An Autograph of TSC Signature

WITH A GROWING and lively food scene in Riyadh, it's best for establishments to make their brands stand out in any way possible. Meet TSC Signature, the full dine-in restaurant of the popular "The Sandwich Company" shops, ergo the "TSC", which has been bubbling with great reviews lately. I was lucky enough to get a treat from one of my friends to come and eat here and I've already seen people talking about it on Foursquare that I simply ought to try it. 

First off, I will apologize for not taking any photos of the interiors of the place because it's a shame that I didn't because the place was pristine! The whole set-up of the restaurant spoke to me...It wasn't a huge space but it appeared that every inch was utilized efficiently and decorated attractively. Upon entering, you will be welcomed by a lush, white seating for waiting guests and inside, you will find dining booths that are aligned along the glass windows that served as a frame for a beautiful garden landscape situated just outside. Open seating was also available.

It would appear that TSC Signature was a fancy, expensive place to eat in, but in fact, it was really quite affordable for a casual dining restaurant. We gazed over the menu and found ourselves less worried. :P They primarily offered burgers, pizzas and pastas (Italian-inspired mostly) and it was a good thing that we hadn't had anything to eat hours before so we were ready to gorge in. 

First up, on the appetizers...our friend J is a big French Fries Addict. I mean, she can definitely survive on planet Earth if fries were the only thing left to eat. So when we saw the Fries Lovers item on the menu, I knew she would definitely order it. 

For the French Fry Lover

The selection is made of regular fries, curly fries, sweet potato fries and potato wedges. I liked the sweet potato fries the best and it's good for sharing. Good thing even though J is a French Fries Addict, she doesn't mind sharing. :P (Love yah moight!) 

Our generous benefactor of the night was G, who ordered an appetizer platter that came in an interesting kind of serving plate that was black and felt like it was made of wood. We would later find out that the rest of the main dishes were served on that same plate. 

Chicken Platter

Unfortunately, I found the chicken on this platter dry and a bit hard. Especially the skewered ones. So it was only the jalapeno cheese that we ended up enjoying. I'm not too sold on this one. 

Meanwhile, I am a big fan of rocket leaves / arugula / gerger and a year ago in our trip to Maldives, I fell in love with figs. So when I saw that they had a Fig (+Arugula) Salad, my heart skipped a beat and it was my first, definite choice. 

Fig Salad

It was tasty and the flavors went well together, but I guess it was too much for just one person to eat all by himself. Too bad my companions weren't a big fan of veggies so there was a lot of arugula left to ignore. In times like these, it's safe to say that one order of this salad is good for sharing. I did eat all the figs tho....it's a rare find! (At least for me). 

We also wanted to try one of their soups so we had the Seafood Chowder. It looked very classy and was also very sumptuous. It was the right kind of creamy with enough varied seafoods like scallops, fish, shrimp and even a big piece of mussel. This dish deserved a thumbs up!

Very, very delicious chowder.

You would think those appetizers alone should have had us filled already...and we were. But in true Filipino foodtrippin' style, we still orders some main course (and dessert!). We couldn't let the treat of our good friend, G go to waste... :P I'm just teasing. Of course we had to try their signature items! 

Pesto Burger

From their long list of seemingly delicious burgers (I was torn between the one with avocado and the one with portobello mushrooms and this one!) I ended up ordering their Pesto Burger with mozzarella and parmesan cheese topped with sun-dried tomatoes and, you guessed it, a handful of arugula. The waiter helped me decide among my choices and it was a real winner! I think this burger was only 35-38SR and it was definitely, definitely great value for my money (well, my friend's money..haha). Every bite was lip-smacking...the richness of the cheese and the subtle sharpness of the pesto went perfectly with the meat. The sun-dried tomato gave it the right amount of tang and the arugula gave it a crunchy texture -- Howaw! It was a party in my mouth! (Do I still need to give a two thumbs up for this, or did my manner of describing it told you I loved it already?)

Blackberry Burger

We had high hopes for this burger. It was novel. It sounded quirky. But as intriguing as the name was, it felt a bit lacking if stacked against the flavor standards already set by the pesto burger. The sauce just didn't have that much of a "punch" to add to the burger. I mean, what could this sauce do for me that ketchup wouldn't do? That was the honest thought in my mind. Other than giving it a fruity aftertaste, my verdict on this Blackberry Burger is just Oh-kay. Nice try. :)

Their version of Chicken Carbonara

G ordered pasta to detour from our burger choices and it was another delicious choice. Creamy and tasty with fresh mushrooms (you could tell). Plus it was hefty and good for sharing. Will recommend. :) 

Other popular items on their menu was their Signature Burger and their Tenderloin Steak (which I believe Sundrenched has already tried). 

To round off the evening, along with a free serving of tea (they have this promo on Foursquare when you check-in, you get free tea/coffee) was their version of a Chocolate Fondant. Nothing too special on my book (as you know I am a Chocolate Fondant aficionado) but it was enough to end the night on a sweet note. 

Service was really good by the way, thanks to an almost all-Filipino staff, if I am not mistaken. Top scores for ambience and decor. Total wallet damage for all that we had? Less than 300SR. There were three of us so I would say that's not bad. If you ask me if I'll be going back there, my answer would be a definitive, YES. And I can sign in on that. ;)

You can find TSC Signature along Abdullah Al Hamdan St. (adjacent to Tahlia St.). It is across Ketchup and Munch Bakery (if you know that area). If not, check out their location on Foursquare and make sure to check out their Facebook and Instagram page. 

Happy food trip!

xoxo,

Eyecandy

Facebook: http://facebook.com/TSC-signature

Twitter: @tsc_signature

Instagram: @tsc_signature

Tel: 011-293-9693

A Pleasant Piatto

Piatto, a restaurant formerly known as Duo, is making waves across the Riyadh cityscape with its reinvented concept of particularly fresh Italian dining. A brighter and better ambiance welcomes you as they zone in on the trademark traits of Italy with fountains, a vespa display and an outdoor dining setting that will somehow make you forget that you are in fact, in Saudi Arabia.

Buongiorno! Welcome to Piatto!

Since its revamp more than a year ago, Piatto has experienced not mild, not fair, but a great amount of success with their customers. This is proven not just in the numbers tabulated by their annual gross sales, but by the continuous flocking of guests to their restaurant even though it is around 30 minutes away from the city center. Customers are also willing to wait to be seated even during evening time just to be able to dine there. (Yes, I've seen it happen before when I went there for my birthday dinner with the family and upon leaving, I saw the waiting room packed!) So what is it with Piatto? :) Read on to find out.

Here's a rundown of what our palates enjoyed that day. Be warned though, may cause excessive salivating (as our pictures always do):

Bruschetta Trio, 48SR

To begin with, expect a close-to-authentic Italian cuisine when headed to Piatto. It's a bit on the other end of the spectrum than that of the Asian palette so, don't be surprised if you don't encounter the usual sweet or spicy flair of Asian food. Featured above is one of their hefty starters and a good choice if you want to taste a lil' bit of everything. The three are topped with Pomodoro (tomato+basil+olive oil aka "tomato" in Italian), Warm Goat Cheese+Chive and Wild Mushroom with Eggplant. I particularly enjoyed the Wild Mushroom and Eggplant Bruschetta because it had the most flavor of them all.

Warm Artichoke Spinach Dip, 44SR

In fairness to this one, they did serve it "warm" as the name implies. I liked how the spinach didn't overpower the rest of the flavors and this one actually lets you distinguish the artichoke for what it is. Sometimes, this particular dish is often mistaken to be made of purely made of cheese because other restaurants capitalize on that aspect of the recipe rather than the artichoke itself. (Oooh, am I starting to speak like a judge on Food Network's Chopped? Hahaha, jk) It was a well-balanced recipe and this, I will definitely order again. 

Greens+Tomatoes with Cesar Salad Dressing

Dining DUO Style

The Pink Tarha Team have had their enormous share of steaks, sushi, and shawarmas (that's American, Japanese and Middle-Eastern food). It's time for some European flair, must I say? Enter...


Located on the outskirts of Riyadh's city center, the extra drive to Exit 5 may well be worth your time. DUO serves a combination of fine French-Italian cuisine, aimed to awaken our senses to an authentic French and Italian experience. To begin with, the open dining area is the closest you can get to an al fresco feel with it's high, glass ceiling allowing natural light into the room. The yellow-painted walls are adorned with window panes carrying green fauna and the cobblestone-like floors and indoor light lamps are reminiscent of the streets of Italy. The ambiance is a fresh retreat from the overcrowded restaurants of the metro. It must be those high ceilings that make all the difference.

The entire restaurant is extremely spacious, also allotting seating area for those who would prefer closed dining. There is a second level, where the "Playstation" for children is located along with a couple of banquet halls that are available for corporate events or personal parties.

We arrived at DUO at around 6pm, and it wasn't a busy time just yet. As we sat on the wood-crafted, outdoorsy furniture browsing through the menu, we were served with complimentary fresh bread with mustard and olive spread.

For starters, we ordered DUO's delectable fruit drinks, concocted right off from their open bar. (No, unfortunately, there is no red or white wine with cheese to boot). They had an open salad bar though, which shows off their garden-fresh vegetable selection and several other healthy options.

DUO's Fruit Cocktails: Ciao (orange, banana and strawberry syrup), Monot (orange, pineapple and grapefruit) and Duo (orange, pineapple, apple, lemon and grenadine) at 18 SR each.

The salad bar was well-maintained and boasted of only the finely prepped vegetables. Fill up your plate for 25SR. Well worth the freshness!

From S, some crab meat, boiled egg, sweet corn, cheese and lettuce (there's some macaroni salad underneath too).

For J, some cherry tomatoes, fresh pineapples, lettuce and boiled egg. Looks delish, eh?

For me, French onion soup served in a round french bread with melted cheese for 15SR.

We had a good chit-chat as we waited for our food to arrive. The open dining area is open for smokers so if you are a "sunog-baga", feel free to puff a ciggie away just like the French do. Ahh, now for the main course:

A duo-style pizza. As the manager explained to us, DUO translates to "two" or a combination of two things. In their restaurant, it is the fusion of French and Italian food. In this pizza's case, it's the coming together of an Al Salmone pizza with a classic Pepperoni pizza. Al Salmone is made up of smoked salmon slices lying on a bed of tomato and cream sauce, mozarella cheese and rocket leaves. That bit was a hot item for us, as the tender salmon went well with the textured and mildly-spicy rocket leaves. I can't remember how much it was for a half-of-each pizza, but the price range of their pizzas go from 32SR to 48SR for 8 slices.

Chicken breast with 3 pepper sauce (42SR). Personally, we didn't think highly of this dish. It is after all...chicken. But what made this intricately different from your regular grilled chicken breast is the sauce and the spices used. According to the manager, the sauce was the most difficult one to prepare in the chicken section. The vegetables were scrumptious and sweet.

Spinach ravioli (42SR). Behold one of the definite highlights of our dinner: stuffed pasta with spinach in tomato and cream sauce. It was a very light and tasty dish. I wanted the cream sauce to linger on my mouth a bit longer...very delicious and I would highly recommend this dish to any vegetarian out there. :D Yum-OH!

Escalope Cordon Bleu (66SR). Here we have, pan fried breaded beef escalope stuffed with turkey ham and Gruyere cheese (a kind of Swiss/French cheese), served with mashed potatoes. Once we got over the slightly pungent scent, we thoroughly enjoyed the savory thinned meat. A bite size of this went well with the creamy mashed potatoes.

The girls and I shared the main courses and didn't fill ourselves up too much (hindi pa ba?!) because upon a friend's claim that their desserts are equally fulfilling, we decided to leave some space for the real goodies to come rolling in...Their dessert menu was composed of mostly French desserts, here is what we had:

I ordered this homemade strawberry cheesecake (25SR) and it really came off as light and fresh. The cream is fine and the strawberries were ripe and huge! This kind of cheesecake has a stark difference from the commercially-made cheesecakes we usually feast on at the mall. Apparently, french-style cheesecake are really light.

Creme Brulee (25SR). Creme Brulee is actually french for "burnt cream" and its preparation does require a bit of burning, so to speak, by caramelizing the sugar on top by using a small, kitchen butane torch. Now you've probably tasted leche flan before right? This is pretty much its posh, elegant, rich sister. It is essentially made of custard, only in this case, only the finer and fresher ingredients are used. I would imagine this better with some fruits to go with it. But on its own, I would say that there is nothing too special about its recipe.

Profiteroles with chocolate sauce (18SR). This towering piece of desert love is made up of cream puff pastry (aka "Profiteroles") in between generous scoops of vanilla ice cream. It was too picture perfect that we almost didn't want to dive our spoons into it. But we can't help it, this dessert is too much of a temptation to be left alone melting in its glory. It's not too sweet but it's quite addicting.

Now we originally didn't order this next desert, but when Chef Faisal, whom we were fortunate enough to meet, insisted that we try this, we just couldn't say no. He even said that he will prepare it himself! Chef Faisal is the Head Chef of the restaurant and also stars on his own cooking show on the Saudi cable network. Fancy huh?

Meet the Chocolate Fondant (25SR)

[Enter halo and cherubims singing]

Without a shadow of a doubt, this chocolate fondant is the Piece de Resistance of DUO's dessert list. Think Lava Cake, only a thousand times better! The cake is cooked to perfection and the chocolate that pours out of it is simply smooth and rich. It may appear to be one of those things that can give you instant diabetes, but I swear to you, it is not too sweet as it looks. We learned that all the chocolates used in their restaurant are made from Swiss chocolates that they purchase in block-form. For any order they prepare, they create it from scratch from these imported blocks of chocolate. One of us described this as, "Simply DIVINE! " while I commented that, "I would LOVE to eat this off someone". Yum. Yum. Yum. After tasting this chocolate fondant, we guarantee that we will never EVER taste chocolate and chocolate cake the same way again.

And you thought dessert would mark the end of our dining? Oh not just yet. :P What Italian experience would be complete without a sip of coffee? Or better known as their "espresso". This also gave us some more time to talk and let all the spirit of good food and good company take over us that evening. Isn't that how the Italians do it?

Mocha Viennois (12SR). S enjoyed this coffee made of cafe mocha and cream very much. She wished she had more space in her stomach to drink this down to the last drop.

Cafe Caracas (12 SR). Another tall order of coffee, vanilla ice cream and cream for our friend, J. It is pretty much like dessert part II really. But the coffee somehow jolted us a bit from our pending lethargy from all the food that we've consumed.

Cappuccino (8SR). This cup of capp is for me. One of the little things I love about any java cup is the little details, such as the foam and that sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Ahh, this was the perfect way to end such a lovely dining experience.

DUO is definitely not your ordinary restaurant. But don't let the extravagant interiors and fine dishes intimidate you. They surely have something for everyone: kids, couples, friends/co-workers, even large family gatherings. As me and the girls say, "Try something new everyday"...and look where it took us! A little indulgence once in a while wouldn't hurt. (especially when it comes to great food!) Rest assured, everything that we had at DUO was fresh and intricately prepared. The service was attentive and respectful, the space was unique and serene, and the food...well, you read our post and saw the pictures! What else can we say?

Spend your next special occasion at a place that makes everything special: DUO.


Salute!

-ec-

DUO
North Ring Road, Exit 5 (near Le Mall)
Tel: 01-200-6868
Fax: 01-456-0583

Soon to open in Jeddah!