Posted by Gabriel
I first heard of Everything with Fries from a friend who raved about the original outlet in Joo Chiat Road. Having wanted to try it for a really long time but never having the time to trek down to the East, imagine my delight when I was strolling through Holland Village with my friends after my final paper and chanced upon the newly opened branch there!
My friends and I quickly joined the 20-minutes long queue, eagerly anticipating a fantastic meal of sinful indulgence. Alas, the entire meal was a huge disappointment.
The first cracks in the facade of nicety brought on by the pleasing, minimalist decor of the outlet came early. We only managed to get the attention of the inattentive (albeit friendly) service staff to place our orders after almost ten minutes of trying. To top it off, the iced water we requested first was tepid, lukewarm and tasted distinctly like tap water (which would mark the first time I’ve seen an eating outlet screw up an iced water order).
The food wasn’t much better.
Upon my friend’s recommendation, I had the lamb burger with curry flavoured shoe-string fries and a baby Caesar salad. The lamb was hard and crumbled to pieces every time I tried to lift the burger from the plate. While the tomatoes adorning the patty were sweet and tasty, the taste of the meat was overwhelmingly strong (even more so than typical lamb meat). To top it off, the salad was a limp, tasteless three pieces of lettuce. The fries were decent (definitely the best out of all the flavours we tried) but nothing special to write home about.
One friend had the pork cutlet sandwich with garlic and herbs shoe-string friends and the baby Caesar. The pork cutlet would turn out to be the best main course of the night, with tender, chewy meat wrapped in crispy batter. The fries, though, tasted exactly like garlic flavoured potato chips (which, technically, they were, but those are $2 a pack).
Another friend had the creamy salmon in a cup which, we were amused to find out, really came in a quaint tea cup. The salmon, which looked like it was floating in laksa gravy, had a decidedly unique taste which none of us could put our finger on. It tasted like carbonara pasta sauce mixed with a tinge of minestrone soup, which made for an odd eat. Again, the sour cream and onion fries tasted exactly like a regular can of Pringles.
The nutella milkshake, another recommendation, was nice and creamy at first, tasting like a thick, liquefied stick of Kinder Bueno or Ferrero Rocher. Once it lost its coolness, however (which was alarmingly fast), the lukewarm concoction was overwhelming and had a sticky aftertaste.
The worst part of the meal had to be the lemonade, a deceptively simple order we never expected to be so bungled. The drink was incredibly sweet and overwhelmingly sour at the same time, with the syrup-water ratio hilariously out of proportion. It took us the entire meal to let the ice cubes melt, not to mention adding in almost an entire cup of iced water, because any of us could take a sip without literally cringing.
Overall, the night was a terrible disappointment, especially considering it was meant for a post-exams celebratory meal. One would hope that they were having an off night. If not, perhaps some things are meant to be limited to just one branch
I first heard of Everything with Fries from a friend who raved about the original outlet in Joo Chiat Road. Having wanted to try it for a really long time but never having the time to trek down to the East, imagine my delight when I was strolling through Holland Village with my friends after my final paper and chanced upon the newly opened branch there!
My friends and I quickly joined the 20-minutes long queue, eagerly anticipating a fantastic meal of sinful indulgence. Alas, the entire meal was a huge disappointment.
The first cracks in the facade of nicety brought on by the pleasing, minimalist decor of the outlet came early. We only managed to get the attention of the inattentive (albeit friendly) service staff to place our orders after almost ten minutes of trying. To top it off, the iced water we requested first was tepid, lukewarm and tasted distinctly like tap water (which would mark the first time I’ve seen an eating outlet screw up an iced water order).
The food wasn’t much better.
Upon my friend’s recommendation, I had the lamb burger with curry flavoured shoe-string fries and a baby Caesar salad. The lamb was hard and crumbled to pieces every time I tried to lift the burger from the plate. While the tomatoes adorning the patty were sweet and tasty, the taste of the meat was overwhelmingly strong (even more so than typical lamb meat). To top it off, the salad was a limp, tasteless three pieces of lettuce. The fries were decent (definitely the best out of all the flavours we tried) but nothing special to write home about.
One friend had the pork cutlet sandwich with garlic and herbs shoe-string friends and the baby Caesar. The pork cutlet would turn out to be the best main course of the night, with tender, chewy meat wrapped in crispy batter. The fries, though, tasted exactly like garlic flavoured potato chips (which, technically, they were, but those are $2 a pack).
Another friend had the creamy salmon in a cup which, we were amused to find out, really came in a quaint tea cup. The salmon, which looked like it was floating in laksa gravy, had a decidedly unique taste which none of us could put our finger on. It tasted like carbonara pasta sauce mixed with a tinge of minestrone soup, which made for an odd eat. Again, the sour cream and onion fries tasted exactly like a regular can of Pringles.
The nutella milkshake, another recommendation, was nice and creamy at first, tasting like a thick, liquefied stick of Kinder Bueno or Ferrero Rocher. Once it lost its coolness, however (which was alarmingly fast), the lukewarm concoction was overwhelming and had a sticky aftertaste.
The worst part of the meal had to be the lemonade, a deceptively simple order we never expected to be so bungled. The drink was incredibly sweet and overwhelmingly sour at the same time, with the syrup-water ratio hilariously out of proportion. It took us the entire meal to let the ice cubes melt, not to mention adding in almost an entire cup of iced water, because any of us could take a sip without literally cringing.
Overall, the night was a terrible disappointment, especially considering it was meant for a post-exams celebratory meal. One would hope that they were having an off night. If not, perhaps some things are meant to be limited to just one branch
