Damage done: $130 for a meal for six, but it was worth it!
Stuff ordered: Crab Bee Hoon Pork Ribs in Lotus Leaf Cereal Prawns Crispy Seafood Tofu Sambal Kang Kong
Patience and aggressiveness are necessary virtues if you want to eat here. First you need to queue up for a table, which is about half an hour's wait. During that time, need to be vocal about the unfair allocation of tables. Once you get a table, you need to wait for another half an hour for your crab. Plus, the service we experienced took rather long between the first and second dish. We thought it was a banquet style dining, one dish after another. But such is the joy of dining at the kopitiam.
You probably can't go wrong ordering anything here so we ordered by recommendation of the wise Girlfriend. That's of course, provided that the usual robust tze-cha palette is to your liking.
So the thing I do want to talk about is the main event of that meal, the crab bee hoon. I would personally prefer to call it the mutant crab bee hoon since the crab's pincer was the size of a Milo can while its top shell was the size of a man's palm. I think it fed on dead cows.
The dish is much like fish head bee hoon. I liken it to Ka Soh's fish bee hoon at Amoy Street or XO fish head bee hoon somewhere in Buena Vista, except here, they use crab instead of fish. The condensed milk laced soup base is exceptionally rich in taste and it was a perfect combination with the thick bee hoon. I would recommend eating clearing up the crab first while the bee hoon soaks in the broth. Once the crab has been cleared, leisurely wash everything down with the bee hoon soup. But then again, who cares? It's a neighbourhood kopitiam, not a fine-dining restaurant.
So anyone wants to join me on the next trip to Mellben Seafood?
Simply put, it is a Seoul Garden set meal on a hot plate. Tastes really unexciting, only redeemed by their rather choice select of vegetables that came along with the main dish.
The dining space was rather nice actually, provided you are madly in love with the colour orange.
From my wild imagination, this chain probably started like this...
Person A: Hey, our rival company's Pepper Lunch is doing very well, you know.
Person B: Yah, they taste very good.
Person A: We should look into doing something that is similar to Pepper Lunch, but it should be uniquely different. We jump on that bandwagon to profit from this hot plate craze.
Person B: That's a good idea. Since Pepper Lunch is a Japanese thing, how about we also do something on hot plate that is not Japanese?
Person A: Fantastic! I know! We shall do Korean food on the hot plate!
Person B: Exactly! I know! We can bring all the unused marinated from Seoul Garden and bring it to this new concept!
Person A: Yeah! We can package it into a set meal with a hot plate and it will be really cool. We will make a lot of money from this new concept!
Person A and Person B now are full of themselves because of their brilliant rip-off idea.
This is weird. Junk food never tasted as good as this...
I saw the posters in the restaurants. The claim: 100% fresh chuck beef, never frozen. So it compelled me to purchase a simple beef burger as a litmus test. I needed to taste and judge if it lived up to its claim. I was not disappointed. The beef patty was juicy, tender and pink in the centre, just like a perfectly cooked steak.
The hotdogs are consistently cooked to perfection as well. Served in a baguette, it will thoroughly satisfy your hunger and craving.
The must-try here has got to be the Chilli Fries. The claim: Its chilli is made fresh everyday. Also, the fries are amazingly crispy even after it has been drizzled with the chilli. There is no such thing as soggy fries. Rejoice!
Now I just wish they would open near my work place...
One of the things I noticed recently about the local food scene is that there is a lack of smoothie bars in Singapore. It's something that peeves me a bit, as I am trying to stay away from ice blended coffees. Also, caffeine only serves as a quick fix. Once the effects go away, you become more tired than ever. Juices, however, does the work of waking you up differently, and it stay that way throughout.
I was figuratively jumping for joy when I spotted this place. Many of the smoothies bars I frequented in the past has since relocated or winded up their business. So it was a cause of celebration for me to see one again.
I have to admit it is on the pricey side at $7 for a medium-sized cup. Add on to the conservative menu, it is not hard to see why the crowds are not lining up at the counter.
The flavours are pretty standard fare for a smoothie bar with the usual suspects of mango, banana, berries and pineapple and combinations. Despite this, the taste of their smoothie is among the better ones I have tried, which is the main reason that I will be a return customer. And of course, drinking a smoothie gives me an illusion that I am having something healthy.
I firmly believe that a good Thai restaurant must serve a good bowl of tom yam soup. The seafood needs to be fresh, plenty of potent soup and the glass noodles must not clump up together. Plus, it must be served hot enough to scald. Failing this basic criteria, the restaurant is not a Thai restaurant.
So back to my litmus test. Among Thai restaurant chains, Siam Kitchen by far serves the largest bowl of tom yam glass noodle soup. And I think it has a respectable potency. There are plenty of condiments like spice leaves, lemongrass, ginger and chilli padi in the soup and it looks as potent as it tastes, which is very good. The seafood used is quite fresh with the exception of the fish on occasions, I mean sometimes it's fresh, sometimes it isn't. The noodles sometimes clump together, which only irritates customers. But you can separate them in the soup. That's why it is important for the dish to be served hot and with plenty of soup.
This minimally furbished restaurant simply lets their food do their talking. Nothing too fancy here, just "down to earth" food and I would rank it among the better tasting ones. The portions are also larger compared to other Thai restaurants, which is good if you are dining in groups.
I particularly like their mango salad which came in a mountain on one of those boat-shaped dishes. It was such a huge portion, it could be a meal in itself.
Their menu is a more or less the standard Thai fare with the likes of pineapple rice, pandan chicken, tom yam soup, phad thai, etc.
One thing that the management here really needs to improve on is the standard of service. My family had asked for recommendations from the wait staff but was given an answer that gave away their ignorance. It was embarrassing for the wait staff as an individual, and even more for the restaurant.
I thought this place would be a place with where you can find out more about Cosplay. I was expecting at least a small library of books about Cosplay, like costume making, make-up, props making, etc or some displays of costumes.
But all I get is a piano with a handful of magazines and waitresses dressed up in French maid outfits and being a little too friendly. With their projection screen showing a live EPL match and the almost all male patrons, I wonder if it should rebranded as a fetish cafe instead.
The place seriously needs to put more effort in developing its Cosplay identity.
In an attempt to capture the markets of Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai cuisine lovers' palettes, Bab Noodle serves all of them. The food is just ok, nothing that will make you go, "Wow". Or at least we didn't order those that might. My guess is that the restaurant is banking on variety rather than quality and quantity. Neither was the restaurant anything you would consider adventurous.
The girlfriend and I had ordered the Salmon Sauce Set and Tori Katsu Don and Unagi Set respectively. The portions were just right for the average meal. One thing I do like about their set meals is the side dish of kimchi which was quite good. I think it had been tweaked to suit the local taste bud.
I did wish they would put more rice or noodles in their set meals, since its menu had something like the staple food of Asia. But that probably was hunger at work.
One of the most embarrassing moments a restaurant/eatery/cafe can have is revealing that it does not have certain items on the menu.
I experienced it not once, but twice.
First, they didn't have the Hashima with Almond Tea during a Saturday morning. I thought it was just a one-off.
The following day, I went in the evening to try for that item again. No luck either. I thought maybe the hashima ran out of something, so I asked for the beef brisket noodle, thinking its ingredients weren't so hard to find and thus available.
"Sorry, we don't serve that either."
Disgusted, I walked out of the eatery.
Thus, my verdict: Wan Chai Hong Kong Tea Room is a pathetic excuse of an eatery/restaurant/cafe. Its food is OVERPRICED and it cannot deliver items listed on its menu. The management for this branch is lazy it does not deserve our patronage.
Please give this place a miss. You are better off ordering your Hongkong style noodles from Food Junction.
The sashimi is getting worse and worse and you don't always get what you see in the menu.
Just about everything that has the ikura has that ingredient replaced by cheap inferior ebikko.
You know that the Sakae brand is when you realise that a franchise in the heartland will choose not to provide equal service and quality compared to those branches in the city area.
Please go to other Japanese restaurant chains, like Suki Sushi just one level up, at least they don't do a switch-a-roo.
1=SGD 0.0587
Patience and aggressiveness are necessary virtues
Damage done: $130 for a meal for six, but it was worth it!
Stuff ordered:
Crab Bee Hoon
Pork Ribs in Lotus Leaf
Cereal Prawns
Crispy Seafood Tofu
Sambal Kang Kong
Patience and aggressiveness are necessary virtues if you want to eat here. First you need to queue up for a table, which is about half an hour's wait. During that time, need to be vocal about the unfair allocation of tables. Once you get a table, you need to wait for another half an hour for your crab. Plus, the service we experienced took rather long between the first and second dish. We thought it was a banquet style dining, one dish after another. But such is the joy of dining at the kopitiam.
You probably can't go wrong ordering anything here so we ordered by recommendation of the wise Girlfriend. That's of course, provided that the usual robust tze-cha palette is to your liking.
So the thing I do want to talk about is the main event of that meal, the crab bee hoon. I would personally prefer to call it the mutant crab bee hoon since the crab's pincer was the size of a Milo can while its top shell was the size of a man's palm. I think it fed on dead cows.
The dish is much like fish head bee hoon. I liken it to Ka Soh's fish bee hoon at Amoy Street or XO fish head bee hoon somewhere in Buena Vista, except here, they use crab instead of fish. The condensed milk laced soup base is exceptionally rich in taste and it was a perfect combination with the thick bee hoon. I would recommend eating clearing up the crab first while the bee hoon soaks in the broth. Once the crab has been cleared, leisurely wash everything down with the bee hoon soup. But then again, who cares? It's a neighbourhood kopitiam, not a fine-dining restaurant.
So anyone wants to join me on the next trip to Mellben Seafood?
Rating given:
It's Seoul Garden served to you
Simply put, it is a Seoul Garden set meal on a hot plate.
Tastes really unexciting, only redeemed by their rather choice select of vegetables that came along with the main dish.
The dining space was rather nice actually, provided you are madly in love with the colour orange.
From my wild imagination, this chain probably started like this...
Person A: Hey, our rival company's Pepper Lunch is doing very well, you know.
Person B: Yah, they taste very good.
Person A: We should look into doing something that is similar to Pepper Lunch, but it should be uniquely different. We jump on that bandwagon to profit from this hot plate craze.
Person B: That's a good idea. Since Pepper Lunch is a Japanese thing, how about we also do something on hot plate that is not Japanese?
Person A: Fantastic! I know! We shall do Korean food on the hot plate!
Person B: Exactly! I know! We can bring all the unused marinated from Seoul Garden and bring it to this new concept!
Person A: Yeah! We can package it into a set meal with a hot plate and it will be really cool. We will make a lot of money from this new concept!
Person A and Person B now are full of themselves because of their brilliant rip-off idea.
Rating given:
Quality Junk Food
This is weird. Junk food never tasted as good as this...
I saw the posters in the restaurants.
The claim: 100% fresh chuck beef, never frozen.
So it compelled me to purchase a simple beef burger as a litmus test. I needed to taste and judge if it lived up to its claim. I was not disappointed. The beef patty was juicy, tender and pink in the centre, just like a perfectly cooked steak.
The hotdogs are consistently cooked to perfection as well. Served in a baguette, it will thoroughly satisfy your hunger and craving.
The must-try here has got to be the Chilli Fries.
The claim: Its chilli is made fresh everyday.
Also, the fries are amazingly crispy even after it has been drizzled with the chilli. There is no such thing as soggy fries. Rejoice!
Now I just wish they would open near my work place...
Rating given:
Return of the Smoothie Trend?
One of the things I noticed recently about the local food scene is that there is a lack of smoothie bars in Singapore. It's something that peeves me a bit, as I am trying to stay away from ice blended coffees. Also, caffeine only serves as a quick fix. Once the effects go away, you become more tired than ever. Juices, however, does the work of waking you up differently, and it stay that way throughout.
I was figuratively jumping for joy when I spotted this place. Many of the smoothies bars I frequented in the past has since relocated or winded up their business. So it was a cause of celebration for me to see one again.
I have to admit it is on the pricey side at $7 for a medium-sized cup. Add on to the conservative menu, it is not hard to see why the crowds are not lining up at the counter.
The flavours are pretty standard fare for a smoothie bar with the usual suspects of mango, banana, berries and pineapple and combinations. Despite this, the taste of their smoothie is among the better ones I have tried, which is the main reason that I will be a return customer. And of course, drinking a smoothie gives me an illusion that I am having something healthy.
Rating given:
This one passes my tom yam test
I firmly believe that a good Thai restaurant must serve a good bowl of tom yam soup.
The seafood needs to be fresh, plenty of potent soup and the glass noodles must not clump up together. Plus, it must be served hot enough to scald.
Failing this basic criteria, the restaurant is not a Thai restaurant.
So back to my litmus test.
Among Thai restaurant chains, Siam Kitchen by far serves the largest bowl of tom yam glass noodle soup. And I think it has a respectable potency. There are plenty of condiments like spice leaves, lemongrass, ginger and chilli padi in the soup and it looks as potent as it tastes, which is very good.
The seafood used is quite fresh with the exception of the fish on occasions, I mean sometimes it's fresh, sometimes it isn't.
The noodles sometimes clump together, which only irritates customers. But you can separate them in the soup. That's why it is important for the dish to be served hot and with plenty of soup.
Rating given:
No frills, just good food
This minimally furbished restaurant simply lets their food do their talking. Nothing too fancy here, just "down to earth" food and I would rank it among the better tasting ones. The portions are also larger compared to other Thai restaurants, which is good if you are dining in groups.
I particularly like their mango salad which came in a mountain on one of those boat-shaped dishes. It was such a huge portion, it could be a meal in itself.
Their menu is a more or less the standard Thai fare with the likes of pineapple rice, pandan chicken, tom yam soup, phad thai, etc.
One thing that the management here really needs to improve on is the standard of service. My family had asked for recommendations from the wait staff but was given an answer that gave away their ignorance. It was embarrassing for the wait staff as an individual, and even more for the restaurant.
Rating given:
Pathetic Excuse for a Cosplay Cafe
I thought this place would be a place with where you can find out more about Cosplay. I was expecting at least a small library of books about Cosplay, like costume making, make-up, props making, etc or some displays of costumes.
But all I get is a piano with a handful of magazines and waitresses dressed up in French maid outfits and being a little too friendly. With their projection screen showing a live EPL match and the almost all male patrons, I wonder if it should rebranded as a fetish cafe instead.
The place seriously needs to put more effort in developing its Cosplay identity.
Rating given:
Everything also they serve
In an attempt to capture the markets of Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai cuisine lovers' palettes, Bab Noodle serves all of them. The food is just ok, nothing that will make you go, "Wow". Or at least we didn't order those that might. My guess is that the restaurant is banking on variety rather than quality and quantity. Neither was the restaurant anything you would consider adventurous.
The girlfriend and I had ordered the Salmon Sauce Set and Tori Katsu Don and Unagi Set respectively. The portions were just right for the average meal. One thing I do like about their set meals is the side dish of kimchi which was quite good. I think it had been tweaked to suit the local taste bud.
I did wish they would put more rice or noodles in their set meals, since its menu had something like the staple food of Asia. But that probably was hunger at work.
Rating given:
Overpriced Embarrassment
One of the most embarrassing moments a restaurant/eatery/cafe can have is revealing that it does not have certain items on the menu.
I experienced it not once, but twice.
First, they didn't have the Hashima with Almond Tea during a Saturday morning. I thought it was just a one-off.
The following day, I went in the evening to try for that item again. No luck either. I thought maybe the hashima ran out of something, so I asked for the beef brisket noodle, thinking its ingredients weren't so hard to find and thus available.
"Sorry, we don't serve that either."
Disgusted, I walked out of the eatery.
Thus, my verdict:
Wan Chai Hong Kong Tea Room is a pathetic excuse of an eatery/restaurant/cafe.
Its food is OVERPRICED and it cannot deliver items listed on its menu.
The management for this branch is lazy it does not deserve our patronage.
Please give this place a miss. You are better off ordering your Hongkong style noodles from Food Junction.
Rating given:
It's getting worse day by day
The sashimi is getting worse and worse and you don't always get what you see in the menu.
Just about everything that has the ikura has that ingredient replaced by cheap inferior ebikko.
You know that the Sakae brand is when you realise that a franchise in the heartland will choose not to provide equal service and quality compared to those branches in the city area.
Please go to other Japanese restaurant chains, like Suki Sushi just one level up, at least they don't do a switch-a-roo.
Rating given: