Beer Butt Chicken! What an eye catching name for a roast chicken. If you never heard of this before, it is a roast chicken stuffed with a can of beer together with other seasoning. The idea behind this is to infused the chicken with beer flavour and maintain the juiciness of the meat. If it is done properly, you can expect to taste a super crispy paper thin chicken skin.One of the locations in Singapore where you can find this dish is Southwest Tavern ('ST'). This cowboy theme restaurant is located in business hub on the west side of Singapore. It is an open air setting and they use portable aircon and fans to cool down the place. The furniture is very rustic giving you an authentic American tavern feeling. They even have a pool table for you to pass your time there.Other than the Beer Butt Chicken, ST also served many authentic American tavern dishes such as never frozen steak, humongous burgers, baby back ribs and suicide wings (also known as buffalo wings). Not forgetting, they have extensive list of beers.We kick off the dinner with Chilli Cheese Fries ($12). One of my favourite fries dish. The fries has a crispy outer texture while soft and moist in the inside. The cheese are very subtle, more like mozzarella and well paired with the chilli. A very good finger food, but it can be quite filling for a starter.For steak, we ordered Australian Marbled Sirloin 300 grams ($30). This steak is supposed to be comparable to Wagyu grade of steak. Cooked to medium rare, the steak is very flavourful, juicy and succulent. It has a nice balance between the marbling and the meat. For the price, it is value for money. For the sides, they serve potato wedges, salad with vinaigrette dressing and brown sauce.Now for the Beer Butt Chicken ($32). Be prepare to wait for 45 minutes(that is where the pool table come in handy), as the chef only prepare it upon order and smoked it. To serve this dish perfectly, ST custom made the serving plank. It has two mini pole to hold the chicken in the upright position, sitting on a solid tin filled with beer.The skin of the chicken is paper thin and crispy. The meat is tender, succulent and well seasoned. It can be a challenge to carve the chicken yourself, but it's worth the effort. Although the flavour of the beer is very subtle in the chicken, you can use the balance of the beer in the tin and treat it as Au jus for the chicken. To accompany this dish is butter rice with raisin and grilled capsicum. The portion will be just nice for 2 person. Yum Yum!!

Overall, ST served a very good tavern food or gastropub food if you want a more trendy name. It is simple, unpretentious and just delicious. Thank you very much to Southwest Tavern for the tasting invitation. There is one more reason for us to take a trip to the west of Singapore. Cheers!!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala dining experience, click here:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/06/Southwest-Tavern.html

Brotzeit Katong is the 5th outlet of Brotzeit in Singapore. Brotzeit is a leading German franchised concept casual dining restaurant offering Bavarian Cuisines and popular German Beer originated from Singapore (Yup, Singapore!!!). Currently, they can be found in Singapore (6 Outlets), Malaysia (2), China (3), Hong Kong (1), Phillipines (1), Vietnam (1), and Thailand (1); and on the way to grow their presence in China, Indonesia and Australia.This outlet in Katong has been in our mind for the past few times. Every time we passed by East Coast Road or Joo Chiat Road, always remind ourself that we need to try this place. So finally, we made it. Located in the junction of Joo Chiat Road and East Coast Road, this place sure attracts a lot of human traffic. The only draw back is that there is no parking available on the premises, so you need to park at the surroundings, that can be a challenge during the weekend.There are two main seating area, the bar or the high chairs section with live sports shown on TV or a more proper dining area. The atmosphere is very relax and casual. The design are modern, while incorporating the wood elements into it.For this dinner, we decided to drag S (Little Devil's BFF) along as she need to get away from home. Anyway, the more the merrier. Since we order to share, we ask them serve the food together. From the appetizer section we have: Schupfnudeln / Warm Spinach Salad with Bavarian Potato Dumpling ($14.50). A good salad to start. It is lightly seasoned and has a clean taste to it. It incorporated some stronger flavour such as sun dried tomatoes, parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar. The potato dumpling is unique, which not to my preference.Two signatures of Bavarian dishes: Schweinshaxn / Oven Roasted Pork Knuckle ($36.00) and Pork Sausage, with a twist of curry sauce / Currywurst ($17.50). The Pork Knuckle is excellent, served with potato salad, sauerkraut, gherkin and homemade sauce on the side. The crackling is light and crispy, and the meat is tender and juicy. Sauerkraut and gherkin works provide the acidity that balance the fattiness in the knuckle, while the fried onion on top of the potato salad is simply delicious. The gravy is tasty and thick. Yummy !!For the Currywurst, I need to rename it Curryworst. The worst dish of the day. The pork sausage is good, but spoiled by the curry. Although it is suppose to be the number one German Fast food, we find the curry powder and mustard on the dish simply does not work. This is comparable to the disastrous Singapore Fried Bee Hoon that you can find any Asian food court in Australia.Schweinemedaillons / Pork Medallions ($29.50) is a dish that you must try. As the medallion does not have much fats, they wrapped the sides with bacon to ensure the tenderness remain. Perfectly executed and served with shoe string fries and sautéed mixed vegetables. How I wish they are more medallions.Service is good when you can get their attention, but it can be frustrating trying to get their attention. You can see that they are short staffed, and having problems attending to the customers.

Overall, Brotzeit got our vote. The food are good, with the exception of the Curryworst (@ Currywurst). Unfortunately we are a group of non-alcoholic drinkers, so we can't comment on the beer. We'll sure be back for more. Prost!!! Cheers!!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala dining experience, click / copy the link below:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/06/brotzeit-katong.html

So far we have visited two locations of Peperoni Pizzeria: Greenwood and Frankel. So this time around Little Devil and I are on baby sitting duties, and we brought our niece and nephew to Suntec City. Our little naughty niece decided she wanted chips for lunch, so we decided to go for Peperoni.Located in eating area around the Fountain of Wealth, this branch will see a lot of human traffic. Like other establishment three main colour of Italian flag were used to light up this place. The pizza oven are located in the front of the shop with open kitchen concept. This will definitely pique the interest of passer by to dine in Peperoni.Based on our previous two visits at other Peperoni outlets, we know the standard of food to expect. Since I was not very hungry, LD & I decided to share an entrée and one pizza. The little one got her chips, with condition she need to finish the fish as well.

Entree was Calamari Fritti ($14), fried calamari served with lemon, mayo and arrabiata sauce. The calamari is lightly coated with seasoned flour, has an moist and tender texture. Slightly resilient but not rubbery. The lemon add a bit of twang, and combine well with either mayo or arrabiata sauce.We ordered half/half Diavola (pepperoni) and Margherita (buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil & oregano) - $24 for large. The toppings on top of the thin crisp pizza are simple generous. Half meat and half cheese are just perfecto.The little one had Fish & Chips kids meal ($14), however the portion given is just too generous. Served with salad, the size of this meal can filled a stomach of one adult. She managed to wallop all the chips and half of the fish. LD polish off the rest of the fish. The kids meal come with drinks as well.Although the food is good, it was not all a pleasing dining experience. LD and the kids were greeted by the grumpy receptionist. When I arrived, and try to keep my nephew stroller, she was rude and giving orders in the commanding tone. Although no service tax was charge, I am sure this is not the proper way of service. A few of the customers with kids that came after us also face the same problem. To be fair, the rest of the service staff were very professional except for the grumpy reception staff.

Overall, we found that Les Amis group really did a great job in maintaining the food standard across its establishment. The pizza was good and the food here are value for money. Service really need improvement, as this is not the first outlet of Peperoni that I found inconsistent service standard. Cheers!!

For the complete chubby botak koala experience, click / copy the link below to your browser:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/06/peperoni-pizzeria-suntec-city.html

Department of Caffeine ('DOC') is one of the most recent happening café in Duxton. So when my caffeine buddy (Monkey Boy - 'MB') was in Singapore for a stop over, I decided to brought him here for a quick shot of cuppa.Our first impression when we enter the cafe was that “Wow! This place is packed”. Where did all this people come from and it was 3pm on a working day. Luckily we manage to get a table, a two seater. However, getting in and out of that table was actually quite a challenge as you don't have enough walking space.After several minutes of consideration, MB decided to order Buttermilk Waffles with Banana and ice cream ($13.50) & cappuccino ($5). I ordered the Sticky Date Pudding ($9) and Latte ($5).It took them about 10 mins before the food arrived. While we were catching up I realised the temperature of this place is quite high. Even though there are several air-conditioners , it is just not enough to cool down the place. We were basically melting inside.First to arrive was my Sticky Date Pudding and latte. The pudding is soft, moist and sticky. The ice cream combines well with the caramel sauce. While the almonds gave a crunchy texture to the desserts. The latte has a nice rosetta latte art. It looks very smooth, however the coffee is average. When you reach the middle part of the latte, it seems to be more air in the froth.MB's waffle came and looks delicious. The serving is quite generous, especially on the caramelised banana. Good presentation. The waffle is rich and crunchy. The bananas toppings will be better with another 30 seconds on the heat. Cappuccino has a nice latte art, but we both agree the coffee is average.The décor of this place is simple and with an open concept. You can see the back of the cafe once you enter the door. It has a cone shape, where the space at front is quite small and become wider and wider to the end. The setting of the tables and chairs are close to each other. They really maximise the available space. The size of the table is very small only enough for dessert and coffee. I can't even put my phone on the table. Service is limited and forgettable.Overall DOC served good quality dessert. However, it seems the coffee is not to our preference. A small suggestion, the best time to visit this place is before noon or after 5pm unless something is done to lower down the temperature of restaurant. Cheers!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala dining experience, click / copy the link below to your browser:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/06/Department-of-Caffeine.html

Deciding where to go for excellent Japanese food in Singapore used to be a daunting task. You can step into the Japanese Restaurants in 5 star hotels or higher, you can expect to pay exorbitant price. You go to normal shopping centre, you end up with some sushi franchise with a very standard quality. Fortunately in the past few years, there has been some Japanese restaurant popping up in Singapore providing excellent quality food with reasonable price.

Please note that Chubby Botak Koala referring to “reasonable price” not cheap price.

Located in Triple One Somerset, Fukuichi is slightly out of the way from the major traffic on Orchard Road. Little Devil, I and a guest visited Fukuichi on a Sunday and the Triple One Somerset is not very crowded. There were ample parking space in the building. From our seating, we actually have a glimpse of the Sushi Bar, which was well occupied that day.We started our meal with Yasai Stick (($8) and Tatami Iwashi ($9). The Yasai Stick is combination of raw vegetables with miso paste. The vegetables were chilled, so it remain fresh and crunchy. The miso paste is average, not the better ones. Meanwhile the Tatami Iwashi (Baby Japanese Anchovy) is light and crispy. Good appetizer.The Sashimi Moriawase (Jyo - $78) next to appear. It is the premium assorted cuts consist of swordfish, salmon belly, tuna, scallops, yellow tail and sweet prawns. The cuts are smooth, fresh and good in size.Next we have the Sushi Moriawase ($35) and Shake Aburi Maki ($22), which consist of salmon, scallop, sweet prawn, fish roe, unagi, tuna, swordfish, tamago and mini roll of tuna. The spread of the sushi selection is very good. The rice taste just nice, not lumpy and well balance vinegar taste. Shake Aburi Maki is a seared salmon roll. It seems that seared sushi are in trend at the moment, and the seared salmon just melts in your mouth. Foodgasm? Almost, but not there yet.For the cook food section, we proceed ordered Tako Karaage ($12), Niku Fagura Sauce ($35), Hiyashi Gyomen ($12) & Kaisen Zousui ($16). Tako Karaage or deep fried octopus was juicy, tender with a slight springy texture. It is not chewy and goes well lemon and mayonaise. Niku Fagura Sauce is grilled beef cube with foie gras sauce. The beef cube is tender, grilled to medium rare. It is juicy and tender, but the creamy foie gras sauce is just amazing. Yum Yum, definite foodgasm!!Hiyashi Gyomen is a cold fish noodle. A creative alternative to normal soba. I saw this in an Iron Chef show, so I could not resist to try it out. It is very springy and a bit chewy. The dipping sauce has some ginger in it to offset the fishy smell in the noodle. Very unique, but not to my liking. Kaisen Zousui is just the complete comfort food. It is a rice with seafood broth. The rice are well covered with different cuts of seafood. The clear broth is very robust. A very good way to end the meal.Unfortunately, it was not the end of the meal for us, we decided to satisfy a little bit more of our cravings. So come the Uni sushi ($20/pair), unagi (eel - $10/pair), anago (sea eel - $12/pair) and toro aburi sushi (seared tuna belly - $24/pair). Well LD has the perfect ending, with her uni. The sea eel taste lighter then the normal eel, which was good here. And the seared tuna belly just melts in your mouth. At this point of time, we were basically stuffed and happy to be rolled out from the restaurant.Service here is very friendly and attentive. The service staff even told us to stop ordering, as she was worried that we might ordered to much.

Compliment to Chef John Phua for the excellent food and his friendliness. He even took time to post for the photo below. Thanks Chef!!Overall, we totally have a memorable dining experience dining in Fukuichi. The food is excellent in terms of freshness, quality and taste. Price is very reasonable. You get what you paid for. Our final bill was $348.40 inclusive GST and service tax. We look forward to our next visit. Kassai!!! Cheers!!

For the complete Chubby Botak Koala experience, click / copy the link below to your browser:
http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2014/05/fukuichi-japanese-dining.html