Review: XW Western Grill

I’ve been seeing this both at Lot One and JEM and it piqued my interest since I’m a curious person who enjoys trying out new things.

We came across it while shopping at Jurong East and seeing that there was a short queue, we joined in.

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Ok. I’d always wondered what XW was and finally found out that it meant Xin Wang. Think it’s affiliated with the Xin Wang cafe food group. The place looked pretty casual and relaxing.

It has a style very similar to Aston’s. Even the pricing of the dishes were similar. You select your choice of the main and choose 2 sides from the menu for your dish, opt to complete your dish with an affordable set comprising of a drink and soup.

After payment, you will be led to your table to await for your meal.

Immediately upon sitting down, we were served with a cup of popcorn. This was a nice touch, while we await for our meal. I jokingly told my hb I’d buy their popcorn as it was fresh, warm, soft yet crunchy and sweet. It was nice! (5/5)

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Next, we were served the mushroom soups and iced lemon teas as we’d opted for the set to complete our meals.

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The mushroom soup was alright, pretty thick but I found it slightly too salty for me. It would be good if they’d cook it less salty and allow us to add salt if needed to adjust to our taste instead. (3/5)

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The iced lemon tea was decent and fine. (3.8/5)

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My ribeye steak came and it was pretty decently cooked. I’d read reviews online and had seen some terrible reviews about their steaks etc. I was very pleasantly surprised as my ribeye steak was alright. The mashed potatoes was okay and I really liked the crispy and sweet tasting sweet potato fries. (4/5)

We had to wait rather long for my hb’s sirloin steak and I asked about it after seeing several tables that came after us get served with their dishes. The person in charge explained to us nicely but I suspected that they’d accidentally missed out his order.

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His sirloin steak finally came. I didn’t taste it but he said it was alright. He had fries and fried onion rings which he said were okay. I won’t be rating his dish since I hadn’t tasted it.

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We were served watermelon slices at the end of the meal, which was a nice touch.

In all, for the kind of pricing in the shopping malls, the decent food quality, the nice ambience and the friendly, polite and helpful service we got from the staff, it was a nice meal and value for money as well. I wouldn’t mind coming back for the food and might try the other mains too.

However, if I were to choose, considering quality and price, Aston would still be my first choice and this would be my second.

PS: I like to read reviews of places before going to try them out and frankly I wonder what those people are reviewing. If they are expecting high standards of steak at such affordable prices, it is unrealistic. (You wouldn’t believe the kind of bashing these places got which were unwarranted.)

For the kind of dedicated service and high grade steak they expect, I’d suggest they visit all those atas steak places I went to and had reviewed before. Of course, they’d need to fork out the dough for the atas prices as well. My favourite steak place is still the one at MBS (CUT by Wolfgang Puck). If you are willing to pay $300+ for a piece of good steak, go for it, otherwise pay $20 or less for a piece of steak and review it according to its value, objectively.

Oh yeah, XW Western grill doesn’t charge you for their services. The prices on the menu is what you pay and that’s it so please don’t complain about the service if they’re alright because you actually don’t pay any service charge.