“Ah boy!!! So naughty!! You cannot take photo of the restaurant ah!” An auntie server dashed towards me. “If my restaurant is empty, I can let you take. But it has people now. If you come early, I will let you take. Or you stay late, I let you take. But the restaurant has people ah! Cannot take photos, cannot take. You naughty you.”
Her tone was motherly, girly, and friendly and so lor-soh (long-winded). At this point in time, all the customers turned around and looked at the commotion and at me. Embarrassed, I snapped at her, “OK! I KNOW. Don’t need to say so many times.” Auntie, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry for losing my temper.
Foie Gras
The auntie is actually very, very capable, single-handedly taking care of all the customers; it was full house. She was friendly, cheerful and, well, motherly. It is not the polished service you expect in a fancy restaurant, it’s more like going to your neighbors’ house and her mother is serving you.
Duck Confit
We went to Ember thrice, once for lunch and twice for dinner, and all three times were remarkable. Lunch menu starts from $39.50++ for a 3-course meal, coming up to about $55 per person. For dinner, the auntie said, “Oh this is very good, you must order this” and “Oh that is very good, you must order that,” and it came up to $200+ a person with wine. Yikes. But we were more careful the third time and spent about $100++ a person.
Pork Belly (look at the test-tube!! so cute!)
Every dish was mindblowingly orgasmic. The foie gras ($6 supplement for lunch menu) was spectacular, and probably the best in Singapore. A rather normal pairing with cherry, the foie gras was cooked so well, firm outside, molten inside. For mains, the pork belly is a must order. It was out of this world, so crackling and marinated so throughly. The duck confit was just as good, crispy without being oily. The desserts were ok too, very excellent in its own right.
This is one of the best restaurants in Singapore, every dish was perfect, and the service, though wasn’t polished, was very attentive and homely. The decor doesn’t really look like fine-dining, but honestly, I don’t care about the decor with food this good. Every bite, I’d close my eyes in oral orgasm so I don’t see the decor at all. It is worth going back over and over again. Best to make reservations a few days ahead, very packed.
Restaurant Ember
50 Keong Saik Road
Hotel 1929
Singapore 089154
Facebook
T: 6347 1928
11.30am-2pm
6.30-10pm
Closed for lunch on Sat
Closed on Sun
Rating: 4.107/5 stars
Written by A. Nathanael Ho.
Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow 
The duck confit photo very nice.
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everything is super delicious here lor.
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Please take down the first photo. I mean did you ever ask for permission? Some people may not like to appear in your amateur food blog. Auntie is right. Some respect and humility will do you a lot of good.
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Actually privacy is a problem we’ve been struggling with. In our early entries, we blanked out people’s faces but the photos looked ugly.
We have been following a few online international papers, with millions of readers, and these papers print out customers’ faces. So we emulate the examples of these experts. Secondly, we are not very well known and it’s not like we’ve millions of readers, so we don’t think we are intruding on anyone’s privacy. Thirdly, we’re quite sure we have made cameo appearances in the backdrop of strangers’ photos too.
In any case, if you spot yourself in any of the photos and wish the photo to be taken down, please write to us at rubbisheatrubbishgrow@gmail.com and we’ll accommodate you.
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I agree with the above person. There are people who are not comfortable with strangers taking photos of them and putting them on even stranger websites. Ember should manage the situation better. Perhaps telling the patrons to take photos of food and not of patrons? Since the server already told you off. Why did you still post the photo? What if the server gets blame for your actions? Unlikely you may say but what if…
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Hello Sue, thank you for your comment. Actually, besides the reasons that we stated above, there are more reasons why we posted this photo. Firstly, if you are a client who is to spend $100-$200 at a restaurant, surely you want to see a photo of the restaurant and see if the decor is worth it? Secondly, we mentioned that the decor isn’t nice, so we posted a photo to substantiate our remark. Thirdly, you can only see the faces of two patrons in the photo. Their story is the there were two families who were lunching because the girl in the photo (back facing the pic) was flying overseas for studies, so there wasn’t anything to hide. I mean, if I posted a high profile married celebrity dining with his mistress, then it would have been scandalous. Fourthly, we post a picture of the restaurant’s decor for all our entries. These photos let the readers see what the restaurant looks like, like a backdrop, which is very useful to people going to restaurants.
EDIT: The owner has emailed us and requested for us to take down the photo, which we did. But in the future, we will still continue to post the interior of the restaurants as we normally do.
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I think it’s ok to post pictures of the restaurant’s interior (if the owner allows) only if nobody (patrons/diners) are shown in your photos. So many bloggers and websites have successfully posted pictures of Ember’s interiors without the owner asking them to remove any photos. Nobody likes their privacy to be intruded on or get their faces posted on some random blog/website. So far no other site has gotten any flak about Ember’s interiors unlike yours. Think about it. I’ve browsed through some of your other entries. Some are alright because you posted pictures of the restaurants without featuring anybody’s faces. Please be more mindful in future.
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Hello Passerby2,
thank you for your balanced and calm comment. Actually, we do have many posts that show patrons’ faces but nobody said anything: here are three recent consecutive entries that show the faces: 21 on Rajah, Bakmie Jakarta and Tien Garden.
And there are people who posted Ember’s interior with patrons’ faces: http://crunchybottoms.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/ember-another-great-set-lunch-find/
and http://capricon-foodtravel.blogspot.sg/2011/07/restaurant-ember.html
And of course, we aren’t the only ones posting photos of interior that have patrons: http://www.camemberu.com/2013/05/mcdonalds-heats-things-up-with-red-peri.html
http://danielfooddiary.com/2013/05/06/grub/
http://www.sgfoodonfoot.com/2013/05/the-ascot-grandstand.html
You may also browse NY Time food reviews and every food review is accompanied by photos of patrons in masses that it is impossible to ask everyone for permission: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/dining/index.html
We have been doing it but no one has said anything so far. Other have posted on Ember, showing patrons’ faces but no one said anything. Other people have been doing it on other restaurants too. It is impossible to take photos with nobody in the background.
Sometimes, there is just no use in reasoning with unreasonable people but you seem to be a rational person. I want to leave you with a question: this is a personal website. We don’t make any money from it. So if you have a personal website, and you go on a tour, and you’ve taken some photos while holidaying. There are some strangers in the background because it is crowded. Will you post the holiday photos on your personal site to share your experiences with your friends and family?
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Hello, think the auntie u mentioned is actually a their staff who has been with them for a long long time. The wife should be the long hair lady be the reception.
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Oh, thanks for the info. We’ve corrected it. It’s strange because my friend told me she was the boss while we were dining there. But maybe my friend was confused.
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I always remember this auntie for telling us that pannacotta was angmoh tauhuay. looks like ember’s still fantastic!
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lol. and fettuccine is mee pok.
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Thanks for accomodating a non high profile celebrity who doesn’t deserve any respect from this blog and remove the photo. Thanks every much for being considerate to mere mortals like us
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Lol. You may have misunderstand us. We mean we didn’t take any photos that may potentially shame anyone. High profile or not, every human being deserves respect.
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Damn – where’s the pic? Can you post it back up ? All that hoo ha must mean it was a mere mortal checking for a dirty weekend haha.
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Lol! You’re hilarious. I also dunno why the pic caused such a fuss. It’s an ordinary pic showing the restaurant. You can’t see any clear faces except for two persons who are husband and wife in their late 50s.
If you treat me to a meal, I’ll show you the pic in real life. Haha!
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On! I’m a fan of your blog and wont mind at all if you post my pic up haha !
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haha, ok, you can pose as one of the customers in the restaurant when I take the photo. haha.
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Why not? Post the pic back. Ignore the mere mortals. They are not good enough for your attention.
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Hahaha. Don’t be stupid. Everyone is mere mortal what. You know any immortals meh? You watch too many superheroes movies already lah.
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I am serious. Put it back. Why can’t you? This is your blog. You are free to do whatever you want. Why give in?
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Because we should respect others. If the owner or people in the photos request to be taken down, we respect their wishes. Man, you need to learn that every human has inherent dignity and you need to respect others. It’s simple logic. How come you don’t understand? You’ve serious problems, man, how do you function in society? Hey, we can help. If you need to see a psychologist, let us know. We have a few psychologist friends we can intro.
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There you said it. Respect. Glad you realised.
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Hahaha. That’s what we have been saying. You’ve misunderstood us all along. Sometimes you’ve to free yourself of prejudice and pride to listen to a person. Don’t be so self-righteous lah.
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Then why the flippant reply to kepohchi’s snide remark? Kepohchi has no right to insult the others. Tell kepogchi off like how you told me off. Don’t understand the fuss over a pic? It’s all about respect.
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??? Kepohchi was being funny and so we were funny in return. Woah, chill man, you have problems with reading tone online and also anger management issues. We really do want to help you, our offer to intro you to our psychologist friends still stands. You can email us using a fake email account anonymously and we’ll email you our psychologist-friends’ office numbers.
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