Food was excellent, we ordered the mushroom pot steamboat buffet. The small dishes that came with it were simply delicious. Worth mentioning were the monkey-head mushroom in special sauce and Golden Mantou in the picture. Crunchy monkey-head mushroom tasted a bit like You Tiao and the Mantou taste heavenly when you eat it together with the condense milk provided. We had the "Yuan-yang" pot where there were 2 types of soup based. I did not try the "Ma-La" soup as I don't take spicy but the other mushroom soup base was great. Meat fresh and sliced thinly though my friend said the prawns were not very fresh. Cons:
Only tea is free flow. Had a difficult time trying to explain what is the meaning of "free flow" to the waitresses. Price is still affordable and worth it but that day the waitress did not explain clearly to us that it's CNY rate and we ended up paying more than normal. Emphasis was on mushroom and meat and less on other vegetables.
Tao’s Restaurant was established by Mr Huang Yen Kun in June 2003. During a date with his girlfriend while still in college, they came across a famous French restaurant that was serving 7-course set meal. Mr Huang really wanted to dine in, but at $100 per set, the price was beyond what he could afford at that moment. This incident sparked off his idea of opening a restaurant that serves full 7-courses set meals at a price that will be affordable for everyone.
To further value-add the concept, the price for the set-meal is fixed. This means that customers can choose the dish of their preference for each category, without worrying about the price. In addition, there will be new dishes available for customers to choose from every 2 – 3 months.
Another special concept that Mr Huang added, was to present all dishes in specially designed “Tao Tzu” (pottery) plates (thus the name Tao’s). Tao Tzu plates in itself is a fine art, and most importantly, “Tao Tzu” has a high heat withstanding level which will help to preserve the temperature of the food in a very natural way. All these make up the unique restaurant that Tao’s currently is, and why it is well received by all its customers around Singapore
Tao’s serve a 6 course set lunch for $19.80 , and a 7 course set dinner for $28.80 . From the starters, salads, soups, to the Main entrees, desserts, until the beverages, you can pick your choice from the menu. Ordering was definitely easy for the 3 of us since under each category there isn’t that much of a option.
What we did was we look at each category and decided on the dish that we DO NOT want, for example there are four salads, we give a pass on huai san salad, and took the other 3 salad to share. That will make the whole process simpler and hassle-free isn’t it?
Bacon & Mushroom Gratin To kick-start our meal at Tao’s, we had the Bacon & mushroom gratin. At first we were unsure about the dish, because it doesn’t look appetizing to us, but to our surprise this came out really well, coupled with the soft yet fluffy bread (below), both combine together give a unique taste.
Toasted Bread Like mention above, the toasted bread is soft and fluffy, and it comes free-flow. Seriously we could just eat the bread, its so good it can be eaten on its own! No doubt the bread is free-flow, don’t gorge yourself silly, there’s more to come.
Fruit Salad The first of the three salad, the fruit salad was pretty decent, i guess out of the three salad this will be my pick. If you like fruits then this is the one for you.
Ham & Spud salad I have no idea what’s spud, i guess its refering to the potato since there is only ham, potato, and lettuce. I don’t really like the ham & spud salad so much as i find the potato to be pretty tasteless. However my dining companion is a potato-person, so she finish the whole thing without much problem
Farm Boy Splendor The name’s definitely a eye-catcher, having no idea what the salad is, i guess most people will order this one. Thats what we did. But the farm boy splendor came out quite flat, first the presence of peanut has an overwhelming effect on the lettuce and the chicken. The taste of lettuce and chicken is covered by the peanut, but we like the sour-plum dressing.
Cream of mushroom The cream of mushroom was quite similar to the one i had at Friends@Jelita. The mushroom soup has small bits of mushroom among the creamy soup. I find the soup to be quite balanced, not too creamy, not too diluted. Well, if you like your mushroom soup, this will be the one.
Shark-fin melon herbal soup One thing is for sure, there is certainly no shark-fin inside, stop looking for it. Otherwise, i find the shark-fin melon herbal soup quite similar to my mother’s home-cooked soup, thumbs up.
Fish soup The fish soup is unlike other soup you will find. First thing first, it is served not in a bowl, but in a teapot. Pouring out the soup onto a teacup, and you appreciate the soup just like you appreciate tea. Only thing is its not tea, its soup. The innovative is surely there, and the soup isn’t too fishy which makes it a good appetizer.
Baby lobster pasta in white wine sauce My favourite lobster! Unfortunately we got to be realistic, they cant possibly serve a whole lobster in a meal like this, so the baby lobster. Even so, the baby lobster still stands out, baked with cheese, the meal no doubt little, but is good.
The pasta is not my cup of tea, i found it to be too creamy, and there isn’t really the taste of white wine sauce. Nevertheless, the spaghetti is chewy, and comes in a generous helping.
Tao’s oven roasted steak We were debating what’s the yellow colour thing, at first we though it was sorbet, but after tasting, it is not. And we still haven’t figure out what is it. Anyway, Tao’s oven roasted steak is medium-rare, quite tender i will say, but then somehow that something is missing from the steak. Not excellent, but not too bad either.
Baked Atlantic flounder with cheese The presentation of the baked atlantic flounder looks nice, the cheese after baked, looks golden on the fish. Having the first bite into the fish with a layer of cheese on top, the combination is good one, as the melted cheese and the soft taste of the fish goes down well together. However, we were discussing whether there is egg used, because we do experience a very strong egg taste. Mayb a tad too much eggs used.
Ice grape mallow tea You know what? I think this is ribena, no kidding. Like ribena, the tea has grapes. hence the taste of ribena. But the ice grape mallow tea is really good, somewhat like tea, yet not like tea. If you don’t wan a strong tea smell, this one will do the job finely.
Ice rose apple tea There is the scent of rose, and the taste of apple. Blend together and you got the ice rose apple tea
lavander tea Actually we were eating our main course happily, before they served us our three teas. Then for about a few minutes or so, savouring the different tea we completely forgot about our main course. The lavander tea is all about lavander. N’uff said already.
home-made chocolate Mousse Even after a filling meal, there’s always room for dessert, and this instance was no exception. Three small cubes of home-made chocolate mousse, pop one into your mouth, and it melts instantly
Creme Brulee Compared it with the one i had at Al Dente Pronto, the creme brulee was cold while the other one is warm. Given the two, i say i will prefer the one at Al Dente Pronto, warm egg custard does taste better.
Sesame Pudding I’m not really a big fan of sesame, but the Sesame pudding turns out to be all right.
Total bill for 3 set lunch comes up to $69.90 which i must say isn’t expensive considering the fact that we are having a six course meal. The food isn’t outstanding, but its not too bad also. Located at Paradiz centre, its convenient to reach the place. The staffs are friendly, the service and the waiting time in between the different courses is fast.
However, i believe Tao's must update their menu more regularly if they wants to attract me to go back. Simply the fact that three of us share and tried most of their dishes, except for their main entries. And oh ya, please go to Tao's for their set lunch rather than set dinner, because set dinner has only one course more, grilled mango and mushroom sorbet, but it cost $9 more. Nonetheless, for the sheer variety Tao's offers, it is certainly good value if you have not been there before.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” For the sheer variety Tao’s offer, its certainly good value “
Bored of friendster or myspace or other social web portals which promise you fun and discovery, yet fail to deliver? Well, look no further 'cos here's a place where you can meet new people, keep in touch with your friends, write on walls (without getting screamed at!) engage in texas holdem, bet on pet races, trade stocks........ and the list goes on!
Facebook allows users to add tons of external applications onto their profile! Instead of the usual boring "About Me", "Interests", "Who I want to meet" and "Favourite Music/TV shows/Movies", Facebook lets the applications do the talking! As they said, a picture says a thousand words!
There are many different applications designed to cater to different users' various interests. Should users feel like spreading or sharing their interests with friends, they will be given an option to select friends to send the application to! You'll never be alone!
Should you find yourself bored, simply log onto your account and start doing different tests to kill time. These tests are fun and exciting and not to forgot, very refreshing and light-hearted! A very good way of destressing!
Certain applications also help to polish certain skills which may come in handy in life. Personally, i am completely useless when it comes to betting or investing, or simply just doing things to make my money grow. Also, for the longest time, my mom has been against furry animals as pets. Therefore, i added the (fluff)Friend application! This application has allowed me to raise my very own baby kangaroo (something i'll never have in real life), buy (fluff)food for it and feed it to increase its speed when racing! Also, i get to practice betting on the races! Its very useful to me because i've managed to experiment with many different methods of betting, and finally discovered a safe and profitable way of making munny, which is the fluff currency. Even if i lost munny, no worries! I can simply go around petting other (fluff)owner's pets and i get 5 munny for doing so! Its all very easy and enjoyable!
The only thing about Facebook which is not so good, is that while you get to enjoy so many applications and even engage in activities which you are not able to in real life, the profile page will get untidy and rather unsightly if left unorganized. Therefore users HAVE to take the time to organize the boxes on the profile time and again to ensure that your profile is not a pain to look at!
I remember frequently patronising the now defunct Dolphins Restaurant around the Macpherson area when I was still a secondary school student for its value for money set lunches and dinners. Fast forward a decade and the only hint of Dolphins existence is its flagship outlet along Genting Lane.
Oddly located on the 7th floor of an aging industrial building, it is so obscure that you would have to actually know that such a place existed. The interior is homely and reminiscent of steak houses of yesteryear (think Jack's place in the early 90s), made complete with nice booth seats in one corner.
Cream of Mushroom - The soup came with my set lunch and was rather starchy. Beats a watered down version I guess. And I'm pretty sure it came straight out of a can.
Tenderloin with Slipper Lobster - Done up medium rare, the tenderloin was decent but not outstanding. The meat tasted a little flat and could have done with some seasoning. On the up side, the slipper lobster was relatively big and sweet. But as with all lobsters, meat is always limited.
Pasta with Beef - Surprisingly, the pasta was al dente and the addition of capsicum gave this dish a very interesting twist - one that did not sit too well with me however. The beef cubes were plentiful though but lacking in taste and texture.
I guess $47 for 2 for lunch isn't exactly cheap or value for money, but I would say its still decent and definitely a nice quiet place to have a meal. That, plus the nostalgic factor and decent service, is enough for a revisit.
I have a confession to make, i’ll have to admit New Harbour Cafe wasn’t my first choice for dinner. My initial preference for our gathering was at Tuckshop (also on the same stretch of road at Tanjong Pagar).
Well, the catastrophe occurs like this, i din make any reservation because i wasn’t sure whether my friends wanted to go to Tuckshop, so we just happily set off there. It was a long 15-20 min walk from Outram MRT, please be smart and take the Tanjong Pagar MRT instead. When we finally reach Tuckshop, the whole place was empty, right at 7pm. To our dismay, the waiteress told us the cafe is fully booked at 730pm and there was NO WAY she can make space for us. Ten of us.
Now its my turn to panic, since i was the organiser and i din have a back-up plan because i thought Tuckshop will be available. We walk around (not easy to bring a big group around looking for a dining place), and finally settled on New Harbour Cafe, simply because i have no other alternatives.
At any rate, you might be wondering whether you should continue reading through this entry since i already said New Harbour cafe was because there was no other selection, well you should, don’t write off the place, just yet.
New Harbour Cafe is located at Tanjong Pagar, a whole stretch of road that houses many pubs, & wedding bridal shops. A Cafe & Bar theme concept, New Harbour Cafe was rather empty when we got there, but after we got seated the other diners soon fill up the seats.
One of the minus point of the place was the dim lighting. Definitely not a good place for food bloggers to be, well unless you got superb cameras, which i do not have as you can see from the pictures : (
N.Z Sirloin Steak & Mash ($17.90) My friend had the N.Z Sirloin Steak well done. Gosh, i was thinking can a well done steak even be eaten? To my suprise, the steak isn’t perfectly well done, there are still blood stains within.
Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($11.90) Chicken chop with black pepper sauce, accompanied with sides of mushrooms and mashed potatos
Crackling Roast Pork ($14.90) Roast Pork with crispy crackling served with daily vegetables and mashed potatos. Onion gravy topped with apple sauce. On first look, i though it looks like Roast pork (cos i didn’t see the menu), and to my astonish it really is. Now now, when did you see a cafe serve roast pork as a main before? Mayb i am not yet a experience diner around, but from what i can remember i didn’t see roast pork as main course in all my previous dining experience.
On first bite, the crackling roast pork was crispy, and the apple sauce was a refreshing change to the usual roast pork taste. The apple sauce provided little touches of tangy sweetness with each cut of roast pork. However, this is only good for people with a sweet tooth, or for sharing because the sweetness of the apple sauce does slightly overwhelm your palette. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant experience because the next time i will be able to say i got see Roast Pork as main course before!
Special Chinese New Year Pork Chop ($15.90)
We intially wanted to order Pork Chop with apple sauce, but the waitress highly recommend this instead. Personally i find the pork chop to be all right, but my friend commented that it was too tough.
Harbour Fish & Chips ($12.90) New Harbour Cafe has a column under its menu titled black board & daily special. There is something special everyday, roast leg of lamb on Mon, Madras curry being on tue, and on wed we have oxtail stew, there is the Hainanese pork chop available on thu, and of course our harbour fish & chips on the friday that we patronise the place.
The crispy exterior was complemented with the soft and fresh interior of the fish, with a faint flavouring of spices. The chips in new harbour cafe was cut in huge wedges shape which i must compliment was quite good.
Grilled Dory Fish Fillet ($12.90) We had two of this, and the result was rather pleasing. The Grilled dory fish fillet was fresh, together with a squeeze of the lemon, adds a freshing twist to the fish. The serving was generous as well, with a huge cut of fish fillet which two person can actually share.
Spaghetti Alfredo with ham & mushroom ($11.90) The spaghetti was a nice change with ham & mushroom. Now here, not that my knowledge fails me again, but i don’t remember seeing ham use frequently together with spaghetti? Or am i wrong here? But the usage of ham and mushroom gives me the feeling of pizza rather than spaghetti.
Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger ($12.90) One word for the burger, Humongous! The Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger was huge, large, enormous, and whatever word you can think of. The beef patty was definitely bigger than the one i had at Botak Jones. If you were to compare both beef burger, the one at Botak there is cheese added which gives the burger another flavouring, but harbour’s one allows the taste of the beef patty without any disturbance as there is no other extra ingredient.
The beef patty was made like all good beef patty, juicy and tender. And the serving of the burger certainly fills one up. With the harbour fries, its tough to finish up the meal.
Brownie with ice cream ($5.80) As sweet notes to end off the meal, we had the brownie with ice cream. The brownie alone is $3.80 while an additional scope of ice cream makes it $5.80. We only ordered one dessert because most of us are too full after our main course. The brownie was soft and chocolate-ly.
The total bill (10 person) for 9 mains, 7 drinks and 1 desserts comes up to $158.30, which i must say is rather reasonable. The drinks add up quite a fair bit of damages to the bill, $28 for 7 drinks. Otherwise it will even be cheaper. The one positive thing that i’ll like to highlight will be New Harbour Cafe does not charge any GST & service charge. For a large group of us, no extra charges mean easier calculation of the bill. hahahah!
However, the negative aspects of the place will be they do not serve ice water. which leads to us ordering drinks. And like what i mentioned earlier, their cafe has poor lighting, not suitable for taking photos. Service wise not much, the staff there are all foreign workers.
We saw this while we were about to leave, Makansutra salutes them in recognition of their culinary standards & quality. So they can’t be that bad after all, so give them a visit if you are in the area. Even if you don’t like the food, damages will be reduced as their prices are all in the 10s range.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Nothing beats eating with your mates, nothing! “
My parents had lunch at Boon Tong Kee, half a chicken at $13, and buy back a packet for me @ $3.80.
I'll say the chicken from Boon Tong Kee is quite good, but mayb not good until i will pay $13 for half a chicken. There are better one out there in other neighbour coffee shops really.
Food portion was large, menu described the dishes, and other instructions (e.g rare, medium rare) well. Ordered Chef's salad, Mixed grill and garlic steak. Chef's salad was the best dish that day with extremely fresh vegetables and sliced chicken. Garlic steak was also not bad though the fried garlic was too overwhelming and covered the taste of beef. Service was fast and swift without any encounter of rude service crew. Overall a nice place for a date or dinner night out.
Con:
Peach cooler wasn't exactly a nice drink. We were sort of forced into ordering it by the (auntie) manager. Its quite expensive at about $4 per glass.
Today marks the second time that I am doing a review on Astons Specialities, albeit a rather short one. The first review can be found here. This time however, the location is different. That's right, Astons has a new outlet in the Serangoon Gardens estate. Unlike the original outlet, the new outlet isn't a stand alone unit by itself. Instead, it is housed inside a coffeeshop just next to HSBC and Borsch Steak House. Not really visible from the main road if you ask me, unless you happen to be walking towards the Starbucks/Cafe Cartel area.
On to the food. I had an order of Sirloin Steak medium rare with sides of fries and baked beans. My dad had the Sirloin as well, medium well though and my mum had the Char Grilled Chicken. Both my dad's and my steak turned out overcooked. Mine came almost medium well whereas my dad's one came well done. However, the meat was still a little juicy and sweet in my case, which was a relief in some ways. My mum's chicken was just average.
In my conversation with the cook/owner later on, he explained that the stall was only 3 days old and they weren't familiar with the equipment yet, hence the overcooking. He even offered to change our steaks for us and gave us a small discount on the food, which I felt was a nice gesture on his part.
Total damage was $25. Not cheap, but not expensive either. I'm sure once they get the hang of the equipment, the food will get better and the crowds will come. I'll definitely be back.
Korean food appeals to me in many ways when done right. For starters, they have an inexhaustible side dish tradition that i wish every cuisine should follow. Secondly, their main items contain more greens then meat, perfect for the health conscious and finally, the food remains on the edge of spicy and sweet. Making it an appetising and healthy experience...when done right. So where else would we have this except for one opened and run by none other then a Korean boss? Ju Shin Jung is one such place i visited one lazy weekday night and here's how i think it fared.
The interior deserves a write up simply because its huge. I didn't expect it that way but when i entered the place, i had the same feeling Neo had in the movie 'The Matrix' when he looked at the buildings he had to jump. "Woah!" Its not that the place is lavish or anything, its just really spacious and really big. Even so, there were private function rooms available should you so require. There are about 4 to 5 tables in a row and each is serviced by one attendant. My observation is that most attendants are Chinese Nationals and apart from the usual hard sell attendant, the little lady servicing our table was very good at her job. Introducing the dishes and teaching us how best to enjoy the meal. The only complaint was the aforementioned order taker who definitely wasn't listening when we spoke and pushed the more expensive items for us to order, otherwise, service is generally excellent.
Yep, all these side dishes are totally and utterly free! It comes when you order 2 meats for your meal which is exactly what we did. Do not let anyone tell you that having 1 meat and side dishes are not enough for 2 people. They are just trying to coax you into buying more food....which is exactly what we did. For the dishes, there was lettuce with mayonnaise, kimchi, tofu, steamed eggs, more preserved vegetables and a whole lot of greens i can't quite name. And most of it was good. As told by our attendant, everything was air flown and hand picked by the boss and i have to say, it definitely shows here. We over ordered but i did not regret it one bit and thats saying alot.
Pork Ribs ($22)/Chicken ($20) - I'll just comment on both meats together. Eating them is a joy. Fresh, tender and sweet with a dash of spice, its just really easy to stomach. The trick to eating them is to ensure you use the greens provided above to wrap the meat before eating. The meat are also both barbecued right in front of you which means its kept hot and ready to eat when you are ready to eat. No complaints here, just good meat and good vegetables together for a winning combination. If i had to be picky, i'd say the meat can get overcooked sometimes and there serving isn't exactly big. Still, it did stuff 2 stomachs to the brim.
Bibimbap ($13) - Bibimbap beef. Yep, no visit would be complete without it. Actually, we tried to cancel the dish after seeing the side dishes but was told it was already made and couldn't be refunded. Despite the huge bowl it came in, after mixing, it only filled 2 small bowls. Upon tasting, i was pleasantly surprised yet again. The rice itself is interestingly 'full' tasting. You can taste the sweet and spicy sauce on each big grain of rice and the mixture of meat, egg, carrots, mushrooms, beansprouts and vegetables balances everything nicely. I could go for seconds of this anytime.
Korean Ginger Tea and watermelon - Complimentary dessert. You get a choice of watermelon juice or korean ginger tea. We got both. The ginger tea is the same one i remembered when i had Korean cuisine in Shanghai. Its exceedingly sweet but i was told that it had 'cooling' capabilities after our rather 'heaty' meal. Nevertheless, its not something i like at the moment but might be an acquired taste.
An over ordered yet very satisfying meal cost me only $67.09. I was pleasantly surprised actually because everything seemed so much more expensive on the menu.
With the exception of one lady i didn't quite like as she was trying to sucker us into ordering lots of items. Everything else in the restaurant was pretty well done. Good service, good food and good price, I don't see a reason not to return. Give it a try, judge for yourself. (Note: As the service staff are mostly Chinese Nationals, please take note that the preferred language is actually mandarin instead of English. I tried conversing in English but my message didn't quite get through, thus i switched to mandarin which yielded much better results.)
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I started to have interest in this place when I read a review for this place in the papers. I made a point that I will visit this place soon enough. Soon enough, I got the chance when I was in Raffles City looking for a place for dinner. Not to mention that I visited this place twice in a week. Haha….
I was expecting to see a long queue as someone had posted a long queue photo on STOMP a few days ago. Wahahaha…….. Surprise! Surprise! There was no queue at all. Maybe we were early, about 6.30pm on a Tuesday, or we were just plain lucky. Hee…. However by the time we left the place around 7.15pm, the queue is there and it went all the way to the escalator! It was the same on a second visit, on a Sunday, there was no queue as well. Since then I just think that I am plain lucky. Wahaha…… So lesson learnt, to beat the queue, arrive before 7pm.
Since it was my first time there, the waitress at the entrance, explaining how the restaurant works. This place works like Marche. Each of the customers is given a card. This card will record what food or dish that you have ordered. Before leaving the place, the card will be given to the cashier then pay for the food. You will be also given a reserved table tag that you can place it on your table, so that other people know that the table is being reserved, no need to use a packet of tissue paper any more.
However, you can find your own seats. Good and bad about this point, cos you can seat wherever you like, but there will be some people who seem selfish, 2 people would seat at a table where the table is meant for 6 people. Sigh…. Meantime looking for a table is the easy thing, if not the staff there can help out. It would be better if they could have designated seats at the door instead. Hee…. There are both cushion sofa seats and normal chairs as well for you to choose from.
The interior of the place is huge and the decoration is quite simple as well with a bit of fusion going on, same as their food as well. The walkways are wide enough for a crowd but their queuing system could be better. The stalls are quite well allocated as well; means are the same type of food is grouped together. This means starters all at one location, mains at one location then desserts are another location etc.
Now to the food, they offer a variety of Japanese and fusion food. From sashimi, sushi, BBQ skewers, Japanese steamboat (nabe) to rosti and burgers. They have it all.
Omelette @ $5.80: There are different fillings for this Japanese style omelette, from plain, cheese and mushroom to crab meat. I have tasted their mushroom and cheese omelette and I loved it! Their omelette is unique in a shape of rectangle and it is made fresh when ordered. You can see the chef patiently preparing it. It is done layered with the fillings inside. It is soft and fluffy. The taste is very good as well. It is a must try worth every cent for it!
Assorted Tempera @ $10.80: Assorted tempera which includes two prawns, fish, golden mushroom, egg plant and mushroom. This one also prepared when you ordered. The batter is thin and crispy, not overwhelming or oily. The only things that disappoint me are the size of everything, quite small, even the prawns. I did not know golden mushroom can be used for tempera but it does not taste good as it became very dry after deep frying.
Garlic Fried Rice @ $5.80: This one is a disappointment as the fried rice is pre-fried and garlic is added to it when you ordered. Nothing to shout out for this fried rice. Not worth the money!
Shabu Shabu @ $8.80: This one is just soup in a steamboat. The soup tastes like plain water but there are a lot of different vegetables and a few slices of meat. in the soup. They are all put inside the pot and cooked over hot fire when ordered. For this, the most important thing is the soup base, and it failed terrible. Totally not worth the money.
Chicken and Egg Rice Set @ $6.80: This one is they used cooked chucks of chicken put in a pan with some soy sauce, then put over hot fire. After a while, add some egg on top, cook for a little more time, then place the whole thing on top of some rice, added a few pieces of seaweed. Wala! Done. Another disappointment, very normal dish that I could get in any other food court at a cheaper price. The chicken is tasteless, some like rubber. Not worth the money.
Assorted Sushi: The sushi came with a very nice presentation, all placed on top of a wooden board. However the sushi is a disappointment, the rice is not packed as a whole, and it will crumple when picked up with chopstick, the rice is not sticky enough. Although, the piece of fish on top of the rice is a fairly large piece but then rice fails the test.
Rosti: This is a western food right? However they are serving it? That is what I thought in the first place. I was a bit apprehending to order this but then the dish surprised me. It is good, in fact very good. The rosti portion is not that big but it came hot and crispy! So crispy on the outer layer but soft on the inside, not dry at all. Combined with sour cream, it is simply wonderful. This is also a must try!
Green tea ice-cream and red beans fillings crepe @ $6.80: This crepe is not the usual thin crepe, this one came quite thick and tasted like pancake instead. The ice cream is normal green tea ice cream but the red beans are those whole red beans which I like. It is an average dessert for me nothing to wow about.
The service is quite slow as the food are only prepared when you ordered, so be prepared to wait for your food. The place can get quite noisy especially when you seat next to big groups. The servers are quite on the ball to remove empty plates from the tables.
Be prepared to queue when you get in and be prepared to queue when you are going out to pay for you bill as well. They got four cashiers but only two were functions when I was there on two different occasions.
The overall experience is quite ok for me. The food does not really attract me that much to go back again. I dun really think I will go back unless my friends want to go and try it out. ON the average I think each person will cost around $20 to $40.
Oh yah! They got two neo prints machines in the middle of the restaurant. Something special. Looks fun when you can eat and take pictures with your food at the same time. Good idea! Wahahaha….. I think I will do that next time!
1=SGD 0.0587
Pros:
Food was excellent, we ordered the mushroom pot steamboat buffet. The small dishes that came with it were simply delicious. Worth mentioning were the monkey-head mushroom in special sauce and Golden Mantou in the picture. Crunchy monkey-head mushroom tasted a bit like You Tiao and the Mantou taste heavenly when you eat it together with the condense milk provided. We had the "Yuan-yang" pot where there were 2 types of soup based. I did not try the "Ma-La" soup as I don't take spicy but the other mushroom soup base was great. Meat fresh and sliced thinly though my friend said the prawns were not very fresh.
Cons:
Only tea is free flow. Had a difficult time trying to explain what is the meaning of "free flow" to the waitresses. Price is still affordable and worth it but that day the waitress did not explain clearly to us that it's CNY rate and we ended up paying more than normal. Emphasis was on mushroom and meat and less on other vegetables.
Rating given:
Tao’s Restaurant was established by Mr Huang Yen Kun in June 2003. During a date with his girlfriend while still in college, they came across a famous French restaurant that was serving 7-course set meal. Mr Huang really wanted to dine in, but at $100 per set, the price was beyond what he could afford at that moment. This incident sparked off his idea of opening a restaurant that serves full 7-courses set meals at a price that will be affordable for everyone.
To further value-add the concept, the price for the set-meal is fixed. This means that customers can choose the dish of their preference for each category, without worrying about the price. In addition, there will be new dishes available for customers to choose from every 2 – 3 months.
Another special concept that Mr Huang added, was to present all dishes in specially designed “Tao Tzu” (pottery) plates (thus the name Tao’s). Tao Tzu plates in itself is a fine art, and most importantly, “Tao Tzu” has a high heat withstanding level which will help to preserve the temperature of the food in a very natural way. All these make up the unique restaurant that Tao’s currently is, and why it is well received by all its customers around Singapore
Tao’s serve a 6 course set lunch for $19.80 , and a 7 course set dinner for $28.80 . From the starters, salads, soups, to the Main entrees, desserts, until the beverages, you can pick your choice from the menu. Ordering was definitely easy for the 3 of us since under each category there isn’t that much of a option.
What we did was we look at each category and decided on the dish that we DO NOT want, for example there are four salads, we give a pass on huai san salad, and took the other 3 salad to share. That will make the whole process simpler and hassle-free isn’t it?
Bacon & Mushroom Gratin
To kick-start our meal at Tao’s, we had the Bacon & mushroom gratin. At first we were unsure about the dish, because it doesn’t look appetizing to us, but to our surprise this came out really well, coupled with the soft yet fluffy bread (below), both combine together give a unique taste.
Toasted Bread
Like mention above, the toasted bread is soft and fluffy, and it comes free-flow. Seriously we could just eat the bread, its so good it can be eaten on its own! No doubt the bread is free-flow, don’t gorge yourself silly, there’s more to come.
Fruit Salad
The first of the three salad, the fruit salad was pretty decent, i guess out of the three salad this will be my pick. If you like fruits then this is the one for you.
Ham & Spud salad
I have no idea what’s spud, i guess its refering to the potato since there is only ham, potato, and lettuce. I don’t really like the ham & spud salad so much as i find the potato to be pretty tasteless. However my dining companion is a potato-person, so she finish the whole thing without much problem
Farm Boy Splendor
The name’s definitely a eye-catcher, having no idea what the salad is, i guess most people will order this one. Thats what we did. But the farm boy splendor came out quite flat, first the presence of peanut has an overwhelming effect on the lettuce and the chicken. The taste of lettuce and chicken is covered by the peanut, but we like the sour-plum dressing.
Cream of mushroom
The cream of mushroom was quite similar to the one i had at Friends@Jelita. The mushroom soup has small bits of mushroom among the creamy soup. I find the soup to be quite balanced, not too creamy, not too diluted. Well, if you like your mushroom soup, this will be the one.
Shark-fin melon herbal soup
One thing is for sure, there is certainly no shark-fin inside, stop looking for it. Otherwise, i find the shark-fin melon herbal soup quite similar to my mother’s home-cooked soup, thumbs up.
Fish soup
The fish soup is unlike other soup you will find. First thing first, it is served not in a bowl, but in a teapot. Pouring out the soup onto a teacup, and you appreciate the soup just like you appreciate tea. Only thing is its not tea, its soup. The innovative is surely there, and the soup isn’t too fishy which makes it a good appetizer.
Baby lobster pasta in white wine sauce
My favourite lobster! Unfortunately we got to be realistic, they cant possibly serve a whole lobster in a meal like this, so the baby lobster. Even so, the baby lobster still stands out, baked with cheese, the meal no doubt little, but is good.
The pasta is not my cup of tea, i found it to be too creamy, and there isn’t really the taste of white wine sauce. Nevertheless, the spaghetti is chewy, and comes in a generous helping.
Tao’s oven roasted steak
We were debating what’s the yellow colour thing, at first we though it was sorbet, but after tasting, it is not. And we still haven’t figure out what is it. Anyway, Tao’s oven roasted steak is medium-rare, quite tender i will say, but then somehow that something is missing from the steak. Not excellent, but not too bad either.
Baked Atlantic flounder with cheese
The presentation of the baked atlantic flounder looks nice, the cheese after baked, looks golden on the fish. Having the first bite into the fish with a layer of cheese on top, the combination is good one, as the melted cheese and the soft taste of the fish goes down well together. However, we were discussing whether there is egg used, because we do experience a very strong egg taste. Mayb a tad too much eggs used.
Ice grape mallow tea
You know what? I think this is ribena, no kidding. Like ribena, the tea has grapes. hence the taste of ribena. But the ice grape mallow tea is really good, somewhat like tea, yet not like tea. If you don’t wan a strong tea smell, this one will do the job finely.
Ice rose apple tea
There is the scent of rose, and the taste of apple. Blend together and you got the ice rose apple tea
lavander tea
Actually we were eating our main course happily, before they served us our three teas. Then for about a few minutes or so, savouring the different tea we completely forgot about our main course. The lavander tea is all about lavander. N’uff said already.
home-made chocolate Mousse
Even after a filling meal, there’s always room for dessert, and this instance was no exception. Three small cubes of home-made chocolate mousse, pop one into your mouth, and it melts instantly
Creme Brulee
Compared it with the one i had at Al Dente Pronto, the creme brulee was cold while the other one is warm. Given the two, i say i will prefer the one at Al Dente Pronto, warm egg custard does taste better.
Sesame Pudding
I’m not really a big fan of sesame, but the Sesame pudding turns out to be all right.
Total bill for 3 set lunch comes up to $69.90 which i must say isn’t expensive considering the fact that we are having a six course meal. The food isn’t outstanding, but its not too bad also. Located at Paradiz centre, its convenient to reach the place. The staffs are friendly, the service and the waiting time in between the different courses is fast.
However, i believe Tao's must update their menu more regularly if they wants to attract me to go back. Simply the fact that three of us share and tried most of their dishes, except for their main entries. And oh ya, please go to Tao's for their set lunch rather than set dinner, because set dinner has only one course more, grilled mango and mushroom sorbet, but it cost $9 more. Nonetheless, for the sheer variety Tao's offers, it is certainly good value if you have not been there before.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” For the sheer variety Tao’s offer, its certainly good value “
Rating given:
Bored of friendster or myspace or other social web portals which promise you fun and discovery, yet fail to deliver? Well, look no further 'cos here's a place where you can meet new people, keep in touch with your friends, write on walls (without getting screamed at!) engage in texas holdem, bet on pet races, trade stocks........ and the list goes on!
Facebook allows users to add tons of external applications onto their profile! Instead of the usual boring "About Me", "Interests", "Who I want to meet" and "Favourite Music/TV shows/Movies", Facebook lets the applications do the talking! As they said, a picture says a thousand words!
There are many different applications designed to cater to different users' various interests. Should users feel like spreading or sharing their interests with friends, they will be given an option to select friends to send the application to! You'll never be alone!
Should you find yourself bored, simply log onto your account and start doing different tests to kill time. These tests are fun and exciting and not to forgot, very refreshing and light-hearted! A very good way of destressing!
Certain applications also help to polish certain skills which may come in handy in life. Personally, i am completely useless when it comes to betting or investing, or simply just doing things to make my money grow. Also, for the longest time, my mom has been against furry animals as pets. Therefore, i added the (fluff)Friend application! This application has allowed me to raise my very own baby kangaroo (something i'll never have in real life), buy (fluff)food for it and feed it to increase its speed when racing! Also, i get to practice betting on the races! Its very useful to me because i've managed to experiment with many different methods of betting, and finally discovered a safe and profitable way of making munny, which is the fluff currency. Even if i lost munny, no worries! I can simply go around petting other (fluff)owner's pets and i get 5 munny for doing so! Its all very easy and enjoyable!
The only thing about Facebook which is not so good, is that while you get to enjoy so many applications and even engage in activities which you are not able to in real life, the profile page will get untidy and rather unsightly if left unorganized. Therefore users HAVE to take the time to organize the boxes on the profile time and again to ensure that your profile is not a pain to look at!
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I remember frequently patronising the now defunct Dolphins Restaurant around the Macpherson area when I was still a secondary school student for its value for money set lunches and dinners. Fast forward a decade and the only hint of Dolphins existence is its flagship outlet along Genting Lane.
Oddly located on the 7th floor of an aging industrial building, it is so obscure that you would have to actually know that such a place existed. The interior is homely and reminiscent of steak houses of yesteryear (think Jack's place in the early 90s), made complete with nice booth seats in one corner.
Cream of Mushroom - The soup came with my set lunch and was rather starchy. Beats a watered down version I guess. And I'm pretty sure it came straight out of a can.
Tenderloin with Slipper Lobster - Done up medium rare, the tenderloin was decent but not outstanding. The meat tasted a little flat and could have done with some seasoning. On the up side, the slipper lobster was relatively big and sweet. But as with all lobsters, meat is always limited.
Pasta with Beef - Surprisingly, the pasta was al dente and the addition of capsicum gave this dish a very interesting twist - one that did not sit too well with me however. The beef cubes were plentiful though but lacking in taste and texture.
I guess $47 for 2 for lunch isn't exactly cheap or value for money, but I would say its still decent and definitely a nice quiet place to have a meal. That, plus the nostalgic factor and decent service, is enough for a revisit.
See all my pictures here
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I have a confession to make, i’ll have to admit New Harbour Cafe wasn’t my first choice for dinner. My initial preference for our gathering was at Tuckshop (also on the same stretch of road at Tanjong Pagar).
Well, the catastrophe occurs like this, i din make any reservation because i wasn’t sure whether my friends wanted to go to Tuckshop, so we just happily set off there. It was a long 15-20 min walk from Outram MRT, please be smart and take the Tanjong Pagar MRT instead. When we finally reach Tuckshop, the whole place was empty, right at 7pm. To our dismay, the waiteress told us the cafe is fully booked at 730pm and there was NO WAY she can make space for us. Ten of us.
Now its my turn to panic, since i was the organiser and i din have a back-up plan because i thought Tuckshop will be available. We walk around (not easy to bring a big group around looking for a dining place), and finally settled on New Harbour Cafe, simply because i have no other alternatives.
At any rate, you might be wondering whether you should continue reading through this entry since i already said New Harbour cafe was because there was no other selection, well you should, don’t write off the place, just yet.
New Harbour Cafe is located at Tanjong Pagar, a whole stretch of road that houses many pubs, & wedding bridal shops. A Cafe & Bar theme concept, New Harbour Cafe was rather empty when we got there, but after we got seated the other diners soon fill up the seats.
One of the minus point of the place was the dim lighting. Definitely not a good place for food bloggers to be, well unless you got superb cameras, which i do not have as you can see from the pictures : (
N.Z Sirloin Steak & Mash ($17.90)
My friend had the N.Z Sirloin Steak well done. Gosh, i was thinking can a well done steak even be eaten? To my suprise, the steak isn’t perfectly well done, there are still blood stains within.
Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($11.90)
Chicken chop with black pepper sauce, accompanied with sides of mushrooms and mashed potatos
Crackling Roast Pork ($14.90)
Roast Pork with crispy crackling served with daily vegetables and mashed potatos. Onion gravy topped with apple sauce. On first look, i though it looks like Roast pork (cos i didn’t see the menu), and to my astonish it really is. Now now, when did you see a cafe serve roast pork as a main before? Mayb i am not yet a experience diner around, but from what i can remember i didn’t see roast pork as main course in all my previous dining experience.
On first bite, the crackling roast pork was crispy, and the apple sauce was a refreshing change to the usual roast pork taste. The apple sauce provided little touches of tangy sweetness with each cut of roast pork. However, this is only good for people with a sweet tooth, or for sharing because the sweetness of the apple sauce does slightly overwhelm your palette. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant experience because the next time i will be able to say i got see Roast Pork as main course before!
Special Chinese New Year Pork Chop ($15.90)
We intially wanted to order Pork Chop with apple sauce, but the waitress highly recommend this instead. Personally i find the pork chop to be all right, but my friend commented that it was too tough.
Harbour Fish & Chips ($12.90)
New Harbour Cafe has a column under its menu titled black board & daily special. There is something special everyday, roast leg of lamb on Mon, Madras curry being on tue, and on wed we have oxtail stew, there is the Hainanese pork chop available on thu, and of course our harbour fish & chips on the friday that we patronise the place.
The crispy exterior was complemented with the soft and fresh interior of the fish, with a faint flavouring of spices. The chips in new harbour cafe was cut in huge wedges shape which i must compliment was quite good.
Grilled Dory Fish Fillet ($12.90)
We had two of this, and the result was rather pleasing. The Grilled dory fish fillet was fresh, together with a squeeze of the lemon, adds a freshing twist to the fish. The serving was generous as well, with a huge cut of fish fillet which two person can actually share.
Spaghetti Alfredo with ham & mushroom ($11.90)
The spaghetti was a nice change with ham & mushroom. Now here, not that my knowledge fails me again, but i don’t remember seeing ham use frequently together with spaghetti? Or am i wrong here? But the usage of ham and mushroom gives me the feeling of pizza rather than spaghetti.
Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger ($12.90)
One word for the burger, Humongous! The Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger was huge, large, enormous, and whatever word you can think of. The beef patty was definitely bigger than the one i had at Botak Jones. If you were to compare both beef burger, the one at Botak there is cheese added which gives the burger another flavouring, but harbour’s one allows the taste of the beef patty without any disturbance as there is no other extra ingredient.
The beef patty was made like all good beef patty, juicy and tender. And the serving of the burger certainly fills one up. With the harbour fries, its tough to finish up the meal.
Brownie with ice cream ($5.80)
As sweet notes to end off the meal, we had the brownie with ice cream. The brownie alone is $3.80 while an additional scope of ice cream makes it $5.80. We only ordered one dessert because most of us are too full after our main course. The brownie was soft and chocolate-ly.
The total bill (10 person) for 9 mains, 7 drinks and 1 desserts comes up to $158.30, which i must say is rather reasonable. The drinks add up quite a fair bit of damages to the bill, $28 for 7 drinks. Otherwise it will even be cheaper. The one positive thing that i’ll like to highlight will be New Harbour Cafe does not charge any GST & service charge. For a large group of us, no extra charges mean easier calculation of the bill. hahahah!
However, the negative aspects of the place will be they do not serve ice water. which leads to us ordering drinks. And like what i mentioned earlier, their cafe has poor lighting, not suitable for taking photos. Service wise not much, the staff there are all foreign workers.
We saw this while we were about to leave, Makansutra salutes them in recognition of their culinary standards & quality. So they can’t be that bad after all, so give them a visit if you are in the area. Even if you don’t like the food, damages will be reduced as their prices are all in the 10s range.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Nothing beats eating with your mates, nothing! “
Rating given:
My parents had lunch at Boon Tong Kee, half a chicken at $13, and buy back a packet for me @ $3.80.
I'll say the chicken from Boon Tong Kee is quite good, but mayb not good until i will pay $13 for half a chicken. There are better one out there in other neighbour coffee shops really.
Rating given:
Pro:
Food portion was large, menu described the dishes, and other instructions (e.g rare, medium rare) well. Ordered Chef's salad, Mixed grill and garlic steak. Chef's salad was the best dish that day with extremely fresh vegetables and sliced chicken. Garlic steak was also not bad though the fried garlic was too overwhelming and covered the taste of beef. Service was fast and swift without any encounter of rude service crew. Overall a nice place for a date or dinner night out.
Con:
Peach cooler wasn't exactly a nice drink. We were sort of forced into ordering it by the (auntie) manager. Its quite expensive at about $4 per glass.
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Today marks the second time that I am doing a review on Astons Specialities, albeit a rather short one. The first review can be found here. This time however, the location is different. That's right, Astons has a new outlet in the Serangoon Gardens estate. Unlike the original outlet, the new outlet isn't a stand alone unit by itself. Instead, it is housed inside a coffeeshop just next to HSBC and Borsch Steak House. Not really visible from the main road if you ask me, unless you happen to be walking towards the Starbucks/Cafe Cartel area.
On to the food. I had an order of Sirloin Steak medium rare with sides of fries and baked beans. My dad had the Sirloin as well, medium well though and my mum had the Char Grilled Chicken. Both my dad's and my steak turned out overcooked. Mine came almost medium well whereas my dad's one came well done. However, the meat was still a little juicy and sweet in my case, which was a relief in some ways. My mum's chicken was just average.
In my conversation with the cook/owner later on, he explained that the stall was only 3 days old and they weren't familiar with the equipment yet, hence the overcooking. He even offered to change our steaks for us and gave us a small discount on the food, which I felt was a nice gesture on his part.
Total damage was $25. Not cheap, but not expensive either. I'm sure once they get the hang of the equipment, the food will get better and the crowds will come. I'll definitely be back.
See all my pictures here
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Korean food appeals to me in many ways when done right. For starters, they have an inexhaustible side dish tradition that i wish every cuisine should follow. Secondly, their main items contain more greens then meat, perfect for the health conscious and finally, the food remains on the edge of spicy and sweet. Making it an appetising and healthy experience...when done right. So where else would we have this except for one opened and run by none other then a Korean boss? Ju Shin Jung is one such place i visited one lazy weekday night and here's how i think it fared.
The interior deserves a write up simply because its huge. I didn't expect it that way but when i entered the place, i had the same feeling Neo had in the movie 'The Matrix' when he looked at the buildings he had to jump. "Woah!" Its not that the place is lavish or anything, its just really spacious and really big. Even so, there were private function rooms available should you so require. There are about 4 to 5 tables in a row and each is serviced by one attendant. My observation is that most attendants are Chinese Nationals and apart from the usual hard sell attendant, the little lady servicing our table was very good at her job. Introducing the dishes and teaching us how best to enjoy the meal. The only complaint was the aforementioned order taker who definitely wasn't listening when we spoke and pushed the more expensive items for us to order, otherwise, service is generally excellent.
Yep, all these side dishes are totally and utterly free! It comes when you order 2 meats for your meal which is exactly what we did. Do not let anyone tell you that having 1 meat and side dishes are not enough for 2 people. They are just trying to coax you into buying more food....which is exactly what we did. For the dishes, there was lettuce with mayonnaise, kimchi, tofu, steamed eggs, more preserved vegetables and a whole lot of greens i can't quite name. And most of it was good. As told by our attendant, everything was air flown and hand picked by the boss and i have to say, it definitely shows here. We over ordered but i did not regret it one bit and thats saying alot.
Pork Ribs ($22)/Chicken ($20) - I'll just comment on both meats together. Eating them is a joy. Fresh, tender and sweet with a dash of spice, its just really easy to stomach. The trick to eating them is to ensure you use the greens provided above to wrap the meat before eating. The meat are also both barbecued right in front of you which means its kept hot and ready to eat when you are ready to eat. No complaints here, just good meat and good vegetables together for a winning combination. If i had to be picky, i'd say the meat can get overcooked sometimes and there serving isn't exactly big. Still, it did stuff 2 stomachs to the brim.
Bibimbap ($13) - Bibimbap beef. Yep, no visit would be complete without it. Actually, we tried to cancel the dish after seeing the side dishes but was told it was already made and couldn't be refunded. Despite the huge bowl it came in, after mixing, it only filled 2 small bowls. Upon tasting, i was pleasantly surprised yet again. The rice itself is interestingly 'full' tasting. You can taste the sweet and spicy sauce on each big grain of rice and the mixture of meat, egg, carrots, mushrooms, beansprouts and vegetables balances everything nicely. I could go for seconds of this anytime.
Korean Ginger Tea and watermelon - Complimentary dessert. You get a choice of watermelon juice or korean ginger tea. We got both. The ginger tea is the same one i remembered when i had Korean cuisine in Shanghai. Its exceedingly sweet but i was told that it had 'cooling' capabilities after our rather 'heaty' meal. Nevertheless, its not something i like at the moment but might be an acquired taste.
An over ordered yet very satisfying meal cost me only $67.09. I was pleasantly surprised actually because everything seemed so much more expensive on the menu.
With the exception of one lady i didn't quite like as she was trying to sucker us into ordering lots of items. Everything else in the restaurant was pretty well done. Good service, good food and good price, I don't see a reason not to return. Give it a try, judge for yourself. (Note: As the service staff are mostly Chinese Nationals, please take note that the preferred language is actually mandarin instead of English. I tried conversing in English but my message didn't quite get through, thus i switched to mandarin which yielded much better results.)
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I started to have interest in this place when I read a review for this place in the papers. I made a point that I will visit this place soon enough. Soon enough, I got the chance when I was in Raffles City looking for a place for dinner. Not to mention that I visited this place twice in a week. Haha….
I was expecting to see a long queue as someone had posted a long queue photo on STOMP a few days ago. Wahahaha…….. Surprise! Surprise! There was no queue at all. Maybe we were early, about 6.30pm on a Tuesday, or we were just plain lucky. Hee…. However by the time we left the place around 7.15pm, the queue is there and it went all the way to the escalator! It was the same on a second visit, on a Sunday, there was no queue as well. Since then I just think that I am plain lucky. Wahaha…… So lesson learnt, to beat the queue, arrive before 7pm.
Since it was my first time there, the waitress at the entrance, explaining how the restaurant works. This place works like Marche. Each of the customers is given a card. This card will record what food or dish that you have ordered. Before leaving the place, the card will be given to the cashier then pay for the food. You will be also given a reserved table tag that you can place it on your table, so that other people know that the table is being reserved, no need to use a packet of tissue paper any more.
However, you can find your own seats. Good and bad about this point, cos you can seat wherever you like, but there will be some people who seem selfish, 2 people would seat at a table where the table is meant for 6 people. Sigh…. Meantime looking for a table is the easy thing, if not the staff there can help out. It would be better if they could have designated seats at the door instead. Hee…. There are both cushion sofa seats and normal chairs as well for you to choose from.
The interior of the place is huge and the decoration is quite simple as well with a bit of fusion going on, same as their food as well. The walkways are wide enough for a crowd but their queuing system could be better. The stalls are quite well allocated as well; means are the same type of food is grouped together. This means starters all at one location, mains at one location then desserts are another location etc.
Now to the food, they offer a variety of Japanese and fusion food. From sashimi, sushi, BBQ skewers, Japanese steamboat (nabe) to rosti and burgers. They have it all.
Omelette @ $5.80: There are different fillings for this Japanese style omelette, from plain, cheese and mushroom to crab meat. I have tasted their mushroom and cheese omelette and I loved it! Their omelette is unique in a shape of rectangle and it is made fresh when ordered. You can see the chef patiently preparing it. It is done layered with the fillings inside. It is soft and fluffy. The taste is very good as well. It is a must try worth every cent for it!
Assorted Tempera @ $10.80: Assorted tempera which includes two prawns, fish, golden mushroom, egg plant and mushroom. This one also prepared when you ordered. The batter is thin and crispy, not overwhelming or oily. The only things that disappoint me are the size of everything, quite small, even the prawns. I did not know golden mushroom can be used for tempera but it does not taste good as it became very dry after deep frying.
Garlic Fried Rice @ $5.80: This one is a disappointment as the fried rice is pre-fried and garlic is added to it when you ordered. Nothing to shout out for this fried rice. Not worth the money!
Shabu Shabu @ $8.80: This one is just soup in a steamboat. The soup tastes like plain water but there are a lot of different vegetables and a few slices of meat. in the soup. They are all put inside the pot and cooked over hot fire when ordered. For this, the most important thing is the soup base, and it failed terrible. Totally not worth the money.
Chicken and Egg Rice Set @ $6.80: This one is they used cooked chucks of chicken put in a pan with some soy sauce, then put over hot fire. After a while, add some egg on top, cook for a little more time, then place the whole thing on top of some rice, added a few pieces of seaweed. Wala! Done. Another disappointment, very normal dish that I could get in any other food court at a cheaper price. The chicken is tasteless, some like rubber. Not worth the money.
Assorted Sushi: The sushi came with a very nice presentation, all placed on top of a wooden board. However the sushi is a disappointment, the rice is not packed as a whole, and it will crumple when picked up with chopstick, the rice is not sticky enough. Although, the piece of fish on top of the rice is a fairly large piece but then rice fails the test.
Rosti: This is a western food right? However they are serving it? That is what I thought in the first place. I was a bit apprehending to order this but then the dish surprised me. It is good, in fact very good. The rosti portion is not that big but it came hot and crispy! So crispy on the outer layer but soft on the inside, not dry at all. Combined with sour cream, it is simply wonderful. This is also a must try!
Green tea ice-cream and red beans fillings crepe @ $6.80: This crepe is not the usual thin crepe, this one came quite thick and tasted like pancake instead. The ice cream is normal green tea ice cream but the red beans are those whole red beans which I like. It is an average dessert for me nothing to wow about.
The service is quite slow as the food are only prepared when you ordered, so be prepared to wait for your food. The place can get quite noisy especially when you seat next to big groups. The servers are quite on the ball to remove empty plates from the tables.
Be prepared to queue when you get in and be prepared to queue when you are going out to pay for you bill as well. They got four cashiers but only two were functions when I was there on two different occasions.
The overall experience is quite ok for me. The food does not really attract me that much to go back again. I dun really think I will go back unless my friends want to go and try it out. ON the average I think each person will cost around $20 to $40.
Oh yah! They got two neo prints machines in the middle of the restaurant. Something special. Looks fun when you can eat and take pictures with your food at the same time. Good idea! Wahahaha….. I think I will do that next time!
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