Consumed by a curiosity for Mongolian food, Jag, Balan and me made our way down to 34D River Valley Road to indulge in some exotic Mongolian teppanyaki and grill.
Called Tent, we each went for the $26/head buffet.
This is how it works :
- Get some noodles (a variety of them) or brown / white rice- Pick your veges and / or your meats or seafood (place does not serve pork). They will be cooked with your noodles or rice or you can choose to have them on their own.
- Proceed to choose which sauce you'd like to cook your veges / rice / noodles in. This is a rather long drawn out process here - see, there are 26 sauces to choose from. And you have to mix the sauces yourself according to instructions. Can be rather time consuming and messy when you have people waiting in line behind you. But Jag just gave up and asked the wait staff to do it for her - wise gal!- There are other things like coriander, chilli padi, spring onions, ginger and garlic and chilli powder that you can choose to go with your food
- Give your tray to the chef
- He cooks it teppanyaki style, in full view
- You are served!
So, the 1st time we had our noodly bowls, it was all exciting and novel. Then the 2nd round, we were like....hey, this is just like having mee or nasi goreng in different flavoured sauces!! So, the novelty wore off.
Also, the food can be pretty heavy going if you are going to keep having noodles / rice round after round. I suggest you do many rounds starting off with vegetables, then meat, then combine with noodles / rice, and perhaps end off with an omelette or something.
So, at the end of it all, did we feel like we discovered Mongolian cuisine?
Nope.
More like "cha pa lang" or "rojak" cuisine, if you ask me. According to this website - Mongolian cuisine is mutton, mutton, and more mutton - with sauces or gravy made from dairy products.
At the Tent, you will see Tom Yam sauce, green curry sauce, Filipino sauce, red Indian sauce and adobo sauce. I'm quite sure they were catering to a local palate. And I'm not so sure about Teppanyaki being Mongolian and all.
If anything, it just goes to show how 'globalised' the Tent is. An interesting fact I read about the restaurant in this review is that it is the sister restaurant of Ras Indian Restaurant at Clarke Quay. And, they have some cute waitstaff working there :-).
Personally
, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't authentic Mongolian. But on reflection, if it really was authentic Mongolian, I probably would not be able to eat many things on the menu anyway since I only take fish, chicken and vegetables.
However, this place has it's merits - very good for vegetarians :-) - you get your tofu, broccoli, peas, peppers, shitake mushrooms.......When I entered, the waitstaff made it a point to ask me if I was vegetarian or now, so that goes to show that they have catered substantially to the dining of the often marginalised vegetarians in Singapore.
Secondly, identity crisis issues aside, the food is well cooked, delicious and there are helpful, courteous....and did I mention cute? waitstaff. Ambience is clarke quay-ish as well. I am of the opinion that Tent should not project itself as Mongolian - better for expectation management. Anyway, if you'd like to do research on Mongolian cuisine, check out these links.
PS : my opinions are based on my experience of the buffet. I didn't study the menu too closely so am not sure if the a la carte dishes contained truly authentic Mongolian stuff. In any case, the 2 reviews I have read of the Tent pushed the buffet - which is what I went in for - and am sure many other diners did the same.
