I was contemplating to buy either Camry or Altis, so I went to this show room to take a look at the car. A sales person attended to me and explain the function and features of both cars to me. The attitude was good and not pushy at all. I test drive the Altis. For around $50K, I guess it is quite a good buy. But I couldn't make up my mind and I told him I need to think about it and decide between Camry and Altis.
Few days later, I went back to the same show room and look for the same sales person. This time, I test drive Camry. At the end of it, the sales person sat down and went through the pricing and comparision between the two cars. He even suggested that I buy a smaller car. I was a little biased towards Camry but the price of Altis is attractive. So I went home without buying. Since I was not ready to buy, I didn't take note of the detail information.
Few days later, the COE price drop to $2.00. I guessed it is time to make a decision. I went down to look for this guy again. He knew I am serious this time and got me all the detail pricing for both cars. Obviously, the price has been reduced. I promised to make a decision over weekend. On the same night, I receive a call from this guy. He said the company receive over-whelming sales and I need to make a decision by next day before 12pm to enjoy the offered price. I asked why is it so. The offer was not that fantastic but rather a reduction of COE plus $500 discount. Furthermore, an offer should not be affected by the no. of cars sold. Infact, the more car sold the better for the company. He said, 'Well, this is business.'
I was not sure whether this is the policy passed down by the company or is it a tactic to close a deal. No doubt, the service from the salesman was good but the offer does not sound sincere to me. How can an offer last only 1 day for an amount of $50k and more. Besides, the next day was a week day and I had other schedule planned. I was almost decided to go with Camry but because of this invisible pressure and inconvenience, I did not go back to them again. 2 weeks later, I got a car from another brand.
“Do you take him as your husband, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow… With that I proclaimed you as husband and wife!”
The wedding bell struck, and the loving couple proceed on happily with their dinner celebration. Or so they thought. Picture this, the wedding ballroom was full of family, relatives and friends. All around was smiling faces. Then came the horror. Dead sharks, plenty of them with blood stains still fresh from the wounds, laying everywhere, on the table, on the floor, on the stage.
100 million sharks are killed a year, 63 million for their fins alone. Yes, you, you, you and you. All of us are guilty of being a murderer. And the real cause for their destruction, the demand for shark fins, a Chinese delicacy, always present during weddings and festive occasions.
Loveshark.sg is a local organisation set up to raise public awareness about sharks and the practices threatening their survival in the wild, with the simple ‘No Shark Fin‘ pledge. Alternatives to shark fin soup includes fish maw soup, or the vegetarian shark fin soup which we had at Lotus vegetarian restaurant for the loveshark media dinner.
We started off our meal with the prosperity yu sheng. A messy affair it was, scrambling to take photographs, while holding the chopsticks to stir for our first lo-hei of 2009. And of course, the auspicious greetings wishing one another, good health and fortune.
So green, green. So bright green, green. The Caltrops with hairy mushroom represents all of the superficial view of greens equal vegetarian. Caltrops and water chestnuts are cousins, while i’m not a fan of neither, i agreed that the caltrops were full of crunch, and i enjoyed the hairy mushroom, or better known as monkey-head mushroom.
The element of fire, fiery red. All of us mistook it for red chili where it’s actually red bell pepper. The spicy pan-fried vegetarian fish was actually bean curd in disguise. The meticulous wrapping of the seaweed around to make the dish bearing a closer resemblance impressed.
The most creative award for the night goes to the fresh mushroom with asparagus. Serving in the form of a ice cream cone, several different types of mushrooms were stuffed inside, and voila!
The fruity almond rolls were my personal favourite of the 9 course vegetarian meal. The aroma of the jack fruit and banana held within the almond rolls escaped to our nose. Fried crispy outside, juicy and fruitful inside. Also there’s the Otak-pretender which came along too.
The apparent crowd favourite, stewed chestnuts with golden fungus. The bite of the golden fungus, was chewy and there’s also the hairy mushroom here.
Capturing the essence without using any real meat, that’s what all vegetarian dishes strived to do. I thought the veg meat managed to do just that. The light sauce for the meat, with the cucumbers and tomatoes, dipped in the famous chicken rice chilli.
Welcome to Malacca! The signature chicken rice balls, that originated from the Malaysian state. Except this was rice ball without using any chicken oil in the cooking process.
The legendary Tian Shan Xue Lian right before our eyes. For centuries, pugilists had been vying for the magical healing medicine. Well of course, this wasn’t the real Tian Shan Xue lian, with osmanthus in the pudding.
The 9 course set dinner served 10 people at $358 , from Lotus Vegetarian restaurant. This is a food tasting session organised by loveshark.sg, so i’ll like to thank Jaki for inviting me, to have the chance with meeting the nice people from their various organisations, and of course, the food bloggers whom I’ve read their blogs for a long time, but this being the first time i saw them in person. Support Loveshark.sg! Say no to Shark Fin!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Another stall at Yuhua Village food centre which has a significant queue, Fei Fei Roasted & noodle. Now don’t confuse this stall with the famous Fei Fei wanton mee. You know there are some stalls which are opened for the whole day, and yet couldn’t finish selling the food. Just exactly how good are they? According to eyewitness, when they start operations everyday at around 7-8am, the queue never ceased until they are sold out by 12 noon.
I always have a thing for roasted duck, and I must say Fei Fei’s rendition ($15 half a duck) impressed me. The taste wasn’t very extreme, the duck wasn’t that big and meaty. But somehow they managed to get this right balance between the crispiness of the skin, and the bite of the duck. And the fatty meat underneath the skin added in the “oomph” factor as well. We should have tried their wanton mee as well, but we ordered quite a lot of other food already. And by the time we made up our mind to try their noodles, they were closed, at 12 noon sharp.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
A typical food court or coffee shop will definitely have the few same thing, drinks stall, the roasted meat stall, western food, fishball noodles, mixed vegetables rice stall. So what happens when you got sick of eating fishball noodles or wanton mee? Why not try some hand made noodles, or more commonly known as, Ban Mian.
There’s three different kinds of hand made noodles, ban mian (similar to mee pok), you mian (the thinner version), and mee huan kuay (pieces of noodles). I’m not really a big fan of ban mian and mee huan kuay, so usually i’ll take the you mian.
While i can’t appreciate ban mian, but i can understand the effort put into making them. In Singapore, most egg noodles are factory machine-made, rarely can you see the fishball noodles and wanton mee stalls making their own noodles any more. Of course, there are still some stalls which insist on making their own noodles, which differentiate themselves from the others. For ban mian, the dough are rolled into noodles on the spot.
Ban mian ($2.50) are always served with the familiar fried ikan bilies (anchovies), mushrooms, an egg, and vegetables in either soup or dry version. The soup base wasn’t salty; this being an vital factor since the ikan bilies when soaked into the soup would enhance the flavour of the soup. With so many ingredients, i thought it’s worth the money and a healthier choice.
I preferred the dry hand made you mian ($2.50). The ingredients are the same, with the noodles being the only exception. It’s been a while since i last ate ban mian, and i actually felt it was better than the fishball you mian. The chilli and vinegar gave the noodles a stronger taste than the soup version.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Was presented the opportunity to sample the Chinese New Year buffet spread at Straits Cafe at Hotel Rendezvous, courtesy of the hotel's marketing department, specifically Christina, the marketing manager.
Straits Cafe's interior is typical of any hotel cafe that does, with its informal decor coupled with simple furnishing and the usual glass counters that display the food and the chefs that put the food together. Straits Cafe goes a step further by offering LCD televisions in certain areas of the restaurant, something which I believe a lot of hotel cafes/restaurants don't offer (Or am I just too outdated?).
Salmon Yu Sheng - The ubiquitous Yu Sheng and my umpteenth one this year, Straits Cafe offers this dish as a DIY at the counter, which means none of the routine rehearsed recitation by the wait staff. I'm no big fan of yusheng so I shall reserve my comments on this one.
Peng Cai - According to the manager, the Peng Cai requires a minimum preparation time of about 6 hours and consists of 15 different items in it - Shark's fin, abalone, dried scallops, prawns, duck web etc. As impressive as the list of ingredients may sound, I honestly didn't quite take to it as everything tasted very soft and mashed up. The flavours weren't immersed or intense enough and everything tasted more or less the same.
Variety The buffet spread had about 30 items (just a rough estimate) which ranged from sushi and soba to seafood, cut meats, local dishes like laksa and desserts. Not exactly extensive if you ask me.
Food Quality Food quality was generally average but there were a few glimmers of hope. In particular the laksa and durian pengat were worth a mention, to me at least. The laksa had a smooth creamy coconut milk base that harboured a tinge of sourish aftertaste which I thought was quite nice, but thats coming from someone who eats laksa probably once in 10 years? The durian pengat came across as smooth without being overly sweet and carried a nice hint of bitterness. However, I would have preferred it to be thicker and more concentrated.
Service Service was generally quite good but as this was an invited session, I'm not sure if it would be representative of the service level in general.
To conclude, I would like to thank Hotel Rendezvous once again for generously extending their hospitality to yours truly.
Jostled with the crowds at Jurong Point's newly opened extension to have a go Lai Lai Casual Dining - a seemingly popular beef noodles cum pseudo Taiwanese eatery. There was a steady stream of people queuing up to get a seat in the eatery so we naturally assumed that this place was of a certain acceptable standard.
The bulk of the seating at this eatery is open concept, which means that people from the upper levels of the mall can view you from the top and tables are squeezed uncomfortably close to each other to maxmize revenue. And honestly, the cow on the menu looked like it had just been hit by mad cow disease.
Fried Beancurd - This dish was very run off the mill. Crisp on the outside but not soft on the inside, the beancurd was overly deep fried which resulted in a harder then usual exterior.
Pepper Salt Chicken - This dish was another disappointment. I mean, how bad can chicken taste like right? Wrong! The chicken had more flour then meat and came across as tough, bland and oily. Can someone tell me where the salt and pepper went?
Taiwan Beef Noodle - Lai Lai's purported signature/star dish and I have to admit that it was the best amongst all the other terrible dishes. Not that it was anywhere near what I had expected initially when I was still in the queue. The noodles were of the flatter variant and carried a bit of bite but the soup wasn't flavourful enough. The beef pieces, which amounted to about 4 - 5, came across as a tad too tough.
Taiwan Vermicelli - The only time I ate Taiwan vermicelli aka mee sua was when I was still a kid and my grandmother would cook it for me during my Chinese birthday. Though its been a long time since I last ate mee sua, I don't remember it tasting as awful as Lai Lai's rendition. The soup was very starchy and not to mention bland. Ingredients were minimal as well and half of bowl of the vermicelli remained, for obvious reasons.
On hindsight, the queues were probably formed due to the herd mentality of Singaporeans and definitely not for the food quality. Our dinner cost the 2 of us $30, which isn't expensive for a dinner, but definitely expensive for such quality of food. Never again!
This Happen to be one of my favorite hang outs in jurong point. Matter of fact.. You don't get much hang outs in jurong as its really quite in the surburb... Siam Kitchen has been there sitting quietly next to the OLD NTUC in today's JP1....
i don't think their food is that.. Great.. however with the set lunches going at S$11.90 with drink, main course and appetizer, its pretty worth it...
I particularly like the karapok they serve when you get sitted... dunk it in their yummy sweetie chilli sauce... Already quite yummy....
Their thai beef noodle is pretty nice... with the beef balls so real.... they always get stuck in between my teeth... Kway Teow so smooth.... I can slurp it all up in one go...
I also like the mango salad.... sour, spicy and full of Oomph.... Especially with cashewnuts... Its extra tasty.... However... Beware of the dynamites. Yes.. they are red and small.. If you chew on them.. You will guarantee to turn red and explode... The Baby Chilli Padis.... is quite an adventure... For those who love HOT HOT HOT STUFFS... ask for a spoonful from the waitress....
Green Curry also nice... especially with the koropok..... Ask for an extra serving to get your money's worth.....
Its pretty nice however, quiet which i don't understand why. Eversince they stopped having their buffets.. this place is more or less a dead town... Which is also a great thing for me.... imagine this.. No queues, No irrtating kids bumping you off the chair... No babies squeeling away.... No Old man putting his dentures into the cup of ice water.....
This place a super haven for me.......... MY COMPLETE HIDEOUT!
Visited for buffet lunch at this branch. First thing, the waitresses here are not a friendly lot though the waiters are good even though they are not fluent in English.
Deco not bad. Crowd very little even though it was lunch time. Since its buffet lunch, we order hand roll, chawanmushi, salmon/ika/tuna etc sashimi, teppanyaki of vege/bean sprouts/chicken/Salmon, Pumpkin Croquette, potato salad, peach salad, plain udon, Ebi Teriyaki etc etc.
Food we would give a high below average grade since there were some dishes that we particularly liked like the Teppanyaki Beansprouts, Tori Terriyaki and Pumpkin Croquettes
Things like udon which was overcooked and brittle, sashimi where only the first plate was nice with thick cuts though not very fresh. The next 2 plates had cuts from other parts of the fish and were too hard to bite and even turned black at some parts. Most of the dishes there tend to be too salty and the potato salad tasted weird with sour taste and peach salad with spicy (??) sauce.
This is the place where i had my birthday last year.. The food is great... I personally love the Chips.... They are REAL CHIP Slices from a real potato and thats both healthy and yummy.. No preservatives and I won't become a MUMMY.... The Egyptian Mummy i mean. The Burger is also one to die for... succulent beef.. juicy and yummy and the rest on the menu, i love it all.
But besides the food I have to say the ambience is great.... I personally love the string lights..... So Romantic..... One cannot help but want to run your fingers through the lights like you will do the same to your hair... And when you get a little more tipsy.. You might think you will burn your fingers on them... But before you run your hand and bring it near to your face, take cheesy pictures with the lights near to your face..... STOP AND STARE... While you stare think about how many hundreds of patrons already did that and not forgetting their OILY FACES... FINGERS... and whatever.. Not forgetting the Super Pukers who might have already puked on them a thousand times..... THINK,.......
The service is great.. waitress and waiters run around alot.. Not forgetting the occasional handsome waiters..... They are generally helpful and friendly...... and prompt with your request.... especially when you ask for the bill..
The Live Band is great... previously from China Jump at CHIJMES... BOY I STILL MISS THE DENTIST CHAIR.... ALL CHINA JUMP Fans out there...... Jive Talking is HERE...... and the band had changed some of the players but They are still very much their oldselves..... Love the music they play.... Its somewhere between the old and the new... and they have such great groove.. You can't help but will move to the beat..
The crowd is great too.. You see many yuppies and caucasians as well as local hot babes... A must go... for all you love clubbers....
If you like the cool afresco clubbing you will like peppermint park... Its wierd.. theres not a single peppermint plant there however.. there are many potted plants and baby trees around which is quite serene... The place is great for mini parties or perhaps just to chill out with a friend or two.. Sits are great... stiff sofas and hanging benches for those who love a little more dizziness...
Its even better when you have BUY 1 and GET 2 free Beers.... Come at 6pm and you have 3 hours of drink till you drop happy times. Snack with their great finger food... The chicken wings and fries are great.. The batter they use to fry the chicken with is both savoury and yummy.... One of the best chicky wings i ever had... I love their wedges and nacho basket as well... A good generous serving with cheesy cheese sauce and Cheeky Salsa......
Great place to hang out... Great place to Chilll.... Definitely great place to meet up with your pals...
A must go... for all those Cool Cute guys and gals.. Catch me there.. again n again n again.... * BURB*
1=SGD 0.0587
I was contemplating to buy either Camry or Altis, so I went to this show room to take a look at the car. A sales person attended to me and explain the function and features of both cars to me. The attitude was good and not pushy at all. I test drive the Altis. For around $50K, I guess it is quite a good buy. But I couldn't make up my mind and I told him I need to think about it and decide between Camry and Altis.
Few days later, I went back to the same show room and look for the same sales person. This time, I test drive Camry. At the end of it, the sales person sat down and went through the pricing and comparision between the two cars. He even suggested that I buy a smaller car. I was a little biased towards Camry but the price of Altis is attractive. So I went home without buying. Since I was not ready to buy, I didn't take note of the detail information.
Few days later, the COE price drop to $2.00. I guessed it is time to make a decision. I went down to look for this guy again. He knew I am serious this time and got me all the detail pricing for both cars. Obviously, the price has been reduced. I promised to make a decision over weekend. On the same night, I receive a call from this guy. He said the company receive over-whelming sales and I need to make a decision by next day before 12pm to enjoy the offered price. I asked why is it so. The offer was not that fantastic but rather a reduction of COE plus $500 discount. Furthermore, an offer should not be affected by the no. of cars sold. Infact, the more car sold the better for the company. He said, 'Well, this is business.'
I was not sure whether this is the policy passed down by the company or is it a tactic to close a deal. No doubt, the service from the salesman was good but the offer does not sound sincere to me. How can an offer last only 1 day for an amount of $50k and more. Besides, the next day was a week day and I had other schedule planned. I was almost decided to go with Camry but because of this invisible pressure and inconvenience, I did not go back to them again. 2 weeks later, I got a car from another brand.
Rating given:
“Do you take him as your husband, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow… With that I proclaimed you as husband and wife!”
The wedding bell struck, and the loving couple proceed on happily with their dinner celebration. Or so they thought. Picture this, the wedding ballroom was full of family, relatives and friends. All around was smiling faces. Then came the horror. Dead sharks, plenty of them with blood stains still fresh from the wounds, laying everywhere, on the table, on the floor, on the stage.
100 million sharks are killed a year, 63 million for their fins alone. Yes, you, you, you and you. All of us are guilty of being a murderer. And the real cause for their destruction, the demand for shark fins, a Chinese delicacy, always present during weddings and festive occasions.
Loveshark.sg is a local organisation set up to raise public awareness about sharks and the practices threatening their survival in the wild, with the simple ‘No Shark Fin‘ pledge. Alternatives to shark fin soup includes fish maw soup, or the vegetarian shark fin soup which we had at Lotus vegetarian restaurant for the loveshark media dinner.
We started off our meal with the prosperity yu sheng. A messy affair it was, scrambling to take photographs, while holding the chopsticks to stir for our first lo-hei of 2009. And of course, the auspicious greetings wishing one another, good health and fortune.
So green, green. So bright green, green. The Caltrops with hairy mushroom represents all of the superficial view of greens equal vegetarian. Caltrops and water chestnuts are cousins, while i’m not a fan of neither, i agreed that the caltrops were full of crunch, and i enjoyed the hairy mushroom, or better known as monkey-head mushroom.
The element of fire, fiery red. All of us mistook it for red chili where it’s actually red bell pepper. The spicy pan-fried vegetarian fish was actually bean curd in disguise. The meticulous wrapping of the seaweed around to make the dish bearing a closer resemblance impressed.
The most creative award for the night goes to the fresh mushroom with asparagus. Serving in the form of a ice cream cone, several different types of mushrooms were stuffed inside, and voila!
The fruity almond rolls were my personal favourite of the 9 course vegetarian meal. The aroma of the jack fruit and banana held within the almond rolls escaped to our nose. Fried crispy outside, juicy and fruitful inside. Also there’s the Otak-pretender which came along too.
The apparent crowd favourite, stewed chestnuts with golden fungus. The bite of the golden fungus, was chewy and there’s also the hairy mushroom here.
Capturing the essence without using any real meat, that’s what all vegetarian dishes strived to do. I thought the veg meat managed to do just that. The light sauce for the meat, with the cucumbers and tomatoes, dipped in the famous chicken rice chilli.
Welcome to Malacca! The signature chicken rice balls, that originated from the Malaysian state. Except this was rice ball without using any chicken oil in the cooking process.
The legendary Tian Shan Xue Lian right before our eyes. For centuries, pugilists had been vying for the magical healing medicine. Well of course, this wasn’t the real Tian Shan Xue lian, with osmanthus in the pudding.
The 9 course set dinner served 10 people at $358 , from Lotus Vegetarian restaurant. This is a food tasting session organised by loveshark.sg, so i’ll like to thank Jaki for inviting me, to have the chance with meeting the nice people from their various organisations, and of course, the food bloggers whom I’ve read their blogs for a long time, but this being the first time i saw them in person. Support Loveshark.sg! Say no to Shark Fin!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Another stall at Yuhua Village food centre which has a significant queue, Fei Fei Roasted & noodle. Now don’t confuse this stall with the famous Fei Fei wanton mee. You know there are some stalls which are opened for the whole day, and yet couldn’t finish selling the food. Just exactly how good are they? According to eyewitness, when they start operations everyday at around 7-8am, the queue never ceased until they are sold out by 12 noon.
I always have a thing for roasted duck, and I must say Fei Fei’s rendition ($15 half a duck) impressed me. The taste wasn’t very extreme, the duck wasn’t that big and meaty. But somehow they managed to get this right balance between the crispiness of the skin, and the bite of the duck. And the fatty meat underneath the skin added in the “oomph” factor as well. We should have tried their wanton mee as well, but we ordered quite a lot of other food already. And by the time we made up our mind to try their noodles, they were closed, at 12 noon sharp.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
A typical food court or coffee shop will definitely have the few same thing, drinks stall, the roasted meat stall, western food, fishball noodles, mixed vegetables rice stall. So what happens when you got sick of eating fishball noodles or wanton mee? Why not try some hand made noodles, or more commonly known as, Ban Mian.
There’s three different kinds of hand made noodles, ban mian (similar to mee pok), you mian (the thinner version), and mee huan kuay (pieces of noodles). I’m not really a big fan of ban mian and mee huan kuay, so usually i’ll take the you mian.
While i can’t appreciate ban mian, but i can understand the effort put into making them. In Singapore, most egg noodles are factory machine-made, rarely can you see the fishball noodles and wanton mee stalls making their own noodles any more. Of course, there are still some stalls which insist on making their own noodles, which differentiate themselves from the others. For ban mian, the dough are rolled into noodles on the spot.
Ban mian ($2.50) are always served with the familiar fried ikan bilies (anchovies), mushrooms, an egg, and vegetables in either soup or dry version. The soup base wasn’t salty; this being an vital factor since the ikan bilies when soaked into the soup would enhance the flavour of the soup. With so many ingredients, i thought it’s worth the money and a healthier choice.
I preferred the dry hand made you mian ($2.50). The ingredients are the same, with the noodles being the only exception. It’s been a while since i last ate ban mian, and i actually felt it was better than the fishball you mian. The chilli and vinegar gave the noodles a stronger taste than the soup version.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Was presented the opportunity to sample the Chinese New Year buffet spread at Straits Cafe at Hotel Rendezvous, courtesy of the hotel's marketing department, specifically Christina, the marketing manager.
Straits Cafe's interior is typical of any hotel cafe that does, with its informal decor coupled with simple furnishing and the usual glass counters that display the food and the chefs that put the food together. Straits Cafe goes a step further by offering LCD televisions in certain areas of the restaurant, something which I believe a lot of hotel cafes/restaurants don't offer (Or am I just too outdated?).
Salmon Yu Sheng - The ubiquitous Yu Sheng and my umpteenth one this year, Straits Cafe offers this dish as a DIY at the counter, which means none of the routine rehearsed recitation by the wait staff. I'm no big fan of yusheng so I shall reserve my comments on this one.
Peng Cai - According to the manager, the Peng Cai requires a minimum preparation time of about 6 hours and consists of 15 different items in it - Shark's fin, abalone, dried scallops, prawns, duck web etc. As impressive as the list of ingredients may sound, I honestly didn't quite take to it as everything tasted very soft and mashed up. The flavours weren't immersed or intense enough and everything tasted more or less the same.
Variety
The buffet spread had about 30 items (just a rough estimate) which ranged from sushi and soba to seafood, cut meats, local dishes like laksa and desserts. Not exactly extensive if you ask me.
Food Quality
Food quality was generally average but there were a few glimmers of hope. In particular the laksa and durian pengat were worth a mention, to me at least. The laksa had a smooth creamy coconut milk base that harboured a tinge of sourish aftertaste which I thought was quite nice, but thats coming from someone who eats laksa probably once in 10 years? The durian pengat came across as smooth without being overly sweet and carried a nice hint of bitterness. However, I would have preferred it to be thicker and more concentrated.
Service
Service was generally quite good but as this was an invited session, I'm not sure if it would be representative of the service level in general.
To conclude, I would like to thank Hotel Rendezvous once again for generously extending their hospitality to yours truly.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Jostled with the crowds at Jurong Point's newly opened extension to have a go Lai Lai Casual Dining - a seemingly popular beef noodles cum pseudo Taiwanese eatery. There was a steady stream of people queuing up to get a seat in the eatery so we naturally assumed that this place was of a certain acceptable standard.
The bulk of the seating at this eatery is open concept, which means that people from the upper levels of the mall can view you from the top and tables are squeezed uncomfortably close to each other to maxmize revenue. And honestly, the cow on the menu looked like it had just been hit by mad cow disease.
Fried Beancurd - This dish was very run off the mill. Crisp on the outside but not soft on the inside, the beancurd was overly deep fried which resulted in a harder then usual exterior.
Pepper Salt Chicken - This dish was another disappointment. I mean, how bad can chicken taste like right? Wrong! The chicken had more flour then meat and came across as tough, bland and oily. Can someone tell me where the salt and pepper went?
Taiwan Beef Noodle - Lai Lai's purported signature/star dish and I have to admit that it was the best amongst all the other terrible dishes. Not that it was anywhere near what I had expected initially when I was still in the queue. The noodles were of the flatter variant and carried a bit of bite but the soup wasn't flavourful enough. The beef pieces, which amounted to about 4 - 5, came across as a tad too tough.
Taiwan Vermicelli - The only time I ate Taiwan vermicelli aka mee sua was when I was still a kid and my grandmother would cook it for me during my Chinese birthday. Though its been a long time since I last ate mee sua, I don't remember it tasting as awful as Lai Lai's rendition. The soup was very starchy and not to mention bland. Ingredients were minimal as well and half of bowl of the vermicelli remained, for obvious reasons.
On hindsight, the queues were probably formed due to the herd mentality of Singaporeans and definitely not for the food quality. Our dinner cost the 2 of us $30, which isn't expensive for a dinner, but definitely expensive for such quality of food. Never again!
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
This Happen to be one of my favorite hang outs in jurong point. Matter of fact.. You don't get much hang outs in jurong as its really quite in the surburb... Siam Kitchen has been there sitting quietly next to the OLD NTUC in today's JP1....
i don't think their food is that.. Great.. however with the set lunches going at S$11.90 with drink, main course and appetizer, its pretty worth it...
I particularly like the karapok they serve when you get sitted... dunk it in their yummy sweetie chilli sauce... Already quite yummy....
Their thai beef noodle is pretty nice... with the beef balls so real.... they always get stuck in between my teeth... Kway Teow so smooth.... I can slurp it all up in one go...
I also like the mango salad.... sour, spicy and full of Oomph.... Especially with cashewnuts... Its extra tasty.... However... Beware of the dynamites. Yes.. they are red and small.. If you chew on them.. You will guarantee to turn red and explode... The Baby Chilli Padis.... is quite an adventure... For those who love HOT HOT HOT STUFFS... ask for a spoonful from the waitress....
Green Curry also nice... especially with the koropok..... Ask for an extra serving to get your money's worth.....
Its pretty nice however, quiet which i don't understand why. Eversince they stopped having their buffets.. this place is more or less a dead town... Which is also a great thing for me.... imagine this.. No queues, No irrtating kids bumping you off the chair... No babies squeeling away.... No Old man putting his dentures into the cup of ice water.....
This place a super haven for me.......... MY COMPLETE HIDEOUT!
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Visited for buffet lunch at this branch. First thing, the waitresses here are not a friendly lot though the waiters are good even though they are not fluent in English.
Deco not bad. Crowd very little even though it was lunch time. Since its buffet lunch, we order hand roll, chawanmushi, salmon/ika/tuna etc sashimi, teppanyaki of vege/bean sprouts/chicken/Salmon, Pumpkin Croquette, potato salad, peach salad, plain udon, Ebi Teriyaki etc etc.
Food we would give a high below average grade since there were some dishes that we particularly liked like the Teppanyaki Beansprouts, Tori Terriyaki and Pumpkin Croquettes
Things like udon which was overcooked and brittle, sashimi where only the first plate was nice with thick cuts though not very fresh. The next 2 plates had cuts from other parts of the fish and were too hard to bite and even turned black at some parts. Most of the dishes there tend to be too salty and the potato salad tasted weird with sour taste and peach salad with spicy (??) sauce.
Will not visit again.
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This is the place where i had my birthday last year.. The food is great... I personally love the Chips.... They are REAL CHIP Slices from a real potato and thats both healthy and yummy.. No preservatives and I won't become a MUMMY.... The Egyptian Mummy i mean. The Burger is also one to die for... succulent beef.. juicy and yummy and the rest on the menu, i love it all.
But besides the food I have to say the ambience is great.... I personally love the string lights..... So Romantic..... One cannot help but want to run your fingers through the lights like you will do the same to your hair... And when you get a little more tipsy.. You might think you will burn your fingers on them... But before you run your hand and bring it near to your face, take cheesy pictures with the lights near to your face..... STOP AND STARE... While you stare think about how many hundreds of patrons already did that and not forgetting their OILY FACES... FINGERS... and whatever.. Not forgetting the Super Pukers who might have already puked on them a thousand times..... THINK,.......
The service is great.. waitress and waiters run around alot.. Not forgetting the occasional handsome waiters..... They are generally helpful and friendly...... and prompt with your request.... especially when you ask for the bill..
The Live Band is great... previously from China Jump at CHIJMES... BOY I STILL MISS THE DENTIST CHAIR.... ALL CHINA JUMP Fans out there...... Jive Talking is HERE...... and the band had changed some of the players but They are still very much their oldselves..... Love the music they play.... Its somewhere between the old and the new... and they have such great groove.. You can't help but will move to the beat..
The crowd is great too.. You see many yuppies and caucasians as well as local hot babes... A must go... for all you love clubbers....
See you there on fridays......
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If you like the cool afresco clubbing you will like peppermint park... Its wierd.. theres not a single peppermint plant there however.. there are many potted plants and baby trees around which is quite serene... The place is great for mini parties or perhaps just to chill out with a friend or two.. Sits are great... stiff sofas and hanging benches for those who love a little more dizziness...
Its even better when you have BUY 1 and GET 2 free Beers.... Come at 6pm and you have 3 hours of drink till you drop happy times. Snack with their great finger food... The chicken wings and fries are great.. The batter they use to fry the chicken with is both savoury and yummy.... One of the best chicky wings i ever had... I love their wedges and nacho basket as well... A good generous serving with cheesy cheese sauce and Cheeky Salsa......
Great place to hang out... Great place to Chilll.... Definitely great place to meet up with your pals...
A must go... for all those Cool Cute guys and gals.. Catch me there.. again n again n again.... * BURB*
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