Its been a while since my wife and I visited this place, so this evening we decided to give it a go to rekindle our "pa-tor" (dating) days....

SK (first reviewer)has review on the ambience so I will not repeat.

Food -
a) Oyster Kirkpatrick - $15-90 per half dozen, oyster is baked with spinach and sliced bacon strips. Add a bit of tabasco sauce and this dish is a great appetizer.

b) Ship steak - $34-90. Asked for medium rare but it turns out to be medium well done. The texture of the meat is somewhat average. It is served on a sizzling plate and the waitress will pour some brandy and torch it (maybe that explains why it become medium well done haha). The black and white mushroom sauce was a bit too salty to my liking but it is thick enough to taste the mushroom aroma. The onions are nicely done and the potato was perfectly baked. Ask for sour cream and bacon bits for the potato, it blend in nicely.

c) Sliced Fish Noodle - $13-90. The sliced fish and the noodle soup are served separately. The slight battered and salted fried fish is crispy and delicious. If you like a slightly milky and tasty soup base, this is for you.

Throughout the course of the dinner, we experienced great service. From ordering to topping up of our glasses and adhereing to our request to change our desert. Well, I think it helps since the restaurant is less than half full.

Our total bill at $76 (including 10% service and 7% GST) works out to be $38 per person. I find it reasonable if you like nice food, ambience and good service.

It was a family gathering and someone had suggested this place. Interior deco quite nice and ambience not bad. Was told that they serve this Alaskan Dessert (cream served with alcohol on fire) which made me quite excited. Soup was disappointing. Had beef steak for main course... so so only. The Alaskan Dessert is not very good... not like the one I had tried at Shashlik (though service there no good or rather no service at all).

Some friends and I decided to embark on our maiden voyage (hur hur) this afternoon to The Ship since we've never been there before and we've heard much about this 27 year old restaurant.

No surprises about the maritime set up - right down to the lifejackets hung on the wall, bar counter designed as a boat deck and signs like "The Captain's Word Is the Law". Okaaay...

The restaurant is dark as you can tell from the pictures. Check out the blue lights. If they played some Scissor Scissors I swear I would get up and dance.

The decor and the menu make The Ship somewhat like a cross between Shashlik (the dark decor, the oldies but goodies, the history, the Hainanese origins) and Jack's Place (the menu - which has a mix of both Western favourites and Asian dishes like their popular chicken rice Thursdays).

Despite checking the review of The Ship before ordering (accessing the mobile HGW website from our mobiles), being the rebels that we are we still ordered the escargots with garlic butter. Yes, they were rubbery and a let down.

We all had the set lunch. Soup of the day was the chicken soup but they were kind enough to let two of us change the soup of the day that came with the set lunch to a mushroom soup. But the amazing thing is that all our soups tasted the same - go figure. It's the usual thick creamy version which a lot of the Western food stalls serve.

I had the deep fried spring chicken with salad (prefer Jack's), while the others had the grilled seabass with lemon (so-so) and the steak with red wine sauce (also so-so).

However the place was packed for a Sunday afternoon. Its the same story for Shashlik. Goes to show there's still a place for venerable institutions like The Ship and Shashlik where people will still come back for what they find to be value for money meals in familiar settings.

Haha....am surprised some1 actually wrote abt this place. Tucked away behind Isetan Scotts, I like it, for its away from the Orchard frenzy. This restaurant is definately old school for the uninitiated. Once inside u have this distinct Hainanese western feel. Its 1 of 3 restaurants ur folks have probably went to dine in their younger dating days. The other 2 being Shashlik n Jack's Place(Yen San Building). Sadly, the Jack's Place @Yan San has closed.

-Baked Lobster
-Ribeye Steak
-Escargots
-Prawn Cocktail

The Baked Lobster with cheese was a flop. The cream was too watery makin my lobster wet n soggy. The watery cream also spoiled the cheese. Suspect the chef did not cook the cream separately. Shld have cook the ingredients, then add the cream, reduce n thicken, then melt the cheese. Finally pour the mix over the lobster n set to bake.

The ribeye steak was ok. A little overdone. The sauce was passable. Nothing spectacular. Probably can get better steak at other steak house.

Escargots was also lacking(According to frens). Sry, I dun eat snails. To be frank, it didnt look very appettising also.

Prawn Coctail came more like Prawn Salad. It came with lettuce n vegs n seems more salad. They used 1000 island for the sauce, which was disappointing. Prefer the prawn cocktail from Black Angus. It comes nicely in a big glass with the prawns hangin out. The accompanying dip(some tangy sauce) is also better.

Overall the food did not fare tioo well in my opinion for the price i was paying.
Service was efficient, if not pleasant. Saw they have Prime Ribs on the menu but only for Weekends. May come back again to try that. Otherwise, will have to say will only come back for nostalgia. Loyal customers seem to support this place though, so hopefully it'lll still be ard for some time.

The Ship restaurant has been around for about 40 years but since then there is only one outlet left at Shaw Centre managed by a couple ; descendants from the fore runner of Hainanese origin.
It is a quaint english pub like enclave and has a loyal following of cusmoters mainly office executives for lunch and a mixed bag of patronage in the evenings.
The Ship serves both western and chinese cuisines for lunch but almost all eastern food is taken off the menu for dinners except the slice fish noodle. Amongst some of their more popular dishes are the ship steak , black pepper steak, chicken maryland and the famous hainanese boneless chicken rice.
My regular group of friends and I inevitably make a beeline on thursdays to this restaurant
as the chicken rice is probably one of the better ones in Orchard Road. It is so popular it is better to make reservations for a table and specify that your request is for chicken rice "drum stick or breast" meat as they have limited "editions" for lunch. It comes with a bowl of piping hot chicken broth soup which can be replished when it runs dry. After the main course coffee or tea will be served with a cream puff as dessert . It may seem quite incongruous for chicken rice to pair off with cream puff but believe me it tastes yummy !!!!!
The restaurant has a capacity for about 120 pax and on Thursdays it is mostly jam packed
as it is budget lunch of $10 for the whole meal in air conditioned comfort ; decent ambience ;
great gossips amongst the ladies and surely a great way to unwind half way through a working day.