Dinner at Barossa Restaurant and Bar @ The Esplanade

8 Esplanade Avenue #01-11 The Esplanade, Singapore 039802

Tel: 6534 5188

Website: http://www.barossa.com.sg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BAROSSA.sg

An Australian-inspired restaurant under the Creativeateries Group serving a wide variery of hearty Australian fare in outback-meets-chic settings, Barossa currently has 2 outlets in Singapore - The Esplanade and Holland Village.

The Beau and I dined at the The Esplanade outlet with *Micaela and partner before our Les Miserables performance (review here). We sat outdoors, enjoying the near-river breezes and vibrant environment of the art-centric attraction spot.

Menu boosted of beers, burgers, pizzas and pastas etc; items are priced reasonably and service was average. It is a lovely chillout spot whether you prefer to sit indoors, catch a football game on TV or people-watch at the alfresco area.

We started with a round of Beers and Red Wine - they were going for a mere SGD$10.00 during Happy Hour. The house red was surprisingly smooth - very smooth, in fact.

Not hungry, having taken lunch around 3pm earlier on, I opted for Barossa Wings (SGD$16.00) with choice of BBQ, Salted Egg or Honey-something sauce.  Chicken Wings were succulent and juicy, sweetly marinated in smokey BBQ sauce - always a good starter, especially when paired with beers.

The Beau went for Smoked Duck Linguine (SGD$26.00) - juicy slices of tender smoked duck served with linguine, in a small pool of pepper cream sauce. The smoked duck and pepper cream sauce gave the pasta dish a robust burst of flavors; he enjoyed every bite without feeling "gelat" (the slightly sick feeling after polishing a lot of creamy / rich food).

*Micaela had the Barossa Blue Cheese Steak Burger (SGD$24.00) -  roasted beef steaks, blue cheese, herbed mayonnaise, arugula (rocket salad), camarelised onions topped with deep-fried onion strings. She enjoyed her burger immensely as well.

Barossa is, overall, a lovely and non-pretentious place to chill or enjoy a good meal with good music and spaciousness to boost. Somewhere I would return with a group of friends to catch up and have a few laughs over beers.