Crosta Pizza: a great alternative to the typical hut

Intro:

So I recently received a brochure in my mailbox and seeing that it was for a recently opened pizza shop and that it claimed to be Authentic Wood Fired Pizza, I immediately jumped at the opportunity of making another blog post.

So, I ordered my pizza and was informed of a one and a half hour wait due to bad weather which I gladly accepted.  However, the delivery actually exceeded the estimated time by a whole hour.  I had even called twice to check on the status and both times had to call back again to confirm despite the store promising to check with their driver and get back to me.  This was quite an infuriating experience and was only made worse by the fact that the pizza arrived dead cold.  I will not factor in their punctuality for the review (Anyways I put the pizzas in my oven to heat them up again). However, I would like readers to take note of this occurrence in case they need an order urgently.  Hopefully, this was only a one time mishap on their part and that their punctuality can improve or prove to be decent.  

[On that note, if you do try to order from them and end up with a punctual or late service, do share in the comments below so that we can all have a better judgement of their service. :) ]  

Quality and Taste:

I ordered two pizzas with their opening 1 for 1 special.  

My first choice was their signature, La Crosta Pizza which came garnished with very fresh and sticky mozzarella, crunchy and juicy tomato slices, fluffy ricotta cheese and deliciously slimy and smoky fried eggplants.  

Simple box design feels just right

In case I'm being too subtle, the ingredients used are top notch. They are fresh and very tasteful.  These are brought together by a mild tomato based sauce and a wonderfully light crust.  Here, a good amount of effort is clearly put into kneading the dough as the thickness of the pizza remains relatively even throughout and its texture is both resilient yet also softly crunchy to the bite.  An unmistakable smoky aroma also imposes itself with each bite and taking a slight whiff of the pizza quickly testifies its origins as Authentically Wood Fire baked. 

A good spread of fresh ingredients

Fluffy and creamy cheese!

The other pizza I had ordered was their Naples Pizza which essentially is a traditional anchovies pizza.  Quite a few people I know seem to hate anchovy pizzas for their overly salty and strong, (some might call pungent?) flavor.  I for one really like them and crave to find that perfect anchovy pizza. 

Whole anchovies for whole goodness

Here again, the ingredients used by Crosta Pizza were of very good quality.  However, this specific pizza scores slightly lower than their La Crosta Pizza as even someone who enjoy anchovy pizzas for their strong flavor, found this Crosta Pizza's variation to be a little too salty.  The overall seasonings and toppings were quite well balanced, with a good blend of capers, olives and olive oil, but a little more tomato sauce and garlic and slightly less olive oil might have helped to tone down the overly strong flavor of the pizza.

Overall though, it is still a great tasting pizza which anchovy lovers will want to try. 

Value:

The value here is quite good. Crosta Pizza charges a standard 22 dollars for all their pizzas which is just slightly lower than some of its closer competitors like "Spizza".  However, taking into consideration that mediocre, big brand name pizzas charge around the same price for electric oven pizzas and you will realize that the value here is actually quite good.  The use of high quality ingredients and cheese also help to justify the asking price. 

There is a 5 dollar delivery charge for orders below 50 dollars. I find this quite acceptable. 

Conclusion:
Crosta Pizza is a welcome addition to the Traditional Wood Fired Pizza scene in Singapore.  This is a style of pizza that deserves more attention in the deliver to your doorstep pizza scene and Crosta Pizza's use of quality ingredients does justice to traditional, real Italian pizzas. 

If you consider yourself a pizza lover or are sick and tired of the same old mediocre chain stores serving standardized recipe pizzas, you will surely enjoy one of Crota Pizza's pizzas. Bon Appetit!

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality & Taste(80%)	7.5	No doubt that this is traditional pizza. Quality ingredients and a bona fide wood oven makes for great pizza.
Value (20%)	7.5	value is definitely above average
Ambience & others (0%)	-
Total	7.5	A welcome entry to the Traditional Pizza scene

Delivery Operating Hours:

Mon-Fri 1130 to 1430 & 1800 to 2230

Sat-Sun & Holidays: 1130 to 2230

Number: 62955505

Website:  http://crostapizza.sg/?route=product/category&path=70

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crostapizzadelivery?id=484202925030425&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcrostapizza+delivery

The Corner Place Korean BBQ: Seoooul Good!

By Arthur

Intro:

It has been a while since our last post but I finally got the time to make a new entry.  This time, I visited Corner Place Korean BBQ and as the name states, its a Korean barbecue restaurant.  The place serves ala carte orders of meat on weekday lunch hours and all you can eat buffet on weekends and weekday nights.  The Buffet also includes soft drinks and hot drinks. I went for the buffet lunch on a Saturday and I can say at this point of writing that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. 

Ambience:

The Restaurant is situated quite prominently in Marina Square's food court and can be seen to the right of the escalator on that floor. 

Quite a striking entrance that should be hard to miss.

Overall, the Restaurant has decent lighting with a few Korean decors here and there to make it feel more like an authentic dining experience.  The music playing was at a decent volume and they mostly played Korean songs so it kind of helps with the authenticity, not to mention a flat screen television mounted on the wall which plays only a Korean variety channel. 

A few Korean themed decors here and there.

The Restaurant is designed with a lot of room for movement which is definitely a bonus considering that you'll moving between your seat and the buffet counter area quite often.  Similarly, their seats and tables are also comfortably sized.  

Well sized tables make for comfortable dining experiences.

Food and Value:

When it comes to something like Korean Barbecue, the quality and taste of the restaurant boils down to the freshness of the ingredients they use and the quality of their marinates since the actual cooking is done by customers themselves.  In both these aspects, The Corner Place does fairly well. 

The place offers a decent spread of raw meats and Vegetables coupled with a few cooked selections like Korean glass noodles, seaweed soup and fried wings. I won't be covering the cooked stuff too much since they are not the focus here, but they were generally of decent quality. 

Korean Glass noodles, very nice

In the department of vegetables, there's not much to say.  The Restaurant offers the usual fare of lettuce, beansprouts, enoki mushrooms and so on; most were crunchy fresh, and juicy.  

Don't Judge...Onion addiction is a serious problem

In terms of the meat however, the Restaurant offers a more than decent selection of very fresh cuts.  All the non-marinated meats were sliced finely but not too thin, making it both easy to control when cooking and easy to bite into for a flavorful burst when eating them.  

Blood and Fats cooked out of the Pork. If this doesn't prove how fresh it is, I don't know what does.

Tilted design helps much of the unhealthy oils to flow down to the left during cooking making for a healthier meal.

Although slightly tough to bite through, the Pork Collar had a good balance of sweet and salty, which were brought out well by its chewy texture.  The result is a succulent and inviting taste which seems to get more and more aromatic with each bite in your mouth; the small amount of natural juices that seeps through ones taste-buds and then down one's throat is really quite delightful.  This experience cannot be had if not for the freshness and decent quality of the Pork Collar used. Also, the tilted design of the restaurants barbecue pans meant that almost of the fats would glide off to a grease collector at the side during cooking, resulting in a leaner taste and less guilt when eating pork cuts.

Under the selection of pork, there were also Bacon and Pork Belly provided.  Again both were very fresh and the bacon...well its bacon, you really cant go wrong with good bacon :)

It took some time to roll these, but it was well worth it.

Keep them away from the hottest part of the pan so that they can cook slowly for maximum flavor.

I tried wrapping the bacon strips around some enoki mushrooms and they turned out great.  As expected, the simpler and more delicate flavor of the mushrooms really complimented the smokier and heavier flavor of the bacon.  Do try this. 

A little messy.

One of the two chicken choices served came with a marinate that had a strong hint of garlic.  It had a sweetness that is similar to terriyaki. The meat was mostly tender and fatty.  It was tasty but also a little greasy.

Greens make everything better

Wrapping the Chicken in Lettuce helped to balance out the grease with a watery and crunchy taste that pairs off well.  It also rejuvenates one's appetite after so many mouthfuls of smoky, heavily flavored meats.  Each bite offers an ever so faint resistance from the lettuce followed by a crunchy texture that leads into a release of refreshing, dew like water that pairs off with a slightly greasy, sweet and fragrant bite of the garlic marinated chicken.

The only area which I felt the store did not do so well in was their beef.  It was marinated in the standard bulgoggi style expected of Korean Barbecues, but the meat was too tough and of lower quality.  Basically, you should not be expecting the natural, juicy sweetness from each bite that one would get from choice cuts.  This is expected though since it is a buffet after all and beef is not exactly the cheapest meat.

Conclusion:

Overall, the meat that this Restaurant offers is generally fresh and well flavored, be it through the use of marinates or appropriate cut sizes, making for delicious rounds of barbecued meat with a lasting aftertaste.

In terms of Value, the Restaurant scores slightly above average.  The quality of the food used is quite good for its price range but there are some similarly priced Restaurants that provide a greater variety, which seems to be this one's only shortcoming. One thing I want to mention though is the excellent service I experienced. The staff were friendly and especially attentive.  At no point did I have to request a change in foil.  The staff would automatically change them once they noticed some char on them.  They were also very polite, responding calmly and patiently when a friend i went with had spilled over a drink by accident.

Charred foils beware, none shall escape the watchful eye of great Restaurant Staff.

Overall, The Corner Place Korean BBQ gets it right in many areas and it would be a shame for any Korean BBQ or buffet lovers in general to pass off a visit to this place.  It may not be the best one around but it certainly is great.  Amongst the better few Korean barbecues in Singapore, it can at least boast to be in a more accessible area than many others since it is situated in Marina Square Mall instead of more isolated shop houses and the like. 

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality & Taste(75%)	7.8	Their beef pulls down the score ever so slightly but everything else is just great. Amongst the most quality meat between Korean Barbecues I've tried.
Value (15%)	7.5	Variety could have been better but still great value for money overall
Ambience & others (10%)	7.0	Decent atmosphere with some authentic decors.
Total	7.7	Great Restaurant that is well worth a try

Address: 
6 Raffles Boulevard
Marina Square #04-102
(Within Food Court)

Opening Hours: 1130-2200, Mon to Sun

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MyTheCornerPlaceKoreanBBQ

Triple O's @ Orchard Towers: McKiller (Closed)

Intro:
Lets talk burgers.  Many of us, myself included, probably identify this food with the image of a McSpicy, BigMac or even the Whopper . No doubt, these are yummy-licious in their own way, but there's just something rather unromantic and unrefined about eating these "fresh" off-the-production-line, chemical filled and re-heated upon order burgers.  Sure, there are many restaurants out there that serve different burgers, but nothing in singapore quite captured the essence of an actual, unique burger joint for me.  That is until we tried Triple Os, and for anyone who wants to skip the details, let me just sum it up for you right now: IT'S REALLY GOOD.

Trust me, the signboard is telling the truth.

Ambience:

I quite like the layout at Triple Os, its simple, comfortable and cosy. 

Take a look:

A small, comfortable place to dine.

The place is also decorated with interesting trivia about the shop, including their history and Burger descriptions.  It certainly helps you to appreciate the delicious burger in your hands more. 

I'm trying the giant triple cheese burger next. what about you guys?

Generally, the place is designed like a western styled Diner and feels authentic in that sense. Even the music they play is uniquely Diner like.  Rather than playing whatever pop music is now in trend, the shop played soothing country music which really added to the dining experience.  You're freed from all the loud beats and pleasantly distracting rhythm of modern music and treated to a mix of calming tunes while you enjoy your burger.

Food and Value:

I ordered the Buffalo chicken club ($9.90), added an order of sweet potato fries($2.90) and washed them down with a cup of chocolate milkshake ($7.50)

Looks neat now, but things are about to get messy.

The burger, like all the other burgers here, were a little bit on the expensive side but you do get your money's worth in it's incredible taste.  The burger is centered with a tender and crispy fried chicken which bursts with great fragrance and flavour on every bite.  On top of it was a slice of cheese which looked scrumptious and two slices of bacon; and below was a serving of crisp, fresh lettuce.  What brings all these ingredients together were the ranch sauce and the secret Triple O sauce which had a light-barbecue-resque flavour, cushioned by two lightly grilled buns which were soft and fluffy but not brittle.

Just look at the cheese...INCREDIBLE

The Sweet potato fries were quite unique and the chipotle sauce that came with it had a mixed flavour that was terrifically messy.  It had a thick, jalapeno spice flavour that is quite hard to describe with words; all I know is that, Mark, who ordered normal fries that did not come with the sauce kept stealing dips out of mine and so did another friend we went there with.  That right there is prove of the sauce's power.  However, the fries alone were not too impressive and there are certainly better sweet potato fries out there. 

The highlight here is really the chipotle sauce

Last of all, the chocolate milkshake was really nothing special despite the decent quality of the ice-cream used.  Considering the heavy price tag of $7.50 and its average size, it may be better to stick with the standard soft drink. 

Pretty standard milkshake its thick but not especially so.

Conclusion:

There's really not much to say here except to reiterate that the burgers here are simply delicious.  Although the fries and milkshake are mediocre at best, the stars of the show here are the burgers anyways.  So do yourself a favor and give it a shot if you're getting tired of the same old burgers from fast food places.  I strongly recommend this place to all foodies and burger lovers, you won't regret it.

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality & Taste(75%)	8.0	Seriously, go try it. It’s really quite good.
Value (15%)	7.0	A bit on the expensive side. Burger was well worth the cost but the sides not so much.
Ambience & others (10%)	7.5	Calm and enjoyable atmosphere that’s good for really enjoying your meal.
Total	7.8	Really good burger.  An underdog deserving of your attention.

Address:
-Orchard Towers, #01-29C
(Mon-Thurs & Sun 1130-2300 Fri-Sat & Eve of Public Holidays 1130-0200)

 Also available:
-1 Vista Exchange Green, Star Vista Mall, #01-22, 400 Orchard Road
(Mon-Sun: 1000-2130)
 -Asia Square Tower, 8 Marina View, #02-14
(Mon-Fri 0800-2100)