If I can give this place less than 1 star I would.
My sister bought a package at this place 2 months ago but she didn't go for her manicure/pedicure. She figured that it's very near our home and my mom and I can use it which is why she bought the package. The package cost $800 and consisted of 12 full manicures and pedicures and some disinfecting balls.
Last week, I went, thinking that I deserved to relax. I sat down and the lady, Cecilia, started to work on my legs. Just minutes into scrubbing my feet, she started to sell me a special treatment which is suppose to be good for removing corns, which she claimed I had. I have been to so many salons and no one said that I had this problem. But anyway the treatment costs $200 and I wasn't sure if it was good so I refused.
Then with cream on my feet and stuff, she started hard-selling. She refused to continue, saying that if I top up my current package to the one with the corn treatment she can do it right away so that I can experience it right now. THE TOP UP COSTS $2000 ! And that was on top of my current $800 package! I couldn't budge cos my feet were dirty and she refused to continue, though she remained polite all the way. Finally when I said loudly I didn't want because I didn't have the cash for it she continued... not before insisting that I do the $20 scrub. I was so sick of her ranting then I agreed to the $20 scrub.
After having everything painted and my nail art done, I sat at the counter to have my nails dried... then Cecilia came back with a "MORE ATTRACTIVE" package which she claims that I can pay by instalments. She insisted that MY credit card can pay by instalments. Then came the 45 min lecture on why I should take up the package etc... More and more staff came to hound me.
Finally I relented. Only because I know my mom had a corn problem and I thought she could really use it. To say the truth... I was on the verge of tears. I kept saying no... kept saying that I needed time to think about it because it was so expensive... but they surrounded me and kept going on about it.
We went to the machine to pay by instalments... AND IT DIDN'T APPROVE! Can you imagine how embarrassed I felt when they said that loudly? It wasn't even my fault! Then they hounded me more and I paid a deposit of $400 for the package.
Only then did they let me go. The whole process... wasted 3 hours of my time. Have you ever had a 3-hour pedicure? Nope not even with a manicure.
When I was standing there making payment... I saw them do the same thing to an older lady. They hounded her.. until she was so irritated she pulled out her wallet, tipped it over to show that she didn't have any cash on her and didn't bring her cards. After that they left her alone... and I really mean alone as in there wasn't ANYONE serving her at all. They just left her there for about 20 minutes choosing colours and preparing her feet at all.
** the aftermath:
After leaving, I came to my senses. And I realised that they would hard-sell me, my mom and my sister things every time we went... I realised that I CANNOT take up that package. I went back and argued. The $400 cannot be refunded (which I expected) but it is now a credit on the old package which can be used for other things. After the package is up.. I WILL NEVER go back there again.
BTW, my nail polish chipped in 4 days. Faster than if I painted it myself. Sigh.
After hearing SOOOOoOoo much about Tao's for such a long time, I finally had the chance to step into Tao's! I was so excited.
Parking wasn't too much of a problem at Selegie Centre... however 3 hours cost us $10 . If it weren't raining so heavily when we arrived I reckon we would have parked elsewhere. The parking area was a little hard to find but easy (for the driver) to work her way about.
Because it was a weekday and it was just after lunch @ 2pm, the place was empty!! *happiness* We did make reservations though. I was told by my friend that reservations are a must if you wanted a weekend lunch/dinner.
They charge $19.80 (or was it $19.90) for a 6 course set lunch. I shan't dwell on the system they have here since everyone's talked about it.
We just went about picking whatever we liked from the menu.
I shall only comment on those I did taste. :)
Food ordered: Bacon & Mushroom Gratin, served with Toasted Bread This is an item we didn’t have a choice with in the menu. I’m not really a fan of gratin so I was a little hesitant. I didn’t quite take to the smell of the cheese they used for the gratin but it was generally alright for non-cheese lovers. A definite stay away if you dislike cheese though. The bread was heavenly. I LOVEEDDD it. I wished I could have more (it’s free flow) but I was afraid I couldn’t finish the rest of my meal. The bread was well toasted and can be eaten alone without the gratin at all.
Smoked Salmon Salad My choice. My companions had the Fruit Salad and the Prawn Roll though. Nothing fantastic about my salad though I had some trouble finishing it as I found the salmon a little too salty after a few bites. The serving was just right though.
Cream of Pumpkin I absolutely loved this soup. I was the only one not having the Shark fin one, which my companions raved about. But I loved the thickness of this pumpkin soup and the slight sweetness which made me finish it really quickly.
Grilled Snapper with Japanese Sauce This is my main complaint I think. I definitely regretted this choice. The snapper was unevenly grilled and charred on one end but fine on the other. There was so much sauce poured over it and it certainly didn’t help that it was too salty. In reality, the snapper was quite tasty on its own, after much cleaning away of the sauce. I liked the pumpkin mash served with the snapper though. I would definitely go for the flounder next time.
Ice Rose Apple Tea I like how the smell of the rose blended together with the taste of the apple in this one. And they even provided a fork for you to eat the apple. They serve their teas in this nice little pot with a tiny cup, so we had fun tasting each other’s tea.
Ice Summer Peach Tea I LOVE THIS TEA! I like the aftertaste of the peach!
Brownie served with ice cream Or should I say, ice-cream served with brownie? I finished it in 2 bites. Either my mouth’s big or… to give credit, the brownie is quite moist and not too dry. The nuts below should be cut up a little more so that it can be evenly distributed with each bite.
The total bill came up to $115 for 5 of us which is quite reasonable I guess. Topped with great service and smiles even though we were overstayers, it was a good experience after all.
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.
Breeks located at the corner of level 3 at T2 is a nice place to chill while waiting for friends to arrive or depart. >.<
Being Halal certified also means that everyone is able to enjoy the food and wide variety of desserts here.
If you're looking for powerpoint for your machines, there's only one (I think) near the entrance on the red wall.
Food here is nice and the serving size fits my tummy just fine. The chicken patty is packed with crunchy onions, and some unknown stuff which I simply ignored. I digg anything chicken and with melted cheese!
The Nutella Milkshake though could be better. The shake isn't thick enough imo.
Looking at the crowd here now, at this hour (yes I'm writing this review while I'm still here) on a Friday night, I guess it shouldn't be a problem getting a table for meal.
Perhaps if I'm going to stay here longer, I might give one of their desserts a try. Anyone wants to join me?
I visited and bought things from Ikea Tampines close 8 times in the last 2 months. That's really a record for someone who doesn't drive. I faithfully took the shuttle on most trips and took a cab home on a couple of occasions.
There are a number of things I've learnt on these trips to Ikea...
Unless you bought extremely large items, it still makes more sense to take a cab home rather than pay for delivery which is $40 if you live in Tampines, Pasir Ris or Simei areas and $45 for other areas. There was one occasion where we bought quite a number of items and we booked a Maxi Cab home, costing us $20 which is still cheaper than the delivery cost and we needn't wait for the delivery date/time.
If you're going for a specific item/s, call ahead to check for stock, especially during peak seasons before Christmas and CNY. Things go out of stock easily and may not be re-stocked within the week. It happened to me a few times and it's quite exasperating.
Always keep your receipt. Ikea is no longer as liberal as they used to be on return policies. I think there were amendments to the policy when they realised that people were taking advantage of it. Keep your receipt not as proof of purchase but to prove WHEN you made your purchase as they have a 100-day policy. It didn't used to be this way.
AND if you see the item going on clearance... MAKE SURE you really want the item before buying it. If the item is no longer sold at the store, you'll have trouble trying to return it if you don't like it anymore.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK before going. We did do our homework but when we got there we had a change of mind. If you take a look at my pictures I have a high table with metal legs. Those aren't suppose to go together. The metal legs are meant for another table top that has one end attached to the wall. The table top has 16 holes pre-drilled under it. This table top that we got has 20 holes pre drilled under it and we couldn't fix it properly. We were a little upset that we had to return it at first but LUCKILY my contractor did us the favour by putting it together for us. hehe
I still like going to Ikea... I like to buy all the little decorative items for my room and the rest of the house. I enjoy walking around in the big open space and not have any salesperson following me around. I like how they sometimes stock the things in two areas so that you can change your mind and still buy the item without going back up. I also love the $1 hotdogs which I buy to eat while waiting for the shuttle.
Firstly please accept my apologies on the poor photographs posted up. The material we chose was blackout material which means it shuts out the light from outside when the photo is taken. At the point when these photographs were taken my lights weren't completely ready.
I saw this shop on television, a chinese variety programme, and decided to give it a try. Upon getting to Tanjong Katong Complex we realised that there were many curtain shops there, and we enquired at every one. We asked for the same thing at every single shop: 4 sets of blinds with blackout materials. We received quotes from $200 to $290 per set.
Jimmy Textile was the only one who was able to give a definite quotation based on our accurate measurements. They were willing to confirm the quotation of $200 on the spot even without going to our place to measure (we took the measurements right down to the mm.) They also did not try to hardsell, badger us or hover around us as we looked at the materials. They, in a friendly manner, just left all the materials we needed on the table and left us alone to choose. And whenever we needed help they gave us the advice we needed. They have a wide variety of materials and we really took a lot of time scouring through the various booklets.
On the day, they came to take measurements, they were very punctual and polite. My father was very fussy about the measurement of the blinds but the uncle was still very patient with him, making sure we were satisfied with the measurements before they left.
I had to change the installation date/time 3 times due to the delays in my renovation but there were no grumbles from them and they tried to accomodate whenever they could. They work every day, even Sundays and Public Holidays (Except for CNY).
My installation was finally fixed on a Sunday and the two men came promptly. Just 20 minutes before they were to arrive they called me to confirm that I was there. I think this is really good practice. When they came they did their work as quickly as they could and were very careful when placing the ladder on my newly laid tiles. I absolutely love my new blinds!
This is a small shop right at the corner of a row of shophouses. You might just miss it if you don't look up and see the big signboard. I got to know of this shop from renovation forums and went down to take a look.
Small as it looked from the outside, it was cramped with all sorts of lights inside. They have designer lights and simple ones too! They also sell a range of ceiling fans though not very many. The husband and wife team are very polite throughout our hour long visit on both days and they obligingly turned on all the lights we asked for. (you'll be surprised many shops aren't happy to.) They also suggested energy-saving methods and were professional in handling us even though it's a family-run business and they have two kids hanging out at the back.
The prices are cheaper than most of the bigger shops and I even saw one of their lights retailing at a popular store for 4 times its price. So I was rather happy to get most of my lights there.
Two weeks after I moved in, one of the bedroom lights died and we called them up. They aimably sent down someone two days later to fix it. No questions asked.
This is the only shop that utterly ruined my renovation experience. I have no choice but to relate my entire experience here...
We were out shopping for sanitary and stopped by at Viva Nueva first. But I didn't like the design of the one-piece toilet bowl they had there so we thanked the saleslady, Jojo and we went to look for more. We finally picked out our toilet bowls, sinks and taps at a shop further down. But my mom really liked the cooking hob at Viva Nueva so we walked back to the shop. We ordered our hob and kitchen sink from them and left. Before we left I asked for them to provide me with a trap for the kitchen sink. It costs only $5 and Jojo's face immediately turned "black" when I asked for it FOC. I just spent $700 at her shop and she was unhappy about me asking for a $5 item....
After 30 minutes, Jojo called me on the phone and demanded to know where I bought my sanitary fittings. She asked if I bought from XXX shop down the street and demanded to know exactly what I bought from them. I flatly refused to give her any details and the conversation lasted for 8 minutes with her repeatedly asking me what I bought. When I put down the phone, I really regretted buying anything from her but since I'd already paid the deposit I only prayed for my items to come intact.
About a week later, I asked for the items to be delivered. The salesgirl on the line (not Jojo) confirmed that my items can be delivered on Wednesday at 1pm. At 12pm on Wednesday I called to confirm again and she told me that the items were not in the warehouse yet and she cannot confirm that my items can reach me at 1pm!! Can you imagine that she didn't even intend to call me beforehand and was going to let me wait like a fool at a half-renovated house with no seats?! Anyway I agreed to postpone the delivery to the next day.
The next day the items arrive promptly... but... there was no hole for my tap on the kitchen sink. There was a hole on the sink that was displayed in the showroom so I naturally assumed that the sink comes with a hole for kitchen taps. I do know that some sinks do not as the taps are to be mounted on the table top. So I called Viva Nueva again and this time Jojo answered.
She insisted that it was MY FAULT for not telling them that I needed a hole for my kitchen tap and wanted me to ask my contractor/plumber to drill a hole. BUT if they did the job and spoilt the sink who was to pay for it? In the first place, I don't buy sinks every day and am not a professional at buying sinks so HOW WOULD I KNOW that sinks don't come with holes?! She as the sales staff SHOULD ask the customer if they need one drilled isn't it??? Anyway the deliveryman was very kind and he agreed to take back the sink and drill the hole for me, even while I was still arguing with Jojo over the phone. So there went my sink again. Thankfully my kitchen hob came intact.
I told Jojo that she has to inform me two hours before the delivery of my sink as I needed time to rush down. She said she would inform me an hour before and I found that to be reasonable. BUT the next day, the deliveryman called me at 12noon to tell me that he was there waiting for me. I was on my way to town and simply couldn't rush down. So the deliveryman left the sink there and left. I managed to go down at 4pm and lo and behold, there was a footprint in the middle of the sink and tons of haphazard scratches all over the base of the sink which weren't there in the first place. I reckon they must have gotten there when the drilling was done.
Anyway I called Jojo again and told her to take back the sink. She said that the scratches were part of the design and ALL her sinks have the scratch-like design. hahaha Anyway she said she got her deliveryman to come down and I asked her when he would arrive. She insisted that he was coming now and refused to say when he would arrive. He did eventually after 45 minutes and took back the sink grudgingly saying that he would never deliver the sink again.
In the next two days, we argued with Jojo many times and insisted that we wanted a refund and that we would just buy our sink elsewhere since the delivery of HER sink was delaying our renovation. My contractor needed her sink in order to cut the opening on my kitchen cabinets. After much talks, the sink finally came (unannounced again) and we inspected it before paying the remaining amount in cash.
What an experience it was just trying to get our $235 sink (which IS expensive for a non-European sink btw).
The hob wasn't cheap too at $529 though I was told by friends that for that brand it is quite a good buy. BUT I certainly would have settled for a lesser brand if I knew how much trouble patronising this shop would cause.
After renovation, the walls in our house looked so empty so we looked into ways of getting them spruced up. My parents weren't a fan of getting paintings as holes had to be made in order to hang the paintings up.
So I thought of wall decals. After looking at many local decal websites, I found Decorette! I liked a few of the designs on the website and was ready to order them. However, at that point, I could find one that I liked for the living room. I wanted something which was family related but there weren't any of those. So I decided to have one customised.
I emailed Amanda of Decorette about my plans and she replied in a couple of days. With a couple of emails to and fro, we had the design finalised and I paid through paypal. In 3 days after paying, the decals were on my doorstep! That's fast isn't it? Especially since she needed to customise mine and cut it up, etc... Not to mention the customised one cost $50 only! She also threw in little swirly designs for me free... and I made little changes to my chandelier one without additional charges.
The decals came well packed and protected by the hard tube, so they were in mint condition.
The decals were easy to put up and the instructions were easy to understand. Amanda even included a little cute birdie for us, first-timers, to try putting up before we put our actual decal. But we loved the birdie so much we put it together with the family decal!
Though easy to put up, it still took us some time about 1 and a half hours to put two up. But it was well worth the effort!
I was shopping along Geylang for my sanitary fittings and came across this shop. We were looking specifically for one-piece toilet bowls as they are known to have less leakage problems but the one-piece bowls at other shops were really expensive, some going up to $800 when a two-piece one goes for $100 .
We went into Eestilo and was happy to find that they had a package for the one-piece bowl and a sink for $299. There were also other sinks available and one has to just top up a little on the package.
What I was most impressed with was the level of service provided. Sunny, the sales guy there, moved the two sinks we wanted to where they had the taps. At my father's request, he detached the taps from the display and place them on the sinks we chose to let us see if it was satisfactory. He did that for 7-8 taps without any grumble and with a smile, in fact!
Though the taps weren't as cheap as we had hope for it to be but I guess the promotion for the one-piece toilet bowl and the service made up for all that. :)
1=SGD 0.0587
If I can give this place less than 1 star I would.
My sister bought a package at this place 2 months ago but she didn't go for her manicure/pedicure. She figured that it's very near our home and my mom and I can use it which is why she bought the package. The package cost $800 and consisted of 12 full manicures and pedicures and some disinfecting balls.
Last week, I went, thinking that I deserved to relax. I sat down and the lady, Cecilia, started to work on my legs. Just minutes into scrubbing my feet, she started to sell me a special treatment which is suppose to be good for removing corns, which she claimed I had. I have been to so many salons and no one said that I had this problem. But anyway the treatment costs $200 and I wasn't sure if it was good so I refused.
Then with cream on my feet and stuff, she started hard-selling. She refused to continue, saying that if I top up my current package to the one with the corn treatment she can do it right away so that I can experience it right now. THE TOP UP COSTS $2000 ! And that was on top of my current $800 package! I couldn't budge cos my feet were dirty and she refused to continue, though she remained polite all the way. Finally when I said loudly I didn't want because I didn't have the cash for it she continued... not before insisting that I do the $20 scrub. I was so sick of her ranting then I agreed to the $20 scrub.
After having everything painted and my nail art done, I sat at the counter to have my nails dried... then Cecilia came back with a "MORE ATTRACTIVE" package which she claims that I can pay by instalments. She insisted that MY credit card can pay by instalments. Then came the 45 min lecture on why I should take up the package etc... More and more staff came to hound me.
Finally I relented. Only because I know my mom had a corn problem and I thought she could really use it. To say the truth... I was on the verge of tears. I kept saying no... kept saying that I needed time to think about it because it was so expensive... but they surrounded me and kept going on about it.
We went to the machine to pay by instalments... AND IT DIDN'T APPROVE! Can you imagine how embarrassed I felt when they said that loudly? It wasn't even my fault! Then they hounded me more and I paid a deposit of $400 for the package.
Only then did they let me go. The whole process... wasted 3 hours of my time. Have you ever had a 3-hour pedicure? Nope not even with a manicure.
When I was standing there making payment... I saw them do the same thing to an older lady. They hounded her.. until she was so irritated she pulled out her wallet, tipped it over to show that she didn't have any cash on her and didn't bring her cards. After that they left her alone... and I really mean alone as in there wasn't ANYONE serving her at all. They just left her there for about 20 minutes choosing colours and preparing her feet at all.
** the aftermath:
After leaving, I came to my senses. And I realised that they would hard-sell me, my mom and my sister things every time we went... I realised that I CANNOT take up that package. I went back and argued. The $400 cannot be refunded (which I expected) but it is now a credit on the old package which can be used for other things. After the package is up.. I WILL NEVER go back there again.
BTW, my nail polish chipped in 4 days. Faster than if I painted it myself. Sigh.
Rating given:
After hearing SOOOOoOoo much about Tao's for such a long time, I finally had the chance to step into Tao's! I was so excited.
Parking wasn't too much of a problem at Selegie Centre... however 3 hours cost us $10 . If it weren't raining so heavily when we arrived I reckon we would have parked elsewhere. The parking area was a little hard to find but easy (for the driver) to work her way about.
Because it was a weekday and it was just after lunch @ 2pm, the place was empty!! *happiness* We did make reservations though. I was told by my friend that reservations are a must if you wanted a weekend lunch/dinner.
They charge $19.80 (or was it $19.90) for a 6 course set lunch. I shan't dwell on the system they have here since everyone's talked about it.
We just went about picking whatever we liked from the menu.
I shall only comment on those I did taste. :)
Food ordered:
Bacon & Mushroom Gratin, served with Toasted Bread
This is an item we didn’t have a choice with in the menu. I’m not really a fan of gratin so I was a little hesitant. I didn’t quite take to the smell of the cheese they used for the gratin but it was generally alright for non-cheese lovers. A definite stay away if you dislike cheese though. The bread was heavenly. I LOVEEDDD it. I wished I could have more (it’s free flow) but I was afraid I couldn’t finish the rest of my meal. The bread was well toasted and can be eaten alone without the gratin at all.
Smoked Salmon Salad
My choice. My companions had the Fruit Salad and the Prawn Roll though. Nothing fantastic about my salad though I had some trouble finishing it as I found the salmon a little too salty after a few bites. The serving was just right though.
Cream of Pumpkin
I absolutely loved this soup. I was the only one not having the Shark fin one, which my companions raved about. But I loved the thickness of this pumpkin soup and the slight sweetness which made me finish it really quickly.
Grilled Snapper with Japanese Sauce
This is my main complaint I think. I definitely regretted this choice. The snapper was unevenly grilled and charred on one end but fine on the other. There was so much sauce poured over it and it certainly didn’t help that it was too salty. In reality, the snapper was quite tasty on its own, after much cleaning away of the sauce. I liked the pumpkin mash served with the snapper though. I would definitely go for the flounder next time.
Ice Rose Apple Tea
I like how the smell of the rose blended together with the taste of the apple in this one. And they even provided a fork for you to eat the apple. They serve their teas in this nice little pot with a tiny cup, so we had fun tasting each other’s tea.
Ice Summer Peach Tea
I LOVE THIS TEA! I like the aftertaste of the peach!
Brownie served with ice cream
Or should I say, ice-cream served with brownie? I finished it in 2 bites. Either my mouth’s big or… to give credit, the brownie is quite moist and not too dry. The nuts below should be cut up a little more so that it can be evenly distributed with each bite.
The total bill came up to $115 for 5 of us which is quite reasonable I guess. Topped with great service and smiles even though we were overstayers, it was a good experience after all.
I’m looking forward to going there again!
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:
Comfort food in cosy setting.
Breeks located at the corner of level 3 at T2 is a nice place to chill while waiting for friends to arrive or depart. >.<
Being Halal certified also means that everyone is able to enjoy the food and wide variety of desserts here.
If you're looking for powerpoint for your machines, there's only one (I think) near the entrance on the red wall.
Food here is nice and the serving size fits my tummy just fine. The chicken patty is packed with crunchy onions, and some unknown stuff which I simply ignored. I digg anything chicken and with melted cheese!
The Nutella Milkshake though could be better. The shake isn't thick enough imo.
Looking at the crowd here now, at this hour (yes I'm writing this review while I'm still here) on a Friday night, I guess it shouldn't be a problem getting a table for meal.
Perhaps if I'm going to stay here longer, I might give one of their desserts a try. Anyone wants to join me?
Rating given:
I visited and bought things from Ikea Tampines close 8 times in the last 2 months. That's really a record for someone who doesn't drive. I faithfully took the shuttle on most trips and took a cab home on a couple of occasions.
There are a number of things I've learnt on these trips to Ikea...
Unless you bought extremely large items, it still makes more sense to take a cab home rather than pay for delivery which is $40 if you live in Tampines, Pasir Ris or Simei areas and $45 for other areas. There was one occasion where we bought quite a number of items and we booked a Maxi Cab home, costing us $20 which is still cheaper than the delivery cost and we needn't wait for the delivery date/time.
If you're going for a specific item/s, call ahead to check for stock, especially during peak seasons before Christmas and CNY. Things go out of stock easily and may not be re-stocked within the week. It happened to me a few times and it's quite exasperating.
Always keep your receipt. Ikea is no longer as liberal as they used to be on return policies. I think there were amendments to the policy when they realised that people were taking advantage of it. Keep your receipt not as proof of purchase but to prove WHEN you made your purchase as they have a 100-day policy. It didn't used to be this way.
AND if you see the item going on clearance... MAKE SURE you really want the item before buying it. If the item is no longer sold at the store, you'll have trouble trying to return it if you don't like it anymore.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK before going. We did do our homework but when we got there we had a change of mind. If you take a look at my pictures I have a high table with metal legs. Those aren't suppose to go together. The metal legs are meant for another table top that has one end attached to the wall. The table top has 16 holes pre-drilled under it. This table top that we got has 20 holes pre drilled under it and we couldn't fix it properly. We were a little upset that we had to return it at first but LUCKILY my contractor did us the favour by putting it together for us. hehe
I still like going to Ikea... I like to buy all the little decorative items for my room and the rest of the house. I enjoy walking around in the big open space and not have any salesperson following me around. I like how they sometimes stock the things in two areas so that you can change your mind and still buy the item without going back up. I also love the $1 hotdogs which I buy to eat while waiting for the shuttle.
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Firstly please accept my apologies on the poor photographs posted up. The material we chose was blackout material which means it shuts out the light from outside when the photo is taken. At the point when these photographs were taken my lights weren't completely ready.
I saw this shop on television, a chinese variety programme, and decided to give it a try. Upon getting to Tanjong Katong Complex we realised that there were many curtain shops there, and we enquired at every one. We asked for the same thing at every single shop: 4 sets of blinds with blackout materials. We received quotes from $200 to $290 per set.
Jimmy Textile was the only one who was able to give a definite quotation based on our accurate measurements. They were willing to confirm the quotation of $200 on the spot even without going to our place to measure (we took the measurements right down to the mm.) They also did not try to hardsell, badger us or hover around us as we looked at the materials. They, in a friendly manner, just left all the materials we needed on the table and left us alone to choose. And whenever we needed help they gave us the advice we needed. They have a wide variety of materials and we really took a lot of time scouring through the various booklets.
On the day, they came to take measurements, they were very punctual and polite. My father was very fussy about the measurement of the blinds but the uncle was still very patient with him, making sure we were satisfied with the measurements before they left.
I had to change the installation date/time 3 times due to the delays in my renovation but there were no grumbles from them and they tried to accomodate whenever they could. They work every day, even Sundays and Public Holidays (Except for CNY).
My installation was finally fixed on a Sunday and the two men came promptly. Just 20 minutes before they were to arrive they called me to confirm that I was there. I think this is really good practice. When they came they did their work as quickly as they could and were very careful when placing the ladder on my newly laid tiles. I absolutely love my new blinds!
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This is a small shop right at the corner of a row of shophouses. You might just miss it if you don't look up and see the big signboard. I got to know of this shop from renovation forums and went down to take a look.
Small as it looked from the outside, it was cramped with all sorts of lights inside. They have designer lights and simple ones too! They also sell a range of ceiling fans though not very many. The husband and wife team are very polite throughout our hour long visit on both days and they obligingly turned on all the lights we asked for. (you'll be surprised many shops aren't happy to.) They also suggested energy-saving methods and were professional in handling us even though it's a family-run business and they have two kids hanging out at the back.
The prices are cheaper than most of the bigger shops and I even saw one of their lights retailing at a popular store for 4 times its price. So I was rather happy to get most of my lights there.
Two weeks after I moved in, one of the bedroom lights died and we called them up. They aimably sent down someone two days later to fix it. No questions asked.
Thumbs up for good service and prices!
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This is the only shop that utterly ruined my renovation experience. I have no choice but to relate my entire experience here...
We were out shopping for sanitary and stopped by at Viva Nueva first. But I didn't like the design of the one-piece toilet bowl they had there so we thanked the saleslady, Jojo and we went to look for more. We finally picked out our toilet bowls, sinks and taps at a shop further down. But my mom really liked the cooking hob at Viva Nueva so we walked back to the shop. We ordered our hob and kitchen sink from them and left. Before we left I asked for them to provide me with a trap for the kitchen sink. It costs only $5 and Jojo's face immediately turned "black" when I asked for it FOC. I just spent $700 at her shop and she was unhappy about me asking for a $5 item....
After 30 minutes, Jojo called me on the phone and demanded to know where I bought my sanitary fittings. She asked if I bought from XXX shop down the street and demanded to know exactly what I bought from them. I flatly refused to give her any details and the conversation lasted for 8 minutes with her repeatedly asking me what I bought. When I put down the phone, I really regretted buying anything from her but since I'd already paid the deposit I only prayed for my items to come intact.
About a week later, I asked for the items to be delivered. The salesgirl on the line (not Jojo) confirmed that my items can be delivered on Wednesday at 1pm. At 12pm on Wednesday I called to confirm again and she told me that the items were not in the warehouse yet and she cannot confirm that my items can reach me at 1pm!! Can you imagine that she didn't even intend to call me beforehand and was going to let me wait like a fool at a half-renovated house with no seats?! Anyway I agreed to postpone the delivery to the next day.
The next day the items arrive promptly... but... there was no hole for my tap on the kitchen sink. There was a hole on the sink that was displayed in the showroom so I naturally assumed that the sink comes with a hole for kitchen taps. I do know that some sinks do not as the taps are to be mounted on the table top. So I called Viva Nueva again and this time Jojo answered.
She insisted that it was MY FAULT for not telling them that I needed a hole for my kitchen tap and wanted me to ask my contractor/plumber to drill a hole. BUT if they did the job and spoilt the sink who was to pay for it? In the first place, I don't buy sinks every day and am not a professional at buying sinks so HOW WOULD I KNOW that sinks don't come with holes?! She as the sales staff SHOULD ask the customer if they need one drilled isn't it??? Anyway the deliveryman was very kind and he agreed to take back the sink and drill the hole for me, even while I was still arguing with Jojo over the phone. So there went my sink again. Thankfully my kitchen hob came intact.
I told Jojo that she has to inform me two hours before the delivery of my sink as I needed time to rush down. She said she would inform me an hour before and I found that to be reasonable. BUT the next day, the deliveryman called me at 12noon to tell me that he was there waiting for me. I was on my way to town and simply couldn't rush down. So the deliveryman left the sink there and left. I managed to go down at 4pm and lo and behold, there was a footprint in the middle of the sink and tons of haphazard scratches all over the base of the sink which weren't there in the first place. I reckon they must have gotten there when the drilling was done.
Anyway I called Jojo again and told her to take back the sink. She said that the scratches were part of the design and ALL her sinks have the scratch-like design. hahaha Anyway she said she got her deliveryman to come down and I asked her when he would arrive. She insisted that he was coming now and refused to say when he would arrive. He did eventually after 45 minutes and took back the sink grudgingly saying that he would never deliver the sink again.
In the next two days, we argued with Jojo many times and insisted that we wanted a refund and that we would just buy our sink elsewhere since the delivery of HER sink was delaying our renovation. My contractor needed her sink in order to cut the opening on my kitchen cabinets. After much talks, the sink finally came (unannounced again) and we inspected it before paying the remaining amount in cash.
What an experience it was just trying to get our $235 sink (which IS expensive for a non-European sink btw).
The hob wasn't cheap too at $529 though I was told by friends that for that brand it is quite a good buy. BUT I certainly would have settled for a lesser brand if I knew how much trouble patronising this shop would cause.
If I can give lesser than one star I would.
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After renovation, the walls in our house looked so empty so we looked into ways of getting them spruced up. My parents weren't a fan of getting paintings as holes had to be made in order to hang the paintings up.
So I thought of wall decals. After looking at many local decal websites, I found Decorette! I liked a few of the designs on the website and was ready to order them. However, at that point, I could find one that I liked for the living room. I wanted something which was family related but there weren't any of those. So I decided to have one customised.
I emailed Amanda of Decorette about my plans and she replied in a couple of days. With a couple of emails to and fro, we had the design finalised and I paid through paypal. In 3 days after paying, the decals were on my doorstep! That's fast isn't it? Especially since she needed to customise mine and cut it up, etc... Not to mention the customised one cost $50 only! She also threw in little swirly designs for me free... and I made little changes to my chandelier one without additional charges.
The decals came well packed and protected by the hard tube, so they were in mint condition.
The decals were easy to put up and the instructions were easy to understand. Amanda even included a little cute birdie for us, first-timers, to try putting up before we put our actual decal. But we loved the birdie so much we put it together with the family decal!
Though easy to put up, it still took us some time about 1 and a half hours to put two up. But it was well worth the effort!
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I was shopping along Geylang for my sanitary fittings and came across this shop. We were looking specifically for one-piece toilet bowls as they are known to have less leakage problems but the one-piece bowls at other shops were really expensive, some going up to $800 when a two-piece one goes for $100 .
We went into Eestilo and was happy to find that they had a package for the one-piece bowl and a sink for $299. There were also other sinks available and one has to just top up a little on the package.
What I was most impressed with was the level of service provided. Sunny, the sales guy there, moved the two sinks we wanted to where they had the taps. At my father's request, he detached the taps from the display and place them on the sinks we chose to let us see if it was satisfactory. He did that for 7-8 taps without any grumble and with a smile, in fact!
Though the taps weren't as cheap as we had hope for it to be but I guess the promotion for the one-piece toilet bowl and the service made up for all that. :)
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