Food Connoisseurs Association of Singapore: Davyd's Review on 'Graze' Restaurant

By Shawn's (one of our FCAS members) recommendation, we decided to dine at 'Graze' restaurant today. Located near the famous chill out spot 'one rochester', this is a place definitely not to be missed in terms of 'dining experience'. The ambience was fantastic - it was as if we were dining in a bungalow-like setting, by a pool-side, with a lush garden and fountain, giving customers a rather 'posh' feeling. There was even a large screen by the pool side showing some movies, adding some sort of a 'cinematographic' effect to the experience.

I was impressed with the layout and the whole concept, but the only problem was that it became rather stuffy after a while due to its 'Al Fresco' nature. For those who swear by air-cons almost 24 hours daily (like me), it felt quite uncomfortable after a while. I had to park my car quite some distance away from the restaurant at this HDB multi-storey carpark, and by the time I got to the restaurant, it was already getting a bit too 'warm'. Graze actually solved this problem by providing a valet parking service outside its restaurant, but the charges were way excessive for poor students like myself!

Next, there were lighting problems. I found myself 'sitting in darkness' while eating my food, and this can be quite frustrating at times. Some people like such dimly-lit settings though (according to them, this creates a 'romantic' effect), but I'd prefer to be in the 'limelight' (or at least my food)! If not, how can I tell what I'm eating or where I'm cutting?

The food tasted not too bad. Graze serves Australian/BBQ food, and they have quite a wide variety of meats and seafood on their menu. Their famous dish is the 'Wagyu Ox Cheek with Coconut Rice, Papaya, and Pomelo Salad' (which I ordered), and it tasted pretty good. However, these came at a price! Not only were the main courses very expensive (my dish alone was more than $30), the portions were very small. It's like eating at a very expensive French restaurant - something to the likes of Fine Dining; very tasty dishes but extremely stingy in terms of servings. Some of my other friends ordered the Seafood Platter, which cost them a bomb - if I remember correctly, it was more than $90! Many of us were left pretty unsatisfied and hungry even after such an expensive meal, and I had to order a bowl of fries for myself to satisfy my 30% filled stomach. For those poorer FCAS members, it was quite a 'painful' experience.

Other recommended dishes (according to AsiaOne Wine, Dine and Unwind) would be the ginger wine oyster shooter with wasabi and cucumber oil, the soy-drowned beef tataki, cumin spiced crispy onions, hot cucumber sorbet and baby cress, king prawns three ways (tempura, chilled, pan-tossed) and the hand-rolled pork hock.

In conclusion, this restaurant is only good for couples planning for an expensive and romantic date, or rich expatriates, and certainly not recommended for those who have a humongous appetite or those who frequent buffets! Come here for the experience, but not for the food - don't expect too much from your meal. Other than these, Graze has quite a small homely chill-out bar at the second level (air-conditioned) called 'Mint', with lots of comfortable looking sofas, but the drinks are also quite highly priced.

So is this restaurant 'Graze' worthy? Perhaps aesthetically, but not palatably. I give this restaurant 6.5 stars out of 10 for the quality of food served, but 8 stars for the concept.

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about Graze Restaurant, click here.
To check out the review by AsiaOne Wine, Dine & Unwind, click here.
To find out what other critics have to say, click here and here.