Charco's charco's charco's!

WARNING: This post is NOT for the health-conscious.

Really awesome greasy chicken and ribs up ahead! :p

I am pretty sure some of you already heard this name. Yup, Charco's; "the flaming chicken". They don't only serve chicken, they have finger-licking ribs, burgers, kebabs and salads as well!

Charco's outlet is at:

Block 608 

Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5

#01-2771 (at Mr Teh Tarik)

Bus service: 138, 269 and 265 from Ang Mo Kio Interchange.

Check out their website for the prices and menu: http://www.charcos.com.sg/.

Review of food

Part of the menu!

 Portuguese Cobba Meal

1/4  Portuguese Chicken

Chips!

You can choose your desired flavour for the chicken, either Herbs or Portuguese. The former is more mild I guess but the latter is spicy and has more kick to it. Heh. I really like the Portuguese chicken. It is cooked with well-mixed spices and slight tinge of spiciness in it. I don't really know how to describe the taste, probably because I am not Portuguese. HAHA. But the chicken tastes good! And it's not VERY spicy, so it's not so bad for those who cannot tolerate spicy food so much like me! You can also choose the size of your chicken as well, so mine is 1/4. You can opt for bigger size (1/2 chicken) at a higher price :)

As you can see from the photo of the menu above, the meal you choose determines your sides. And they have soooo many sides! Yay! I decided to have Cobba Meal consisting of chicken, corn cob and generous amount of chips. The chips / fries are drizzled with some sort of powder, so it's like shaker fries. Without having to shake, of course. Hehe. Oh, and the corn cob tastes really refreshing! It is brushed with a good amount of butter in it too and it is really fresh. Tip: eat it with your hands! :D

Sampler Plate

The Sampler Plate, my friend, is the FATHER of all plates.

In case you can't seem to decide what to eat or you feel like eating both ribs AND chicken, get the sampler plate! For less than $20, the sampler plate consists of  1/2 signature Charco's Ribs, 1/8 Herbs Chicken, 1/8 Portuguese Chicken, 1 Creme Potato and 1 Salad of your choice (I like the tuna pasta!). Awesome right having almost everything on the menu?! :D 

For those of you who love ribs, Charco's ribs are definitely a must-try. Very tender meat, succulent and juicy! The sauce is slightly sweet and the ribs seriously demand you to use your hands to eat them up!

Creme Potato

Creme Potato is one of the sides Charco's offers. I really love anything related to potatoes and Creme Potato is one of them! Creme Potato by Charco's contains slightly chopped soft-boiled potatoes drenched in a bowl of creme sauce with a slight drizzle of their signature chilli-like powder. It's best when it's eaten hot and it makes you full, really!  

Ambience & Service

The ambience is very local. What more can I say, since Charco's is located at the infamous Teh Tarik Eating House. Hence, the ambience is similar to a typical brightly lit Teh Tarik outlet. The service is okay too. The waiter served our orders not long after we placed our orders so we were very delighted to see our meals served in a jiffy! 

Budget

Hmm, perhaps around $10-$20? FYI, the chicken is much cheaper than ribs! Do check out their menu online :)

Recommended for

Those who love western food, particularly good, affordable ribs! :D

Nearby praying area(s)

1) Musollah behind the eating place

• Yup, there's a musollah behind this Teh Tarik outlet! Just walk towards the direction behind, somewhere near the cooking areas of the stalls. The musollah is separated for men and women. When in doubt, just ask any of the workers okay!
• Take your ablution at the toilet nearby :)

2) Muttaqin Mosque

• Take any bus towards Ang Mo Kio Interchange and alight when you see the mosque. It is not very far.

Here you go, 4 ice creams for Charco's! Posting about Charco's makes me crave for some chicken at this hour sigh sigh sighhhh.

Okay, that's all for now. All the best for end of year exams for the younger kids, N/O/A Level exams for slightly older kids and never-ending assignments, research papers and projects for the old kids! :D

Nandos Bagos!

Assalamu'alaikum everyone! Ready for some chickens? :D

Well, Nando's Singapore is halal (finally!) only recently. Our Malay/Muslim majority neighbour has halal Nando's for quite some time already. Now it's our turn to have finger-licking-good, Islamically-slaughtered chickens! Heh heh.

We went to the outlet at Jcube. Easily accessible and of walking distance from Jurong East MRT Station. There are also other outlets spread across the country so fret not! Delicious chickens are EVERYWHEREEEEE!

And if you think KFC is the best chicken you've ever tasted, well think again! Hopefully, Nando's will change your mind ;)

Check out Nando's website at http://www.nandos.com.sg/ for their full menu and restaurant outlets etc. Their website is really cute and cool! I like!

Review of food

You can purchase the Peri-Peri chicken in sizes: either 1/2 chicken, 1/4 chicken, chicken wings etc. Alternatively, there are three types of platter which I feel is more worth it as it includes sides and drinks as well: Meal Platter (for 2 people), Full Platter (for 2-3 people as they give you more sides) and Jumbo Platter (for 4-6 people). My Food Buddy and I were starving pretty badly so we bought the meal platter which is suitable for 2 people to share. The Meal Platter consists of 1 whole chicken, either 1 large or 2 regular sides, and 2 soft drinks. Now, you must be thinking how on earth did 2 people finish one entire whole chicken all by themselves? Trust me, it is possible indeed!

You have to choose the level of 'heat' for your chicken. Ranging from the least spicy to the most spicy, the levels consist of Lemon & Herb Peri-Peri, Mild Peri-Peri, Hot Peri-Peri and Extra Hot Peri-Peri. We chose...... HOT PERI-PERI. It is real gooooooooood. Even for someone who can't take chilli so much, the Hot Peri-Peri level is not so bad actually, It is spicy and syiok but still manageable in a way. Hehe. The chicken is cooked well. The inside is tender and succulent, while the outside is marinated well with their specialty Peri-Peri sauce. This unique blend of sweet and sour flavours are sure to tingle your taste buds! If you have 'lidah melayu' (translation: Malay's tongue which essentially means you can take in even the spiciest of food like chilli padi!), you should definitely go for Extra Hot Peri-Peri level ;)

Other than the chicken, you can choose your sides! The sides available are Chips, Coleslaw, Potato Wedges, Corn, Garlic Bread, Spicy Rice and Mediterranean Rice. We chose Chips and Spicy Rice. Well, Chips are basically fries. I have to say that the Spicy Rice as a side dish is not bad actually! The Spicy Rice is almost like fried rice (albeit less oily), contains some spices in it and tastes well with the Hot Peri-Peri chicken.

All in all, the Meal Platter is really goood! Who says two people can't finish a whole chicken? :p

And the designer drinks are a must-try as well! Basically they are fizzy fruit drinks like mocktails. There are many flavours for you to choose from too! Crimson Cola, Madeira Red, Rosa Fresca, Sparkling Apple.... Just to name some!

Ambience & Service

I must say that the ambience is amazing! Very nice to lepak. Hehe. Oh it can get quite cold and chilly though since the location of the restaurant is very near to the ice skating rink! We sat at the table closest to the ice rink so we were shivering a lil bit halfway through our meal. As if it's winter season in Singapore. Feeling feeling je. Hehehe. The service is efficient as well! We didn't have to wait for so long for our platter to arrive. Perhaps we were there during a weekday afternoon and the restaurant wasn't packed with customers. Jcube is usually very congested during the weekends, hence may I suggest that you avoid the weekends and come on a weekday if possible, yeah?

Budget

The Meal Platter for two costs $43. Not forgetting the service charge and GST, hence we had to pay more than $50 for our meal actually. Pretty costly huh! So unless you are one rich kid, personally I feel Nando's is like more of a luxury food for one to enjoy occasionally or during some special event or something :)

Must-try

Hot Peri-Peri Chicken and the designer drinks!

Recommended for

Chicken lovers ;)

Nearby praying area(s)

1) Al Mukminin Mosque

• Take bus 52, 98, 105 or 183 from Jurong East Interchange and alight after 2 or 3 stops, depending on which bus you take. The mosque is nearby and you can actually walk there too!

Alright, that's all from me, folks! Oh ya, any Ban Mian lovers out there? Stay tuned for my next post, okay! :D

Selamat berbuka puasa in advanced, everybody! What are you having for iftar? I am having chicken rice hehe! I love you, chicken! Mwah!