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Introduction
Barbacoa, pronounced as 'Ba-ba-kua', gets its name from the Taino people in the Caribbean, and the term means slow cooking of meat over the fire. The restaurant seeks to create a comfortable ambience for customers where they are able to savour delicious food at affordable prices.
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Opening Hours
Mon - Sun
11:30 - 22:00
Above information is for reference only. Please check details with the restaurant.
Signature Dishes
We decided to go Farrer Park MRT station to City Square Mall for our dinner as we never been there before. There are quite a lot of people shopping at the City Square Mall by the time we are there. After some walk plus looking at the directory, we decided to have our dinner at Barbacoa mainly because they do not charge GST and Service Charge.What is great about the restaurant is that all their menu are all set meals which include free soup of the day and also dessert. Talk about value meals. The restaurant are nearly full when we are there and we are lucky to be able to get a table without much waiting.The tables are quite space apart with each other and I notice that all the staff working there are youngsters (even the chef). The staff are friendly but seems to be quite busy serving the customers that they do not really help to refill the water unless you request for it.Though it is free (One time serving), the soup is only acceptable standard as there are much milk and cream rather than the natural corn smell and taste. As it came free with the meal, we cannot complain about it too much.The sausages are nicely cooked and prepared and the presentation is great. Meat of the sausages are juicy and the cheese sausages are nice too.Basically, the concept of the restaurant is allow you to choose your own pasta making of ingredients which include the follow:Step 1:Choose your pasta base => $5.50White Creamy // Base Pesto Olio // Base Red Tomato Step 2:Choose your ingredient => Vegetables @ $1.00 // Meat @ $2.00 // Seafood @ $3.00 Tje pasta was totally tasteless and for the pan fried dory fish, it is very salty!!!. The pasta with white creamy base is totally tasteless while the grilled chicken meat is also very plain as they believe that the chicken never went through marination process.In my own opinion, these 2 dishes failed badly.Considering this dish as a better ones than the pasta (Create yourself type) but not of any better too. The meat is a bit too tough even though the outside looks like it is being cooked nicely as the presentation of the dish is nice and appealing. I loves their side salad and salad sauce though it is not the main food in the dish.You can choose either 2 flavor of their ice-cream when I am there (Maybe depends on availability). I choose corn flavor instead (Other flavor is strawberry). Nothing great or bad about this ice-cream.
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My sisters and I were around Kallang area settling some stuffs and we decided to have dinner at nearby shopping mall. The nearest shopping mall is City Square Mall which is accessible from Farrer Park MRT station. We were deciding what to have for dinner and we came across this new restaurant. They are having all day set meal from S$5.50 onwards and no GST and service charges applicable. The meal comes with free soup and a scoop of ice-cream.Sound attractive?We can create our own paste with the options shown in the menu.I ordered pesto olio pasta base @S$5.50 and add on shitake mushroom @S$1.00 and dory fish @S$3.00. The price is affordable and the portion is decent as well. However, my personally opinion that the dory fish is salty and i did not finish my pasta.My sister ordered White cream base pasta @S$5.50 with add on brocoli & carrot @S$1.00 and grilled chicken @S$2.00. The brocoli taste salty and the carrot is hard. My sister also did not enjoy the pasta as well.We also ordered Grilled Pork Chop @S$10.50 which comes with french fries. The meat texture is a bit hard to cut and chew. However, the presentation looks presentable and attractive.Lastly, we ordered ala-carte Assorted Sausage @S$9.50 which comes with 3 types of sausages and their in-house sauce.The ice-cream was served after our main course. Everyone is served with one scoop of ice-cream for dessert. As for the staff service, the staff was not attentive enough. Firstly, when we placed our food orders and request for warm water, they did not served for quite sometime. We need to request for them to serve us the warm water. We need to call them to refill our warm water as well. But you can’t expect much of the services when you pay for such decent price. Overall, if you are looking for affordable and filling foods, this might be one of your option.
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It been a long time since we went shopping at City Square, we decided to visit this mall. On arrival, we decided to fuel up before hitting the shops.. We wanted to try something new and came across Barbacoa.According to their facebook, the name Barbacoa means slow cooking of meat over the fire by the Taino people in the Carribbean.AmbienceIt is setup simply like a Cafe, on one side of the wall you have enlarge photos of the dishes in the menu. It is decorated with a Wild West and Mexican theme. You can see the chefs cooking in the glass window kitchen.The menu is mostly western food like spaghetti, pork chops and ribs. We ordered different Mains to be shared.Pasta Mushroom Aglio Olio with BaconThe spaghetti was nicely cooked ala denta with olive oil and mushroom. We topped up $2 for bacon. It may look plains but the bacon bits and mushroom gives it a crunchy and soft bite at the same time.Signature Ribs.This is one of their specialty. We were served with tender pork ribs which the meat easily come off the bone. It has a smoky flavour. It is served with thick fries and vegetables. You can opt for different sauces such as Hickory Smoked BBQ, Honey Cranberry, Black Pepper BBQ, Pineapple BBQ etc.Flamed Grilled Pork Chop The pork chop has the criss cross mark of the flamed grilled. Pork was tender and has a Pepper sauce to be eaten with the meat. It also comes with fries and vegetables.Mixed SausagesIt is basically 3 different types of jumbo sausages served with a kind of Mustard sauce. It has Pork and Chicken Sausage which is of decent quality. For Kids who loves Sausages this could be a dish to order. This was an Appertizer dish.All the main dishes comes with free soup of the day which was Cream of Mushroom and Ice Cream. Overall the food is decent and value for money considering you get a Soup and Dessert with the Main Course.
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So we were back to Little India to settle some wedding stuff (see our Royals the cafe review for details on our first trip to City Square). Heading back to City Square, we could not help but ask, "How on earth did we, during our first visit, miss the signboard next to the escalator on the second floor that literally shouts "no GST, no service charge" on complete set meals for lunch at Barbacoa??" Furthermore, the said signboard was literally (again!) a stone's throw away from Royals the cafe! Yeouch!Anyway, we didn't miss it this time round and obeyed the signboard with total, foodie, compliance - thus venturing into the welcoming arms of Barbacoa. True to its namesake, the sight that greeted us was a decor reminiscent of an outback grill place - complete with framed photos and memorabilia of a bygone era, oak tables, chairs, and even the walls, and a large one-piece glass pane that lets you peer into the highlight of the place: the grilling stations with grinning chefs dishing up grinning-licious servings of meat. Since the wife had some food prior to our entry, it was left to the husband to sink tooth and claw into the victim of the day - a 250gm sirloin steak (medium rare).Being a rather sleepy weekend, we were one of two pairs of customers (with the other pair already enjoying their meal by the time we arrived). Therefore, it didn't take long before steak and me the twain did meet (see picture). Ever being the bovine lover, I realised that unlike my usual steak adventures, the visuals came before the scents did this time around - an experience I have had only encountered in Botak Jones (see our BJ' American Diner review) and Lawry's. Nonetheless, the nose eventually picked up (no, it was neither runny nor ran into any obstacles that afternoon) a subtle smoky scent which affirmed (apart from the grill marks) that it was 103 percent flame-grilled. Beautiful! The rich and thick red wine vinaigrette greens dressing complemented the robust aroma of the steak rather well too. And to top it off, a generous serving of comely brown pepper sauce with which to dip your chips in - yay!A careful dissection of the meat found it to be leaning more towards medium than medium rare, but its forgiving taste, well, forgave this fault. Perhaps it was the errand running that lent itself to my merciful mood, since normally, I would have exhibited a frown or two at the least.The end result was a meal that was hearty from start to finish (two glasses of iced water washed it down rather nicely). Although I rarely ever frequent Little India these days, I would probably look forward to another helping of Barbacoa's steak the next time I'm in the vicinity. Maybe the wife'll let me indulge again then (for a price of 15.50 SGD nett you get the sirloin with a rather shallow bowl of soup and a scoop of ice-cream for dessert), tee-hee...
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As the bf works around the area, we happened to pass by Barbacoa at City Square Mall one Friday night. They were having a promotion, which included a free soup and ice cream (cookies and cream, that day) with each order of a main course. My first impression was that the menu and vibe felt a little like Hot Tomato - casual but with an open kitchen, where you can see the chefs bustling about. Great for a casual dinner! The best thing though, is that there's no Service Charge nor GST.The wait staff were all really friendly, and thanks to their recommendation, we got a sausage platter $9, creamy pasta with mushrooms $8.50 and nacho salsa chicken chop (or something) for $9.90. As you can sell, the prices are so reasonable!I love the mustard wafu concoction - it's so special, you've got to try it out to know what I mean!The pasta was garlicky and satisfying.The chicken chop was a little gelat at the end but still yummy!I wouldn't come here specially for this, but I'd definitely consider dropping by when I'm around the area.
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