The Prime Society at Dempsey Hill

Almost 2 decades ago, a group of students formed an orientation group called “He-Man” because they felt it was a good name for a group based on current cartoons, at that time, on TV. If you think it’s a dumb name, think of the torturous linguistic paths people are willing to take just to fit words into a neat-sounding acronym.

We were led by a really sweet councillor nicknamed – and why not – “Sugar”. This time Sugar rounded up all of us again for a pre-reunion reunion to see if anyone was still around. I guess we have all rounded-out some.

Anyway, we met at the new Mercedes Center to have tea and ~~test-drive~~ “C” for ourselves, the new Mercedes C-class.

It is everything the adverts boast about: agile, aggressive and powerful. Ground-hugging, overtaking on the expressway was effortless. The only downside was the noise but I guess most people would like to hear the engine revving.

By the Power of Grayskull, it was a fun way to catch up with friends.

We decided to go for drinks and dinner at the newly minted lifestyle hub on Dempsey Road. It was really crowded with parking difficult at 6pm on a weekday. Holland Village may be overthrown as the suburban chill-out place.

We had drinks at a place called “Quasomethingorother” or something like that. When you print your name on t-shirts and signage, it is counterproductive to use a hard-to-read typeface in a low-contrast color under subdued lighting. People will just refer to you as the Bar Next To Harry’s. In any case, the bar was rather warm which makes it hard to consume alcohol. You need really low temperatures to make people consume more booze.

After a glass of beautifully perfumed Bombay Sapphire, our table was finally available at The Prime Society. Welcomed by friendly staff, we walked into a large longhouse, almost like a Viking Great Hall.

Unfortunately, such high ceiling did nothing to help the poor ventilation; be prepared to smell of secondhand smoke from the open-flame grill after dinner. The restaurant was also pretty warm because of insufficient air-conditioning. All this made for a rather uncomfortable dining experience.

There was a large crowd, so business must be good. We saw a few local celebrities – I recognised one from her pushing fruit juices with big hair on TV – as well as media people. But I could not take further notice because of the very hardwood seat at their hardwood Viking long table. It’s no wonder the Vikings were always outdoors exploring.

As the restaurant just opened, the menu was limited but there was a curiously small (just 4 options and not a T-Bone in sight) offering of steaks and ribs for a “steakhouse”. Some pasta and soups though.

In any case, I felt that The Prime Society weren’t really serious about steak when their largest offering was only 220g! For serious steak-eaters, 220g is too small for even a hamburger. It’s only 7.7 ounces, not even half a pound! When asked for a custom cut, the Chef said it was unavailable. And no, there wasn’t a choice of beef either.

I ordered my standard ribeye, 150g because I was rather disappointed with the selection. To make up for the lack of choice, I ordered a half rack of beef ribs with Thai Chilli and Lime sauce.

The others ordered the same steaks and hamburgers. The hamburger wasn’t really impressive; it looked large, but the overall appearance looked slapped-together-in-a-rush.

The pork ribs ordered by my friend were greeted with a groan of dismay because it came too tough. I had to agree, usually you can strip the meat off with fingers and teeth, but you need tools for this.

At least I had better luck with my beef ribs. The Prime Society has different sauces for the different ribs, I went off the beaten path – However you dress it up, BBQ sauce is soooo boring – and chose the Thai Chilli and Lime sauce. This was because I’ve had a great experience with it in Thailand. After all, when it comes to balancing flavours, the Thais have it perfected.

I was right, the sourish-sweet sauce rounded off the strong beef flavour of the ribs.

The ventilation at The Prime Society was atrocious. The smoke simply drains your energy; you just want to finish up and leave as soon as possible. To a laundry and shower. The service staff was friendly, a tad under-trained but made up for it by being accomodating.

The Prime Society seems to have more form than any real substance for a place where the Restaurant Manager is called “Carnivore Connoisseur”. I guess the tag “Dedicated to the Upper Cut” refers not to the food. Given the focus of the menu, I am not sure if they are acquainted with carnivores. Then again, I would much prefer they knew their herbivores.

Posted on 13th Aug 2007 in Meat

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There Are 10 Comments

thehungrycow commented on August 13, 2007 at 10:11 pm

What a shame. The name caught my eye and I wondered what beautiful beef it beheld when I was around the area. Any ‘Upper Cut’ can’t be 200g! Something’s really wrong.

Jaime-La-Nourriture commented on August 14, 2007 at 9:23 pm

hellos, happened to saw ur website and found it quite interesting! been the dempsey hill a few weeks too and i find the overal ambience of the place is great but the onli troublesome thing is its rather inaccessible! will definitely try the prime society! could i add ur webby link to my food blog?

Ivan commented on August 14, 2007 at 11:39 pm

@thehungrycow: I agree!

@Jaime-La-Nourriture: Thanks! It’s the new Holland Village without the crowds. I think the inaccessibility helps.;) I would be honoured if you do add my blog. Thanks!

imp commented on August 15, 2007 at 12:06 am

frankly, i didn’t like this restaurant. not the food and not the vibe. i thought it a fine example of overhyped media buzz with little substance. ugh.

Ivan commented on August 15, 2007 at 12:17 am

@imp: Yah! I was really disappointed with the food and the pretensions.

popartgirl commented on August 15, 2007 at 11:51 am

Yayee, thank goodness I didn’t check this out, I was wondering whether to give my fiance a treat here before he flies off to the US of A for two years. I checked out the website and was too turned off by its uppity pretensions. Gimme Angus Steakhouse or Morton’s or even Aston’s any day!

carrie commented on August 17, 2007 at 9:24 pm

My goodness, by the power of grayskull to go fine dine.

Ivan commented on August 24, 2007 at 3:38 pm

@carrie: It’s a good thing no?

coco commented on October 5, 2008 at 12:08 am

Totally agreed. Bad service, snobbish attitude, not that fantastic food with exorbitant price!! Angus would have been better!

Ivan commented on October 8, 2008 at 3:15 pm

@coco: I’ve not been there for a while but my experience with their service was good. It’s the food that’s wanting.

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