we arranged a 8pax birthday dinner for WT at halia on 10.10.2018. ^^

i bought S$700 chope offpeak vouchers at 50% discounts for this dinner at 8.30pm. 🙂

dinner was attended by 4 bros and the spouses. wife had some urgent matter to attend to but rejoined the dinner afterwards.

i ordered 4 appetizers to share.

the prawn salad was just average, ok enough i guess.

the pan seared barramundi was very good especially with the bearnaise sauce. 🙂

we considered ordering one more when wife rejoined the dinner (she missed most of the appetizers) but decided to order a main, halibut en papillote instead. 🙂

the sauteed mushroom very good too.

the halia’s chilli crab spaghetini was in my view not quite edible, really poor.

no hint of chilli crab flavours, and the pasta was not even al dente..that is a mortal sin!

overall we were quite happy with the appetizers and the communal dining. 🙂

HC ordered coffee and we had 2 or 3 pandan coco to share. afterwards when i had time to look at the menu, maybe we should have tried the smoothies also. 🙂

the vietnamese lady server Ha recommended pan seared foie gras to go with the steak mains. we ordered 4 foie gras to share..i do not take foie gras as ammater of choice. 🙂

the server recommended we took the 900g striploin…only porterhouse was on the menu, but she said there was a last piece of striploin.

actually porterhouse is one side strip loin one side tenderloin, so in theory porterhouse would be better? anyhow i prefer strip to tenderloin and perhaps a boned in strip loin would have a smaller bone c/w porterhouse? haha! who cares?

i think the striploin was plenty good, very flavourful, nicely charred, unlike many places. this came with good sides of mash etc.

we ordered the halibut en papillote. it was excellent!

it came with sides too.

i think between the halibut and the very good barramundi, the halibut was still better.

the server also recommended we ordered the ribeye rather than the wagyu rump, and so we did! 🙂

and it was very good too. ribeye is a better uct of meat c/w striploin.

we also ordered the lamb rack.

we wanted medium rare but it looked totally rare to me, which was not the preferred texture.

anyway we already started on the meat, so i did not ask for it to be replaced.

i ordered all 4 dessert.

i think the dessert were really good, everyone of them!

chocolate not so die die but good anyway.

yuzu was good too.

the sticky toffee pudding was quite unexpected. it was not as sweet as expected. and it was tasty, a very good dessert.

the ginger dessert was ok, did not register much with me.

overall i think the dessert were excellent too. 🙂

WM brought a birthday cake for WT. we sang happy birthday and shared some cake. 🙂

i am happy with the dinner overall and most of the dishes from appetizers to mains meat & fish and also the dessert. very enjoyable meal.

the ambience a bit mixed, nice place certainly, and indoor seating has aircon. the table seating were close to each other and like canteen, i guess it was the rustic feel.

dinner came to like S$683, so i used S$700 vouchers. the lady server had earlier informed us she was leaving as here shift ended. the male server nguyen (also vietnamese) advised me to order some drinks so i ordered a coffee and another pandan coco. the bill came to S$699, perfecto!

so with chope 50% offpeak vouchers the 8pax dinner cost S$350nett, i think a very good deal la!

c.h.e.f andy

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Halia @ Botanical Gardens