Botak Jones, Ang Mo Kio, Singapore

The quest for a good steak will bring you to many places. Today it brought me to Botak Jones at Block 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5. As I was rather famished, I decided to go for the 400g NZ Airflown ribeye steak which we'll talk about later because there's always room for starters no?

The chicken gumbo was quite a hearty feed. There were also a few token chunks of hotdog (sausage) in it which gave quite a nice salty bite. The serving for regular was rather small though, so maybe next time we'll order large instead.

Stuffed jalapenos came next. I quite enjoyed this not only because was the cheese within melted and hot (beware getting the pizza palate) but the jalapenos actually had a little kick in them which was a really good way to jumpstart the meal.

As you can see, the 400g ribeye was only slightly thinner than the 500g ribfillet I had in Margaret River. As you can further see, my medium was more like a medium-well. I really wanted to kick myself in the ass because I could have gotten something slightly more bloody (tender). I have to be more explicit in my instructions the next time. But it was a good cut and although it was slightly too cooked for my liking, it still had a nice beefy flavor and was reasonably tender.

Continuing the trend of going overboard, we simply could not order the standard botak burger. So we went for the double botak burger and the

"U-Crazy-What?" burger (I like food that questions my sanity). The patties were juicy and beefy. There were no evidence of excessive filler breadcrumbs in it either. The only beef (cringe at the pun haha!) I've got with it is firstly, the patties tend to make your bun soggy due to the residual juices in it and secondly, the cheese on the "U-Crazy-What?" tasted more like generic Kraft slices rather than the purported chedder.

White meat is supposedly good for you, so for safe measure we ordered the cajun chicken as well. Couldn't really go wrong with a tender and well-marinated chicken breast fillet topped with some cheese and chilli. The spices and chilli could have been more spicy (hot) though, but overall it was rather pleasant.

A nice touch to this place is that they provide mustard and HP steak sauce. I think they deserve some credit for going that extra mile. I remember drawing blank stares from Jack's Steakhouse once when I asked for steaksauce and I got it here at a coffeshop without even asking. For those with a local palate, despair not, for they do provide bottles of ketchup and chilli sauce so you can douse (read as "drown") your food in copious amounts of the stuff. I spied bottles of malt vinegar on other tables as well so I guess you can have that with your fish and chips.

To end the meal, we ordered the only dessert they had on their menu (seems they're not happy with the quality of the cheesecake from their previous supplier and are sourcing for a new one now). I'm not sure if this slice of cake fits into the "made-fresh-to-order" category in their little introduction on the front of the menu, I mean, surely they could not have baked it fresh as I waited? Well, the 15 minute wait made it seem as though it was. The cake on the other hand was nothing spectacular, tasting just slightly above average to your typical sponge cake. Maybe they need to start sourcing for a new chocolate cake supplier too.

To sum it up, this place actually serves pretty decent fare and whoops the pants off other mid-ranged steakhouses. Their sides of seasoned fries and coleslaw are worth a mention too. Just state your steak cooking instructions really explicitly and avoid the sweets until they have sorted out supplier issues.

Lastly, I do appreciate their use of casual swearing in their slogan "Damn Good Food at a Damn Good Price" and if this trend continues, I hope to taste some "F**king Good Food at a F**king Good Price" pretty soon.

D