Casserole @ Dine On 3

For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow.

Shangri La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort has a fascinating concept, Dine on 3. There are 3 restaurants in a row: Silver Shell Cafe for buffets; 8 Noodles for affordable Asian fare; and Casserole for casseroles.

The place serves Moroccan, Western, Indian and Southeast Asian food and all these different cultures are reflected in the thoughtful decor. It must take a lot of planning to blend the four elements together. As you enter the restaurant, the door beams are carved with an Asian (Indian?) motif that is repeated in the restaurant.

The first thing that impresses upon you is the semi-circle open kitchen, a very modern and Western concept. The PR tells us that the chefs hold cooking classes (about $70 per pax)… and then Chiobu hinted very strongly, “I have always wanted to learn to cook Moroccan food.” When a hint falls in a forest and makes such a loud sound that the world can hear, is it still considered a hint?

With soft dim lights, the dominant colors are gold and red. Plush red carpet with gold arabesque motif. Red cushy chairs with gold stripes and gold cushy chairs with red stripes. These colors are, of course, both very Indian and very Moroccan. It is a sensual experience in that the decor and the food complement each other.

The restaurant serves its food in casserole pots in sharing portions, ideal for family or group of friends, and naturally, casserole pots imply a homely feeling.  There is a leisurely atmosphere about the place but make no mistake, the restaurant is serious about food. The Moroccan cuisine is helmed by Chef Mansour Ben Ali, a native Moroccan, who cooked for the Guangzhou16th Games. The Southeast Asian Kitchen by Chef Katchen, a native Thai, and the Indian section by Chef Pradeep, a native Indian.

Drinks

Besides the usual suspects, draft beers, bottled beers, fresh juices, coffees and teas–there is an intriguing tea named Shangri-La, wonder what it is–the other interesting drinks are the cocktails and smoothies, very special concoctions. Cucumber Cooler ($13) has vodka, peach liqueur, apple juice, sprite and cucumber. Blueberry Basil Refresher($13) consists of gin, blueberry liqueur, lime juice, sugar syrup and basil. Both cocktails sound extremely thirst-quenching and are half the price of many bars.

Of the smoothies, $10 each, the special ones are Pineapple-and-mint; strawberry-and-blueberry; and apricot-and-banana. I tried the pineapple-and-mint and was very surprised. I thought it would be mostly pineapple with a hint of mint but in this case, it was a delicate balance of both pineapple and mint. Pineapple can sometimes be astringent, burning the tongue but like Dove’s body wash, the pineapple here had a perfect pH – just a slight sourness without the acid. Because the pineapple and mint were in such great balance, they produced a multi-layered taste. I highly recommend it.

Food

The food comes with a complimentary salad with greens, carrots, cucumber with balsamic vinaigrette, the preferred dressing for supermodels. What can I say? It’s free. Mai hiam lah.

Freshly in-house baked bread, still hot from the oven, is also complimentary. The bread came with in-house self-churned unsalted butter and muhammara dip, a red bell pepper sauce that tasted like tangy, spiced ketchup with an edge. The PR told us to spread both the butter and the muhammara dip at the same time on the bread, producing a pleasant effect.

Western

Seafood bouillabaisse ($12) is a French seafood stew that serves two (there were four of us and we got a bowl each). While it wasn’t as thick as we’d like it–the viscosity was more like a soup than a stew–the taste was intense, bursting in the mouth. The flavors were similar to lobster bisque but it had additional dimension of sweetness from all that other seafood. We tasted crab meat, scallop and clams. Definitely a must-order.

For the mains, each main comes with a carbohydrates. Southeast Asian cuisine comes with jasmine rice; Indian, bismati rice; Western, mashed potato; Moroccan,couscous. Out of the four, we had a hard time deciding if we liked the bismati rice or couscous more. The bismati rice was unique because it not only had raisins but macadamia nuts, giving it a fruity sweetness and a nutty crunchy texture. Disliking couscous in general, this one won me over. It was sweet, topped with pumpkin and caramelized onions, and the couscous didn’t have the barley-like taste, a positive aspect. Couscous should taste like couscous and barley like barley.

You can request to change your carb. For example, if you order a Western main and you don’t like mashed potato, you can request to change it to jasmine white rice. It’s up to you, eat as you like.

Continuing with the Western section of the menu, the beef bourguignon ($26) uses wagyu beef ramp slow-cooked in red wine sauce for at least 2 hours with garlic, pearl onion and mushrooms. If you’ve been following RERG, you’d know we order beef bourguignon everywhere we go. It was competent. The flavors were lighter than other places and the beef had a bite.

Indian

Murg Makhani ($26) is buttered chicken in tomatoes, cashew nut cream and fenugreek leaves. While I found it a tad salty, preferring buttered chicken to be sweet than salty, this was Chiobu’s favorite main. The chicken was extremely tender, melted in the mouth and the sauce was thick and savory.

Southeast Asian

The PR said the angmoh journalists don’t want to eat petai (smelly beans) and asked if we would like it. We didn’t mind so we had the sambal prawns with petai ($26) stir-fried with shallots and garlic and quail eggs. The sambal could be spicer. The prawns were huge and fresh. How do you tell if the prawn is fresh? Grandma tells me that the flesh comes off the shell easily and Casserole’s prawns did. Having quail eggs in the dish came as a surprise and we were vying for them. Chiobu said, “Can someone please eat the last quail egg? It’s staring at me, begging for me to eat it.” And before the PRs could respond, I swallowed it.

Next time when we return–and we will return because we like the food–I want to try thesalt baked chicken ($26) in chinese herbs, wrapped in lotus leaf, baked in rock salt;assam seafood ($26); and Thai green curry ($26) since the chef is Thai.

Moroccan

Although lamb tagine ($28), slow-cooked lamb with honey cinnamon, ras el-hanout and saffron sauce, is their speciality, Chef Mansour, like an American Idol contestant, decided to take a risk and recommended us the sheekh kebak ($28), beef skewers marinated with Moroccan herbs and spices, served with Moroccan bread (similar to pita). I’ll pull a Simon Cowell here. I’m sorry, the risk didn’t pay off. Although admirably the lamb was rid of the lamb stench, it was dry and bland.  Next time we return, I die die must eat the lamb tagine. Sidetrack: the foreground of the photograph is misty because the steaming hot couscous in front for the dish.

Another Moroccan main we sampled was chicken b’stilla ($28), a classic Moroccan dish, their interpretation of a pie with chicken, eggs, almonds, caramelised onions and saffron.

Not one to eat sweet dishes for main, Chiobu disliked it. I, however, thought it was quite spectacular. Spectacular because I have never eaten anything like it before. Spectacular because this dish encompasses the history of a culture, a culture that emphasizes on spice and nice sweets. I could imagine this, left to cool on a windowsill, fragrance wafting through the streets of Morocco. The “pie” covering wasn’t so much of a pastry; it was more like the texture of roti prata with cinnamon sugar on top. Saffron gave the minced chicken a honey-like taste. Overall, it’s like a sweet but not oily murtabak. If you seek new experiences and you like sweet things, then I’d highly recommend this.

Desserts

My only problem with the desserts is they were all good I can’t decide which the best was.

Western

You can order an entire apple pie ($24), serving 4, or just order a slice ($8). In the photograph, it looked rather frumpy doesn’t it? I actually think it ties in with the restaurant’s concept of casseroles and homely food. This is an apple pie that could have been baked at home. Every slice of apple within the pie was coated entirely with cinnamon. The crust wasn’t those crispy sort; it was doughy and soft in a good way. Altogether, this felt very home-cooked and thus, heart-warming. If you like food to arouse an emotion in you, we’d highly recommended the apple pie.

Southeast Asian

Lemongrass brulee ($6) was Chiobu’s favorite. In her words, the bitter, fragrant and gingery lemongrass contrasted with the eggy sweetness of soft custard. The berries–black, blue and rasp–gave it a sourish, fruity taste. All three ingredients, lemongrass, custard and berries, made the dish work by contrasting and complementing the tastes and textures. If you have sophisticated taste, order this.

Moroccan

Baklava ($9) is a pastry with nuts and sweetened with honey. The baklava here is definitely different from baklavas we had before. Instead of flakey pastry, the pastry was firm. Instead of more pastry to nuts, this one had more nuts (pistachio, almond, walnut) to pastry. Instead of soaking the entire thing in honey, it was lightly drizzled with honey and other spices including lemon zest, clove, star anise, orange peel and finally topped with lovely pistachio. The result is a gorgeous, innovative interpretation of the dessert that tasted like nougat with marmalade. Very crunchy, earthy, fragrant and sweet. If you like nuts, sweet things and cultural food, this is a clear winner.

A special mention of the accompany walnut. Not just your average walnut, it is first dipped in honey then oven-baked to give it a very crispy texture. Simply irresistible.

And the best is that the baklava comes with moroccan mint tea. Chef Mansour was extremely kind to serve us himself. Like teh tarik, the purpose of pouring the tea at a height is to aerate the tea, activating the flavors. The mint tea was very invigorating and fragrant. The secret: rose water in the tea.

Sidetrack: What lovely teapot and glasses!! Each of them is different. Chef Mansour brought these all the way back from Morocco.

Usually for food tastings, the PR will pre-arrange a few dishes but here at Casserole, the PR invited us to order any dish we liked. What this means is that the restaurant is very confident of its food and every dish is a specialty. Chiobu and I agreed that the food was hearty and comforting (like homecooked food) and value-for-money. We estimated that each person only need to spend $30-$40 for such excellent food. Remember, almost everything is made in-house from scratch, from the bread to the sauces. The preserved lemons in jars on the shelf are not only for display, they are actually preserved by the chef for his ingredients! Too many cooks spoil the soup? We certainly don’t think so.

must try must try must try must try must try 

must try must try must try must try must try

For a more detailed review with pictures, please head to http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com/2012/01/casserole-dine-on-3.html

I've heard good things about this place and been wanting to try it out for some time. The reviews are right. The food here is amazingly good, very wholesome, and with large portions to boot. Each casserole can easily fill up 2 large eaters. In addition, every casserole is served with a carb (Asian stews are served with rice, European ones with mashed potatoes and Morrocan hotpots with cous cous) and a garden salad. Super huge portions here. 

We ordered:

1) Baked Seabass ($28) - moist, perfectly salted, fish was kept light and breezy with a drizzle of lemon and some Italian herbs, while the potatoes were simply seasoned with bright sunny saffron. But, I felt the best part of the dish was the peas, they were so soft and buttery

2) Beef Bourguignon ($26) - lived up to its much hyped recommendation. This was a lot lighter than you'd expect of a beef stew, the broth was clear and delicate, but with the full flavours of the beef stock. But the piece de resistence has gotta be the beef, super flavoursome and incredibly fork-tender

3) Saute de Champignons Sauvages ($18) - an assortment of shitake, enoki, porcini and white button mushrooms simmered with white wine and butter resulting in a luscious velvety gravy with earthy tones

Family dining is usually associated with Chinese cuisine. However, at Casserole, one would be able to have the option of sharing Moroccan, Indian, South Asian and Western food with the family. With so many options there will be enough food to please everyone.

I started out with their cream of chicken and cream of tomato soup. What I liked about the soups is that it is really smooth, although be careful that it can really filling too.

From the Indian menu I tried the Butter Chicken, which was rich in taste with wonderful tender pieces of chicken.

From the Moroccan menu I would recommend going for the Moroccan Baked Fish. Marinated with various spices such as cumin and paprika, one can tell that a lot of effort was put into the dish.

Save some space for desserts - and a must try is the apple pie with vanilla ice cream which comes with hot molten pieces of apple in a freshly baked crust.

Overall, good variety of food and good service - what more can one ask for?

I came to this restaurant with my wife and 2 friends because we're interested with the HungryGoWhere promotion of 50% discount with minimum $100 spent before tax.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the staffs who looks sincere, attentive and very helpful. We were told upfront that the dishes on the menu are meant for sharing for 1.5 - 2 person size. Well, actually it's for 2-2.5 person size.

We got:

- Salad appetizer: it's a complimentary startup that enough for 4 persons

- Seafood Bouillabaisse: seafood stew with bread, butter and chili pepper. The bread has hard skin, but very soft inside. Dip it into the stew and it's gonna be the best bread you've every try

- Moroccan Baked fish & Atlas Lamb Tagine: The fish was very yummy and the lamb tagine is the best lamb I've every tried. It's so soft and kind of melted on your tongue. Served with free flow kuskus rice, it made a perfect combination.

- Bakllava, Moroccan sweet treat & Moroccan mint tea: We closed our dining with Bakllava, and traditional Moroccan sweet treat and mint tea. The tea is very nice with fragrant smell.

- Bread Butter Pudding: Another must try dessert.

Overall, we were very satisfied with the food as well as the service and price

Celebrated my birthday at Casserole on Sep 17, 2011.

This restaurant serves four types of cuisine: Moroccan, Indian, Western, South East Asian. The main courses comes in... a casserole, of course!

We thought the main courses are like other restaurants, so proceeded to order one casserole each! Oh... mistake! The casseroles are meant to be shared, so the portion for each casserole is way too much for one person :)

We ordered:

* Moroccan Baked Fish... yummy

* Salt-baked Chicken (two casseroles!) - this is a WHOLE chicken

* Atlas Lamb Tagine... so tender!

* Braised Pork Knuckle... so tender!

* Beef Bourguignon... so tender!

* Chicken Tagine

* Assam Seafood

* Whole Apple Pie (serves 4... actually served 6!)

* Lemongrass Brulee

* Mango Sago Cream with Pomelo

The main courses are served with steamed rice, cous cous, or Moroccan bread.

Service was excellent - staff are very attentive, courteous and helpful.

it has been ages since i last wrote a review. and even longer since i last met the guys from HWG. there are a lot of new faces but in a way it was heartwarming to see all of us coming together even if juz for a meal. =)

so thanks to chiewmei for inviting me and my friends along for this deal. and a deal is a deal! $30 and we could sample 10 dishes! =) so yeah. here goes the review.

ambience was cosy and very aptly themed to the restaurant. moroccan style and a good place for large gatherings. =) and there was a live band somewhere in the middle of the course. and they sang evergreen songs that had my table humming along to the songs. =D 

the service was good. the manager was also around to help to serve us as well as spoken to a few of other diners who were not part of HWG. probably coz we were a big group so it took some time for the food to arrive at our table but other than that. it was alright. 

ok. food wise. i would say that it was better than expected. i had my first taste of moroccan food back in temasek poly's training restaurant: top table. second was deli morroco at arab street. and i guess this totally changes my impression of morrocan food. 

to me. morrocan food equates to much use of spices and herbs with very strong smells and tastes that i mostly do not like. however. at casserole. it was not the case. no doubt that there were the use of spices and herbs. but the overall presentation and taste was quite different. 

casserole garden salad: a refreshing start to the meal. 

casserole specialty bread with morrocan dip and unsalted butter. i am no fan of morrocan dip and coz the colours kinda put me off. but the bread was good. there were 2 kinds. one was a set of buns in 6 and the other was single baguettes. i tried the single ones and was happy spreading generous amount of unsalted butter all over it. =P

morrocan harira: a tomato based soup with chick peas. lentils. spaghetti and celery. quite like minestrone but not really my kind of soup. i like my soup the clear kind or cream kind. that explains why i love the second soup more. =)

sup kambing: in short. mutton soup. a creamy version with many bite size pieces of tender mutton and potatoes that made the soup very much enjoyable. and it tasted more like a stew than a soup. so i had 2 helpings of it! =D

prawn masala: think big fresh prawns with sauteed onions. tomatoes and spices. together with the pulao rice it was a delicious combination.

morrocan baked fish: my personal favourite coz it was simply baked with minimum herbs. freshness was what made the fish enjoyable and memorable. =D

chicken tangine: perhaps i am not so much of a chicken person (especially dependent on my mood) so this dish to me was juz so-so. =X

braised pork knuckles: not a morrocan dish but of our local dish. i am not a fan of pork knuckles either so it would not do the dish justice if i said it was juz ok. coming from my friends. it was a very good dish coz even the other 3 girls at our table were helping themselves to it. they love the tenderness of the pork but it could be done a bit better with a bit thicker gravy. =)

bread and butter pudding: once again i am not a fan. but it was alright. 

whole apple pie with vanilla and soft cream: another love! i love the thick crust of the pie and was sorely disappointed when the waitress cleared away the remains of the dish without asking if any of us wanted it. =( and i love the soft cream that goes with it. 

all in all. a memorable evening in sentosa with new found friends and old ones. =D definitely will be back to try more dishes! =D 

It's not only the political parties that are meeting the people,  the team at HGW chose to do it too,  albeit at a restaurant serving good food, in a communal setting. The cost of the dinner was a special deal arranged by Sentosa, Hotel and HGW so it was a good value. A very enjoyable meal making new friends who patronise HGW and great food.

Ambience:  Still great, I came early and enjoyed the view of the lagoon, white sandy beach and the play area around the water feature.  Reclining pool seats next to the beach were comfortable and it was a cool day.  The restaurant is still quietly comfortable with good tables and chairs, placed suitably for Asian dining - square/round tables in groups, quite unlike the rectangular isolationist seating of many Western restaurants.

Food:  Still tasty, see my early review, but I need to highlight several outstanding dishes.  The bread tray is just too appealing not to eat it.  the set of 6 buns with unsalted butter and the pureed dried tomato dip was tasty. Ate lots of it.  The key to eating here is to keep some buns before they take away the bread tray and then use it to dip into the sauces left over after the meat/fish are eaten up.  I did this with the mutton soup and it was very tasty. The mutton soup is quite unlike the mutton soup from our Indian/Muslim origin.  It has chunks of potatoes in it and it is more of a mutton stew than soup, finished 2 bowls of it.  The mains were prawns in a Moroccan sauce - prawns were fresh and had a good bite to it.  It was delicious when blended with couscous and yellow rice.  The fish was also fresh and tasty - using cuts of red snapper, the sauces are memorable.  They had a pig's trotters in a black sauce that wasn't stewed enough so the flesh was too firm - perhaps I'm too used to my East Coast pig's trotters that can be cut with a fork.  During the serving of the mains, we were entertained by a Filipino band who say evergreen songs.

Desserts - they served the bread and butter pudding which I do not particularly enjoy but I ate my fill when the apple pie was served.  The apple pie is quite unlike our usual apple pie - apple pieces cooked with a flour base and served in a crusty shell.  Served it with cream but I skipped it.  Ended with rose flavoured tea. 

Value: Thought there was only ONE main dish but as it turns out we had a little bit of each, much like a Chinese family dinner.  Great value, pity others did not attend.

Service:  Great as usual, everyone chipped in, Moroccan chef served us his Rose tea.  That's family.

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详���读Miss Tam Chiak

I've generally never been a fan of hotel F&B outlets, seeing how they have a tendency to cater to the masses, particularly for the larger hotels. So when the invitation came to try out Casserole at the newly refurbished Rasa Sentosa Resort, I went with somewhat tempered expectations.

At first glance, Casserole is the sort of mass dining location suited for tour bus loads of tourists. Spacious, expansive, and functional, but lacking in that more intimate, personalised dining experience. The concept however - communal dining around casseroles - was somewhat more interesting.

Casseroles here come from different regions and span Moroccan, Indian, Thai and French. In addition to these staple deep dishes, the restaurant also serves up a specialty garden salad (one type only), specialty bread with Mohamara dip and unsalted butter, as well as soup of the day and a range of desserts.

The specialty bread stood out from the starters. Expect a platter of two types of bread -  one more akin to a mini  baguette which was warm and crusty and moreish, and the other a softer, sour dough bun.  But the true winner was the Mohamara dip  which is a slightly spicy, earth red pepper/walnut dip - absolutely divine with warm, toasty white bread.

For the mains, it was the Moroccan casserole that was a clear winner. The Moroccan Baked Fish (whole fish tempered with fresh herbs, cumin, paprika, coriander and preserved lemons served with tomatoes, potatoes & charmoula sauce) was was a cacophony flavours, at once spicy and tangy, tantalising the tastebuds for more. A perfect accompaniment to this dish was the couscous which was light and fluffy and topped with stewed courgettes, carrots and chickpeas.

The Indian Murg Makhani (boneless chicken w tomato, cashew nut cream and fenugreek leaves) was another winner with its rich, smooth, buttery sauce. Together with the pulau rice which was lightly steamed and seasoned with cumin, onion, raisins and cashew nuts, this was another well matched pair with complementary flavours to satisfy the entire range of taste buds.

For vegetarians, there is the Goeng Massaman Mon-Taed (sweet potato and pumpkin massaman curry) with fragrant steamed rice. A coconut-based curry with roasted nuts, potatos, palm sugar, cinnamon and tamarind, this is a smooth, rich, sweet curry that goes well with the subtle sweet starch of a pumpkin in particular. My one complaint about this dish is that the curry was too thick, resulting in a viscous sauce when it should have been more of a stew in texture.

Not to be missed at Casserole, ironically, is their desserts. The whole apple pie with vanilla and soft cream was a homely concoction of chunks of tangy stewed apples encased in rustic shortcrust pastry dusted with icing sugar. This pie had just the right proportion of fruit to crust and served piping hot, is one of the more memorable apple pies I've tried.

But trumping the apple pie is the cheesecake with lemon cream. Light, airy, yet still creamy and indulgent as a proper cheesecake shoud be, this came on a buttery biscuit base and was so good one of the other diners bought a whole cake home!

And while you're there, do wash the desserts down with the immensely relaxing, subtly-scented, rose- flavoured Moroccan mint tea.

All in all, Casserole scores on its interesting concept and standout desserts, with some noteworthy dishes. But to take it to the next level and to leave an indelible mark on the culinary scene, it needs to go from good to great, and work on a more inviting, memorable ambience.