Awesome Drinks, Terrible Food
(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 3
Ambience & Setting: 6
Food & Beverage: 2 (Food), 8 (Drinks)
Service: 8
Value for Money: 1
Spent about SGD $50 per person.
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Established in 2000, AdstraGold Microbrewery is a beer brewing pub and restaurant specialising in hot stone grills. My friends were excited about the drinks at AdstraGold Microbrewery, and although multiple online reviews have warned about the poor, inconsistent quality of food, we decided to dine here.
Ambience at AdstraGold Microbrewery is decent. Furniture is well laid out and comfortable, with enough space for dishes. The main drawback is the dim lighting, tacky photographs and menu which look like it's stuck in the 80s, along with the tacky website. But I like that they have a huge projector screen to show various sporting events.
Service at AdstraGold Microbrewery is very good. Staff are friendly, attentive and efficient, able to make recommendations on the beer, and rather knowledgable about the beer brewing process. They also checked on our meal and asked for feedback, which because of our extreme displeasure with the food, got an earful from some of our diners.
Food at AdstraGold Microbrewery is terrible and overpriced, easily among the worst I've eaten. Portions are small, seafood isn't fresh, prices are double of other restaurants, and taste is lacking. It seems that due to low turnover, cooking oil is reused, leaving a bad taste in the mouth.
Drinks at AdstraGold Microbrewery though, are very good. They have their own in-house range of beers, some of which have won awards. I noticed most of their visitors actually only came for drinks, and didn't order any food. I'll follow suit next time, if I ever come back. But very likely, I'm never returning to this place, as I can get their beer elsewhere.
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The dimliy lit interior boasts quite a number of seats, most of which are empty because nobody dines here, they only get drinks. The large projector screen was showing a tennis match when we visited. Beer is brewed in-house, and their craft beer equipment features energy conserving systems.
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| AdstraGold Microbrewery Beer Brewery |
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| AdstraGold Microbrewery Beer Brewing Canisters |
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| AdstraGold Microbrewery Bar |
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| AdstraGold Microbrewery Seating |
The Beer AdstraGold Red Ale (SGD $10.90) is a BeerFest 2010 bronze award winning beer, with a dark amber colour, taste of roast barley and a light, mellow texture. Very drinkable, goes down smooth, with a slight hint of lingering bitterness. Very affordable too, highly recommended!
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| Beer AdstraGold Red Ale 01 |
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| Beer AdstraGold Red Ale 02 |
The King Seafood Platter With Dory Fish, Calamari, Mussles, Prawns (SGD $39.90) is supposed to be for 6 - 8 people to share. What turned up is barely enough for 3 people, and looks like an appetizer! The seafood isn't fresh, and the cooking oil is reused, with a nasty aftertaste. For this price elsewhere, I could get a large platter of seafood that is fresh and tasty. Avoid this!
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| King Seafood Platter With Dory Fish, Calamari, Mussles, Prawns 01 |
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| King Seafood Platter With Dory Fish, Calamari, Mussles, Prawns 02 |
The Bratwurst Pork With Sauerkraut (SGD $15.90) is actually quite good, proving it's hard to mess up sausages if you can grill well. The pork bratwurst is meaty and juicy, and the sauerkraut is nicely sour and tangy. Good!
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| Bratwurst Pork With Sauerkraut |
The Premium Fish & Chips (SGD $19.90) is supposed to be the star signature dish here. But the beer batter, while flavourful, wasn't crisp, and the texture was limp. The fish was decent, seemingly frozen, not very fresh. The chips were good, thick cut, English style chips with a light sprinkling of salt. But for this price, the portion is smaller than what I can get from elsewhere, as they didn't include any salad. Adding on a salad costs more! Obviously, this place need to provide more training for the chef, or find a better chef, since the signature dish is so weak.
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| Premium Fish & Chips 01 |
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| Premium Fish & Chips 02 |
The Baby Lamb Rack (SGD $48.90) is a rip off. I will say that the salad is fresh, tasty and well marinated with balsamic vinegar. The chips are good as well. But the lamb rack is tiny, with barely any meat, and tasted very gamey. I told my friend I'll pay her to eat it... she refused.
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| Baby Lamb Rack 01 |
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| Baby Lamb Rack 02 |
The Pizza Mushroom Ham Olives (SGD $19.90) is decent. I like the thin crust, and the tasty tomato sauce base, and the portion for price is just right. Good as a bar snack, or for 1 person. The topping is quite generous, each slices has a nice amount of olives, ham, and mushrooms, though the mushrooms are the canned variety.
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| Pizza Mushroom Ham Olives |
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CONVERSATION