Hog's Breath

I was thinking about having a Burger with the missus on Friday night and I have to say, I have heard some things about Hog's Breath that made me want to try. So we went there at Chijmes. Immediately, I was confused by their confusing deco. They had a mixture of license plates. Not that there is anything wrong with displaying license plates but imagine with me if you will, a row of Australian and American license plates, in dispersed with several pictures of old time Singapore. And that was just on one side of the restaurant. I couldn't help but notice this because I was facing this side of the wall.

By the by, the service was average. The servers were really young and I thought that the exam period for school wasn't over yet. Anyways, we ordered an appetizer combo as well as prime rib for my wife and their Double Hog Burger for myself.

Appetizer Combo - For $17.50, you' d expect more than just 3 potato skins, 3 chicken tenders, 3 chicken wings and some pieces of fried calmer. Sorry. But the appetizer was borderline atrocious. The bacon on the potato skins wasn't fully cooked through, and hence not crispy. Calamari was okay. Chicken tenders, I thought was fish sticks initially didn't taste that bad after I discovered that it was chicken. You can't really go wrong with chicken because everything taste like chicken. Chicken wings were bleargh ....

My Burger: First off, I realized that the burger that was served to me had no vegetables. Now wait. Before you judge me, let me be the first to say that burgers need at least a slice of lettuce, it had none. What it did offer was a side of mixed salad, again its my guess because the restaurant was kind of dim, mixed with Italian dressing. I don't know if this is a burger served in Australia or the United States, but I thought that was totally weird. With all this factors, I didn't expect my burger to be any good. So when I took a bite out of the burger, I was rather impressed. This burger was saved by the bread! Its sesame bun was very tasty. I don't know why. But it was done just right. Slightly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and warm! The burger patty was strangely decorated with what I think was BBQ sauce and 2 slices of cheese. It made an unusually strange savory meal. I mean take away the bad Italian dressing with what I still thought was salad; and add the above average fries. Its a meal. The beef patty was juicy, not the juicy that just drips all over the plate, it was made just right. It was cooked medium well and the bun and patty made great synergy.

The Prime Rib: I have never understood the Singaporean mentality of eating a steak. We as a people have this annoying tendency to pour a whole bunch sauce on the meat, and all you taste is the sauce. Unfortunately for me, Hog's Breath was no different. I thought I avoided the sauces when we chose not to pay $3 and add pepper, mushroom and some sauce to our steak. Instead, we forgot that since we ordered the hickory marinated prime rib, so it was smothered in hickory BBQ sauce. My wife could not finish the steak so I helped her clean out half of it. After clearing away all the sauce, I have to say that the steak was actually pretty good. Even though the steak came as medium rare when my wife asked for medium well and you could sense that the marbling of the steak wasn't that fantastic because in the middle of the meat, there were huge chunks of fat, the meat was succulent and you could almost taste the charcoal grill.

Just like Luke Skywalker and Obi Won. I remembered the words of tasty bits as I chewed down the Prime Rib. "ONLY ORDER THE PRIME RIB," he said. Alas, I finally remembered what the master has told me. And he is right.

Value: 5/10
Food: 5/10
Service:5/10

P.S. I actually swore to myself last Christmas when I was back in the United States to only eat beef once a year, and only when I am back there. I think I should stick to that rule.