Twenty four of us descended to Gunther’s in a foodgraphy-frenzy. Hells hath no fury like a floggers' hunger. The long discussion of food, followed by the occasional exclaims of ‘ooh‘, and ‘aah‘. Welcome to the world of the food lovers.
It was smooth, and silky, strands of it sticking out; yet in the dim light setting against the white background, it looked angelic, yes, this must be it: Cold Angel-hair pasta. I enjoyed every slurp, and I’ll gladly have it again.
This, is the In-thing for this season, like the latest fashion trends for each year; rejoiced people, it is this time of the year for the sacred white asaparagus, not green, not red, but white. And then, I spotted the yellowish sauce over the the Poached white asparagus with Bouchot mussels.
I stopped, and slowly took a bit of it with my spoon; “it couldn’t be, Oh yes it is!” I dipped everything on the plate with the hollandaise sauce, and made sure not a single drop of it was left.
“Have you had white asparagus before?”
“No, I don’t see what's the craze over them..”
A surprise always had the biggest impact when you least expected it, and it came pleasantly of course.
There was pata negra, and salted baked seabass for the folks who couldn’t have beef; and damn, the roasted black pig from Spain sounded so good, I should have claimed to have allergies against cows!
My piece was very well balanced in the portions of the fats and meat (read: too much fats). I took a bite of the meat, and chewed down some fats. And it’s not that the Grilled Cote de Boeuf wasn’t good. In fact it was more than excellent; the slightly tinge of pink fully captured my imagination.
My eyes tweaked to see what was coming. It was supposed to be desserts next, but they were serving us, pizzas. You know, the elongated slice of thin-crust bread with toppings all over. Ah no, I was clearly mistaken, this was no pizza, it’s the Fine apple tart a la dragees, with rum & raisin ice-cream.
Once we had our desserts, once we paid off the bill, it would be bye-bye until a year later. Or at least that’s what the script wrote. A year, is far too long a time for us to meet up. We should meet up regularly my friends, and hunt down all the good food around our island.
Note: The 4 course Carte Blanche set menu was $45 per person and done especially for our Food Bloggers lunch, it's not available to public.
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!
Where can you find a quirky indie café, great comfort food at value-for-money price, relaxing corner to chill-out with your friends and at the same time give back to the society? The answer is Food for Thought, a social enterprise café that endeavours to generate profits to support and serve the community we live in.
Conveniently located opposite National Library, the café has been helmed by our own local boy, David Heng, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney, and used to work in Le St Julien, under the tutorage of Chef de Cuisine Julien Bompard.
Watermelon Mint & Lychee Sage Freeze ($4.00 each) was the initial order of the evening. HFB can’t think of any good reasons why one wouldn’t love these drinks. Simply revitalising!
Our appetiser falls under the “Premium Salad” category of Honey Mustard Smoked Duck Salad ($12.90). HFB simply dig the smoked duck. The thin layer of fats gave it a nice marbling chew and the meat is tender and succulent. The dish is also well complemented with orange slices. Can I also add that the serving is pretty generous?
What’s best to pair with a premium salad? It’s none other than a “Premium Sandwich” of Cuban Ham & Pork Steak ($10.90) – made of Grilled Gamon Ham, Hand-shred Slow-roasted Tender Pork Shoulder, topped with a sliced of Grilled Pineapple. Sandwiched within home-baked Foccacia Bread, drizzled with creamy mustard dressing and homemade barbecue sauce, this is definitely one of the better sandwiches that HFB has polished off. My only nitpick is that the mixture of over zealous dressing and sauce, coupled with the meat’s natural juices, cause the bread to turn soggy a little.
What’s a meal without its dessert? The Butterscotch Peach Crumble ($7.90) is created with bubbling homemade butterscotch sauce, filled with Peaches, Raisins and Roasted Almond Slices. Topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, HFB thought that the combination was a little too generous for it’s own good. Being a hot dessert, the ice cream tends to melt quickly into a mess. Perhaps a better option is to serve the ice cream on the side.
The Vanilla Caramel Crème Brulee was nothing extraordinary to say the least – the custard was smooth with a hint of caramel goodness all right, but the caramelised crust was disappointingly too thick for HFB. However, using fine icing sugar should eliminate the problem.
Contrary to normal beliefs that guys don’t like sweet stuff, I, for one, however proved to be the complete opposite. I like things that make me happy; food that can cheer me up, the happily-ever-after fairytale-like stories, and naturally, sweet nibbles that I always crave for.
The lady took one, from the pile of mountain-stacked high; this was the one destined for me. Poking a hole into the bottom by tucking it in, she pressed the pump; the lovely custard swam into the tiny hole, just big enough, for everything to flow inside.
Dusted with some icing sugar; it was akin like putting on the make-up for the pretty. I was excited by the sticking in and out, with each done, I could barely hide my excitement. And she repeated this process, six times in total.
Do not, I repeat, Do not (note: in bold), share your sweets around, they are not meant to be shared. What’s the point of passing them around, only to feel slightly agonizing over the fact that you are going to have less for yourself?
Stop staring at my cream puff. They are mine, and mine alone.
This, will come down as, one of the toughest decision you will make in your life. Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberrry? And there’s the lovely eclair winking at me, the tiramisu trying to seduce me. It is a land, of temptations. I decided, like what seemed to take an eternity, to go for just half-a-dozen with the chocolate and vanilla flavours. The rest, are my excuses for coming back next time.
And I regretted just getting six.
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 very packed place on a Saturday afternoon...so we opted for outdoors as it meant a shorter wait :D
Service was smiley and cheery and brunch menu simple. Ordered stuff to share between the 2 of us (I forgot to take pics of the menu so don't quite remember the exact ingredients....):
Big Nihon ($18) - Expected bigger portion actually. Soba, edamame, greens, peppers, tomato, sesame, and salmon pieces. Nice Jap combo and fresh salmon but I thought the dressing would have been better if it was more tangy.
Crab Cake ($26) - Huge tart that came with a side of greens. Was quite alot of crab meat but I felt the tart was a tad too thick.
I also had some lime soda thingy which was very refreshing for the alfresco seating. A good spot for a leisure afternoon but remember to call ahead for an indoor spot because sweating tai tais are hardly glam.
Was quite excited to learn that they have an outlet at Liang Court after hearing and reading so much about the outlet at Robertson Quay. I came with family and the 7 of us were quite happy to be given a seat at a corner of the restaurant. Note that the place is tucked inside Mediya; you have to go in to find it.
I had to try the ramen with its infamous pork bone stock of course:
Vegetable tonkatsu ramen ($14) - Huge bowl of vegetables on top of a mountain of ramen immersed in milky stock. Very good stock I thought, it did taste like it was cooked for hours with no 'porky' taste at all. Although for some strange reason the other guys felt Ajisen was better. Huh??
Deep fried shrimp ($10) - I can't remember the exact name on the menu but this was extremely addictive crunchy little stuff. Just the right amount of salt gave it a added kick. Its like really really fresh prawn "crackers". Very good.
Salmon Sashimi ($11) - Very fresh and surprisingly thick slices of the fish. Very refreshing for the palette.
Chicken Cheese roll ($12) - Didn't try this but it looked nothing like the picture.
Deep fried black pork - Disappointingly dry and uninspiring. Its rival located in the same building is so much better.
Service was okay, nothing excellent. It was nice to be able to walk the dinner off in Mediya though. I'll come back for the stock and prawn crackers! I was surprised that the bill came up to so high to be honest but well, at least I know what not to try next time.
Was brought to this place by my gf, who had been to this place a couple of times with er colleagues and found it not bad.
The shop is located opposite to the Singtel Building at Somerset, along a row of shophouses. The shop is a relatively small one, so advice is to make a booking before going down, to avoid waiting, since its a ala-carte buffet and people can stay in their seats for quite a while.
The variety of food is quite reasonable, but wished that the grilled food section could be more. Nonetheless, the quality of food was reasonable and the service was prompt. As for the pricing, it was quite comparable to those at Hanabi, Hoijin and Minori (My Fav!!!).
So for those wanting to look for new places to try out Japanese food, do give it a try.
Recently been there to give it a try after all the supposed hype I have heard in the past. However, sad to say, it was quite disappointing. When I got there, there so so many empty seats. And yet the staff were busy calling the guests to confirm their reservations, with no one paying any attention to us . That was one down, two to go.
Next, instead of giving us a table, we were given counter seats, which was a bit kinda cramped as compared to the other Japanese restaurants I have been before. That was Strike two,one last one to go.
Nervertheless, we settled down and started ordering the food. And like what Polarbear had said in his review, the portions of some of the food were really a tad too little and the service was slow as well. Even though the food was tasty, it was not enough to pacify me. And that was it, Strike Three!!! I would rather choose to go back to Minori anytime than this, where the variety is more and the service is much more better as well.
So all in all, this should be the first and last time that I would be coming to this Japanese restaurant to eat.
Sometimes back, I was told that De Coder's Cafe opened a new outlet in Clementi. The boss is now a friend of mine after some past "commotions" and constructive feedback few of us gave after the unsatisfying meal on my birthday last year. But I'm happy to say that they've improved! Not to the extend that it turned their entire menu around to serve restaurant standard food, but the taste, variety and quality have surely become better.
I visited this new outlet of theirs at Clementi, located at the void deck of a very long flat. About 7-9 mins walk from the Clementi MRT station. The shop is spacious and has the same color scheme as their other outlet at Newton.
As its a neighbourhood, they're also catering for the people staying around with breakfast sets. And I was told this was included in their menu after hearing feedback from their regular customers living nearby. Thumbs up for them for responding to customers request. And I believe, they really want to make their food and service good for everyone.
Food tasted that day includes Nacho Chips & Cheese, Roasted Honey Wings, Americaya, Teriyaki Chicken Chop, Brownie with Vanilla Ice-Cream, Waffle with Gelato Ice Cream, Chocolate Decadence and Oreo Milkshake.
My friend and I love the cheese. It's better than those served at one of the cinema but not as thick as we would have liked it more. But definitely the yummy cheesy taste is there.
Next favorite that day was the Roasted Honey Wings. Roasted to the right texture and the skin is slightly crisp. Marination was good too as the honey has been absorbed into the meat too.
Servings of the main dishes were appetizing and attractive. The size is good to fill up most hungry stomachs.
The late lunch ended with lots of sweetness. Both of us love the waffles and the pistachio gelato ice-cream is of good quality too. I personally love it!
Overall the experience and food has improved. Guess they should already have made the same adjustments too at their Newton outlet. Perhaps if you'd been there before and didn't like the food then, give it another try. You might enjoy it more this time round.
I would have never imagine this; I froze at the mention of it, the sacred foie gras. And hold on a second, what were they saying, I thought I heard something like Juicy dumpling with foie gras. Wasn’t this supposed to be XLB, now where did the foie gras came into the picture?
Believe it or not, they actually contain the French delicacy within our XLB, well maybe just a morsel of it since there wasn’t any trace of the foie gras.
Fresh, is one of the word which has been over-used to describe food. How else would you use to depict the prawn within the crisp vermicelli, well maybe I would say juicy, succulent, and I ran out of vocabulary. Oh well. Deep-fried filo dough.
It was wet, a little moist inside, so I stuck my finger in, and poked it in a little further. I took a bite, beneath the crispy exterior, was duck shreds. Deep-fried yam croquette with minced duck.
I was caught by surprise when they told me this was called the Deep-fried scallops with sugar cane. I was happily biting it off the sugar cane (read: I use it), thinking it was very prawny, and there they were, telling me it was deep-fried scallop!
Naturally I was amused, how could scallop taste like prawn? Ignoring that, the slightly-sweet-slightly-sour sauce was most excellent - it was refreshing. And the sugar cane added some brownie points to the whole artistic value.
May I introduced to you, ladies and gentleman, the scarce Harm Soei Gok, or Deep-friend traditional chicken dumpling. Honestly, I did not know about its existence before this, since many places didn’t served it due to the complexity and effort needed to produce it.
The whole, Shark’s fin within the soup, it was so big! With an equally flavourful stock, all of us agreed that the Double-boiled dumpling with Shark’s fin was a delight, well maybe not for the sharks lovers.
I liked this. I’m a char siew sou man. And I was disappointed when there was no sight of it on the menu. And then the baked fluffy skin pie with chicken and mango came. Having the same (or almost) crispy, buttery pastry skin, the interior of the usual char siew was replaced by chicken and mango instead. And the marriage of chicken and mango was a good one, those two totally complimented each other well.
How can one reinvent a dish already done to death and found everywhere? Well, they either provide premium stuffing or reinvent the skin used to wrap the stuffing. For the steamed pork dumpling, they did neither but it was still a cut above the rest. The prawn was sweet and there wasn’t an overly-porky after-taste.
My, my. It was interesting to note, a mini version of claypot rice appearing in a restaurant. Call it a classic, the Mini pot rice with chicken was nothing mini in taste; the tasty Chinese sausages, the succulent mushrooms, and the tender chicken chunks. I had it a taste without any sauce initially, then I added some of the superior sauce that came along with it, and it did wonders - it literally enhanced the taste of the whole mini pot.
There was three different types of steamed rice roll served, but I just showed one photo since all rice rolls looked the same less the fillings. It was the standard-trio, scallops, char siew and prawn. And needless to say, most Chinese restaurants definitely uses fresh ingredients, so it was really down to the rice roll to determine the winner.
And I must say, Man Fu Yuan had silky smooth rice roll, and most importantly, they were not overly-thick.
I never liked beef balls, or for that matter, any type of meat balls. Just the sight of it made me full, I took a bite of the beef balls with bamboo pith, and unexpectedly, it wasn’t as heavy as I thought it would be. And there’s tripes at the bottom of the beef balls too.
It is a fine line between tradition and new, and I feel Man Fu Yuan balanced it very well. There are the traditional dim sum available for the purist who want their fix regularly, and not neglecting those who craved for innovation and excitement in their dining experience, the chefs played around with some other ingredients that are not commonly used in Chinese cuisine.
This marks the end of the dim sum marathon, and I must say I’ve enjoyed myself very much together with the rest; chatting and enjoying the good food. My appreciation to Sharon, the PR manager for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.
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!
If you're looking for some cheap CDs or cheap clothes or very chinese stuffs, you can come to CK Departmental stores! There are 2 outlets in outram area, one is on the chinatown side and another is in pearl centre side in this building opposite the OG which i could not recall what building is that.
Both outlets sells nearly the same things however the outlet at the Chinatown side apparently has got more stuffs.. If you like cheap DVDs or anything else for your viewing and listening leisure, yesss... this is the place to hang out.... The clothes are not very fashionable or of a good make however they are pretty value for money for a leisure casual wear especially for children as they outgrow their clothes in the matter of minutes..
If you want to find some very chinese food stuffs, they also do carry some very chinese food stuffs direct from China.... however, its always good to read the ingredient labels and hope you do not find Melamine there.... Heh Heh!
The toiletries I find them not as cheap as the distributors on top of the foodcentre next to the OG.... and don't expect any good service from the staffs.. they usually give you the FACE... so please pick your stuffs carefully and prepare for RUGBY if you're going there on a weekend.. Expect alot of aunties with sweaty armpits and big boobs out to squash you.......
1=SGD 0.0587
Twenty four of us descended to Gunther’s in a foodgraphy-frenzy. Hells hath no fury like a floggers' hunger. The long discussion of food, followed by the occasional exclaims of ‘ooh‘, and ‘aah‘. Welcome to the world of the food lovers.
It was smooth, and silky, strands of it sticking out; yet in the dim light setting against the white background, it looked angelic, yes, this must be it: Cold Angel-hair pasta. I enjoyed every slurp, and I’ll gladly have it again.
This, is the In-thing for this season, like the latest fashion trends for each year; rejoiced people, it is this time of the year for the sacred white asaparagus, not green, not red, but white. And then, I spotted the yellowish sauce over the the Poached white asparagus with Bouchot mussels.
I stopped, and slowly took a bit of it with my spoon; “it couldn’t be, Oh yes it is!” I dipped everything on the plate with the hollandaise sauce, and made sure not a single drop of it was left.
“Have you had white asparagus before?”
“No, I don’t see what's the craze over them..”
A surprise always had the biggest impact when you least expected it, and it came pleasantly of course.
There was pata negra, and salted baked seabass for the folks who couldn’t have beef; and damn, the roasted black pig from Spain sounded so good, I should have claimed to have allergies against cows!
My piece was very well balanced in the portions of the fats and meat (read: too much fats). I took a bite of the meat, and chewed down some fats. And it’s not that the Grilled Cote de Boeuf wasn’t good. In fact it was more than excellent; the slightly tinge of pink fully captured my imagination.
My eyes tweaked to see what was coming. It was supposed to be desserts next, but they were serving us, pizzas. You know, the elongated slice of thin-crust bread with toppings all over. Ah no, I was clearly mistaken, this was no pizza, it’s the Fine apple tart a la dragees, with rum & raisin ice-cream.
Once we had our desserts, once we paid off the bill, it would be bye-bye until a year later. Or at least that’s what the script wrote. A year, is far too long a time for us to meet up. We should meet up regularly my friends, and hunt down all the good food around our island.
Note: The 4 course Carte Blanche set menu was $45 per person and done especially for our Food Bloggers lunch, it's not available to public.
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:
Where can you find a quirky indie café, great comfort food at value-for-money price, relaxing corner to chill-out with your friends and at the same time give back to the society? The answer is Food for Thought, a social enterprise café that endeavours to generate profits to support and serve the community we live in.
Conveniently located opposite National Library, the café has been helmed by our own local boy, David Heng, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney, and used to work in Le St Julien, under the tutorage of Chef de Cuisine Julien Bompard.
Watermelon Mint & Lychee Sage Freeze ($4.00 each) was the initial order of the evening. HFB can’t think of any good reasons why one wouldn’t love these drinks. Simply revitalising!
Our appetiser falls under the “Premium Salad” category of Honey Mustard Smoked Duck Salad ($12.90). HFB simply dig the smoked duck. The thin layer of fats gave it a nice marbling chew and the meat is tender and succulent. The dish is also well complemented with orange slices. Can I also add that the serving is pretty generous?
What’s best to pair with a premium salad? It’s none other than a “Premium Sandwich” of Cuban Ham & Pork Steak ($10.90) – made of Grilled Gamon Ham, Hand-shred Slow-roasted Tender Pork Shoulder, topped with a sliced of Grilled Pineapple. Sandwiched within home-baked Foccacia Bread, drizzled with creamy mustard dressing and homemade barbecue sauce, this is definitely one of the better sandwiches that HFB has polished off. My only nitpick is that the mixture of over zealous dressing and sauce, coupled with the meat’s natural juices, cause the bread to turn soggy a little.
What’s a meal without its dessert? The Butterscotch Peach Crumble ($7.90) is created with bubbling homemade butterscotch sauce, filled with Peaches, Raisins and Roasted Almond Slices. Topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, HFB thought that the combination was a little too generous for it’s own good. Being a hot dessert, the ice cream tends to melt quickly into a mess. Perhaps a better option is to serve the ice cream on the side.
The Vanilla Caramel Crème Brulee was nothing extraordinary to say the least – the custard was smooth with a hint of caramel goodness all right, but the caramelised crust was disappointingly too thick for HFB. However, using fine icing sugar should eliminate the problem.
You can view all the photos here.
Rating given:
I have a sweet tooth
Contrary to normal beliefs that guys don’t like sweet stuff, I, for one, however proved to be the complete opposite. I like things that make me happy; food that can cheer me up, the happily-ever-after fairytale-like stories, and naturally, sweet nibbles that I always crave for.
The lady took one, from the pile of mountain-stacked high; this was the one destined for me. Poking a hole into the bottom by tucking it in, she pressed the pump; the lovely custard swam into the tiny hole, just big enough, for everything to flow inside.
Dusted with some icing sugar; it was akin like putting on the make-up for the pretty. I was excited by the sticking in and out, with each done, I could barely hide my excitement. And she repeated this process, six times in total.
Do not, I repeat, Do not (note: in bold), share your sweets around, they are not meant to be shared. What’s the point of passing them around, only to feel slightly agonizing over the fact that you are going to have less for yourself?
Stop staring at my cream puff. They are mine, and mine alone.
This, will come down as, one of the toughest decision you will make in your life. Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberrry? And there’s the lovely eclair winking at me, the tiramisu trying to seduce me. It is a land, of temptations. I decided, like what seemed to take an eternity, to go for just half-a-dozen with the chocolate and vanilla flavours. The rest, are my excuses for coming back next time.
And I regretted just getting six.
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:
Leisure spot for tai tai~
A very packed place on a Saturday afternoon...so we opted for outdoors as it meant a shorter wait :D
Service was smiley and cheery and brunch menu simple. Ordered stuff to share between the 2 of us (I forgot to take pics of the menu so don't quite remember the exact ingredients....):
Big Nihon ($18) - Expected bigger portion actually. Soba, edamame, greens, peppers, tomato, sesame, and salmon pieces. Nice Jap combo and fresh salmon but I thought the dressing would have been better if it was more tangy.
Crab Cake ($26) - Huge tart that came with a side of greens. Was quite alot of crab meat but I felt the tart was a tad too thick.
I also had some lime soda thingy which was very refreshing for the alfresco seating. A good spot for a leisure afternoon but remember to call ahead for an indoor spot because sweating tai tais are hardly glam.
Rating given:
Good ramen stock~
Was quite excited to learn that they have an outlet at Liang Court after hearing and reading so much about the outlet at Robertson Quay. I came with family and the 7 of us were quite happy to be given a seat at a corner of the restaurant. Note that the place is tucked inside Mediya; you have to go in to find it.
I had to try the ramen with its infamous pork bone stock of course:
Vegetable tonkatsu ramen ($14) - Huge bowl of vegetables on top of a mountain of ramen immersed in milky stock. Very good stock I thought, it did taste like it was cooked for hours with no 'porky' taste at all. Although for some strange reason the other guys felt Ajisen was better. Huh??
Deep fried shrimp ($10) - I can't remember the exact name on the menu but this was extremely addictive crunchy little stuff. Just the right amount of salt gave it a added kick. Its like really really fresh prawn "crackers". Very good.
Salmon Sashimi ($11) - Very fresh and surprisingly thick slices of the fish. Very refreshing for the palette.
Chicken Cheese roll ($12) - Didn't try this but it looked nothing like the picture.
Deep fried black pork - Disappointingly dry and uninspiring. Its rival located in the same building is so much better.
Service was okay, nothing excellent. It was nice to be able to walk the dinner off in Mediya though. I'll come back for the stock and prawn crackers! I was surprised that the bill came up to so high to be honest but well, at least I know what not to try next time.
Rating given:
Was brought to this place by my gf, who had been to this place a couple of times with er colleagues and found it not bad.
The shop is located opposite to the Singtel Building at Somerset, along a row of shophouses. The shop is a relatively small one, so advice is to make a booking before going down, to avoid waiting, since its a ala-carte buffet and people can stay in their seats for quite a while.
The variety of food is quite reasonable, but wished that the grilled food section could be more. Nonetheless, the quality of food was reasonable and the service was prompt. As for the pricing, it was quite comparable to those at Hanabi, Hoijin and Minori (My Fav!!!).
So for those wanting to look for new places to try out Japanese food, do give it a try.
Rating given:
Recently been there to give it a try after all the supposed hype I have heard in the past. However, sad to say, it was quite disappointing. When I got there, there so so many empty seats. And yet the staff were busy calling the guests to confirm their reservations, with no one paying any attention to us . That was one down, two to go.
Next, instead of giving us a table, we were given counter seats, which was a bit kinda cramped as compared to the other Japanese restaurants I have been before. That was Strike two,one last one to go.
Nervertheless, we settled down and started ordering the food. And like what Polarbear had said in his review, the portions of some of the food were really a tad too little and the service was slow as well. Even though the food was tasty, it was not enough to pacify me. And that was it, Strike Three!!! I would rather choose to go back to Minori anytime than this, where the variety is more and the service is much more better as well.
So all in all, this should be the first and last time that I would be coming to this Japanese restaurant to eat.
Rating given:
Sometimes back, I was told that De Coder's Cafe opened a new outlet in Clementi. The boss is now a friend of mine after some past "commotions" and constructive feedback few of us gave after the unsatisfying meal on my birthday last year. But I'm happy to say that they've improved! Not to the extend that it turned their entire menu around to serve restaurant standard food, but the taste, variety and quality have surely become better.
I visited this new outlet of theirs at Clementi, located at the void deck of a very long flat. About 7-9 mins walk from the Clementi MRT station. The shop is spacious and has the same color scheme as their other outlet at Newton.
As its a neighbourhood, they're also catering for the people staying around with breakfast sets. And I was told this was included in their menu after hearing feedback from their regular customers living nearby. Thumbs up for them for responding to customers request. And I believe, they really want to make their food and service good for everyone.
Food tasted that day includes Nacho Chips & Cheese, Roasted Honey Wings, Americaya, Teriyaki Chicken Chop, Brownie with Vanilla Ice-Cream, Waffle with Gelato Ice Cream, Chocolate Decadence and Oreo Milkshake.
My friend and I love the cheese. It's better than those served at one of the cinema but not as thick as we would have liked it more. But definitely the yummy cheesy taste is there.
Next favorite that day was the Roasted Honey Wings. Roasted to the right texture and the skin is slightly crisp. Marination was good too as the honey has been absorbed into the meat too.
Servings of the main dishes were appetizing and attractive. The size is good to fill up most hungry stomachs.
The late lunch ended with lots of sweetness. Both of us love the waffles and the pistachio gelato ice-cream is of good quality too. I personally love it!
Overall the experience and food has improved. Guess they should already have made the same adjustments too at their Newton outlet. Perhaps if you'd been there before and didn't like the food then, give it another try. You might enjoy it more this time round.
Rating given:
I would have never imagine this; I froze at the mention of it, the sacred foie gras. And hold on a second, what were they saying, I thought I heard something like Juicy dumpling with foie gras. Wasn’t this supposed to be XLB, now where did the foie gras came into the picture?
Believe it or not, they actually contain the French delicacy within our XLB, well maybe just a morsel of it since there wasn’t any trace of the foie gras.
Fresh, is one of the word which has been over-used to describe food. How else would you use to depict the prawn within the crisp vermicelli, well maybe I would say juicy, succulent, and I ran out of vocabulary. Oh well. Deep-fried filo dough.
It was wet, a little moist inside, so I stuck my finger in, and poked it in a little further. I took a bite, beneath the crispy exterior, was duck shreds. Deep-fried yam croquette with minced duck.
I was caught by surprise when they told me this was called the Deep-fried scallops with sugar cane. I was happily biting it off the sugar cane (read: I use it), thinking it was very prawny, and there they were, telling me it was deep-fried scallop!
Naturally I was amused, how could scallop taste like prawn? Ignoring that, the slightly-sweet-slightly-sour sauce was most excellent - it was refreshing. And the sugar cane added some brownie points to the whole artistic value.
May I introduced to you, ladies and gentleman, the scarce Harm Soei Gok, or Deep-friend traditional chicken dumpling. Honestly, I did not know about its existence before this, since many places didn’t served it due to the complexity and effort needed to produce it.
The whole, Shark’s fin within the soup, it was so big! With an equally flavourful stock, all of us agreed that the Double-boiled dumpling with Shark’s fin was a delight, well maybe not for the sharks lovers.
I liked this. I’m a char siew sou man. And I was disappointed when there was no sight of it on the menu. And then the baked fluffy skin pie with chicken and mango came. Having the same (or almost) crispy, buttery pastry skin, the interior of the usual char siew was replaced by chicken and mango instead. And the marriage of chicken and mango was a good one, those two totally complimented each other well.
How can one reinvent a dish already done to death and found everywhere? Well, they either provide premium stuffing or reinvent the skin used to wrap the stuffing. For the steamed pork dumpling, they did neither but it was still a cut above the rest. The prawn was sweet and there wasn’t an overly-porky after-taste.
My, my. It was interesting to note, a mini version of claypot rice appearing in a restaurant. Call it a classic, the Mini pot rice with chicken was nothing mini in taste; the tasty Chinese sausages, the succulent mushrooms, and the tender chicken chunks. I had it a taste without any sauce initially, then I added some of the superior sauce that came along with it, and it did wonders - it literally enhanced the taste of the whole mini pot.
There was three different types of steamed rice roll served, but I just showed one photo since all rice rolls looked the same less the fillings. It was the standard-trio, scallops, char siew and prawn. And needless to say, most Chinese restaurants definitely uses fresh ingredients, so it was really down to the rice roll to determine the winner.
And I must say, Man Fu Yuan had silky smooth rice roll, and most importantly, they were not overly-thick.
I never liked beef balls, or for that matter, any type of meat balls. Just the sight of it made me full, I took a bite of the beef balls with bamboo pith, and unexpectedly, it wasn’t as heavy as I thought it would be. And there’s tripes at the bottom of the beef balls too.
It is a fine line between tradition and new, and I feel Man Fu Yuan balanced it very well. There are the traditional dim sum available for the purist who want their fix regularly, and not neglecting those who craved for innovation and excitement in their dining experience, the chefs played around with some other ingredients that are not commonly used in Chinese cuisine.
This marks the end of the dim sum marathon, and I must say I’ve enjoyed myself very much together with the rest; chatting and enjoying the good food. My appreciation to Sharon, the PR manager for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.
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!
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If you're looking for some cheap CDs or cheap clothes or very chinese stuffs, you can come to CK Departmental stores! There are 2 outlets in outram area, one is on the chinatown side and another is in pearl centre side in this building opposite the OG which i could not recall what building is that.
Both outlets sells nearly the same things however the outlet at the Chinatown side apparently has got more stuffs.. If you like cheap DVDs or anything else for your viewing and listening leisure, yesss... this is the place to hang out.... The clothes are not very fashionable or of a good make however they are pretty value for money for a leisure casual wear especially for children as they outgrow their clothes in the matter of minutes..
If you want to find some very chinese food stuffs, they also do carry some very chinese food stuffs direct from China.... however, its always good to read the ingredient labels and hope you do not find Melamine there.... Heh Heh!
The toiletries I find them not as cheap as the distributors on top of the foodcentre next to the OG.... and don't expect any good service from the staffs.. they usually give you the FACE... so please pick your stuffs carefully and prepare for RUGBY if you're going there on a weekend.. Expect alot of aunties with sweaty armpits and big boobs out to squash you.......
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