Steak Frites At The Lokal

In the past few years, the hubby rarely found a good steak here in Singapore.  In fact, every steak he had ordered in the past year alone, was sent back into the kitchen, untouched.  So let me recount a couple of incidents that had happened just a month ago.

 

We visited this restaurant known for its brunch fare, set in the heart of the Mohammed Sultan area near the river.  The hubby ordered steak and eggs after a workout at the gym nearby.  When the medium-rare steak arrived and he cut into it, the inside of that steak was bright pink and looked relatively right for a medium-rare steak.  However, when he bit into it, it was cold, as if it had just been taken out of the refrigerator.  So the steak was sent back.  When they came back with yet another medium-rare steak, it was still cold in the middle. And you know what insulted him most?  When the final bill came, the waitress chirpily announced, “As you did not like the steak, we decided to take the cost of your cup of coffee off the bill.”  Yes, we went ballistic and we swore never to return again.

 

Then, we visited yet another restaurant, well known for its Steak Frites.  It served only Steak Frites as a main course on its menu in fact and had opened a new outlet at Orchard Road.  I loved Steak Frites, but this one, arrived drenched in sauce, so much so that I tasted more sauce than steak.  And I am perhaps a bit pedestrian when it comes to my chips, I like them thickly-cut.  The chips that were served looked like they were re-fried at least 4 times, and heaped on a plate like a stack of over-dried skinny straws.

 

My last attempt was a restaurant at Sentosa that was also well-known for its steak. I thought that perhaps, if I had gone a bit more “atas” (high class) with my steak option, the steak might turn out better.  This one was unfortunately one of the worst. The consistency of that aged steak was more aged than I thought.  It tasted like the bottom of my shoe.

 

Then, when I saw pretty pictures - I am a sucker for pretty pictures - in the Instagram page of The Lokal (@thelokalsingapore), I decided to gather the family together to try its Steak Frites.  My very Singaporean son said in his exaggerated Singlish accent, “Sure or not one…Can make it or not?”  The British hubby who claimed to be a steak aficionado grumbled under his breath “Restaurants in Singapore just can’t do good steaks.” I was of course pissed off with that remark. As a proud Singaporean I found that disconcerting yet I had to agree that I haven’t found a steak good enough for me to re-visit.  However I managed to persuade the both of them to join me for a mid-week “Wine- Down -Wednesday-Steak Frites Dinner” at The Lokal.

 

I was so glad we did put some time away for that enjoyable dinner because the hubby finally approved of the steak he was served.  We ordered the rib eye in medium rare and Joel ordered the sirloin in medium rare.  They came out looking and tasting just perfect.  This was a medium rare steak served the way it should be served, pink and juicy in the middle, melt in the mouth and hot throughout. That restaurant I had mentioned before, that served us the badly cooked steak and eggs,  served us a medium rare steak which was pink in the middle and cold inside! We thought the cow was still mooing and they had just wiped its arse and placed the fella on our plate!   I was so pleased that I had proven the hubby wrong.  THIS is finally, THE restaurant in Singapore that served a great steak after all.

 

 

 

We capped this exceptional dinner with 2 equally exceptional desserts, the Sticky Date Pudding and the Chocolate Lava Cake.  Joel declared that he was way too full for dessert after his steak frites but ended up polishing that chocolate lava cake.  So, as you can guess, the word good for the food served here would be an understatement.

 

 

The patatas bravas 🥔 were fab...I thought there wasn’t much of it for a large portion but really, looks can be deceiving. The churros was sublime. 3 Of us had to compete for that plate of churros. Oh and I can’t miss out telling you about the exquisitely presented cheeseboard and the fact that they started our meal with some thinly sliced toasts with a homemade butter made from Spanish red peppers. That was wow!

My verdict? – Could Belly Well Be The Best Steak In Singapore.

 

About The Writer:

This blog post was co-written by my brother Jerome and I. Although we are siblings who grew up 11 years apart, shaped by differing experiences to see the world from different perspectives, we do share a common obsession – FOOD.  We celebrate our passion for life with food.  However, our attitudes to food are quite different and the way we celebrate our love for food are also quite different.  Jerome lives to eat and hoovers everything edible that crosses his path.  As he shovels food into his mouth with that fork in his right hand, he takes photographs of what he eats, and posts pictures and notes up on Facebook with his left.  Often, his beautifully written prose about what he had eaten would be 7 paragraphs in length and would not have any punctuations in between because he had been too busy multi-tasking. 

I, on the other hand, eat to live. It is not just about my attempts to eat healthily. As I am a “cam-whore” and “social media hussy”, I spend about half an hour styling my food, taking photographs, writing notes and posting them across my social media platforms before eating them, right after the hubby has paid for the bill and is about to head out of the restaurant.  I enjoy reading all my posts about what I had eaten because I know that I had lived fully in spite of watching what I eat.  Welcome to the foodie world of the quirky Ong siblings.