Social Square Parkway Parade – a restaurant with many Japanese and Western options

When we first looked at the restaurant menu of Social Square Parkway Parade,  we were astounded by the wide range of dishes offered. There were three substantial menus, one each for Japanese, Western and Desserts & Drinks. Some silent alarm bells were ringing in our head.  How can such a modest kitchen handle so many items. Will it be a case of a Jack of all trades producing mediocre food of many flavours?  If Social Square can pull off their hybrid restaurant, then this is a perfect place for meeting up with friends if some wanted pizza while others are craving teppanyaki. There was only one way to find out.

The Social Square Parkway restaurant looks so much better inside than outside. The narrow and dark entrance does not do justice to the place. The inside was a bright, spacious place with a forest theme. We are usually not fans of fake trees, but  they were used with good effect here to create a warm outdoor feel. The tables were placed sufficient far apart from each other. If our memory serves us correctly, this space was the former Banquet food court.

Here are the three menus of Social Square Parkway. Each of them is like a small magazine. There must be a few hundred items in the magazines combined. The western menu is quite predictable – the steaks, pizzas and pasta kind of food. The Japanese menu was more interesting – ranging from raw fish items to tempura and different types of rice and noodle dishes. What was quite unusual were the individual meal options. These included individual shabu-shabu and teppanyaki (cook-it -yourself ) options.

Menus

Here are some pages from the drinks and Japanese menus.  We ordered a mix of items from all three menus.

The individual teppanyaki or shabu shabu set meal was the most unique item in Social Square. The price depends on the meat that you select. We chose the $20.80 . The raw beef and some vegetables were served with a personal hot-pot for cooking. The beef was good and tender.  It was interesting to be eating shabu shabu when our friend was eating a steak across the table.

This is one of the more expensive items on the menu – a $40+ wagyu sirloin steak (I can’t remember the exact price). The steak was quite a decent, juicy piece of beef but what stole the show were the special cheese fries – they were delicious and addictive.   Do order some of these if ever you are here.

The linguine Carbonara was very creamy and quite average in taste.

This is the Kurobuta Potato Korroke Curry Rice ($14.80).  The two cutlets you see here were made of a  mixture of pork and potato, deep-fried with a bread crust layer. It was a successful combination of flavours. The Japanese style curry provided a perfect sauce for eating these with the rice. Very good.

This is the bibimbap diced salmon ($13.80). It has cooked diced salmon pieces, cabbage and bean sprouts pn rice and topped with a raw egg. The whole thing was served in a hotstone pot that was hot enough to cook the egg and turn the rice at the bottom slightly burnt and crispy.  A simple and wholesome meal.

The dessert menu of Social Square Parkway Parade is a very interesting and tempting bit of literature. Do not open it if you are counting your calories. If you do, the beautiful pictures and wide variety of sweet items will overcome any resistance to unwanted calories. Which was how we ended up with these two desserts. I cannot remember the details of the first one. It is mochi with jelly and ice-cream. The combination of these items create a good contrast of flavours and textures in your mouth.

The second dessert was Matcha Imo ($7.20 plus extra 80 cents for sliced almonds). What attracted us to this was that it was made with Japanese sweet potato.  The sweet potato content was very small, just two round slices. They tasted been better with the milky ice cream and red bean paste.  The almonds add some crunch to make this a really good dessert.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of the food at Social Square Parkway Parade. Not only did most of the dishes taste good, the presentation of the dishes were quite attractive. The service at this restaurant was friendly and attentive. This is certainly a good place to dine in a group of people who cannot agree on eating a specific type of cuisine.

Ratings:
Food: 3
Service:  4
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs  

Social Square Restaurant
80 Marine Parade Road
Parkway Parade #03-26
Singapore 449269

Tel: +65 6348 7262

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