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zihui's Reviews

       25 May 2009 at 11:46 am
    Category: Korean
    I have walked pass this restaurant several times, but often rather settle for the Crystal Jade Palace Restaurant as I never really thought my taste buds catered to the Korean flavour.

    This time round, upon looking at the menu, I thought perhaps there could be something that suits my taste. No harm trying a new place, so my dinner partner and I left our names down for 2 at this restaurant.

    There wasn’t really a queue at about 6.20pm and we were told that we had to wait 15 – 20 min for a table. I was rather surprised as it was still early and there was only one couple before me. Nonetheless, we waited.

    20 min later, we were told the same thing again. Being a hungry customer who has been told to wait 20 min earlier on, this irritated me. Later, I realized that the wait was due to the fact that majority of the tables were “reserved” for groups who were coming in at 6.45pm or 7pm.

    Another thing I noticed was a display at the “rostrum” at the entrance informing diners that members will be seated before non-members. While I understand the idea of giving priority and privileges to members of the restaurant, when I saw the queue and compared it to the number of seats available in the restaurant, I thought it was the most ridiculous thing to do.

    Finally, we got a table, only because someone who reserved it didn’t turn up. The table was aligned for company of 8 in a room that, if necessary, could be partitioned for a private function. It was extremely weird because we had another couple join us not long later, and it felt like any privacy or peace was invaded by them due to the close proximity of our tables. The whole restaurant wasn’t very spacious either, only enough space for a single line of people to walk.

    Waiting time and space aside, the food and service was not too bad. We ordered a plate of BBQ beef (choice of barbequing it yourself or get the kitchen to do it), spicy seafood noodles, seafood pancake and the Korean mixed rice (I think it’s called Bibimbap). Apart from the food we ordered, there are also small plates of complimentary appetizers such as Kimchi, egg, bean sprout and some others which I couldn’t really identify. Though not a Korean food fan, I thought the Kimchi was not too bad in that it didn’t taste sour or like it had gone bad.

    We chose to barbeque the beef ourselves. The restaurant serves a rather generous portion of very tasty and evenly-marinated beef. The beef is cut into thin slices and cooks relatively fast thus allowing us to cook as and when we please, and eat it while it’s hot. The beef is also very tender. It was absolutely delicious!

    I thought the seafood pancake was quite good too. It looks like omelette with squid and spring onions but I doubt it’s egg. It comes with a sauce that looks like soya sauce and enhances the flavour of the pancake.

    The seafood noodles was not as spicy as I hoped for it to be. It looked like tomyum soup but not as tasty. I was told it tasted like the usual Korean instant noodles.

    All in all, we spent almost $90 for 2 pax. We ordered too much and didn’t finish the rice and noodles. I would like ordering 1 bowl of noodle or rice/ 2 bowls of plain rice instead would have been more than sufficient. That would have lowered our cost by about $18.

    On the whole, quite a positive experience. I left thinking Korean food could be quite good after all. Will definitely go back there to try the soup and have more BBQ meat!
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         14 May 2009 at 10:25 pm
      Category: Japanese
      I am generally a less adventurous glutton who likes to stay in my comfort zone when it comes to the things I put in my mouth. As such, during the several times I've been to Ajisen Ramen, I've always sticked to eating things like their Volcano Ramen.

      While their ramen hasn't always been exceptionally great, it does taste reasonable and they do serve a relatively large portion (for me that is). Nonetheless, their ramen is a little pricey in my opinion, hovering around 14 bucks if i'm not wrong. Of course they do have some special deals in which you get a free side dish, but it's still not worth 14-16 bucks to me, probably because I end up wasting quite a lot of food.

      So this time round, I decided to try something else for a change. Usually, the case is that I stick to my comfort zone while other people out with me explore new stuff which taste really awesome. And when I try to be "adventurous", I fail badly. I cannot believe my lack of taste for food, so to speak, and decided to gamble with my food. I ordered an Unagi bento (something I recently became fond of and realize the sauce is actually real yummy if done the right way!), prawns with mayonnaise and sushi (which I can't remember what exactly it is already).

      Usually, I'd comment on each individual item I tried. But now, I have one general comment before I go into a breakdown of the items - it's the worst Japanese food I've ever had.

      Unagi bento - sauce was diluted. Unagi tasted undercooked or something. It had a disgusting rubber-y feeling of which even pinching part of the meat off felt gross.

      Prawn with mayonnaise - It's supposed to be fried. Well it was, but it seemed like it was fried yesterday, and reheated today!

      Sushi - I don't even need to know what sushi this is, but it's something that I cannot eat. Not the rice alone, not the seaweed alone, not the fillings alone. The rice looked like cooked japanese rice that was pounded till it became 1/4 it's original size. Totally looking delectable, NOT. And I never knew the taste of seaweed could ever go wrong. But they proved me wrong.

      I cannot believe what bad luck I have I think I should just stick to my comfort zone.

      I think we paid about $50ish in total, for 2 of us. It includes everything above and one more Unagi bento (yes double whammy).

      It was horrid. Needless to say, never eating non-ramen stuff at Ajisen again.
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           25 Mar 2009 at 9:43 pm
        Category: French, Japanese
        After enjoying a wonderful plate of Escargots during my holiday, I've been wondering if it's actually possible to find reasonably-priced Escargots in Singapore. And when I saw Ma Maison, and how cheap the Escargots actually were, I couldn't wait to go there!

        So when I got there, there was a rather short but slow-moving queue, so people: do remember to make reservations!
        However, if you didn't mind sitting at the bar, they'd allow you to do that just so you don't have to wait too long. And that was what I did. Nothing unpleasant nor special about that experience.

        I understand that the place is a French-Jap fusion restaurant, but I personally didn't quite like the decor of the place. The dark lightings and wooden furnishing gave it a french/ country-style indeed, perhaps that explains the "French" part. However, I thought everything you see didn't quite blend well with the atmosphere and cuisine (so to speak) served.

        Service was not too bad there, people were rather friendly and prompt in bringing up your food. We didn't have to wait too long for our orders. Additional plates and appropriate utensils were also provided to make it easier to eat the Escargots and anything else we ordered. We were also given this giant brass key that we would need when making payment. It was a rather cool idea and it was so huge that you can't lose it. But that chunky thing was kinda in the way too, considering how bar-tops were not made for big plates.

        I can't remember the exact name of the things I ordered, but I remember there being a plate of Escargots, some Mexican (or spanish?) seafood rice and a bowl of Omu rice.

        The Escargots had a fairly strong garlic and butter taste, and was very oily. Did not taste very fresh to me either.

        The seafood rice, too, had the similar garlic and butter taste. Makes me wonder if they use the exact same wok/pan to cook everything. I didn't like the appearance of the dish. It gave me the feeling of being full upon looking at it. But apart from the abovementioned, taste-wise, it was still fairly decent.

        My favourite was probably the simple tomato sauce-based Omu rice. I would advise anyone who orders that to finish it while it's still hot and tasting good.

        In general, I have one comment for almost everything I had: being the worse fan of garlic, everything in the food had to have such strong garlic taste! So I guess I didn't really enjoy everything.. Nonetheless, I am sure if you share the exact opposite sentiments as I do, this place could be a place worth trying! And if you're on some sort of a budget, try to limit yourself to just one dish per person because the bill can come up to quite abit, including the GST and all. We paid $90 for two, unfortunately.
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             26 Feb 2009 at 9:06 am
             dsc01799.jpg
          Good food, I'd go back there again,

          if not for this:

          Was there on that fateful Valentine's Saturday. Not surprisingly, the place was packed. But I honestly reckon this is the kind of crowd to expect every weekend. I found this place on a particularly famous blog which rated the place 4.5/5 for steamboat and barbeque. Having that in mind, I went all the way to Clementi with high hopes and big appetite, and also hoping that I'd be able to get a table if I went there half an hour earlier.

          Well, fat hope about the table. I had to wait approximately 15 minutes more that I expected to. I can understand that though, because people there were indulging in the free flow of barbeque, cooked food, steamboat and drinks (yes and drinks! Hotpot Culture/ the old Marina Bay doesn't give you that) so much that no one seemed to be leaving.

          When I finally got my table, I couldn't do any barbequeing though, due to the fact that tables at Fortune Cuisine are divided into 2 sections, one with barbeque and one without. So their solution to this problem is that we get the meat hand it over to any friendly waiter who will barbeque them for us. Not bad an idea. At least your clothes don't get stinked up too bad. Judging from the crowd, I knew that we'd have to wait a long time to get our barbequed food, so the first thing we did, even before our steamboat soup came, was to grab a huge plate of meat for barbequeing.

          After about 15 minutes, a waiter brought one plate to our table. Technically, it was only half a portion of what we ordered. Being there for the first time, we thought it probably isn't out yet. After awhile, we decided that perhaps they forgot (it's only normal, given the crowd that day), so we went to take another plate. And another plate. And another plate . . . . .

          Ok, so nothing's coming. It's been an hour. And it has been 4 plates at least already. We highlighted this issue to quite a number of waiters around but our reply was: "Oh we're very busy today, it will be coming soon." And finally when we could wait no more, we told yet another waiter that our food has not come despite us being told so many times that it will be coming soon. Apparently, that statement drew some attention to our table. Not wanting to cause any more commotion, the waiter referred us to the manager. Upon hearing our unhappiness and how reluctant we are to pay the full price for 2, the manager gave us a discounted price and we left.

          To put all that above in a nutshell, it was simply an outcome of poor organization skills.
          1) The queue at the doorstep was disorganized - the manager himself didn't know who came first, who's doing the "walk-in", who has reserved a table.
          2) The whole thing about giving the waiters your plate of meat and expecting it to come back is quite.. unpredictable too. You just never know if they got your table right (because they don't make it a point to label the plate with your table numbers before collecting another plate along the way) or if they'll even come for your plate (because you're supposed to leave it on a tray obscurely places beside your table) when they're all so busy and probably even under-staff.

          Well, all that above was effectively just my complain of the "bad service" I received from my hour and a half or so there. Nonetheless, I will not totally discredit the place by subtly weaving the plus points of the restaurant amidst my complaints and unambiguously italicizing them.

          I must say the food was good. The little meat I had was either marinated for a long time or MSG-ful, ie tasty. It was truly a spread - crispy salmon, bee hoon, curry, satay (chicken/mutton/pork), beef slices, pork slices, sausages, the usual steamboat ingredients, some sushi, tempura, free flow of juices/ soft drinks and more (I probably missed some out)! And I think it's $20ish/pax. Rather worth the money if you go there on an uber empty stomach.

          I'd say worth a try. I'd give it 3.5/5 but since there isn't, I guess I'll round it off to 4 so that people (like me) who simply spot the stars will not think it's a bad place.
          (though I won't be going back there in the near future since I live rather far away)
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               20 Feb 2009 at 5:38 pm
            Category: Thai
            Note to readers:
            If you are wondering why there are 2 shops - namely Chiang Mai Palace and AnyThai - under the address "18 Circular Road", it is because they have changed management, but the shop still sells Thai food.


            This whole lane in Circular Road is rather amazing. If not for the fact that I work around the area, I doubt I'd ever know the existence of this place!

            AnyThai is, among many others, a decent and cheap restaurant to go eat at. I would think they have even better deals during lunch hour so as to attract the lunch crowd.

            I was eating at the restaurant with a Thai, and the comment made was that the food is rather authentic!

            I had for myself a real good $6.90 deal. It came with rice (choice of white rice or pineapple rice), a small dish of oyster sauce vegetable, 2 spring rolls (not the tiny tiny one! It could have been 10cm long!), a bowl of tom yam soup and a lime juice. Yes, all that for only $6.90, believe it or not!

            I thought everything in the set meal was really good, albeit a little too small a portion of soup. The soup came in a regular sized bowl (similar to rice bowls at chinese restaurants) with a nominal amount of fish and prawns. Not much ingredients so to speak. But apart from that, the other dishes came in a sizeable portion that was not too harmful to your stomach. I like it because it allows you a variety of dishes even if you are eating alone!

            Apart from that, there are a few other variations of the $6.90 meal, as well as a $4.90 rice set that's basically just rice and a side dish (perhaps meat).

            A friend ordered the Pineapple Rice, and to my (pleasant) surprise, the rice actually did come in a Pineapple! I understand that it is common practice, but look at it this way: a small shop that's not very eye-catching, serving food that's relatively cheap, actually serves pineapple rice in a pineapple!
            It is pleasant all right, that people still do care about the authenticity of Thai food in Singapore.

            Of course, there were many other things available, such as Black Pepper beef rice that was apparently very good, as the Thai who was having lunch with me said. I do not doubt those words even though I did not try it!

            If you go there at lunch, bear with them sometimes if service is bad. The waiters there are very hospitable, thus making your dining experience much more enjoyable. But during lunch they do get rather busy and so are a little slow in bringing up your food.

            I would go back there for lunch again, I think it's a really good deal. But I do wonder if they have such good dinner deals too or not. Anybody..?
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            Comments on this review:
            1. ladyironchef
              ladyironchef said:
              i ain't a fan of Thai food, but since the prices are cheap, its worth a try. haha
              20 Feb 2009 at 8:42 pm
            2. zihui
              zihui said:
              haha there's alot of other cheap stuff along that lane too. don't have to eat at thai food just because it's cheap haha. heard there's this new nasi padang store down the road that's not bad.
              20 Feb 2009 at 11:11 pm
            3. ladyironchef
              ladyironchef said:
              lol! frquent visitor there eh? :p
              21 Feb 2009 at 10:36 am
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