Food Glorious Food

Itacho

2012-02-07T22:39:00.000+08:00

crabby was going to walk me to the train station when we passed by itacho and there was no queue so we decided to go for a quick meal. feels more like a celebration that way...

introduced her to my true love - roasted fish dorsal sushi. she loved it.

and my usual favourites.

Philip Street Roast Pork

2012-02-07T22:37:00.002+08:00

appointments at raffles place gave me a chance to savour the philip street roast pork stall that i miss!

standards seem to have dropped a little but still good enough for me!

i also like the fish soup from the same coffeeshop!

the fish is thick and yummy.

Hung Kang Teochew Restaurant

2012-02-06T22:00:00.001+08:00

stella's company lunch at Hung Kang...

long heard about this place but never visited.

as its cny, we started off with yu sheng. first time trying teochew yu sheng...

aside from the more common salmon, they use the raw fish you'd sometimes get from chicken rice stalls and sesame sauce for seasoning. its pretty good...

lots more greens and feels much healthier yet still taste good.

next is the vegetable dish..

the famous braised goose..

was not bad.

roast suckling pig....

not bad as well.

not exactly sure if this is hay chor or ngoh heong with fried prawns..

not bad.

steamed fish...

fish is a little overcooked hence a little hard but overall ok.

fried noodle...

usually i won't really have noodles but their fried noodles are pretty tasty in my view.

and of coz, dessert! it was the popular yam paste! was so looking forward...

sadly, the creative chef added orange peel to it. doesnt quite go well with me. i prefer it sweet but the orange peel just spoilt it for me.

Red House Seafood Restaurant

2012-02-02T21:39:00.000+08:00

after work was our team lou hei at the red house along robertson quay.

Mariners' Corner Restaurant & Steak House

2012-02-02T21:38:00.000+08:00

since sherlyn missed dinner the other day, we arranged for lunch today. Marc proposed this place located at the Maritime House called Mariners' Corner....

the very old school western restaurant kind of setting...

out of the 5 of us, 3 of us ordered the sirloin steak lunch ($10.80).

the soup of the day was seafood chowder...

the seafood chowder was decent.

i upgraded my soup at $3 to a lobster bisque...

the lobster bisque was fine in terms of taste, just not thick enough.

complimentary garlic bread...

shared an escargots which was decent...

sirloin steak...

not the best around but no complains given its price.

marc opted for salmon...

didnt try but it seems overdone.

crystal's dory...

complimentary dessert was a piece of chocolate cake...

marc ordered an extra dessert which is a ball of hazelnut ice cream...

Seah Street Deli

2012-01-30T21:12:00.002+08:00

after work, met up with squid and clam for dinner. we couldnt decide what to have so decided to meet up at bugis first. Seah street deli came to mind but when we entered, we kind of left upon seeing the prices. $30 for a salad!?

we adjourned to ms clarity cafe (a place that we werent even sure if it still exists). it was except it seems very different now. they only serve buffet dinner and for tonight it was fully booked coz they apparently sold some coupons online.

soooo.. i made them head back to seah street deli because my mind was already set on the pot roast and salad. heh

we shared a fish and chips...

supposedly quite special to have some duno what cheese inside. not really. i think my house downstairs the western food stall one is even nicer. but then again, its not exactly bad.

beef pot roast....

love the sauce. its very good with mashed potato below. beef is thinly sliced but not very tender.

my freaking expensive salad...

wheres my thick stripes of beef.

without the feed at raffles discount for amex cards, i dont think i will ever return to seah street deli for its super expensive salads.

Happy Crab

2012-01-30T20:56:00.000+08:00

happy crab! located at geylang lorong 31...

marc swears by this place. the bbq crab, seasoned with salt and pepper..

with loads of egg roe....

everyone gave their thumbs up.

Bar Stories

2012-01-29T12:04:00.000+08:00

after dinner, we thought of heading for some drinks and bar stories came to mind....

wasnt sure if we'd get seats coz am under the impression its usually mad packed but i guess we were lucky...

i strongly recommended the strawberry shortcake and minako ordered that...

as it was shared around, true enough, everyone was in awe. wow! its really good!

and as usual, there really wasnt a menu or so.. it was all ordered by adjectives. like i want it sweet, i want something sour, i want something exciting.

keiji wanted something sweet and he got a kyoto grape something...

it was nice too.

i requested for a honeydew sake...

which was what joanne ordered the other time and i remember it was good.

loh gong zai wanted something sweet so he got a passionfruit something...

and for round 2, minako wanted something sweet. the bartender Jeffrey asked if she likes chocolate and she said yes. i thot he was going to prepare the chocolate flambe martini for her like the last time but it came up to be this...

initially we were all wondering, wheres the chocolate? is this the right drink? until minako took it up, gave it a sniff and ohhhhh it smells like chocolate! and it tastes of chocolate although we couldnt see the chocolate. it was good too.

loh gong zai wanted something refreshing and exciting and he got a rosemary drink. really some excitement going on there....

the burning of the rosemary added flavours to the drink.

and keiji wanted something sweet and exciting so he got the chocolate flambe martini...

yummy!

warm on the outside, chilled inside. thank you jeffrey and bar stories for the great cocktails.

Brazil Churrasco

2012-01-29T12:02:00.006+08:00

today we are having dinner at Brazil Churrasco because loh gong zai wanted me to think of a place with buffet and with lots of meat coz keiji likes loads of meat. Brazil Churrasco is the obvious choice. Located along sixth avenue....

oh yeah, we're ready for meat and more meat!

they give out those bag hangers for ladies, mine matches my dress!

first you start off at the salad bar...

good variety of items but i reminded the three of them to take sparingly because the meat that's coming up will be killers....

they each othered a cocktail. apparently this is a brazilian drink. its like a really strong lime mojito...

and not before long, the servers start coming out with skewers of meat!

garlic beef..

the guys love the garlic beef and went for more!

rump beef....

love the rump beef!

fish...

fish is decent but seriously, if you dont take beef, not worth coming to this buffet.

chicken...

chicken is ok as well but seriously, its the BEEF (and probably lamb) that scores.

pork ribs...

good taste but not very meaty.

chicken heart....

today's one was ok. a little rubbery in texture. i remember previous time i had it was better.

beef ham...

i like the beef ham as well.

Tenderloin...

tenderloin is a bit too tough today.

PINEAPPLES!!

love their pineapples! soooooooooooooo sweet!!! everyone had many portions of the pineapple!

smoked duck...

their smoked duck is great as well.

ham...

didnt try the ham because as it got here, i was stuffed to the max already!

oh and totally forgot about this starter which is a cheese taste like pastry...

minako and keiji really liked it. i thought it was ok.

Cold Storage

2012-01-29T12:02:00.000+08:00

its ren ri, 7th day of cny and mummy prepared yu sheng with super thick pieces of sashimi that i like!!!

YUMMY!!

yu sheng is from cold storage and its not bad!

HUAT AH!!!

Hotel Intercontinental - The Lounge

2012-01-28T20:51:00.000+08:00

and after lunch, they wanted coffee / tea so we headed over to the lounge and mr tan ordered more food though we were all stuffed!

he ordered a 4 tier high tea...

i had a hot chocolate...

and we also shared a dozen of satay...

Chikuyotei

2012-01-28T20:44:00.001+08:00

arranged to go bai nian with mr tan and being the usual generous boss, he brought us for lunch at the japanese restaurant at hotel intercontinential - Chikuyotei...

the thick and heavy menu...

we each ordered a different set menu and shared the dishes. some of the delicate starters...

the special and worth mentioning one is the vegetable jelly. its something uncommon though taste is not extraordinary.

tempura...

sashimi...

tea pot soup...

kurobuta pork...

the pork is not bad, pretty tender.

but what is most wow is their wagyu beef!!

the beef is really tender and tasty! although its a freaking small portion.. it also has a very very interesting brown cube beside. its very special. its a cube of soya sauce. the texture is very unique and burst into liquid in the mouth. i really enjoyed it!

sushi...

cha soba...

dessert was their sorbert...

Ochre

2012-01-27T13:07:00.002+08:00

today we celebrate vreniz's birthday. we decided to break away from our lawrys tradition and vreniz gave me the task of selecting a nice and good place. Ochre came to mind because if lionel can choose this venue for his wedding, this place must be good!

located at level 11 of orchard central....

one pick of this place is how despite it (kind of) being a fine dining place, they pack the guests together. when we got there, there was only about 3 tables of people but they had to pack us side by side. the tables were so near we can really hear each other's conversations which can be quite uncomfortable. in my view they can easily sit us further away since there were so many other vacant tables around.

we were first served the complimentary bread basket...

i like the bread they offered, the one with tomatoe on top. and they gave out a special dip. its a tuna dip....

its really yummy! i had two servings of the dip! vreniz initially didn't try it until much later and suddenly in the midst of our conversation she went.. " zhe ge hen hao chi!! " hahaha

for starter, we had a grilled octopus thingy...

hmm.. i didnt find it really good. it was a little boring to me. the texture was ok, not the bouncy kind that i like but it was not hard either. but vreniz liked it. she said its quite nice and she said that coming from her who doesnt really eat octopus.

for mains, vreniz chose a duck confit...

the duck confit was not bad. vreniz liked it.

i chose the veal cheeks...

the veal cheeks were put together into a block.... a small block (so small :( )

the texture was alright.. although i prefer it in bigger chucks.

they also had a truffled potato croquette. it was pretty nice.

so naturally, the small block of veal cheeks were not enough to satisfy me so i went ahead to order another main. its a veal chop which is not on their menu. they informed us of their chef special for the day before we placed our order. i saw the lady beside me order it and it looks damn fine!

i heard the lady order a medium rare earlier and i heard her vaguely mention that its a little too done. so when i placed my order, i was very clear to mention medium RARE and i said it clearly twice.

it still came medium...

i pointed it out to the server who brought it to the kitchen and brought it back to me to insist this is medium rare. not very happy .. not the kind of service i'd expect but ok. the taste was not bad and it was relatively tender. would be much better if its done medium rare (for me).

a tiramisu cake for vreniz...

their tiramisu is reallllly good. its really moist below. i really really like it.

Crystal Jade Kitchen

2012-01-22T11:37:00.000+08:00

reunion dinner at home. dad got peng chai from crystal jade this year...

didnt like it as much as the ones from tung lok the other time. this one is effectively stuffed with lots of pig trotters with more skin than meat which doesnt work for me. taste wise was ok.

Wa Bar

2012-01-21T16:17:00.002+08:00

after my manicure, took a bus down to tanjong pagar to meet up with snowy and praise. snowy recommended this korean pub along tanjong pagar...

the bar has a very ranch feeling...

great selection of alcohol...

interestingly, they have many neon long containers to let patrons record the drinks they've consumed (i think)...

praise had the soju. 19% alcohol content i think....

snowy had some german beer she said...

the food and drinks here are really pricey. their 2 drinks and a dish came up to about $75!! and because i was late, this is what i managed to capture of their dish.. its a hot cheese chicken fondue thingy served on a sizzling hot plate..

the chicken was not bad, tender but still think its way too expensive. this will be a good place to chill if not for the prices.

Pasta Inc.

2012-01-20T02:52:00.001+08:00

about a week back or so, i saw a deal on voucherlicious (not going to hyperlink because i am feeling damn cheated!!) about a 4 course italian meal at Pasta Inc.

I usually will not buy food vouchers despite being a foodie because i dread the idea of getting stuck with a voucher but not being able to utilise it because too many people have bought the voucher and everyone will try to use it during the stipulated timeline. i do also take location in mind. some locations like the bird park etc will be too inconvenient for me.

however, this deal caught my eye although its actually not cheap. Its $38. Most food deals on these coupon sites are usually around $15 to $20+.....

But when i read through the menu, i liked it almost immediately! the crabmeat in pink sauce.. that portobello mushroom with truffle oil!! SQUID INK!! BEEF TENDERLOIN!!

and the pictures displayed to entice the deal...

the photos above were extracted from voucherlicious itself and they were taken from Sparklette.net. the extracts of the reviews further got me sold on the deal. I shared the deal on fb to see if anyone is interested and Aaron responded after checking out the deal. We fixed a date to head down together today!

I WAS really LOOKING FORWARD to the portobello, the crabmeat pasta, the squid ink and the tenderloin!

located along keong saik street....

as i got there, aaron has already arrived and he looked at me in his semi sian face telling me.. " they are serving different from the web "

i was like.. how come? how can it be?

and there it was, staring in my face, the menu....

HUH? i didn't come here for parma ham! i do like parma ham but i can have parma ham anywhere! i can buy parma ham from supermarket! and you are replacing my crabmeat/squidink with sausage?! AND IN A BORING TOMATO SAUCE?!!

AND WHERE IS MY BEEF??? you are changing my beef to chicken BREAST and pork??

SERIOUSLY, WTF?!!

i requested for their ala carte menu to take a look. and you know, the portobello mushroom suggested on voucherlicious IS NO LONGER ON THE MENU. Den why did they even put it there to lure people to take on the voucher?

AND, the breaded pork and chicken breast on today's menu is also not included in their ala carte menu (i took pictures of every page of their ala carte menu because i was just too angry!!!! and i went home to slowly compare!!) - which makes me THINK and FEEL that they are substituting my beef to pork and chicken breast coz its cheaper!

we tried to reason with the lady server who is totally not sympathetic yet seems very well versed in such situations. I suppose we arent the only or the first to feel so upset hence she handled the situation in a ya-this-is-not-the-first-time-im-hearing-such-complains attitude.

she very calmly took our voucher and highlighted the fine print to us.. " Mdm, please check here.. Menu Special Changes Weekly."

I admit we are at fault for missing out the fine prints. but i do also feel that we are strongly misled. like that portobello, since its already not on your menu why do you still use it to lure people into THINKING that is part of the menu? And if your menu didnt have the boring sounding breaded pork and chicken breast, why do you suddenly have it for the menu, because its cheaper??

and honestly, i feel very upset because i feel very DISSATISFIED. The whole day i WAS LOOKING FORWARD to dinner tonight and already thinking about the items on the illustrated menu! You understand the anticipation of thinking you will get to enjoy certain food only to find out it has been replaced with loads of boring stuff? All the courses have been replaced. the starter, the pasta, the mains and the dessert!

I mean seriously, i think i won't be this angry if they offered the same exact menu YET the taste sucks. I will just blame it on my bad luck.. that im just sway that the food didnt taste good. but in this case, i only just feel cheated!

Also, even if they seriously wanted to do a change in items, you should at least MAINTAIN THE QUALITY. usually when restaurants want to replace things, they will replace it with something of a value ON PAR. But how can you replace crab meat or squid ink with pork sausage?! or beef with chicken breast or breaded pork!? we tried to reason this with the lady telling her.. " even if you want to change, you should at least have items of same quality .. how can you replace beef and crabmeat to sausage and chicken breast? "
and she said.. " yes mdm sometimes our quality will be different " so i asked her " so you are agreeing with me that the quality is different from that from the web menu? " and she said " no mdm, i am not saying that "

COME ON LA. YOU DON'T KAY KAY WITH ME!!

we asked to speak to a manager, she said she is the officer in charge and again very calmly, she said to us.. " mdm if you would like to complain please contact the voucher company directly " and she repeated this twice to push me over to the voucher company and even offered to give me the contact name and number of the voucher company.

her offer was we can come back another time maybe after cny where there may be a next menu change.

hello, why would i still want to make another trip down? its not like the most convenient location around either.

subsequently, she said to us .. " so mdm, you can choose to use the voucher or not ". BUY ALREADY PAY $38 DON'T USE DEN DO WHAT?

We made a call to the marketing manager of voucherlicious (luckily the lady gave us his mobile number because its already after office hours) and expressed our unhappiness about this deal.

the manager told us he is the marketing manager and the restaurant person should not be giving us number. Seriously, i don't think its most appropriate to disturb him with his family meal after office hours BUT in this situation,i'm sorry, i'm too angry to care!!

he asked me if i can negotiate with the restaurant directly - which obviously i tried and failed!

he asked me what is it that i think he can do to resolve the problem for us now. i told him either i leave now and they give me a full refund OR serve me exactly what is on the menu illustrated on the website. he said he can't decide and needs to check with management but he suggested i take pictures and send an email to them. I sure will!!!!

in the end, we LL had to continue with the meal. it was 9 plus and we were honestly hungry.

i believe many companies go into such marketing deals in bid to increase awareness for their business. But seriously, if you can't AFFORD to honour your deal, don't even offer a deal in the first place. I mean let's face it, most of us BUY a deal only coz we think its wu hua for us!

having said that, it should be apparent that i can easily afford dining here and paying full price for those items that i have been excitedly anticipating for. I do dine out often and italian restaurants are common for me. More expensive ones also eat before. But now you have just made me damn buay song!

you open restaurant, u want people to enjoy your food, have a happy meal. why would you stoop to this? i don't understand.

anyway, food arrived. (don't worry, i will still give my honest review)

prawns in butter and white wine sauce...

the prawn is pretty good. it is pretty tasty. aaron agreed.

parma ham and melon...

i like parma ham! you can't really go wrong with parma ham.

seafood in saffron sauce...

the seafood in saffron sauce was also pretty good.

breaded pork...

the breaded pork is really good. its thin but its really tender! the seasoning is nice and the breaded batter isnt too thick.

grilled chicken breast...

i simply don't like chicken breast. aaron found it ok.. not too dry so pretty ok.

dessert was tiramisu...

the tiramisu is not bad.

while i must say overall the food has been nice, i won't support a place which i feel has bad ethics. likewise, i probably will not be buying any food vouchers from voucherlicious because the fine prints seem to suggest and put me in a very bad position.

can you imagine if tonight they suka suka change their starter to haybe and ikan billis? and because of that fine print, i just have to LL accept??

having said that, to mr alex of voucherlicious, i do appreciate you took a bit of your time to handle my complain although you couldn't resolve it for me on the spot. But i don't think this is the way the business should be done. Once bitten, twice shy.

Superdog

2012-01-19T15:41:00.000+08:00

lunch with the driver.. was craving for teochew porridge but ended up vivo coz he needed to visit starhub. ended up at superdog coz he wants his fries!

i had my supreme dog...

admittedly, their supreme dog is really good. the hot dog is really juicy and i love the combination of the bacon and onions and the juicy dog with their sauce.

driver had a non beef one...

which is apparently not very nice! haha.. too bad coz he doesnt eat beef.

shared a cheese fries...

Oscars

2012-01-18T15:49:00.002+08:00

loh gong zai was asking me for places to bring his friend and he evaluated the suggestions using yummyyummyyummy and eventually he extended the invitation to me! he wanted buffet so naturally oscars came to mind first coz its the most recent buffet i've just had. ritz and triple 3 were also top in terms of my recommendations. we eventually went for oscars.

oscar's weekday spread isnt as good as weekend spread. there wasnt even any beef :(

but overall, the meal was good and what i find good about conrad hotel is their service. the staffs are always so friendly and ready to be of help or greet you. kudos to that.

cheese spread...

savoury stuff...

oysters only come from one country today. haha...

the noodle bar's bak kut teh which was really good...

wanton soup...

Victor's Kitchen

2012-01-18T15:49:00.001+08:00

arranged for lunch with the cousins over at Victor's Kitchen. I've heard lots about this place for their dim sum! located over at sunshine plaza...

very crowded during lunch time...

sadly there was no har gao. and because it was very packed, service was greatly discounted.

out of the many things we ordered above, i think i really liked the carrot cake but that aside, i wasnt very much wow-ed or impressed.

and their popular liu sha bao...

which my little cousin liked a lot. she had 3!

and their milk tea...

Que Pasa

2012-01-14T15:55:00.000+08:00

we meant to head for supper at esplanade's glutton's bay but kaizhi's sudden craving for ICB's wings got us over to somerset. ICB was packed, we thought of No. 5 until Elrin pointed out that this Que Pasa in between the two places actually has the same kitchen...

i saw a very interesting item on the menu and i requested for it. rosette of swiss cheese....

so pretty! like a big white flower! served with crackers and i love the cheese!!

and of course, their yummy and damn popular chicken wings!

I like Que Pasa. Its less crowded and quite cosy

Oscars

2012-01-13T20:18:00.002+08:00

i had to kill time till 10pm. clammy kept me company and by about 7plus we were freak bored and decided to find an activity that will keep us entertained. we decided to do buffet!

gosh, been a while since i ate so full! it was freaking expensive! $78++ per person. Citibank card offers a 15% discount and after discount was $78 per pax. but i must say the selection was really good and the food were in general very tasty and yummy.

Oscars...

they had a good selection of chilled seafood. from the usual prawns and mussels etc, they also had crab and crayfish...

and their oysters were from 4 different countries! there was france, canada and hmm cannot remember already. but they were so yummy! freshly opened in front of you and taste really fresh! even clammy who doesn't really take oysters like it...

their sashimi was also really fresh. love the swordfish!

and i really liked their savoury sections too because its yummy! many hotel buffets may excel in the sashimi and chilled seafood but their savoury dishes are not up to it (although yes i know, most people who go for hotel buffet find the savoury dishes a waste of stomach storage space.. haha)

they had beef stew, garoupa, chill crayfish and some chicken thingy and some duno wat noodles...

the beef stew was not bad.

and i like their selection of keropok!!

particularly like that one with the black pepper bits. taste a bit like papadum, clammy and i loved it!

other savoury dishes...

the ravioli, the braised veal cheeks, the cream fish were good! and i forgot to take pic of a steamed promfret that they had. deboned... Awwww damn yummy!

and fish wise they also had indonesian baked fish...

AND they had baked salmon!

they really good a good selection of things. even salt they had like 5 -6 different kinds! like black salt, mushroom salt, garlic salt, citrus salt or something! feel so semi atas!

tempura....

they also had a local delights section with laksa, bak kut teh, bak chor mee etc. we only tried the laksa coz its some signature. the laksa damn good!

they also have my favourite cheese selection...

their cheese spread is damn good!

desserts!

ice cream!!

i had vanilla and maple walnut! its damn good ice cream!

their chocolate hazelnut cake is also really good!

St James Beer Garden

2012-01-12T19:22:00.001+08:00

arranged to meet up with the tai tais after work at st james beer garden by food republic because daphne strongly recommended their bbq prawns...

its a small little hub of all the local delicacies. we ordered a few items to share!

fried prawn noodles...

the fried prawn noodles were not bad. its the famous one where there are always long Qs at food republic.

the bbq prawns...

decent sized and its good mainly coz the uncle adds this seasoning on top. a bit like the lok lok kind.

satay that came with the bbq prawns. set of 10 prawns + 10 chicken + 10 beef ($32). uncle is a bit blur so may mix the beef up with mutton...

satay was so so.

stingray!

stingray is decent and i like stingray!

the super nice orr jian!!

oysters are big and the jian is crispy. very yummy!

Arirang

2012-01-04T19:12:00.000+08:00

met up with lydia with manna (a korean restaurant) in mind. i cant get my mind off the frankfurt arirang's potato side dish and the pork ribs soup!

funny thing is, lydia was telling me she just HAD manna for lunch!! but i still forced her to go with me coz i have major cravings for the potato.

sadly, Manna today didnt have the greasy chilled potato thingy so we walked around. actually, tanjong pagar area seems to have loads of korean restaurants. we somehow walked along amoy street and saw ....

i was quite excited! another Arirang! Although this is apparently a very common name for korean restaurants and upon checking, they have the potato thingy that i've been craving for.

korean tea...

side dishes offered....

the side dishes were ok. the potato was not as i kind of expected. i think manna's one is better and of coz the frankfurt arirang's one is the best!

for my soup wise, i ordered a beef slice soup (not on the menu) because i wanted a non spicy one...

not very good in my view.

lydia's tofu kimchi soup...

ate it.

Waroeng Penyet

2012-01-01T14:08:00.000+08:00

i met up with them after their dinner and they decided to have dessert. ah chew and ji de chi were both packed so i suggested waroeng penyet because i remember they had this really nice beef ball soup thingy which i can have. the rest of them had chendol etc.

the beef ball soup...

its as good as i remember it! the soup is tasty and the meatballs and yummy. i wish i had specified only for the tang hoon and opt out the yellow noodles. but yeah, it was a nice bowl of soup!

Blossom Garden Korean BBQ

2012-01-01T14:07:00.000+08:00

today is the nuasters belated xmas gathering. we decided to head to garden flowers korean bbq along tan quee lan street because after reading my entry about it, they have been meaning to try it...

they have apparently changed their name and revised the prices. now its called Blossom Garden Korean BBQ.

there were 5 of us, they gave us a four seater. deanie said he almost want to chao jia with the person. for bbq to be given a 4 seater is totally uncomfortable. so i told them to enjoy the food while i skipped dinner and went shopping around bugis.

also, given it is now $25, i dont think it is worth the money at all.