Hubs the restaurant is not open to the public as this is an exclusive club reserved only for the employees of Singapore Airlines. So how did i get in to have a meal and even do a review on this place? Well, i play badminton here almost every week and basically, my dad's a member so i get to visit the place for a meal when i want to. On to the important part then!
3 course set lunch for $9.90
Soup of the day (Mushroom Soup) - Being from the service industry, i can say that the service rendered by the floor manager at Hubs is impeccably good. He made a good attempt to engage me in conversation, find me a seat even though the restaurant was packed and made me feel comfortable even though i was at a totally foreign place with no one i knew of. Having lunch alone is weird actually. The soup was nothing noteworthy i should say, just a simple mushroom soup probably fresh out of a campbell's can. A little salty but still alright.
Sweet and Sour Dory with Mashed Potatoes - I like the mashed potatoes on this one. Very soft and still maintaining a little spring to it. The dory is normal. Basically, sweet and sour pork but replayed with fish. Nothing too fancy but not entirely bad either.
Chendol? Red Bean? - There was dessert as well and this was actually warm. I have no idea what this is but its got coconut milk, red beans and jelly in it as well. Its not too sweet and honestly, i was quite amused by the taste. To round off the entire meal was a cup of coffee. Again, nothing out of the ordinary but still sufficient.
The bill came up to $11.65 for one person for a 3 course meal.
Given the price, i'd say its a pretty good deal to have lunch here. 3 course meal that actually fills you up, tastes average and yet provide a nice environment. Its pretty much a steal. There are ala carte items which i'm pretty sure will be worth a try. Will attempt a revisit sometime in the future.
The crayfish hor fun was recommended to me by some former-colleagues. Located at Hong Lim food centre 2nd floor, the store is at the corner area, but food lovers still can find the area with ease.
Coming in sizes of $3.5, $4, and $5, I had the smallest version which offers a small crayfish and some small prawns. My pals had the bigger price tags one, which definitely comes with bigger crayfish and more prawns.
I found the hor fun to be quite all right, then again i'm not really a big fan of hor fun. The crayfish was quite good given the price, if you wanna the real taste i guess the $5 portion is the one to go for.
Japanese food. I love Japanese food but not just any run of the mill japanese food. I only like good Japanese food. It was this thought that i joined our dear friend, HFB's invitation to try out a place which he has raved about since his visit. 3 times in 2 months? Definitely a must try for foodies when a tongue as tough to please as his, wags praises about a restaurant.
First up, it took us a long time to locate the restaurant because it was supposed to be found in UE square. The truth of the matter is, it can be found along the sides of UE square. In fact, its directly opposite Mohammad Sultan road and next to another restaurant called Bonta. En jap also boasts 2 different settings for seating. There's the semi alfresco seats on the outside and the oily and stuffy seats on the inside. Good thing for us, HFB managed to secure the alfresco seats which was still a double edged sword at best. Why is that so? Because the weather is so darn warm, its impossible not to sweat regardless of where you sit in this restaurant. However, a good point is that the waiters noticed that and actually turned the fans in our direction. Thats a good start in terms of service.
2 x Salmon Belly Sashimi ($13 x 2) - Recommended by HFB as the must eat and must have dish of the day, we had 2 servings of this elusive salmon sashimi. Well, i'm no expert but i have to say its rather interesting. Unlike normal salmon sashimi, it has a layer of fats which gives it a certain new degree of texture. The salmon is fresh and sweet but not cold enough even with all that ice beneath it. Its nice but sinful due to the fats.
maiyu Salad ($15) - Yummy. Appetising and definitely a must try. The Imaiyu salad comes with generous salmon sashimi pieces scattered throughout the immaculately chosen greens. Its also topped with delicious sour dressing which serves its purpose well in whetting our appetites. Definitely worth the time and effort to enjoy.
Beef Carpaccio ($16) - The star of the day in my book. This beef carpaccio beats every other beef carpaccio i've eaten thus far. Tender and thinly sliced beef smothered in something akin to cheese and a sweet and sour soya sauce dressing that has to be tasted to be believed. You can taste the fragrant cheesy taste in every bite and the beef is literally juicy and melts in your mouth. Must try this!
Kushi Mori ($17) - HFB introduced that En Jap is actually famous for their skewered meat but unfortunately on this case, i have to say i disagree. I had minimal tastings of the above but from what i did have, basically the bacon and asparagus and the chicken, it tasted fairly normal to me. Nothing particularly interesting about the item at all.
Unagi Fried Rice ($13) - Now this is a close second when it was served. Unagi fried rice. The fragrance of the rice is unbearable to the point that smelling it invariably makes you want to savor the dish immediately, but it was the generous serving of unagi mingled with the rice that makes it so much more special. When had together, its simply sweet, fragrant and undeniably good, not to mention the portion was generous as well. A must have on any visit!
Satsuma Age ($7) - We were nearing the end when we ordered this and honestly, it looked so much more promising on the menu. When it was served, we were slightly taken aback that we had ordered fish cake. And worst of all, its 2 miserly pieces at a whooping $7. Now this takes the cake as a royal waste of money. How it tastes like? Just like any 50 cent fish cake you can find outside, and i'm not even trying to be nasty.
Salmon Belly ($13) Mekajiki ($12) Tako ($11.50) = $36.50 - Another sashimi platter which we ordered. Needless to say, the salmon belly is as fresh as ever and the same goes for the squid and the swordfish pieces. I didn't get to try much of the rest but i'd say that for the price, they really could have given more sashimi. The portions as above were miserly at best and a rip off at worst.
Wafu Steak ($17) - Recommended by HFB as one of the better items on the menu as well, this was our last order of the day. Juicy thick cubes of beef prepared simply can still turn out to be an art form. Fresh juices accompany each bite of this little gem and is a joy to have. The only gripe here is that its too oily and there's too little beef to go around. Other then that, i'd love to have it again.
A semi satisfying and interesting meal turned out to be $173.16 for 5 people. Effectively, i'm a happy man because of the company and some of the hits we've found.
Thank you HFB for introducing the place. Its pretty good. Not excellent, but pretty good still. The good items like the carpaccio, unagi fried rice and the Imaiyu Salad are items not to be missed while the rest are either too miserly portioned to recommend or simply don't measure up. I've heard comments that the standard is inconsistent as well but overall, i'm still happy with my visit here. Definitely return for the value items and the carpaccio.
Unlike "feizhu", I went there the first time for a wedding dinner recently. As I went in I was like quite in awe of the place as the deco look so grand and definitely suitable for a chinese wedding dinner.
But as we sat down and had a good look, there were some points that are definitely a no-no for a wedding dinner.
Firstly, the TV (TV!!!) screen was damn small. Really really very small I think some sort like a 19 inch plasma TV although there were many screens there but what the toot can the guests see of the bridal photos or videos??? And the restaurant showed 9pm Channel 8 shows while the groom was still talking on stage!
2nd, there were 2 entrances and my husband and I went in by the back door. Well, who told them to hide the main entrance at the back of the car park???
3rd, the walk in for the couple was too short. The couple reached the stage and were immediately blocked by the pillar with its TV screen which was somewhere in front of the stage. (sweatz)
4th, there wasn't any dry ice or spot light for the couple's walk in. Half the guests didn't know where to look for the couple until the couple was half way through the walk. My table was near the walk in area other wise we won't know as well.
Ok, never mind, lets talk about the food. There's no dim sum at the dinner so I'm not sure how nice they are. But the dinner menu dishes were really not very nice. Cold plate came... well... cold and dry. Nothing really special though it does look nice. Other dishes like chicken which was dry, vegetables which was salty. Only the Oatmeal Prawns, Sharks fin soup and Steamed Fish tasted great and fresh. I guess should be so since the restaurant was displaying live fish there. In the end we did not finish the main dishes. Dessert was red bean which we felt was too thick.
Service was ok. Depends on your luck. We were served by 2 persons, one was friendly and fast. The other insisted we only take 2 cubes of ice for our drinks and the ice only came after 3 or 4 requests.
Definitely not recommended for a wedding dinner if you want your wedding to be enjoyed by your guests.
First tried out Ms Clarity way back in 2005/2006 when it first opened and was relatively unknown back then. Used to have their chicken cordon bleu which is essentially chicken stuffed with cheese and ham. There was no crowd then and prices were kept before $10 for a main course. With the publicity generated over the years and the opening of 2 new branches, the standard of food has dipped, prices have increased and the queues are quite insane. Oh did I mention that service is slow as well?
After a short wait, our dishes arrived and we tucked in. First impressions, the beef I had was very well done and the meat was tender and a little juicy. (I had ordered it medium well)The sides were nothing to shout about though. The hog tail fries tasted like the curly fries from MacDonalds and the salad looked like it could use some sprucing up. I managed to try some of my gf's chicken and it tasted kinda weird with peachy-mangoey sauce on top of the chicken. The sauce tasted like those you would find in puddings.
My take on this one? The beef is good, but only the beef. Didn't get to try the dessert as we had plans to head on to Haagan Dazs after that. The waitresses were friendly, but a little lacking in service. I ordered a refillable glass of Coke and I had to wait for quite some time to even see a waitress to get it filled up. Nice laid back atmostphere though.
InQbox is an interesting concept whereby the object of your affection is split into many different boxes or storage cabinets for purchase.
It is basically a clever ploy to allow companies who wish to spend less on acquiring shop space to have a space on the shelf by being affordable yet profitable.
Shopping in Inqbox is like a treasure hunt because you never know what you will find in the little display counters. Sometimes, you can find rare items like handmade music boxes while sometimes, even apples and pears make it into the boxes(i swear this is true).
However, even at such low rental prices, the items are priced at a premium due to the location. Music boxes can cost upwards of $500 and bags upwards for $70. It goes to show that rental is a killer though and that profit margins are either sky high or drop dead low.
Theres an employed shopkeeper who'll introduce items to you and help you out in making purchase decisions but otherwise, its all do it yourself.
An interesting concept but impratical in practice for the displayers. I haven't bought a thing yet so that says something about the items there. Still interesting though, you never know what you will find there.
I used the senstive skin range of products for this brand and its the nightmare of my life.
The first day I used this product, my skin itch and small red rashes broke out. I thought nothing much of it as its usual that my sensitive skin will react to new products. So I continued the use for 2 weeks and my skin itch and rashed every single usage of the products. By and by it leads to me having super dry and sensitive skin. My skin starts to flake and scarring occurs.
So I stopped the usage and returned to using Dermalogical products and my skin goes back to normal although its already scarred and the sensitiveness increased.
This outlet is the first time I've tried Batok Jones. Heard alot of good comments about it and maybe we got our expectations too high.
Set in a hawker centre, the environment is dirty and due to the crowd there, we sat near the dustbin which made it even worse. Menu looks too cluttered and we took some time to order our food. Customers for that outlet of Botak Jones seems to be few at that time of the day and that time is certainly not a good time for eating heavy western food in great or should I say humongous portion.
Not much of an impression of the food there though I should give credit as the Fish and Chips was nicely done. I found the sausage too salty though and nothing special except its size. Meat seems to be the better prepared type of food there.
Not too bad but nothing special too. Given my small appetite, I don't think that will be the place I will frequent as even though the price is value for the portion size, its still expensive if I cannot finish the food.
Went to Tampines round market last night for dinner because the traffic to the cinema was horrible. Thus, what to do? Try out a 30 star winner stall to save money and have a nice dinner of course! Was it really good though?
Recently featured on the television show for stalls that needed "rescueing" due to extremely bad business, the stall has since been revamped and the chef retrained to serve much better food....or rather, thats the idea anyway.
A note is that basically, the stallholders do not like anyone to take photos so please try to refrain from that. The lady boss is scary when mad.
We basically ordered only 2 items last night.
A plate of stingray ($10) and a plate of vegetables (nai bai $4) and 2 bowls of rice (30 cents). Haven't had a cheap meal in like forever so this is a refreshing start.
They made their name by getting 30 out of 30 votes for their food on zhi ca.
The stingray is actually quite big and theres a lot of chili and meat available to pick through. I'm not too sure about the freshness of the fish since the chili manages to mask the taste overall. No denying that the meat is plenty though. However i did find the chili to need more work as its too dry and not very tasty. Thank goodness for the accompanying sour sauce or something. Which gave it much needed dimension. Overall, not too bad.
I liked the greens for sure. Its pretty much my favorite way of cooking and the greens were fresh. A winner in my books.
Total meal only cost me $14.60 which is like OMG! Dirt cheap.
1=SGD 0.0587
Hubs the restaurant is not open to the public as this is an exclusive club reserved only for the employees of Singapore Airlines. So how did i get in to have a meal and even do a review on this place? Well, i play badminton here almost every week and basically, my dad's a member so i get to visit the place for a meal when i want to. On to the important part then!
3 course set lunch for $9.90
Soup of the day (Mushroom Soup) - Being from the service industry, i can say that the service rendered by the floor manager at Hubs is impeccably good. He made a good attempt to engage me in conversation, find me a seat even though the restaurant was packed and made me feel comfortable even though i was at a totally foreign place with no one i knew of. Having lunch alone is weird actually.
The soup was nothing noteworthy i should say, just a simple mushroom soup probably fresh out of a campbell's can. A little salty but still alright.
Sweet and Sour Dory with Mashed Potatoes - I like the mashed potatoes on this one. Very soft and still maintaining a little spring to it. The dory is normal. Basically, sweet and sour pork but replayed with fish. Nothing too fancy but not entirely bad either.
Chendol? Red Bean? - There was dessert as well and this was actually warm. I have no idea what this is but its got coconut milk, red beans and jelly in it as well. Its not too sweet and honestly, i was quite amused by the taste.
To round off the entire meal was a cup of coffee. Again, nothing out of the ordinary but still sufficient.
The bill came up to $11.65 for one person for a 3 course meal.
Given the price, i'd say its a pretty good deal to have lunch here. 3 course meal that actually fills you up, tastes average and yet provide a nice environment. Its pretty much a steal. There are ala carte items which i'm pretty sure will be worth a try. Will attempt a revisit sometime in the future.
Rating given:
The crayfish hor fun was recommended to me by some former-colleagues. Located at Hong Lim food centre 2nd floor, the store is at the corner area, but food lovers still can find the area with ease.
Coming in sizes of $3.5, $4, and $5, I had the smallest version which offers a small crayfish and some small prawns. My pals had the bigger price tags one, which definitely comes with bigger crayfish and more prawns.
I found the hor fun to be quite all right, then again i'm not really a big fan of hor fun. The crayfish was quite good given the price, if you wanna the real taste i guess the $5 portion is the one to go for.
Rating given:
Japanese food. I love Japanese food but not just any run of the mill japanese food. I only like good Japanese food. It was this thought that i joined our dear friend, HFB's invitation to try out a place which he has raved about since his visit. 3 times in 2 months? Definitely a must try for foodies when a tongue as tough to please as his, wags praises about a restaurant.
First up, it took us a long time to locate the restaurant because it was supposed to be found in UE square. The truth of the matter is, it can be found along the sides of UE square. In fact, its directly opposite Mohammad Sultan road and next to another restaurant called Bonta. En jap also boasts 2 different settings for seating. There's the semi alfresco seats on the outside and the oily and stuffy seats on the inside. Good thing for us, HFB managed to secure the alfresco seats which was still a double edged sword at best. Why is that so? Because the weather is so darn warm, its impossible not to sweat regardless of where you sit in this restaurant. However, a good point is that the waiters noticed that and actually turned the fans in our direction. Thats a good start in terms of service.
2 x Salmon Belly Sashimi ($13 x 2) - Recommended by HFB as the must eat and must have dish of the day, we had 2 servings of this elusive salmon sashimi. Well, i'm no expert but i have to say its rather interesting. Unlike normal salmon sashimi, it has a layer of fats which gives it a certain new degree of texture. The salmon is fresh and sweet but not cold enough even with all that ice beneath it. Its nice but sinful due to the fats.
maiyu Salad ($15) - Yummy. Appetising and definitely a must try. The Imaiyu salad comes with generous salmon sashimi pieces scattered throughout the immaculately chosen greens. Its also topped with delicious sour dressing which serves its purpose well in whetting our appetites. Definitely worth the time and effort to enjoy.
Beef Carpaccio ($16) - The star of the day in my book. This beef carpaccio beats every other beef carpaccio i've eaten thus far. Tender and thinly sliced beef smothered in something akin to cheese and a sweet and sour soya sauce dressing that has to be tasted to be believed. You can taste the fragrant cheesy taste in every bite and the beef is literally juicy and melts in your mouth. Must try this!
Kushi Mori ($17) - HFB introduced that En Jap is actually famous for their skewered meat but unfortunately on this case, i have to say i disagree. I had minimal tastings of the above but from what i did have, basically the bacon and asparagus and the chicken, it tasted fairly normal to me. Nothing particularly interesting about the item at all.
Unagi Fried Rice ($13) - Now this is a close second when it was served. Unagi fried rice. The fragrance of the rice is unbearable to the point that smelling it invariably makes you want to savor the dish immediately, but it was the generous serving of unagi mingled with the rice that makes it so much more special. When had together, its simply sweet, fragrant and undeniably good, not to mention the portion was generous as well. A must have on any visit!
Satsuma Age ($7) - We were nearing the end when we ordered this and honestly, it looked so much more promising on the menu. When it was served, we were slightly taken aback that we had ordered fish cake. And worst of all, its 2 miserly pieces at a whooping $7. Now this takes the cake as a royal waste of money. How it tastes like? Just like any 50 cent fish cake you can find outside, and i'm not even trying to be nasty.
Salmon Belly ($13) Mekajiki ($12) Tako ($11.50) = $36.50 - Another sashimi platter which we ordered. Needless to say, the salmon belly is as fresh as ever and the same goes for the squid and the swordfish pieces. I didn't get to try much of the rest but i'd say that for the price, they really could have given more sashimi. The portions as above were miserly at best and a rip off at worst.
Wafu Steak ($17) - Recommended by HFB as one of the better items on the menu as well, this was our last order of the day. Juicy thick cubes of beef prepared simply can still turn out to be an art form. Fresh juices accompany each bite of this little gem and is a joy to have. The only gripe here is that its too oily and there's too little beef to go around. Other then that, i'd love to have it again.
A semi satisfying and interesting meal turned out to be $173.16 for 5 people. Effectively, i'm a happy man because of the company and some of the hits we've found.
Thank you HFB for introducing the place. Its pretty good. Not excellent, but pretty good still. The good items like the carpaccio, unagi fried rice and the Imaiyu Salad are items not to be missed while the rest are either too miserly portioned to recommend or simply don't measure up. I've heard comments that the standard is inconsistent as well but overall, i'm still happy with my visit here. Definitely return for the value items and the carpaccio.
Rating given:
Unlike "feizhu", I went there the first time for a wedding dinner recently. As I went in I was like quite in awe of the place as the deco look so grand and definitely suitable for a chinese wedding dinner.
But as we sat down and had a good look, there were some points that are definitely a no-no for a wedding dinner.
Firstly, the TV (TV!!!) screen was damn small. Really really very small I think some sort like a 19 inch plasma TV although there were many screens there but what the toot can the guests see of the bridal photos or videos??? And the restaurant showed 9pm Channel 8 shows while the groom was still talking on stage!
2nd, there were 2 entrances and my husband and I went in by the back door. Well, who told them to hide the main entrance at the back of the car park???
3rd, the walk in for the couple was too short. The couple reached the stage and were immediately blocked by the pillar with its TV screen which was somewhere in front of the stage. (sweatz)
4th, there wasn't any dry ice or spot light for the couple's walk in. Half the guests didn't know where to look for the couple until the couple was half way through the walk. My table was near the walk in area other wise we won't know as well.
Ok, never mind, lets talk about the food. There's no dim sum at the dinner so I'm not sure how nice they are. But the dinner menu dishes were really not very nice. Cold plate came... well... cold and dry. Nothing really special though it does look nice. Other dishes like chicken which was dry, vegetables which was salty. Only the Oatmeal Prawns, Sharks fin soup and Steamed Fish tasted great and fresh. I guess should be so since the restaurant was displaying live fish there. In the end we did not finish the main dishes. Dessert was red bean which we felt was too thick.
Service was ok. Depends on your luck. We were served by 2 persons, one was friendly and fast. The other insisted we only take 2 cubes of ice for our drinks and the ice only came after 3 or 4 requests.
Definitely not recommended for a wedding dinner if you want your wedding to be enjoyed by your guests.
Rating given:
First tried out Ms Clarity way back in 2005/2006 when it first opened and was relatively unknown back then. Used to have their chicken cordon bleu which is essentially chicken stuffed with cheese and ham. There was no crowd then and prices were kept before $10 for a main course. With the publicity generated over the years and the opening of 2 new branches, the standard of food has dipped, prices have increased and the queues are quite insane. Oh did I mention that service is slow as well?
Rating given:
After a short wait, our dishes arrived and we tucked in. First impressions, the beef I had was very well done and the meat was tender and a little juicy. (I had ordered it medium well)The sides were nothing to shout about though. The hog tail fries tasted like the curly fries from MacDonalds and the salad looked like it could use some sprucing up. I managed to try some of my gf's chicken and it tasted kinda weird with peachy-mangoey sauce on top of the chicken. The sauce tasted like those you would find in puddings.
My take on this one? The beef is good, but only the beef. Didn't get to try the dessert as we had plans to head on to Haagan Dazs after that. The waitresses were friendly, but a little lacking in service. I ordered a refillable glass of Coke and I had to wait for quite some time to even see a waitress to get it filled up. Nice laid back atmostphere though.
Rating given:
InQbox is an interesting concept whereby the object of your affection is split into many different boxes or storage cabinets for purchase.
It is basically a clever ploy to allow companies who wish to spend less on acquiring shop space to have a space on the shelf by being affordable yet profitable.
Shopping in Inqbox is like a treasure hunt because you never know what you will find in the little display counters. Sometimes, you can find rare items like handmade music boxes while sometimes, even apples and pears make it into the boxes(i swear this is true).
However, even at such low rental prices, the items are priced at a premium due to the location. Music boxes can cost upwards of $500 and bags upwards for $70. It goes to show that rental is a killer though and that profit margins are either sky high or drop dead low.
Theres an employed shopkeeper who'll introduce items to you and help you out in making purchase decisions but otherwise, its all do it yourself.
An interesting concept but impratical in practice for the displayers. I haven't bought a thing yet so that says something about the items there. Still interesting though, you never know what you will find there.
Rating given:
I used the senstive skin range of products for this brand and its the nightmare of my life.
The first day I used this product, my skin itch and small red rashes broke out. I thought nothing much of it as its usual that my sensitive skin will react to new products. So I continued the use for 2 weeks and my skin itch and rashed every single usage of the products. By and by it leads to me having super dry and sensitive skin. My skin starts to flake and scarring occurs.
So I stopped the usage and returned to using Dermalogical products and my skin goes back to normal although its already scarred and the sensitiveness increased.
Will not use this brand anymore.
Rating given:
This outlet is the first time I've tried Batok Jones. Heard alot of good comments about it and maybe we got our expectations too high.
Set in a hawker centre, the environment is dirty and due to the crowd there, we sat near the dustbin which made it even worse. Menu looks too cluttered and we took some time to order our food. Customers for that outlet of Botak Jones seems to be few at that time of the day and that time is certainly not a good time for eating heavy western food in great or should I say humongous portion.
Not much of an impression of the food there though I should give credit as the Fish and Chips was nicely done. I found the sausage too salty though and nothing special except its size. Meat seems to be the better prepared type of food there.
Not too bad but nothing special too. Given my small appetite, I don't think that will be the place I will frequent as even though the price is value for the portion size, its still expensive if I cannot finish the food.
Rating given:
Went to Tampines round market last night for dinner because the traffic to the cinema was horrible. Thus, what to do? Try out a 30 star winner stall to save money and have a nice dinner of course! Was it really good though?
Recently featured on the television show for stalls that needed "rescueing" due to extremely bad business, the stall has since been revamped and the chef retrained to serve much better food....or rather, thats the idea anyway.
A note is that basically, the stallholders do not like anyone to take photos so please try to refrain from that. The lady boss is scary when mad.
We basically ordered only 2 items last night.
A plate of stingray ($10) and a plate of vegetables (nai bai $4) and 2 bowls of rice (30 cents). Haven't had a cheap meal in like forever so this is a refreshing start.
They made their name by getting 30 out of 30 votes for their food on zhi ca.
The stingray is actually quite big and theres a lot of chili and meat available to pick through. I'm not too sure about the freshness of the fish since the chili manages to mask the taste overall. No denying that the meat is plenty though. However i did find the chili to need more work as its too dry and not very tasty. Thank goodness for the accompanying sour sauce or something. Which gave it much needed dimension. Overall, not too bad.
I liked the greens for sure. Its pretty much my favorite way of cooking and the greens were fresh. A winner in my books.
Total meal only cost me $14.60 which is like OMG! Dirt cheap.
Wouldn't mind returning for the good value.
Rating given: