Restaurant review: Fansida Wine & Dine
Fansida Wine & Dine is a restaurant located at a corner of Geylang Lor 23 quite unlike it’s surroundings (Mainly Chinese kopitiams). It caught my eye recently while I was driving past one day and wondered at the weird name. Honestly I still find it rather tough to remember.
Sorry, we are currently facing some technical issues with the photos of the dishes. Will upload again as soon as I can.
Anyway, through eatigo, our paths crossed again. Eatigo is an app that Ed’s friend introduced us to and if you sometimes have meals during off peak hours, this app is quite useful as it offers discounts up to 50%. We had a good breakfast at Paul’s at Marina Baylink Mall at 50% and hubs great meal sat Suki-ya (Japanese steamboat) and Han Kook Gwan (Korean BBQ). In fact, he brought me back to Han Kook Gwan as he liked it so much but I got a Groupon instead (hey, you gotta use these deals to max your bucks yeah?) and the Groupon deal was actually not as good as the set meal is just overpriced to begin with.
Anyway, back to Fansida Wine & Dine. So off we went to our late night dinner and when we arrived at 9.25pm, the restaurant was empty. “You sure open or not?” Ed asked. Eh….. Ok fine I know you close at 10, but this is really quiet for a Friday night…. Hesitant… Apprehension… But they did have only positive reviews on Eatigo and Google… So take a deep breath! At least got 50% off, right?
Then an Indian waiter appeared and welcomed us in. We informed him of our Eatigo reservation and he brought us to a table. Service was impeccable. Well despite being last customers and paying 50% only… The service was really good and attentive unlike another experience I had with the other Eatigo restaurant…
The decor reminds me a little of old school Hainanese Western restaurants. A tad dated but clean and neat. The huge windows looking out to Geylang is quite interesting though not the best view. There is almost a poetic contrast of the leisurely and clean European feel indoors with the chaos of Geylang.
Since discount already so go for soup, mains and share a dessert. Too late for too much food. I ordered a mushroom soup at $9 original ($4.50 discount) snapper at $18 original price ($9 discount) while Ed had a lobster bisque $10 ($5 discount) and a ribeye at $28 ($14 discount). Then we shared an Apple strudel at $9 (yup, you get the hang of it, we get $4.50 discount). Lol… How shiok is that right? And to begin with their prices are not too bad!! (I made Ed search other restaurant prices to make my point that you don’t get this type of prices at most Ang moh restaurants. Agree???
Price points aside, let’s talk about food quality. My mushroom soup was a tiny bit bland and I had to ask for salt and pepper (I only added pepper in the end) and the flavour does build up. In fact, I love the pieces of mushrooms in the soup. Pretty value for money! Will I pay $9 for it? Maybe. But I am stingy especially with starters I can easily prepare at home.
Ed enjoyed his lobster bisque. When he has no complaints, it says enough. Lol… The soup came with small pieces of prawns but no lobster which is disappointing. I could not taste it as I am still recovering from my stitches but This I do not mind paying full to try it as it is a little more trouble to prepare.
Next the mains. My snapper was cooked perfectly with a slightly crusty top and tender moist flesh within and went perfectly with the mushroom sauce. I loved it! Will definitely even pay full price for this. It may be a tad under salted for some people but that can easily be resolved. It is just nice for me.
Ed enjoyed his ribeye. Serving is an estimated 200g or so and pretty thinly sliced but cooked to utmost perfection and super tender. He requested for medium and it was perfect. A dish he is happy to pay for full price as well.
Deseert was rather disappointing though. We asked for recommendations and were introduced to Creme brûlée and tiramisu. But since I do these 2 pretty well at home (and oh so easy) and I have high expectations of these if I pay, I decided to go for the Apple strudel. Let’s just say what was served was more like Apple pie with vanilla ice cream that I hope is store bought as it was way too sweet with no hint of vanilla. Big disappointment.
But otherwise a really good meal. And best of all? We enjoyed it at 50% discount!!! How shiok is that???!!
CONCLUSION:
We will definitely be back for more. Especially so if there is a discount. Hehe… But even at full price, it is quite good value. For the mains, I think they can get 8/10. Will want to try their foie gras, lamb and sea bass next!
