An ex-coworker of mine mentioned to me ages ago that this restaurant at the Singapore Mariners' Club Maritime House used to be one of the best places in Singapore to get a steak (120 Cantonment Road #01-02, 6224-9928), with American sailors piling in here regularly. I was so skeptical that I pretty much forgot about it after all of these years until I saw a big sign erected outside recently that stirred up some curiosity again. Tonight, I came down to check it out.
It wasn't too encouraging at first. By appearances alone it looked like one of those old school "Western" places. Some ancient Phil Collins easy listening track piped in overhead, and the red wine was chilled. I'm not a huge fan of localized Western food (or as they put it, "Cooking with Hainanese Influence"), but I figured that I'd better embrace the chance to try the T-bone steak, even if I had to tell them to keep the peppercorn sauce on the side. Lo and behold, out comes my steak on one of those black cow platters, sizzling away, accompanied by a stone cold potato.
To my surprise, I rather enjoyed the sauce that this thing came with, so much that I completely finished it (then again, I suppose that also says something about the quality of the beef when I tried it on its own). Another unexpected bonus was the fact that there were a few chunks of daikon sitting under my steak getting scorched by the hot plate. It was a very odd pairing, but I'm a sucker for any form of daikon.
Best place in Singapore to get a steak? Hardly. But it did remind me a lot of Shashlik, another localized Hainanese place that I've been rather fond of. Come to think of it, it's been ages since I'd last been to Shashlik. I think that a visit there is overdue.
1 comment:
My goodness, the last time I ate at Mariner's Corner was 1990. I was there with a bunch of colleagues from the old Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. The food didn't leave much of an impression on me then. The best steak in Singapore in those days can be had at Le Duc, Marco Polo Hotel (which had since been pulled down)
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