I didn't like this place as soon as stepped into the restaurant. It was far too smokey and obviously the ventilation was very poor. There were very little space between table, which made it extra uncomfortable.

On the menu (which was greasy to touch), there were meats and organs which ranged from $28 to around $68, and you get to choose salted, marinated or miso (Not available to all dishes). We ordered chicken, pork neck, beef ribs, oxtail and ox tongue (I don't eat organs). We also ordered a curry pot rice with cheese.

The meats came first. The dishes were quite small, but considering the dishes we ordered were $28 and $48, I think it was okay. The ribs (marinated) and pork neck (salted) were good, chicken was adequate, oxtail was poor with literally no meat at all.

Next was the rice. I was very very disappointed that it came with pork intestines... Either I didn't read carefully or they didn't mention on the menu, but for someone who doesn't eat organs, yuck!!!! I did try the rice though. There were too much curry sauce and was too heavy. I wouldn't have liked it even if it was just with regular meats.

The service was okay, but the staff seems quite rushy (maybe it was peak hours).

After 40 min, I was already ready to get the bill. I just couldn't wait to get some fresh (well, relatively) air outside.

It won't be too much to say that I hate this place.

The first thought that came to my mind when I walked into the restaurant was, 'This is like a Casa Fina wannabe, but with more meat dishes.' Especially when I saw that they have buy-1-get-1-free offer on selected oysters from Sunday to Thursday.

Being quite hungry and couldn't be bothered to listen to all the descriptions, we decided to try all of the 5 types of oysters on offer.As the waiter recommended to us, we tried them in the following order:

- Scottish Rock
- Colchester
- Mont St. Michelle
- Ostra Regal
- Gillardeau

And in the order from favourite to most dislike:

- Gillardeau: Not too creamy, not too salty and I love the sweet after taste of this
- Mont St. Michelle: Smoothest one of the five and also the smallest, but I like the creaminess
- Colchester: Meaty and quite refreshing
- Ostra Regal: Salty and very strong flavored, not my cup of tea
- Scottish Rock: Tasted very metallic. I wouldn't order it again

After oysters, it was our second starter Oyster Soup. The soup is cream based but not as thick the spinach oyster soup at Casa Fina. It's flavoursome, but a bit on the salty side in my opinion. It went will with the bread though.

Now the mains. First was the King Prawn Spaghetti Sicilian Style.It was very slightly undercooked, not perfectly al dente. However, the prawn tasted fresh and the tomato sauce with dried squid was very delicious.

Second main that we ordered was the Crab Meat Risotto.I am afraid this was a miss. The risotto was dry and lacked the seafood flavors I was after. The crab meat was not as fresh as I expected. The whole dish just tasted very plain.Finally, the dessert - Chocolate Fondant. What a major disappointment! The cake was too dry on the outside and not sweet / almost bitter. The vanilla ice-cream had bits of ice in it and just wasn't smooth at all. It's one of the worst ones I've had.

The first time I came here was about half a year ago and have been coming back regularly since then for both lunch and dinner. I like the relaxed atmosphere and the food is consistently good. I don't drink beer, but everytime I bring my friends here who do, they are pleasantly surprised by the choice of beer they offer.

Recommended

Pot of Mussels
One thing that I order almost everytime is the mussel pot. I have tried laska, Provencale, Mariniere and Oriental Style so far and the prior two are my favourites. They all come with a bowl of fries. It's cripsy and slightly salted and goes perfectly with the mayo.

Laska
Flavour is not as strong creamy as that soup base that you find in laska noodles, but a lighter version but yet flavoursome.

Provencale
Consists of garlic, onion, tomatoes and herbs. It's more traditional way of cooking mussels.

Sole Fillet Au Gratin
It was offered on the express lunch menu. The fish was seasoned with salt and pepper and place on top of thin slices of potatoes topped with a cream sauce with onion and mushrooms. All the ingredients went well together.

Langoustine Linguine
I thought this was delicious. Linguine with cream sauce with fish, prawns and mussels. It doesn't have a wow factor, but overall a very decent dish.

Try if you really want to

Braised Belgioan Endive Au Gratin
The ham was not tender enough and the flavours didn't really blend in well

Oven Baked Fish of the Day
The fish was baked with Hoegaarden lemon sauce. I think it was slightly overcooked and it's just a personal preference that I prefer the French way of cooking fish.

Beef Pie
Don't remember the exact name of the dish now, but it wasn't the best pie I have had. The pastry was a little too dry for my taste and the meat was not tender enough

Having read the previous reviews, I had high expectations in this place, but it came out to be a total disappointment!

First of all, there are only 7 main courses to choose from because many of the mains are for 'party only' which means you will have to pre-order the day before.

We ordered a chicken doner, another chicken dish that tastes exactly like the chicken doner, a scallop dish which takes like the chicken doner again and a vegan dish with tomatoes, onions and eggs. They all taste very bland and doesn't take nearly as good as the ones I tried in Europe before. We also ordered a side fries which was not crispy, but very oily and soggy. Although it says the mains come with a salad, it's basically a few lettuce leaves and 2 slices of tomatoes, halved, making it 4 slices.

The tea in the end was the most disappointing. I tried Turkey tea when I visited a Turkish friend before and this one is just not authentic.... maybe it's too diluted and tastes just like cheap Chinese tea that you get at the local chinese fast food places. Also, the portions were small too, so we decided to have a second dinner afterwards (which tasted so much better).

Another down side of this place is that the kitchen is right beside where you side and it's an open kitchen, so the place is really stuffy and you can out feeling quite sick and oily. My friends couldn't stand the guy frying the onions and had to go outside to get some fresh air.

All in all, it was just a very bad dinning experience.

We went to chesa for dinner last week. I was quite impressed by the settings - very Swiss-like.

We ordered Crêpe au crabe, cappuccino à l’homardine et Armagnaca and Fondue Forestière to start with. The crab pancake was delicious. It was filled with crab meat and the sauce tastes like lobster bisque. Cheese fondue was a bit heavy on the wine. Maybe we should have ordered it with less alcohol in it. I think the one we tried in Swiss Chalet was better (think we had the one with garlic there).

For the mains, we ordered Emincé de veau Zurichois and Fondue Chinoise. They knew we were sharing the dishes, so they actually divided the veal onto two plates for us. I think the taste was average. I would have liked it with more mushrooms. For the beef fondue, we had the diced beef instead. The meat was tender, but it lacked the beef flavour. The stock had all the correct ingredients including the herbs, but the stock was too thin. The sauces were not good.

Maybe the meal would be good for those who are not used to strong flavours, but for me, having tried and loved the food in Switzerland, this is not the place I would come again.