The Ship Restaurant at Shaw Centre has been around for the longest time. Just a simple line would better describe its longevity than just a simple numerical figure of years of existence:

It used to be a place where my parents went for dinner dates, back in their courting days.

My prior visit to The Ship was probably 2-3 years ago, back when the shops around the restaurant were open for business (most of them have a ‘For Lease’ sign on the glass doors). I clearly remember there being a Samsonite store directly opposite the restaurant.

So what did I think of this one-time popular Hainanese style western steak house? Does it hold its own against the new entrants to the ever-vibrant Singapore F&B scene?

One of the key performance indicators that I use to view if a restaurant is successful is the crowd. I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Ship was still reeling in the crowds. In fact, it was running at full capacity with a mixture of young couples and families with young toddlers.

The Ship has branches in Malaysia too. (Although I am not sure which is the branch – Singapore’s or Malaysia’s.)

A small top up added the option of a soup and a dessert to any order of a main course.

The Soup Of The Day was a simple, but pleasant Cream of Mushroom soup. Granted, there was neither portobello or porcini mushrooms nor truffle oil, the warm soup started our tummies hungry for more. It’s funny – but this reminded me of a canned Campbell’s soup that literally brought back many memories of yester years. Bits of mushrooms could be found in the soup, which added a texture

Two places (aside from Fine Dining establishments that include Au Petit Salut) that I like to order Escargots are, Jack’s Place and The Ship. Can I add too, that the escargots here are extremely affordable!

I ordered a serving of Escargots (Half a dozen) to share. Unknown to me, it was the first time that my dining partner for the evening, Zaylene, had escargots. I’m glad to have introduced her to this wonderful delicacy. I’m putting words into her mouth by saying this,, but I’m quite sure she definitely would re-order this, given a chance.

The Ship’s escargots are baked perfectly (it’s so easy to over cook them!), with the right amount of butter and garlic!

Note: I’ve read both positive and negative reviews on The Ship’s escargots, so I suppose that they may tend to be somewhat inconsistent in terms of quality.

Pan Fried Snapper

Chicken Ala Ship

For both dishes, taste wise, salt seemed to be the name of the game. Both the Pan Fried Snapper and Chicken Ala Ship were on the salty side.

To go into specifics, the snapper was moist, which meant that the control of the heat and duration by the chef were perfect. The somewhat simple cream sauce that accompanied the fish failed to nullify the overly-marinated (of salt and salt alone) fish.

The Chicken Ala Ship, which essentially is grilled chicken topped with cheese, was Zaylene’s choice of main. She thought that while the chicken was tender, the grilled cheese atop the meat, added a unwelcome salty element to the dish. The sauce that was drizzled over it, was the exact cream sauce that accompanied the snapper.

The sides that were served along with the dish include, boiled carrots, caulliflowers and baked potatoes. While the ‘plain-ness’ of the sides were decent and unimpressive, they did however help my heart health, by not further contributing to the already high levels of sodium in the meal.

The Dessert of the Day was a decent Mango Mousse. Both Zaylene and myself liked the simple and smooth dessert. What did it for me, was the fact that the dessert was not awfully sweet, yet at the same time, successfully put a sweet end to the meal

Located centrally in the heart of the Orchard Road shopping belt, The Ship, is for anyone seeking an extremely affordable Hainanese styled western meal, in an old-school setting. As our meal showed, one just has to overlook some of its minor flaws in its food and take in the old school ambience and excellent service and he/she is bound to have a satisfying meal.

Since I’m on this ‘genre’ of restaurants, two other names come to mind – Jack’s Place and Shahslik. I assure you that a revisit to these 2 restaurants will be on my cards very soon.

The Ship Restaurant & Bar 船餐厅酒店
1 Scotts Road
#04-34 Shaw Centre

Tel: +65 6235 2235

Opening hours: Daily 11am – 10pm