Thursday, December 23, 2010

Charco's re-visited


Note: 
Charcos has closed their Marine Parade branch and is now at - 
Blk 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 #01-2771 Mr Teh Tarik, 560608
Tel: 6455 3711


Brought my family here this time. We've always wanted to patronise this place since its Ang Mo Kio days. Now that it's nearby, I just took the chance when we were heading for Parkway Parade.

Was surprised when my mum chose the ribs. Then again, she's always been the adventurous eater and must have been intrigued by my constant reviews on them.

Ribs & chips - $12.50

I asked if she wanna have any of the salads and she flatly refused. Guess she's afraid that the ribs portion may be too big for her to have many sides so she settled simply for the chips (fries).

Needless to say, she LOVE them ribs. Kept raving about the marinade sauce and how tender the lamb meat was. And how the meat wasn't that gamey.

Roast beef + 3 salads - $14.50

Roast beef is only available on weekends and public holidays. I went there one Saturday and naturally, I got curious as to how a roast beef taste like and ordered a set.

BIG mistake.

Man, I should have expected it. Usually the whole rump of beef is cooked beforehand and we'll be served slices from that. Since I came late that afternoon, well, not surprisingly, my roast beef was served to me - cold.

If there's one thing I really dislike; it is cooked meat that's already cold.

If the temperature doesn't cheese me off enough, it's a lil' tough to the bite too. And that brown sauce tasted a tad starchy. Geez, now I'm sounding like a bad case of sour grapes.

For the 3 side salads, I picked my favourite, Caesar. Ordered the chicken avocado my colleague had previously, but this time I was served more of the farfalle pasta instead of the chicken. The seafood salad is alright but the big chunks of surimi-'crabmeat' pieces got a tad cloying after a while. Love the fresh prawns, though.

Sampler plate - $15.60

I was recommending this and that to my hubby and he remained quiet until the point of ordering.

When he ordered the sampler platter, I can't help remarking, "Wise guy." It's smart of him to order this, for his first time here, at a place selling most of his favourite foods.

This platter has 1/2 the portion of lamb ribs, 1/4 Charcos (herb) chicken & 1/4 Portugese (spicy) chicken. It's supposed to come with their creamy potato side dish but that ran out so I have the option to choose for him; 2 different salads instead of just 1. Got him his favourite coleslaw + egg salad.

Finally got to try the Portuguese roasted chicken and it does have some spicy kick to it, though a tad subtle. The skin, as you can see, is roasted till it's slightly crispy.

Chicken Kebab + 3 salads - $10.50

My dad seemed disinterested and simply asked for chicken kebab. Maybe he knows that grandchild (my baby) of his may make him unable to focus on his food.

The kebab seemed a lil' on the... thin side. Could do with a lil' more meat, me thinks.

Ordered for him the 3 salads that I've ordered previously. Caesar, Greek & potato. I think he find the latter to be a tad bland and left behind almost half of it. :P
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Now I know what I should avoid ordering when I'm here. I also saw someone from the next table ordering the fish & chips and it looked really enticing. I also want to know what the chicken schnitzel is like. Or the creamy potato.

But I sure don't mind their lamb ribs!

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