Came across this place recently when I was in the area shopping so decided to have dinner there.
Assam Laksa ($8.80) - The soup is a little too thick and way too salty with very little sardines in it. The noodles are a little odd too. I'll never order this again.
Nasi Lemak ($9.80) - I love this (despite the price tag). And the part I love most is the rice cooked in coconut. It's really soft and delectable. My companion loves the chicken which was pretty well done too. It's served with belachan which neither of us eat.
Milo Dinosaur ($2.80) - Diluted. Go to Simpang for your MD fix.
Honestly? Prices are a tad pricey but the place is nicely done up and if you don't want to have the same dishes in a crowded place... then it's worth paying I guess.
We were in the area for a staycation and decided to stop by as we've heard so much about it.
The cafe is really easy to find, facing the main road and right at the end of the whole row of shops. Its ambience is really nice and warm. It is a smallish cafe with some outdoor seating.
I noticed they have a couple of menus. The menu I've seen on others' website (the weekend one) is very different from the one we had that day as it was a Friday. There are also some items only available for dinner after 6pm. The staff was cordial enough but not entirely helpful. Thankfully as it was only 3pm on a Friday, there were a number of empty seats and we could be seated immediately. We walked past during the weekend and there was a queue even at odd times of the day.
What we ordered:
Smoked Salmon, Cheese, Egg on Toast ($10) - I'm not sure why we ordered this. It is a tad expensive for the four small pieces of toast we were getting but I guess I was in the mood for some light bites. It tasted fine, nothing special though. The bread was well toasted and I like the combination.
Penne with Salmon ($15) - This was really quite nice. The penne was al dente and the sauce used was not too thick. Don't expect much salmon though.
Iced Hazelnut Latte ($6.50) / Iced Mocha ($6.50) - We ordered iced coffee because only the iced coffee came with 3D art and that was what we were there for! The staff warned us that it might take at least 30min for them to prepare our drinks but as there weren't many people that day, the drinks came in 15min which was acceptable. Be prepared to wait if you go on a weekend! The drinks tastes fine just that you might not feel like drinking them after admiring the 3D art.
So we spent about $40 for the both of us. I might go back if I'm in the area but definitely not travel all the way to Changi V for this.
I went on a Saturday afternoon and was glad to see the café not packed like the rest of the Orchard Road. The first impression of the place was nice and quiet. It is part of the book store so it does make sense to have a café there where people can read and relax over a cup of coffee. The decoration pretty much used books to decorate; you can see books on the wall and above the light bulbs. This should enable people to get into a reading mood fast.
Next to the food, since it is our first time there, we decided to go for the chef recommendations. Below was our order: Soup of the Day (Cream of Mushroom), Norwegian Smoked Salmon Sandwich Ultimate Beef Meatball Pasta, Cappuccino and Iced Lemon Tea.
Soup of the day (Cream of Mushroom): The accompanying bread was cold and hard. Personally I prefer them to be warm and soft. Although the soup was supposed to be cream of mushroom, but it tasted more of potato and celery soup to me. Nothing out of extraordinary.
Norwegian Smoked Salmon Sandwich: This came in a generous portion and looks good in presentation as well. One bite into it, it makes me want to eat more. The bread is warm and soft, with the thick smoked salmon slices, lettuce and mayo makes a prefect combination. I would recommend this to everyone.
Ultimate Beef Meatball Pasta: With such a name, I was disappointed when the dish was served, three small meatballs on a small serving of pasta. I do wish the meatballs do come in a larger portion since its name has Ultimate in it. The meatballs are a bit dry for my liking even thought they are quite flavorful. The sauce and pasta tasted like any normal pasta. Nothing wow about this dish.
Overall the food can be pretty much hit and miss, of course there are other mains and desserts which I have yet to taste. I might be back to try some other mains. However, I would remember this place if I need a quiet place to relax and read a book, with food and drink to accompany me through an afternoon. After all, where can you find such a peaceful place to read in Orchard Road.
Pepper Lunch Express opened a new stall inside Bukit Panjang Plaza's Koipitiam for quite a while and the queue was always long. I finally waited till the hype died down and decided to give it a try. The first time I ate in and the service was good.
But when I went back the second time and had my order takeaway, the service suddenly took a 360 degrees turn. First, the female staff who was manning the cashier didn't even bother to explain to me that for takeaways, soup is not included. And when I asked (in English), she prompted gave me a "Hmph", turned away and ignored me.
Also, when I went back the second time, the rice portion was significantly so much less as compared to my first visit.
It was so disappointing to find out that Pepper Lunch Express only served when the hype is going on. Once the curiosity died down, the service, attitude and meal portion downsized.
It was honestly a waste of time and money spent on Pepper Lunch Express and I really don't know why people are still buying from them despite having such crappy service and meal portions.
This shop opened at Bukit Panjang Plaza a few months back and since I'm a great fan of Beef Hor Fun, not necessarily from Ipoh as long as they're good, I decided to give it a try.
So I placed my order and the person who served me asked if I wanted chili in my Hor Fun, I said yes while my friend ordered something else but dry. It was a long and agonising wait for our food despite the place being quiet on a weekday early afternoon.
And when the food finally arrived, my chili wasn't in the Hor Fun at all. So I asked the person who asked for my order why there isn't any chili in there despite me telling them I wanted it. Guess what the cashier did? She glared at me like I'm some sort of beggar begging for scraps, turned her face away while pointing to the nearby condiments kiosk and rudely told me "Chili over there, you help yourself, ok??
And since my friend ordered as well and had soup to accompany her soup, I asked again why I don't have any soup at all.
(No harm asking, but since she was already rude to me, might as well try and see if her attitude will change.)
This time round, she just glared at me for half a minute before replying through clenched teeth that my friends order is dry noodle so she has soup. Mine is Hor Fun and since it's a "wet" dish, no soup comes with it. And then she just said "Hmmph" rather loudly and turned back to her station and I heard her mumbling under her breath about "stupid, lazy and greedy customer" and some other things that I couldn't hear properly.
It was rather pathetic of their attitude and behavior. Although the saying goes that "Customers are King", I wasn't being nasty. In fact, I feel like I was way too polite as a customer while the staff are trying hard to be nasty and rude to me since me and my friend were the only customers in there and by having to serve us, she cannot chit chat or maybe flirt with the cook.
The first few weeks when they opened, I saw the same girl who served me was nice to the customers who went to their shop. So, I do not know why her attitude and behavior underwent a 360 degree's transformation after their shop has been there for a few months already.
Please, please, please do avoid this shop whether they are busy or not. Since I get cr@p attitude and lousy service, I don't see why there is a need to patronize such a shop anymore. It's a big disappointment to have tried this shop and an even bigger disappointment that Shan Cheng (Ipoh Delicacies) hired such atrocious young girls with attitude problems in their shop too.
Couple of years back, before Bukit Panjang Plaza had a total new revamp of their makan areas at Level 1, Yoshinoya used to have their own shopfront. But they kinda close up shop after their Curry Rice didn't seem to bring in more customers. And maybe because of the rising shop rent, I'm not sure.
But a few months back, Yoshinoya came back again and they are now located inside Kopitiam Foodcourt inside Bukit Panjang Plaza. Although the shop seems somewhat smaller, due to being inside a rather popular foodcourt in Singapore. But at least seats-wise, there's a lot more due to the location being right smack inside Kopitiam itself.
I have been craving Yoshinoya ever since their own shopfront closed down and finally got my wish! As we all know, "fast-foods" doesn't necessarily need to be awesome in taste or whatsoever, since it's "fast-food" in the first place.
It's not like it's uber expensive. But the service is genuinely friendly and upbeat. Maybe because this particular branch is operating inside Kopitiam instead of having their own shopfront, the staffs seemed confused and blur sometimes. But give them time and a lot more visits, and they do remember their regular customers.
The manager previously in-charge of that Kopitiam branch and I even managed to have small chats everytime I patronised their stall.
Overall, decent food but really great customer service. And I can see they are trying their best to satisfy every customer they served. Kudos!
My companion kept raving about Awfully Chocolate that it made it impossible for me not to try. We went about looking for an outlet but realised the one at Katong had closed and all that was left was an office above Everything with Fries (which is also great btw).
So we dropped by at the itsy bitsy outlet tucked away in a corner of Vivo City. The first thing that occurred to me was.. HUH two tables only? They only had two high tables and about 3 chairs per table. They had a nice glass counter display which lined two walls, making an L-shape so it was pretty cramped. But well it is a specialty shop and most places like this don't even have seats at all. And we were there for the ice cream so there is hardly a need for seats.
They had ice cream (1 flavour - HEI which means black), chocolate bars and chocolate cake and cupcakes for sale. The ice cream went for $3.80 for a single scoop, $6.20 for a double scoop and $11.80 for a pint. The chocolate cupcake was $4.90 and the stacked chocolate cake was $6.50 per 100g. Truffles were $13 for 100g.
They had iced water in a jug set aside for customers and provided plastic cups, so that even if you had to do a takeaway you could grab a cup of water, which is great.
So we got our double scoop ice cream from the cheery girls behind the counters and sat on the mall's seats just outside the store.
The ice cream was fantastic. It rich and creamy and I love the dark chocolate taste. Definitely not for sweet chocolate lovers. The spoons we had were really cute and perfect for spooning the ice cream into our mouths.
Since then, I've had it three times and am still lemming for it. :)
For the first time in many years, I ventured into Far East Plaza, known for its very fashionable stores and their wares. I hardly shop there as the clothes are rarely my style and I'm the sort to look for clothing suitable for work.
I stumbled onto this tiny shop tucked away on the entrance level (3rd floor). Small as it was it had plenty hanging on its racks. I took up some of the dresses and was amazed at the quality of the material used. The seams are also well done and the lining for each dress was well sewn.
My excited friend and I spent 3 hours at this shop trying on about 30 pieces of clothing. The salesgirl never once showed a face and volunteered more pieces to try. She gave her honest opinion when some dresses didn't fit too well and tried her best to understand our style, thus not pushing every single piece of clothing to us.
When some of the pieces we liked had an odd button or feature we didn't quite like, she offered to have them removed or altered for free. Any alteration (even tightening of waist areas) was offered for free. If it only required a shortening, it could be done immediately even.
What I liked most was the good quality for a reasonable price. One dress cost about $79 and cost me less than $70 after discount. I washed the dress when I got home and it didn't even require any ironing. Just hang straight and drip dry.
Another top I got cost $34 initially. The salesgirl noticed that there were some makeup stains on the white collar and she took the initiative to look for a new piece even when I didn't notice the stain. Then as there weren't any more pieces, she brought me a black one and told me that I still wanted the white one she would send it to the laundry and have it cleaned for free. How's that for service? That's not all. I told her that I could not afford the time to come down again any time soon and asked for a discount so that I could bring it to the laundromat myself. They agreed and let me have the blouse for $26 with an $8 discount which can easily cover the costs of having it washed.
When we left, it was really late and most of the shops at FEP were closed but they were still all smiles and actually called us by name. It's no wonder I saw a number of Tai-tais buying a large number of clothing from them within the time I was there!
First time to the newly open Ion Orchard's Swensen outlet. So much had been heard about the place especially the ice cream buffet. (I will touch on that later), decided to meet up with my friends for dinner yesterday. Since the place is newly open, I would expect quite a crowd there and the place to be packed to brim during meal times. On a Monday night, I can say that the place is packed to the brim with a long queue outside as well.
When I was looking through the menu, the waiter was quite attentive, coming every 5 mins asking if we want to order. Seems that they added in a few local dishes but if I want to eat dishes like chicken rice, I am sure that Swensens is not the first place I will think of. For mains, we ordered the normal dishes such as Swesens's Combo, BBQ Half Chicken and Breaded Chicken. (All the fried stuff less the BBQ Chicken). For dessert, we decided to go for the ice cream buffet.
Have to say that the mains came out pretty fast, within 15 mins. However have to say the portion or the taste of the food leaves much to desire. The fries are soggy, the fried stuff are oily, no taste, seems like they are fried again food. Simply BAD! With the food on our table, we were not served our cutlery, I have to remind the waiter for it before he too realized that he forgot about it. He came back telling us that they had ran out of knives, instead he passed us some spoons. In short, even after we finished the mains, we never saw the light of the knives. Such a BIG restaurant but they ran out of knives. Hmm....... Meantime, the whole place is buzzing and the waiters were walking past our table every other minute, but to get their attention was such a difficult task.
Next was the ice cream buffet, seems like they got lots of ice cream and topping to offer, still have waffles, mini pancakes, both dark and white coco fondue with strawberries and marshmellows and some pies. Too bad one of the ice cream fridge is down, this means all the Gelatos are out, we have 15 less flavors to choose from. However the price of the ice cream buffet did not drop due to that. I am very very disappointed with the buffet. From very sour strawberries to lack of ice cream flavors, and the service of the crew tending the ice cream bar really needs to improve (a lot!).
From the initial excitement to major disappointment! There is only 1 thing I am going to say: I AM SO NOT GOING TO SWENSENS ANY TIME SOON!
I visit MANY online blogshops and this is definitely one of my faves.
There are SOOOooO many reasons why!
They update often. About twice a week.
Packages arrive well-packed and are prompt. I have not experienced any delays. I also have not gotten any defected pieces from them despite buying from almost every collection.
Each update is done by a different owner. They have 3 owners who all have different tastes and different styles! So the great part is that each update has its own style and there'll be something to suit everyone!
Prices are very reasonable and the quality is good! However, there are one or two pieces which have to be handwashed and I'm soooo lazy.
The owners are very friendly. And on top of that they are customer-oriented. Payments had to be done within 24 hours. But there was once when my pet was very ill and I had to bring my pet to the doctor they were very understanding and waited for me! They even asked about my pet after. :) So sweet right?
They were even featured in the Straits Times National Day edition!
1=SGD 0.0587
Came across this place recently when I was in the area shopping so decided to have dinner there.
Assam Laksa ($8.80) - The soup is a little too thick and way too salty with very little sardines in it. The noodles are a little odd too. I'll never order this again.
Nasi Lemak ($9.80) - I love this (despite the price tag). And the part I love most is the rice cooked in coconut. It's really soft and delectable. My companion loves the chicken which was pretty well done too. It's served with belachan which neither of us eat.
Milo Dinosaur ($2.80) - Diluted. Go to Simpang for your MD fix.
Honestly? Prices are a tad pricey but the place is nicely done up and if you don't want to have the same dishes in a crowded place... then it's worth paying I guess.
Rating given:
We were in the area for a staycation and decided to stop by as we've heard so much about it.
The cafe is really easy to find, facing the main road and right at the end of the whole row of shops. Its ambience is really nice and warm. It is a smallish cafe with some outdoor seating.
I noticed they have a couple of menus. The menu I've seen on others' website (the weekend one) is very different from the one we had that day as it was a Friday. There are also some items only available for dinner after 6pm. The staff was cordial enough but not entirely helpful. Thankfully as it was only 3pm on a Friday, there were a number of empty seats and we could be seated immediately. We walked past during the weekend and there was a queue even at odd times of the day.
What we ordered:
Smoked Salmon, Cheese, Egg on Toast ($10) - I'm not sure why we ordered this. It is a tad expensive for the four small pieces of toast we were getting but I guess I was in the mood for some light bites. It tasted fine, nothing special though. The bread was well toasted and I like the combination.
Penne with Salmon ($15) - This was really quite nice. The penne was al dente and the sauce used was not too thick. Don't expect much salmon though.
Iced Hazelnut Latte ($6.50) / Iced Mocha ($6.50) - We ordered iced coffee because only the iced coffee came with 3D art and that was what we were there for! The staff warned us that it might take at least 30min for them to prepare our drinks but as there weren't many people that day, the drinks came in 15min which was acceptable. Be prepared to wait if you go on a weekend! The drinks tastes fine just that you might not feel like drinking them after admiring the 3D art.
So we spent about $40 for the both of us. I might go back if I'm in the area but definitely not travel all the way to Changi V for this.
Rating given:
I went on a Saturday afternoon and was glad to see the café not packed like the rest of the Orchard Road. The first impression of the place was nice and quiet. It is part of the book store so it does make sense to have a café there where people can read and relax over a cup of coffee. The decoration pretty much used books to decorate; you can see books on the wall and above the light bulbs. This should enable people to get into a reading mood fast.
Next to the food, since it is our first time there, we decided to go for the chef recommendations. Below was our order: Soup of the Day (Cream of Mushroom), Norwegian Smoked Salmon Sandwich Ultimate Beef Meatball Pasta, Cappuccino and Iced Lemon Tea.
Soup of the day (Cream of Mushroom): The accompanying bread was cold and hard. Personally I prefer them to be warm and soft. Although the soup was supposed to be cream of mushroom, but it tasted more of potato and celery soup to me. Nothing out of extraordinary.
Norwegian Smoked Salmon Sandwich: This came in a generous portion and looks good in presentation as well. One bite into it, it makes me want to eat more. The bread is warm and soft, with the thick smoked salmon slices, lettuce and mayo makes a prefect combination. I would recommend this to everyone.
Ultimate Beef Meatball Pasta: With such a name, I was disappointed when the dish was served, three small meatballs on a small serving of pasta. I do wish the meatballs do come in a larger portion since its name has Ultimate in it. The meatballs are a bit dry for my liking even thought they are quite flavorful. The sauce and pasta tasted like any normal pasta. Nothing wow about this dish.
Overall the food can be pretty much hit and miss, of course there are other mains and desserts which I have yet to taste. I might be back to try some other mains. However, I would remember this place if I need a quiet place to relax and read a book, with food and drink to accompany me through an afternoon. After all, where can you find such a peaceful place to read in Orchard Road.
Rating given:
Pepper Lunch Express opened a new stall inside Bukit Panjang Plaza's Koipitiam for quite a while and the queue was always long. I finally waited till the hype died down and decided to give it a try. The first time I ate in and the service was good.
But when I went back the second time and had my order takeaway, the service suddenly took a 360 degrees turn. First, the female staff who was manning the cashier didn't even bother to explain to me that for takeaways, soup is not included. And when I asked (in English), she prompted gave me a "Hmph", turned away and ignored me.
Also, when I went back the second time, the rice portion was significantly so much less as compared to my first visit.
It was so disappointing to find out that Pepper Lunch Express only served when the hype is going on. Once the curiosity died down, the service, attitude and meal portion downsized.
It was honestly a waste of time and money spent on Pepper Lunch Express and I really don't know why people are still buying from them despite having such crappy service and meal portions.
Rating given:
This shop opened at Bukit Panjang Plaza a few months back and since I'm a great fan of Beef Hor Fun, not necessarily from Ipoh as long as they're good, I decided to give it a try.
So I placed my order and the person who served me asked if I wanted chili in my Hor Fun, I said yes while my friend ordered something else but dry. It was a long and agonising wait for our food despite the place being quiet on a weekday early afternoon.
And when the food finally arrived, my chili wasn't in the Hor Fun at all. So I asked the person who asked for my order why there isn't any chili in there despite me telling them I wanted it. Guess what the cashier did? She glared at me like I'm some sort of beggar begging for scraps, turned her face away while pointing to the nearby condiments kiosk and rudely told me "Chili over there, you help yourself, ok??
And since my friend ordered as well and had soup to accompany her soup, I asked again why I don't have any soup at all.
(No harm asking, but since she was already rude to me, might as well try and see if her attitude will change.)
This time round, she just glared at me for half a minute before replying through clenched teeth that my friends order is dry noodle so she has soup. Mine is Hor Fun and since it's a "wet" dish, no soup comes with it. And then she just said "Hmmph" rather loudly and turned back to her station and I heard her mumbling under her breath about "stupid, lazy and greedy customer" and some other things that I couldn't hear properly.
It was rather pathetic of their attitude and behavior. Although the saying goes that "Customers are King", I wasn't being nasty. In fact, I feel like I was way too polite as a customer while the staff are trying hard to be nasty and rude to me since me and my friend were the only customers in there and by having to serve us, she cannot chit chat or maybe flirt with the cook.
The first few weeks when they opened, I saw the same girl who served me was nice to the customers who went to their shop. So, I do not know why her attitude and behavior underwent a 360 degree's transformation after their shop has been there for a few months already.
Please, please, please do avoid this shop whether they are busy or not. Since I get cr@p attitude and lousy service, I don't see why there is a need to patronize such a shop anymore. It's a big disappointment to have tried this shop and an even bigger disappointment that Shan Cheng (Ipoh Delicacies) hired such atrocious young girls with attitude problems in their shop too.
Rating given:
Couple of years back, before Bukit Panjang Plaza had a total new revamp of their makan areas at Level 1, Yoshinoya used to have their own shopfront. But they kinda close up shop after their Curry Rice didn't seem to bring in more customers. And maybe because of the rising shop rent, I'm not sure.
But a few months back, Yoshinoya came back again and they are now located inside Kopitiam Foodcourt inside Bukit Panjang Plaza. Although the shop seems somewhat smaller, due to being inside a rather popular foodcourt in Singapore. But at least seats-wise, there's a lot more due to the location being right smack inside Kopitiam itself.
I have been craving Yoshinoya ever since their own shopfront closed down and finally got my wish! As we all know, "fast-foods" doesn't necessarily need to be awesome in taste or whatsoever, since it's "fast-food" in the first place.
It's not like it's uber expensive. But the service is genuinely friendly and upbeat. Maybe because this particular branch is operating inside Kopitiam instead of having their own shopfront, the staffs seemed confused and blur sometimes. But give them time and a lot more visits, and they do remember their regular customers.
The manager previously in-charge of that Kopitiam branch and I even managed to have small chats everytime I patronised their stall.
Overall, decent food but really great customer service. And I can see they are trying their best to satisfy every customer they served. Kudos!
Rating given:
My companion kept raving about Awfully Chocolate that it made it impossible for me not to try. We went about looking for an outlet but realised the one at Katong had closed and all that was left was an office above Everything with Fries (which is also great btw).
So we dropped by at the itsy bitsy outlet tucked away in a corner of Vivo City. The first thing that occurred to me was.. HUH two tables only? They only had two high tables and about 3 chairs per table. They had a nice glass counter display which lined two walls, making an L-shape so it was pretty cramped. But well it is a specialty shop and most places like this don't even have seats at all. And we were there for the ice cream so there is hardly a need for seats.
They had ice cream (1 flavour - HEI which means black), chocolate bars and chocolate cake and cupcakes for sale. The ice cream went for $3.80 for a single scoop, $6.20 for a double scoop and $11.80 for a pint. The chocolate cupcake was $4.90 and the stacked chocolate cake was $6.50 per 100g. Truffles were $13 for 100g.
They had iced water in a jug set aside for customers and provided plastic cups, so that even if you had to do a takeaway you could grab a cup of water, which is great.
So we got our double scoop ice cream from the cheery girls behind the counters and sat on the mall's seats just outside the store.
The ice cream was fantastic. It rich and creamy and I love the dark chocolate taste. Definitely not for sweet chocolate lovers. The spoons we had were really cute and perfect for spooning the ice cream into our mouths.
Since then, I've had it three times and am still lemming for it. :)
Rating given:
For the first time in many years, I ventured into Far East Plaza, known for its very fashionable stores and their wares. I hardly shop there as the clothes are rarely my style and I'm the sort to look for clothing suitable for work.
I stumbled onto this tiny shop tucked away on the entrance level (3rd floor). Small as it was it had plenty hanging on its racks. I took up some of the dresses and was amazed at the quality of the material used. The seams are also well done and the lining for each dress was well sewn.
My excited friend and I spent 3 hours at this shop trying on about 30 pieces of clothing. The salesgirl never once showed a face and volunteered more pieces to try. She gave her honest opinion when some dresses didn't fit too well and tried her best to understand our style, thus not pushing every single piece of clothing to us.
When some of the pieces we liked had an odd button or feature we didn't quite like, she offered to have them removed or altered for free. Any alteration (even tightening of waist areas) was offered for free. If it only required a shortening, it could be done immediately even.
What I liked most was the good quality for a reasonable price. One dress cost about $79 and cost me less than $70 after discount. I washed the dress when I got home and it didn't even require any ironing. Just hang straight and drip dry.
Another top I got cost $34 initially. The salesgirl noticed that there were some makeup stains on the white collar and she took the initiative to look for a new piece even when I didn't notice the stain. Then as there weren't any more pieces, she brought me a black one and told me that I still wanted the white one she would send it to the laundry and have it cleaned for free. How's that for service? That's not all. I told her that I could not afford the time to come down again any time soon and asked for a discount so that I could bring it to the laundromat myself. They agreed and let me have the blouse for $26 with an $8 discount which can easily cover the costs of having it washed.
When we left, it was really late and most of the shops at FEP were closed but they were still all smiles and actually called us by name. It's no wonder I saw a number of Tai-tais buying a large number of clothing from them within the time I was there!
I'm planning to go again!
Rating given:
First time to the newly open Ion Orchard's Swensen outlet. So much had been heard about the place especially the ice cream buffet. (I will touch on that later), decided to meet up with my friends for dinner yesterday. Since the place is newly open, I would expect quite a crowd there and the place to be packed to brim during meal times. On a Monday night, I can say that the place is packed to the brim with a long queue outside as well.
When I was looking through the menu, the waiter was quite attentive, coming every 5 mins asking if we want to order. Seems that they added in a few local dishes but if I want to eat dishes like chicken rice, I am sure that Swensens is not the first place I will think of. For mains, we ordered the normal dishes such as Swesens's Combo, BBQ Half Chicken and Breaded Chicken. (All the fried stuff less the BBQ Chicken). For dessert, we decided to go for the ice cream buffet.
Have to say that the mains came out pretty fast, within 15 mins. However have to say the portion or the taste of the food leaves much to desire. The fries are soggy, the fried stuff are oily, no taste, seems like they are fried again food. Simply BAD! With the food on our table, we were not served our cutlery, I have to remind the waiter for it before he too realized that he forgot about it. He came back telling us that they had ran out of knives, instead he passed us some spoons. In short, even after we finished the mains, we never saw the light of the knives. Such a BIG restaurant but they ran out of knives. Hmm....... Meantime, the whole place is buzzing and the waiters were walking past our table every other minute, but to get their attention was such a difficult task.
Next was the ice cream buffet, seems like they got lots of ice cream and topping to offer, still have waffles, mini pancakes, both dark and white coco fondue with strawberries and marshmellows and some pies. Too bad one of the ice cream fridge is down, this means all the Gelatos are out, we have 15 less flavors to choose from. However the price of the ice cream buffet did not drop due to that. I am very very disappointed with the buffet. From very sour strawberries to lack of ice cream flavors, and the service of the crew tending the ice cream bar really needs to improve (a lot!).
From the initial excitement to major disappointment! There is only 1 thing I am going to say: I AM SO NOT GOING TO SWENSENS ANY TIME SOON!
Rating given:
I visit MANY online blogshops and this is definitely one of my faves.
There are SOOOooO many reasons why!
They update often. About twice a week.
Packages arrive well-packed and are prompt. I have not experienced any delays. I also have not gotten any defected pieces from them despite buying from almost every collection.
Each update is done by a different owner. They have 3 owners who all have different tastes and different styles! So the great part is that each update has its own style and there'll be something to suit everyone!
Prices are very reasonable and the quality is good! However, there are one or two pieces which have to be handwashed and I'm soooo lazy.
The owners are very friendly. And on top of that they are customer-oriented. Payments had to be done within 24 hours. But there was once when my pet was very ill and I had to bring my pet to the doctor they were very understanding and waited for me! They even asked about my pet after. :) So sweet right?
They were even featured in the Straits Times National Day edition!
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