[CLOSED] The Lawn @ Shenton Way: Bringing Meat Your Greens to the CBD

With the success of its first outlet in Biopolis, “Meat Your Greens” team decided to bring the concept to the heart of the Central Business District in Singapore. What a better place to cater to the busy but health conscious Singaporean other than in Shenton Way.

In case that you are curious on the concept of The Lawn at Biopolis, you can click here for the review.

Located on the food section of Basement 1 of AXA Tower, The Lawn is not hard to find. The décor is simple, neat and look huge with long salad bar for your to choose your toppings. The full size glass wall allow the passerby to see what's on offer in the restaurant. The grill are placed at the and with good air circulation you won't come out smelling like your food.

The Front Counter

The Salads Section

The Grill (behind the mesh)

As The Lawn concept is based on a salad bar, the following is the SOP on placing your order:

1. Choose Base: Salad or Olive Rice (for those that need their carbohydrate)
2. Choose your Grill (protein: such as chicken, prawn, dory fish, duck, beef or even vegetables)
3. For Salad Box, Choose your toppings & dressings, you have 26 type toppings (such as vegetables, fruits, pasta, nuts, cheese, etc) and 9 types of dressing options. For Olive rice, you have a standard side salad with no dressing.

The first thing that I noticed when they serve the salad bowl is the size. Lets just say it is 25% bigger than the size in Biopolis. Base on their past experience, the team has created three Chef's pick of top salad combination: Sweet & Chick, Hunky Dory and Crunches with Munches.

Different Salads Combination

Different Salads Combination

I personally like to choose my own salad and toppings. My top pick from the grill is Butter Seared Pacific Dory with parsley rub. It is tender and juicy , the portion of the dory is very generous, while the parsley rub helps to remove any fishy smell in the dory. The prawns are another seafood option, it is fresh and juicy, however I don't think the portion deliver a good value for money compare to fish.

Butter Seared Pacific Dory with parsley rub

Prawns with Garlic, Ben's Beef Rub & Teriyaki Chicken

For those who prefer chicken, you can have the selection of chicken breast or chicken thigh. For something sweet, try their maple infusion. For TexMex flair, go with the cajun chicken. I will personally choose the chicken thigh, as it is more juicy and tender.

Cajun Chicken

The major improvement that I like about The Lawn in Shenton Way is their coffee machine. They decided to get serious and invest a bit more on their coffee machine to accompany the beans from Smitten. The outcome is a consistent, smooth and creamy cup of coffee that won't disappoint you.

Latte

To end the meal, or if you want to have some to satisfy your sweet tooth, the cakes are from Gobi while their tiramisu is from The Tiramisu Hero. The chocolate cake and green tea get my thumbs up where both are light in texture with a nice balance in flavour.

Desserts

Tiramisu

The service is minimum. The order process goes like this, Chop your seat (Yes, we are very Singaporean), take your order sheet, tick your selections and go to the counter to pay. The food will then be delivered to you. Price starting at $8.90 for Olive Rice and $9.90 for Salad. For grill Chicken / vegetables +$3, Fish / Duck / Prawns +$4 and Beef +$5.

Overall, The Lawn has bring the “Meat Your Greens” concept for those health conscious people in Shenton Way. The price is not cheap, but it is reasonable. With the quality of the food here, I believe it will satisfy your cravings for good food and watching your figure at the same time. Cheers!!

Thanks to Jonathan and The Lawn team for the invitation. 

Food & Drink: 7.5/10

Value: N/A

Service: 6/10

Ambiance: 7/10

The Lawn @ Shenton Way

8 Shenton Way

#B1-11, AXA Tower

Singapore 068811

T: 6534 8749

W: http://thelawn.com.sg/
F: https://www.facebook.com/thelawncafe  

OH: Weekday 10.30 – 21.00

The Lawn Grill & Salad Cafe – Come Meat Your Greens [MEDIA INVITE]

Thanks to Jonathan and The Lawn Team for inviting us for this food tasting.

The Lawn Grill & Salad Cafe is a unconventional salad bar, bringing the current salad eating trends from California, USA which serve tantalising premium grills with unique and wacky salad dressing to Singapore food scene. Forget about the cold and plain salads, get ready for mind blowing and healthy food to tingle your palates.

Located in Biopolis, The Lawn cater for the professionals working in the area during weekday and regulars on Sunday. Don't come on Saturday, as they are close. Although the indoor seating is limited, they are more than enough seating in the alfresco area.

Alfresco dining area

As The Lawn concept is based on a salad bar, the following is the SOP on placing your order:

1. Choose Base: Salad Box or Olive Rice (for those that need their carbo)
2. Choose your Grill (protein: such as chicken, prawn, dory fish, duck, beef or even vegs)
3. For Salad Box, Choose your toppings & dressings, you have 26 type toppings (such as vegs,fruits, pasta, nuts, cheese, etc) and 9 types of dressing options. For Olive rice, you have a standard side salad with no dressing.

Ordering and Grill Station

The Menu

We were quite lucky that we tried most of the grills menu and all the 9 types of dressing. As a salad bar, the greens are as fresh as you can get. To make it easier, the Little Devil and I will just give you the run down of which grill pair with the dressing according to our taste buds.

For the grills, we like the Acento Balsamico Beef Cuts and Ben's Beef Rubs the most. The beef are tender and juicy, especially on the balsamico. Next come dory fish & prawns. Both type of the grill dory fish are generous in size, well marinated and not flaky. The garlic prawn here is suppose to be one of the most popular grilled ingredients. It is fresh, juicy with subtle garlic flavour thus we are not surprise on why it is the top seller. Our least favourite grill on the menu is the chicken. The Lawn uses chicken breast and they are cut to bite size, we find the meat is a bit dry and chewy. The marinate used on the chicken is quite good though. We can't comment on the duck and vegetarian grills we did not try them, those who had tried please give us your comments. :p

Pacific Dory with Salads - The Actual Salad Box

Acento Balsamico Beef Cuts

Mojo Chicken

Char-Grilled Garlic Prawns

For the dressings, Mi So Spicy is on top of the list. It started off with the subtle tom yum flavour, slowly the spiciness will come whack you from nowhere. Good with everything except for the beef. For the beef, we like the Honeyball dressing. The natural sweetness of the honey really compliment the seasoning of the beef. For fish, beachy peachy and manly mango are the best pairing as the fruity flavour in the dressing give a Mediterranean feel to the fish. For the prawn, wasahonie dressing will be a good choice. The combination of wasabi and honey bring out the familiar taste of wasabi prawn which you get in the most Chinese restaurant here.

The Nine Dressings

To complement the grill chicken, the maple peanut dressing goes well with maple chicken, while Red island goes well with the rest of other grill chicken. For those, who wants to try the maple peanut dressing, please be prepared for the sweetness that it brings, as some will find it overwhelming and for those with sweet-toothed, this might be a nice choice.

Maple Chicken

With the management always trying out new recipe for their grill, The Lawn will have a monthly special, and this month is a special grilled curry chicken set menu.

Curry Chicken

The olive rice is Teochew version of olive fried rice. It has comforting home flavour, just like what littledevil's mum cook at home. A good substitute for salad, however you don't get any dressing or toppings from this.

Olive Rice with Ben's Beef Rub

For those that need their caffeine fix, you can try their coffee here. They use the beans from the artisan coffee roaster Smittens.

The Coffee

Overall, The Lawn provide a refreshing and healthy dining options. It is definitely not your conventional salad bar. It is modern, trendy and bringing the funk into eating salads. We suggest that you go to their website, to check out their menu. We rate this place 7.5/10. Cheers and Eat Fresh!!.

The Lawn Grill & Salad Cafe

31 Biopolis Way,

Nanos #01-07

Singapore 138669

T: +65 6478 9739

W: http://www.thelawn.com.sg/

F: https://www.facebook.com/thelawncafe

OH:

Mon – Fri: 11.15 – 21.00 (LO 20.15)

Sun: 10.00 – 16.00 ( LO 15.15)

Closed on Saturday

[CLOSED] Onaka Restaurant : Putting the Yumminess in Healthty and Special Diet Food

Thanks to Onaka Restaurant Team and HungryGoWhere for hosting this food tasting event.

The restaurant’s speciality in Conscious Cuisine is a merging of Asian culinary cultures and traditions with modern Western influence, using only wholesome and selective organic ingredients. Onaka chef team is dedicated to using all-natural ingredients without artificial additives, chemicals, colourings, flavorings, MSG, preservatives and trans-fats. About 50% of the menu is vegetarian with special focus on Low Glycemic and Gluten-Free options.

This restaurant / bistro located in Alexandra Retail Centre (ARC). The décor is bright, modern with a combination of white colour and dark wood colour. You have a choice of seating at the bar or normal dining environments. So how's the food?

Dip Platers: Watermelon sashimi. Sous vide watermelon, agar wasabi “tobiko”, daikon and tamarind dressing. This starter shows a lot of creativity, flair and usage modern western cooking technique as the watermelon is sous vide to the point it look like “tuna”. At first bite, it tasted slightly weird, however when you dipped it with the tamarind dressing, it taste, texture and flavour just come together in this dish.

Watermelon sashimi

Salads: Tofu Avo and Nicoise Paper Roll. Tofu Avo is a great vegetarian salad with ingredients such as avocado, mesclun, walnut, sprouts, hazelnut, soy brined tofu and tamarind dressing. Light and healthy, and soy brined tofu tasted like feta cheese. The Nicoise Paper roll tasted light, fresh and refreshing. Special mention of this dish is the yummy soya made aioli instead of using eggs, which tasted like Japanese mayonnaise.

Tofu Avo

Nicoise Paper Roll

Noodle & grains: Pineapple Rice, Mushroom Soba, Chilli Crab Capelini and Maritime Barley Risotto.

Pineapple Rice

Roast Mushroom Soba

My favourite was Chilli Crab Capellini, served with crab cake, home made chilli carb sauce and perfectly poached egg. The pasta is al dente which absorbs the chilli crab sauce and nicely complemented by the crab cake.

Maritime Barley Risotto.

The second favourite is the maritime barley risotto. Yup, Barley risotto. This simple ingredients actually create a nice substitute for risotto, it is slightly chewy, not starchy and tasty, as it absorbs the crustacean stock broth quite well. The incorporation of foam in this dish to prevent it from making diner feel “Jelak” (overwhelmed).

Carnie: Duck Pancake, 48 HR Beef, Miso Lamb, and Modernist Chicken Curry v2.0. Duck Pancake is the highlight here. Five Spice Duck Confit wrapped in turmeric crepes served with orange caramel glazed. Onaka answer to Peking Duck, it is slightly crunchy, flavourful and slightly sweet, Yummyyy!!! A must try dish, we actually have an encore for this dish. :)

Duck Pancake

The 48HR Beef with red wine reduction and Miso Lamb use a modern slow cooking technique in low temperature, 48 hours for beef and 24 hours for the Lamb. The result is moist, succulent and tender meat.

48 HR Beef

Miso Lamb

The modern take of chicken curry does not suits my taste buds. I find the taste too sour and just simply like my chicken curry with some lemak taste.

Modernist Chicken Curry v2.0

Sweets: Banana Pastillas and Avo Choco Emoticons. Baked banana in phyllo pastry serve with cardamom ice cream and maple syrup. The banana pastillas has a nice combination of crispy, sweet, moist and complemented well with cardamom ice cream. The Avo Choco Emoticons is the Onaka answer for healthy moose. Combination of Avocado & chocolate “healthy” moose.

Banana Pastillas

Avo Choco Emoticons

Overall, Onaka serve a modern, healthy conscious type of dish, but not forgetting the taste as well. They are very creative and they price their food reasonably. I have to honestly say that without this invitation, I will probably never enter this restaurant. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to sample the healthy and Yummyyyy food here. Cheers!!!

Food & Drink: 8/10

Value: n/a

Service: 7.5/10

Ambiance: 7.5/10.

Onaka Restaurant & Wine Bar @ARC

460 Alexandra Road

#01-32. PSA Building

Singapore 119963

Tel: 6270 2012

Website: http://www.onakafoods.com/

For Menu: http://search.insing.com/catalogue/id-74b51000

Op Hours:

Mon – Fri: 11.30 – 22.30

Sat – Sun: 10.30 – 22.30