Tomahawk is par se, Time for a Porterhouse!
Steakhouses in Singapore have really come of age. Nowadays, you don’t have to visit some fancy steakhouse to find a good steak, which usually comes with an equally fancy price tag. If all you are after is a decent steak, there are plenty of other options.
Gone too are the days when everyone ordered their own piece of meat. The trend now is to share a big hunk of beef, which is why the Tomahawk has become so popular. The other cut that’s great for sharing is the Porterhouse, but this is not as readily available.
That’s exactly why, when owner Chery wanted to open her own steakhouse, she chose the Porterhouse as her signature steak. Her goal was simple. It is to bring people together over a good quality beef steak at prices that are more accessible. The Porterhouse also happens to be her favourite steak!
FREE HAINANESE PORK CHOP PROMOTION
- Get a Free Hainanese Pork Chop with every Tomahawk or Porterhaus Steak order!
- Just show this post to the restaurant
- Valid Period: Mon – Thurs only, until 31 Aug 2026
Dragging Chef Benny out of Retirement
To bring the menu and the kitchen up to standard, Chery turned to an old friend, Benny Se Teo, and dragged him out of retirement to help out. Benny came on board to work on the menu and train the chefs. If that name rings a bell, it should, because he has quite a colourful backstory.
Benny is the founder of Eighteen Chefs, the restaurant chain built on giving ex-convicts and troubled youths a second chance in the kitchen. I first met Chef Benny back in 2007, at his very first Eighteen Chefs outlet in Eastpoint. I was struck by his story, years of heroin addiction, in and out of prison, and eventual redemption through food. It’s one of the more remarkable stories in Singapore’s F&B scene.
He had retired from Eighteen Chefs back in 2021. But a guy like Benny just can’t say no to a friend in need. Plus, this particular project has a special place in his heart. Another of his babies was The MeatHouse by 18 Chefs. It is a Halal steak joint that he ran at Century Square in Tampines. So steaks is something close to his heart.
Fire, Beef and Peter Luger
The team tasted their way through several brands before finally settling on Stanbroke beef from Australia. They liked the flavour and quality of the beef. By sticking to a single source, they can be assured of the consistency of the steaks that come out from the kitchen.
The other half of the equation is how the beef is cooked. The fact is, you can easily buy a good steak and cook it in a frying pan at home. So if you are paying for a steak at a restaurant, it has to have that extra something you can’t replicate in your own kitchen.
To give the steak that edge, Benny prepares it “Peter Luger” style. It is an approach inspired by his own visit to the famous steakhouse in New York.
The steak is first seared hard and fast in a superhot charcoal grill oven, the kind made famous by the Spanish brand Josper, which burns at temperatures of up to 600°C. It’s then sliced, bathed in clarified butter, and returned to the oven for another quick sear.
Incidentally, Benny tells me he was among the first chefs in Singapore to bring in a Josper oven. This was back in his days at The MeatHouse, so he really knows how to work the oven. Not only does the steak develop a great char, it also takes on a nice smokiness that’s not easily achieved at home.
Porterhouse or Tomahawk?
Do watch the video for a full breakdown of where these cuts come from. But to cut a long story short, here’s what you need to know.
When to get a Porterhouse
If you like gnawing on the strip of fat that runs along the edge of the strip loin, go for the Porterhouse. If you prefer something lean but still really tender, then the tenderloin on the other side of the Porterhouse is your bite.
When to get a Tomahawk
But if you are looking for something really juicy and marbled, then you would want to go for the Tomahawk. Specifically the ribeye cap, technically known as the spinalis dorsi muscle, is the most tender. It runs around the edge of the Tomahawk.
If I had a choice, I would gather a few friends, so I can order both steaks and enjoy all three cuts!
The quality of the beef is very good. It has just the right amount of marbling, juicy and satisfying, with a very nice beefiness, the kind all steak lovers look for in a good steak.
It’s great on its own with the clarified butter, but it’s even better with their house made brown sauce. Special mention has to go to that brown sauce, it’s excellent, and for good reason. They make it entirely from scratch, with a proper mirepoix and lot of beef bones so that it has a good depth of flavour. It sure beats the powdered demi-glace that you often come across in many restaurants.
Sides to go with your steaks
Fans of Benny’s earlier steakhouse days will also be glad to know that his Heart Attack Fried Rice is also on the menu. This savoury fried rice loaded with lard goes really well with the beef.
Benny made the dish famous over the years, though he’ll be the first to tell you he didn’t invent it. That honour goes to New Ubin Seafood, and I should know, since I was one of the first to write about it back in 2011. What Benny did was take the concept and coin a cheeky name for it. Now, it has became part of our cultural vocabulary.
Every steak order comes with a choice of two sides. Most are the standards you’d expect, fries, rucola (rockett) salad, mac and cheese. What’s a bit more special is the green apple and potato salad. It is quite refreshing and been given a local twist with a sprinkling of dried prune powder.
A Nod to the Old Hainanese Coffeehouse
Gen Xers and Baby Boomers will undoubtedly have fond memories of the Hainanese coffeehouses of the past. Benny has introduced a few dishes that only someone who lived through that era would think to bring back.
One of the old favourites is borscht soup. This soup has been served in Singapore since the 1960s. It was popularised by Russian-Hainanese restaurants like the old Troika and its successor, Shashlik.
Hainanese cooks who had worked on Russian ships brought back these recipes and adapted them for the Hainanese coffee house crowd. The dish became a fixture of old school continental dining here through the eighties and nineties.
Seeing it show up again at a neighbourhood steakhouse in Serangoon Gardens felt like a genuine nod to our culinary heritage.
Another old school coffeehouse staple is the Hainanese pork chop, which Benny has given a bit of a modern makeover. Instead of the usual slab of breaded pork swimming in gravy, Benny has cut the chop into strips and served the sauce separately in a glass. However, the restaurant has decided to serve the sauce in a gravy boat instead, so it is more kids-friendly.
His idea was for you to either dip each piece into the wine glass/gravy boat of sauce or pour the sauce over the pork chop. For the sauce, Benny insists on using the canned Ma Ling green peas, as well as the good old Lea and Perrins and tomato ketchup.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a really good quality steak without the bells and whistles, this new steakhouse in Serangoon Gardens is well worth a visit. This is especially if you are after a big steak the whole family can share. There are also local touches woven into the menu that give it that uniquely Singaporean character.
Disclosure: this post is written in partnership with Porterhaus. Opinions expressed are those of our own.
