TacoCat's TrEats #94: TenderFresh is the TenderBest 🍗
Hey Steemit!
Now that it's been quite a while since Singapore has has been out of lockdown, or what our government has termed "circuit breaker", restaurants have been operating pretty much as usual aside from implementing safe distancing measures. We've also been eating out more and trying new places!
And one of these new places is called Tenderbest Makcik Tuckshop!
So this was back when we first moved into our new place! After a couple weeks of cleaning, unpacking, arranging, and generally settling in, we decided to try this restaurant near our place! We actually drove past it a couple of times since our first day of checking out our new house and haven't gotten round to trying it until now!
So tenderbest is actually under a larger food conglomerate called tenderfresh group, which actually has a whole slew of brands under them ranging from smaller food kiosks, to restaurants, retail, and coffee shops. I'm not sure why they decided to open so many different brands each with a different name, but regardless, the majority of them specialise in classic, affordable western fare. Although they also have some brands that focus mainly on Asian food like ToriGo!, which specialises in Japanese-themed chicken menu, and their coffee shop, Kedai Kopi serves standard Singapore hawker food.
Source: tenderfresh
We took some time to browse the menu outside the restaurant first before going in, and they have quite an extensive menu indeed!
From salads and appetisers to roast chicken, fried chicken, burgers, chicken chops, fish fillets, and even asian fusion pasta and some classic Singaporean dishes like nasi lemak!
Source: tenderbest
Everything looked so good! And even better was the fact that all the prices shown were nett, which means no additional service charge! I mean tbf they probably already accounted for that in the listed price, but still. The prices seemed pretty reasonable regardless, especially for western food.
Anyway, since chicken was their specialty, we obviously wanted to try their chicken. So after making our decision, we headed into the restaurant! Since our place wasn't too far away, we opted to get takeaway instead, since there were social distancing measures in place and we didn't want to take up space here if we could just get takeout and eat at home.
The interior of the restaurant looked so nice and comfortable though! It had the look of a cozy western cafe, but was actually spacious with a pretty high ceiling and and open concept.
Most of the chairs and tables lined the walls which definitely made the place a lot more spacious. I really liked the colour scheme as well; with the dark and colourful furniture contrasting with the white walls and grey flooring.
It definitely had a kind of industrial look to it, but still colourful with the greenery and oak furnishings.
I thought these sofas looked so comfy; kind of like the one in Central Perk from Friends, but you could tell the tables were a little too high for those couches unfortunately. And I don't think they'd be that good to sit in while having full meals. Maybe they'd be better for like coffee or dessert, when you don't have to look down at your plate too much.
Anyway, we placed our order on foodpanda since we had discount codes and waited patiently for our food to be ready. They even had a small seating area in the middle so we sat there while waiting.
About 10 minutes or so later, our order was ready! So we hurried back home so we could dig in! But not before taking photos of course!
So did you guess what we ordered? I decided to try one of the Asian fusion pastas, more specifically the Fried Chicken Chop with Salted Egg Spaghetti!
But since we also wanted to try their normal fried chicken, Sean ordered the Happiness fried chicken set, which includes 3 pieces of fried chicken and fries!
Sorry we didn't get to see the plating by the chefs since we bought takeout, but the food was really yummy! The salted egg spaghetti had just the right amount of salted egg to complement the spaghetti but not overpower it, and paired perfectly with the fried chicken chop. Absolutely delicious!
The fried chicken itself was also really good! They used a very unique batter that was slightly peppery and the chicken was fried to crisp perfection! The fries were a little bland though, but with their chili sauce it tasted alright.
Both our chicken was pretty much exactly the same though, but it was yummy regardless. I'd say their fried chicken could definitely rival that of KFC's, and the ratio of batter to meat is probably better in the case of tenderbest. But that's just my opinion of course.
This was my first time trying anything from tenderbest/tenderfresh, and I have to say it was really good! I'm definitely looking forward to trying out their other dishes for sure! If you're ever in the mood for some western food, tenderfresh is definitely a safe bet.
Thanks for reading!
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