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zihui's Reviews

    361. Mezza9   
       21 Jun 2008 at 10:54 am
    Category: International
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    People always say, never eat cakes after 9.30pm! But who cares about the calories that comes along with the sinful indulgence? LIC says, have your cake and eat it! Especially since premium hotel cakes are going at half price after 9.30pm!

    My secret food partner and i decided to go on a cake-hunt as we recalled that some hotels have half price promotions on their cakes after a certain timing. We went to Marriot hotel first, after which we found ourselves at Grand Hyatt, Mezza9.

    Tiramisu ($7, half price $3.5)
    The Tiramisu here is reasonably moist, laced with a hint of coffee flavor that doesn’t overpower the sweet mascarpone. I like the subtle taste, as some tiramisu has a very strong wine taste.

    Black Forest ($5, half price $2.5)
    The huge cherry on top of the Black Forest was what tempted my secret food partner to buy it. Ttogether with the chocolate shavings by the side, its a delight to look at and eat. At such a huge slice, even at its original price of $5 its worth a try.

    Strawberry Cheesecake ($5, half price $2.5)
    Classic baked cheese cake with a strawberry jelly topping complete with ginormous (gigantic & enormous) strawberries! The oreo cookie base makes us felt like we were eating a cheesecake duo, we can taste the classic cheese cake flavor, and if eaten together with the oreo base, the taste becomes oreo cheesecake!

    The Strawberry cheesecake itself was very filling though, creamy and rich!

    Caramel cake ($4, half price $2)
    We came to a common consent that the caramel cake is our least favourite among the four cakes. For one, it doesn’t have the caramel taste, rather there’s a strong hint of coffee. If you like coffee cake, this is probably the one to get.

    Nevertheless, it look pretty and its the cheapest at $2 after half price promotion!

    Croissants ($2, half price $1)
    Besides the cakes, the baking items are also at half price after 8.30pm. We got the croissants for a dollar after promotion.

    Total Bill is a mere $11.50 for 4 slices of cakes and 1 bread. The cakes at Mezza9 although not in the excellent league, but its definitely your premium hotel cakes after all, and at half price promotions they are certainly a steal!

    Takeaway temptations, bring home Mezza9 freshly homemade products and enjoy half prices on bakery items from 8.30pm and sliced cakes from 9.30pm daily. 15% discount is also offered for whole akes from 9.30pm.

    LIC will be looking to explore many more hotels to enjoy the half price promotions! Cakes and more cakes!

    You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!

    ” More cakes, more cakes! “


    Rating given:Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

       20 Jun 2008 at 8:33 pm
    Category: Deli and Cafe
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Island cafe at the Tangs shopping mall at Vivocity. You might find the association of Island cafe and Tangs weird, isn’t Tangs the fashion lifestyle retailer? What does Island cafe has to do with it?

    Recently we have seen the rebranding of Tangs, from the old perception of Tangs is a boring place to shop, to the new image of a hip and lifestyle concept retailer store.

    Naturally, Tangs wanted its customers to stay longer in its shopping mall, so it came out with Island Cafe for its customers to enjoy a little meal in between their shopping sprees. Tangs is not the first to come out with such ideas by combing food and shopping, think PS cafe and you will get the idea.

    Island Cafe features a medley of local and regional favourite food, with choices like curry chicken, laksa, showing evidence of the “asian-ness”

    The place at Vivocity is at ground floor within their shopping area. Exuding a rustic and tropical feel, there’s a cozy ambience factor with the small enclosed area.

    Having heard about Island Cafe, naturally i was curious about how it’s like as i have never come here before. We decided to give the place a try while we are at Vivocity.

    One look at the menu though, i immediately regretted coming in. Reason is simple, the menu selection is too little seriously. They got two choices of starters with the crab bisque as one. Two sandwiches, and two pizzas to choose from. There is four main course selection, laksa, curry chicken, green curry marinara, and black pepper aglio olio. And thats it!

    We didn’t quite fancy the items available on the menu, but since we were there already, we just ordered their Guacamole & seafood pizza to share among the three of us.

    Guacamole & seafood pizza ($12)
    Guacamole, prawns, crabmeat, tomatoes, tomatoes paste and mozzarella make up the Gucamole & seafood Pizza. It comes in two price, $9 for the 5.5″ snack size, and $12 for the 8″ meat size.

    The pizza is all right i guess, quite cheesy, with the pizza base thin. But i suppose at $12, you can easily find better pizzas around for a bigger size.


    Total Bill is $14.04 for one pizza. I definitely will not go back to Island Cafe because the selections are simply too few and too little. Prices are acceptable considering its a cafe, but most of the choices seems more like hawker-type of food.

    Besides the one located within Tangs at Vivocity, there’s also another Island Cafe at Tangs in Orchard.

    You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!


    Rating given:Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5

       20 Jun 2008 at 6:24 pm
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup is located just opposite Kembangan MRT station. I happened to chance upon this zi-char restaurant because my friends had cravings for their mee-sua.

    So another venture into the east side of Singapore for LIC, as i stay in the west and the east is so far away. But there are simple too much good food in the area, so you will be seeing more food from the east in the future!

    The zi-char store has all of its seat on the street, its rather cooling but when bad weather comes then it will be very difficult as i don’t think there are much shelter from rain.

    The store has quite a few selections of fish available for customers to choose, and with the method of cooking the fish. But we didn’t have any fish because we ordered crab already.

    Mee Sua ($3.50)
    The rendition of Mee sua at Seng Kee comes in a stronger flavour than the normal ones, with ingredients like pig kidneys, mushroom in it. The mee sua is smooth and silky to the mouth.

    We had 5 bowls for each of us, and i saw most tables ordering this dish and at $3.50 its definitely worth a try.

    Egg Omelette ($8)
    $8 for an egg omelette dish at a zi-char store might be a tad too expensive, if I’m not wrong egg dishes usually are about 6 bucks? Nevertheless, the egg omelette is quite good and we finish it very fast.

    Crab Bee Hoon ($38)
    The crab bee hoon is usually done in soup, but here at Seng Kee they do it “dry”. We were quite shocked at the size of the crab when it came because usually crabs at zi-char stores goes in the region of $30 for 1kg?

    But the one that we had is $38, and the small crab that we had is definitely not 1kg. I felt ripped off as the price tag is certainly too expensive for the size of the crab.

    The bee hoon is not bad though, as it absorbs all the essence of the crab and all the juicy wet part is at the bottom of the bee hoon.

    Total bill including drinks for 5 person comes up to $76.80. At initial look, for a zi-char store and considering we had 5 person, its definitely not expensive. But, looking at the amount of food that we had, the crab bee hoon was definitely over-priced.

    I’m not too sure about their other dishes as i have not tried them and it will not be fair to judge base on this experience. But their mee sua is worth a try, do give their crab bee hoon a miss.

    You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!


    Rating given:Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

    364. Epicurious   
       15 Jun 2008 at 8:04 pm
    Category: Deli and Cafe
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Epicurious, located on the banks of Robertson Quay, has been in operations for close to 6 years now. The restaurant is the brainchild of the duo owners, Helena and Sharon. The concept for the restaurant is like a neighbour joint, serving casual food where you can chill out and enjoy a meal without any qualms.

    The interior of Epicurious is surprisingly small, from the outside i thought it will be bigger. There are only three tables inside, with most of the seats in the al fresco area.

    Unpretentious and comfy, Epicurious is really a place where i can sit down there all day with my friends

    The al fresco area offers a view of the river by Robertson Quay, its simple furniture make it seems as though you are having picnic out in the natural.

    The food which Epicurious offers are simple and comfort food, like sandwiches, salads, pasta. On weekends from 9am to 1pm, they have the brunch menu which include choices like pancakes, toast, bagel, eggs, ommelette. And i am really tempted by their brunch menu, you’ll be seeing them here in the near future.

    At Epicurious, there is the blackboard specials, which is not on the normal menu, and these are changed regularly to allow customers to experience different type of food.

    The lunch menu does not have much selection of mains, in fact they only have three to choose from, with mostly sandwiches and pasta otherwise.

    For dinner, the menu is a different one all together, with starters like beef carpaccio, smoked salmon tartare, to main course like their signature epicurious burger, and there are also quite a variety of grills to choose from. Price ranges from 10s to 20s.

    Turkey Breast Sandwich ($9.50)
    Turkey Breast with roasted bell pepper and havarti cheese. The sandwiches are all freshly made with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber, with choices of country-style white or wholemeal sunflower bread.

    The turkey breast sandwich is fairly good, served with keropok.

    Spaghetti vietnamese chicken bolognaise ($14)
    The chicken bolognaise spaghetti is served with cheese flakes, your good old reliable fix of pasta.

    Asian Sloppy Joe ($12)
    Pork and beef mince with hoisin and lime. The Asian Sloppy Joe is under the blackboard special for sandwich. The unique name caught our attention, and the sandwich does not disappoint.

    The pork and beef mince combination creates a rather distinctive taste, slightly sweet and spicy.

    Epicurious Burger ($18)
    House-made beef patty with sautéed onions, mushrooms and fries. The Epicurious Burger is the signature dish of the restaurant, having heard many good things about the burger, it is inevitable that this is a must-try dish when you visit epicurious.

    Although i just had burger at Seah Street Deli the previous day, but i have no qualms tasting the epicurious burger. And indeed, the Epicurious Burger is the star of the show, the beef done medium-rare, is tender and retains the juiciness of the meat.

    And you can choose to add cheese, bacon or a fried egg for $2 each, or $4 for all three. But i choose to serve my burger the original way without any toppings.

    I like the fries too, which comes with cheese flakes, the overall taste is buttery and cheesy!

    Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream ($7)
    The Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream is recommended to us by Helena the owner of Epicurious. Now who can finish a meal without having desserts? Definitely not me! The apple crumble is sour-sweet, and the taste of it together with ice cream does it for us.

    Bread and butter pudding with custard ($8)
    The bread and butter pudding is also another of their more popular desserts, the way to eat it is by dipping the pudding into the custard, but i preferred to taste the bread and butter pudding on its own.

    Carrot Cake ($5)
    A slice of the Carrot cake is enough for anyone to end their meal on a high, and the cake certainly taste good here. With a layer of cheese on top of the carrot cake, the effect is a melt-in-your-month. The cheese is relatively light and does not overwhelms the carrot cake.

    Total bill is $82.48 for 4 mains and 3 desserts. However, Helena kindly has the desserts on the house, so the total bill is $64.90 instead.

    The owner Helena is friendly and warm, we had a chat and she explain the concept of Epicurious to us. So if you saw her at the restaurant, do not hesitate to have a chat with her!

    The current location however is a tad too small, and cannot serve more customer. But then again this can be a double edge sword, more seats serves more customers, but in the process you might just lose the wonderful ambiance of the place.

    And by the way, Helena and Sharon have recently opened another fusion western-local restaurant, Persimmion which is located at the Link Hotel. Do give them a try if you pass by Tiong Bahru area.

    Epicurious is one place which i’ll gladly return again to try out their brunch and dinner menu. The reason is simple, Epicurious serves casual food, the price will not hurt your wallet, and the ambiance of the place is superb! Despite my usual practice of not repeating visits to a same restaurant, i’ll bend the rule this time, for Epicurious!

    You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!

    ” Epicure epicurious! “


    Rating given:Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

    365. Balmoral Bakery   
       13 Jun 2008 at 5:51 pm
    Category: Bakeries
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Balmoral Bakery is a very old-school bakery which is evident from the box they use for their bakes. Located at Sunset way, the bakery offers the type of breads and pastries which we grow up together with, but sadly are slowly disappearing from our sight.

    Under the “undue” influence of my food partner, we jogged from our place to Sunset way, and pay the bakery a visit. She introduced me to Balmoral Bakery as she has been munching on their breads since young.

    Egg tart ($1)
    The egg tart at Balmoral is those ‘watery’ type, my food partner love this type of egg tart, but i prefer those with crusty sides and firmer egg-fillings.

    Custard Buns ($1.1)
    The custard buns are the star of the show! Billed as Balmoral Bakery’s signature item, the custard buns are really excellent! There are other customers who brought half a dozen or more at a go. Must try!!

    Cake ($1)
    The cake is the very traditional type where you can only get at such bakeries, nowadays seldom do we still see such cakes around, well maybe if your neighbor still has such old-school bakeries around.

    Char-siew Sau ($1)
    The char-siew sau is cripsy and the char siew inside sweet!

    Cake with cream in centre ($1.20)
    I liked this one! The cake is very soft and fluffy, whipped cream in the center, and sugar white powder spread on top.

    Total Bill for 5 items comes up to $5.50. I only brought 5 items as this is my first time there, but my food partner brought about more than 10 items!

    The bread and pastries at Balmoral Bakery are mostly in the range of $0.80-$1.50, and there are really a lot of different types of traditional bakes which isn’t so commonly found nowadays. Go, and relieve your childhood memories!

    You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )


    Rating given:Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

       13 Jun 2008 at 5:35 pm
    Category: Korean
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Hankook Rice Cake House is under the same management with the popular Auntie Kim’s Korean Restaurant which is on the same stretch of road at Upper Thomson.

    After finishing our meal at Chicken House, and Ritz Apple Strudel, my friend and i saw this shop across the street so we decided to venture there to check the place out.

    Hankook Korean Rice Cakes are featured on the Business Times

    The interior of the shop is very small and simple, with some Korean decorations

    Hankook Rice Cake house sell quite a variety of rice cakes, there are also samples available on the table for tasting. We tried a few of them, but to tell the truth, Korean rice cakes are not really to our liking, or rather we can’t really appreciate the beauty of it.

    But because we have tried their samples, we felt rather guilty if we just walk out of the shop, so my friend decided to buy a box of rice cake for take-away.

    If i didn’t really remember wrongly, these are pumpkim with nuts, seeds, and raisins fillings. Please correct me if I’m wrong. One box is in the range of 6 bucks.

    Hankook Rice Cake sell rather authentic korean rice cakes, even though i’m no fan of it, but to open a shop just to sell rice cake, we should applause the owner for that!

    You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )


    Rating given:Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

       12 Jun 2008 at 11:03 am
    Category: Coffee Shops
    kormmandos kormmandos says:

    The signature packs a punch!

    Food / Beverage
    What I like about the curry fish head here:Fresh fish usedPlenty of side dishes to choose fromFragrant curry gravy that is so good, you will ask for extra rice.the collagen rich areas of the fish, like the lips, and gill coversserved boiling hot in a claypot

    Ambience
    Curry fish head is best enjoyed slowly and shared. I like the kopi tiam setting simply because of its distinct local character and because it is my personal favourite setting to savour the dish. It is a place where one can be himself/herself. Plus, curry fish head should be eaten without high levels of etiquette nor your favourite clothes since it can get messy.

    Value
    Nothing to complain about here. The price paid included plenty of sides we ordered.

    Service
    The cold, brutal efficiency of the kopi tiam is quite impressive. The orders came quickly to satisfy hungry diners. The servers were polite even during their peak hours.


    Rating given:Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

    368. Flhair Studio   
       12 Jun 2008 at 12:02 am
    Category: Hair Salons
    claud claud says:

    This place is very much hidden, but I’m glad I managed to find them through Yebber.

    There were 2 other customers when I reached. I sat down and was immediately served by Tim. We discussed about the type of haircut I want and he gave his suggestions and views.

    Overall I like the service and the final look managed to “WOW” me. Tim gives very good head massage too! If you’re tired and needs a little boost in the head, you can pop by just for wash and blow service. It’s well worth it! I will be going back in a month or two to cover up the highlighted part and chop off more hair!

    After getting cuts from female stylist all this while, its refreshing to get my hair done by a male stylist. And in fact, I find the guys more careful and he pays more attention to little details when cutting, washing and styling. Surely a plus for this!

    During my 3 hours at Flhair Salon, I saw many other customers coming in with either messy hair or hair that’s way too long for their look. But they all left with great hair and better look! Being guy stylists themselves, they sure know what’s in and best suitable for the men. Many customers that came today were guys too.

    They’re having a 20% discount now! (Till when I’m not sure. Can call them to check it out ya.)


    Rating given:Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

    369. Hainan Kor   
       11 Jun 2008 at 11:31 am
    kormmandos kormmandos says:

    Better off at a hawker centre

    So there is this "trend" of putting iconic local dishes into a cafe or restaurant setting. Hainan Kor is one of these places.

    Unfortunately, for a place that is supposed to have Hainanese Chicken Rice for its signature dish, the chicken was over-cooked, tough and rather dry, unlike the elusive, but much talked about perfection of tender juicy meat with glistening, slippery skin. While the rice was quite decent and warrants credits to the chef, I have to say the chicken rice dish as a whole is likely to disappoint many here.

    Other dishes like the fish maw soup and vegetables with oyster sauce were ok, though nothing much to shout about. Still, I personally liked the soup for being simple, where light taste of the broth from cooking the chicken is clearly recognised.

    The marked up pricing here is probably not going to make it a popular choice among the residents here since it is in close proximity to a kopi tiam and a hawker centre, where one can get more variety and better value.


    Rating given:Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5

       09 Jun 2008 at 6:54 pm
    Category: Steakhouses
    Bobo Bobo says:

    Just some background before I begin.. I have ever been to Aston's when it was still in the coffeeshop. I've ever witnessed two mains plus all the sides feeding a family of five with 3 young children. Two mains would stuff me and my friend and there would be leftovers, so you can imagine how large the servings were. The food was also much better than your average western food stall. It was comparable to that of a restaurant. That time I remember that 2 mains would cost less than $20.

    Having been to the previous establishment and seeing all the wonderful reviews here (needless to say) gave me great expectations as I walked into the place. It was close to 5pm and there wasn't the usual queue in front of the place. We stood at the *Please wait to be seated* sign. There were two servers just 1 metre away directly in front of us and it still took 4-5 minutes for them to come over as they were finishing their little joke before they did.

    We were seated in a booth and there was only one other table occupied then. We checked out the menu and soon decided what we wanted.

    I was unhappy when we ordered as the server didn't seem very sure when we asked if the items could be placed separately. We also repeated the sides a number of times as he kept repeating it back to us wrongly. My friend ordered an Iced Latte and the server said ok. But 5 minutes later when my coke arrived, another server told us that they don't serve Iced Lattes but only the hot ones. Urgh

    Food ordered:
    Sirloin Steak (Medium - Well Done)
    The steak came as per ordered. But it wasn't very tasty. The meat didn't have much taste on its own and there wasn't much sauce too. My friend commented that it had a little too much fatty bits for her liking.

    Grilled fish
    This was tasteless actually. One good thing was that it didn't have any fishy smell to it. If I didn't have my trusty ketchup I don't think I would have been able to finish this. And... we raised our hands trying to get their attention for ketchup but no one noticed us. (Reminder: it was quite empty then) So we got up, searched for it and got it for ourselves.

    Fries
    I'd thought these would be the fat fries... well these were neither fat nor thin. but a little too salty though. I read that there was some spice on others' fries but there wasn't any on mine... mmm

    BBQ beans
    It tasted exactly like baked beans from the Heinz can. We felt cheated.

    Steamed Vegetables
    These were alright I guess but what could go wrong with steamed vegetables?

    For some reason I can't remember what the last side order is. We, two girls, managed to clean out our plates so I can't say very much for the servings, can I?

    Anyway the bill came up to $27 for two mains and three drinks. It IS cheap if you consider that it's western food served in a respectable looking restaurant. But the food is really average and service was pretty poor considering there weren't many people. I'm just glad I didn't have to queue to try. At least I know I won't ever have to.


    Rating given:Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

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