My friend & I were feeling a little hungry yet could not afford the time for a proper meal therefore we decided to get some food that can be eaten on-the-go.
Crystal Jade My bread sells a variety of chinese/Hong kong-styled bread as well as other types of pastries and cakes. For me, it's quite standard to get the bo lo bun. Heard that the char siew bo lo bun is good but I don't really like pork, so I had the plain bo lo bun instead. It's still good!
On top of that, we got a chocolate-custard pastry and a pumpkin glutinous cake to share. The pumpkin glutinous cake was nice. Tasted like muah chee, chewy and not too sweet. As for the chocolate-custard pastry, the custard end was nice but the chocolate was abit too thick & overwhelming.
Think I'll go back for other flavours of the glutinous cake. Want to try the black semame one!
Popped by the Siglap area for lunch one afternoon with my colleague and chanced upon Sushi Jiro while scouring the area for Japanese food.
Unpretentiously located along East Coast Road just before Siglap Centre, Sushi Jiro plays neighbour to the more illustrious Perle Noir, which incidentally, is never open for lunch. The decor is simple and you get to dine in private tatami rooms which can probably seat about 2-8 pax.
I've honestly not eaten enough Chawamushi to gauge whether Sushi Jiro's rendition was good, but I did like it for coming across as light on the palate. The addition of orange peel to the rather watery base was a nice touch as it introduced a slightly bitter dimension to the dish.
Wakadori Karaage - The chicken was nice and crispy but tasted like it had too much oil. Every bite brought forth a secretion of juices (oil water), which got me worrying for my health really.
Eihire - This dish piqued my curiosity quite a bit as I've never eaten stingray fins before. Lightly grilled, the fins were interesting but not something I would order again. It seemed rather salty for starters and when eaten with the mayonnaise, the flavours didn't seem to complement, to the extent of being weird.
Tempura Moriawase - Almost a staple regardless of which Japanese restaurant I patronise, the tempura batter was thin and light but a little too bland for my liking. I did like the prawns that came with it though, huge, fresh and sweet. The other stuff were rather average.
California Maki - I can't think of a better word than average to describe the California Maki. Rice was of the right texture but seemed a little too scattered. The only plus point was that it was covered with roe.
I would say that overall the meal was very average but the tatami rooms did make for a more private and enjoyable lunch. However, $58 for 2 pax might seem a little steep especially for the quality and quantity of food. That said, service is good and they have a rather novel system (at least in Singapore) of catching the wait staff's attention, which is to clap your hands.
With the popularity of donut boutiques like The Donut Factory, it is inevitable that people will want to jump on the donut bandwagon for a piece of this ever growing cash pie. Donut Donut is one such outlet and it seems to have been reasonably successful thus far with about 3 outlets spread across the country (the ones i know thus far that is).
Yummy looking Donuts!! ($6 for 6) - First up, i'm not a fan of donuts but this box looked simply delightful! It contained 6 donuts, 2 durian flavored, 1 coffee flavored, 1 dark chocolate flavored and 2 more which i don't know because i never tried them. For what i did try, the durian and coffee flavored one, it was quite nicely done. The dough was soft and decidedly porous with an aromatic taste of buns. The durian was not as strong flavored as i thought but still managed to command recognition. The coffee donut had dark chocolate sprinkled atop and was shaped like a heart. The dough was alike with its durian offering and the coffee mentioned was basically mocha flavored cream passing off as coffee. Decent nonetheless. Good marks for presentation though, i'm looking forward to my next visit to see if there are better offerings.
A quick follow up on this little pastry outlet as promised. For a view of my previous comments, please click here.
If you remember from my previous post, i was quite optimistic about what this little outlet offered and promised to visit it again soon. Well, here it is! I had a go at the more expensive cheese donut and was quite disappointed by it as i found the dough a little hard this time around and i couldn't justify why sprinkling cheese bits on top and having cheese vanilla flavored cream on the inside increases the price of it by another 20 cents from its other offerings. From there, everything went downhill as i tried once again, the mocha flavored donut, dark chocolate coated donut and the white chocolate donut. Somehow, i can sum the whole experience up as dull after a few bites as everything starts to blend into one familiar flavor. I also began to feel the dough isn't aromatic enough and finally, i've decided i probably would not patronize the place further as their offerings remain largely the same throughout with little to no surprises at this point.
I would like to apologize to anyone who did try this place out because in the end, it really isn't very good. In fact, their donuts are only slightly above average and a good way to put it is that it is simply a flashier version of normal coffee shop pastries that is riding on the success of The Donut Factory. Next write up, The Donut Factory.
I've been looking for good mala steamboat since the last on I had elsewhere was not so satisfying. Decided to give this restaurant a try since we see quite a crowd in there. Guess it'll be good. Haha....
The restaurant consists of 2 storeys, with the ground floor being non-airconed outdoor and upper floor airconed. The two floors are connected by a spiral staircase. Most of the food are placed on the ground floor. Therefore if you are sitting upstairs, you'll need to go up and down the spiral staircase. Just got to be more careful then.
Food wise, they serve both cooked food and uncooked ones for the steamboat. Cooked food were good although not a wide variety of them. Their uncooked meats are fresh as they sliced them on the spot but then you got to queue for them.
We ordered an yuan yang guo with herbal soup and mala soup. The herbal soup was good, but the mala one was average. Just not spicy enough for me.
As for the service, hmm...the waiters are friendly but not prompt enough to clear away our used plates. Half way through the dinner, there was even a blackout! Haha
this outlet is the first time I went for any Pepper Lunch. We went there for dinner and first impression wasn't all that great.
Customers especially those as new as us would be confused of the sitting arrangement and ordering system. Perhaps instead of having staffs standing around to answer queries, they could have a notice board or something with instructions. The customers would not have the perpetual "blur" look when they first enter the restaurants.
Food. Not that great. At least it does not give the wow factor but merely some new experiences to a different way of eating. Cooking the food though is interesting, seeing the raw meat on the plate doesn't increase my appetite. Not a balanced meal as they served bean sprouts and very little of other vegetables. Cooking the food also cause a smell to be emitted while we struggle to stir the veges.
On the whole, I wouldn't visit Pepper Lunch often. Perhaps I will visit when I feel like cooking but lazy to buy ingredients
Decided to dine at Swensen's today since one of my friend is muslim & they serve halal food here. I saw that they are having a promotion menu called the 'Viva Pinata Fiesta Feast', so I decided to give it a try. I ordered the Doenut Chicken, which consisted of grilled chicken topped with caramelised onions and it came with sides like brocholli, carrots and mashed potato. It came in a set which includes a soup of the day and fruit juice. Well, it tasted ok, soup and mashed potato were bland though.
Other than that, we ordered the white chocolate blondie, which was served in a sizzling pan, for dessert. A little of it was fine but definitely not too much as it was quite sweet. Maybe because I don't really have a sweet tooth and so won't appreciate it as much. But I like the nutty bites.
Talking about the service, I think it was poor. The waiters were not very friendly and they were pretty slow. It was hophard to get them to refill our empty cups too. The shop's air-con was probably not functioning properly too. We felt rather hot throughout the whole dinner.
Given the service & food, I'll definitely give it a second thought as to whether to go back to dine again.
After reading the recent reviews of sushi my craving for some brought me to this new branch at AMK today.
To me, sushi are all about the same. The element that separates the good and the average ones is the freshness and the rice grain used for the sushi. And Suki Sushi is just an average and at times below average kind of sushi.
But for the price of 99cents, who cares if the rice used is top notch or not. As long as the salmon and tako is fresh and edible, I'm good.
Decor of the place is simple and Jap like. If I didn't see wrongly, all the seats are around the belt. This is good cos everyone will be able to help themselves to the cheap sushi on the belt. The kitchen is right in the center of the belt and there's a little table on the same level as the belt, slightly above the dining table. This is where they'll place the food you ordered through the waiters. Great idea as this allow the waiters to concentrate on taking orders and clearing the plastic covers from the table. Serving is done by the kitchen helpers.
Am giving it a 4/5 cos of the value for money color plates at 99cents. Will surely go back for more. Maybe a Yebber Suki Sushi outing one day? Haha!
On my sisters 19th birthday, the choice of cake was decided as the all time favorite oreo cheesecake. Having a plethora of choices, we settled upon a quick and easy fix of getting one from Jack's place which was a bus ride away.
Oreo Cheesecake 0.5kg ($18 before gst) - The cake looks decent but not exactly aesthetically pleasing. The top layer consists of a thin layer of dark chocolate which melts too readily and the middle cream cheese portion came across as being too soft for my liking. I also found the cheese filling sour and lacking the sweetness present in other renditions of Oreo cheesecakes. As mentioned earlier, it seems to melt or turn soft a little too quickly which really takes away from the experience. The oreo crust base is about the only thing that is reasonably passable for this cake. Overall, a disappointment and a prime example of a good cake gone bad. I hope the rest of their offerings aren't that meager because i actually have fond memories of their cake offerings.Maybe its because it used to be made in house but now, they added a Halal cert and a new pastry arm which doesn't quite do the brand justice. The same goes for their food offerings as well. Such a pity.
My friend recommended us to this place since we have no idea where to eat.
This cafe is well hidden and it is in between two small cafes as well. The cafe is small, very small. The tables are spilled out onto the walkway as well. There was a small queue going on. Seem like the place is really popular!
We were shown to our table fast. Simple table and chair, nothing fanciful about. The menu is simple with no pics. The got set meals which consist of Soup, Main (Pasta), Dessert and Drink. Set dinner cost $15.20 nett.
The mains mainly consist of pasta dishes, about 20 to choose form but no pics. In the end I ordered Teriyaki Chicken Meatball Pasta. It was ok, do quite like the meatball though.
The soup, drink as normal and the dessert nothing to wow about.
The service is a bit slow as I think only 1 manager and 2 waiters doing the serving, cleaning and ushering at the same time. Everything have to wait, even to top out water. When we asked for our desserts, only 2 came out and waited for the 3rd one, then to realised that they actually forgotten about it.
I start to wonder y so many ppl started to queue up as the food is passable, and to say that the place is quite ulu as well.
Well in the end I concluded that it is cheap and the portions are quite big. There is no service charge or GST which can be quite a big draw as well.
Along this stretch of road there is a number of Zhong Qing steamboat places, considered quite cheap as well and always attracted a crowd. This place charges each person $13.80. Cash payment only.
So my friend decided to make our dinner there and make a reservation. The place is divided into 2 floors, 1st floor no air con and 2nd floor air con and for bigger groups as well.
They have an interesting concept there. Once they show you to the table, they will ask you what soup base you want and you can start to collect you plates, spoons, food etc. In the end, with everything ready, then we found out that there are no chopsticks. After checking with them, we found out that we need to pay at the counter in exchange for dispoable chopsticks. Haa.... Interesting right?
They have a wide variety of food and quite a lot as well, from vege to seafood to meat etc. Their seafood are quite fresh too, from crabs to all the shells. The meat came thinly sliced which I like it for steamboat.
Their soup base are ok, I think it is the type that used maggi cubes to get the flavour.
For drinks, this places charges separately. Heard from my friend, there is another one along the stretch that one price person include drinks as well.
Service one still ok. One incident happen as we are sitting next to a small little staircase, the waitress was carrying a pot of hot soup going to a table and fell flat on the staircase, the hot soup did get to us, however the staff there did not even check if we are ok a not. So much for customer service then.
Ask me if I am going back again? Hmm... I think I will give the rest of the places along the same stretch a try before deciding.
1=SGD 0.0587
My friend & I were feeling a little hungry yet could not afford the time for a proper meal therefore we decided to get some food that can be eaten on-the-go.
Crystal Jade My bread sells a variety of chinese/Hong kong-styled bread as well as other types of pastries and cakes. For me, it's quite standard to get the bo lo bun. Heard that the char siew bo lo bun is good but I don't really like pork, so I had the plain bo lo bun instead. It's still good!
On top of that, we got a chocolate-custard pastry and a pumpkin glutinous cake to share. The pumpkin glutinous cake was nice. Tasted like muah chee, chewy and not too sweet. As for the chocolate-custard pastry, the custard end was nice but the chocolate was abit too thick & overwhelming.
Think I'll go back for other flavours of the glutinous cake. Want to try the black semame one!
Rating given:
Popped by the Siglap area for lunch one afternoon with my colleague and chanced upon Sushi Jiro while scouring the area for Japanese food.
Unpretentiously located along East Coast Road just before Siglap Centre, Sushi Jiro plays neighbour to the more illustrious Perle Noir, which incidentally, is never open for lunch. The decor is simple and you get to dine in private tatami rooms which can probably seat about 2-8 pax.
I've honestly not eaten enough Chawamushi to gauge whether Sushi Jiro's rendition was good, but I did like it for coming across as light on the palate. The addition of orange peel to the rather watery base was a nice touch as it introduced a slightly bitter dimension to the dish.
Wakadori Karaage - The chicken was nice and crispy but tasted like it had too much oil. Every bite brought forth a secretion of juices (oil water), which got me worrying for my health really.
Eihire - This dish piqued my curiosity quite a bit as I've never eaten stingray fins before. Lightly grilled, the fins were interesting but not something I would order again. It seemed rather salty for starters and when eaten with the mayonnaise, the flavours didn't seem to complement, to the extent of being weird.
Tempura Moriawase - Almost a staple regardless of which Japanese restaurant I patronise, the tempura batter was thin and light but a little too bland for my liking. I did like the prawns that came with it though, huge, fresh and sweet. The other stuff were rather average.
California Maki - I can't think of a better word than average to describe the California Maki. Rice was of the right texture but seemed a little too scattered. The only plus point was that it was covered with roe.
I would say that overall the meal was very average but the tatami rooms did make for a more private and enjoyable lunch. However, $58 for 2 pax might seem a little steep especially for the quality and quantity of food. That said, service is good and they have a rather novel system (at least in Singapore) of catching the wait staff's attention, which is to clap your hands.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
With the popularity of donut boutiques like The Donut Factory, it is inevitable that people will want to jump on the donut bandwagon for a piece of this ever growing cash pie. Donut Donut is one such outlet and it seems to have been reasonably successful thus far with about 3 outlets spread across the country (the ones i know thus far that is).
Yummy looking Donuts!! ($6 for 6) - First up, i'm not a fan of donuts but this box looked simply delightful! It contained 6 donuts, 2 durian flavored, 1 coffee flavored, 1 dark chocolate flavored and 2 more which i don't know because i never tried them. For what i did try, the durian and coffee flavored one, it was quite nicely done. The dough was soft and decidedly porous with an aromatic taste of buns. The durian was not as strong flavored as i thought but still managed to command recognition. The coffee donut had dark chocolate sprinkled atop and was shaped like a heart. The dough was alike with its durian offering and the coffee mentioned was basically mocha flavored cream passing off as coffee. Decent nonetheless.
Good marks for presentation though, i'm looking forward to my next visit to see if there are better offerings.
A quick follow up on this little pastry outlet as promised. For a view of my previous comments, please click here.
If you remember from my previous post, i was quite optimistic about what this little outlet offered and promised to visit it again soon. Well, here it is!
I had a go at the more expensive cheese donut and was quite disappointed by it as i found the dough a little hard this time around and i couldn't justify why sprinkling cheese bits on top and having cheese vanilla flavored cream on the inside increases the price of it by another 20 cents from its other offerings. From there, everything went downhill as i tried once again, the mocha flavored donut, dark chocolate coated donut and the white chocolate donut. Somehow, i can sum the whole experience up as dull after a few bites as everything starts to blend into one familiar flavor. I also began to feel the dough isn't aromatic enough and finally, i've decided i probably would not patronize the place further as their offerings remain largely the same throughout with little to no surprises at this point.
I would like to apologize to anyone who did try this place out because in the end, it really isn't very good. In fact, their donuts are only slightly above average and a good way to put it is that it is simply a flashier version of normal coffee shop pastries that is riding on the success of The Donut Factory. Next write up, The Donut Factory.
Rating given:
I've been looking for good mala steamboat since the last on I had elsewhere was not so satisfying. Decided to give this restaurant a try since we see quite a crowd in there. Guess it'll be good. Haha....
The restaurant consists of 2 storeys, with the ground floor being non-airconed outdoor and upper floor airconed. The two floors are connected by a spiral staircase. Most of the food are placed on the ground floor. Therefore if you are sitting upstairs, you'll need to go up and down the spiral staircase. Just got to be more careful then.
Food wise, they serve both cooked food and uncooked ones for the steamboat. Cooked food were good although not a wide variety of them. Their uncooked meats are fresh as they sliced them on the spot but then you got to queue for them.
We ordered an yuan yang guo with herbal soup and mala soup. The herbal soup was good, but the mala one was average. Just not spicy enough for me.
As for the service, hmm...the waiters are friendly but not prompt enough to clear away our used plates. Half way through the dinner, there was even a blackout! Haha
Think this place deserve a 3.5 star bah.
Rating given:
this outlet is the first time I went for any Pepper Lunch. We went there for dinner and first impression wasn't all that great.
Customers especially those as new as us would be confused of the sitting arrangement and ordering system. Perhaps instead of having staffs standing around to answer queries, they could have a notice board or something with instructions. The customers would not have the perpetual "blur" look when they first enter the restaurants.
Food. Not that great. At least it does not give the wow factor but merely some new experiences to a different way of eating. Cooking the food though is interesting, seeing the raw meat on the plate doesn't increase my appetite. Not a balanced meal as they served bean sprouts and very little of other vegetables. Cooking the food also cause a smell to be emitted while we struggle to stir the veges.
On the whole, I wouldn't visit Pepper Lunch often. Perhaps I will visit when I feel like cooking but lazy to buy ingredients
Rating given:
Decided to dine at Swensen's today since one of my friend is muslim & they serve halal food here. I saw that they are having a promotion menu called the 'Viva Pinata Fiesta Feast', so I decided to give it a try. I ordered the Doenut Chicken, which consisted of grilled chicken topped with caramelised onions and it came with sides like brocholli, carrots and mashed potato. It came in a set which includes a soup of the day and fruit juice. Well, it tasted ok, soup and mashed potato were bland though.
Other than that, we ordered the white chocolate blondie, which was served in a sizzling pan, for dessert. A little of it was fine but definitely not too much as it was quite sweet. Maybe because I don't really have a sweet tooth and so won't appreciate it as much. But I like the nutty bites.
Talking about the service, I think it was poor. The waiters were not very friendly and they were pretty slow. It was hophard to get them to refill our empty cups too. The shop's air-con was probably not functioning properly too. We felt rather hot throughout the whole dinner.
Given the service & food, I'll definitely give it a second thought as to whether to go back to dine again.
Rating given:
After reading the recent reviews of sushi my craving for some brought me to this new branch at AMK today.
To me, sushi are all about the same. The element that separates the good and the average ones is the freshness and the rice grain used for the sushi. And Suki Sushi is just an average and at times below average kind of sushi.
But for the price of 99cents, who cares if the rice used is top notch or not. As long as the salmon and tako is fresh and edible, I'm good.
Decor of the place is simple and Jap like. If I didn't see wrongly, all the seats are around the belt. This is good cos everyone will be able to help themselves to the cheap sushi on the belt. The kitchen is right in the center of the belt and there's a little table on the same level as the belt, slightly above the dining table. This is where they'll place the food you ordered through the waiters. Great idea as this allow the waiters to concentrate on taking orders and clearing the plastic covers from the table. Serving is done by the kitchen helpers.
Am giving it a 4/5 cos of the value for money color plates at 99cents. Will surely go back for more. Maybe a Yebber Suki Sushi outing one day? Haha!
Rating given:
On my sisters 19th birthday, the choice of cake was decided as the all time favorite oreo cheesecake. Having a plethora of choices, we settled upon a quick and easy fix of getting one from Jack's place which was a bus ride away.
Oreo Cheesecake 0.5kg ($18 before gst) - The cake looks decent but not exactly aesthetically pleasing. The top layer consists of a thin layer of dark chocolate which melts too readily and the middle cream cheese portion came across as being too soft for my liking. I also found the cheese filling sour and lacking the sweetness present in other renditions of Oreo cheesecakes. As mentioned earlier, it seems to melt or turn soft a little too quickly which really takes away from the experience. The oreo crust base is about the only thing that is reasonably passable for this cake. Overall, a disappointment and a prime example of a good cake gone bad.
I hope the rest of their offerings aren't that meager because i actually have fond memories of their cake offerings.Maybe its because it used to be made in house but now, they added a Halal cert and a new pastry arm which doesn't quite do the brand justice. The same goes for their food offerings as well. Such a pity.
Rating given:
My friend recommended us to this place since we have no idea where to eat.
This cafe is well hidden and it is in between two small cafes as well. The cafe is small, very small. The tables are spilled out onto the walkway as well. There was a small queue going on. Seem like the place is really popular!
We were shown to our table fast. Simple table and chair, nothing fanciful about. The menu is simple with no pics. The got set meals which consist of Soup, Main (Pasta), Dessert and Drink. Set dinner cost $15.20 nett.
The mains mainly consist of pasta dishes, about 20 to choose form but no pics. In the end I ordered Teriyaki Chicken Meatball Pasta. It was ok, do quite like the meatball though.
The soup, drink as normal and the dessert nothing to wow about.
The service is a bit slow as I think only 1 manager and 2 waiters doing the serving, cleaning and ushering at the same time. Everything have to wait, even to top out water. When we asked for our desserts, only 2 came out and waited for the 3rd one, then to realised that they actually forgotten about it.
I start to wonder y so many ppl started to queue up as the food is passable, and to say that the place is quite ulu as well.
Well in the end I concluded that it is cheap and the portions are quite big. There is no service charge or GST which can be quite a big draw as well.
Rating given:
Along this stretch of road there is a number of Zhong Qing steamboat places, considered quite cheap as well and always attracted a crowd. This place charges each person $13.80. Cash payment only.
So my friend decided to make our dinner there and make a reservation. The place is divided into 2 floors, 1st floor no air con and 2nd floor air con and for bigger groups as well.
They have an interesting concept there. Once they show you to the table, they will ask you what soup base you want and you can start to collect you plates, spoons, food etc. In the end, with everything ready, then we found out that there are no chopsticks. After checking with them, we found out that we need to pay at the counter in exchange for dispoable chopsticks. Haa.... Interesting right?
They have a wide variety of food and quite a lot as well, from vege to seafood to meat etc. Their seafood are quite fresh too, from crabs to all the shells. The meat came thinly sliced which I like it for steamboat.
Their soup base are ok, I think it is the type that used maggi cubes to get the flavour.
For drinks, this places charges separately. Heard from my friend, there is another one along the stretch that one price person include drinks as well.
Service one still ok. One incident happen as we are sitting next to a small little staircase, the waitress was carrying a pot of hot soup going to a table and fell flat on the staircase, the hot soup did get to us, however the staff there did not even check if we are ok a not. So much for customer service then.
Ask me if I am going back again? Hmm... I think I will give the rest of the places along the same stretch a try before deciding.
Rating given: