If chicken is too basic for you, the Pan Seared Salmon ($22++) is a suitably healthy alternative. The salmon is seasoned simply but cooked quite competently, achieving a crispy skin while keeping the flesh reasonably moist. Instead of being served with the pleasant purple sweet potatoes, the salmon comes with brown rice and pesto. As with the chicken, the pesto is invaluable in providing flavour to the unseasoned rice & veg, and adding extra flavour to the salmon, and I couldn’t get enough of its herbaceous deliciousness.⠀
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And of course, the ultimate in clean eating is a salad, and Harry’s Quinoa salad made me feel so healthy I had to down a few cocktails to balance it out. Broccoli, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, egg, feta cheese, green beans, mixed lettuce & seeds, quinoa and my beloved roasted purple sweet potatoes are all combined in a dish. Then, you bind everything together with the acidic but flavoursome balsamic dressing. Definitely a little too healthy for pub grub, but I ain’t complaining.⠀
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Thank you for hosting us, @harryssingapore & @burpple!

One of @harryssingapore new dishes in their push to be more health conscious is the Roasted Chicken Roulade ($23++). I’m not sure what they stuffed into the chicken breast, but it feels like a mix of minced chicken& chopped up mushrooms. It was sufficiently salted, but as you may expect of a roasted chicken breast, it was a tad dry. ⠀
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Fortunately, the chimichurri provided was more than enough to lube up this meat tube, and it added herbs & complexity to the otherwise monotonous roulade. I also appreciate the battens of purple sweet potato on the side, as they were sweeter & more delectable than the standard sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, Harry’s forgot to season their steamed veggies, and you have to spend some of that precious chimichurri on the veg. I wish Harry’s would’ve seasoned the veg very simply with some melted butter, salt & black pepper. Yes, butter is healthier than seed oils, all other answers are wrong.

Thank you for hosting us, @harryssingapore & @burpple!

For longtime fans of @harryssingapore , you’ll probably be glad to hear that Harry’s has tinkered with their menu, introducing a few incredibly healthy dishes and fine tuning a couple of menu mainstays. The healthy new dishes certainly raise a few eyebrows as they seem hopelessly out of place in a pub, but they certainly cater to the folks who want some guilt free pub grub and a cheeky pint of low carb beer.⠀
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Two of these healthy new starters are the Baba Ghanoush ($12++), which won’t win any photogenic contests but will certainly win your doctor’s approval. The eggplant dip comes with nacho chips and a whole lotta veggies, ensuring that you get about a whole week’s worth of fibre in one sitting. The Amigos’ Nachos ($12++) may not sound like the healthiest dish, but it’s surprisingly light for a pub snack. The nacho chips are covered in a bit of melted cheese, and complemented by jalapeños & black olives. Kinda basic, but it gets the job done.⠀
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Of course Harry’s has a few more decadent appetisers. Their famous chicken satay (six sticks, $13++) was seasoned & spiced sensationally with aromas of lemongrass & turmeric rising to tantalise your nose. The meat was tremendously tender, and it is definitely the most tender chicken satay I’ve ever had, slithering off the stick with minimal effort. Dip it into the sweet & savoury chunky peanut sauce for maximum satisfaction, and you might just order a second helping for you and you alone.⠀
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The Laksa Popcorn Chicken ($11++) is a unique twist on the ubiquitous pub snack of popcorn chicken. These little chicken chunks are drizzled with some house made laksa mayo, which was creamy & packed all the familiar flavours of laksa. However, I do think Harry’s could go harder on the chili & make it a touch spicier, as the mayo’s richness dulls the heat a bit.⠀
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Thanks for the invite, @burpple & @harryssingapore!

@sukiya.singapore is now my go to beef bowl place not just because their gyudon is cheap and comes in gigantic portions, I also dine there because of their limited time specials. Take for example this Yangnyeom Cheese Beef Yakiniku Bowl, which clocks in at $13.80 nett for the XL bowl. The XL boasts double meat and twenty five percent more rice, making this a beefy bowl for the turbobulkers.
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The normal gyudon is upgraded by grilling the thinly sliced beef in a teriyaki glaze, resulting in even more flavour from that majestic Maillard reaction browning the beef and caramelising the sugars in the teriyaki. The beef is already fantastically flavourful, but the yangnyeom sauce adds a truckload more flavour. The deep umami from the gochujang is mixed with garlic & sugar, adding extra savouriness & sweetness to the already delicious beef. Truth be told, the flavours can get a little too intense sometimes, but all you gotta do is take a swig of the complimentary tea to reset your palate.⠀
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I do wish that the cheese on top of the beef & yangnyeom sauce was at least partially melted, but if you move fast enough, you can get it to melt slightly if you swiftly mix the cheese in with the hot rice. Still, this XL beef bowl gave me XL satisfaction.

Besides supersized servings of Western cuisine, @original_botak_jones is perhaps best known for its preposterously sized U-Crazy-What Beef Burger ($30.50 nett). It’s pretty crazy indeed, as three ultra thick beef patties are each blanketed by melted cheese, and couldn’t be contained by the the bed of lettuce & tomatoes and two halves of the slightly larger than usual burger bun.⠀
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It was so tall it was teetering on the brink of collapse, and the two skewers were holding the burger together like Spiderman held the train in Spiderman 2. Normally I’d say that burgers should be wider not taller, but Botak Jones did both with the U-Crazy-What. The ultra thick patties are cooked through, and they are more loosely packed than all other burgers. This results in a mercifully tender burger patty that’s extra easy to chew, but even then there was simply no humanly possible way to get the entire height of the burger in one bite.⠀
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The burger is sufficiently seasoned, and the savoury meat is all held together by the salty, stretchy glue that is the melted cheese. Truth be told, the U-Crazy-What Burger is completely unremarkable aside from its mammoth proportions. While sufficiently satisfying, it wouldn’t give me any intractable cravings that would make me say “Mmm yes I do say old chap, I MUST have a Botak Jones U-Crazy-What Burger this very instant.” Perhaps it could be jazzed up by the inclusion of some BBQ sauce, or Botak Jones could lean into their Southern influence and hit the beef with some Cajun spices to make the burgers more unique.⠀
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With all that being said, this is still a tasty burger, and you definitely have to experience the meaty madness at least once. And even if you’ve got a small appetite, Botak Jones has their petite Lite Eater Chicken promo going on this National Day weekend at all of their outlets. A juicy chicken chop and two sides will only set you back $5.90 this National Day! Now that’s a damn good reason to stand up for Singapore.⠀
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Thank you for hosting us, @original_botak_jones!

@original_botak_jones has been around for the longest time, and they started out as a humble Western food stall serving up hefty portions of food for reasonable prices.

Fortunately, Botak Jones managed to redeem themselves with the Grilled Salmon. It is a little more expensive at twenty one dollars, but you get a sizeable slab of salmon that’s competently cooked. The salmon was still moist inside while boasting decently crispy skin. The accompanying garlic cream sauce was rich & sapid, adding a touch of luxuriousness to the salmon. Each main comes with two sizeable servings of sides, and the refreshing coleslaw & the baked beans were decent. Actually, the baked beans were more than decent, they seemed to have a little extra flair to them. I couldn’t quite make it out, but it sure seemed like a little smoke to me, perhaps from including some barbecue sauce into the beans.⠀
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Thank you so much for the invite, @original_botak_jones!

@original_botak_jones has been around for the longest time, and they started out as a humble Western food stall serving up hefty portions of food for reasonable prices. They’ve expanded a little since they came out of their hiatus, and now they have a few extra menu items, like this Stuffed Jalapeños ($10.50 nett). The jalapeños are de-seeded, stuffed with mozzarella, breaded with panko & deep fried. It’s sour, spicy and definitely a firecracker of a starter, but they could stuff a little more cheese in there to balance out the heat a bit.⠀
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The Shiitake Mushroom soup ($5.50 nett) looked plenty promising with the abundance of mushrooms inside, but it was an unfortunate disappointment. I get that it’s occasionally called Cream of Mushroom soup, but this was quite literally just cream with mushrooms floating inside. Every sip just felt like pure cream, and I would have certainly appreciated more complexity to the soup’s texture & taste. Oddly enough, my dad’s main gripe with the soup was that it contained too much onion.⠀

Thank you so much for the invite, @original_botak_jones!⠀

Sichuan style grilled fish is good, but I like old school steamed fish better. There are quite a few steamed fish hawkers around Singapore, and the newest entrant to the market has set up shop in the oddest of places: in the factory district of Ubi. Get ready to go back to @steamagestory, which steams up three types of fish, and they also offer clams, prawns & squid in four different styles, all steamed of course.⠀
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This sizeable slab of steamed tilapia will set you back eight bucks, which is fairly reasonable for the freshness of the fish & its size. There are some bones in this flawlessly fresh fish fillet, so caution is advised. I chose the reliable & simple Cantonese Style fish, which sees the fish steamed in some Hua Diao wine & sesame oil, lots of soya sauce, spring onions and lots of ginger. It’s simple, but super satisfying as the saltiness from the soya sauce fully flavours the firm, fresh fish fillet, the ginger ameliorated any trace residue of undesirable fishiness, and the aromatics from the cooking wine & sesame oil gives your nose a tantalising treat.⠀
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If you don’t fancy fish, Steam Age also has a couple of pork rib offerings, and five Cantonese double boiled soups which I’m hankering to sample. Still, the one big thing that annoys me is how I have to pay an extra $3.50 for veggies and an additional fifty cents for rice. I know vegetables and rice aren’t cheap these days (thanks a lot for nothing, 9% GST), but surely Steam Age could do a meal deal at ten bucks flat, especially considering the fact that it is located in the factory district.

I thought jelly donuts were an American thing, but apparently it’s also a German thing at @berlin65_ig. The Berliner ($8++) is a fairly hefty donut that’s stuffed with your filling of choice. Choose from apricot jam, strawberry jam or a vanilla banana custard that oozes out of the hol-I prefer not to speak. If I speak I will be in big trouble. And I don’t want to be in big trouble.⠀
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Anyway, the Berliner may look laughably simple, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. The insides are doughy yet airy, with a charming chewiness & fabulous fluffiness, but the exterior is the most peculiar of all. It’s a layer of crispiness that shatters to give way to the fluffiness of the donut, and it’s almost like Berlin65 took a donut and tanghulu’d it. It’s incredibly satisfying texturally, and combined with the sweet & sour apricot jam that’s been pumped in, this is a deliciously fructose filled dessert that will absolutely sate any sweet tooth.⠀
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If Berlin65 started selling these Berliners in boxes of half dozens to the plentitude of surrounding offices, they’d be rolling in the dough. Thank you for inviting us, @berlin65_ig & @scalecollab.sg!

If you like your meat long & strong, then @berlin65_ig has something for you. The Mixed Beef & Lamb Adana kebabs ($26++) continue the Turkish trend here, with one stick of beef kebab & one stick of lamb kebab, and are very simply complemented by basmati rice & a couple of sauces. Both of them were seasoned & spiced sufficiently with a distinctly Turkish spice blend that includes cumin, thyme & za’atar, and both kebabs were tender & easy to chew.⠀
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Surprisingly enough, both of us preferred the lamb to the beef. The lamb was juicier and just ever so slightly more tender, and thanks to the spice mixture, the natural gaminess of the lamb is well suppressed. The beef kebab isn’t too shabby either, but the lamb kebab certainly has it beat.⠀
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And now finally we have something German but not quite German: Currywurst ($22++). This long pork sausage is drizzled in curry and served with fries. German curry & our Singaporean curry are completely different species, as the curry in the Currywurst a lot more like subtly spicy tomato relish. It’s definitely something different, but I definitely could appreciate it, especially when it’s appreciated between swigs of pilsner off of @berlin65_ig beer tap.⠀
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Thank you for having us, @berlin65_ig & @scalecollab.sg!

(SPONSORED INVITE) With a name like Berlin65, I was fully expecting @berlin65_ig to showcase German cuisine front and center. Instead, the menu is decidedly much more Turkish in nature, and one of the waitstaff explained to us that @berlin65_ig was recreating the German street food in Berlin. As it turns out, the street food scene in Berlin is mostly Turkish due to the large number of Turkish immigrants living in Berlin.⠀
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Speaking of flatbread, The 1972 Berlin Original is a titan of a sandwich with what looks like an entire chicken that’s spit roasted shoved in between two halves of flatbread. Some bits of chicken were marvellously moist & juicy, while some bits were hard like a shard. There seems to be a bit of uneven cooking going on with the chicken, but nothing deal breaking thanks to the savoury garlic yogurt spread that keeps everything lubricated. This is also an incredibly messy sandwich that requires both hands due to how stuffed it is, and taking a bite results in all the chicken getting blown out the back. It would be awesome if they put The 1972 into a pita pocket instead, so that the prodigious fillings wouldn’t go everywhere with every bite.
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At the end of the day, when it comes to getting that bread, Berlin65 is an expert at it. Thank you for the invite, @berlin65_ig & @scalecollab.sg!

(SPONSORED INVITE) With a name like Berlin65, I was fully expecting @berlin65_ig to showcase German cuisine front and center. Instead, the menu is decidedly much more Turkish in nature, and one of the waitstaff explained to us that @berlin65_ig was recreating the German street food in Berlin. As it turns out, the street food scene in Berlin is mostly Turkish due to the large number of Turkish immigrants living in Berlin.⠀
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As with any middle eastern culture, the meal starts with hummus ($14++). Berlin65’s hummus is smooth, savoury and simple, and the addition of blistered tomatoes gave the hummus sour bursts to break up the monotony. The tahini added lashings of extra savouriness which wasn’t strictly needed, but still welcome nonetheless. Of course you gotta order some Turkish Flatbread ($4.50++), how else are you gonna have hummus?⠀
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At the end of the day, when it comes to getting that bread, Berlin65 is an expert at it. Thank you for the invite, @berlin65_ig & @scalecollab.sg!