Happened to be on the 4th floor of The Cathay yesterday. And happened to see a familiar sign at the corner. It was Astons Specialties! They've just opened this new outlet on Friday, 4 July 2008.
Am very happy to see that they had keep the price and no service charge policy at this new outlet although its in town. The place is very clean and simple. No fancy decor. Just monochromatic pictures on the walls, and simple and comfy tables and chairs neatly aligned. There is also outdoor sittings which wasn't set-up yet when I was there. (It's only day 2 of their operations!) There's also the familiar chalkboard with the day's special written on it.
Feeling hungry at 4pm, as I didn't eat anything since that morning, I ordered the Prime Ribeye X'tra Cut with fries and pasta salad ($16.50), and a glass of ice lemon tea ($1.80).
The fries was crispy and nice. Just like those I had at Astons Express. I love them! And the pasta salad was fresh and the pasta was cooked just right. The prime ribeye was cooked to the right medium-rare and the meat was tender, chewy and juicy. I cleared the entire plate (which was relatively huge) on my own!
If you're craving for good and reasonably priced steak in town, why not go to The Cathay for Astons Specialties?
After almost a day(btwn 9am and 3pm) fighting over where to eat (it was between Relish & Brown Sugar).
Brown Sugar emerged the winner(mainly cos i really wanted to try the Wagyu Burger. Managed to squeeeze in a reservation @ 630(as long as we are outta there by 9(from the way i eat confirm can).
So by 645, my date and I were seated in the quaint and very cosy restaurant and deciding on what to order. Who am I kidding, I was sold on the Hand chopped Wagyu Burger(with pan fried foie gras duh).
My date had the tenderloin. I was undecided if i wanted mine to be medium or medium rare as recommended cos well blood=urgh for me. But the waitress suggested makin mine med rare and if it was still not good for me, can cook it to a medium.
The complimentary bread was good. Warm and the herbs made it so good i ate it minus the olive oil. Tho i did ask for butter.
This being my first time eatin Wagyu, i tried the patty waryly but i was floating in air after the first bite. Despite being medium rare, it was cooked just rite. not bloody at all and very juicy and yum. Even my date liked it. I completely neglected my foie gras wic i noticed only towards the end of the meal. It was the best burger I had hands down. And i was tellin my date how I wanted to buy another one to takeaway(of coz i was jokinglah). The tenderloin was ok. Im not big on steaks anyway. But he did look like he was havin a hard time cuttin it(get medium rare somemorelah).
We had the chocolate molten cake for dessert. While I liked the ice cream, i found the cake abit too thick and bitter for my taste. But it was oryt. Date liked it.
Service by both the staff was good. Despite full house, we didnt have to struggle to get their attention. And i loved loved loved my burger. Looks like my salmon craze is over.
At least for now
Oh and they have a private dining room wic seats abt 24. Quite good for big groups.
Had a farewell dinner here for my manager. We had ala carte buffet for everyone. The price per pax was quite reasonable considering the variety we could choose from. There were like 18 dishes to choose from, like tomyam seafood soup (my favourite!!), pad Thai, sambal kangkong, pandan chicken, satay, rendang, sweet and sour fish, prawns (forgot the name, look at the photograph), green curry etc.
The dishes tasted average only in my opinion. Not fantastic but not bad.
The tomyam seafood soup was good though. There were sufficient seafoods inside and the soup's sourness and spicyness were just nice.
The service staff were quite efficient.
One good factor about this restaurant was the interior design of it. It was quite artistic and different compared to other common restaurants.
Well overall I'd still rate it as average. May or may not go back depending on my mood. Hehe...
This is a kiosk at Raffles MRT Exchange. Very near my office too. It sells stuff like apple strudels, peach strudels, eclairs of different flavours like strawberry, chocolate, coffee, vanila, double chocolate, bailey coffee, etc and other kinds of pastries which I can't really remember now.
I went to buy durian puffs from them some time ago. This week I bought them again and introduced them to my colleague. My colleague fell in love with it and went to buy more for herself and other colleagues. Other colleagues tried and were then giving good comments on the durian puffs.
They cost $3.50 for 3 pieces in a box. Expensive? To me they are....what do you think?
You will see the size of the puff in the photographs I have attached.
However, the durian filling in the puff is considered alot. Look at the photographs you will see how much inside. The taste is really good too......
My colleagues and I will surely go back to get more :P
Oh by the way, some time ago I also bought the peach strudel. It's very nice as well. Something different for me instead of the usual apple strudel.
Was back at Mingles for lunch one weekday afternoon because I wanted to try out their seemingly inexpensive set lunches. It also helped that the place was virtually empty.
Complimentary Bread & Cream of Pumpkin - I didn't think too much of either the complimentary bread or the cream of pumpkin soup. The bread was well, bread that you can get off the shelves at any supermarket. The cream of pumpkin was way too sweet for my liking and I don't know if my tastebuds were playing tricks on me, but the soup actually tasted very strongly of curry powder.
Crispy Salmon with Couscous - I tried a little of this and found it quite decent with the skin pan fried till crispy. There was also a noticeable absence of the overpowering (to me) fishy taste that is common to salmons. I didn't quite fancy the couscous though, but thats just a personal preference.
Crispy Chicken With Yogurt - Served up atop a mound of subtly sweet mashed sweet potato, the crispy chicken was surprisingly quite good with its crisp skin and succulent meat. However the down side to crispy skin is the inordinate amount of oil that comes with it. And I couldn't taste any yogurt at all.
Ice Cream in Waffle Basket - The ice cream tasted rather normal although it was supposed to be from New Zealand. The waffle basket tasted funny though , dry with a kept for too long in the cupboard taste.
2 set lunches set us back by about $48, which puts it in the mid range for set lunch prices. Service is still excellent and the environment is definitely cosy. Will definitely drop by for lunch again.
This is so far the best stall I've ever tried for fish soup, and fish bee hoon soup. Be it sliced fish or fried fish, with or without milk, they all taste really good!
Ever since I've tried the fish soup / fish bee hoon soup here, I have never been satisfied with those sold elsewhere...really "no horse run". LOL.
Everyday, the queue is long during lunch time.
During rainy days, the queue can extend till the outside of the cafeteria. However, the service is quite fast. The woman behind the stove cooks quite fast. But she is so busy that sometimes she may forget to add milk to your soup. Not to worry, you can always ask the cashier to add the milk for you later.
I can eat the sliced fish bee hoon soup every week during lunch hour.
The soup tastes great. Quite different from the other fish soups I've tried before.
Moreover, with the evaporated milk, the result is an aromatic and milky soup! A mixture of saltiness and sweetness...
In the soup, there are thick and fresh pieces of fish, vegetable, seaweed, si chuan vegetables, and tofu (for soup only, not for bee hoon soup).
The si chuan vegetables make the soup taste abit more unique I guess.
The bee hoon is also cooked just nice - not too hard and not too soft.
The chilli paste is marvellous! Don't think it's available else where! I love the chilli paste alot. I like to mix it into my bee hoon soup. It adds spiciness and abit of sourness to the taste. Shiok!!
Everytime I eat this, I'd finish the whole bowl of soup.
It'd be advisable to bring tissue paper if you eat here because you may perspire from eating the hot soup and chilli paste. Also, the downside is that the cafeteria is quite cramp during lunch hours, and the air-conditioner is not strong enough.
Sliced or fried fish bee hoon soup costs $3.70.
Sliced or fried fish soup costs $3.20.
Rice costs $0.50.
Dinner once again at Seah Street Deli, my choice of a hearty western meal in a laid back and noisy environment, when I have the money of course.
Nice American diner style place to eat in, complete with a full size jukebox that belts out perennial favourites. Reminded me of the small diners I used to frequent in North American when I was still a student. Only difference is that this one didn't come with booth seats.
Cheese Fries - Well, as the name suggests, this dish was essentially cheese with fries, except that the cheese wasn't drizzled onto the fries. It came in a small saucer for you to dip your fries in. The fries were not too badly done, crispy and fresh. The cheese was thick and gooey, just that the portion was quite miserable considering the amount of fries we had.
Cheese Macaroni Chicken - Cheese atop macaroni with slices of grilled chicken is a rather simple dish to make but sadly not many places in Singapore sell it. Seah Street Deli's rendition is probably one of the better ones. However on this occasion, the macaroni was a little dry and burnt. The cheese was nice and thick but could do with a more generous serving. No complains about the chickens though, which were grilled with a slightly smoky taste.
Beef Pot Roast - My must order dish whenever I drop by. The pot roast consists of thinly sliced chewy pieces of beef which are a little charred along the edges , giving it that nice burnt taste and mashed potatoes with a buttery texture and taste. Very good!
Chocolate Decadence - The chocolate decadence was still as big as I remembered it to be. Only difference is the price, which has shot up from $7.95 a few months back to its present $11.95, a 50% increase over its old price! I would have been cool about it if the quality had been maintained, but no, the eatery decided to cut down on the ingredients as well. The all important layer of black forest between the layers of chocolate and cake was now gone. It breathed life into what was originally a mundane chocolate cake and made it great. Don't get me wrong though, the chocolate cake was still quite good, with the chocolate concentrated and not too sweet. But it can be really overwhelming if you decide to finish it all alone.
The prices have certainly increased since my last visit here in August last year. Food quality has dipped a wee bit, but its still pretty decent for the pricing. I should still be patronising.
This is new magazine is quite good. I like that it contains many fashionable clothes, accessories like bags, shoes, jewelry, and other interesting stuff.
It's useful that they show you how to match the clothes, and furthermore, they show the price of the items and where to get them from. The clothes featured in this magazine are also more "wearable" to me. They are not too exaggerating and high-end. So it's more practical for me.
There are also lesser commercials in this magazine as compared to the rest.
However, on the down side, there are rarely any lucky draws inside (so far I have never seen any). And it's not easy to purchase this magazine because it's often out of stock.
I'd only tried eating in this restaurant once, and I'd never have a second try here!
The decor of the restaurant was ok...with many Korean ornaments. However the service was abit slow.
I ordered a kimchi ramen. I had to wait for quite a while.
The kimchi ramen cost me around $5 plus as I asked for added chicken.
When I saw the ramen, oh my goodness!
Super disappointed. There were only a few pathetic pieces of chicken which didn't have much taste. The egg was also very little. The soup did not taste good at all. The noodles was not any better. Oh ya, did I mention kimchi? The soup did not have much kimchi taste either.
I can say that my home-cooked instant noodles tastes better than this.
This is a little stall selling chiffons and cupcakes very near my office. Sometimes if I forget to bring my breakfast to work, I'd buy chiffons and cupcakes from here.
The chiffons and cupcakes are said to be free of preservatives, and contain lesser sugar.
Chiffons sell between $1.20 to $1.60. I forgot how much the cupcakes cost but should be around the same price.
They don't taste too sweet and they are very soft.
There are many flavours to choose from - orange, banana, cheese, chocolate, oreo, strawberry yoghurt, blueberry, coffee etc. (many more other flavours)
I wouldn't rate it as excellent now because I find it too expensive :P
1=SGD 0.0587
Happened to be on the 4th floor of The Cathay yesterday. And happened to see a familiar sign at the corner. It was Astons Specialties! They've just opened this new outlet on Friday, 4 July 2008.
Am very happy to see that they had keep the price and no service charge policy at this new outlet although its in town. The place is very clean and simple. No fancy decor. Just monochromatic pictures on the walls, and simple and comfy tables and chairs neatly aligned. There is also outdoor sittings which wasn't set-up yet when I was there. (It's only day 2 of their operations!) There's also the familiar chalkboard with the day's special written on it.
Feeling hungry at 4pm, as I didn't eat anything since that morning, I ordered the Prime Ribeye X'tra Cut with fries and pasta salad ($16.50), and a glass of ice lemon tea ($1.80).
The fries was crispy and nice. Just like those I had at Astons Express. I love them! And the pasta salad was fresh and the pasta was cooked just right. The prime ribeye was cooked to the right medium-rare and the meat was tender, chewy and juicy. I cleared the entire plate (which was relatively huge) on my own!
If you're craving for good and reasonably priced steak in town, why not go to The Cathay for Astons Specialties?
Rating given:
After almost a day(btwn 9am and 3pm) fighting over where to eat (it was between Relish & Brown Sugar).
Brown Sugar emerged the winner(mainly cos i really wanted to try the Wagyu Burger. Managed to squeeeze in a reservation @ 630(as long as we are outta there by 9(from the way i eat confirm can).
So by 645, my date and I were seated in the quaint and very cosy restaurant and deciding on what to order. Who am I kidding, I was sold on the Hand chopped Wagyu Burger(with pan fried foie gras duh).
My date had the tenderloin. I was undecided if i wanted mine to be medium or medium rare as recommended cos well blood=urgh for me. But the waitress suggested makin mine med rare and if it was still not good for me, can cook it to a medium.
The complimentary bread was good. Warm and the herbs made it so good i ate it minus the olive oil. Tho i did ask for butter.
This being my first time eatin Wagyu, i tried the patty waryly but i was floating in air after the first bite. Despite being medium rare, it was cooked just rite. not bloody at all and very juicy and yum. Even my date liked it. I completely neglected my foie gras wic i noticed only towards the end of the meal. It was the best burger I had hands down. And i was tellin my date how I wanted to buy another one to takeaway(of coz i was jokinglah). The tenderloin was ok. Im not big on steaks anyway. But he did look like he was havin a hard time cuttin it(get medium rare somemorelah).
We had the chocolate molten cake for dessert. While I liked the ice cream, i found the cake abit too thick and bitter for my taste. But it was oryt. Date liked it.
Service by both the staff was good. Despite full house, we didnt have to struggle to get their attention. And i loved loved loved my burger. Looks like my salmon craze is over.
At least for now
Oh and they have a private dining room wic seats abt 24. Quite good for big groups.
Rating given:
Had a farewell dinner here for my manager. We had ala carte buffet for everyone. The price per pax was quite reasonable considering the variety we could choose from. There were like 18 dishes to choose from, like tomyam seafood soup (my favourite!!), pad Thai, sambal kangkong, pandan chicken, satay, rendang, sweet and sour fish, prawns (forgot the name, look at the photograph), green curry etc.
The dishes tasted average only in my opinion. Not fantastic but not bad.
The tomyam seafood soup was good though. There were sufficient seafoods inside and the soup's sourness and spicyness were just nice.
The service staff were quite efficient.
One good factor about this restaurant was the interior design of it. It was quite artistic and different compared to other common restaurants.
Well overall I'd still rate it as average. May or may not go back depending on my mood. Hehe...
Rating given:
This is a kiosk at Raffles MRT Exchange. Very near my office too. It sells stuff like apple strudels, peach strudels, eclairs of different flavours like strawberry, chocolate, coffee, vanila, double chocolate, bailey coffee, etc and other kinds of pastries which I can't really remember now.
I went to buy durian puffs from them some time ago. This week I bought them again and introduced them to my colleague. My colleague fell in love with it and went to buy more for herself and other colleagues. Other colleagues tried and were then giving good comments on the durian puffs.
They cost $3.50 for 3 pieces in a box. Expensive? To me they are....what do you think?
You will see the size of the puff in the photographs I have attached.
However, the durian filling in the puff is considered alot. Look at the photographs you will see how much inside. The taste is really good too......
My colleagues and I will surely go back to get more :P
Oh by the way, some time ago I also bought the peach strudel. It's very nice as well. Something different for me instead of the usual apple strudel.
Rating given:
Was back at Mingles for lunch one weekday afternoon because I wanted to try out their seemingly inexpensive set lunches. It also helped that the place was virtually empty.
Complimentary Bread & Cream of Pumpkin - I didn't think too much of either the complimentary bread or the cream of pumpkin soup. The bread was well, bread that you can get off the shelves at any supermarket. The cream of pumpkin was way too sweet for my liking and I don't know if my tastebuds were playing tricks on me, but the soup actually tasted very strongly of curry powder.
Crispy Salmon with Couscous - I tried a little of this and found it quite decent with the skin pan fried till crispy. There was also a noticeable absence of the overpowering (to me) fishy taste that is common to salmons. I didn't quite fancy the couscous though, but thats just a personal preference.
Crispy Chicken With Yogurt - Served up atop a mound of subtly sweet mashed sweet potato, the crispy chicken was surprisingly quite good with its crisp skin and succulent meat. However the down side to crispy skin is the inordinate amount of oil that comes with it. And I couldn't taste any yogurt at all.
Ice Cream in Waffle Basket - The ice cream tasted rather normal although it was supposed to be from New Zealand. The waffle basket tasted funny though , dry with a kept for too long in the cupboard taste.
2 set lunches set us back by about $48, which puts it in the mid range for set lunch prices. Service is still excellent and the environment is definitely cosy. Will definitely drop by for lunch again.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
This is so far the best stall I've ever tried for fish soup, and fish bee hoon soup. Be it sliced fish or fried fish, with or without milk, they all taste really good!
Ever since I've tried the fish soup / fish bee hoon soup here, I have never been satisfied with those sold elsewhere...really "no horse run". LOL.
Everyday, the queue is long during lunch time.
During rainy days, the queue can extend till the outside of the cafeteria. However, the service is quite fast. The woman behind the stove cooks quite fast. But she is so busy that sometimes she may forget to add milk to your soup. Not to worry, you can always ask the cashier to add the milk for you later.
I can eat the sliced fish bee hoon soup every week during lunch hour.
The soup tastes great. Quite different from the other fish soups I've tried before.
Moreover, with the evaporated milk, the result is an aromatic and milky soup! A mixture of saltiness and sweetness...
In the soup, there are thick and fresh pieces of fish, vegetable, seaweed, si chuan vegetables, and tofu (for soup only, not for bee hoon soup).
The si chuan vegetables make the soup taste abit more unique I guess.
The bee hoon is also cooked just nice - not too hard and not too soft.
The chilli paste is marvellous! Don't think it's available else where! I love the chilli paste alot. I like to mix it into my bee hoon soup. It adds spiciness and abit of sourness to the taste. Shiok!!
Everytime I eat this, I'd finish the whole bowl of soup.
It'd be advisable to bring tissue paper if you eat here because you may perspire from eating the hot soup and chilli paste. Also, the downside is that the cafeteria is quite cramp during lunch hours, and the air-conditioner is not strong enough.
Sliced or fried fish bee hoon soup costs $3.70.
Sliced or fried fish soup costs $3.20.
Rice costs $0.50.
Rating given:
Dinner once again at Seah Street Deli, my choice of a hearty western meal in a laid back and noisy environment, when I have the money of course.
Nice American diner style place to eat in, complete with a full size jukebox that belts out perennial favourites. Reminded me of the small diners I used to frequent in North American when I was still a student. Only difference is that this one didn't come with booth seats.
Cheese Fries - Well, as the name suggests, this dish was essentially cheese with fries, except that the cheese wasn't drizzled onto the fries. It came in a small saucer for you to dip your fries in. The fries were not too badly done, crispy and fresh. The cheese was thick and gooey, just that the portion was quite miserable considering the amount of fries we had.
Cheese Macaroni Chicken - Cheese atop macaroni with slices of grilled chicken is a rather simple dish to make but sadly not many places in Singapore sell it. Seah Street Deli's rendition is probably one of the better ones. However on this occasion, the macaroni was a little dry and burnt. The cheese was nice and thick but could do with a more generous serving. No complains about the chickens though, which were grilled with a slightly smoky taste.
Beef Pot Roast - My must order dish whenever I drop by. The pot roast consists of thinly sliced chewy pieces of beef which are a little charred along the edges , giving it that nice burnt taste and mashed potatoes with a buttery texture and taste. Very good!
Chocolate Decadence - The chocolate decadence was still as big as I remembered it to be. Only difference is the price, which has shot up from $7.95 a few months back to its present $11.95, a 50% increase over its old price! I would have been cool about it if the quality had been maintained, but no, the eatery decided to cut down on the ingredients as well. The all important layer of black forest between the layers of chocolate and cake was now gone. It breathed life into what was originally a mundane chocolate cake and made it great. Don't get me wrong though, the chocolate cake was still quite good, with the chocolate concentrated and not too sweet. But it can be really overwhelming if you decide to finish it all alone.
The prices have certainly increased since my last visit here in August last year. Food quality has dipped a wee bit, but its still pretty decent for the pricing. I should still be patronising.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
This is new magazine is quite good. I like that it contains many fashionable clothes, accessories like bags, shoes, jewelry, and other interesting stuff.
It's useful that they show you how to match the clothes, and furthermore, they show the price of the items and where to get them from. The clothes featured in this magazine are also more "wearable" to me. They are not too exaggerating and high-end. So it's more practical for me.
There are also lesser commercials in this magazine as compared to the rest.
However, on the down side, there are rarely any lucky draws inside (so far I have never seen any). And it's not easy to purchase this magazine because it's often out of stock.
Rating given:
I'd only tried eating in this restaurant once, and I'd never have a second try here!
The decor of the restaurant was ok...with many Korean ornaments. However the service was abit slow.
I ordered a kimchi ramen. I had to wait for quite a while.
The kimchi ramen cost me around $5 plus as I asked for added chicken.
When I saw the ramen, oh my goodness!
Super disappointed. There were only a few pathetic pieces of chicken which didn't have much taste. The egg was also very little. The soup did not taste good at all. The noodles was not any better. Oh ya, did I mention kimchi? The soup did not have much kimchi taste either.
I can say that my home-cooked instant noodles tastes better than this.
Rating given:
This is a little stall selling chiffons and cupcakes very near my office. Sometimes if I forget to bring my breakfast to work, I'd buy chiffons and cupcakes from here.
The chiffons and cupcakes are said to be free of preservatives, and contain lesser sugar.
Chiffons sell between $1.20 to $1.60. I forgot how much the cupcakes cost but should be around the same price.
They don't taste too sweet and they are very soft.
There are many flavours to choose from - orange, banana, cheese, chocolate, oreo, strawberry yoghurt, blueberry, coffee etc. (many more other flavours)
I wouldn't rate it as excellent now because I find it too expensive :P
Rating given: