Keeping the carnivores happy

Thanks to both kartaly and the Travelling Hungryboy, dinner on Saturday was at Aburiya at Holland Village.

I'd been past the branch at Robertson Quay several times, noting the packed restaurant and that tantalising smell of grilled meat. And then a post on the Travelling Hungryboy's site alerted me to the branch at HV - next to Cafe Rosso, which I'd always presumed was a closed restaurant as it was empty during the day.

And for some reason, I'd always thought it would be a pricey meal - it looked like one would have to order many plates of meat to be satisfied. It didn't help that Aburiya's website wasn't listing any prices.

Yet seven of us found ourselves seated on the black benches on Saturday, browsing through the many types of meat and veg available to barbecue. The place was packed, so luckily we had made reservations - especially important for a big group as it's a rather small place. I was a bit surprised that it wasn't as smoky as I'd expected - they must have a pretty good ventilation system.

YC and mej, seated at a table separated by a little armrest-like block went for Set Menu C, which provided a good mix of meats - some pork, duck, lamb, and even some salads, soup and dessert. The other five of us went a la carte.

I can't remember everything we ordered, as it was quite a bit but...

Pork belly (one dish with just the Shio (salt and pepper) seasoning and another with a miso marinade) - so sinful, so fatty yet so good
Tontoro (pork cheek) - recommended by kartaly. When grilled till crispy, it is almost like bacon, yet still keeping a softness, unlike bacon which can sometimes be done till over-crispy.
Foie gras - this was grilled in a little metal container, with a pat of butter. Foie gras is always good! :P
Tongue - a little tough for me, as I prefer meat that's more of the melt-in-your-mouth sort.
Karubi- I think we ordered this with a marinade, but honestly by this time there were so many plates of meat I couldn't really tell what was what anymore.
There was also mushrooms, leeks, bibimbap, tomato salad nd I believe, some beef. I also tried some duck from the set menu but it was a bit tough. mej recommended the lamb, so I'll have to try that the next time I drag more people to this place.

The bbq here is nothing like Seoul Garden in case you're wondering. There is no buffet, no strange little bits of meat soaking in odd marinades. Instead you get dishes of meats, you get a little circular pit full of red hot charcoal and a crisscross grill on top where you place your meat and other barbecueable food.

Service seemed a bit hectic, with wait staff rushing about quite a bit at the beginning, but they were generally polite and prompt about topping up the water jug they plonked on the table.

The bill for the five of us came up to about $27 each. Quite reasonable. A nice variety of meat, seafood, veg available. Quite pleased with dinner.

Can't say the same for after-dinner drinks though.

The point of eating at HV was to pop by One Rochester after. Unfortunately, they don't take reservations on Fridays and Saturdays. We got there 10ish, and left our names with the guy at the front. They didn't have a bar area where you could stand and wait and get a drink first, so we got distracted and wandered off to the neighbouring house, North Border.

We stand around, nobody seems to want to acknowledge us so kw goes and talks to the manager. We finally get a table outside, not too far from the swing and the horse and its miniature man. Thankfully they stopped with the texmex look there and went with plain uniforms for the staff.

Chairs were comfy, but the trees above keep shedding little bits of leaves and flowers - luckily not into the drinks. And somehow, a caterpillar made its way onto my shoulder. But you know, these things happen, it's not the fault of the restaurant.

But it is the fault of the restaurant when they serve their chips and salsa, and their chips turn out to be stale. And then the waiter says, I'm sorry, we'll heat it up. And you wonder if he knows what lau hong means. Surely they could just open another bag of chips up? And then he comes back again and apologises, saying that he's cancelled the order and leaves, not really explaining anything or suggesting something else on the menu. How odd - did they really not have any more chips?

There seemed to be quite a few problems in the kitchen, as a couple seated near us complained about the time it took for their meals to get to them. Drinks they could manage, but food... well I'm not so sure. I like the occasional texmex (burritos, enchiladas, salsa, guacamole etc) but I'll just stick to places like Magarita's and Cha Cha Cha for now. I know it's quite unfair to write this without having eaten anything here, but maybe a few months down the road, I'll give it another shot. For now, no thanks. They do, however, have a rather extensive wine list, as well as quite a few wines available by glass.

The restaurant was pretty packed, mostly a spillover from those like us who couldn't be bothered to wait to get into OneR. It was a rather long wait as OneR only called us more than an hour to let us know the table was ready after we put our names down - by then we were reluctant to head over, and went off instead in search of a midnight movie. Perhaps a visit on a weekday (when reservations can be made) would make more sense.


Aburiya
17E Lorong Liput
Tel : 6464 6536

North Border Bar and Grill
2 Rochester Park
Tel: 6777-6618