Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

Jeremy is another sad person whose birthday fell on an exam day this year. Fortunately, some of his friends have already finished their exams and some of them, like me, do not really care about the remaining papers. As such, he still had people willing to celebrate with him.

At first we wanted to have his dinner at Ishiya Stonegrill, but upon arrival we found that it was closed for renovation. Bad luck.

Full house.

Then the venue was changed to Pizzeria 39. However, we did not make reservations so we had to wait more than half an hour while we were all well into starvation. Bad luck again.

We walked around the nearby Hardware Lane and a waiter of a seafood grill restaurant offered us complimentary drinks and entree and being the cheapskates we are, we took the bait hook, line and sinker (pun intended).

Leather covered menu.

The waiter offered us bruschetta and garlic bread for entree and everyone of us ordered alcohol. These were all on the house.

Bruschetta and garlic bread with sour cream and olive spread.

The garlic bread is really awesome, like really, really awesome. It is not your conventional garlic bread, it resembles a naan bread, or pizza, just a lot crispier on the crust. 

The bruschetta was decent. Nothing much to say about that.

Cheers.

We were enjoying the drinks because they were complimentary.

The birthday boy, I mean man.

Keith falling asleep.

The food took longer than what you would expect in a steakhouse. Some of us were already falling asleep.

400g aged rib-eye with port wine jus. 

Medium rare.

This is nothing like medium rare.

Serious food review time. The steak was horrible. There is no other way to describe it. I would not even call it decent.

 I ordered a medium rare steak and I had trouble slicing through the steak although the knife was pretty sharp. I doubted it was medium rare even before I saw the colour. When the knife went all the way through, it proved that my guess was correct. Getting your steak rarity wrong is not acceptable when you charge such prices.

The taste was even more appalling than its looks. The crust was so salty I could not even taste the flavour of the beef, if the beef had any flavour to begin with. The texture of the meat gave me the impression that the beef is not really fresh. A decent rib-eye does not taste, look and feel like this.

The port wine jus is as big a disappointment as the steak. The wine is not reduced enough, resulting in a thin sauce which did not taste good at all.

Jojo face-palming due to the quality of the food.

Not exactly cheap, not at all value for money.

After dinner, we walked around the area in search of a place for desserts. Jojo and Jinny suggested Giraffe cafe, and there we went.

The cafe provides card games, board games and other junk to kill time with. We were playing Jenga and the pressure was on. Whoever toppled the tower would have to pay for Jeremy's dessert.

Studying the structural integrity.

Looking from a distance.

Jinny's turn.

Moments before falling.

Jinny's fault.

We were busy playing while the desserts were being served one by one. None of us dared to touch our food before the tower toppled. Luckily, Jinny was quick to put us out of our misery.

Crème brûlée.

The crème brûlée is bad. It was not thoroughly cooked and about halfway down the cup it was liquid. That being said, expectations were not high in the first place as the shop is run by Chinese people and crème brûlée is not quite a Chinese thing.

Still enjoying ourselves despite the horrible dessert.

Jeremy wanking at the table, and looking happy.

Although luck was not even remotely on our side that day, we still had fun and a lot to talk about. Sometimes, good company really does beat good food.

Before I end, I would like to wish Jeremy "happy birthday" again.