The Ranch - 5th Jun 2018
The newest steakhouse on the block, The Ranch, has
just opened in Clarke Quay just behind the main taxi stand on River Valley
Road. The people behind Aston’s who are known for their affordable steakhouses
have gone on to do a premium steakhouse. We were there last week celebrating
Senior Huber’s belated birthday dinner. The restaurant uses a good amount of
wood to give it that typically homely steakhouse feel but marries it with
modern touches including six full length dry age chillers where they dry age
their signature USDA Prime beef.
The Ranch at Clarke Quay
For starters, we had the classic Caesar salad. The fresh and crisp Australian cos lettuce
came with a generous amount of parmesan shavings. The sauce was thick and
tasted good with the anchovy mixed in but my only complaint here would be that
they could have used lesser sauce. For the Moules Mariniere starter, the plump
and juicy mussles came with a white wine stock that could have done with more
reduction to make it tastier. Perhaps the thought here by serving it with chilli
tomato coulis and saffron aioli sauce is for you to dip the mussels into the
sauce for the extra flavour. The crabcake here is good with fresh chunks of
crab meat that is served with an avocado ice cream on the top and cucumber
relish around it.
Caesar Salad and Moules Mariniere(Sailor-style Mussels)
For the mains, the ladies shared a 240 days grain-fed black Angus ribeye. The ribeye was cooked perfectly to the medium doneness
as requested and the meat was tender and full of flavour. For under $50, this
puts most other steakhouses to shame who charge almost double for a piece of
steak which is not as good as the one here. Senior Huber and I shared a 30 days
dry-aged USDA Prime porterhouse. Steaks come with a choice of Bernaise, red
wine jus, twin peppercorn or Perigord truffle sauce while for the dry aged
steaks, you get a choice of two sauces. The server will give you a list of the
available weights for the dry aged bone-in ribeye (prime rib) and porterhouse.
We chose a 900g porterhouse which we duly polished off. We shared among us the
Perigord truffle sauce, red wine jus and twin peppercorn. The porterhouse was carved on a trolley beside
our table by our server and for me this steak went best with the Perigord
truffle sauce while the ribeye went best with the peppercorn sauce, provided
you even want to eat the steak with sauce in the first place. The steak was
served with a full bulb of roasted garlic and baby tomatoes and after it was
placed on the table, the server used a cheese grater to grate Himalayan pink
salt onto the meat. The great thing about the porterhouse is you can have two
different cuts of meat in one steak. The more marbled sirloin side was very
tender but the fillet was even tenderer. There was just a hint of dry aged
flavour and though the steak was tender, it just lacked the extra beefiness
from the Australian grain fed ribeye. Nevertheless still a very good steak.
240 Days Grain-fed Black Angus Ribeye and 30 Days Dry-aged USDA Prime Porterhouse
For sides, we had the potato gratin, mushroom
ragout and creamed spinach. I prefer my potato gratin in a smaller cocotte so
that there is more layers of potato and it remains creamier as opposed to the
version here. The mushroom ragout was delicious and the spinach is not chopped
up but instead left whole for a totally different texture.
Potato Gratin, Mushroom Ragout and Creamed Spinach for sides
The Ranch offers really good steaks for unbeatable
value. If you are into marbled beef, their Japanese Wagyu steak is going for
$98 for a 400g piece. That is the cheapest I have seen anywhere in Singapore.
~Andre Huber
Executive Director
