Wins! A Quick Dinner Getaway At Casserole

I am sure we have all experienced those occasions when we’re just sick and tired (more aptly described as ‘sian’) of the daily grind, and even your usual distractions seem dull. All you need is an injection of something different to get your engines started again, but you don’t have time to go on a holiday.

Well, I had one of these moments a while ago when my daughter was slogging for the exams, and the whole family just needed to get out of the house for a bit. So on the spur of the moment, and despite it being a midweek evening, we jumped into the car and drove to Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa for dinner. Why not? I figured it’s a beach resort that’s literally ‘overseas’, where you get sea breeze, green space, lush trees and a beach. It’s far from the madding crowds, and for a couple of hours, we can pretend we were on holiday.

And that’s when we discovered Casserole, Rasa Sentosa’s Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant which serves all things braised, stewed and ‘casseroled’ from several cuisines – Moroccan, Southeast Asian, Indian and Western. If you think it’s a slap bang-up job about the kitchen there being a “jack of all trades and master of none”, think again. The restaurant had gone through the extra mile of getting a different sous chef to be in charge of each of the cuisines. So what you get is authentic food cooked by natives of each cuisine. And after three visits there – all on my own and not invited by the hotel, mind you – I have concluded that the food here ranges from good to really good. I love this place.

Dishes here are meant to be shared and are served with a matching carbohydrate. For instance, the Atlas lamb tagine – tender, unctuous and fragrant with ras al hanout, honey and cinnamon – is served with a pot of aromatic cous cous. Representing French cuisine, the beef bourguignon ($26) accompanied by softly cooked garlic bulbs and pearl onions, comes with fluffy mashed potatoes and the Indian classic, prawn Masala ($26) aromatic with coriander and coconut, is paired with fragrant, saffron-flecked pilaf rice. All these are my must-have’s, and though they may look like small servings, they always turn out very filling!

Beyond these, the bhindi do pyaza, ladyfingers with tomato ($18), the beef sheekh kebab ($28) with bread, petit sale aux lentilles ($26) or salt pork with vegetables and lentils are great too. And don’t forget to try the Indian mulligatawny soup ($12). If you have less adventurous eaters in your party, there’s also familiar homey food like assam seafood ($26), braised pork knuckle with dark soy sauce ($32) and salt baked chicken with Chinese herbs ($26) and baked in rock salt from the Asian menu, and oxtail stew ($26) and baked seabass ($28) from the western menu. As you can see, the prices are very competitive too, even though it’s a hotel restaurant.

For dessert, I really enjoyed the baklava, flaky traditional Moroccan pastry ($9) with all its crisp layers of honeyed filo and nuts, and Moroccan Sweet Treats ($6), a platter of assorted Moroccan cookies and petite cakes. Both were served with hot mint tea served in delightfully coloured glasses, which cut through the heaviness of the sweets. There’s also lemongrass crème brulee ($6) and for those who want to share right to the end of the meal there’s a lovely apple pie ($24) which serves four.

Decorated in spicy shades of red and orange, Moroccan teapots and tagines adorning the shelves, Casserole is a cheerful, spacious restaurant that’s good for the family. But if you want some ‘private time’, the booth seats for two on the veranda are surprisingly romantic on a cool evening. After that, there was still time to potter around the hotel grounds which reach right to the sea’s edge, and sit at the benches to drink in the view. It really is a little escape.

And it wasn’t like we had to travel “all the way to Sentosa”. All it took was about 21/2 hours for dinner there, including travel time from home and back – indeed, no longer than any other dinner outing. And there are advantages heading out to Rasa Sentosa – we didn’t have to jostle with crowds in malls, or fight for car park lots. There were plenty. And with admission rates reduced at dinner time to $2, it wasn’t painful on the pocket either. In other words, it was a dinner that was refreshingly different from the usual grind, and at no extra effort, time or money to get to.

And in case you are wondering, no, we are not waxing lyrical because of their ads in our space….Believe me, darlings, SimplyFab only works with products and brands we personally believe in and at which are happy to spend our husbands’ money!

Casserole is only open for dinner. Tel: 62750100
101 Siloso Road, Sentosa 098970, Singapore

 

WINS! Casserole Dinner Voucher Giveaway
The nice people at Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa are giving away three $150 dinner vouchers just for Simply Fabulicious readers in Singapore.
Answer the questions below and you could win one of these vouchers for a fabulicious evening there!

1. Name two dishes you’d like to try at Casserole.
2. What are two of the advantages of going to Casserole at Rasa Sentosa for dinner?

As usual, email your answers to simplyfabulicious@gmail.com with your full name, postal address, email and telephone number.
Pop the words “Wins! Casserole Dinner Giveaway” on the subject line and make sure it
gets to us by 8 February 2012. Good luck!