A big man with a big reputation, Damian De Silva, formerly chef cum owner of Soul Kitchen at Purvis Street, relocated Big D’s Grill from Bedok South to Holland Drive. Located near the bus interchange at the same coffeeshop of the famous Fishhead Beehoon stall, chef Damian “western food stall” is well known for serving restaurant quality Black Angus Beef Steaks and Kurobuta Pork Chops, as well as his limited Peranakan Specialties e.g. Ayam Buah Keluak – think Astons, before he got his chain restaurants going, added to scale down version of Soul Kitchen.
Mr De Silva insisted on using fresh Snapper and not frozen Dory for his Beer-Battered Fish & Chips ($8.90). At that price, the serving was pretty value for money and the fish tasted fresh. One could also surely take pleasure in a hint of beer aftertaste from the exterior of the fish – seasoning was slightly uneven though with parts being overly salty. But snapper or not, there was hardly any taste to the flesh of the fish. HFB would prefer the fish meat to be lightly marinated. Homemade Chips were well fried and vastly addictive!
One of his signatured dishes, the dazzling Crabmeat Linguine ($10.90) was immensely under-priced and overly extravagant with Shredded Crabmeat. HFB would advise one to go for the spicy version, as crabmeat is pretty heavy for the palate and tanginess brings it down by a notch. The linguine was done al-dente and the ingredients harmonised perfectly – the sour from the tomato base sauce, spiciness from the chilli, and the sweetness from the crabmeat really complements each other very well. This coffeeshop adaptation triumphed convincingly against the supposedly fine-dining standard – dollar for value in HFB’s opinion. This is one dish HFB will return for it.
Weighed at least 200 grams, if not more, the US Kurabuta Pork Loin ($28.00) was something that HFB was looking forward to. Indeed seeing is believing, but tasting it truly convinced HFB that the fuss and the hearsay was spot on about how wickedly mouth-watering this piece of meat is. The glistening layer of fats gave the famed meat its luscious and moist consistency – the spurt of juicy goodness with every nibble testify to this. With the exterior charred grilled to perfection, the hint of pink in the centre also gave it a tender bite. Coupled with their homemade applesauce that is reasonably flavoursome, this dish is definitely a hearty no-no for the weak heart, but surely a treasured find for the brave!
You can view all the photos here.
Linear Mode
21 OCZ Fans!
