought from supermarkets, so there isnt anything special except they gave your the bbq sauce which you can dip in.

The scoop of mash potatoes has got 2 layers, the outer layer are the mashed potatoes, which the texture is neither smooth nor coarse. The inner layer contains slim slices of potatoes that gave a different texture. This is either deliberate or they didnt do a clean job. It is also lacking the faint taste of milk.

Frankenstein Mudpie:



Presentation:
The mudpie has oreo on top of the mudpie together with choc sauce dripping down from the side of the mudpie. The small choc dots on the green layer are choc chips which there are plentiful of them. The colour combination together with the dripping dark choc sauce makes it look like a frankenstein. (You will have to use a bit of imagination here).
However what i cannot tolerate is the use a (mee rebus) plastic plate for the dessert, squishing the bottom of the mudpie. Dessert deserves better presentation which can be achieved by using a simple broadbase square plate.

Taste:
The green layer is essentially full of mint flavour and the choc layer is choc ice cream. The choc chips gave a different texture to the ice cream and it is fun pick each one out to crunch on them. The choc sauce and oreo couldn't give much additional flavours to the mudpie. In the mudpie that were 2 pieces of mashmallows which has been compressed and is quite smooth and melts in the mouth.


CA's Service attitude:
CA's service is quite horrendous.

1. Firstly, I was given a discriminating face by the captain when i told him 1 pax at the entrance. Well even though i am just 1 person, i am still a paying one. That doesn't give him the right to give me that kind of face.
   
   
2. Secondly, their own staff are quite impatient to each other. One staff was passing the dish to another and told her the table number but the receiving staff couldn't hear it and asked it again. The tone and face that came out wasn't friendly and it was almost a scream. This happened right in front of me, and this kind of incident should have been kept hidden from the customer.
   
   
3. Thirdly, the moment i put my fork down after eating my dessert, the captain immediately bring me the bill and stood there waiting for me to pay up. What kind of service is this. I have not even wiped my mouth. I told him to come back later without even looking at him.
   

CA's Cleanliness:
I witness this:
One waiter accidentally dropped some clean plastic spoons on the floor. THe next moment, he picked it up and put it back into the drawer. These plastic spoons are for the jar drinks which are on the menu, so i dont think i will be ordering any of that if i were to go back.

Ratings:
Food Presentation: 2.5/5
Food Taste: 2/5
Service: 1/5
Cleanliness: 1.5/5
I am definitely not going back given the type of discriminating service and poor cleanliness. The food is also not exceptionally good. I think my money is better spend elsewhere.