Three of us went to Greenwood. its behind NJC. Quite hard to go if you do not drive.
The external part of the restaurant does not really have the appeal, like the name implies, Greenwood fish market. It is literally a fish market where u can buy their fish, prawn, oyster. But the interior part is diff (see picture) the lights are dim jus nice and its rather small, so make your reservations before going.
Greenwood is quite famous for their fish & chips, many types of diff fish like snapper, sole filet, salmon, barramundi, tusk fish, yellow fin tuna, nz pink snapper and so on. They also had diff style of cooking the fish like pan-seared, baked, steamed, char-chilled, battered or crumbed. Cool huh? haha. So we had quite a dilemma in choosing what fish we wanted. Above picture is battered snapper($19.95) based on recommendation from the enthu staff. Had a hard time understanding the differences between battered and crumbed. Anyway, battered snapper is good and crispy, but have to finish it fast because its not so nice when it get cold unlike the crumbed sole filet. Both fish & chips come with a healthy side serving of chips and vegies. The chips are good, but the vegies are even better. We have no idea what they do to the vegies, but it’s really good and you want to have more. 4.5 out of 5
Next up is crumbed sole filet ($19.95) also on recommendation. By the way, although both chips are diff fish, but i can’t really tell the diff. lol. From what the staff say, you can tell crumbed from battered because crumbed is fried with bread crumb flour. O well, its quite good also, but i think snapper is a tiny bit better than the sole filet. 4 out of 5
Pasta spag soft shell crab with chili crab sauce ($19.95), unlike the pasta at pastamania, The one here is really pasta. Haha. Soft crab is nice, but too small ! O well. 4 out of 5
Overall good place for fresh fish and seafood, highly recommended just that it is hard to access if you are not driving. We did not have any desserts there because we had already decided to head to Island Creamery for ice cream !
You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
When we reach at 6.30pm, the place was not full, BUT they are all reserved! And the seats available are the outdoor dining area. Wait man, don’t start blaming me that i did not make a reservation. I tried. I called at 4 but no one answer the phone. So we had to make do with the outdoor area, and o boy, it was raining cats and dogs. The waitress even had to carry an umbrella to bring the dishes over.
There are many methods of cooking the lobster, my fav is salad lobster of couse, you can also steam it with soya souce, minced garlic, or stir-fried with ginger & spring onion, braised with superior broth, stired-fried with cheese & butter, and baked with cheese & bacon. Honestly i never had the luxury of trying all types of cooking methods, just had steamed one, deep-fried, and salad lobsters before. And i prefer salad lobster. BUt the baked with cheese & bacon do sounds interesting, mayb i will try that if i got the chance next time. We had the Australian lobster which was $120 for 1KG
Salad lobster is simple Super-licious. Only one word can describe it, Heavenly. The salad lobster had lots of fruits, the thick salad cream and mixed fruit plus the lobster meat, makes it irresistable man! 5 out of 5
Next up, the Singapore famous black pepper crab! Its Sri-Lanka king crab they called it. We had two 1.2KG crab, both crabs in pepper. Hmm the black pepper crab are too not bad, but there are better one out there, that is No Signboard Restaurant! 3.5 out of 5
Mee Goreng! Jumbo is famous for their Mee Goreng i think, its very nice i assure you. Must try if go Jumbo, but at $8 for small serving, its a tad too expensive. Pity the price, if not it will be perfect score. 4.5 out of 5
Crispy Baby Squid. Crispy it is, and a little over burned. I am still feeling thirsty now that i reached home after eating it. Not my cup of squid, at $8 its not really worth your while unless you are a fan of fried squids, i rather spend the $8 on another plate of Mee Goreng. 1.5 out of 5
Thats all folks, i will come to the price now because its a bit complicated. Our lobster which flown specially from Australia for us to savour cost $96, i estimate it to be around 800g, but because we got a special coupon, we got 50% off! Horray! It only cost us $48 for one Lobster, cheap yep? The crab is $33 per Kg, We had two, and it comes up to about $75.90. And the crispy baby squid and Mee Goreng like i say earlier is $8 per plate. So our total bill adds up to $192.10 before discount. We had the 50% for lobster, and another 10% off because we had the Jumbo rewards card
The service, eh is a case of over-enthusiastic against a group of slow diners who want to finish every scrap of food on the plate. I have totally nothing against their service, the waitress keep on changing plates for us, this is good because the crab have lots of shell. But when we haven really finish our lobster and mee goreng, they already want to clear the plates as well. Hello? we want value for money, every scrap of food is important to us. LOL. Besides that i don’t really have or can complaints because they do not have service charge. Except for the calling in of reservation.
All in all, Jumbo is not bad la, its a famous seafood restaurant in Singapore with so many branches. However, we still unanimously agree that No Sign Board Restaurant is a tad higher level than Jumbo for its crab, no complaints about the lobster. I heard the East Coast headquarter produce the best food among its outlets, but we had to go to indoor stadium because the 50% coupon for lobster is not able to use in East coast branch. You can’t get the best of both worlds i guess.
You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Went with Mr Tay to far east, end up having dinner at Hans cos he was so late.
Hans is quite ordinary, so a short review should do the trick here.
I had the black pepper pork chop, it cost $8.80 and comes in a set meal with drink, soup, bread, and fruit. Quite value for money i guess, the food is not too bad, but nothing fantastic.
Mr Tay had the black pepper chicken chop.
Overall the food is not too bad, considering the price, better western food can be found in hawker centre. There is the nice restaurant ambience to factor in, but the service of the staff there is not very friendly
You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Wouldn't you think that naming a restaurant after some kind of mafia or triad seems kind of weird and inappropriate? The owners of Bosses aka Hei She Hui(secret society) at Vivo City obviously don't think so. Black is the obvious choice of colour in this restaurant and everything from the tables, seats and even the menus are decked out in black. Truly in line with the theme of secret societies. Make your way to the inner reaches of the restaurant and be rewarded with an unobstructed view of Sentosa through the floor to ceiling windows while you dine. One interesting thing about this place. Their menu comes chained to a drawer under the table. Simply pull open the drawer to retrieve it. Something new!
Our first dish was the appetizer of Spring Rolls, Carrot & Cucumber. The spring rolls were very well fried. Crispy with no oily residue and no bad after taste arising from the usage of inferior or dirty oil. The carrots and cucumbers were nice and crunchy. Strangely enough, we didn't order this dish. It came as a standard appetizer to all tables and it certainly wasn't free. Personally, I find that $3.80 for such a meagre portion is outright ridiculous. Even my friend thinks so.
Following suit was the Shanghai Steamed Meat Dumplings aka Xiao Long Bao. I found this to be quite well done with plenty of goodness sealed within the thin and soft skin. Bite into one and the juice literally squirts out and fills your mouth. The meat could do with a little more robust flavour though. The Wagyu Beef Congee was rather average. The beef was too overcooked to really appreciate the goodness of the wagyu beef, if it indeed was wagyu beef. I honestly couldn't taste or see the difference between this and normal beef.
We were intrigued by the Deep Fried Scallion and Pork Floss Pastry which came looking a little like Cinnamon rolls. The pastry was flaky and not too oily, but the fillings were miserable. I had to eat until almost the end to actually even see signs of the filling, which consisted of Scallion and Pork Floss. Not that the filling was that great anyway. Salty and dispersed, it didn't make much of an impact to the whole dish.
With a name like Number One Bun aka Tian Xia Di Yi Bao, the bun must either be really good or the person who came up with the name must really be brazen. I'm inclined to think it is the latter. The exterior is lightly glossed with sweet syrup while the filling of pork is salty, which complements the sweetened exterior. Though nice, it definitely doesn't warrant the title of Number One Bun.
Rounding up our meal were the Souffle Ball with Fresh Durian and Signature Creamy and Flowy Custard Bun. I personally found the Souffle Ball with Fresh Durian quite good as the pastry was soft and fluffy. Dusted in icing sugar, it is sweet, fluffy and with a strong durian taste all at the same time. Only grouse I have is that the durian filling was not the least bit sweet at all. Sure, the icing sugar made up for it, but nothing beats the natural sweetness of durian. The amount of durian filling could also be increased so that it wouldn't feel like eating just plain fried flour. The Signature Creamy and Flowy Custard Bun probably pulled one of the biggest surprises that day. Served looking like cupcakes, they were soft and aromatic and with a filling that oozed into your mouth. Sweet, yet with a tinge of saltiness. Complementation and balance at its very best.
An enjoyable meal for 2 set us back by about $48/-. Not exactly the cheapest place to eat, but certainly not expensive. The quality of food is good and the prices don't seem very expensive. But beware, the everything can add up if you are not careful with what you order. Portions are average sized and service can be better, especially with the charging of service charge. An interesting find at Vivo City, so if you are considering an alternative to Crystal Jade, this is the place.
Seems like more and more $4.80/dish air conditioned Cze Char places are popping up all over Singapore to take advantage of people's penchant for bargains. Bai Jia Seafood Restaurant at Kovan is one such new entrant, following in the footsteps of Ding Xian Lou.
Located along the row of shophouses just next to Kovan MRT, Bai Jia is rather popular with the residents of the area, as evident by the long queues almost every evening. The interior is surprisingly modern for such an eatery but rather small, which probably explains the long queues outside.
Black Pepper Beef - The beef portion was small and it was a little too sweet for my liking. The black pepper taste was also overwhelming I couldn't really make out any beef taste. I would have believed it if they had labelled this dish as pork instead! Such was the texture and taste.
Prawn with Minced Garlic - I counted 5 prawns sliced into half to make 10 portions. Gimmicky I should so. The prawns were your average sized prawns and didn't taste sweet at all. The only good thing about this dish was the gravy, which was lightly sweet and garlicky. Oh and they didn't bother to remove the intestines (the black thing on the spine of the prawn), which made it rather gross.
Crispy Chicken with Orange Sauce - This dish seemed to rather interesting as I've never tried chicken with orange sauce before. Alas, it was a let down from the minute I set my eyes on it. For one, portions were tiny, as expected. The orange sauce was a little sticky and had a faint orange taste to it, very much like the sauce that comes in lemon chicken dishes, except that this was a lot weaker. The fried chicken was a little too overcooked, rendering it hard and a little too chewy for my liking.
Kailan with Garlic - A very run off the mill rendition of this dish. You can't really go wrong with something as simple as frying a vegetable with garlic. Its edible but certainly not fantastic. The kailan looked a little weary as well, an indication of not being too fresh.
Braised Beancurd - What can I say? Another disappointing dish. The tofu was waterlogged with the gravy, which was fine, but the gravy itself was rather bland and watery. Palatable, but barely.
The 3 of us spent about $32 for an unsatisfying dinner (we had to adjourn to MacDonalds for more food). My take on this? I can get better food in a non air conditioned environment (aka coffeeshops/hawker centres) anyday, so I definitely won't be back.
Walking along Joo Chiat Road can be quite exciting at times. You never know what food shop or eatery you are going to find next. I happened to chance upon Boulevard Chicken Pie during one of my trips and as the name suggests, it only sells chicken pies. They come in small, medium and large. I had a small one to try and I was amazed by the fluffy yet crispy crust. The butter taste wasn't overpowering and it tasted better than most of the Chicken Pies that I've eaten. The filling was tasted a little creamy, but could do with a bigger serving. However, having said that, what do you expect for something that costs only $1.50? If you want a bigger pie with more filling, go for the large ones. One gripe though. The pie could do with a lot less oil. It definitely has more oil than the other pies that I've tried. Oh and yes, its Halal, so Muslim friends out there rejoice ;)
The hunt for the best Teochew restaurant goes on, this time with 5 of us trying out Huat Kee for dinner after numerous discussions. Located at the beginning of Amoy Street near Amoy Street Food Centre and just up the road from Beng Hiang, Huat Kee spans two shop house units and offers the option of dining on the first or second floor. (We didn’t get that option though, presumably due to the second floor being booked for a function) The place was about three quarters filled when we got there at about 1900hrs. Ordering was a breeze and we settled for Braised Goose Meat, White Bait Omelette, Ha Zor (Prawn Roll I think), Lemon Chicken and Orh Nee (Yam Paste).
Braised Goose has always been one of my favourite dishes and Huat Kee’s version didn’t disappoint. The meat was nicely cooked with a minimal fat under the skin. It is as good as Guan Hin’s offering, but still pales in comparison to Hung Kang’s version. However, the beancurd that came with it was horrible. It was harder than I had expected it to be. And I was not alone in making that comment. The White Bait Omelette tasted like your ordinary omelette. There was no noticeable Silver Fish taste and all I could taste was the very well fried egg.
Initially when we ordered the Ha Zor, the waitress asked if we would like our Ha Zor to come with a serving of some seafood roll (didn’t catch the name) and in a moment of folly, we agreed. The seafood roll was unappetising to say the least. It looked like a mumbo jumbo of chilli, chestnut and some other stuff none of us could make out. Taste wise was pretty bland. The Ha Zor was good though, golden brown and light on the taste buds, the epitome of Teochew cooking, which emphasises on lighter flavours. However, I did find it a little too "Qing Dan" (bland or light) for me and would prefer the one at Beng Hiang which is slightly heavier on the seasonings.
The Lemon Chicken was slightly different from the Lemon Chicken that we were used to. The lemon sauce wasn’t the least bit sweet. Instead it was subtlety sour from the thinly cut lemons by the side. The chicken’s skin was a little crispy, which I personally like, but all in all a pretty average dish. My dinner companions couldn’t quite get used to the non-sweet Lemon Chicken though.
As mentioned before, I firmly believe in using Orh Nee (Yam Paste) as one of the yardsticks to gauge the quality of Teochew restaurants, that’s why I always make it a point to order my favourite dish. I am pleased to present Huat Kee’s Orh Nee as one of the best that I’ve ever reviewed to date. The paste is extremely smooth and sticky and trust me, its bowl licking good! The squeaky clean bowls were testament to that. The only bone I had was that it came with Gingko Nuts and Pumpkin when I specifically requested for no Pumpkin when ordering. Oh and the Pumpkin was gross by the way.
An enjoyable and filling meal set us back by about $87 for 5 pax. Pretty reasonable considering the quality of food. Service needs to buck up a little, but generally still acceptable. I’ll stick my neck out and recommend a try on this one, especially for the Orh Nee.
Standing at about 173 metres about Orchard Road, Top of the 'M' Revolving Restaurant is one of two revolving restaurants in Singapore and it also happens to be the highest. Mention Top of the 'M' and most people will have heard of it. That goes to show how strong the brand is. But we are not here to talk about branding or top of mind recall. Its food we are concerned about. So I took half a day off work and got my gf to accompany me for lunch at this much talked about restaurant.
The express lift zooms you right up to the observation deck (38th floor) where you have to walk up a flight of steps to reach Top of the 'M', which is on the 39th floor. Floor to ceiling windows and classy black glass tables with high back chairs greet you and sweeping views of the areas surrounding Orchard Road are offered. Simply breathtaking. The restaurant, as it name suggests, rotates at a slow, almost unnoticeable pace and allows views all round. But I had a slight grouse about this. The rotating mechanism didn't seem very smooth. There were times when I could feel the restaurant jerking, albeit slightly. Still it got quite annoying after a while. After some deliberation, I had a 3 course set lunch which included a salad, main, dessert and coffee/tea while my gf had the 2 course set lunch which came with a soup and main.
The complimentary bread was served and I found the bread extremely crispy, which made it a little difficult to bite into at times because the bread crumbs would just start dropping all over. Coupled with the smooth and light butter, it makes for a great snack.
My salad was the La Caesar Salade au Magret de Canard Fume et Brioche Grillee - Caesar Salad with smoked Duck Breast and toasted Brioche. The greens were fresh and the almond shavings added a nice touch to the salad. No more need to be said about the slices of Pigeon except that they were fantastic. Lightly smoked with no discernible fowl taste yet tasty and soft. Even my gf found it good! My gf's Bisque de Homard - Lobster Bisque Scented with Cognac and a Dash of Dill Snow, was extremely flavourful, although I couldn't really taste the cognac. The soup did seem a little runny as well. However, there were small slices of lobster in the soup to give it that extra chew factor.
My main was the Cassoulet de Canard - Confit of Duck Leg slowly cooked in a White Bean Stew. The duck was done medium well and responded very well to my fork. Getting the meat off the bone was as easy as slicing through butter with a knife. The fowl taste was very distinguishable though and it proved a little too strong for me at times. As for the white beans, I honestly have never tried or even heard of them, but they tasted and looked to me like those Heinz baked beans you buy from the supermarket, minus the soft exterior and tomato sauce. The white beans were hard on the exterior and tasted bland. My gf's Bar de Ligne Roti, Puree d'Aubergine au Caviar, Sauce au Cidre - Oven Baked Wild Seabass, Eggplant Puree with Caviar and Apple Cider Sauce was a much better bet. The fish was baked till the skin was hard and crispy, while the meat remained soft, moist and sweet. A feat if you ask me! The accompanying Apple Cider Sauce was a little creamy yet light on the palate. A good combination indeed! The Egg Plant Puree tasted a little smokey but a pity the Caviar didn't stand out.
Dessert for me was Top of the 'M''s signature Black Forest cake. You get to choose your dessert from a tray of desserts that is pushed to your table by the way. The cake was moist with the berries a little sweet, which is very appealing to people who have a sweet tooth. The whipped cream was also minimal, which allowed the Black Forest cake to really shine. I prefer this rendition to the one at The Chocolate Factory.
Lunch for 2 pax cost a respectable $84.45. In case you are thinking that it's expensive, it actually isn't. More than $20 went to the drinks, which is a total waste of money (just ask for ice water). So that brings down the meal to about $60-$65, which is a good deal considering the food, ambience and service. I must mention that the service is attentive and excellent. Try it if you are in the area. As for me, lunch beckons again.
Cold Rock Ice Creamery - Another ice cream stall to hop onto the mix and match your own ice cream bandwagon, which brings the grand total of such stalls to 2 at last count (the other being Ice Cream Chefs).
Opened recently in June this year at Holland Village , Cold Rock Singapore is actually a franchise of the wildly popular Cold Rock in Australia, which was set up back in 1996 and has 60 stores across Australia as of May 07. The process and concept of making your dream ice cream is similar to that of Ice Cream Chefs ( the process has already been detailed in the entry on Ice Cream Chefs so I shall not elaborate further). Cold Rock however, definitely has more ice cream flavours and mix ins available, but at a slight premium of course. If I remember correctly, Ice Cream Chefs charges 60 cents per topping whereas it goes for $1 at Cold Rock. The prices for a basic ice cream is also more expensive.
My combination of Butterscotch ice cream Ferrero ice cream Milo nuggets Tim Tam Marshmallows - Taste wise, I did find the ice cream served up by Ice Cream Chefs marginally better because it was lighter on the tastebuds and not too sweet (I had a mild sugar high from eating Cold Rock's ice cream).
My concoction set me back by $9, which is terribly expensive for an ice cream, regardless of the novelty factor. I mean, even Ben & Jerry's doesn't charge that much for a 3 scoop sundae! However, if you live in the west and crave for such novelties, then Cold Rock would be your best bet.
Lafiandra Trattoria recently opened a new outlet at the Singapore Art Museum to complement its bustling business at the Prinsep Street outlet. Owned and operated by Chef Cataldo and his wife Brenda, Lafiandra has been highly recommended as a food centric casual Italian restaurant, which made it the natural choice for our monthly dinner.
Sitting pretty on the ground floor of the Singapore Art Museum (the former old SJI), Lafiandra has a very homely feel to it with its earthly shades, huge glass windows and murals painted on pseudo brick walls. High strung Italian music wafts through the air, which does seem a little at odds with the laid back ambience.
Somehow I've never had a good impression of restaurants that DO NOT serve iced water, especially when even places like Morton's and Iggy's do so. That aside, I had asked for mineral water, but got served the more expensive still water instead. When quizzed, the waiter replied that he had already opened the bottle.
Cheapskate me was expecting complimentary bread as well, but I guess they are adopting the practise of not giving free bread, in line with restaurants in Italy.
Bruschetta - A staple whenever I visit Italian eateries, the humble Bruschetta was reduced to nothing more than a joke at Lafiandra. Size wise, it was tiny and it didn't help that the bread was badly charred in many areas. Probably the only positive note was that it still tasted decent, albeit a bit too crispy from the burnt areas.
Seafood Soup - I was astonished by the amount of seafood that came with this dish. Ingredients wise, this has got to be the most generous I've ever seen. Sadly, thats where the compliments end. The seafood wasn't fresh and that extended to the soup, giving it a raw and pungent taste. I honestly never knew seafood soup could be that bad. I guess I was wrong.
Pizza Diavola, Pizza Con Porcini, Prosciutto Funghi & Pizza Prosciutto Crudo - The pizzas all had one thing in common - pathetic toppings. The crust was fairly thin but didn't quite cut it. Taste wise was decent but that's about it. It got to a point where I actually thought that one of the pizza was from Canadian Pizza.
Ossobuco Alla Milanese - In case you are wondering, no, this is not a tower of mud or something along that line. Its actually the very weird looking ossobuco. The meat was tender but some parts of it seemed a little too fatty and soft, which was plain gross. On a brighter note, the saffron risotto actually had a mild saffron taste, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
Tagliata Di Manzo - I mistakenly thought that this dish was a salad when it got served and it isn't difficult to see why. The thin and miserly slices of ribeye were buried under a mountain of rocket leaves, which would have been acceptable if they had tasted decent. But no, they were terribly bland without even the basic beefy taste. When beef doesn't even taste like beef, then theres a huge problem.
Tiramisu & Panna Cotta - The preceding dishes were so disappointing that I dared not expect anything from the desserts. And rightfully so. The tiramisu had no taste of liquer and instead tasted like soya sauce. Texture wise was still decent though, a little fluffy and smooth. The panna cotta was the icing on the cake for the terrible meal thus far. Its texture tended way towards kueh - sticky and soft and the berry sauce just didn't fit the dessert.
One of the worst Italian dinners I've ever had cost the 8 of us $306, which is way out of this world for the inferior quality of food. I do not see how Lafiandra has made to the list of recommended restaurants and if this dinner is anything to go by, I'm staying very clear of the Prinsep street outlet as well.
1=SGD 0.0587
Three of us went to Greenwood. its behind NJC. Quite hard to go if you do not drive.
The external part of the restaurant does not really have the appeal, like the name implies, Greenwood fish market. It is literally a fish market where u can buy their fish, prawn, oyster. But the interior part is diff (see picture) the lights are dim jus nice and its rather small, so make your reservations before going.
Greenwood is quite famous for their fish & chips, many types of diff fish like snapper, sole filet, salmon, barramundi, tusk fish, yellow fin tuna, nz pink snapper and so on. They also had diff style of cooking the fish like pan-seared, baked, steamed, char-chilled, battered or crumbed. Cool huh? haha. So we had quite a dilemma in choosing what fish we wanted. Above picture is battered snapper($19.95) based on recommendation from the enthu staff. Had a hard time understanding the differences between battered and crumbed. Anyway, battered snapper is good and crispy, but have to finish it fast because its not so nice when it get cold unlike the crumbed sole filet. Both fish & chips come with a healthy side serving of chips and vegies. The chips are good, but the vegies are even better. We have no idea what they do to the vegies, but it’s really good and you want to have more. 4.5 out of 5
Next up is crumbed sole filet ($19.95) also on recommendation. By the way, although both chips are diff fish, but i can’t really tell the diff. lol. From what the staff say, you can tell crumbed from battered because crumbed is fried with bread crumb flour. O well, its quite good also, but i think snapper is a tiny bit better than the sole filet. 4 out of 5
Pasta spag soft shell crab with chili crab sauce ($19.95), unlike the pasta at pastamania, The one here is really pasta. Haha. Soft crab is nice, but too small ! O well. 4 out of 5
Overall good place for fresh fish and seafood, highly recommended just that it is hard to access if you are not driving. We did not have any desserts there because we had already decided to head to Island Creamery for ice cream !
You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Rating given:
When we reach at 6.30pm, the place was not full, BUT they are all reserved! And the seats available are the outdoor dining area. Wait man, don’t start blaming me that i did not make a reservation. I tried. I called at 4 but no one answer the phone. So we had to make do with the outdoor area, and o boy, it was raining cats and dogs. The waitress even had to carry an umbrella to bring the dishes over.
There are many methods of cooking the lobster, my fav is salad lobster of couse, you can also steam it with soya souce, minced garlic, or stir-fried with ginger & spring onion, braised with superior broth, stired-fried with cheese & butter, and baked with cheese & bacon. Honestly i never had the luxury of trying all types of cooking methods, just had steamed one, deep-fried, and salad lobsters before. And i prefer salad lobster. BUt the baked with cheese & bacon do sounds interesting, mayb i will try that if i got the chance next time. We had the Australian lobster which was $120 for 1KG
Salad lobster is simple Super-licious. Only one word can describe it, Heavenly. The salad lobster had lots of fruits, the thick salad cream and mixed fruit plus the lobster meat, makes it irresistable man! 5 out of 5
Next up, the Singapore famous black pepper crab! Its Sri-Lanka king crab they called it. We had two 1.2KG crab, both crabs in pepper. Hmm the black pepper crab are too not bad, but there are better one out there, that is No Signboard Restaurant! 3.5 out of 5
Mee Goreng! Jumbo is famous for their Mee Goreng i think, its very nice i assure you. Must try if go Jumbo, but at $8 for small serving, its a tad too expensive. Pity the price, if not it will be perfect score. 4.5 out of 5
Crispy Baby Squid. Crispy it is, and a little over burned. I am still feeling thirsty now that i reached home after eating it. Not my cup of squid, at $8 its not really worth your while unless you are a fan of fried squids, i rather spend the $8 on another plate of Mee Goreng. 1.5 out of 5
Thats all folks, i will come to the price now because its a bit complicated. Our lobster which flown specially from Australia for us to savour cost $96, i estimate it to be around 800g, but because we got a special coupon, we got 50% off! Horray! It only cost us $48 for one Lobster, cheap yep? The crab is $33 per Kg, We had two, and it comes up to about $75.90. And the crispy baby squid and Mee Goreng like i say earlier is $8 per plate. So our total bill adds up to $192.10 before discount. We had the 50% for lobster, and another 10% off because we had the Jumbo rewards card
The service, eh is a case of over-enthusiastic against a group of slow diners who want to finish every scrap of food on the plate. I have totally nothing against their service, the waitress keep on changing plates for us, this is good because the crab have lots of shell. But when we haven really finish our lobster and mee goreng, they already want to clear the plates as well. Hello? we want value for money, every scrap of food is important to us. LOL. Besides that i don’t really have or can complaints because they do not have service charge. Except for the calling in of reservation.
All in all, Jumbo is not bad la, its a famous seafood restaurant in Singapore with so many branches. However, we still unanimously agree that No Sign Board Restaurant is a tad higher level than Jumbo for its crab, no complaints about the lobster. I heard the East Coast headquarter produce the best food among its outlets, but we had to go to indoor stadium because the 50% coupon for lobster is not able to use in East coast branch. You can’t get the best of both worlds i guess.
You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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Went with Mr Tay to far east, end up having dinner at Hans cos he was so late.
Hans is quite ordinary, so a short review should do the trick here.
I had the black pepper pork chop, it cost $8.80 and comes in a set meal with drink, soup, bread, and fruit. Quite value for money i guess, the food is not too bad, but nothing fantastic.
Mr Tay had the black pepper chicken chop.
Overall the food is not too bad, considering the price, better western food can be found in hawker centre. There is the nice restaurant ambience to factor in, but the service of the staff there is not very friendly
You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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Wouldn't you think that naming a restaurant after some kind of mafia or triad seems kind of weird and inappropriate? The owners of Bosses aka Hei She Hui(secret society) at Vivo City obviously don't think so. Black is the obvious choice of colour in this restaurant and everything from the tables, seats and even the menus are decked out in black. Truly in line with the theme of secret societies. Make your way to the inner reaches of the restaurant and be rewarded with an unobstructed view of Sentosa through the floor to ceiling windows while you dine. One interesting thing about this place. Their menu comes chained to a drawer under the table. Simply pull open the drawer to retrieve it. Something new!
Our first dish was the appetizer of Spring Rolls, Carrot & Cucumber. The spring rolls were very well fried. Crispy with no oily residue and no bad after taste arising from the usage of inferior or dirty oil. The carrots and cucumbers were nice and crunchy. Strangely enough, we didn't order this dish. It came as a standard appetizer to all tables and it certainly wasn't free. Personally, I find that $3.80 for such a meagre portion is outright ridiculous. Even my friend thinks so.
Following suit was the Shanghai Steamed Meat Dumplings aka Xiao Long Bao. I found this to be quite well done with plenty of goodness sealed within the thin and soft skin. Bite into one and the juice literally squirts out and fills your mouth. The meat could do with a little more robust flavour though. The Wagyu Beef Congee was rather average. The beef was too overcooked to really appreciate the goodness of the wagyu beef, if it indeed was wagyu beef. I honestly couldn't taste or see the difference between this and normal beef.
We were intrigued by the Deep Fried Scallion and Pork Floss Pastry which came looking a little like Cinnamon rolls. The pastry was flaky and not too oily, but the fillings were miserable. I had to eat until almost the end to actually even see signs of the filling, which consisted of Scallion and Pork Floss. Not that the filling was that great anyway. Salty and dispersed, it didn't make much of an impact to the whole dish.
With a name like Number One Bun aka Tian Xia Di Yi Bao, the bun must either be really good or the person who came up with the name must really be brazen. I'm inclined to think it is the latter. The exterior is lightly glossed with sweet syrup while the filling of pork is salty, which complements the sweetened exterior. Though nice, it definitely doesn't warrant the title of Number One Bun.
Rounding up our meal were the Souffle Ball with Fresh Durian and Signature Creamy and Flowy Custard Bun. I personally found the Souffle Ball with Fresh Durian quite good as the pastry was soft and fluffy. Dusted in icing sugar, it is sweet, fluffy and with a strong durian taste all at the same time. Only grouse I have is that the durian filling was not the least bit sweet at all. Sure, the icing sugar made up for it, but nothing beats the natural sweetness of durian. The amount of durian filling could also be increased so that it wouldn't feel like eating just plain fried flour. The Signature Creamy and Flowy Custard Bun probably pulled one of the biggest surprises that day. Served looking like cupcakes, they were soft and aromatic and with a filling that oozed into your mouth. Sweet, yet with a tinge of saltiness. Complementation and balance at its very best.
An enjoyable meal for 2 set us back by about $48/-. Not exactly the cheapest place to eat, but certainly not expensive. The quality of food is good and the prices don't seem very expensive. But beware, the everything can add up if you are not careful with what you order. Portions are average sized and service can be better, especially with the charging of service charge. An interesting find at Vivo City, so if you are considering an alternative to Crystal Jade, this is the place.
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Seems like more and more $4.80/dish air conditioned Cze Char places are popping up all over Singapore to take advantage of people's penchant for bargains. Bai Jia Seafood Restaurant at Kovan is one such new entrant, following in the footsteps of Ding Xian Lou.
Located along the row of shophouses just next to Kovan MRT, Bai Jia is rather popular with the residents of the area, as evident by the long queues almost every evening. The interior is surprisingly modern for such an eatery but rather small, which probably explains the long queues outside.
Black Pepper Beef - The beef portion was small and it was a little too sweet for my liking. The black pepper taste was also overwhelming I couldn't really make out any beef taste. I would have believed it if they had labelled this dish as pork instead! Such was the texture and taste.
Prawn with Minced Garlic - I counted 5 prawns sliced into half to make 10 portions. Gimmicky I should so. The prawns were your average sized prawns and didn't taste sweet at all. The only good thing about this dish was the gravy, which was lightly sweet and garlicky. Oh and they didn't bother to remove the intestines (the black thing on the spine of the prawn), which made it rather gross.
Crispy Chicken with Orange Sauce - This dish seemed to rather interesting as I've never tried chicken with orange sauce before. Alas, it was a let down from the minute I set my eyes on it. For one, portions were tiny, as expected. The orange sauce was a little sticky and had a faint orange taste to it, very much like the sauce that comes in lemon chicken dishes, except that this was a lot weaker. The fried chicken was a little too overcooked, rendering it hard and a little too chewy for my liking.
Kailan with Garlic - A very run off the mill rendition of this dish. You can't really go wrong with something as simple as frying a vegetable with garlic. Its edible but certainly not fantastic. The kailan looked a little weary as well, an indication of not being too fresh.
Braised Beancurd - What can I say? Another disappointing dish. The tofu was waterlogged with the gravy, which was fine, but the gravy itself was rather bland and watery. Palatable, but barely.
The 3 of us spent about $32 for an unsatisfying dinner (we had to adjourn to MacDonalds for more food). My take on this? I can get better food in a non air conditioned environment (aka coffeeshops/hawker centres) anyday, so I definitely won't be back.
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Walking along Joo Chiat Road can be quite exciting at times. You never know what food shop or eatery you are going to find next. I happened to chance upon Boulevard Chicken Pie during one of my trips and as the name suggests, it only sells chicken pies. They come in small, medium and large. I had a small one to try and I was amazed by the fluffy yet crispy crust. The butter taste wasn't overpowering and it tasted better than most of the Chicken Pies that I've eaten. The filling was tasted a little creamy, but could do with a bigger serving. However, having said that, what do you expect for something that costs only $1.50? If you want a bigger pie with more filling, go for the large ones. One gripe though. The pie could do with a lot less oil. It definitely has more oil than the other pies that I've tried. Oh and yes, its Halal, so Muslim friends out there rejoice ;)
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The hunt for the best Teochew restaurant goes on, this time with 5 of us trying out Huat Kee for dinner after numerous discussions. Located at the beginning of Amoy Street near Amoy Street Food Centre and just up the road from Beng Hiang, Huat Kee spans two shop house units and offers the option of dining on the first or second floor. (We didn’t get that option though, presumably due to the second floor being booked for a function) The place was about three quarters filled when we got there at about 1900hrs. Ordering was a breeze and we settled for Braised Goose Meat, White Bait Omelette, Ha Zor (Prawn Roll I think), Lemon Chicken and Orh Nee (Yam Paste).
Braised Goose has always been one of my favourite dishes and Huat Kee’s version didn’t disappoint. The meat was nicely cooked with a minimal fat under the skin. It is as good as Guan Hin’s offering, but still pales in comparison to Hung Kang’s version. However, the beancurd that came with it was horrible. It was harder than I had expected it to be. And I was not alone in making that comment. The White Bait Omelette tasted like your ordinary omelette. There was no noticeable Silver Fish taste and all I could taste was the very well fried egg.
Initially when we ordered the Ha Zor, the waitress asked if we would like our Ha Zor to come with a serving of some seafood roll (didn’t catch the name) and in a moment of folly, we agreed. The seafood roll was unappetising to say the least. It looked like a mumbo jumbo of chilli, chestnut and some other stuff none of us could make out. Taste wise was pretty bland. The Ha Zor was good though, golden brown and light on the taste buds, the epitome of Teochew cooking, which emphasises on lighter flavours. However, I did find it a little too "Qing Dan" (bland or light) for me and would prefer the one at Beng Hiang which is slightly heavier on the seasonings.
The Lemon Chicken was slightly different from the Lemon Chicken that we were used to. The lemon sauce wasn’t the least bit sweet. Instead it was subtlety sour from the thinly cut lemons by the side. The chicken’s skin was a little crispy, which I personally like, but all in all a pretty average dish. My dinner companions couldn’t quite get used to the non-sweet Lemon Chicken though.
As mentioned before, I firmly believe in using Orh Nee (Yam Paste) as one of the yardsticks to gauge the quality of Teochew restaurants, that’s why I always make it a point to order my favourite dish. I am pleased to present Huat Kee’s Orh Nee as one of the best that I’ve ever reviewed to date. The paste is extremely smooth and sticky and trust me, its bowl licking good! The squeaky clean bowls were testament to that. The only bone I had was that it came with Gingko Nuts and Pumpkin when I specifically requested for no Pumpkin when ordering. Oh and the Pumpkin was gross by the way.
An enjoyable and filling meal set us back by about $87 for 5 pax. Pretty reasonable considering the quality of food. Service needs to buck up a little, but generally still acceptable. I’ll stick my neck out and recommend a try on this one, especially for the Orh Nee.
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Standing at about 173 metres about Orchard Road, Top of the 'M' Revolving Restaurant is one of two revolving restaurants in Singapore and it also happens to be the highest. Mention Top of the 'M' and most people will have heard of it. That goes to show how strong the brand is. But we are not here to talk about branding or top of mind recall. Its food we are concerned about. So I took half a day off work and got my gf to accompany me for lunch at this much talked about restaurant.
The express lift zooms you right up to the observation deck (38th floor) where you have to walk up a flight of steps to reach Top of the 'M', which is on the 39th floor. Floor to ceiling windows and classy black glass tables with high back chairs greet you and sweeping views of the areas surrounding Orchard Road are offered. Simply breathtaking. The restaurant, as it name suggests, rotates at a slow, almost unnoticeable pace and allows views all round. But I had a slight grouse about this. The rotating mechanism didn't seem very smooth. There were times when I could feel the restaurant jerking, albeit slightly. Still it got quite annoying after a while. After some deliberation, I had a 3 course set lunch which included a salad, main, dessert and coffee/tea while my gf had the 2 course set lunch which came with a soup and main.
The complimentary bread was served and I found the bread extremely crispy, which made it a little difficult to bite into at times because the bread crumbs would just start dropping all over. Coupled with the smooth and light butter, it makes for a great snack.
My salad was the La Caesar Salade au Magret de Canard Fume et Brioche Grillee - Caesar Salad with smoked Duck Breast and toasted Brioche. The greens were fresh and the almond shavings added a nice touch to the salad. No more need to be said about the slices of Pigeon except that they were fantastic. Lightly smoked with no discernible fowl taste yet tasty and soft. Even my gf found it good! My gf's Bisque de Homard - Lobster Bisque Scented with Cognac and a Dash of Dill Snow, was extremely flavourful, although I couldn't really taste the cognac. The soup did seem a little runny as well. However, there were small slices of lobster in the soup to give it that extra chew factor.
My main was the Cassoulet de Canard - Confit of Duck Leg slowly cooked in a White Bean Stew. The duck was done medium well and responded very well to my fork. Getting the meat off the bone was as easy as slicing through butter with a knife. The fowl taste was very distinguishable though and it proved a little too strong for me at times. As for the white beans, I honestly have never tried or even heard of them, but they tasted and looked to me like those Heinz baked beans you buy from the supermarket, minus the soft exterior and tomato sauce. The white beans were hard on the exterior and tasted bland. My gf's Bar de Ligne Roti, Puree d'Aubergine au Caviar, Sauce au Cidre - Oven Baked Wild Seabass, Eggplant Puree with Caviar and Apple Cider Sauce was a much better bet. The fish was baked till the skin was hard and crispy, while the meat remained soft, moist and sweet. A feat if you ask me! The accompanying Apple Cider Sauce was a little creamy yet light on the palate. A good combination indeed! The Egg Plant Puree tasted a little smokey but a pity the Caviar didn't stand out.
Dessert for me was Top of the 'M''s signature Black Forest cake. You get to choose your dessert from a tray of desserts that is pushed to your table by the way. The cake was moist with the berries a little sweet, which is very appealing to people who have a sweet tooth. The whipped cream was also minimal, which allowed the Black Forest cake to really shine. I prefer this rendition to the one at The Chocolate Factory.
Lunch for 2 pax cost a respectable $84.45. In case you are thinking that it's expensive, it actually isn't. More than $20 went to the drinks, which is a total waste of money (just ask for ice water). So that brings down the meal to about $60-$65, which is a good deal considering the food, ambience and service. I must mention that the service is attentive and excellent. Try it if you are in the area. As for me, lunch beckons again.
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Cold Rock Ice Creamery - Another ice cream stall to hop onto the mix and match your own ice cream bandwagon, which brings the grand total of such stalls to 2 at last count (the other being Ice Cream Chefs).
Opened recently in June this year at Holland Village , Cold Rock Singapore is actually a franchise of the wildly popular Cold Rock in Australia, which was set up back in 1996 and has 60 stores across Australia as of May 07. The process and concept of making your dream ice cream is similar to that of Ice Cream Chefs ( the process has already been detailed in the entry on Ice Cream Chefs so I shall not elaborate further). Cold Rock however, definitely has more ice cream flavours and mix ins available, but at a slight premium of course. If I remember correctly, Ice Cream Chefs charges 60 cents per topping whereas it goes for $1 at Cold Rock. The prices for a basic ice cream is also more expensive.
My combination of Butterscotch ice cream Ferrero ice cream Milo nuggets Tim Tam Marshmallows - Taste wise, I did find the ice cream served up by Ice Cream Chefs marginally better because it was lighter on the tastebuds and not too sweet (I had a mild sugar high from eating Cold Rock's ice cream).
My concoction set me back by $9, which is terribly expensive for an ice cream, regardless of the novelty factor. I mean, even Ben & Jerry's doesn't charge that much for a 3 scoop sundae! However, if you live in the west and crave for such novelties, then Cold Rock would be your best bet.
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Lafiandra Trattoria recently opened a new outlet at the Singapore Art Museum to complement its bustling business at the Prinsep Street outlet. Owned and operated by Chef Cataldo and his wife Brenda, Lafiandra has been highly recommended as a food centric casual Italian restaurant, which made it the natural choice for our monthly dinner.
Sitting pretty on the ground floor of the Singapore Art Museum (the former old SJI), Lafiandra has a very homely feel to it with its earthly shades, huge glass windows and murals painted on pseudo brick walls. High strung Italian music wafts through the air, which does seem a little at odds with the laid back ambience.
Somehow I've never had a good impression of restaurants that DO NOT serve iced water, especially when even places like Morton's and Iggy's do so. That aside, I had asked for mineral water, but got served the more expensive still water instead. When quizzed, the waiter replied that he had already opened the bottle.
Cheapskate me was expecting complimentary bread as well, but I guess they are adopting the practise of not giving free bread, in line with restaurants in Italy.
Bruschetta - A staple whenever I visit Italian eateries, the humble Bruschetta was reduced to nothing more than a joke at Lafiandra. Size wise, it was tiny and it didn't help that the bread was badly charred in many areas. Probably the only positive note was that it still tasted decent, albeit a bit too crispy from the burnt areas.
Seafood Soup - I was astonished by the amount of seafood that came with this dish. Ingredients wise, this has got to be the most generous I've ever seen. Sadly, thats where the compliments end. The seafood wasn't fresh and that extended to the soup, giving it a raw and pungent taste. I honestly never knew seafood soup could be that bad. I guess I was wrong.
Pizza Diavola, Pizza Con Porcini, Prosciutto Funghi & Pizza Prosciutto Crudo - The pizzas all had one thing in common - pathetic toppings. The crust was fairly thin but didn't quite cut it. Taste wise was decent but that's about it. It got to a point where I actually thought that one of the pizza was from Canadian Pizza.
Ossobuco Alla Milanese - In case you are wondering, no, this is not a tower of mud or something along that line. Its actually the very weird looking ossobuco. The meat was tender but some parts of it seemed a little too fatty and soft, which was plain gross. On a brighter note, the saffron risotto actually had a mild saffron taste, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
Tagliata Di Manzo - I mistakenly thought that this dish was a salad when it got served and it isn't difficult to see why. The thin and miserly slices of ribeye were buried under a mountain of rocket leaves, which would have been acceptable if they had tasted decent. But no, they were terribly bland without even the basic beefy taste. When beef doesn't even taste like beef, then theres a huge problem.
Tiramisu & Panna Cotta - The preceding dishes were so disappointing that I dared not expect anything from the desserts. And rightfully so. The tiramisu had no taste of liquer and instead tasted like soya sauce. Texture wise was still decent though, a little fluffy and smooth. The panna cotta was the icing on the cake for the terrible meal thus far. Its texture tended way towards kueh - sticky and soft and the berry sauce just didn't fit the dessert.
One of the worst Italian dinners I've ever had cost the 8 of us $306, which is way out of this world for the inferior quality of food. I do not see how Lafiandra has made to the list of recommended restaurants and if this dinner is anything to go by, I'm staying very clear of the Prinsep street outlet as well.
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