In an era where many restaurants try to be "different", The Sleeping Rhino has done well in doing simple pleasures well.

Located at the corner of Klapsons Hotel, The Sleeping Rhino is an ideal pit stop for a nice quiet after work meal and makes a nice place to chill during the day.

At  a tasting awhile back when it opened, I started with Avocado, Mango and Prawn Salad. This was a light refreshing dish with a little tanginess.

I then tried the Roasted Mushroom Soup, which was really thick and topped with truffle oil essence.

For the main course I decided to go light with the Macadamia-Crusted Salmon Fillet. The salmon was quite done lightly and its natural oils oozed out with each bite.

For those looking for something heavier, the Double-Cooked Pork Ribs would do the trick. Topped with barbecue sauce, the meat fell off the bone easily and was really tender.

Ended the meal with the Berry Mousse Cheese Cake. Lighter than the traditional American cheese cake, this version woudl ensure that one would not leave the restaurant feeling overloaded.

Overall, I enjoyed the meal and I look forward to trying their other specialties when time permits.

Partake in wholesome casual dining, The Sleeping Rhino succeeded Lucas as Klapsons Hotel's new bistro-styled restaurant at the lobby level.

If you have been to Lucas previously, you would have know that Lucas is more of a fine dining concept. However, The Shining Rhino is a more casual eatery featuring down to earth western cuisine infiltrated with contemporary elegance.

Executive Chef Chris Kek has created a scrumptious menu ranging from salads, steak, ribs, burgers, pastas to local delights which are suitable for a simple yet filling lunch for executives in the area or even a casual dinner with friends.

- Avocado, Mango and Prawn Salad ($16.50)

What does rhino love to eat? Grass of course! So for our appetizer, we had the Avocado, Mango and Prawn Salad with cress shiso, lettuce and balsamic dressing. Sorry, we are eating a lil' bit better than rhino because there are fresh prawns in our plates. The combination of fresh greens and sweet mangoes give a refreshing start to the meal.

- Roasted Mushroom Soup ($9.50)

Roasting the mushrooms develops their rich, woodsy flavour for soups. Roasted Mushroom Soup with cream and truffle oil is a creamy, grey goop that is really good.

- Macadamia-Crushed Salmon Fillet ($22.50)

What we usually enjoy in restaurants is a plate of ordinary grilled salmon. But here, Chef Chris prepapred a Macadamia-Crushed Salmon Fillet with seasonal vegetables, potato and lemon butter sauce, the macadamia nuts give an crunchy twist. Unfortunately, the salmon was a tad rough that day.

- Double-Cooked Pork Rib ($26.50)

Double-Cooked Pork Rib with seasonal vegetable, mashed potato and Chef's secret barbecue sauce is the winner. The pork ribs are boiled and then grilled to perfection. It was really satisfying to be able to strip the meat off the bone easily.

- Berry Mousse Cheese Cake ($9.50)

Last but not least, dessert for the night is Berry Mousse Cheese Cake with lychee, strawberry and light maple syrup. I am a crazy fan of Pierre Herme's Ispahan hence, it was certainly delightful to taste the combination of lychee and raspberry.

For more photos, click here.

This was an HungryGoWhere.com invite to taste the food at The Sleeping Rhino at Klapsons the Boutique Hotel.

What an unique name! The Sleeping Rhino? We were hosted by Belda from Klapsons and she said the name and the initial TSR sounds cool. The hotel itself is really cool too! When you enter the building you will see a big sphere as the reception area. Try walking into it and ask the service staff something. Why? Try it and you will find out!

Out of curiosity, I did an online search to find out how long does a Rhino sleep each day. A rhino sleeps about 8 hours a day!





If you are a bread person, the bread roll here might just make you really happy.

It's warm to the slightly hot side. It was also really soft inside. The roll had sun dried tomatoes and I ate it without butter. It was very good by itself.













One of the signature dishes is the Avocado, Mango and Prawn Salad.



This was the tasting portion. Normal serving size is huge and could be a dish itself, great for lunches for those working around this area. ($16.50 for full portion)

The mango was sweet and it goes well with the leaves, avaocado and prawns. Great idea mixing some sweet soft fruits into salads. I usually don't have dressing for my salads. The slight drizzle of the balsamic dressing does gives it a slight sweetish and slighty tart flavour to it.













Roasted Mushroom Soup. Normal serving ($9.50)

Roasting the mushroom makes it more fragrant. You can tell from the colour that it's not the pale cream coloured mushroom soup. What a rich luscious colour!

The first mouth will give you a 'I want more of this' thought in your head. It's not the thick kind of soup. The viscosity of the soup is what I describe like melted ice cream. The truffle oil of course gives it an extra aroma. So if you soup the type of consistency I described, this is your kind of soup.

If you did keep some of your rolls, it goes well with the soup!













Double-cooked Pork Ribs

(Normal portion $26.50, which I was told is much more than what is already quite a huge chunk of meat that was served.)

This photo was taken without the chef's secret BBQ sauce over it yet. I have a soft spot for ribs. First the smell of pork ribs was one that makes you salivate immediately. I ate the first two ribs without the sauce first to taste how it is, and it was pretty good. The meat was tender, a gentle nudge with the fork and knife gets the meat off the bones.

I then tried it with the BBQ sauce. It was a slightly sweetish, slightly smokey and tangy sauce which was rather appetizing. The sauce is not thick kind, but is runny consistency of soft boiled egg yolks. I kept pouring it over the ribs when I was enjoying my ribs that Belda asked if I wanted to have another 'jug' of sauce! (There's more than enough sauce haha..)

With the soup and this sauce, I kinda of guess the chef does not like to thicken things up too much. So if you have similar kind of liking like me, you might like the chef's food. I know some of you folks prefer the thick gooey sticky kind of sauce over your ribs.













Berry Mousse Cheese Cake (Normal portion $9.50)

With the salad, soup and mains, most of us were quite stuffed. So we could not enjoy the dessert as much as we would like to.

I remember it as not being too cheesy and rich, which was good because we were quite stuffed. I remember the texture as very soft and creamy.













For drinks, I had this apple flavoured tea. A glass of tea with apple flavoured syrup in a cute little beaker.

My personal take, I did not really like the syrup. Not my cup of tea literally. I did not like the smell of the syrup, reminded me of ahem.., shall not mention it here. The tea itself without the syrup was nice though. I did notice something, the ice balls in the tea were made of the same tea! As you drink your tea, the tea does not get diluted!





Similar review at: http://goo.gl/O2J1M