Fish Tales, Clarke Quay

Here's another Western seafood place in Singapore (Clarke Quay #01-07, 6837-3251)...sorta (more on that later). The menu looked somewhat promising, as did things like S$1 (US$0.60) oysters on Wednesday nights. But it turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. The NZ littleneck clams were tasty, but the broth was so excessively salty that it rendered the broth untouchable. The seafood chowder was cheese-based, making it nice and rich, but it lacked the pastry top that the menu said it had (we were told later that this was because they recently changed chefs).

This place also seemed a bit confused on its identity. The aglio olio with vongole had crab meat in it too, thus making it not much more than the steamed clams above (with the same excessively salty juice) with some spaghetti and crab meat thrown in. And the grilled king prawns were done delicately, but there appeared to be a seasoning that made it taste like tandoori chicken or something. Strange.

Anyway, the service was prompt and the decor was well done, thus probably a couple of the reasons why this place boasted of being one of the Tatler's best in the country. Unfortunately, I find that the Tatler puts too much emphasis on those two points and not enough on the food, and the experience tonight just goes to prove that even more. Well, the food could have been much worse, so I won't complain if someone forces me to come back , but I probably won't be coming back on my own accord (especially since the prices are rather high here).