The Cottage Waffle Place - Ordinary

You'd think that after all that damage done at Carl's Jr we'll behave ourselves for the next few days. But no, we have to accentuate our pleasurable diinner with nice sweet things. Recalling the new waffle/ice-cream shop at level 3 during our last visit, we decided to seek it out.



This is a new place serving desserts. It has got small round tables lined along the curvy walkway on level 3, not exactly family friendly. My kids took turn to threaten to over turn the tables on several occassions, we took extra efforts to keep the legs of the table firmly on the ground.

The staff recommended the fondue set to us, saying that this is more bang for bucks. At first I was like thinking "huh but we just had a suicidal artery blocking super humongous "Super Star" plus chilli beef fries, you trying to kill us one more time?" BUT Mr HB promptly decided this is what we will be going for! *faint*

So here the chocolate bowl for our dipping pleasure, we were told this is refillable. The set also includes a tea, you can choose to have it cold or hot.


Then this arrive shortly. 5 mini scoops of ice-cream, banana slices, apple slices, waffles (YEA!) and my daughter's favourite, mashmellows. Also served is a mini bowl of nuts to top our chocolate coated munchie.


They serve the relatively known bud's ice-cream so no further elaboration will be made to this item.

Without further delay, we promptly selected our choice of ingredient and dip it into the chocolate pool. The banana taste very well in it's chocolate coat with lots of nuts, crunchy on the outside then you hit a chocolate wall followed by the soft innards.

But this is a waffle place right, so how is the waffle? If you really ask me, I think the waffle is really ordinary, infact it's a bit too tough. I like waffles that are crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside with a little chew. The waffle here is cripsy all the way akin to eating a waffle biscuit.

Service crew is warm and friendly but the food is somewhat sub-standard if you ask me.

The Cottage Waffle Place
3 Temasek Boulevard
#03-xxx Suntec City Mall

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe - Traditional Food with a Twist

I'm a lover of flour derivatives - bread, pastries, cakes and my most recent love, scones.

We happened to be in Chinatown area over the weekend and I recalled reading from a blog that this place serves scones and kaya on ciabatta bread, I knew I had to check it out.

We arrived here about 630pm on a Saturday evening.
At the back of my mind, I actually have only 1 thing in mind and that was scones. Imagine my dismay when I was informed that they had sold out all the scones!

Determined to make the best of my visit, I ordered the following which I thought was interesting and that you will not find elsewhere
1. Ciabatta with kaya set (comes with 2 eggs and coffee/tea)
2. Orange ciabatta
3. Additional coffee

This is the first time ever in my entire life that I have the traditional kaya on chic ciabatta bread. I actually did not have any expectations but when I took my first bite, I was hooked.

The bread is soft and fluffy with a generous spread of kaya and butter. The kaya is fregrant and does not threaten to numb your taste buds with overwhemling sweetness.
The orange ciabatta is more crispy and has a tinge of orange flavour.

Coffee is milky and creamy, I find this very enjoyable as well.


Mr HB loves it too and wanted to come the following morning for breakfast. But after checking their operation hours, they only start at 1030am on weekends so our breakfast plan goes out of the windows.

Must Tries: Kaya on Ciabatta bread

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe
133 New Bridge Road
#03-01 Chinatown Point

T.S.C - Thick Toast Heaven.

We have been frequenting TSC ever since our first visit as finding a place to chill out away from the madness of a crowd is a challenge esp on weekend.
Hence the airport seems like a good choice.

But eating at the airport is not exactly cheap and the choices are somewhat limited. After our decent previous visit, we visited again, only to become addicts to their thick toasts.

We have so far tried their rice - fried rice and baked rice as well as noodles only to conclude that their cooked food is really average. The baked rice looked delicious but honestly, is really rice topped with a SEPARATE layer of cheese, there is no integration of materials at all and the rice tasted very dry.

The noodles were slightly better but not something that'll have you returning for more.

The thick toast on the other hand, is in a league of it's own. Think soft bread, lightly toasted to give the little crisp when you bite into it, topped with GENEROUS amount of peanut butter and drizzled with sweet condensed milk. This is something that we will return again and again for.

Other than the milk tea, this 8-treasure tea presents a refreshing taste to the palatte esp after 2 thick sweet and sinful toast every meal.

Tong Shui Cafe
Airport Boulevard,
#036-087 Changi Airport T2 - Public Area,
Singapore

MELT - melted me again

Any reason is a good reason to pig out and certainly MELT by any of MY standards is a good place to do so.
The reason happens to be Mother's Day and my MIL wanted to have buffet dinner.
Ever since my previous fabulous buffet lunch experience, I've been looking for an excuse to come back again.
I immediately put forth my recommendation - MELT, the World Cafe.
Took some of my professional persuasion skills to convince Mr HB that this will be worth the money and calories as this is definaltey by no means a cheap eat.
Upon his official acceptance, I promptly call to make reservations as it was just 3 days before the actual date, fearing that the restaurant will be fully booked.
With a stroke of luck, my reservation was confirmed.

We made our presence upon the commencement of the buffet dinner which was 630pm - so that we will have enough time to eat and time to digest afterwards.
The familiar looking dessert station greeted me once we emerged from the lift, other than the ever courteous and obliging staff.

The whole family had light meals today to save our "storage space" for dinner.
As the dinner party was large, we arrived in several cars. Once everyone has arrived (we were the last to reach Melt, which was good coz I don't think I can seat and wait in the presence of such alluring food), we scrurried off to look for the food we want.

The spread for dinner is bigger compared to lunch, the most distinguished addition have to be the BBQ station located just outside the main food area. There is a variety of meats available to choose from - beef, chicken, mutton as well as big tiger prawns, crayfish, mushroom, corn etc...
There is also an additional seafood station serving cold prawns, crabs and shell food like oysters and clams.
Other than that, the rest of the stations are pretty much identical to lunch. You have your usual suspects like the starters station where you can find sashimi, sushi, different types of salad, quaint looking appetizers in shot glass as well as a cheese fondue, the cooked food stations featuring, Thai, Chinese (limited), Indian (extensive), Western and local.

Since I have already done a write up on the food previously, I am not going to do a detailed review on individual items that I taste.
But generally, most of the food are of a good quality and competently executed.

Again, the dessert section is the highlight of my meal with the waffles and ice-cream being my favourite.
The cakes were a mixture of hits and missess. The cheese cake was moist and cheesy but the others like the black forrest and come other crumble cakes are a disappointment.

Service was very detailed, glasses of water was topped up almost instantly with napkins folded and plates cleared once you leave your seat.

After several rounds of desserts (I think I had 5 or 6), I rounded my dinner with a cup of cuppucino, feeling extremely satisfied.

But the damage was a whopping $70 per pax. Definately somewhere we reserve for an occassion.

Melt, The World Cafe
5 Raffles Avenue
4F The Oriental Singapore

Checkers Brasserie - Hi Tea Buffet

After some pestering, I finally convinced Mr HB to go for a hi-tea buffet (making my second buffet in 1 week!
OK, I am beginning to scare myself about my insatiable appetite.)

So today, after my class in the afternoon I immediately dashed home (literally) to changed and head to hilton for my hi-tea (read lunch cum dinner) which begins at 12pm till 4pm on weekends.

We reached a rather empty Checkers at 130pm and was greeted by the staff at the door who immediately "guessed" that we are here for the hi-tea buffet (perhap hunger was inscribed on my forehead or we looked like we haven't eaten in years?)

Not wanting to lose any more time, me and Mr HB head off in different directions in double quick time to survey our meal for the day.

There are 4 stations in all - 2 munchies and cooked food, 1 dessert and 1 fruit and juice bar.

The cooked food stations showcase a variety of finger food and munchies like bufflo wings, apple turnovers, pastries, different types of california rolls, smoked salmon and some rather exquisite appetizers like baby beetroots, some kind of mushrooms, neatly decorated tomatoes among others.
One can find some jap tempura (which sadly tasted average only) and yummy mini turkey burgers with cheese and pinapple on this section.

Over at the "action station", there is satay (chicken and lamb) which is rather chewy and the satay sauce is somewhat lacking in taste, pick-your-own-ingredients noodle bar featuring prawn stock, laksa and shanghai mince pork sauce, murtabuk (mushroom and lamb, both are ok) with veggy or chicken curries (of which the chicken curry is a little too salty) and 3 types of dim sum (which I did not try).

One good thing I like about the Hilton Hi-tea is the "Design-your-own sandwiches" where you get to choose from a selection of bread like ciabatta and foccacia together with 3 types of FRESH ingredients from a lot of meat, cheese and veggies like Alantic salmon, tuna, rare beef, chicken breast, curried egg and peanut (tasty!), root vegetables and avacado to name a few.

The sandwiches are fresh, nicely crafted and presented to you on a little plate with some crackers and olive oil which is not in large portion thus allowing you to try the other dishes.You also get to choose from a few types of tea to down your food. Coffee is also available if u are not a tea lover.

Coming to the dessert station, you can find the signature American cheesecake (which tasted really good), snicker cake (which is chocolate in nature and tasted like...u guessed it, snickers), a variety of puddings and creams in shot glases. Scones (with jams and whipped creams) are also available alongside mini chocolate and blueberry muffins.

I am however a little disappointed at the types of cakes available, I was expecting more. Of course, the chocolate fondue to wrap up the tea. One big disappointment was the lack of ICE-CREAM. I still cannot believe until now that it is not available, a major minus.

Another plus thing I like about the Hilton tea is the availabilty of the fresh fruit juice where you pick the fruit you want and the juice it for you on the spot, the best part is you get to mix them...heh heh.

A little on the service. The service crew is polite and ever willing to oblige. Glasses are topped up quickly. However, more attention needs to be paid to empty food items. I had to point out to the chef that the satays have run out before it was replenished. And the uniform of the servers could use some re-designing (they look erm....like cleaners...)

Must Tries: Cheese cake, turkey burger, Design your own sandwiches

Checkers Brasserie
581 Orchard Road, Hilton Singapore Hotel, Singapore

Mayim - I'll Be Back!!

One of the restaurants that serves good chinese at a very reasonable price.

I particularly like the Char Siew Dry Noodle (HKG style). The noodle itself is springy and char siew is generous and tasty.

If you happen to go in the afternoon, they also have a variety of dim sum that you can choose from. The Bo Lo pau is my favourite, bursting with flavour with every bite and oozing sweet char siew (as you can see, I am quite a char siew fan).

They also serve pickled vegetables as appetizer which is also quite tasty - sweet and sour in nature to whet your appetite for the main course to come. They are not free but however, you can as for as many refills as you want.

They also serve many different flavours of tea and they serve by the pot even if it is for 1 person.

Definately recommended for everyone. One note of caution though, the restaurant tend to be crowded esp during dinner so be prepared to wait a bit for a table.

Must Tries: Bo Lo Pau, Char siew noodle

Mayim
1 Bukit Batok Central Link, #02-04 West Mall, Singapore

Island Creamy - Ice Cream Paradise

This is one of the places where the ice cream are what they are supposed to be - rich and flavourful.

They offer a wide variety of ice cream flavours at a very reasonable price - $2.50 for single scoop and $4.00 for double which is one of the cheapest I've come across so far.
Personal favourites include ReverseO, brandied cherry, mango...etc...(actually many more). The mud pies are great too. They have some non conventional local flavours like Teh Tarik, Pulut hitam....see other posts.

Only grip is seating capacity is kinda limited esp during weekend nights. During weekend nights, they are usually full-house. There were several occassions where we had to buy take aways as there were no place to seat ourselves. The wait staff here are very friendly and helpful, not to mention generous with the ice-creams.

Give this place a try if u are an ice cream lover and you will not regret.

Must Tries: Mud Pie, ReverseO

Island Creamy
10 Jalan Serene, #01-03 Serene Centre, Singapore

Provence - Flour and more

I am a self professed carbo lover (bread, rice, pau, pastry...bring them on!).
Read many raves and only good reviews on Provence, I brought the family to Holland to "eat bread" for lunch (at my expense! the length I go to satisfy the carbo lover in me.)

We intended to go a bit earlier to beat the lunch crowd and make sure we get our hands on the wassant that was highly recommended by all the reviews I've come across.

OK, so it rained on our way there and we had no umbrealla. I half ran with my 7.5kg son in my arms to get to shelter. Not exactly a great start. Anyways, we did manage to beat the crowd. Upon reaching, there were only a handful of people in the shop.
I went round to see what's available on the shelf.

The aroma of the freshly baked buns is indeed addictive. The buns here are somewhat biased towards cheese and cream type.
We tried the following
Milk bun - a tat too sweet for my liking
Raisin bun - somwhat similar to roti boy bun but smaller and with raisins. This is quite good if it is fresh from the oven.
Wassants - Soft and light in taste. Taste great when warm and fresh. A little over rated in my opinion.
Cinnamon roll - Again too sweet for my liking.
Teriyaki chicken sandwich - ok, finally something that I cannot fault. Fresh bread with chicken in teriyaki sauce and some lettuce. Sweet and delightful to the tongue.
The BLT set lunch - fresh sandwich but nothing to scream about.Assorted crossant (ham, cheese, egg...etc) - as above.

Provence's success can be attributed to 2 factors
1. Fresh ingredients
2. Fresh from oven

If a bakery follow the above 2 guidelines, they cannot go too wrong (unless their baking skills really suck!)
Overall, it's a place worth visting if u are into bread and stuff but a little overhyped in my opinion.

Must Tries: Teriyaki chicken sandwich

Provence
17A Lorong Liput, Holland Village, Singapore

Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant - Nostalgia

I've been to Beng Thin numerous times but this is the first time I am writing a review on this restaurant.

Beng Thin serves Hokkien dishes and I must say they are one of the best in Singapore and on top of that, at a very reasonable price.
Some of the items that are "must eats" includeFish Maw Soup - Thick and generous with ingredients.Ngoh Hiong and popiah (fried) - Served with sweet sauce and fried to perfection. Very very tasty and yummy.
Hokkien noodles - Not too laden with dark soy sauce, so you can still taste the noodles the way they are supposed to be.
Oyster omelette - Sinful but full of oysters and the omelette is done to perfection.
The food is usually served hot and the wait staff are friendly and helpful.

Worth visiting if you are in the mood for Hokkien food.

Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant
65 Chulia Street, #05-02 OCBC Centre, Singapore

Classic Cakes - Hidden Gem!!

We visited Sunset way for ice cream in Daily Scoop (see separate review) and chanced upon this little fantastic cake shop.

It appears to be a bakery by itself and has very little room left for chairs and tables.
If my memory serves me right, there were only 2 small tables so I assumed most of the business come from take-aways.

We were drawn by the newpaper clipping on the window and decided to drop by to try some of the cakes on display (the price is another draw, they are cheap!)
So we tried
1. Miles Crepe cake - $6 per slice. This cake is made up of 20 crepes piled on top of each other separated by fresh cream in between. They have other flavours like apple miles and durian miles. We had the plain one. It was delicious! The cake is somewhat sticky and a little difficult to "cut" with just fork due to the dense cream and texture of the cake. Definately worth a try!
2. Mango cheese cake - $3.80 per slice. This is one of the best cheesecake I've tried by far. And for this price I can eat cheesecake everyday! (But I think my waistline will expand all the way to New York if I were to do that). Very rich/dense and extremely smooth texture.

If I were not travelling tomorrow, I will definately be back tomorrow to try the other cheesecakes!Highly recommended!

Must Tries: All the cakes.

Classic Cakes
41 Sunset Way, #01-06 Clementi Arcade, Singapore

Daily Scoop - Nice but a tat expensive

Hmm...when Mr HB said for us to pay a visit to Clementi Arcade to look for this ice-cream shop, I was like "huh, where is that?"(NB: Mr HB is an ice-cream fanatic, as is my little princess)

Tucked in a little corner in Sunset Way, they do have some pretty good ice-cream I would say.
There are about 15 flavours on display on our visit.

We ordered the waffle with 3 scoops of ice-cream - Hazel nut, Sunny strawberry and Lychee Martini.

I wouldn't say they are the richest in taste I've tried but the flavour is just nice without being too sweet.
Lychee Martini is refreshing with lots of lychee lingering in the taste but I couldn't really make out any martini.
Sunny strawberry is somewhat normal but again with the "just right" taste.
The waffle is fresh and thus delicious.

The orders set us back by $10. The waffle is expensive by my standards ($3.90 if ordered by itself and $5.20 with 1 scoop of ice cream).

Will try out the other flavours when I have the chance.

Daily Scoop
41 Sunset Way, #01-04 Clementi Arcade, Singapore

QQ Rice - Healthy Rice

This was featured on one of the variety shows some months back and I thought that this would be interesting to try.
But months flew by and I did nothing until last week, my brother-in-law bought some back for all of us to try.

The concept is simple but interesting.
They feature 5-6 types of rice with more than 30 types of ingredients (pork floss, chicken meat, pickled veggies..etc...etc....). You get to choose 1 type of rice and 5 type of ingredients and they will roll them into a rice ball for you. Serves as a healthy snack and if you go before 11am, they throw in a free drink (pretty value for money).

Innovative and worth a try.

QQ Rice
10 Sinaran Drive, #01-06 Square 2, Singapore

Soon Huat Cold & Hot Dessert - Absoluately Value for $$

This is my favourite coffee shop dessert stall in Singapore. They are very very generous with the ingredients and by far one of the cheapest in Singapore. Not to mention the polite and efficient stall owner.On a hot day, I will go there specially just to eat cold dessert to cool myself down. Highly recommended if you are in the vicinity.

Must Tries: Red tea longnan, peanut ice kachang, many more....

Soon Huat Cold & Hot Dessert
Blk 105 Hougang Avenue 1,
#02-43 ,
Singapore

Ichiban Sushi - Value for money

The family is a supporter of Ichiban Sushi inheriantly because of the set meals they offer - value for money.
I suppose the many people queueing outside the restaurant last night feels the same way.

After waiting for ~45mins, they finally have a table for us. But alas, the table was one that was supposed to be for 4 pax and we had to squeeze in or wait somemore for a bigger table (which I did not see) that can seat all of us comfortably.
So 6 rumbling stomachs echoed "food over space" and we settled for the small table.

A quick look at the menu - the menu which we are all very familiar with by now. The only thing that changes are the promotional set meals which did not appeal to me last night, so back to my cannot-go-wrong orders - Salmon Teriyaki set meal.

At this point, one of the server (prbly the restaurant manager) came over to tell us that there is a counter table that is more spacious and asks if we wish to change table and so we did.

After placing all our orders, we waited not-so-patiently for our food (hungry men and women are not patient people). To my pleasant surprise, the food was served very promptly (<15mins!) except Mr HB's promotional set.

Food is nothing to rave about, just average but the portions are generous - Big piece of grilled salmon drizzled with sweet teriyaki sauce and some slices of lettuce, tomato and cucumber (meant to be salad?), chawanmushi, rice, miso soup and 2 slices of watermelon to finish off the meal. All for the price of $14.90. So nothing much to complain about.
The family also ordered the salmon head soup, tempura curry rice, gyu-don with fried chicken set (promotional set of the month) and salmon sashimi.

Foodwise - OK, nothing exceptional but nothing to complain also

Service wise - I'd like to praise that lady server for the initiative for offering us the "bigger" table though personally I think that didn't help anything.

Space wise - A big no-no for big group of people.

Ichiban Sushi
90 Hougang Avenue 10, #02-23 Hougang Mall, Singapore

Pasta Mania - Lousy pasta and lousy system

Well, I'm sure you can tell this is going to be a review full of gripes from the title.

We went to Bugis Junction on Friday night for dinner which I guess is the 1st mistake we made. Being a weekend (yes, Friday is weekend to me) night, the place is swarmed with people and the carpark is full, we had to wait 15-20 mins before being let in to the carpark, then another 15 mins driving around to look for a parking space.
By the time, we finally managed to get out of the car, I am already famished.

First stop - sketches as we wanted to eat pasta. Long queue outside, we were told there is no available table and that they will call us if we leave our contact # once they have a table for us. So we did. Walked round the premise and found that with the exception of fast food outlets (which are also packed), all restaurants have queues forming outside - even seoul garden!

So we decided to split resources - Father-in-law (FIL) queued outside Sakae Sushi (as the nephew requested) while Mr HB went round to PastaMania (2nd mistake). After about 20min, Mr HB called out to me to say that he's got a table for us. We settled down to our table and start looking at the menu.
At this time, Sketches called and tell us that they have a table for us but since we have just seated ourselves and by then we are all hungry and could well do with a "quick casual dinner" (3rd BIG mistake).

We hurriedly placed our orders - 4 pastas and 2 10" pizzas (for 4 adults, 1 kid, 1 toddler and 1 baby, I'm sure u can tell we are hungry at this point).

Upon returning to the table, Mr HB said that their system was down when he was placing his order and he is afraid that our orders are not captured.And boy was he right.
We sat and waited and watched pasta and pizzas being served to all other tables except ours.
So after ~40mins, we finally decided that something is wrong and went to enquire about our orders. We were told our orders are not captured in the system after some checking.
The restaurant manager promptly apologised to Mr HB (who was making the enquiry) and said that she will prepare our pizzas personally while giving instrutions to prepare our orders to the kitchen.

We were given complimentary garlic bread to curb our hunger while waiting (somemore) for our food to be served.
By now, we are all extremely hungry and hungry man = angry man.
For the rest of the interactions, Mr HB was rather sacarstic in all his remarks.

Finally after about 10mins, our pasta are served. I cannot really recalled what pasta was being ordered but what I had was bland (pestos in tomato herb sauce) though the pasta serving is huge (I believe they gave us large portions to try to make up for the time we had to wait). I only finished 1/4 of it. The pizzas followed shortly after - Hawaiian and Mushroom pizza. It is quite apparent that we were given extra large toppings as both the pizzas are literally overflowing with ham, pineapple and mushroom.

OK, onto the taste, the hawaiian pizza is just normal but the mushroom pizza is WAY too salty, we only finished 1/2 of it despite the generous ingredients.

Overall, I would say that don't expect good food here but the service is commendable. Despite the boo-boo made, they did try to make our dining experience more bearable by giving us complimentary stuff - we were also given a complimentary mango pizza (dessert) and 2 pizza vouchers and extra ingredients for our orders.

Pasta Mania
200 Victoria Street, #02-47/48 Bugis Junction, Singapore

Serangoon Garden Confectionary - Great Buns Everyday

Introducing my favourite breakfast hunt - Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionary.

Selling a range of different buns from sausage, hamburger (it's actually iluncheon meat), peanut, ham & cheese, butter, raisin, otah, yam....blah blah blah.... to egg tarts, cream puff, cakes (walnut, banana, butter...etc) at prices found in the 70's.

Most of the buns go for $0.50 to $0.60 (where to find these days?! esp after the GST hike).
All the buns are freshly baked and they usually end their day by mid-afternoon when all the food is sold out. This ensures that nothing gets leftover and customers get fresh supplies everyday. This is prbly one of the factors that attributed to the success of Ah Seng.



Other than the freshness of the food, they are also generous in the ingredients used for the buns.

Personal favourites include peanut bun (yum yum with LOADS of peanut) and hamburger (thick slice of luncheon meat as opposed to others with thin miserly sad looking slice). Eat it with a cup of hot coffee or milk tea.....hmmm....heavenly....


Definately recommended to bread lovers.

Must Tries: Peanut, Hamburger, Banana cake

Serangoon Garden Confectionary
49A Serangoon Gardens Way,
Stall 45,
Serangoon Gardens Market And Food Centre,
Singapore

Loong Huat Eating House and Confectionary - Good Tau Sar Piau

We were on our way to Square 2 one day and the traffic was terrible along balestier road. It was after 2pm in the afternoon and we have not had lunch.
So Loong Fatt came to mind. We thought since we are going to be stuck in the jam for some time, what not get some tau sar piau (TSP) to line the stomach first? So we turned into the car park and got 30 (?!) TSP from Loong Fatt.

OK, so the price has gone up from $0.50 to $0.60 per pc. The TSP are fresh from the oven and still piping hot. Me and Mr HB each grabbed one piece and sink our teeth into TSP, it was heavenly (esp on that rainy day).
Soft and tender is the skin and the paste is sweet and aromatic. Excellent stuff.

Personally I prefer the salty one as I find the sweet one too sweet for my liking.

At $0.60 per pc, I'd say it's not exactly cheap but definately something worth trying.

Loong Huat Eating House and Confectionary
639 Balestier Road,
Singapore

Haato - Generous Servings

They are very generous with the servings. BIG plus.

So far I've tried
1. Chocolate - nothing exceptional but it's not bad tasting, just normal gelato.
2. Pistachio - thick and creamy but too sweet for my liking3
. Yuzu sorbet - refreshing and light
4. Black sesame - creamy and full of sesame taste but again a little too sweet for my liking.Will definately go back again.

To try list include
1. Green tea/with red bean2
. Waffles!

GO before 1st sept, prices are set to increase by $0.50 per scoop.

Must Tries: Yuzu

Haato
9 Portchester Avenue, #01-02 Serangoon Garden Village, Singapore

Moi Lum restaurant - Disappointing

It's weekend again, which means we have a chance to be creative in our choice of dining (as weekend by default means eating out).

Was feeling adventurous and decided to try out new eating place today and Moi Lum came to mind after reading the review on HGW.

Took us a while circling around Maxwell before we discovered that it is really just across the street from Maxwell market.

The eatery was rather empty with only 2-3 tables occupied. We sat down and started to look at the menu to try and decide what to order (though I already have a few items in mind - courteousy of Michelle_Ling).

We ordered the following
1. Majestic Roast Chicken - this is one of the more decent dishes among our orders last night. The skin is crispy and the meat juicy. But DO NOT dip it into the plum powder provided, it is extremely salty.
2. Claypot Beancurd - just normal claypot beancurd. Nothing special
3. Oyster Duck Roll - Mr HB and my dad says that it's got a fishy taste and smell, probably due to the oyster. Mum didn't like it either.
4. Yam pot with scallop - Yam pot was crispy. This is also one of the acceptable dishes last night.
5. Fish Maw Crab Mean Soup - In 1 word, disappointing. The soup is thin and I could not find much fish maw nor crab meat.
6. Fried Kai Lan - Veggie is veggie, so nothing fantastic here but this fried kai lan fried with nothing else cost $9.00 which I think is expensive.

Chrysanthemum tea cost $1.50 per pax again it expensive in my opinion.

The meal set us back by $100 bucks and we were charged towels which was not given to us. Luckily it was noticed by the vigilant truly else we will end up paying for nothing.

Moi Lum Restaurant
38 Maxwell Road, #01-01 Airview Building, Singapore

Tea Lounge - Mini Buffet

I have been hatching an evil plan for the past week.
One that will allow me to eat what I want without having to pay.....
So I decided it is time for me to do some entertaining by inviting some customers out for lunch.

After some discussion(or rather persuasion), we decided to go for the Mini buffet at the Regent esp after having read that it will be a hit with the ladies.

Located on the first floor of the Regent Hotel, the tea lounge is decorated like a luxurious study with an old English feel. The setting just makes u feel like sitting down with your favourite book while sipping hot tea.
Ah...the pleasures of life.
The china, utensils down to the tea set that are used further enhance the vintage feel to the place.

Upon arrival, one will understand why this is called a "Mini Buffet".
The spread of the buffet is not extensive and all the food items are serverd in mini portions.

The first item I had was the baked salmon in fuff pastry. The pastry is crispy and the salmon is juicy - very tasty combination.
Lamb antipasta with tomato salsa is succulent while the mini sandwich and cheese bread roll are soft and delicious. Mini Shepherd pie has a golden crust, digging beneath you will find mashed potato and minced beef in tomato, only gripe is that the pie is not hot enough.
I also had the vegetable roll in spicy sauce (which is kinda of tasteless except the spicy sauce) and chicken consomme soup which surprising is very flavouful.

For dessert, I tried the tiramisu and opera cake. Tiramisu is so-so, nothing exceptional but the opera is very delicious - rich in chocolate and very creamy (read sinful, luckily it is just a small piece). I took a spoonful off my customer's vanilla ice-cream - it was creamy with vanilla exploding in your mouth with every bite only that it was a little too sweet for me.

All my other companions love it though.
The food in the Mini Buffet are a visual treat - elegantly displayed and I would say majority of the food did not disappoint though you will have to walk many times to the table to get food as the portions are really small if you are a big eater.

Must Tries: Baked salmon in puff pastry, opera cake

Tea Lounge
1 Cuscaden Road, GF The Regent, Singapore

Ice Cream Chefs - Not so value for $$

We were on our way to Werner's (see separate review) when we passed by this little ice cream palour. I was wondering if any one knew of it since it seems to be quite off the beaten track.

After failing to purchase anything at Werner's (it was alose to 9pm at night), we decided that we could do with a little consolation - ice cream and returned to this ice cream palour.
Upon taking a closer look, the sign board "Ice Cream Chefs" stared back into my face. I then recalled having read about it in HGW and the Straits Times some time ago.

We were greeted by 4 service staff upon entering the store and contrary to my initial thought, it is actually pretty crowded.

Stepping up to the display area to choose the flavours that we would be tasting for the night.
1 of the staff took the initiative to ask if I wanted to test any of the flavours and so I tried the blueberry - quite creamy but a little lacking in berry taste and a little too sweet for my liking.

We did not go for any mix-in as we wanted to taste the real ice cream flavour.In the end, we ended up with
1. Strawberry - milky but lacking in strawberry taste
2. Hazel nut - loads of milk, again lacking in hazel nut taste
3. Green tea - the only flavour that I will have again. It has got real green tea taste with just the right amount of milk and sweetness.

Kinda of disappointing esp since the price here is somwhat on the high side compared to other competitors and the servings are also not as generous as I would like it to be.

Must Tries: Green tea ice cream

Ice Cream Chefs
520 East Coast Road,
#01-06 Ocean Park,
Singapore

Werner's Oven - Contented Bread Lover

After reading good reviews of this place coupled with the latest episode featuring SG's best bread bakery, how can I a self professed bread lover give this a miss?

So we decided to try our luck on Friday night to see if we can still catch any bread for the following day's breakfast.
TO our disappointment, there were no bread left by the time we got there (well, it was close to 9pm and if there is still a wide selection of bread left, then I will seriously doubt it's popularity).

Anyway, I did a quick check with someone who appears to be the lady boss on it's operating hours and made a mental note to come here early in the morning so that
1. we can make sure we have bread fresh from the oven
2. pick from a wide selection of bread/pastry.

So we returned at 8.30am on Sat morning to buy our breakfast. I could hardly contain my excitment as we drive to Siglap.

Fast-forward to our enterance to Werner's. Greeted by a selection of bread and pastry. I was a little disappointed that the shopfront is not fully populated yet (I think we are too early, some items are still not ready).

Nontheless, we busied ourselves picking items that appeals to us.Finally, we checked out our purchase totalled at $24.We bought
1. Pretzels - Kind of tasteless except for some salty taste due to the presence of salt.
2. Chicken pie - Chicken chunks with peas and potato in rich creamy sauce. It was still warm when we put it to our mouth - yummy.
3. Banana donut - Soft dough with fine texture together with sweet fat banana. This taste exceptional!
4. Pretzel donut - Tasty, not too sweet with soft and fine dough.
5. Donut with colour sugar balls - as above but a little oily.
6. Muesli stick - Rye bread roll with raisins and sesame seed. Not too sweet and crunchy with every bite.
Definately recommended!
And also not forgetting friendly staff to make your visit a pleasant one.

Must Tries: Muesli, Banana donut, Pies

Werner's Oven
6 Upper East Coast Road, #01-02 Hacienda Grove, Singapore

Tom's Palatte - Excellent Service Crew and Creamy Ice-cream

First good goes to the staff at Tom's palette. They are very friendly and take the trouble to talk you thru the different flavours if you cannot make up your mind which flavours to choose. They are also very keen to have you sample the ice-cream to help you make the right choice.We arrived at about 830pm at night and there aren't that many flavours left. We tried1. Oreo cheese - very creamy and rich2. Chocolate - fantastic rich chocolate. Absolute must try!3. Cherry & almond - strong almond taste but a little too sweet for my liking.
4. Sweet21 (mix of lots of sweet stuff - peanut butter, horlicks...can't rmb the rest) - also a little too sweet for me.In general, the servings are generous and the staff take great pride in their products and are attentive to your needs.

Must Tries: Chocolate

TOM's Palatte
100 Beach Road,
#01-25 Shaw Leisure Gallery,
Singapore

Hong Kiat Seafood Restaurant - Nice food at low prices

"There's a place near my camp that serves pretty good food. The price is very reasonable too. Wanna try?" So my brother says.

Now, there's no reason for me to say no to cheap and good food right?
So, in a flash, we are out of the door for our dinner.

The eatery is located in a "ulu" stretch of choa chu kang. It doesn't exactly look appealing esp on a rainy day and we have to make our way thru the back where the kitchen and washing area is. Once we made our way to the shop front, we found a seat and were approached by the staff to take orders.

We placed orders for
1. Sweet & sour pork (Pork is crispy and sweet & sour sauce is delectable)
2. Prawn paste chicken (Very crispy but I think the prawn paste taste is not strong enuf. My brother's "must order food" here.
3. Fish maw soup (This is the clear soup not those with crab meat. Generous ingredients and soup is refreshing.
4. Hot plate beancurd (Tasty with lots of minced meat and egg)5. Luo Han Zai (Mixed Veggies. A little oily for veggies thou crunchy)

The portions are HUGE and except item #5 (at $10 as we ordered a medium), all are charged at $8 (small)! Very economical!There's food enuf to feed 6 pax easily but there's only 4 of us.
We are all stuffed by the time we finished our food.I will be back to try some of their crabs.

Must Tries: Sweet sour pork

Hong Kiat Seafood Restaurant
216 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1,
Singapore

YY Kafei Dian - Great Tasting Kaya Buns

We paid a visit to YY Kafei Dian after our little ice-cream treat at Tom's Palette since it is just a stone's throw away and we heard some good things about the kaya buns they offered.

It was pretty late at night (~9pm) and I was quite worried that there would be no more buns since this is more of a breakfast thingy. But lucky me, they do! So me and Mr HB ordered 2 buns and coffee and tea. It's just like having breakfast items for supper.With great anticipation, I waited while watching them toast the buns.After a short wait, we were served piping hot coffee/tea and freshly toasted kaya buns.

Without further adieu, I grab one of them and sink my teeth into it.The bun is cripsy on the outside and soft on the inside. Sinking my teeth in further, the kaya and butter simply melts in my mouth. One word to sum it up - heavenly!Mr HB then commented that the kaya reminds him of the kaya his grandma used to make.

I can't wait to go back for breakfast this coming weekend.

Must Tries: Kaya Bun

YY Kafei Dian
37 Beach Road,
#01-01 ,
Singapore

Lao Song Huat - My favourite Noodle Store

Yep. This is my favourite noodle stall in Singapore and my default lunch item during weekends when we are at home. And yes, I just had it this afternoon (today is Sunday) again.

I love the noodles from this stall - tangy and smooth in texture. It's like those scenes you see in cartoons where they can slurp the entire noodle into their mouth in 1 breath. And the stall owners are not stingy with their ingredients. Together with the heavenly noodles, you will get lots of fishballs, fishcake slices and lean meat slices as well - simply delicious!A must try!

Must Tries: Any noodle!

Lao Song Huat Fishball Noodles
49A Serangoon Gardens Way,
#01-14 Serangoon Gardens Market And Food Centre,
Singapore

Bloogie's Roadhouse - Nothing Fantastic

Had to take my customers out for lunch again but can't go too far from their workplace.

After some initial brain storming, decided on Blooie's Roadhouse as I had lunch there once (at the Science Park outlet) and the burger was pretty nice.
The staff were just getting ready for lunch when I arrived, I was the first customer of the day but no special discount for that though.

For starters, we ordered
1. Mixed sausages - This comes with 3 big sausages and fat fries. They are pretty juicy and tasty. Fries are seasoned with some chili powder and taste good.
2. Sauteed mushrooms - Small portion and mushroom relatively salty and peppery.

I had the cajun chicken for my main course. When the chicken was presented to me, I was a little put off by the appearance. The chicken looked black probably due to the cajun-ing and it was VERY oily. It was also quite salty. I did not enjoy it.

I also had the cake of the day which is oreo cheesecake. Not enough cheese for a cheese cake.

Nothing to rave about for this visit.

Bloogie's Roadhouse
426/428 Upper Bukit Timah Road,
The Rail Mall,
Singapore

The Line - A disappointed Dessertian

Finally!
After a month's wait, I finally have an excuse (it's Mr HB's birthday) to visit the much talked about buffet restaurant - The Line for lunch.

I had made lots of preparation for this visit, of which including waking up at 5am this morning so that I can run that extra distance in anticipation for the zillions of calories I'll be taking in later; eating lesser for breakfast (some people would skip this altogether but it is essential to prime your metabolism for large food in take); making arrangements for the kids so that we can reach the restaurant early to avoid "running out of sauages" (read Michelle_Ling's review)

After running around like a mad woman this morning with all the prep work and settling the kids into my parents house, we finally arrived at the restaurant at 12.30pm.
Without saying another word, Mr HB and I went off to survey the spread once we were shown to our seat.

The restuarant appeared chic and trendy with bold colour combination of orange and white and marble flooring. And while it is Monday, the restaurant is packed with what appears to be corporate people having some function/event at the hotel.Back to the food.
The spread is extensive so the next question is "Is the quality as good as the quantity". I mentally made that my deliverable for the day as I set out to taste the food.

First stop to the sashimi counter.
They have salmon, tuna, squid and salmon belly. Not a squid fan, so I only requested for salmon and tuna. The sashimi is thick and fresh dipped in soy sauce with an abundance of wasabi....umm...tear provoking and fulfilling....
On my way back I took a little abalone salad for appetizer which tasted pretty fragrant and sweet. So far so good.

Next onto the "main course" - cooked food.
Round 1 - filled my plate with
1. Snow Fish cooked in some herbs
2. Salmon steak
3. Ham

The snow fish was very tasty though it sort of reminded me of chicken. Salmon steak was very soft and I think I took too big a piece. Ham was ok.

Round 2 - I took
1. Teochew style steam fish - relatively tasteless, maybe bcoz it's teochew styled?
2. Char Siew Pau - all I can say is give this a miss, not worth wasting your calories on this
3. "Pi Fang Tang" chicken - crispy skin and juicy meat, not too bad
4. Murtabak with fish curry - murtabak is filled with generous ingredients, nice! but curry is a little too salty.
5. Naan - a little too dry and tasteless.

Round 3 - I took
1. Snow fish - ....again, I like this dish.
2. On the chef's warm introduction and "hard selling", I was embarressed to turn down the lamb and chicken tandoori. But sad to report that both are not worth wasting calories on. The lamb had a distinct lamb taste and the chicken is too salty.
3. Murtabak - Carbo deficient! I need to answer to the carbo lover in me.
4. Hawaiian pizza - normal

Walking pass the italian counter, I just felt that I had to try some pasta. So I asked the chef to whip up some cream based penne with sausage, mushroom and ham. This tasted pretty good with thick cream and cheese.

After all these, I am starting to feel full and decided to proceed to dessert. The desserts are not labelled, so it may be a little confusing for some people like myself who would like to know what we are putting into our mouth.

With great anticipation, I scoot off to the dessert section to pick up
1. Cheese cake - way below my expectation. Not cheesy enuf and the cheese tasted a bit weird (not sure how to explain)
2. Chocolate mousse cake - nothing exceptional. Chocolate not rich enuf.
3. Fruit tart - again nothing exceptional though it is covered with lots of fat strawberries and fruits.
4. Yogurt mousse - not too bad if you like yogurt.
5. Some raspberry cake or something - so-so only.
6. Mini chocolate fudge cake - decent, at least it has more chocolate content compared to the chocolate mousse.
7. Crepe with chocolate spread and mango - ok, I made a mistake. Chocolate and mango does not go very well together. But warm crepe and chocolate cannot go too wrong.
Last but not least, i had a scoop of green tea ice cream while Mr HB had strawberry and mango. Green tea ice cream was nice, one can taste the green tea with milk to make it creamy. But I can't say the same for mango and strawberry, these 2 flavours lack the real fruity oomph.

After all these, I believe I have eaten breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper all at 1 go. Mr HB and I each had a cup of tea to round things up before footing the bill.

In all, I am quite disappointed that the quality of the food is not as good as I would like it to be especially the dessert section.

The Line
22 Orange Grove Road,
Basement Shangri-la Hotel,
Singapore

Blue Magnolia - Mini Cakes but not mini on price

I've been wanting to visit Blue Magnolia for the past few months especially since it is relatively near my place and it is a DESSERT place.
I never got around to doing it until my SIL (sister in law) suggested a visit on a Thursday night.

As the operation hours are until 8pm at night. We hastily made our way to location after dinner and got there just about 20 mins before closing.
1 note of caution, parking is almost non-exsistent there. You have to be a bit creative to find a parking space.

The shop front is quite small as most of the space is utilised as a kitchen behind the glass doors. The cakes are displayed on the neatly on the glass shelves.
To my dismay, there aren't any more whole cheesecakes left and I was told that it is best to order in advance for whole cakes.
However, there are still some mini cakes left.

So we went for the 16 mini pcs option
1. 4 cheesecakes2
. 2 blue berry cakes
3. 4 chocolate cup cakes4
. 1 fruit tartlet
5. 2 azuki green tea cakes
3 other mini cakes/pastries which I cannot recall now...This set me back by $26.70, which I find rather expensive as the cakes are really small.

Honestly, with the mini cakes, I can't really tell if they tasted good as it is simply too small for my tastebuds to distinguish the taste.
But the much raved about green tea cake was kinda tasteless and the cheesecake is not as cheesy as I'd like it to be.

To be fair, I think I'll try the cakes by slice or order a whole cake on my next visit to be able to savour the true flavour of the cakes.

Blue Magnolia
439 MacPherson Road, Singapore

Bliss Waterfront Dining & Bar - Not the place for dessert

It was a Tuesday night and we are feeling bored after dinner.
Usually this spells either ice-cream or cake or both.

SIL suggested going to Bliss@Punggol.
Onz ah! I like to explore new places esp for dessert.

Nice waterfront setting in Punggol Park.
It was night time for us but I can imagine the reflection of the setting sun with fleet of ducks wadding in the pond.
Picture perfect for romancing couples.

Back to reality.
Flipping thru the menu, the range of dessert appears to be quite limited.
There were a few cakes left on display - chocolate fudge, chocolate truffle, white coca cakes.
We placed orders for
1. Chocolate truffle
2. Chocolate fudge
3. Chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream
4. Vanilla milkshake
5. Oreo milkshake
6. Chicken nuggets

The cakes simply fail to make the cut, tasted mass-produced. No chocolate taste and very dry. Same goes for the brownie. Both the milkshakes are far too sweet.
As is the ice-cream. In short, dessert cannot make it.

The only decent thing that night was the chicken nugget. Perhaps one day, I'll go back to try their main course and hopefully it will be in a different league as the dessert.

Bliss Waterfront Dining & Bar
Hougang Avenue 8, Punggol Park, Singapore

Astons Express - Bang for Bucks

I would recommend this place for the following reasons.
1. Value for $$
2. Good quality mains

Me and Mr HB went back for lunch 2 days in a row. We had the rib eye($11.90), new york strip ($13.90) fried fish ($5.90) and some beef burger ($5.50).

All the items mentioned comes with a choice of 2 sides except the burger. The beef is nicely cooked to specification (in this case medium), pink in the middle but not too bloody. Juicy and succulent.
Fried fish is tender on the inside and not too oily.

The only let down was the side can be better. The onion rings were cold and soft. Mashed potato and coleslaw was decent. I heard that the potato salad is good, so this will be something I'll be having on my next visit.

Found in a little corner coffee shop in Serangoon Garden, it can get pretty crowded during peak hours (read meal times).
So you have to have a little patience if you choose to dine there.

Must Tries: Everything

Astons Express
56 Serangoon Garden Way, Singapore

Hooked! - Truly a Fish Place

The original plan was to visit Ramen3 but it was out of action due to some renovation work.

Mr HB was hungry and wanted food fast, so we settled for Hooked after taking a brief look at the menu.
Being the first customers for the night, we get to have the freedom to sit wherever we please.

Flipping thru the menu, I realised that they have a wide variety of food to choose.
For fish, you can choose between sea bass, grouper, snapper, mackarel, salmon, dory....etc...and they also cook them in many different ways - fried, steam, cajun, grilled....
For non- fish lovers, they have chicken, lamb. beef stew and vegetarian stuff. We were spolit for choice.

After going thru a difficult decision making process, I had seabass and Mr HB had the snapper.

The serving of fish was pretty generous and very fresh. Mine came with linguine and Mr HB's came with some herbed rice. Both tasted good.

The only disappointment was that there was no dessert to finish off the meal. My order of waffle fantasia (waffle with strawberry jam, ice cream and fresh fruits) was no available as waffles are sold out. :(

Hooked!
390 Upper Bukit Timah Road,
The Rail Mall,
Singapore

Marutama Ra-men - Far from Good

Long queues seen everyday.
Late and you may not even have the chance to savour their ramen - sold out.
All the signs points to fantastic food.
So me and 2 buddies decided to go there for lunch to try the highly popular (and expensive) ramen while gripping over our lives.

OK, so I was late for lunch. The friend that was early (or rather on-time) had to "chop" seat for us. She told me that the waitress(es?) kept giving her dirty looks and was about to make her give up the seat if I was another 5 min late.
You can see how popular this little joint is.

After some quick apologies and settling down into the much coveted seat. I run over the menu which was a 1-pager.
Basically there are only 3 types of ramen or rather stock to choose from - the basic chicken stock, chicken stock with green chili or the special stock (some 7 nut stock), each costing $12, $12 and $15 respectively.

NO nut lovers among us so the orders were 3 marutama ramen, 2 spicy version.

I was very disappointed when I sipped the stock which to me is the soul of a good ramen. It is not rich enough and not flavourful enough to make the cut of a good ramen and it is rather oily.
The noodles are decent but again expected of any good ramen.That bowl of $12 ramen came with 1 small,miserable piece of fat laden char siew and some spring onions and seaweed (read overpriced).

Lucky for me, I did not have to queue to try ramen of this calibre thanks for my punctual friend who had to take dirty looks for 30mins while waiting for us to arrive (Sorry ok?).

In short, overpriced and over-rated.

Marutama Ra-men
6 Eu Tong Sen Street,
#03-90/91 The Central @ Clarke Quay,
Singapore

Hock Lam Street Popular Beef Kway Teow - Get your Beef Noodle fix here

We were wandering along purvis street wondering what to eat late on a Friday night when we chanced upon this little shop which reads "Hock Lam Street Popular Beef Kway Teow".The word "Popular" definately leaves us wondering if they are really good enough to have it on their sign board.Curiousity got the better of us and we found ourselves sitting down on an empty table in no time.Mr Hubby ordered the soup version while I the dry version.Something that caught my eye was the crashed peanuts. This is the first beef kway teow that has peanuts as a condiment.The beef kway teow came with generous serving of kway teow, beef slices and beef balls (4 i think). The beef is juicy and thick and beef balls "springy". The gravy is thick and delectable. All for the price of $5.Definately worth a try for beef kway teow/noodle lovers.

Must Tries: Beef Kway Teow

Hock Lam Street Popular Beef Kway Teow
Get your Beef Noodle Craving Fix Here
27 Purvis Street, #01-01 An Chuan Building, Singapore

Pasta Fresca De Salvatore - Are you a vegetarian

It's eat out on company expense day again but this time with a little challenge.
The 2 customers I am bringing out for lunch today are vegetarian.

Immediately images of green veggies and beans come to mind.
Now don't be mistaken, I like my greens but I don't think I can survive on non-meat meals ever.

So where can I find food for my dear customers and not compromise my precious calories on food that I do not enjoy.
To top that, there is a time constraint meaning we cannot go too far from their work place.

After some hair-tearing brainstorming I finally decided on Pasta Fresca along Bt Timah where I'm sure the customers wil have some choices of vegetarian pasta while I can feast away on my choice of food.

I shall spare all of you the unrelated sales bull shit to the point we were presented our food.

Our orders were as follows
1. Maccheroni (vegetarian)
2. Crespelle Veg (vegetarian)
3. PZ Formaggi4. Trancio Spada

Other than 2 customers, I have my boss with me.
SO this means I can't go picking food off their plates so no input on how their food taste but the presentation is neat and they do look delicious esp the Crespele Veg which look like a giant curry puff filled with veggies with some savoury tomato based sauce.

The Maccheroni was penne in tomato sauce. This is the only dish that looked less appealing.
PZ Formaggi was a delicious looking 4 cheese pizza and and the portion is pretty big. My boss did a splendid job in finishing the ENTIRE pizza off by himself and it's a big one mind u!

Last but not least, my trancio spada was a piece of grilled swordfish on top of numerous peices of sliced brinjal with 2 fat grilled tomato.
A decent dish other than the fact that it is drizzled with oil.

The wait staff is attentive and prompt in topping up our glasses.

We ended our lunch 2 double expresso, 1 tiramisu and 1 cassata (vanila ice cream with fruit bits)Overall, a pleasant lunch experience with decent food

Pasta Fresca De Salvatore
833 Bukit Timah Road, #01-02/03 Royal Ville, Singapore

Chin Bee Chin Confectionary - Eat in a 50s Coffee Shop

This little shop is located at a corner along East Coast Road.

I simply love the feel of this coffee shop.
Set foot into this place and you will feel as if you have been transported back to the 50s. Everything here reeks of the 50s - the furniture, the utensils to the way they make the coffee and toast (over charcoal fire).

We visited on a rainy Saturday morning and are a little surprised to see non chinese patrons having kaya toast with half boiled eggs and sipping kopi.

We were lucky to find an empty table and promptly place our orders.

Orders are kaya buns with half boiled eggs and coffee (what else?).

It was a pleasure to see the way they work, toasting buns and heating coffee over charcoal fire. It is just so nostagic as if you have stepped into a time machine to go back to the good old days when live was much simpler.

Back to reality, our orders finally came.
The much raved about kaya buns - the buns were crispy and slapped with generous serving of kaya and a thick slab of butter.
However, I found the kaya to sweet. A little below my expectation. Half boiled eggs were pretty good, cooked to near perfection, together with lots of dark soy sauce and pepper - great!

Kopi - aromatic and flavourful.

Overall, the setting and vibe of this coffee shop is excellent esp if you want to experience a little of the good old days when tv was still in black and white.

But the kaya toast was a little disappointing as I was expecting much better esp after reading so many positive review about it's popularity.

Chin Bee Chin Confectionary
204 East Coast Road, Singapore

Tiffany Cafe and Restaurant - Don't Expect too much.

This is my 2nd business lunch with customer this week.

I am beginning to miss hawker food and my lunch khakis.

The challenge this time round is to find buffet spread that is halal and that which is in line with our qtr end numbers (read: economical).

The 1st criteria already narrow our choices down to 3 and the 2nd simply points to Tiffany.

OK, so again, we went to pick up our dear customers and make our way down to Tiffany after a draggy hour long meeting with my stomach growling in the background.

By the time we arrived at the restaurant, it was about 1pm and I am seriously famished.

After being shown to our seats, all of us dashed (literally) to the food spread to answer to the call of our stomachs.

Walked round the restaurant to survey the spread in an attempt to no waste calories.

The spread does not look very impressive with few cooked food dishes - mutton curry, beef slices sitr fried with bitter gourd, fish fillet in cream sauce, potato gratin, some stir fried veggies rice and pasta.

There is a satay and mee siam station which according to my colleagues are not bad.

Dessert spread is a total disappointment.
No whole cakes at all!
Only a display of chocolate cake cubes and fruit cake cubes with some pudding.
The only prominent dessert feature in sight is the chocolate fountain which is not a favourite of mine.
As far as I am concern, dessert is almost non-exsistent in this buffet.

My heart immediately sank to the bottom of the sea.....But well, the stomch still needs to be filled so I put in my best efforts to put together my lunch for the day.

My buffet strategy is always to the sashimi counter as the 1st stop.
The salmon sashimi tasted ok but the skill of the chef slicing up the pieces definately needs some intensive training.
The only things that I find palatable was the fish fillet and the salmon sashimi so that's basically all I had for lunch.
Tried a little of the beef with bitter gourd and sweet & sour pork - beef ok, S&S pork cannot make it la, only tasted flour.

Ok, move onto "dessert". Took a chocolate cake cube and a little of some pudding (i believe it is bread and butter pudding).
Choc cake is pretty tough and not moist enuf but surprise surprise the pudding is pretty good - the only saving grace of the entire buffet.

Lastly after a non-satisfying buffet, I ended my meal with a coffee.

Ok, to summarise, do not expect fantastic food here and for the same price, I would certainly prefer Ellenborough over Tiffany if not for the Halal restriction.

Oh, and the most amazing part is after so much trouble, we were told that yesterday was the start of the fasting month and the muslim counterparts are not able to join us for lunch. SO much for all the trouble to look for a halal buffet restuarant and an ultimate waste of my precious calories.....

Tiffany Cafe and Restaurant
60 Eu Tong Sen Street, 2/F Furama City Centre, Singapore

Changi Lor 108 Fei Lao Seafood - Wok Hei Hor Fun

Capitivated by the picture of seafood hor fun wrapped in Opeh leaf, me and Mr HB found ourselves inside 108 Fei Lao Cze Char.

What did we order?
No prize for guessing it right - the legandary hor fun was what we asked for.

It was a blazing Sat afternoon as we sat and waited for our orders to be served.
The eatery was relatively empty 'cept for a couple of uncles having coffee and waiting for their cze char dish.

After a brief 10min, the hor fun was served.
You can imagine my disappointment when I saw the hor fun served on a big green plate.
What? No opeh leaf!
I felt cheated.

On top of that the hor fun looks extremely ordinary. This was a bad start but nonetheless, a hungry stomach must be attended to.

Without further delay, I served myself a big mouthful of hor fun.
In contrast to my initial thoughts, the hor fun actually tasted pretty good!
The wok hei flavour on the hor fun was nicely done, demostrating a good fire control over the kwey teow.
The ingredients are fresh and the gravy tasty, definately one of the better hor fun in Singapore.

Together with 2 ice barley we completed our lunch and begin our journey home under the hot afternoon sun .

Changi Lor 108 Fei Lao Seafood
229 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore

Tonkichi - Commendable Jap Food

Where do you go when you need groceries (read diapers, milk power...), good selection of food and shopping under 1 roof?

The answer is obvious - Suntec City.

From the throngs of traffic leading to their carpark, you can be assured that many Singaporeans feel the same way.

The family feels like eating japanese tonight. Mr HB recommended Tonkichi after his dinner with his biz associate.
The restaurant was pretty crowded on this Sunday night.
We took quite a bit of time to run thru the menu as this is our first visit (with the exception of Mr HB).

After what seemed like forever (it prbly appeared so to the wait staff as they attempt to take our orders at least twice), we finally decided on the following
1. Una Ju - grilled eel on rice
2. Teriyaki chicken with sashimi
3. Curry Udon with Tonjuri (miso soup with condiments)
4. Tonjiru Udon
5. Unagi and Tempura
6. Crispy Salmon Roll

My order of Una Ju was pretty good. The grilled eel was nicely done, tender and drizzled in sweet teriyaki sauce. yummy....
Rice is of good quality which enhances the bite factor when eaten with the eel.

Chawanmushi is light and fragrant and miso soup packs in taste and has the oomph (as opposed to diluted watery miso soup).

Salmon slices used in the salmon roll are fresh and the salmon skin embedded in the sushi rice together with wasabi mayonnise gives a good crunch and taste to the roll.

I was unable to pick off the other plates due to a fussy son that needs to be pacified but according to Mr HB the sashimi was fresh and the teriyaki chicken was tasty.

The tonjiru is flavourful with lots of ingredients.Overall, I would say that the family had an delicious dinner at Tonkichi.

p.s.I did notice that there are quite a no. of pages dedicated to Fried food in the menu and only after my dinner and reading the reviews on HGW did I realise that they specialise in Tonkatsu.

Oh well, guess I can only try it on my next visit.

Tonkichi
3 Temasek Boulevard, #B1-009 Suntec City Mall, Singapore

Fatman Satay - Best satay in Singapore, some say JB!

This is where you can find sticks of meat glazed with honey and bbqed to perfection over charcoal fire.

Served in a few different flavours - chicken, beef, mutton and now prawns (seems like a weird satay choice).The satay sauce is exceptional and has lots of peanuts in it.

It is so good that most people will ask for extra satay sauce. The good news is "Fatman" is not stingy with the wonderful satay and allows refill (if you ask nicely of course).

This is definately the place if you are looking for yummilicious satay.

Must Tries: Satay!

Fatman Satay
51 Old Airport Road,
#01-117D Old Airport Road Food Centre,
Singapore

Jacob's Cafe - Shall we do a "quick" lunch?

This is a place where I come for a "quick" lunch when I have visitors from overseas as it is pretty close to where I work.

This is also one of the favourite lunch hangout of the expatriates in my company.

Jacob's serve a rather extensive range of food ranging from the classic western food like pork culet, chicken cutlet, steak to German sausages and very English food like pies, quiches, goulash stew.

I am pleased to announce that so fat the food that I have eaten in Jacob's have yet to disappoint.

Worthy of mention are the quiche lorraine and shepherd pie which I find very tasty and filling. Stew is always a safe bet and comes with a drink, I particularly like the beef stew.

Recent promotion is the stuffed roasted chicken which is done to the right "crispyness" of the skin with generous fillings in the chicken - rice, chestnuts...etc...Yummy....Comes with 2 drinks and 2 soup. They split the chicken into half for sharing (meant for 2 pax unless you are in "battle mode").

Only drawback is waiting time for food can get pretty long and service crew's attention gets divided when there is big lunch crowd.

Must Tries: Quiche lorraine, shepherd's pie, beef stew

Jacob's Cafe
Blk 5 Changi Village Road, #01-2049 , Singapore

Wendy's Spize Hut - Bomb Me!

We chanced upon this eatery on a fine Saturday morning while searching for a prata breakfast.

The name of this prata joint is a misfit in my opinion - Wendy's Spize Hut.
Who would associate such a name with prata?!

But anyway, the family decided this eatery deserved to earn our money on this Saturday morning for being at the right place at the right time.

We ordered
Plain Prata x 10
Bom prata set x 1 (equivalent to 2 bomb pratas)
Chicken Murtabak x 1
Teh terik for everyone.

I like the fact that the plain prata is not deep-fried-into-crispiness prata and that it is thick and fluffy.

I especially love the bomb prata. It is thick, fluffy, buttery, cripsy and tasty!
The raisins embedded in the bomb prata give it a sweet taste.
A must-try!

The chicken murtabak however is kinda ordinary despite the large portion.

The teh tarik is delicious and very creamy, provided you have a sweet tooth.

p.s. Me and Mr HB came back the next morning to have the bomb prata and teh tarik again. This is very good proof of how satisfied we are with the bomb prata.

Must Tries: Bomb Prata, Teh tarik

Wendy's Spize Hut
12 Jalan Gelenggang,
Singapore

Imperial Herbal Resaturant & Tcafe - Chinese New Year Food in 1 Bowl

We were here on a Monday night for dinner with some customers after being told that this is a place that serves good chinese food and soups.

I was rushing into the restaurant as I was running a little behind time. The "hands" (actually chairs in the shape of a palm/hand) immediately caught my attention. Decked in loud colours, the first thought that cross my mind was "Is this a mistake?".
Upon reaching our table, I was relived to see that my customers have yet to arrive. I then take the chance to survey the surrounding in greater details. By now, it is very apparent to me that it's attempt to appear chic and modern has back-fired, the theme is very inconsistent and simply does not elude elegance and class in any sense.

We were told that this current place has 3 times the capacity of the old location in Metropole Hotel.We placed orders while waiting for the arrival of our dinner companions and I secrectly pray that the food be better than their choice of interior decor...

1. Egg white with scallop on potato basket - I was told that this is one of their signature dish. True enough, the egg white with scallop mix was delightful with a sprinkle of pepper. Light yet explosive with taste on a fried potato bowl. I like it!

2. Buddha jump over the wall - this order was placed more to cater to the request of a pregnant woman who is craving for soup. Each bowl cost $38 or so I was told. Each bowl is packed with ingredients that you normally eat only during CNY - sharks fin, abalone, sea cucumber, scallop, bamboo shoot and some others. Each sip of soup is packed with flavour and the ingredients are fresh. Yummy. After this bowl, I am already quite full...

3. Beggar's chicken - I only took a small bite off the chicken as I could not really stomach much more food. Again the chicken is of pretty high standard. This is like the chinese version of chicken stew (cooked with some herbs). The chicken meat simply melts in your mouth not to mention the wonderful taste.

4. Some steamed fish - Hmm...I cannot recall what fish this was but whatever it is, it sure is delicious. The fish is very fresh and is "chewy", exluding sweetness with every bite.

5. Some veggies with Wolfberries - This is just normal...

6. Fried Mee Sua - The mee sua also did not disappoint, tangy and tasty.

7. Dessert - Everyone ordered their individual dessert and it's Aloe Vera jelly with fruits for me! The aloe vera jelly is very refreshing, coupled with fruits to give it some crunch. Not too heavy after a big meal.

All in all, the food is good. Service crew appears to be knowledgeable about the food they serve and keen to please.

Must Tries: Egg white with scallop on potato basket

Imperial Herbal Resaturant & Tcafe
1 Harbourfront Walk,
#03-08 VivoCity,
Singapore

Subway - Good ole Sandwich

I was introduced to Subway by a dear friend.
My resistance was major due to some history which includes eating cold sandwiches for an entire 2 week period during my visit to UK couple of years ago.
Cold food and asian stomach does not go well together.
Naturally the link from years back continue to haunt me.

Sandwich = cold = not good.

Apparantly my dear friend have succeeded in converting me to a follower of subway sandwiches. 1 major reason of course is subway sandwiches are toasted so they are NOT cold.
Major obstacle removed. And it offers a healthy alternative to fast food.
Who says all fast food are unhealthy?!

Being a franchise the standard of the sandwiches have been consistent so far with the slight variation of "human touch" who may "sprinkle" more capsicum/lettuce/tomato/olive/onion/pickles on your choice of bread (Honey Oat/Hearty Italian/Parmesan Oregano/Italian).

Anyway, i visited this subway joint with the intention of introducing a healthy fast food alternative to Mr HB on a weekend night and was grossly disappointed by the service crew. They (yes, all of them) served as if their boss owed them 1 year worth of salary.
No smiles, no welcome and they were mostly mumbling to themselves and when one of the patrons asked him to repeat his hardly audible question of choice of sauce. He repeated impatiently while shooting a dirty look to the customer. So much for customer service.The next service crew manning the cookies/drink counter is not much better. Armed with a frown and displaying the same old impatience as the previous server, customers are shoved their cookies and "shoo-ed" off with their "move-your-a**-out-of-the-way" look.

Just want to highlight that in a franchise environment, service is the clear differentiator between the various branches which sadly this joint fails to deliver despite their superior location.

Subway
3 Temasek Boulevard,
#B1-50/51 Suntec City Mall,
Singapore

Bernie's - Good Food; Loopsided Service

I've eaten @ Bernie's many times but this is the first time I am writing a review on this place.

This used to be a favourite with my expat colleagues before one of the founders decide to depart to form "Botak Jones" and the prices of food were sent north.

I would say that the quality of food here is quite good and the portions are quite well-sized.
So far, I have had burgers, fish and chicken which are all well executed.
Their appetizers and salads are also pretty tasty.
Located just opposite the Changi prison, the setting and decor of Bernie's is cozy and relatively american.
If you were to visit after office hours, couple of beers with their appetizers and/or snacks would really complete the day.

However, I do notice that the service is rather geared towards Caucasians which I find hugely disappointing.

Bernie's
961A Upper Changi Road North, Changi Garden, Singapore

Mingles - Money not enuf? Eat here!

This review is written after eating here 3 days in a row.
Does this mean that the food here is fantastic?
Hmm....for the moolah that I have to fork out, I'd say yes.

A little rundown on the value meals.
You get to choose a main course from a list PLUS a drink (coffee, tea or soft drink; top up $1 to get a float) PLUS a dessert/soup with bread roll.
And it is not just any dessert, it is New Zealand Natural ice-cream (1 scoop with waffle or a 2 scoop sundae) all for the price of $11.90 to $15.90.

How can I not go back again and again?

OK, now onto how the food actually taste.

On day 1, I ordered the mushroom chicken fillet.
It's like chicken chop topped with cheese and mushroom.
The combination is chewy due to the mushroom and tangy due to the cheese.
Completed with mashed potato. Decent dish.

On day 2 and 3, I ordered the rosti with 8" sausage.
The fact that I ordered this 2 days in a roll basically means that I prefer this over the chicken. The rosti is ....just rosti but the sausage is very yummy.
You get to choose from a choice of 8 (i think) types of sauages. Sausages and rosti are pan-fried to a good "doneness".

No further introduction needs to be done to the New Zealand Natural ice-cream since I believe almost everyone out on the streets have tried it before.
The waffle is a little tough in my opinion and the sundae is definately a very economical choice for ice-cream lovers.

Mingles
238 Thomson Road,
#02-78/79 Velocity @ Novena Square,
Singapore

Vanilla Pod - Refreshign Ambience

Been here a couple of times, mostly on biz. I was introduced to this place by my customer on one occassion and it has since developed to a "convenient" biz lunch spot for me.

It is a small restaurant located at the entrance of an orchid garden in the middle of Mandai. Imagine a large green house (with air-con of course) overlooking an orchid garden while you dine - that, in essence is Vanilla Pod.

To date, I've tried the fish
1. Black cod
2. Salmon
Both the fish are reasonably tasty for the kind of $$ we have to pay - $26 and $28 respectively. Fresh enuf but not those "melt-in-your-mouth" freshness and a little oily for a fish dish in my opinion.

Meat wise, I've had the
1. Beef stampede - all time favourite with me. Tender and juicy to the bite.
2. Lamb shank - for the hungry brothers and sisters out there. This big piece of well executed meat will satify the carnivore in you. Do give it a try if you are a lamb lover and you will not regret.

Worthy of mention is the mushroom soup which is packed with flavour and full of real mushroom chunks. Not to be missed if you are a soup lover. Comes in generous portion too, do share this if you want to reserve some space for dessert.

Personally, the tiramisu and chocolate truffle are my preferred desserts with this eatery. Creamy and give you a high on sugar rush.
Enjoy....

Must Tries: Beef stampede, lamb shank

Vanilla Pod
200 Mandai Lake Road,
Singapore

Iggy's - Truffles?

This is my first brush with degustation menu.
It was an interesting experience for me to be dining in a restaurant that is voted one of the world's top 100 best restaurant. I had high expectations for the night. True enough, service is impeccable and detailed. No complains here.

Choosing what to eat was simple.
You are either a carnivore in which case you will choose the tasting menu or a herbivore which will land you with the vegetarian menu.

Since this was my first visit and being a non vegatarian, I promptly made up my mind for the tasting menu.At one look, there appears to be many courses but all the portions of each course is petite to enable you to complete the entire menu.

Let the show begin!

Canape
Egg custurd with marinated Ikura ,Pan fried shirako with green curry foam, Pan fried foie gras on apple rice
The egg custurd is delicious and an interesting combination with ikura. The green curry foam is too provoking and I did not finish. Foie gras on apple rice is surprisingly normal.

Caviar
Slow cooked ocean trout with potato mousseline and avruga caviar.
This is one of the dish that I especially liked that night. The ocean trout is very fresh and melts in your mouth. My first encounter with caviar is somewhat disappointing, it sort of taste like Salmon roe to me. But the combination of trout, caviar and potato mousseline complements each other very well.

Cappellini
Chilled Cappellini with scallop tartare, tomato jelly and konbu
OK I am no pasta expert but I definately like my pasta hot. So this dish did not score well with me. However, the scallop tartare oozes freshness which is expected in a place like Iggy's.

Pork
Braised kurobuta pork cheek with onion confit and shaved chinese black truffle.
All I can say is this is a very small pig as I was given a very small piece of pork cheek. This dish did not tickle my taste buds either.

Quail
Charcoal-grilled quail with japanese sweet corn, polenta and rosemary oil.
Hmm...I was told that this is actually the main course. It's quite daunting to think of all the food presented before this are just.....appetizers. The quail is well executed with the skin crispy and meat tender.

Brie
Triple cream brie with black chinese truffle and truffle salsa.
I absolutely hate this dish. Tasted like wood to me. I can only conclude that me and truffles do not mix. After the dinner I was told that truffles are very valuable and highly sought after edible species of fungi. *faint* I literally left this this untouched.

Ice cream
Can't really recall the dessert but it is some mango coconut jelly in pastry with coconut ice-cream.1 word - goodah!

Chocolate
3 types of chocolate but I cannot recall what they are. Nontheless, they all tasted excellent.

Overall, the food is very innovative and all the ingredients are top-notched.
But being a fine dining restaurant, I would take this to be a given. I was expecting a mind-blowing experience which did not happen.

Iggy's
1 Cuscaden Road,
#03-00 The Regent,
Singapore

Brazil Churrasaria - Meat Overdose....

I've eaten here twice and each time I ended up with meat overdose. But the meats here are always well executed. I particularly like the pork sausage, beef topside and fish. Very juicy and tender.I also tried the followingHam - not a favourite with me. Tried it for the sake of trying. Juicy and tender.

Lamb - good control over the fire but it does have a "lamb" taste to it which I find over-powering.I passed on the chicken liver as innards does not go very well with me.

The salad bar can help to break the meat trance a little to offer some variety.Service is attentive and staff are very helpful. I was approached by a few staff to see if I have any special request on seeing my empty plate.

Overall, the food is good and a must try for meat-lovers.

Brazil Churrasaria
14/16 Sixth Avenue,
Singapore

Peach Garden (OCBC Centre) - Fabulous Food with Excellent View

There was a calling for chinese food for a business dinner I was organising and it had to happen during the same period we have hosting the ASEAN submit.

After some thought, I figured it is best to avoid Orchard and Suntec area. But where else can I find good chinese food with condusive environment for biz dinner? Again, zip thru HGW for some ideas and finally decided on peach garden @ OCBC.

And I must say that that was a superb decision. This is the BEST biz dinner I had for this entire year, unless Dec can see us out-doing PG@OCBC.

The orders were not placed by me so I do not the full name of each dish.We started with the cold dish, the presentation is a kinda fusion where we were each presented a small portion of 3 types of food on a long plate - just like the starters at Iggy's. There was some little fried fish which was really crispy and tasted a little like twisties only more flavourful, what tasted to be like fried carrot cake and bean sprouts in a pastry bowl and 2 pcs of roast pork.

We then went on to the roast duck. The duck is very well roasted with tender and juicy meat.Next on is the double boiled shark cartilage soup. The soup has definately been boiled for a very long time, it is extremely delectable with generous ingredients.

We then had the perch fish, which was supposedly the signature dish of the restaurant. The fish is very fresh and juicy and the restaurant mgr told us that they will change the methid of cooking this fish frequently to ensure that customers do not get bored. The taste of this fish is definately something to behold.

After the fish, we had some shell food. I think it's clams of some sort. Fresh, juicy and succulent. The noodles came next. Hmm...How can I describe this? So far this is the most innovative and delicious noodle dish I have had to date. The noodles is presented with 2 tiger prawns in a stock of steamed egg (read: chawanushi) with kai lan. The taste is wonderful and the combination complements each ingredient flawlessly.

We finally rounded things off with royal jelly in coconut which was very refreshing and satifying.In summary, with the exception of the roast duck which was very well done but not extraordinary and the cold dish starter, all the rest of the dishes were excellent.
So much so that I decided to book out CNY dinner with them even b4 seeing their menu....

Must Tries: Perch fish, soup

Peach Garden (OCBC)
65 Chulia Street,
#33-01 OCBC Centre,
Singapore

Picotin - Interesting location with good food

Ahh....This is my first review since the launch of the new site.So I figured that it would be apt for me to write about a new eating place, the the honour goes to....."PICOTIN"

It was meant to be a quick dinner with the big boys (namely, my CEO, M.D and GM) since my CEO was flying out in abt 3 hours' time.The only spoiler was that this dinner was after a horrible "beat-me-up" negotiation with some unreasonable customers, so I was not in the best of mood for a nice dinner.

Being a new eating joint, I was surprised that it was hugely popular (yes, I am also surprised that there are already 13 reviews on this supposedly new eatery).The place was packed on a Thursday night, we managed to get a place outside.

Upon being seated, we were served water immediately and bread shortly after.Set in Turf Club, the menu was set up around horses with horsey names.A note about the breads that was served, it was warm and soft - extremely delicious. Being a bread lover, I had to stop myself for gorging on the bread to save some space for my main course which the Cordon Bleu.
My M.D had the Beef Goulash, CEO had pizza and GM had the same as mini me.For a packed resturant, the main course was served relatively quick - apx 15 mins.The Cordon Bleu was a generous piece of chicken breast meat served in some creamy sauce, potato gratin was also served as a side.The chick was tender and the cream sauce (taste cheesy) was delicious. Potato gratin was lovely as well.
No comments for the pizza or Beef Goulash since I dared not pick off the plates of my big bosses.

We all had coffee to round off since we are all full and had no room for desserts.

Picotin
100 Turf Club Road,
Singapore

Restaurante De Parma - Tiramisu!

Never realised that there is this eatery in serangoon garden when I eat breakfast here almost every other day.
I was looking for a place to take my customer for lunch with decent food and not too far away from his workplace.

After browsing thru a few reviews, I decided on this restaurant.
Serangoon Garden is one of the places I avoid because of parking. The lots there generally require you to parallel park.
But I found out that there is this Serangoon Village that have ample parking spaces within short walking distance to the eateries.

It was a small eatery with nice ambience. It was relatively quiet when we arrived, infact I think we were the only customers then.
However, we were joined by a couple of caucasians shortly after.

Iced water was served immediately upon seating, followed shortly by foccacia bread decked with herbs. It has a strong taste of herbs only that it is really a small piece.

I was then informed that there is a citibank promotion that entitles me to 1 free main course when I order 3.
I was a little sad to here that as there is only 3 of us. But being the quick-witted me, I promptly suggested that we have the fourth main course - 4-season pizza to share instead of ordering apetitzers to make sure we maximize our benefits. Heh heh.

The 4 seasons pizza is delicious and flavourful with thin and crispy crust.
We then have our individual main course with me having cod fish, my customer having chicken and lamb shank.
The cod fish is very fresh, served with caviar.
The lamb shank looked delicious while the chicken served on penne looked kinda ordinary.

Everyone had no complains about their main course.

We finished off our lunch with a Tiramisu which was really lovely - wet with liquer topped with lots of choco power and coffee.

Must Tries: Tiramisu

Restaurante De Parma
14B Kensington Park Road,
Serangoon Garden Estate,
Singapore

Casa Roma Restaurante Pizzeria - Good Variety of Food

I've passed by this restaurant countless times but it never occured to me to eat here as I did not find the restuarant decor/signboard appleaing in any way. And if I were looking for Italian food, I usually head straight to Pasta Fresca.

I was introduced to this place by my GM.
It was after a late evening visit to a customer that we had out dinner at this restaurant.
Me and 3 other male colleagues who all happens to be my boss directly or indirectly. Naturally, in a situation as such, the ordering of the food was not done by me.

Starters
1. Caprese con pomodori sechi - Fresh mozzarella cheese with sundried tomato &home made pesto. I was told this is a very popular italian apetitizer but I personally did not really like this dish as I find it relatively tasteless.
2. Calamari - The calamari is well battered and fried to a good crisp.I enjoy this with the various dips available.
3.Funghi misti in padella - Panfried mushrooms with white wine & herbs.The mushroom was also very tasty and nicely pan-fried.

Main Course
Filetto di manzo al gorgonzola - Tenderloin steak with gorgonzola cheese sauce. The steak was juicey and very well executed. Served with cheeese sauce, the steak is a very pleasing to the palate.
The lamb rack looks very delicious too. I figured if I visit again, this will be the dish I will order.

Dessert
Definately tiramisu for dessert in Italian restaurant! The tiramisu did not disappoint - suitably wet with a layer of choco powder.

We rounded off dinner with coffee and 4 full and satisfied customers.

Must Tries: Tenderloin steak

Casa Roma Restaurante Pizzeria
833 Bukit Timah Road, #01-09 Royal Ville, Singapore

Au Petit - Good Food at good price

I've just realised that more than half of my food reviews are results of my work related entertainment.
So hereby, a quick note of gratitude to my company for giving me this opportunity to satisfy my gluttony side without having to burn a hole in my pocket.

Back to Au Petit.Today, I had a lunch appointment at this quaint restaurant as a farewell meal.
The place was surprisingly packed for a weekday lunch; luckily we made reservations prior to coming.
This is the first time I am in the Dempsey vicinty and Au Petit is located in a peaceful little corner in the Dempsey area off Harding Road.

We were seated outside as the air-conditioned area is fully seated.
The surrounding was very soothing as it was away from the main road and not too many commercial/industrial activites around. You can actually hear the noises made by little insects. This would be a great weekend hideout for afternoon tea with your loved one.

We were served water instantly upon sitting and bread followed shortly after.
We then placed our orders and started making small talk.
The servers were quick to top up our glasses as we started nibbling on the free flow of bread and drinking from our glasses.

It took quite a while for the apeitizer to be served, I was worried that my growling stomach noises will start to get noticeable.
The apetizers are
1. Burgandy snails
2. Tomato tart with herbs
3. Lobster claw salad
4. Duck Liver Pate
Snails were a little disappointing as it tasted like clams from zi char stores to me, the lobster claw were kinda tasteless. I did not try the duck liver nor tomato tart. At this point I was thinking if the entire meal is gg to taste like this, I'm definately gg to need some other "comfort" food later.

However, the main course and dessert managed to save the day.

I ordere the Beef Cheeks as main and it was delicious, very tender and melts in your mouth. I had a little of the Rissotto rice which was creamy and tasted good as well. I was told the Beef "Onglet" was normal and the Penne pasta was ok but not extraoridinary.

For desserts, there were orders for
1. Choux buns
2. Cheese platter
3. Fruits and sorbet
4. Sugar-free mousse.
The Choux Buns were heavenly, 2 large scope of vanilla ice-cream in between the buns amid plentiful slices of almond and drizzled with chocolate fudge. It was delightful. The sugar free mousse was bitter sweet and packed with chocolate flavour.
Cheese platter and the mixed fruits with sorbet did not really appeal to me and I did not try them.

All in all, I would rate this as a very pleasant dining experience and value-for money french food which I intend to introduce to my husband.

Must Tries: Beef Cheek, Choux Bun

Au Petit Salut (Dempsey)
40C Harding Road,
Tanglin Village (Dempsey Road),
Singapore