Great Angus Steak at Market Grill @ Telok Ayer

Market Grill

Address (Google Map): 208 Telok Ayer Street Singapore 068642

Opening hours: Mon – Sat 11.30am to 2.30pm, 6pm to 10pm, Closed on Sun

Introduction

Market grill is a relatively new western grill bar situated along the stretch of shop house along Telok Ayer road that is nearer to Amoy Food Centre. Their menu is extensive considering the floor area of the restaurant. Probably due to the small seating capacity, they do not take in reservation.

Market Grill is rather well known for their steaks and burgers. For their lower range steak, the choice of cut is interesting that they decided to go with the less well known cut such as the bavette. Bavette is a cut somewhere at the stomach of the cow and it’s a french term for flank steak. A flank actually quite commonly used in the Chinese cuisine for “stir-fried beef”.

They also offer another cut known as the Wagyu Rump. A beef rump is very different to American and British. To the British, beef rump is actually referring to the Sirloin cut while the American refers rump to the round of the cow, that is the cut at the lower back, near to the hind legs of the cow. I read online that some people said that it’s really tender so i have to guess that it’s a British rump. Care to share if you have better knowledge of Market Grill’ rump.

Their menu: Click to enlarge

200 Days Grain-fed Black Angus Prime Rib

I ordered their 200 days grain-fed Black Angus Prime Rib that cost $150 at 1.10kg. If you read the finer print, this dish is actually good for sharing for up to three pax (which i did). A 45 minutes waiting time is required for the preparation of this dish.

The medium steak is served sliced for easy sharing and comes with a portion of thick red wine sauce and a portion of sarladise potato. To put it simply, sarladise means cooking it in fats (normally duck) and seasoned with garlic. The simple potato side dish is delightful as it absorbs the oil and it’s naturally flavoured by the fats and a tinge of garlic.

For their steak, it’s a 10 out of 10 for it’s appearance. The appearance itself explains why 45 minutes of waiting time is required. The steak is properly sliced to the appropriate thickness so that it’s chunky but yet not overly thick. The exterior is grilled to slightly charred that adds on a grilled fragrance with a simple and yet well-balanced marinate of salt and pepper.

The juicy and tender center

The medium steak is tender in the juicy center. Certain areas of the steak consist of small chunks of fatty beef. Although it’s not exactly melt in your mouth, it’s definitely not rubbery and the fats break down with little effort from the jaw. For more flavours, drizzle the thick red wine sauce over the sliced steak. For me, the steak itself is good enough.

Drizzle with Red Wine Sauce

Charcuterie Connoissuer Board

The outlook of this starter dish looks really sad, with a few piece of paper thin meat and slices of bread. However I will say that this starter is quite interesting but probably not something that Singaporeans will salivate over.

The Pate Forestier, which is a chicken liver paste flavoured with garlic and mushroom. It taste very much like foie gras paste and it goes very well with the toasted sourdough bread. This is my favourite among all.

Front to back: Pate Forestier, Duck Rilette, Rosette Superieure Saucisson, Chorizo Iberico, Veal Lyoner, Sourdough Bread

Duck Rilette is like the shredded version of duck confit, salted and cooked in fats. The Veal Lyoner (Lyon Sausage) taste very much like our cold cut ham. Nothing fantastic. The rosette superieure saucisson is a kind of thick, dry cured sausage that originates in France and there is a rather strong smell that is not exactly pleasant. Definitely not my favourite.

I guess I am not very used to such kinds of flavour, but it’s really an eye opener. All these come at a price of $28.

Onion Matchsticks

The onion matchsticks is actually onion rings. Sliced onions were coated in a thin batter and fried to crisp. It’s a little oily but really great to go with beer.

By the way, have you hear of a saying that matchstick can help to prevent tearing while cutting onion? Bite a piece of matching stick with the head facing out and it will absorb the chemical that caused tearing. Probably it won’t work though.

Conclusion

After reading this article from City Normads, claiming Market Grill to be the top 10 place for steak in Singapore, i decided to pay a visit. I’d researched on this place and the reviews are just so-so for the cheaper cut of steaks so i decided to try the premium range.

It turns out to be a good decision after all.

The non-overcrowding dimly listed restaurant/bar seems like a great place to chill out with friends after work while enjoying a reasonably-priced  meal (they do not charge 10% of service charge).

I didn’t have the chance to try their signature burgers so probably I’ll be back for those. For those who had their burgers, do feel free to share your experience with us.

The supposed signature Cod Fish Burger. My friend said that it’s quite flavorful but a little salty.

Beer Market at Clarke Quay – Buy Low Drink High!

Beer Market 

Address: 3B River Valley Road #01-17/02-02 (Just beside Liang Court that’s facing the main road)

Operating Hours: Sun – Thu 6:00pm to 1:ooam Fri, Sat and PH 6:00pm to 3:00am

Introduction

First of all, a very great thank you to TheSmartLocal for the invitation to the makan session and a great thanks to Beer Market (Chef Steven and Operation Manager Charlie) for hosting us. It was a crazy rush during lunch hour but it is a great session. It’s nice meeting up with Bryan from TheSmartLocal, Tony from JohorKaki, Melicacy and Bon Koh from sethlui.com.

Beer Market  had been around for a couple of years at Clarke Quay for and I remembered them most for their fluctuating beer price accordance to their  BMX (Beer Market Index). The price of their beer changes according to demand. If a certain brew is not ordered in the last 30 minutes, the price of this beer will drop, and on the other hand, if it’s really popular, the price will go up.

Keep observing their TV screen for the best-priced beer and general guide is – Buy Low, Drink High. And this is possibly the only place in Singapore where one prays for a market crash.

BM Rojak Platter ($ 39.90+). Good enough for 4-6.

Apart from their atypical manly beer, Beer Market also offers fruit beer like North Taiwan Lychee Beer, Fruli Strawberry Bee and Matso Mango Beer. They just launched a new menu in March 2014, which they have some interesting items that incorporate a local twist such as salted egg seafood pizza and chicken rice pizza and seafood in shooter glass dunked in beer.

Food Menu: Click to enlarge

Food Menu: Click to enlarge

BM No-Nonsense Steak ($22.90+)

Among the cuts for steaks, ribeye is the highly sought after cut. It is more marbled comparing to other cuts and the fat breaks down in the process of grilling which gives the steak a delightful texture and taste.a

The description of their no-nonsense steak ($22.90+) reads “Marinated. Grilled. Marbled Beef. We know what you want” . I wasn’t expecting much from a steak that did not mention the type and cut of the steak despite of how they described their steak on the menu.

But in fact, there are indeed traces of marbled texture in their No-Nonsense Steak and that comes as a delight for me. The exterior of the steak is grilled to moderately crisp and slightly charred for a delectable appearance while the steak remains moist and tender inside. The chef specifically mentioned that the steak is to go with their butter. Hopefully steak of similar quality can be served to every patrons in Beer Market and not a one-off thing.

Chicken Truffle ($15.90+)

I thought that the main lead of this dish is not the chicken chop but for it’s sauce and truffle oil sprinkled mash potatoes. Beer market is considerably generous with the amount of truffle oil used on this dish. The chop taste very proper, tender, nice, like how a chicken chop should be. The portion of mash potato is drenched in a good volume of mushroom gravy and ensures you have enough sauce to last you to the last mouthful of mash potatoe. The price is pretty reasonable at 15.90+.

I have no complain for their chicken chop, except the presentation can be better. I can’t even spot the chicken chop easily when it’s served. It’s all covered by sauce, mushroom, onions and it’s like all mashed up.

Seafood Shooter ($22.50+)

It cost $22.50 for a bottle of Tiger Radler with six glasses of Shooters (2 prawn, 2 salmon and 2 Crab meat). Tiger Radler (with only 2% alcohol) is then added into the glass to be consumed together. Tiger Radler taste more sweet with a tinge of lemon and I suppose that is why Beer Market decided to pair it with food instead of regular beer, which is evidently much more bitter.

The Seafood Shooter – Shredded Crab Meat

Generally the Tiger Radler adds a refreshing bitter lemon taste into the three kinds of seafood shooters.  It works very well with salmon sashimi, OK with the prawn with cucumber and not as good for the shredded crab meat and tomato.

Seafood Shooter – Fresh Tiger Prawn in Tiger Radler

The taste of beer and lemon overpowered the thinly shredded crab meat and I can’t taste too much of the crab. The cold tiger prawn is good. It’s really fresh and juicy.

The quality of Salmon is not bad. It’s rather fatty with a distinct fragrance of the salmon fat.  The salmon sashimi is lightly marinated in orange juice and whiskey and it goes well with the slightly sour lemon beer.

Seafood Shooter – My favourite, Salmon Sashimi (slightly spicy)

Other Dishes

BM Rojak Platter ($ 39.90+). Good size, can serve 4-6 people. Comes with fries, luncheon meat, Japanese sausage, fried fish skin, spring roll, stir-fry mushroom and thai fish stick with three kinds of dipping sauce – Honey Mustard, Tartar Sauce and BM Shiok Sauce. Love the Shiok Sauce. The platter is good to go with beer.

Grandma Fish and Chip $13.90+

Bacon Wrapped in Cherry Tomato and Baby Potato ($7.90+). 6 pcs of Wrapped Tomato and 6 pcs of Wrapped Potato. In the background are BM’s Four Heavenly King Dipping Sauce  (Tartar, Honey Mustard, Shiok. BTH) + Cheesy Salsa and Truffle Sauce

Conclusion

I had to rush off after their main course and didn’t get to savour their chicken rice pizza (i thought that will be pretty interesting though).

The first thing I noticed about Beer Market’s menu is for it’s price. It looks pretty reasonable comparing to food price of some other bars. The food quality is decent and I like their steak the best among all.

I also like how well-spaced the tables are and won’t really feel all cramped up. It’s a rather good place for colleagues to chill (i had my colleague’s farewell dinner there previously) and to de-stress after a hard day at work. And daily live band? Yeap, that should works for me too.