We finally decided to take the plunge and revisit Ion Orchard after so many months in the hope that the crazy crowds would have abated. But I guess our hope was in vain. Nonetheless, we decided on dinner at Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House (ITNCH for short), seeing that it was the only eatery that still had space to accommodate us.
Located at B3 of the swanky shopping mall, ITNCH utilises an electronic queue system, which seems to be more rampant nowadays. The interior is seemingly cramp and reminiscent of your typical casual dining Chinese restaurant.
BBQ Combination - We opted for a roast pork/BBQ pork combination which was quite decent. The roasted pork had a thin layer of crisp skin coupled with a nice proportion of fat whereas the BBQ pork was mildly fibrous without coming across as overly sweet.
Fried Hor Fun with Egg and Prawn - Carrying a fleeting hint of wok hei, the hor fun was smooth without clumping together. The gravy was a little lacklustre even though it was flush with egg strands. I did like the prawns though, which were relatively big in size with a nice crunch to them.
Beancurd with Oyster Sauce - An average dish, the beancurd wasn't silky smooth nor savoury but the oyster sauce did help though. Came served with mushrooms and vegetables.
Yang Chow Fried Rice - I personally thought that this was quite well done. The rice had a comforting wok hei taste with a nice homogenous egg coating and little bits of BBQ pork and prawns that made for a rather enjoyable plate of fried rice. Then again, maybe we were hungry.
The bill totaled about $61 for the 3 of us, which wasn't too unreasonable given the decent service and food. This place beats any of the lower end Crystal Jade outlets that I've tried and I'll certainly be looking out for the Imperial Treasure brand name the next time I'm searching for a casual, convenient and inexpensive Chinese restaurant option.
Tried this when we went for movie at iluma. As I've heard that its 100% fat free and suitable for lactose intolerant people. I'm lactose intolerant though not very serious, I still get diarroeas when I take milk items. In any case, the bright and cute small store at illuma caught our eyes when we came out of a restaurant after having an unsatisfying lunch.
The number of types of toppings really amazed me. Toppings like pormegranate, nata de coco, pomelo and the various cereals which are not common in yogurt houses. Toppings were fresh and the yogurt soft, a tinee bit too strong of the "cultured" taste for me but besides that, its quite a great choice if you would like something different and light after meals.
If you work near iluma, its even better as you get to taste different flavours of yogurt everyday, take fruits and healthy cultures~
This is a place where we certainly won't visit again. We decided to enter this restaurant as we have never tried it before and all the other restaurants had long queue at the door. Food focusing on fig & olives is of course not common.
We ordered Crisscut fries, Grilled Dory with Mushroom sauce, Figo Grilled Seafood (or seafood platter for 1). the mushroom sauce (note: the sauce only) and the crisscut fries were at least decent to taste though we have some reservations on the taste of the rice. Even though this place was called fig&olives, the olive rice was nothing much but spiced/buttered rice with a few pickled olives on top with not much of a taste too. The fish were cooked too oily though the texture was tender and well done.
The seafood platter for 1 cost a whopping $21.30 and contained only 4 prawns and 3 mussels with a whole heap of rice. Certainly not worth the price. Not to mention that the waiters there took the wrong order, failed to respond to our calls and proceeded to bill us for the wrong order. They were certainly in a hurry and is only able to refill the plain water for whichever cup we gestured to even though all the rest of the cups beside it were empty too.
I repeat again, definitely not worth a visit again. At least not this branch.
Even though I can’t really take spicy food well, I do enjoy Indian cuisine. Many people dream of opening their own restaurant or cafe one day, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone has what it takes to be a restaurateur.
There are so many aspects to make a good restaurant; other than delicious food, there’s the training of your staff, gorgeous interior design, an accessible and attracting location, a good wine list, visual-appealing menu, handling the suppliers and one, ten, twenty other small minor details.
The Muthu’s Flavors is the latest brainchild by renowned Muthu’s curry on Race course road. Now you get to enjoy the same good Indian food in a contemporary restaurant setting, with everything plated nicely, in the lush Dempsey hill.
Interior design wise – I’m a sucker for white. It’s interesting to see a traditional Indian restaurant using a bold and unique orange-white combination, and this actually makes The Muthu’s Flavors different from the original Muthu’s Curry. Well I can’t say for all the staff service wise, but I do think that they have a good manager in Joseph, and his assistant is equally knowledgeable about all the food.
Even though I can’t really take spicy food well, I do enjoy Indian cuisine. Many people dream of opening their own restaurant or cafe one day, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone has what it takes to be a restaurateur.
There are so many aspects to make a good restaurant; other than delicious food, there’s the training of your staff, gorgeous interior design, an accessible and attracting location, a good wine list, visual-appealing menu, handling the suppliers and one, ten, twenty other small minor details.
Pappadam, the Indian flat bread was used instead of the typical toasted bread for the Pappadam Bruschetta ($5.50). I always have a thing for diced tomatoes. I’m not sure why, but somehow, they just look so appealing when it’s diced into tiny squares.
Eating the Crab meat stir-fried with fennel ($18.9), it makes me think that I’m eating chicken floss, with the addition of green chili and onions.
I was tweeting the previous night before this dinner, that I’m craving for some awesome curry, lo and behold, the famous Muthu’s Fish Head Curry ($25). Served with ladies finger and pineapple chunks in a rich gravy of aromatic spices, the tangy, slightly spicy sweet curry gravy makes me blush, like a young boy meets love.
Why do we even bother to order the other dishes? This is as good as it gets, and no, we are not going to debate on the ‘best curry fish head in Singapore’ topic. Pour the curry gravy on fragrance white rice, and that’s my dinner.
Tomato and garlic marinated chicken served with Cheese naan, frankly speaking, I could not recall much of the Chicken Tikka Masala ($15.5). Barring the fact that I was already sweating profusely after the sensation from the curry fish head, I stuffed myself with cheese naan.
Between the Massala prawn and the Muthu’s Prawns 65 ($17.9), we decided to go for both. I have no idea of the reason behind the inclusion of 65 in the name, but all of us agreed unanimously that Massala prawn was a better choice as the freshness of the prawns were lost in the deep-frying process.
The Massala Prawns ($23.9) were definitely much better. Huge tiger prawns cooked with a combination of chilies, tomatoes and spices. It’s one of the sweetest thing in life to have someone peeling prawns or crabs for you, some love to get their hands dirty, while others either try to use a fork and spoon to shell the prawns, or simply refused to eat it.
In between our debates over the proper terms of whether it is called de-prawning or de-shelling the prawns, here’s my version of ‘how to peel a prawn‘. 1) Use both hands and hold the god-damn prawn steady. 2) Remove the head and all the tiny legs. 3) De-shell the shell starting from the legs area 4) Pull off the tail and eat your prawn.
Okay fine, so I got greedy. We were full but still, the Lamb Rack Ananas ($22.9) was too alluring for us (or rather, me) to resist. I like how they barbecue the pineapple and add the distinct fruity flavor to the meat. They look good. They smell good. I like to hold it by the bone, gnaw it right up and finish every single bit.
Lamb rack aside, I didn’t know barbecued pineapple can actually taste so good! The others were too full to finish the rack. If the lamb isn’t attractive enough – there’s the tantalizing tandoori chicken beckoning to us.
This Tandoori Chicken ($16.9) is a wonderful all-weather kind of food: I’d imagine holding the drumstick and biting off the meat on a cold rainy day, and feasting on the flavorful chicken during summer. I usually don’t like chicken breast because it’s tough, dry and unappetizing (at least to me), but you know what?
I absolutely love the chicken breast here. It was so tender, and moist. This is the first time I’m giving such high praises to a chicken breast, and I actually like the breast as much as the drumstick.
So, it was a choice between Kulfi or Masala Chai Flan ($7.9), I never enjoy the Indian style ice cream, and having a good impression of a flan dessert helps. The ladies thought that the flan was too sweet; if you’re anything like me, I bet you’d happily finish the whole dessert on your own – I did.
This, is the Beetroot Halwa ($6.9). I know what you are thinking. Beetroot, and dessert? Weird? Yes. As much as I agree that beetroot is always very interesting as it provides the natural reddish purple coloring, but I’m sorry darling; beetroot just don’t work very well with dessert, for me.
Being a new restaurant, there are still a lot of teething problems to sort out, but it will be interesting how people react to the new Muthu’s Flavors concept. Purist and loyal supporter of Muthu’s Curry at Race course road may, or may not receive well to the idea of dining in such a classy and contemporary Indian restaurant, but I’m sure the younger crowd, and especially those who frequent Dempsey often, will be happy to have a new option for good and affordable Indian food.
I’ll like to thank Rayner from Contagious and the folks behind Muthu’s Curry for the invitation to the food tasting session. If you are keen to try out the food, The Muthu’s Flavors, Dempsey is having a 25% off total bill promotion from now until 28th Feb, and they have a new outlet at 313 @ Somerset too.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
After our disappointing dim sum session at The Dining Room, it was decided that we would give Resorts World another chance by patronising their specialty dessert cafe, Boulangerie, located level two of Festive Hotel.
Boulangerie turned out to be a disaster as well. I will not say much except that the macarons were Bakerzin quality and retailed for $2.30 instead of a dollar. The shells weren't crisp and tasted very stale. The other desserts purportedly had an Asian "twist" to them but some of them just turned out plain weird. Case in point, the Satin, a coconut cream dessert topped with pineapple. It tasted like Thai salad to me, which was just unnerving considering that its dessert. The raspberry tarte had a base that reminded me of compressed Danish cookies which would have been fine until you consider how hard it was. It was literally steel against rock as I tried to spear a piece of the tart with my fork. Only consolation of this place? They serve complimentary sky juice.
Many months ago, a long time before I fall in love with food, I have totally no idea what eggs benedict is, much less heard of hollandaise sauce.
My first encounter with Eggs benedict was a bitter-sweet one, back then I looked at the eggs ben, and then I saw the price; I wasn’t willing to splurge twenty bucks on two poached eggs, or what I called the most-expensive-eggs-you-ever-eaten.
I immediately regretted it when I saw the heavenly holladaise sauce that was drizzled on top of the gorgeous poached eggs. And ever since then, I went on a brunch-frenzy to make up for what I have been missing out; to seek all the lovely breakfast food all over the island.
Excluding the ones that I had while I was traveling overseas, it suddenly occurred to me that it was a long time ago since I last had brunch in Singapore. There’s nothing like an all day brunch when you can have breakfast at any time of the day, as and when you crave for it. Cafe Hacienda does not serves all day brunch, but it’s pretty close – they have brunch till late afternoon everyday.
I find the idea of having my breakfast in the afternoon very alluring; sitting down in a chic and cozy cafe, sipping a cup of coffee and tweeting “I’m having brunch while the rest of you are busy at work”.
The credits go to Choupinette of course, it’s a shame that I have not tried eggs benedict and holladaise sauce before that, but it really does not matter now. Although I’m twenty years late, but it’s always better to be late than never isn’t it? Honestly, I do not understand what’s the big fuss with wild rocket, Yes, it’s pretty as an adornment, but other than that, it doesn’t really goes down well in the mouth, or maybe it’s just me.
Hacienda’s Eggs Benedict ($13.50) is a replication of Prive’s, I always preferred bacon rather than salmon with poached eggs; there’s nothing like a sinful fried bacon streak to make me go ga-ga.
Memories they say, are the stuff that make our life worth living for. I remember a ferrero rocher cake that I had a year ago, it was definitely one of the best I had – it was awesome. Fast forward to the present, taking a sniff of the cake, I actually felt butterflies inside my stomach.
Please, please let this be good.
I leaned forward cautiously, desperately wanting to get back the moment that I’ve before; I took the dessert with a fork, and carefully placed it into the tip of my tongue. The cake went down, and I refused to acknowledge the ugly truth, so I took another mouthful, and another mouthful, until it was evident that the Hazelnut Praline ($6.80) was really not as good as before.
This, to me, is a great disappointment. My friends had warned me that the cake had lost it’s former glory – I refused to believe it until I tasted it myself. The praline base used to be one of the thickest, but now it’s reduced to a mere thin layer which lacked the crunch of the ferrero rocher cake.
* * *
Cafe Hacienda is Prive without the seafront view, but nestled in the greens of Dempsey. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Michel Lu, the dining concept that he brings about is simplicity; a nice cafe that serves delicious comfort food at a reasonable price – but some people just don’t get it. See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
It all began with a simple phone call. The phone call that got us a reservation at The Dining Room at Resorts World Sentosa, which opened to much fanfare less than 2 weeks ago.
Billed a fine dining Chinese restaurant, The Dining Room is located on the second floor of the invite only Crockford Towers. Reservations are highly recommended as entry into the hotel is restricted and only if your name appears on the security list will you be allowed in. Apparently the restaurant doesn't take walk in customers. The dim sum menu is very limited (think less then 10 items) and while the ala carte menu offers slightly more choices, it is still limited by any standards.
Charcoal Roasted Pork - The would be highlight of the meal (or so I thought), was the charcoal roasted pork. In reality, it was nothing but a joke. It didn't carry any smokiness stemming from cooking with charcoal nor was the skin crisp or salty enough. I would expect such standards from the roast pork stall in the wet markets, but at an upclass Chinese restaurant? I really don't think so. It definitely didn't help that portions weren't exactly generous.
Steamed Siew Mai - A tad too soft and salty was what I thought of the siew mai, dashing any hopes of redemption for the roast pork. Disappointing!
Steamed Har Kow - The prawns were overly salty while the skin was so thick that it tasted gross after the har kow had cooled down. Which leads me to wonder why the copious amounts of salt in both the siew mai and har kow. An accident or a masking technique?
Steamed Scallop Dumpling - As with the har kow, the prawns in this dish were overly salty as well. I could see the scallop but couldn't make out any taste as everything was just overwhelmed by salt. At least the skin was reasonably thin though.
Steamed Xiao Long Bao - If you like the XLBs from Ding Tai Fung, you might like the ones here as both taste similar. The quality control on the XLBs were suspect though, as some had fluids gushing out while others were barren. Depending on your luck, the XLBs may prove to be quite decent.
Wagyu Beef Cheek - Served with carrots and vegetables, the wagyu beef cheek was nothing fantastic - overly soft without any bite. The gravy tasted like any run off the mill beef dish gravy. Palatable but not something I'll order again even though I love my beef.
Baked Char Siew Puff - With such a dismal repertoire of dishes prior to the char siew puff, I had lost all hope of unearthing any gems in this restaurant. And I'm glad I didn't place any hope on this. Sure, the pastry was flaky with a ever so slight hint of buttery goodness, but there was an inordinate amount of fat meat in the puff, which made it nausea inducing and definitely didn't do my health any good.
It was a unanimous decision. $155 for 5 pax for such hawker centre quality food was totally absurd. And to top it off, we weren't exactly full after the lacklustre dim sum session. Service was good but waiting time for our food could have been shorter. In conclusion, all the hype was for naught and I will not be back in a hurry unless the restaurant bucks up on its food quality.
I have no idea how we ended up at Ivins, especially for someone like me whose tolerance level for spiciness is severely inadequate. Which of course made my exposure to Peranakan food pretty limited. Anyway I digress.
Situated in sleepy Jalan Leban, just off Sembawang Hills Road, Ivins' main outlet is at Binjai Park in the Bukit Timah area. I didn't know what to make of the decor except that it had hints of peranakan influences, as per what I had observed from my lunch trips to the Joo Chiat area. And for a restaurant located in such a secluded area, it was impressively packed with people even at 8pm on a weekday night.
Ayam Buah Keluak - As spicy as it looked, it was actually a stroll in the woods, even for me. The chicken pieces were chunky but I did think that the meat seemed a little dry while the gravy had a tad too much water. Still, nice when eaten with rice.
Bakwan Kepeting - This crab and meatball soup was reminiscent of a light yet flavourful Teochew styled soup with tong cai that I personally like. The meatballs were huge but had a little too much bounce in them whereas the soup suffered from an overdose of oil. Barring which, made for a very decent soup.
Nyonya Chap Chye - I've never had a good impression of chap chye (mixed vegetables) simply because most of the time, they turn out soft and all mashed up. This one was no exception. Well except it wasn't as mashed up as I expected it to be. And yes, the prawns added colour (not much taste though).
Honey Pork - Thinly sliced, the honey pork was as the name suggests, pork coated with a thick layer of not too sweet honey. Palatable but nothing too fancy in my humble opinion.
I wasn't too stuffed after dinner and I certainly didn't expect to be, considering we paid about $36 for 3 pax. Food quality hovers around a decent cze char stall's standard and prices are similar. Service was a little lacking but no complaints though as there is no service charge or GST levied.
One of America's most loved fast food outlets, Wendy's, has opened in Singapore and credit goes to the Kopitiam group, which aims to open up 35 Wendy's outlets in our tiny nation in the next 10 years. The first outlet is located in the central business district - Lau Pa Sat and seats in the air conditioned area are limited so you will probably have to sit al fresco or within the premises of Lau Pa Sat. Honestly, that isn't a bad idea given that the interior of the eatery was smokey from the cooking and I could make out flies buzzing around. Talk about hygiene.
Triple Cheese - Wendy's beef burger patties come in square cuts, which is nothing more then a gimmick in my humble opinion. I had the largest burger on the menu - the 3/4lb triple cheese and honestly it wasn't as huge as I expected it to be. Think a cheeseburger from MacDonalds with 3 slices of beef. In case you balk at the comparison, please let me assure you that even the taste is similar, stemming from machine processed beef patties. Only the buns differ. Give me Carl's Junior anytime.
Spicy Chicken - This honestly tasted like a poor rendition of KFC's Zinger burger. For starters, the piece of chicken was smaller then that of the Zinger. And there wasn't much spiciness to speak of. The chicken essentially tasted limp and cold. Most disappointing!
We queued for 10 mins just to get our meals from the very cramp eatery, only to be disappointed with the food quality, which is miles apart from the Wendy's I tried in America. And prices are definitely more expensive then your usual MacDonalds or Burger King here in Singapore. Will I be back? Without a doubt, no.
Do you believe in fairytale? I do. The story of the Paradise group isn’t exactly a rise from the rugs to riches one, but it’s close enough. For someone who started off with a cze-char stall in the industrial park Defu lane, to a group of restaurants that includes the fine-dining Taste paradise, seafood restaurant Seafood paradise, and middle-range Paradise inn, doesn’t it sounds like a fairytale ending?
I have wanted to go to taste paradise for a very long time. But their original outlet at Mosque street does not serve dim sum, and so I waited until now for their new branch in Ion that has dim sum for lunch.
Having tried the most expensive xiaolongbao, and also the dirt-cheap-but-good ones in Nanxiang restaurant Shanghai; everything in between seem exceptionally ordinary to me. I know for a matter of fact there are people who love to pop a dozen of xiaolongbao ($3.80 for 4) into their mouth, but not me, one is enough.
Ladies and gentlemen, this, is the one you must try. I will go as far as saying Taste Paradise’s rendition is as good as the best char siew sou ($3.60 for 3) that I’ve so far, Buttery undertone of the flaky pastry, sweet and juicy char siew fillings, honey get your hands off the plate!
My dear, listen to me carefully for this is going to be very important, you need to have three for yourself, uh-uh, no sharing, and maybe that isn’t enough – make it six each!
I was contemplating whether to have the usual Siew mai & har gau ($4.80 for 4), we didn’t fancy having the former, thus only the latter was ordered. It might be a case of having too much dim sum, but the steamed prawn dumpling, unlike the char siew sou or custard bun, is just not sex-citing enough.
We also had the Steamed cheong fun with prawns ($5.20), it was some sort like a go-between, not fantastic, but not all bad either. Increasingly, it’s getting more challenging to get a good cheong fun. The problem lies with me, and me alone. Define what makes a good cheong fun: the rice rolls must not be too thick that it will stick to the teeth, nor can it be too thin that the roll breaks and expose all the ingredients. The fillings of prawn or char siew must be fresh, and the light sauce must be able to make the simple cheong fun taste good.
For someone who do not like yam except for yam cake, I always find myself ordering the Fried Taro puff ($3.60 for 3) when I’m having dim sum. This one was pretty disappointing, the fried crispy exterior was not too bad, but the yam fillings were too mushy for my liking.
I tasted Custard bun for the first time about one and a half years back, since then I only had it on just a few several occasions. I remember very clearly staring at the ordinary-looking bun, the kind of buns that you get from the neighbor coffeeshop, whatever it is, those that taste plain and boring.
Imagine my reaction when I torn apart a small corner of the fluffy-light bun, hot molten custard fillings flowed out like lava from an erupting volcano, I scrambled to save every single drop of the yellow-golden fillings – they are oh-my-god, so good! ‘Yummy…!’
Towards the end, we had a second round of custard buns and were deciding whether to have one more serving of the char siew sou or go for the Baked BBQ Pork Bun ($3.80 for 3). I had fond memories of this dish, but the one here wasn’t what I thought it was, instead of the bo luo bao texture, it tasted more like deep-fried bread. The char siew fillings were great, but I’d rather have the crispy puff pastry than the honey-glazed baked buns.
* * *
I have always insist that my favourite dim sum place is Yanting and Royal China, but now, we have a new addition to the list for best dim sum – Taste Paradise. There’s a problem though, it’s affordable, and it’s right in the middle of town. I’ll probably forget about all the other dim sum, and just binge on the char siew sou and custard buns – they are that good! See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
1=SGD 0.0587
We finally decided to take the plunge and revisit Ion Orchard after so many months in the hope that the crazy crowds would have abated. But I guess our hope was in vain. Nonetheless, we decided on dinner at Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House (ITNCH for short), seeing that it was the only eatery that still had space to accommodate us.
Located at B3 of the swanky shopping mall, ITNCH utilises an electronic queue system, which seems to be more rampant nowadays. The interior is seemingly cramp and reminiscent of your typical casual dining Chinese restaurant.
BBQ Combination - We opted for a roast pork/BBQ pork combination which was quite decent. The roasted pork had a thin layer of crisp skin coupled with a nice proportion of fat whereas the BBQ pork was mildly fibrous without coming across as overly sweet.
Fried Hor Fun with Egg and Prawn - Carrying a fleeting hint of wok hei, the hor fun was smooth without clumping together. The gravy was a little lacklustre even though it was flush with egg strands. I did like the prawns though, which were relatively big in size with a nice crunch to them.
Beancurd with Oyster Sauce - An average dish, the beancurd wasn't silky smooth nor savoury but the oyster sauce did help though. Came served with mushrooms and vegetables.
Yang Chow Fried Rice - I personally thought that this was quite well done. The rice had a comforting wok hei taste with a nice homogenous egg coating and little bits of BBQ pork and prawns that made for a rather enjoyable plate of fried rice. Then again, maybe we were hungry.
The bill totaled about $61 for the 3 of us, which wasn't too unreasonable given the decent service and food. This place beats any of the lower end Crystal Jade outlets that I've tried and I'll certainly be looking out for the Imperial Treasure brand name the next time I'm searching for a casual, convenient and inexpensive Chinese restaurant option.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Tried this when we went for movie at iluma. As I've heard that its 100% fat free and suitable for lactose intolerant people. I'm lactose intolerant though not very serious, I still get diarroeas when I take milk items. In any case, the bright and cute small store at illuma caught our eyes when we came out of a restaurant after having an unsatisfying lunch.
The number of types of toppings really amazed me. Toppings like pormegranate, nata de coco, pomelo and the various cereals which are not common in yogurt houses. Toppings were fresh and the yogurt soft, a tinee bit too strong of the "cultured" taste for me but besides that, its quite a great choice if you would like something different and light after meals.
If you work near iluma, its even better as you get to taste different flavours of yogurt everyday, take fruits and healthy cultures~
Rating given:
This is a place where we certainly won't visit again. We decided to enter this restaurant as we have never tried it before and all the other restaurants had long queue at the door. Food focusing on fig & olives is of course not common.
We ordered Crisscut fries, Grilled Dory with Mushroom sauce, Figo Grilled Seafood (or seafood platter for 1). the mushroom sauce (note: the sauce only) and the crisscut fries were at least decent to taste though we have some reservations on the taste of the rice. Even though this place was called fig&olives, the olive rice was nothing much but spiced/buttered rice with a few pickled olives on top with not much of a taste too. The fish were cooked too oily though the texture was tender and well done.
The seafood platter for 1 cost a whopping $21.30 and contained only 4 prawns and 3 mussels with a whole heap of rice. Certainly not worth the price. Not to mention that the waiters there took the wrong order, failed to respond to our calls and proceeded to bill us for the wrong order. They were certainly in a hurry and is only able to refill the plain water for whichever cup we gestured to even though all the rest of the cups beside it were empty too.
I repeat again, definitely not worth a visit again. At least not this branch.
Rating given:
Even though I can’t really take spicy food well, I do enjoy Indian cuisine. Many people dream of opening their own restaurant or cafe one day, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone has what it takes to be a restaurateur.
There are so many aspects to make a good restaurant; other than delicious food, there’s the training of your staff, gorgeous interior design, an accessible and attracting location, a good wine list, visual-appealing menu, handling the suppliers and one, ten, twenty other small minor details.
The Muthu’s Flavors is the latest brainchild by renowned Muthu’s curry on Race course road. Now you get to enjoy the same good Indian food in a contemporary restaurant setting, with everything plated nicely, in the lush Dempsey hill.
Interior design wise – I’m a sucker for white. It’s interesting to see a traditional Indian restaurant using a bold and unique orange-white combination, and this actually makes The Muthu’s Flavors different from the original Muthu’s Curry. Well I can’t say for all the staff service wise, but I do think that they have a good manager in Joseph, and his assistant is equally knowledgeable about all the food.
Even though I can’t really take spicy food well, I do enjoy Indian cuisine. Many people dream of opening their own restaurant or cafe one day, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone has what it takes to be a restaurateur.
There are so many aspects to make a good restaurant; other than delicious food, there’s the training of your staff, gorgeous interior design, an accessible and attracting location, a good wine list, visual-appealing menu, handling the suppliers and one, ten, twenty other small minor details.
Pappadam, the Indian flat bread was used instead of the typical toasted bread for the Pappadam Bruschetta ($5.50). I always have a thing for diced tomatoes. I’m not sure why, but somehow, they just look so appealing when it’s diced into tiny squares.
Eating the Crab meat stir-fried with fennel ($18.9), it makes me think that I’m eating chicken floss, with the addition of green chili and onions.
I was tweeting the previous night before this dinner, that I’m craving for some awesome curry, lo and behold, the famous Muthu’s Fish Head Curry ($25). Served with ladies finger and pineapple chunks in a rich gravy of aromatic spices, the tangy, slightly spicy sweet curry gravy makes me blush, like a young boy meets love.
Why do we even bother to order the other dishes? This is as good as it gets, and no, we are not going to debate on the ‘best curry fish head in Singapore’ topic. Pour the curry gravy on fragrance white rice, and that’s my dinner.
Tomato and garlic marinated chicken served with Cheese naan, frankly speaking, I could not recall much of the Chicken Tikka Masala ($15.5). Barring the fact that I was already sweating profusely after the sensation from the curry fish head, I stuffed myself with cheese naan.
Between the Massala prawn and the Muthu’s Prawns 65 ($17.9), we decided to go for both. I have no idea of the reason behind the inclusion of 65 in the name, but all of us agreed unanimously that Massala prawn was a better choice as the freshness of the prawns were lost in the deep-frying process.
The Massala Prawns ($23.9) were definitely much better. Huge tiger prawns cooked with a combination of chilies, tomatoes and spices. It’s one of the sweetest thing in life to have someone peeling prawns or crabs for you, some love to get their hands dirty, while others either try to use a fork and spoon to shell the prawns, or simply refused to eat it.
In between our debates over the proper terms of whether it is called de-prawning or de-shelling the prawns, here’s my version of ‘how to peel a prawn‘. 1) Use both hands and hold the god-damn prawn steady. 2) Remove the head and all the tiny legs. 3) De-shell the shell starting from the legs area 4) Pull off the tail and eat your prawn.
Okay fine, so I got greedy. We were full but still, the Lamb Rack Ananas ($22.9) was too alluring for us (or rather, me) to resist. I like how they barbecue the pineapple and add the distinct fruity flavor to the meat. They look good. They smell good. I like to hold it by the bone, gnaw it right up and finish every single bit.
Lamb rack aside, I didn’t know barbecued pineapple can actually taste so good! The others were too full to finish the rack. If the lamb isn’t attractive enough – there’s the tantalizing tandoori chicken beckoning to us.
This Tandoori Chicken ($16.9) is a wonderful all-weather kind of food: I’d imagine holding the drumstick and biting off the meat on a cold rainy day, and feasting on the flavorful chicken during summer. I usually don’t like chicken breast because it’s tough, dry and unappetizing (at least to me), but you know what?
I absolutely love the chicken breast here. It was so tender, and moist. This is the first time I’m giving such high praises to a chicken breast, and I actually like the breast as much as the drumstick.
So, it was a choice between Kulfi or Masala Chai Flan ($7.9), I never enjoy the Indian style ice cream, and having a good impression of a flan dessert helps. The ladies thought that the flan was too sweet; if you’re anything like me, I bet you’d happily finish the whole dessert on your own – I did.
This, is the Beetroot Halwa ($6.9). I know what you are thinking. Beetroot, and dessert? Weird? Yes. As much as I agree that beetroot is always very interesting as it provides the natural reddish purple coloring, but I’m sorry darling; beetroot just don’t work very well with dessert, for me.
Being a new restaurant, there are still a lot of teething problems to sort out, but it will be interesting how people react to the new Muthu’s Flavors concept. Purist and loyal supporter of Muthu’s Curry at Race course road may, or may not receive well to the idea of dining in such a classy and contemporary Indian restaurant, but I’m sure the younger crowd, and especially those who frequent Dempsey often, will be happy to have a new option for good and affordable Indian food.
I’ll like to thank Rayner from Contagious and the folks behind Muthu’s Curry for the invitation to the food tasting session. If you are keen to try out the food, The Muthu’s Flavors, Dempsey is having a 25% off total bill promotion from now until 28th Feb, and they have a new outlet at 313 @ Somerset too.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
After our disappointing dim sum session at The Dining Room, it was decided that we would give Resorts World another chance by patronising their specialty dessert cafe, Boulangerie, located level two of Festive Hotel.
Boulangerie turned out to be a disaster as well. I will not say much except that the macarons were Bakerzin quality and retailed for $2.30 instead of a dollar. The shells weren't crisp and tasted very stale. The other desserts purportedly had an Asian "twist" to them but some of them just turned out plain weird. Case in point, the Satin, a coconut cream dessert topped with pineapple. It tasted like Thai salad to me, which was just unnerving considering that its dessert. The raspberry tarte had a base that reminded me of compressed Danish cookies which would have been fine until you consider how hard it was. It was literally steel against rock as I tried to spear a piece of the tart with my fork.
Only consolation of this place? They serve complimentary sky juice.
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Many months ago, a long time before I fall in love with food, I have totally no idea what eggs benedict is, much less heard of hollandaise sauce.
My first encounter with Eggs benedict was a bitter-sweet one, back then I looked at the eggs ben, and then I saw the price; I wasn’t willing to splurge twenty bucks on two poached eggs, or what I called the most-expensive-eggs-you-ever-eaten.
I immediately regretted it when I saw the heavenly holladaise sauce that was drizzled on top of the gorgeous poached eggs. And ever since then, I went on a brunch-frenzy to make up for what I have been missing out; to seek all the lovely breakfast food all over the island.
Excluding the ones that I had while I was traveling overseas, it suddenly occurred to me that it was a long time ago since I last had brunch in Singapore. There’s nothing like an all day brunch when you can have breakfast at any time of the day, as and when you crave for it. Cafe Hacienda does not serves all day brunch, but it’s pretty close – they have brunch till late afternoon everyday.
I find the idea of having my breakfast in the afternoon very alluring; sitting down in a chic and cozy cafe, sipping a cup of coffee and tweeting “I’m having brunch while the rest of you are busy at work”.
The credits go to Choupinette of course, it’s a shame that I have not tried eggs benedict and holladaise sauce before that, but it really does not matter now. Although I’m twenty years late, but it’s always better to be late than never isn’t it? Honestly, I do not understand what’s the big fuss with wild rocket, Yes, it’s pretty as an adornment, but other than that, it doesn’t really goes down well in the mouth, or maybe it’s just me.
Hacienda’s Eggs Benedict ($13.50) is a replication of Prive’s, I always preferred bacon rather than salmon with poached eggs; there’s nothing like a sinful fried bacon streak to make me go ga-ga.
Memories they say, are the stuff that make our life worth living for. I remember a ferrero rocher cake that I had a year ago, it was definitely one of the best I had – it was awesome. Fast forward to the present, taking a sniff of the cake, I actually felt butterflies inside my stomach.
Please, please let this be good.
I leaned forward cautiously, desperately wanting to get back the moment that I’ve before; I took the dessert with a fork, and carefully placed it into the tip of my tongue. The cake went down, and I refused to acknowledge the ugly truth, so I took another mouthful, and another mouthful, until it was evident that the Hazelnut Praline ($6.80) was really not as good as before.
This, to me, is a great disappointment. My friends had warned me that the cake had lost it’s former glory – I refused to believe it until I tasted it myself. The praline base used to be one of the thickest, but now it’s reduced to a mere thin layer which lacked the crunch of the ferrero rocher cake.
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Cafe Hacienda is Prive without the seafront view, but nestled in the greens of Dempsey. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Michel Lu, the dining concept that he brings about is simplicity; a nice cafe that serves delicious comfort food at a reasonable price – but some people just don’t get it. See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
It all began with a simple phone call. The phone call that got us a reservation at The Dining Room at Resorts World Sentosa, which opened to much fanfare less than 2 weeks ago.
Billed a fine dining Chinese restaurant, The Dining Room is located on the second floor of the invite only Crockford Towers. Reservations are highly recommended as entry into the hotel is restricted and only if your name appears on the security list will you be allowed in. Apparently the restaurant doesn't take walk in customers. The dim sum menu is very limited (think less then 10 items) and while the ala carte menu offers slightly more choices, it is still limited by any standards.
Charcoal Roasted Pork - The would be highlight of the meal (or so I thought), was the charcoal roasted pork. In reality, it was nothing but a joke. It didn't carry any smokiness stemming from cooking with charcoal nor was the skin crisp or salty enough. I would expect such standards from the roast pork stall in the wet markets, but at an upclass Chinese restaurant? I really don't think so. It definitely didn't help that portions weren't exactly generous.
Steamed Siew Mai - A tad too soft and salty was what I thought of the siew mai, dashing any hopes of redemption for the roast pork. Disappointing!
Steamed Har Kow - The prawns were overly salty while the skin was so thick that it tasted gross after the har kow had cooled down. Which leads me to wonder why the copious amounts of salt in both the siew mai and har kow. An accident or a masking technique?
Steamed Scallop Dumpling - As with the har kow, the prawns in this dish were overly salty as well. I could see the scallop but couldn't make out any taste as everything was just overwhelmed by salt. At least the skin was reasonably thin though.
Steamed Xiao Long Bao - If you like the XLBs from Ding Tai Fung, you might like the ones here as both taste similar. The quality control on the XLBs were suspect though, as some had fluids gushing out while others were barren. Depending on your luck, the XLBs may prove to be quite decent.
Wagyu Beef Cheek - Served with carrots and vegetables, the wagyu beef cheek was nothing fantastic - overly soft without any bite. The gravy tasted like any run off the mill beef dish gravy. Palatable but not something I'll order again even though I love my beef.
Baked Char Siew Puff - With such a dismal repertoire of dishes prior to the char siew puff, I had lost all hope of unearthing any gems in this restaurant. And I'm glad I didn't place any hope on this. Sure, the pastry was flaky with a ever so slight hint of buttery goodness, but there was an inordinate amount of fat meat in the puff, which made it nausea inducing and definitely didn't do my health any good.
It was a unanimous decision. $155 for 5 pax for such hawker centre quality food was totally absurd. And to top it off, we weren't exactly full after the lacklustre dim sum session. Service was good but waiting time for our food could have been shorter. In conclusion, all the hype was for naught and I will not be back in a hurry unless the restaurant bucks up on its food quality.
See all my pictures here.
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I have no idea how we ended up at Ivins, especially for someone like me whose tolerance level for spiciness is severely inadequate. Which of course made my exposure to Peranakan food pretty limited. Anyway I digress.
Situated in sleepy Jalan Leban, just off Sembawang Hills Road, Ivins' main outlet is at Binjai Park in the Bukit Timah area. I didn't know what to make of the decor except that it had hints of peranakan influences, as per what I had observed from my lunch trips to the Joo Chiat area. And for a restaurant located in such a secluded area, it was impressively packed with people even at 8pm on a weekday night.
Ayam Buah Keluak - As spicy as it looked, it was actually a stroll in the woods, even for me. The chicken pieces were chunky but I did think that the meat seemed a little dry while the gravy had a tad too much water. Still, nice when eaten with rice.
Bakwan Kepeting - This crab and meatball soup was reminiscent of a light yet flavourful Teochew styled soup with tong cai that I personally like. The meatballs were huge but had a little too much bounce in them whereas the soup suffered from an overdose of oil. Barring which, made for a very decent soup.
Nyonya Chap Chye - I've never had a good impression of chap chye (mixed vegetables) simply because most of the time, they turn out soft and all mashed up. This one was no exception. Well except it wasn't as mashed up as I expected it to be. And yes, the prawns added colour (not much taste though).
Honey Pork - Thinly sliced, the honey pork was as the name suggests, pork coated with a thick layer of not too sweet honey. Palatable but nothing too fancy in my humble opinion.
I wasn't too stuffed after dinner and I certainly didn't expect to be, considering we paid about $36 for 3 pax. Food quality hovers around a decent cze char stall's standard and prices are similar. Service was a little lacking but no complaints though as there is no service charge or GST levied.
See all my pictures here.
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One of America's most loved fast food outlets, Wendy's, has opened in Singapore and credit goes to the Kopitiam group, which aims to open up 35 Wendy's outlets in our tiny nation in the next 10 years. The first outlet is located in the central business district - Lau Pa Sat and seats in the air conditioned area are limited so you will probably have to sit al fresco or within the premises of Lau Pa Sat. Honestly, that isn't a bad idea given that the interior of the eatery was smokey from the cooking and I could make out flies buzzing around. Talk about hygiene.
Triple Cheese - Wendy's beef burger patties come in square cuts, which is nothing more then a gimmick in my humble opinion. I had the largest burger on the menu - the 3/4lb triple cheese and honestly it wasn't as huge as I expected it to be. Think a cheeseburger from MacDonalds with 3 slices of beef. In case you balk at the comparison, please let me assure you that even the taste is similar, stemming from machine processed beef patties. Only the buns differ. Give me Carl's Junior anytime.
Spicy Chicken - This honestly tasted like a poor rendition of KFC's Zinger burger. For starters, the piece of chicken was smaller then that of the Zinger. And there wasn't much spiciness to speak of. The chicken essentially tasted limp and cold. Most disappointing!
We queued for 10 mins just to get our meals from the very cramp eatery, only to be disappointed with the food quality, which is miles apart from the Wendy's I tried in America. And prices are definitely more expensive then your usual MacDonalds or Burger King here in Singapore. Will I be back? Without a doubt, no.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Do you believe in fairytale? I do. The story of the Paradise group isn’t exactly a rise from the rugs to riches one, but it’s close enough. For someone who started off with a cze-char stall in the industrial park Defu lane, to a group of restaurants that includes the fine-dining Taste paradise, seafood restaurant Seafood paradise, and middle-range Paradise inn, doesn’t it sounds like a fairytale ending?
I have wanted to go to taste paradise for a very long time. But their original outlet at Mosque street does not serve dim sum, and so I waited until now for their new branch in Ion that has dim sum for lunch.
Having tried the most expensive xiaolongbao, and also the dirt-cheap-but-good ones in Nanxiang restaurant Shanghai; everything in between seem exceptionally ordinary to me. I know for a matter of fact there are people who love to pop a dozen of xiaolongbao ($3.80 for 4) into their mouth, but not me, one is enough.
Ladies and gentlemen, this, is the one you must try. I will go as far as saying Taste Paradise’s rendition is as good as the best char siew sou ($3.60 for 3) that I’ve so far, Buttery undertone of the flaky pastry, sweet and juicy char siew fillings, honey get your hands off the plate!
My dear, listen to me carefully for this is going to be very important, you need to have three for yourself, uh-uh, no sharing, and maybe that isn’t enough – make it six each!
I was contemplating whether to have the usual Siew mai & har gau ($4.80 for 4), we didn’t fancy having the former, thus only the latter was ordered. It might be a case of having too much dim sum, but the steamed prawn dumpling, unlike the char siew sou or custard bun, is just not sex-citing enough.
We also had the Steamed cheong fun with prawns ($5.20), it was some sort like a go-between, not fantastic, but not all bad either. Increasingly, it’s getting more challenging to get a good cheong fun. The problem lies with me, and me alone. Define what makes a good cheong fun: the rice rolls must not be too thick that it will stick to the teeth, nor can it be too thin that the roll breaks and expose all the ingredients. The fillings of prawn or char siew must be fresh, and the light sauce must be able to make the simple cheong fun taste good.
For someone who do not like yam except for yam cake, I always find myself ordering the Fried Taro puff ($3.60 for 3) when I’m having dim sum. This one was pretty disappointing, the fried crispy exterior was not too bad, but the yam fillings were too mushy for my liking.
I tasted Custard bun for the first time about one and a half years back, since then I only had it on just a few several occasions. I remember very clearly staring at the ordinary-looking bun, the kind of buns that you get from the neighbor coffeeshop, whatever it is, those that taste plain and boring.
Imagine my reaction when I torn apart a small corner of the fluffy-light bun, hot molten custard fillings flowed out like lava from an erupting volcano, I scrambled to save every single drop of the yellow-golden fillings – they are oh-my-god, so good! ‘Yummy…!’
Towards the end, we had a second round of custard buns and were deciding whether to have one more serving of the char siew sou or go for the Baked BBQ Pork Bun ($3.80 for 3). I had fond memories of this dish, but the one here wasn’t what I thought it was, instead of the bo luo bao texture, it tasted more like deep-fried bread. The char siew fillings were great, but I’d rather have the crispy puff pastry than the honey-glazed baked buns.
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I have always insist that my favourite dim sum place is Yanting and Royal China, but now, we have a new addition to the list for best dim sum – Taste Paradise. There’s a problem though, it’s affordable, and it’s right in the middle of town. I’ll probably forget about all the other dim sum, and just binge on the char siew sou and custard buns – they are that good! See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given: