Walking to Singapore Bistro
Actual date: August 12, 2009
This trip was the first that we had pre-planned around good food. In the past we might’ve made mental notes of a few places we wanted to go to, but this time we planned every single meal. We didn’t want to waste a single meal by just going to eat somewhere close to wherever we were when we started getting hungry. We didn’t completely succeed in that effort, but that’s a story for another post. We tried to plan restaurants to go with activities, and since Singapore Bistro sounded like a good place to eat and is close to Susie’s office we chose it for our first meal.
We walked from Susie’s office to Singapore Bistro for lunch. This first walk in D.C. was a bit of an eye-opener for me in terms of map distance vs. real distance. “But it looked much closer on the map!” Ehem… I seriously miscalculated some of the distances while doing pre-trip planning. Not that this was a long walk really, but it felt longer than I thought it should be based on how it looked on the map. I’ll know better next time. Thankfully it seemed that as the days went by and I became more used to walking everywhere, distances didn’t seem quite as bad.
Notice that Sofia is walking instead of riding in a stroller? Yeah, that’s my fault. I didn’t think it’d be that far. Oops. She was fine, but we would’ve preferred her be in a stroller with all the street crossing we did to get there.
Singapore Bistro storefront
Singapore Bistro is an Asian restaurant (strives to serve authentic Asian dishes, not to be confused with Asian fusion), located in what looks to be a converted townhouse. The converted townhouse building style is fairly popular around this area of town.
Colorful ceiling
Inside is (at least) 2 levels of seating area with a sushi bar on the 1st floor. The ceiling is covered in swaths of colorful cloth, which in conjunction with the bright yellow walls makes for a festive look. But we weren’t there for the pretty colors. We were hungry, man, so let’s get down to business.
Thai iced tea
Denise and Susie both had some of this Thai iced tea. I had a sip and wasn’t crazy about it; can’t really remember much more than that about it. They both liked it.
Pork "Indonesian Panggang (Grill)"
I’ll admit that I almost didn’t order this as I was mildly offended by this supposedly Indonesian food with a name that didn’t correspond to any existing dish I’d ever heard of. You can get this “Indonesian Panggang” dish with a variety of different meats–chicken, pork, beef, etc. The word panggang simply means “grill”. I won’t get too deep into a lesson in Indonesian language here, but based on context and tense it can mean “to grill”, “grilled”, etc. You get the idea. So calling this dish “Indonesian Panggang” is like calling any kind of grilled meat “American Grilled”. It needs another noun in there, namely the word “meat”.
Anyway, despite my typically pedantic exception with the language used, we ordered it and enjoyed eating it. It was a bit tough to cut as being a thin cut of meat it was slightly overcooked, but it had a good flavor.
Singapore Curry Noodles
When at Singapore Bistro order Singapore Curry Noodles. Makes sense, right? The menu said these would be spicy, but they were barely spicy to me, and nobody else had any trouble with its level of heat. Decent enough, but not really that different from the Singapore Chow Mei Fun we can get in Mississippi, which isn’t exactly a flattering comparison. Having said that, Singapore Chow Mei Fun is one of our favorites from our local Chinese hole-in-the-wall place, so maybe we’re being a bit too harsh? It wasn’t bad or anything, but we were expecting better. Maybe this is really how it tastes in Singapore? It’s one of the things we wanted to eat but didn’t get to while in Singapore for a few days last year. In any case, a decent dish.
Singapore Gway Tio
The Singapore Gway Tio on the other hand was excellent. It was our favorite dish of the meal. The noodles were properly cooked and had that characteristic chewy quality of Kway Teow as it’s called in Singapore, or Kwe Tiau in Indonesian parlance. ”Flat rice noodles” would be the English equivalent. I’m sure it’s better in Singapore, but we’re not in Singapore so we do what we can. Well-cooked with a nice sweet flavor and a bit of char like you’d expect from a fried noodle dish.
Family style dining
We ate family-style, sharing all 3 dishes and eating them with our own portions of rice. I think we finished off everything except for a bit of the grilled meat, with the Singapore Gway Tio the first to disappear. Good, solid meal, and a nice start to our D.C. culinary adventure.
Artist in training
Name that sushi
Singapore Bistro also serves sushi, but I’m generally skeptical of sushi from places that don’t specialize in it. All these Chinese restaurants around Jackson that also serve sushi… yeah, best not to dwell on that too much. I’m sure Singpore Bistro’s is better than typical Chinese buffet fare though–call it a hunch. Maybe theirs is really good, but I didn’t feel like trying my luck this time. Too many things we wanted to try to waste a meal/dish on potentially not-so-great sushi when we know we can get awesome sushi at Haru in Jackson.
Sofia is already well-versed in sushi spotting. She knows “shrimp ebi”, “egg tomago”, flying fish roe, and wasabi “hot, hot, hot”–all thanks to a board book about sushi she received as a present when she was smaller. Pretty sure it was a gift from a friend of ours. What a great gift that was.
So if you’re in the neighborhood, Singapore Bistro is worth a visit. We enjoyed our lunch there and wouldn’t at all mind going back when we get the chance.
Singapore Bistro
1134 19th St.
Washington, D.C.
(202) 659-2660
Mon – Thu: 11:30am – 10:30pm
Fri & Sat: 11:30am – Midnight
Sun: 4:00pm – 10:00pm