Grumpy waiters and fine dining the old skool style

This is one of the restaurants that shouts old skool, as if stuck in it's never-changing time capsule while the rest of the Food and Beverage world has gone trendy and upmarket. It is a restaurant with old world charm, a rustic ambience and best of all, the grumpy Hainanese waiters. Time and time again, upon returning to this establishment, one is still greeted(or otherwise) with a nonchalant tone of :"How many?" or when they 'graciously show you to your table with just a point of the finger. Strangely enough, those are the very traits of lousy service that keeps people like myself coming back for more. Not to mention they also do a really mean Borsch(a hearty Russian vegetable soup), Lamb Shashlik(Russo kebabs) and the nearly extinct Baked Alaska(ice cream with a souffle topping flambee at your table).

Tucked away in a hellhole of a restaurant location, it is too easy to miss unless someone brings you there. Better yet, it is right in the heart of the Orchard Road Shopping district(yes...poops likes the road very much) and great place to have a meal after all that aimless window shopping. While a tad pricey for the grumpy grandad service, it is more than worth it for the memories. I don't see it lasting very long(all the waiters are on the brink of suffering a heart attack while flambeeing your Bananas Fosters), and also because in the long run, it will eventually give way to newer development...So I'll more than enjoy it while it still lasts, and share it with the people who would appreciate the intrinsic points of dining in life.

Definitely no tourists here...and please adhere to the restaurants' dress code or else you get scolding from the Uncle waiters for wearing slippers...

The interior hasn't changed since God knows when...the waiters too...although some of them have seen better days...There were less of them around when we came this time round so I assume they are probably permanently retired if you know what I mean.

We started out by ordering the Kabou-somethin'...basically a cold cut platter which features some very old skool styles of cold cuts, devils eggs with caviar, fresh crabmeat with mayo and shrimp cocktail....very colonial, very old skool and good too...

When you come here...this is a must-have. The Borsche is a hearty vegetable and beef soup in a tomatoe based broth and a generous dollop of sour cream. Decadent!

SSSSS...thats the sound of our lamb shashlik sizzling of the hot plate. You're not going to find those gimmicky nice looking presentations on oversized plates here. Just straight up good honest fare which is extremely satisfying.
Posing lah...trying to hide my slippered feet for fear of getting scolded by the Uncle waiters
Me tucking into the lamb shashlik...
The 'I'm full and satisfied look' from poops

Of course, I was feeling stuffed too. So we decided to skip the Baked ALaska and head on down to the Coffee Club near 24hr fitness. I take pleasure in seeing those fitness peeps running on the treadmill and watching you chow down on some real calories laden desserts. Muahaha.