Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill (Closed)

For more reviews, visit www.umakemehungry.comHaving tried Hippopotamus during my trip to Paris years back, I decided to revisit the Hippo themed restaurant in Singapore. They are owned by a France based company and has strong reputation in Paris region, known for their wide range of Beef Steak Cuts.The ambience is contemporary and relaxing, added with a friendly services from their staff, suitable for gatherings and even a favourite meeting place for meals.Complimentary starters like bread and packaged butter were served while we waited for the mains to be ready.We started with the French Onion Soup served in the typical white lionhead bowl loaded with yellow onions and smothered with melted cheese and soaked bread. Simply love the taste of the soup though it is not the best I had ever tried. I decided to be adventurous for the night and ordered something different to experience the fine gourmet, Hippo Blue Cheese Burger. The burger were topped with crumbled blue cheese with glazed onions underneath. It was also complemented with Roquefort sauce. Two chosen sides added to the main were baked potatoes with bacon bits and sauteed mushrooms. Under the classic cuts, we have chosen the Rump Steak from New Zealand, an extremely flavourful cut which has a leaner yet firmer texture. We were very pleased with the medium well doness paired with brown mushroom sauce, added with sides like potato gratin and steamed vegetables. Topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream over the moist sliced of French toast with Nutella. A perfect pleasing dessert for sweet tooth. Creme Brule is their signature creation with a thin layer of caramelised brown sugar and underneaths lies a smooth creamy texture with a good consistency of butter rich flavour and hints of vanilla.Overall experience was above average with attentive service and constant refills of our plain water. However a little wait is required for the dishes to be served up to the table. continue reading

Hippo used to be one of dining places we frequent, for the service, price, portion and not forgetting the free flow chips & bread! However, our recent visit left us rather disappointed. Not only were the chips & bread gone, service and food quality were equally going downhill too Beef Carpaccio ($6.90++)Pretty average beef carpaccio that was a tad too oily and rather tasteless. Even though the price seemed reasonable for the portion, it’s not really recommended.Tenderloin ($28.90++)The tenderloin was succulent and flavourful. However, the portion seemed to have shrunk in size and quality slightly dipped. The vegetable stew that we ordered was alright though I would have preferred it to be chunkier.Please bring back the good ol’ Hippo! continue reading

Hippopotamus has been around in the basement of Marina Square for as long as I can remember - way before the overhaul of Suntect City or the development of the Dining Edition. This restaurant of Parisian roots developed their range of meats and prides themselves on offering one of the most affordable steaks in Singapore. I supposed that they recently revamped their menu due to the stiff competition they face in the region with so many exciting dining options around. Let's take a look at some of the dishes!The first appetizer, poached egg with red wine, was rather peculiar-looking and would entice the adventurous foodies. Upon the first impact, the poached egg melted into a yolk pool together with the red wine sauce. The strange thing is, I could hardly taste the tartness or fragrance of the red wine even though I could visibly see it. For me, the poached egg was too raw - perhaps another thirty seconds in the boiling water would be great. On top of that, there was no distinct red wine taste as promised. The bacon strips were a little incompatible with the dish too. Perhaps a sprinkle of black pepper would make it better.The second appetizer was the tomato tartare with guacamole. My first impression was a positive one because the tiger prawns are so photogenic! The ensemble was a very juicy and refreshing one, with diced tomatoes, coriander, onions and lime. There was a dash of olive oil and to pair it with the guacamole avocado paste was quite lovely. It was a cool combination of flavours... in a good way.The third appetizer, the french onion soup did not appeal to me that much in appearance and taste. It was rather nondescript with a soggy bread bowl.My choice of the mains at Hippopotamus is the Hippo Cheese Burger, which was accompanied with fries and a side: potato gratin, as well as sauce: BBQ sauce. Other sides that you may select other than potato gratin includes the sauteed mushrooms, baked potato, steamed vegetables and fries. You can also choose other sauces such as bearnaise, shallots, pepper, mushroom and even sambal. The gratin retained potato as its star ingredient and had a thin coat of cheese and butter to flavour it. I liked it this way. The fries were crunchy and lightly salted. The cheeseburger itself was relatively a disappointment - while the ciabatta buns were a premium choice for bread in burgers, the beef was quite tough to bite and did not live up to my expectations. It was too messy to eat as a whole unless your mouth is big enough and there was hardly any cheese to hold the burger together.The beef skewer (200g) is a medley of the different cuts: sirloin, rump and hanger steak. Requested to be medium rare but it feels more well-done to the bite.The desserts performed better: the french toast nutella would have been pleasantly sinful if you are hungry enough. It was topped with a scoop of ice-cream which does not taste as premium as Haagen-Daaz standards but I love sweet treats so that didn't bother me too much.Their strawberry cheesecake was satisfyingly yummy. With a delightful swirl of sweetness from the strawberry fruity toppings, the slight tinge of tartness from a suspected yogurt dose, it was less predictable than I thought it would be. The biscuit base of the cheesecake could have been given more attention rather than a customary appearance though.I would say that I am not a fan of beef, and Hippopotamus did little to change that impression. While their desserts are passable, most of the dishes require more attention in terms of presentation as well. While it seems like I'm quite critical of their food, there is a need to take into consideration the mettle of their strong competitors in the Dining Edition just upstairs as well.For the menu: http://www.amiehu.com/2014/06/hippopotamus-marina-square.html#more continue reading

From the decor to the menu and even the wet tissue packaging are all Hippos! So cute!Squid Sticks - $8.90Ooh.. I liked this! It dun tasted like the normal calamari, instead the texture tasted like chicken meat! How amazing. The chewiness sure got our jaws warmed up to prepare for the rest of the dishes. The next plus point ~ it came with nacho dipping! ^_^ French Onion Soup - $8.90I heard from a friend that french onion soup is good and it was a pity that I didn't try it when I was in Paris. So I was quite "determined" to try it someday and it was a pleasant surprise to find the dish in the menu here.I need to stress that I dun fancy onions at all, and yet I find this dish delightful. The "floating" pastry will absorb all the goodness of the soup like a sponge. What's more, there was melted cheese on top which was definitely a plus point. The soup was light and sweet, a good way to warm your stomach before the main dish. Must try for both onion and non onion eater!Grilled Chicken with RatatouilleThe chicken was surprisingly tender, even though it was breast meat. Side dishes wise, ratatouille was something uncommon, basically made up of different vegetables and tasted a tad sour. To read more and view photo, please visit http://fun-hideout.blogspot.sg/2011/05/hippopotamus-resturant.html continue reading

for photos and more reviews, visit http://thelittlemomentsofmylife.blogspot.com (:why the name hippopotamus i wondered? well, maybe it was in reference to the size of their main courses! when my family went there, we only ordered ONE main course for all of us to share. and that gave us the opportunity to try all the other interesting items on the menu as well (kay this is pretty odd but i'll start with the main course first! haha. look at those gorgeous slabs of meat! this was the heart of sirloin ($79.90), a hearty 750g of meat! it is meant to be shared among 2-3 diners, but honestly, that would be just wayyyy to much! we had it cut into five portions instead, which was just nice for us. a fabulously smooth piece of meat, we chose medium so it was slightly pinkish inside without being too raw. i think i got the section with all the fats though! so it was a great exercise for my jaw, doing all the chewing. hahaha.it came with 6 types of sauces on the side, barbeque, bearnaise (some sort of buttery creamy sauce, sinful but yummy!), stewed shallots (like caramelised onions, sooo tasty!), peppercorn, roquefort cheese (i was really curious about this cos it looked delicious, but guess what? it's BLUE CHEESE) and sea salt (awesome for dipping!).and 6 side dishes! seriously, this alone was enough to fill 5 tummies. haha. the sides were fries, potato gratin (i really liked this cheesy, potato-y dish!), green beans, baked potato, ratatouille and basmati rice (lightly fragrant, a surprisingly tasty dish on its own).and now let me rewind all the way to the front again. every meal kicks of with a yummy bowl of chips. or rather, bowlS of chips. i dunno whether there was extra charge for chips, but they just kept refilling our bowl until the appetizers came. and you know how i can't resist these crunchy savoury goodies when they're in front of me, so i kinda stuffed myself quite a bit with these before realising i should actually save my stomach for the proper food. they were really salty though! perhaps it would have felt better if they cut down on the salt. otherwise, the mixture of flavours in the seasoning was yummy. (:we were also served a basket of bread rolls. they looked pretty interesting! it's not so clear in the picture, but they looked kinda greyish in real life. i was a bit suspicious of it haha. but they tasted wonderfully soft when they were nice and toasted. when they got cold, they weren't nice at all though.i have to say that i had a really hard time ordering food when i was at this restaurant because there were just so many yummy things on the menu, and many were recommended by a food blog i had visited. for appetizers, i knew the the french onion soup ($8.90) was a must-try, and it really lived up to expectations! warm slurpy food for the soul, with the aroma of onions wafting out of it, a beautiful layer of melted cheese on top, and bread in the bowl. two thumbs up! xDthe shrimps potato twists ($12.90 for 6pcs) didn't seem very spectacular though. they looked interesting enough, pretty cute don't you think? but basically they're just prawns wrapped in strings of crispy potato. i suppose the effort put into making this dish (if it's handmade?) is the thing that counts.the squid sticks ($8.90) sounded really interesting! and they totally reminded me of cheese sticks (if only they had the oozy cheesy taste to it). squid covered in a fine layer of crispy crumbly breadcrumbs, nice and chewy and served with sweet chili. goodie!okay yes i realised this post is getting awfully long. now on to desserts! this was again a very difficult choice to make! too many yummy looking things xD the two desserts i tried were WONDERFUL. really. truly. the warm chocolate cake ($10.90) looked tiny. it was, considering how yummy it was, we couldnt have enough of it! we just attacked it and in 2 minutes it was gone. haha! warm, slightly crusty on the outside. poke your fork into the soft spongy interior of the cake. dig in slightly deeper, and out oozes the warm chocolate lava. omgosh!!! this is totally chocolate heaven xD the warm chocolate paired with cold vanilla ice cream was the perfect combination for an immensely satisfying dessert!my other dessert was the chocolate hazelnut cake ($8.90) which i loved for the mixture of two of my favourite flavours and the LOVELY CRACKLY BASE of the cake! the top of the cake was sprinkled with a hazelnuts, followed by a few alternating layers of spongy cake and delightful hazelnut cream (? paste? sauce? i dunno what do you call that! haha), atop a firm cookie-like base. omgosh. heavenly!! last thing before i'm done! i have to recommend their sangria hippo ($9.90)! i think it's a really interesting drink with all the fruits and everything inside it! looks so pretty doesn't it? i think the fruits really made a lot of difference in adding a unique flavour to this drink (:yupps, a wonderful meal at this restaurant! and i have to say that the service staff are really attentive and friendly as well, so A++! continue reading