I went to the IT Show yesterday after 7pm, and as expected, everyone headed down on the first day too, in hope to avoid the even massive jam over the weekend.
I did a survival guide for those who's visiting IT Show. If you're keen to read, please go to my blog.
One concern I have at such a crowded event... what IF there's an emergency? I wonder how will they evacuate that many people within the shortest time possible. But I'm sure the organisers would have all these planned and ironed out long ago.
Everyone knew that the place is going to be packed, but still everyone still wants to go check out the prices. Why? Cos they always have very good bundles and discounts at the show. Especially for those who hate shopping and comparing prices at so many stalls around Sim Lim or Funan, shows like this is the easiest for them. Perhaps the price is not the cheapest, but with a little more, you get whole lot of goodies. So why not right?
Have you gone to the show too? Did you get anything there?
My first trip back in Serangoon Gardens. I haven't been here for the last ten years. So many things have changed and many had remained. I found myself on the doorstep of this quaint little Italian restaurant. My friend and I were curious about it and decided that this would be our dinner place that Thursday evening.
Being a weekday evening, I guess it's perfectly understandable why it wasn't crowded. About 4-5 other tables were occupied while we were there. They have a seating area of about 40, including the two tables outside. They have soft warm lighting and earthy tones to create a cosy ambience. It has nice interior decor really.
The staff was warm and friendly. My friend came a little later than me. So the staff talked to me a bit, introducing the restaurant and telling me about the background of it,which was nice.
Food ordered: Funchi Triffolati al Moda Dello Chef - $12.90 Portobello Mushroom garnished with grilled bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes & olives with de Parma's house dressings. I love mushrooms and I'm so glad this dish didn't disappoint. I love the juiciness of the mushrooms as I bit down into it. In fact I loved it so much I was clearly happy to have more than my share. haha I also enjoyed eating it with the bell peppers.
Calzone (Folded Pizza) - $24.90 This Neapolitan speciality is filled with ham, bacon, onions, mushrooms, capsicums & smoked cheddar cheese. This folded pizza was pretty huge, so it sort of justified the price. Inside was filled with plenty of warm ingredients. It would have been more delicious if it were piping hot but then it would have been difficult to eat. So it's good as it is, just one gripe... the outer covering was a little too hard and we had to put quite a bit of effort into cutting it up. Good exercise.
Fileto Di Mento - $32.90 Air-flown, grain-fed beef tenderloin drizzled in red wine sauce & served with Portobello Mushrooms & sauteed vegetables. Let me say this for the record: I'm not a beef person. In fact I don't like beef, but only started eating it when I joined Yebber. Even so I only take one small slice to try each time. But this one? It was fantastic. Yummilicious! The meat wasn't tough and hard to chew. It was tender and the meat was well marinated. But the mushroom that came with it was visibly squashed and shrunken, though it still tasted nice with the sauce they had.
Chocolate Fondant Break the hard crust outside and the chocolate inside flows out nicely. A chocolate addict, I'd say this fondant is good! Not the best but certainly very good.
Tiramisu I think I was a tad biased when I had this Tiramisu. The last 4 Tiramisus I had simply didn't taste like Tiramisus... so when I had this one, I had the words "FINALLY...." going in my head. Nicely done with a tinge of liquor which my companion insisted didn't exist.
The total damage for two of us was $105. Good food, nice ambience, good service. It does seem a little ex but I think it was well worth it. TRY TRY TRY!
Finally after a very long wait, I happened to have the chance to try out the chicken which everyone is raving about, saying that it is much better than KFC. Well I don’t think KFC is that good to start off with. Since we need to send people off airport, I decided to make use of this chance to try it out.
So excited when we reached there, as usual there is a long queue going on, well 4 people in front of me. There are 3 counters serving at the same time but only one queue. They worked in the way of how you queue at the bank. Not a bad thing but then some people might be put off by the very long one queue.
Seem that it is very popular among a lot of people as they all bought a lot of sets meals, and thus explains the long waiting time as well. Well three counters, so only three people serving at the same time. Since I am so keen on trying it, I wait! Wahahaha…..
I ordered a two piece meal that comes with a side dish and a drink. Their chicken got a choice of spicy and mild version as well. Well I ordered one of each, and got one big piece of big breast meat and one small little chicken wing. Ordered their Cajun fries as the side dish and got a cup of coke. Also added coleslaw as side dish as well. The set also comes with their famous biscuit as well. It comes with a small pack of strawberry jam.
May the tasting begin! I am not a big fan of breast meat but I like thie breast meat. It is crispy on the outside but soft and juicy on the inside. It is not dry at all. The flour covering the chicken is not very thick and it got a hint of herbs being used as well. Taste great! Definitely beats KFC hands down. The thing is both of us could not taste the different between mild and spicy version. Hmm…. Or we got both the same version. Their fries are good enough of their own. It is crispy on the outside but soft and moist on the inside. Seems like they seasoned it with herbs as well. Good! Their coleslaw tasted like the coleslaw that KFC used to produce in the 80s. It is good with big chucks of cabbage and enough mayo to taste. Finally the famous biscuit, it is hard on the outside but soft and fluffy inside. On its own, it tastes like a butter biscuit, but do find it a bit dry and hard to sallow. Together with the strawberry jam, it tastes better.
Overall, I think the fried chicken rocks here but hope that they do open other outlets soon! Hopefully in town! Then now I am officially a Popeyes Fried Chicken Fan!
This little stall is well hidden in a café of Yio Chu Kang Road. Frankly speaking, if I don’t work nearby the café, I would have never found out about this stall. The café is along the side with a few coffee shops but it is almost packed to brim when it comes to lunch time.
The café is a very small and humble set up. Simple tables with white chairs and with a TV showing some lunch time show. The café is air conditioned and got outdoor seats for the smokers as well. There are only 3 stalls, one selling drinks, one selling noodles and the last one selling roast meat. So this review shall focus on the stall selling roast duck: Sally Roast Meat Rice.
The stall is managed by 2 sisters and of course the name Sally belongs to the elder sister if I am not wrong. It seems that they had been around doing this for sometime. Their stall also got paste a number of newspapers cutting and even got on a TV show before. They got all the nice logos on display. During lunch, most of the people will buy from their stall so prepared to join a long queue. For good food, it is totally worth to queue. They are very friendly as well, if you ask nicely to them for a little more rice, they will give it to you with no extra charge.
Since they are selling roast meat, of course they sell all kinds of roast meat, from duck, to meat and even BBQ chicken wings. On their stall front, just before lunch, they always display all the wonderful, shiny, meat.
Let me start off with their roast duck, their ducks are consider rather big in size. Their ducks are roasted until they have very nice and crispy looking skin. They have an even dark red color throughout the duck. The meat is juicy and soft, not tough at all. The skin is crispy and not oily. Other ducks tend to have a lot of fats but their ducks seem to have very little of it. Therefore when eating the duck, you dun have to chew off the fats first. A plate of duck rice comes with a large portion of nicely chopped duck meat and it only cost $3. It is a must try.
Their Char Siew is also another star on its own. Their char siew is roasted until dark red brown color with a shiny finishing and a bit of chao da bits at its corner. The meat they chose are lean so dun have much fats inside. They cut into slightly thick slices when serves. I like the taste where it is not too sweet and at the same time meat is soft and juicy. Unlike those that are sold in the market where their char siew are bright red in color and taste super sweet one.
Roast meat is something that I usually try not to eat but their roast meat has a thick crispy skin, together with the fat layer and the meat makes a wonderful combination. Got me totally hooked onto their roast meat.
BBQ Chicken Wing, this one alone is worth 5 stars already. Their BBQ chicken wing is like their char siew, dark red brown color with a shiny finishing and a bit of chao da bits. I think they used the same seasoning for both. It is also not too sweet and the meat is soft and juicy, not dry at all.
My usual order would be duck rice char siew 1 chicken wing, and the cost is only $4.70 and it comes with a very big size of rice. Sometimes to give myself a treat, I will buy a duck drumstick. Yum Yum! Something to mention here, every order comes with a free soup. Their free soup is made from all the leftover bones of the roasted duck and a type of preserved spicy vegetable. So to say there is extra meat in the soup. Free of charge some more!
Recently they started to sell sliced fish soup also but sad to say they should just stick to selling of the roasted meat can alr. Their sliced fish soup, although comes with a generous serving of sliced fish, but the soup base is tasteless with a very peppery taste. Not tasty at all.
So you keen to give it a try? Give me a call then I can bring you there for lunch!
1/2 Price Tuesday! So 1/2 the menu and service too?
Felt like having waffles yesterday so I met my girlfriend for dinner at Gelare. The last time I went, the mushroom cream pasta was pretty shiok. But yesterday our experience was in fact, very bad.
This outlet at Hougang Mall is pretty small and getting a table for 4 wasn't easy. After 20mins of waiting outside, finally we got our table. They've now improved on their menu and there were many choices that looks quite good. Since we were there for the waffles and pasta, we didn't get distracted. We wrote our orders on the order sheet provided at every table and went to the cashier to place our order.
While waiting in the queue, I realised that the ice cream choice we wanted wasn't available. And thus I tried to remember whatever that's there and walked back to the table to check with my friends. By then, I've already forgotten 80% of the choices available. Had to walk all the way back to check again and then back to the table to change our orders. Statisfied with our choice of ice cream for our waffles, we got back to the queue and when its our turn, the cashier told us that they had run out of mushroom cream pasta!!! (They could have indicated somewhere or inform us when they cleared the table right?) My friend had to walk back to our table and check what we want to change our pasta to, and then we changed our order AGAIN and joined the queue AGAIN!
We ended walking back and forth for about 5 times before we placed our orders with the cashier!
Our pasta was served first and one look at it I lost my appetite. We ordered tomato seafood pasta, the pasta looked pathetic with the little amount of sauce that only managed to cover 1/3 of the pasta for mine and 1/2 of the pasta for my friends'. We were too hungry to complain and so we just went ahead with what was given.
After our pasta, we stayed to chat while waiting for the waffles which was finally served after more than 30 mins! We did indicate to serve our waffles later, aka after we're done with our pasta, but not till that late.
Very disappointed about yesterday's experience. Guess I'll just forget about the pasta and just go for their waffles the next time.
The infamous Gelare Tuesdays, the only time of the week when you get waffles at half price. Sounds good doesn't it? Except you can expect to wait for eons for your waffles to be served.
We waited for a good 40 minutes before our simple waffle with two scoops of ice-cream got served.
If they couldn't keep up with the service standard, or to train their staffs to politely inform us of a possible long wait, they might as well not try stunts like this. It only serves to stain their brand name.
And I totally agree with Polarbear above, no free water is a bad move. It's the little perks that keep customers coming back, and the little irks that keep them away.
Arnold's Chicken? What's that? Thoughts of yet another generic deep fried chicken stall flashed across my mind when my friend brought it up. When informed that it was a rather famous outlet selling chicken that rivaled Popeye's and beat KFC's hands down, I embarked on a trip with my gf that very same day to verify the claims.
Located on the 2nd floor of City Plaza, the main outlet of Arnold's is tucked away in a rather obscure corner and very much resembles a fast food joint except that they do take and serve orders at your table. Please note that you still pay at the counter though.
We had the 2 person combo meal, which consisted of 5 pieces of chicken, potato fries, 1 regular coleslaw, 2 buns and 2 soft drinks. The highlight was of course the chicken, which was very crispy on the outside with a tinge of herbs yet tender and moist on the inside. And the best part was, it didn't have the used oil aftertaste that usually came along with KFC chickens. The coleslaw was also quite a refreshing change from the funny tasting and smelling ones that KFC serves. Even my gf who dislikes coleslaw commented so. The buns were way too oily though, being deep fried in oil and the fries really tasted like frozen fries that had been deep fried.
$18.10 for the above is rather pricey actually, especially when you can get the exact same stuff at KFC for about $5 less. Quality wise, no thoughts of comparison between Arnold's and KFC should even cross your mind because there is simply no competition. Unfortunately, location wise, KFC is a clear winner.
The vibrant dining scene of East Coast/Upper East Coast road has a new entrant - a small bistro by the name of Montreux. Its not exactly new to the East Coast area per se, with a small cafe going by the same name and owned by the same person operating out of the basement of Siglap Centre. The cafe only sells cakes and desserts though, while the bistro serves up appetisers and mains as well.
Partially hidden from view in a tiny shophouse just 2 units down from NTUC, Montreux's interior is simple, uncluttered and very "cafeish". Its really tiny though, probably maxing out at about 20 customers or so.
Complimentary Bread - The bread, though served warm, was at best forgettable. But no one complains of free bread especially when they are starving.
The soup of the day - Beef Goulash. Tangy with a hint of spice and a few chunks of beef, something which I certainly didn't expect from a low cost set dinner soup. It was a tad too watery though.
Bangers & Mash - Okay this hardly qualifies as bangers and mash although technically there's nothing wrong with it. Correct me if I am wrong though, but isn't bangers and mash suppose to come with huge sausages and not the teeny weeny ones you can get off the shelves from some supermart? However, having said that, its best to keep in mind that we are talking about a $12.90 set dinner here so I guess that kinda puts things into perspective. Just for the record, the sausages weren't great, average at best.
Half Spring Chicken - The half spring chicken was rather smallish but decent enough. Served up with a piece of overfried rosti, it was a tad dry (probably a little overcooked) with a light herb taste.
Hazelnut Cake - The cake had to be the highlight of the set dinner, or the entire meal for that matter. Smooth hazelnut and sponge sitting atop a nice crunchy wafer base. A very nice nutty taste. It did seem a tad too dry though. Also, only half a slice of cake was served, making portions really small.
Espresso Brownie - Our waiter recommended this and after the positive experience with the hazelnut cake, I had fairly high expectations of it. And it was quite good with molten chocolate atop and the cake a tad chewy and not too dry. However, I couldn't quite make out any taste of espresso at all. Montreux might want to consider adding more espresso into the mix or renaming the brownie?
2 set dinners plus an extra dessert cost $36, which certainly isn't expensive. Generally mains are average but desserts are better. If they could improve the quality of their mains, I'm sure Montreux Bistro will be a success, especially when service is good as well. On a side note, I've not tried anything from their ala carte menu because the items in it do seem rather expensive, which means that my review might not be entirely fair.
When you see the stall, you might mistaken it for a tze char stall with the signboard showing dishes usually associated with one. The brief story behind this muffin shop is that the son took over the original tze char stall in the hawker centre after a certain chain of events and converted it to specialize on muffins. Since then, there was no turning back.
I guess business is pretty good as I sometimes get an apology from the boss saying that he ran out of the popular flavors by lunchtime on a week day.
So it did take few occasions before I managed to try out a few of the flavors. Suffice to say, there was good reason for the muffins to sell out so quickly.
The banana walnut muffin was an absolute joy to sink your teeth into the fluffy texture similar to the fa-gao with slices of sweet banana laid on the crown and crunchy walnuts throughout. It was not overly sweet and you can taste the ingredient properly.
They also have flavors like oreo, orange peel, chocolate and a savory ham and cheese flavor.
The best part is that the muffins are pretty large, almost one's fist and yet priced really cheaply at $1.20 per piece.
And just before you leave the stall with your spoils, the boss will remind you that his is the first fortune muffin in the world, thanks to the little slip of paper placed between the base of two paper cups.
You would think that there would be some proper service standards in an atas area such as Dempsey. But NO, thanks to La Forketta, I can relate so well with people who experience bad service which sticks out like a sore thumb. So appalled, I am mooting for this place to be renamed to Forget it Lah! as a tribute to this abomination of a restaurant.
Arrogant twits for wait staff It is clear as glass that the GEMS (Going the Extra Mile for Service) programme never saw the light of day here at Forget it Lah!. None of them even displayed a hint of a smile. Either the wait staff all have facial muscular disorder and will suffer traumatic cramps upon smiling and keel over and die, or they are all extremely buey gam wan (read: pissed with everything, everyone, every time). I'll do you guys a service here by providing some revelation: The only wait staff who have such a privilege of not smiling is one with a French accent as thick as the Great Wall of China. Don't confuse French and Italian cuisine. Hell, even French waiters smile readily for that matter.
Like customers owe them a living While we can live with wait staff that give the buey gam wan look by simply ignoring them, it is a whole new level when they just take their own sweet time for everything and telling you off for it. While I believe there should be staff welfare, but there is also welfare abuse. At Forget it Lah! we know it is the latter. While seated at a corner, I saw many wait staff standing outside relaxing and taking puffs of smoke while the restaurant was occupied at every table. (Full because, surprise! Slow service = slow patron turnover) So basically, patrons have to wait for not only the food to be prepared, but also for the wait staff who need to take their break after every dish served to the table. Yes, I am sure waiting tables is a life-and-death-kind-of-stressful profession that warrants that kind of de-stressing activity. I don't even want to imagine how the stinky toxic from cigarettes interact with the food.
Cheating your money with bread and water With bread automatically served, you are also automatically charged an exorbitant price for the plain old roti. You are forced to order their atas water because they can't afford proper plumbing in Singapore, where the water is tested to be purer than any atas mineral water and can fight tooth decay. There are ways to do business, and there are underhand ways to do business, but there is the Forget it Lah! way to do business that is in a league of its own.
1=SGD 0.0587
Don't go if you don't have anything to buy!
I went to the IT Show yesterday after 7pm, and as expected, everyone headed down on the first day too, in hope to avoid the even massive jam over the weekend.
I did a survival guide for those who's visiting IT Show. If you're keen to read, please go to my blog.
One concern I have at such a crowded event... what IF there's an emergency? I wonder how will they evacuate that many people within the shortest time possible. But I'm sure the organisers would have all these planned and ironed out long ago.
Everyone knew that the place is going to be packed, but still everyone still wants to go check out the prices. Why? Cos they always have very good bundles and discounts at the show. Especially for those who hate shopping and comparing prices at so many stalls around Sim Lim or Funan, shows like this is the easiest for them. Perhaps the price is not the cheapest, but with a little more, you get whole lot of goodies. So why not right?
Have you gone to the show too? Did you get anything there?
Rating given:
My first trip back in Serangoon Gardens. I haven't been here for the last ten years. So many things have changed and many had remained. I found myself on the doorstep of this quaint little Italian restaurant. My friend and I were curious about it and decided that this would be our dinner place that Thursday evening.
Being a weekday evening, I guess it's perfectly understandable why it wasn't crowded. About 4-5 other tables were occupied while we were there. They have a seating area of about 40, including the two tables outside. They have soft warm lighting and earthy tones to create a cosy ambience. It has nice interior decor really.
The staff was warm and friendly. My friend came a little later than me. So the staff talked to me a bit, introducing the restaurant and telling me about the background of it,which was nice.
Food ordered:
Funchi Triffolati al Moda Dello Chef - $12.90
Portobello Mushroom garnished with grilled bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes & olives with de Parma's house dressings.
I love mushrooms and I'm so glad this dish didn't disappoint. I love the juiciness of the mushrooms as I bit down into it. In fact I loved it so much I was clearly happy to have more than my share. haha I also enjoyed eating it with the bell peppers.
Calzone (Folded Pizza) - $24.90
This Neapolitan speciality is filled with ham, bacon, onions, mushrooms, capsicums & smoked cheddar cheese.
This folded pizza was pretty huge, so it sort of justified the price. Inside was filled with plenty of warm ingredients. It would have been more delicious if it were piping hot but then it would have been difficult to eat. So it's good as it is, just one gripe... the outer covering was a little too hard and we had to put quite a bit of effort into cutting it up. Good exercise.
Fileto Di Mento - $32.90
Air-flown, grain-fed beef tenderloin drizzled in red wine sauce & served with Portobello Mushrooms & sauteed vegetables.
Let me say this for the record: I'm not a beef person. In fact I don't like beef, but only started eating it when I joined Yebber. Even so I only take one small slice to try each time. But this one? It was fantastic. Yummilicious! The meat wasn't tough and hard to chew. It was tender and the meat was well marinated. But the mushroom that came with it was visibly squashed and shrunken, though it still tasted nice with the sauce they had.
Chocolate Fondant
Break the hard crust outside and the chocolate inside flows out nicely. A chocolate addict, I'd say this fondant is good! Not the best but certainly very good.
Tiramisu
I think I was a tad biased when I had this Tiramisu. The last 4 Tiramisus I had simply didn't taste like Tiramisus... so when I had this one, I had the words "FINALLY...." going in my head. Nicely done with a tinge of liquor which my companion insisted didn't exist.
The total damage for two of us was $105. Good food, nice ambience, good service. It does seem a little ex but I think it was well worth it. TRY TRY TRY!
Rating given:
Finally after a very long wait, I happened to have the chance to try out the chicken which everyone is raving about, saying that it is much better than KFC. Well I don’t think KFC is that good to start off with. Since we need to send people off airport, I decided to make use of this chance to try it out.
So excited when we reached there, as usual there is a long queue going on, well 4 people in front of me. There are 3 counters serving at the same time but only one queue. They worked in the way of how you queue at the bank. Not a bad thing but then some people might be put off by the very long one queue.
Seem that it is very popular among a lot of people as they all bought a lot of sets meals, and thus explains the long waiting time as well. Well three counters, so only three people serving at the same time. Since I am so keen on trying it, I wait! Wahahaha…..
I ordered a two piece meal that comes with a side dish and a drink. Their chicken got a choice of spicy and mild version as well. Well I ordered one of each, and got one big piece of big breast meat and one small little chicken wing. Ordered their Cajun fries as the side dish and got a cup of coke. Also added coleslaw as side dish as well. The set also comes with their famous biscuit as well. It comes with a small pack of strawberry jam.
May the tasting begin! I am not a big fan of breast meat but I like thie breast meat. It is crispy on the outside but soft and juicy on the inside. It is not dry at all. The flour covering the chicken is not very thick and it got a hint of herbs being used as well. Taste great! Definitely beats KFC hands down. The thing is both of us could not taste the different between mild and spicy version. Hmm…. Or we got both the same version. Their fries are good enough of their own. It is crispy on the outside but soft and moist on the inside. Seems like they seasoned it with herbs as well. Good! Their coleslaw tasted like the coleslaw that KFC used to produce in the 80s. It is good with big chucks of cabbage and enough mayo to taste. Finally the famous biscuit, it is hard on the outside but soft and fluffy inside. On its own, it tastes like a butter biscuit, but do find it a bit dry and hard to sallow. Together with the strawberry jam, it tastes better.
Overall, I think the fried chicken rocks here but hope that they do open other outlets soon! Hopefully in town! Then now I am officially a Popeyes Fried Chicken Fan!
Rating given:
This little stall is well hidden in a café of Yio Chu Kang Road. Frankly speaking, if I don’t work nearby the café, I would have never found out about this stall. The café is along the side with a few coffee shops but it is almost packed to brim when it comes to lunch time.
The café is a very small and humble set up. Simple tables with white chairs and with a TV showing some lunch time show. The café is air conditioned and got outdoor seats for the smokers as well. There are only 3 stalls, one selling drinks, one selling noodles and the last one selling roast meat. So this review shall focus on the stall selling roast duck: Sally Roast Meat Rice.
The stall is managed by 2 sisters and of course the name Sally belongs to the elder sister if I am not wrong. It seems that they had been around doing this for sometime. Their stall also got paste a number of newspapers cutting and even got on a TV show before. They got all the nice logos on display. During lunch, most of the people will buy from their stall so prepared to join a long queue. For good food, it is totally worth to queue. They are very friendly as well, if you ask nicely to them for a little more rice, they will give it to you with no extra charge.
Since they are selling roast meat, of course they sell all kinds of roast meat, from duck, to meat and even BBQ chicken wings. On their stall front, just before lunch, they always display all the wonderful, shiny, meat.
Let me start off with their roast duck, their ducks are consider rather big in size. Their ducks are roasted until they have very nice and crispy looking skin. They have an even dark red color throughout the duck. The meat is juicy and soft, not tough at all. The skin is crispy and not oily. Other ducks tend to have a lot of fats but their ducks seem to have very little of it. Therefore when eating the duck, you dun have to chew off the fats first. A plate of duck rice comes with a large portion of nicely chopped duck meat and it only cost $3. It is a must try.
Their Char Siew is also another star on its own. Their char siew is roasted until dark red brown color with a shiny finishing and a bit of chao da bits at its corner. The meat they chose are lean so dun have much fats inside. They cut into slightly thick slices when serves. I like the taste where it is not too sweet and at the same time meat is soft and juicy. Unlike those that are sold in the market where their char siew are bright red in color and taste super sweet one.
Roast meat is something that I usually try not to eat but their roast meat has a thick crispy skin, together with the fat layer and the meat makes a wonderful combination. Got me totally hooked onto their roast meat.
BBQ Chicken Wing, this one alone is worth 5 stars already. Their BBQ chicken wing is like their char siew, dark red brown color with a shiny finishing and a bit of chao da bits. I think they used the same seasoning for both. It is also not too sweet and the meat is soft and juicy, not dry at all.
My usual order would be duck rice char siew 1 chicken wing, and the cost is only $4.70 and it comes with a very big size of rice. Sometimes to give myself a treat, I will buy a duck drumstick. Yum Yum! Something to mention here, every order comes with a free soup. Their free soup is made from all the leftover bones of the roasted duck and a type of preserved spicy vegetable. So to say there is extra meat in the soup. Free of charge some more!
Recently they started to sell sliced fish soup also but sad to say they should just stick to selling of the roasted meat can alr. Their sliced fish soup, although comes with a generous serving of sliced fish, but the soup base is tasteless with a very peppery taste. Not tasty at all.
So you keen to give it a try? Give me a call then I can bring you there for lunch!
Rating given:
1/2 Price Tuesday! So 1/2 the menu and service too?
Felt like having waffles yesterday so I met my girlfriend for dinner at Gelare. The last time I went, the mushroom cream pasta was pretty shiok. But yesterday our experience was in fact, very bad.
This outlet at Hougang Mall is pretty small and getting a table for 4 wasn't easy. After 20mins of waiting outside, finally we got our table. They've now improved on their menu and there were many choices that looks quite good. Since we were there for the waffles and pasta, we didn't get distracted. We wrote our orders on the order sheet provided at every table and went to the cashier to place our order.
While waiting in the queue, I realised that the ice cream choice we wanted wasn't available. And thus I tried to remember whatever that's there and walked back to the table to check with my friends. By then, I've already forgotten 80% of the choices available. Had to walk all the way back to check again and then back to the table to change our orders. Statisfied with our choice of ice cream for our waffles, we got back to the queue and when its our turn, the cashier told us that they had run out of mushroom cream pasta!!! (They could have indicated somewhere or inform us when they cleared the table right?) My friend had to walk back to our table and check what we want to change our pasta to, and then we changed our order AGAIN and joined the queue AGAIN!
We ended walking back and forth for about 5 times before we placed our orders with the cashier!
Our pasta was served first and one look at it I lost my appetite. We ordered tomato seafood pasta, the pasta looked pathetic with the little amount of sauce that only managed to cover 1/3 of the pasta for mine and 1/2 of the pasta for my friends'. We were too hungry to complain and so we just went ahead with what was given.
After our pasta, we stayed to chat while waiting for the waffles which was finally served after more than 30 mins! We did indicate to serve our waffles later, aka after we're done with our pasta, but not till that late.
Very disappointed about yesterday's experience. Guess I'll just forget about the pasta and just go for their waffles the next time.
Rating given:
The infamous Gelare Tuesdays, the only time of the week when you get waffles at half price. Sounds good doesn't it? Except you can expect to wait for eons for your waffles to be served.
We waited for a good 40 minutes before our simple waffle with two scoops of ice-cream got served.
If they couldn't keep up with the service standard, or to train their staffs to politely inform us of a possible long wait, they might as well not try stunts like this. It only serves to stain their brand name.
And I totally agree with Polarbear above, no free water is a bad move. It's the little perks that keep customers coming back, and the little irks that keep them away.
Rating given:
Arnold's Chicken? What's that? Thoughts of yet another generic deep fried chicken stall flashed across my mind when my friend brought it up. When informed that it was a rather famous outlet selling chicken that rivaled Popeye's and beat KFC's hands down, I embarked on a trip with my gf that very same day to verify the claims.
Located on the 2nd floor of City Plaza, the main outlet of Arnold's is tucked away in a rather obscure corner and very much resembles a fast food joint except that they do take and serve orders at your table. Please note that you still pay at the counter though.
We had the 2 person combo meal, which consisted of 5 pieces of chicken, potato fries, 1 regular coleslaw, 2 buns and 2 soft drinks. The highlight was of course the chicken, which was very crispy on the outside with a tinge of herbs yet tender and moist on the inside. And the best part was, it didn't have the used oil aftertaste that usually came along with KFC chickens. The coleslaw was also quite a refreshing change from the funny tasting and smelling ones that KFC serves. Even my gf who dislikes coleslaw commented so. The buns were way too oily though, being deep fried in oil and the fries really tasted like frozen fries that had been deep fried.
$18.10 for the above is rather pricey actually, especially when you can get the exact same stuff at KFC for about $5 less. Quality wise, no thoughts of comparison between Arnold's and KFC should even cross your mind because there is simply no competition. Unfortunately, location wise, KFC is a clear winner.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
The vibrant dining scene of East Coast/Upper East Coast road has a new entrant - a small bistro by the name of Montreux. Its not exactly new to the East Coast area per se, with a small cafe going by the same name and owned by the same person operating out of the basement of Siglap Centre. The cafe only sells cakes and desserts though, while the bistro serves up appetisers and mains as well.
Partially hidden from view in a tiny shophouse just 2 units down from NTUC, Montreux's interior is simple, uncluttered and very "cafeish". Its really tiny though, probably maxing out at about 20 customers or so.
Complimentary Bread - The bread, though served warm, was at best forgettable. But no one complains of free bread especially when they are starving.
The soup of the day - Beef Goulash. Tangy with a hint of spice and a few chunks of beef, something which I certainly didn't expect from a low cost set dinner soup. It was a tad too watery though.
Bangers & Mash - Okay this hardly qualifies as bangers and mash although technically there's nothing wrong with it. Correct me if I am wrong though, but isn't bangers and mash suppose to come with huge sausages and not the teeny weeny ones you can get off the shelves from some supermart? However, having said that, its best to keep in mind that we are talking about a $12.90 set dinner here so I guess that kinda puts things into perspective. Just for the record, the sausages weren't great, average at best.
Half Spring Chicken - The half spring chicken was rather smallish but decent enough. Served up with a piece of overfried rosti, it was a tad dry (probably a little overcooked) with a light herb taste.
Hazelnut Cake - The cake had to be the highlight of the set dinner, or the entire meal for that matter. Smooth hazelnut and sponge sitting atop a nice crunchy wafer base. A very nice nutty taste. It did seem a tad too dry though. Also, only half a slice of cake was served, making portions really small.
Espresso Brownie - Our waiter recommended this and after the positive experience with the hazelnut cake, I had fairly high expectations of it. And it was quite good with molten chocolate atop and the cake a tad chewy and not too dry. However, I couldn't quite make out any taste of espresso at all. Montreux might want to consider adding more espresso into the mix or renaming the brownie?
2 set dinners plus an extra dessert cost $36, which certainly isn't expensive. Generally mains are average but desserts are better. If they could improve the quality of their mains, I'm sure Montreux Bistro will be a success, especially when service is good as well. On a side note, I've not tried anything from their ala carte menu because the items in it do seem rather expensive, which means that my review might not be entirely fair.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
When you see the stall, you might mistaken it for a tze char stall with the signboard showing dishes usually associated with one.
The brief story behind this muffin shop is that the son took over the original tze char stall in the hawker centre after a certain chain of events and converted it to specialize on muffins. Since then, there was no turning back.
I guess business is pretty good as I sometimes get an apology from the boss saying that he ran out of the popular flavors by lunchtime on a week day.
So it did take few occasions before I managed to try out a few of the flavors. Suffice to say, there was good reason for the muffins to sell out so quickly.
The banana walnut muffin was an absolute joy to sink your teeth into the fluffy texture similar to the fa-gao with slices of sweet banana laid on the crown and crunchy walnuts throughout. It was not overly sweet and you can taste the ingredient properly.
They also have flavors like oreo, orange peel, chocolate and a savory ham and cheese flavor.
The best part is that the muffins are pretty large, almost one's fist and yet priced really cheaply at $1.20 per piece.
And just before you leave the stall with your spoils, the boss will remind you that his is the first fortune muffin in the world, thanks to the little slip of paper placed between the base of two paper cups.
Rating given:
La Forketta? Forget it Lah!
You would think that there would be some proper service standards in an atas area such as Dempsey. But NO, thanks to La Forketta, I can relate so well with people who experience bad service which sticks out like a sore thumb. So appalled, I am mooting for this place to be renamed to Forget it Lah! as a tribute to this abomination of a restaurant.
Arrogant twits for wait staff
It is clear as glass that the GEMS (Going the Extra Mile for Service) programme never saw the light of day here at Forget it Lah!. None of them even displayed a hint of a smile. Either the wait staff all have facial muscular disorder and will suffer traumatic cramps upon smiling and keel over and die, or they are all extremely buey gam wan (read: pissed with everything, everyone, every time). I'll do you guys a service here by providing some revelation: The only wait staff who have such a privilege of not smiling is one with a French accent as thick as the Great Wall of China. Don't confuse French and Italian cuisine. Hell, even French waiters smile readily for that matter.
Like customers owe them a living
While we can live with wait staff that give the buey gam wan look by simply ignoring them, it is a whole new level when they just take their own sweet time for everything and telling you off for it. While I believe there should be staff welfare, but there is also welfare abuse. At Forget it Lah! we know it is the latter. While seated at a corner, I saw many wait staff standing outside relaxing and taking puffs of smoke while the restaurant was occupied at every table. (Full because, surprise! Slow service = slow patron turnover) So basically, patrons have to wait for not only the food to be prepared, but also for the wait staff who need to take their break after every dish served to the table. Yes, I am sure waiting tables is a life-and-death-kind-of-stressful profession that warrants that kind of de-stressing activity. I don't even want to imagine how the stinky toxic from cigarettes interact with the food.
Cheating your money with bread and water
With bread automatically served, you are also automatically charged an exorbitant price for the plain old roti. You are forced to order their atas water because they can't afford proper plumbing in Singapore, where the water is tested to be purer than any atas mineral water and can fight tooth decay. There are ways to do business, and there are underhand ways to do business, but there is the Forget it Lah! way to do business that is in a league of its own.
Rating given: