French Bistro Review: Braseiro at 333 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427588

Do you ever feel like just having a simple, delicious steak without all the bells and whistles but might not know where to find it without spending more than $20? OK, other than Aston's that everyone knows and has become somewhat of a commoditised venue, how about trying a French bistro and steakhouse called Braseiro at Joo Chiat if you are in the East Coast area? I went for a tasting recently and was pleasantly delighted at the food and place.

The decor is thoughtful and the bistro had that intimate and unpretentious feel to it. There are two floors to the restaurant and here's the second floor. Plenty of seating. There's not much air-conditioning on the first floor though but on the bright side the ventilation on both floors are great.

Here's the menu. I like how SIMPLE everything is. I find it a headache to be confronted by pages and pages of food sometimes when I go to a restaurant. At Braseiro, it seems like their aim is to keep it to good prices and short/simple selection of either a choice of 3 starters or 3 mains PLUS unlimited fries and lettuce. What great value.

On the drinks side that's where the fun begins. Instead of the usual wine and soft drinks, we also see a selection of cocktails and Poptail, which is an alcoholic cocktail with an ice lolly inserted for that extra freshness.

Here's my Gin Fizz poptail (S$14.90) with a lime ice lolly inside. It was really refreshing in our hot tropical weather.

There's also a set menu combo for couples at $59.90 which works out to be just $32.95 per person after 10% service charge. And that's for a fondue de camembert starter to share, a main steak with fries each and a dessert of the day to share! If that's not value for money I don't know what is.

We had the baked camembert (S$15.90), of course we had to. And even though the bread looked like plain white toasted Gardenia, it was actually super good with the melted cheese! We tried to restrain ourselves on the bread so we can have more fries later. The cheese was so flavourful. 4.5/5

Here's the S$19.90 steak (flame-grilled rib-eye at M size), with the unlimited supply of fries and salad. First up, the fries were nicely brown and just the right size. They were really addictive - you can taste the 'potato' in them which is not that easy if you're used to processed fries. 

The steak itself was nicely grilled - you can see the marks on them, and there's a grill station right at the kitchen. The cut itself was satisfying enough for its price and juicy with beef (I know, that's a weird turn of phrase but that's how it tasted!), even if some parts were a little tough to cut through. Our medium rare order turned out to be slightly too rare for my tastes on the slightly thicker parts, though my friend had no problem with that. Actually beef can be eaten raw if it comes from a good source, so need not worry. Nothing happened after that! Seriously though. It was definitely an above average piece of steak. 4/5

We also tried the flame-grilled roasted chicken (S$19.90) which was very generous. And yup, tasty it was! The breast part was a little dry but I was surprised by how NOT dry it was overall for something that could potentially shrivel up with all the heat. So if you want some good quality protein to go with those free-flow fries and don't eat beef, here you go. 3.5/5

Braseiro in Joo Chiat is a good unassuming steakhouse for some decent flame-grilled meat and good conversations with friends. Just don't expect fancy table service or foie gras here - its where you dig in to the food and cool down with an ice lolly in your drink!

Braseiro
333 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427588
Everyday 6-11pm (Fridays/Sat till midnight), Sat/Sundays 11am-3pm brunch
Reservations +65 91163304

Merci to Alex from Braseiro for the invite!

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