Recently went to Astons Specialties at East Coast for a meal. It was highly recommended by my friend. But I dun eat beef, so I have to go for their Chickens.
The queue was freaking long. The main reason is that they served ‘good’ and cheap western food. I personally find it so-so. The price starts from SGD5.90 for a set that comes with 2 sides.
Chargrilled Chicken - It reminds me of Hans. The chicken chop is a bit too tough. I like the bake beans though. The pasta salad is well prepared. Not too dry.
My Dear ordered for their Prime Cut. He said it’s good and better than the wagyu beef that my friend had. Wagyu Beef - He forgot how much he is paying for it. - $38.90 Cannot compare lah… :p
I don't commonly patronize a Chinese restaurant in a small group. The neighborhood kopitiam or food centre usually have something similar without the pinch on the pocket. But this time, an occasion calls for it, and I am glad I get to try this place out when the Girlfriend decided to treat her god-family and me together.
Imperial Treasure (Cantonese Cuisine) is somehow extremely popular for weekend dining. The food is pretty good and you can even have a private dining experience in one of the exclusive rooms. However, I had dined the spacious common area which was nevertheless a nice place. The intricate decor was a pleasant sight to behold and it added to the positive experience.
Service standards here is really good with attentive staff literally seeing to every table they walk past. Response was quick and always reassuring when reactions from them required longer time. The staff are evidently well-trained, pleasant and extremely helpful.
The food here, though on the pricey side is a testament of the chefs experience and skill.
The roast goose was perfectly done with the skin crispy and the meat well-cooked but remaining tender to the bite. The special plum sauce accentuates the texture of the meat as well as the crispy skin.
The next dish was a tofu dish. The tofu was deep-fried on on the outside but soft and delicate on the inside and place on over a layer of spinach. A thick, tasty mushroom-based gravy is generously drizzled over them. The gravy and the tofu blended very well together while the spinach helped to clear palate for the next dish.
The third dish was Sweet and Sour Pork. I found this dish more on the sweet side, but it was still pretty good with the meat chunks crispy to the bite despite being totally covered in the sweet and sour sauce. The side vegetables of diced capsicums and pineapples provided a good balance of taste.
We then had sauteed fresh prawns. The prawns were deep fried before being sauteed with seasoning as the shells were crunchy and edible, especially the head. Every bite released a pleasant fragrance from the head shell and the flesh had the crunchiness only available from fresh prawns.
We then realized that it took a very long time for our Winter Melon Soup to be served. We asked the wait staff twice for the item only to have them reply that "it will come soon". It was only when the dish arrived did we understand why it had taken so long. The soup was served in an actual winter melon. To serve, the wait staff had to scrap out the winter melon flesh. carefully so as not to break the skin. The contents were served in small bowls. The soup was light and flavorful at the same time and really tasty with plenty of condiments. In total, the winter melon held 14 portions of soup which we were able to finish eventually.
The food here was great and I would love to come back for more.
Heard about 2am:dessert bar and did read that it was pretty good, so when I was asked to go along, I was happy to.
Upon reaching Holland V, we did have a bit of trouble locating it. Thank goodness for friends who live in the West and frequent Holland V, we found this little place near the multi-storey carpark. It's at the end of the row where you can find the popular bakery Provence. BTW you have to look up because it's on the second floor.
At the entrance to the stairs leading upstairs, we were "greeted" by a small group of people who were on their way out. Apparently there were seats for them but the woman was complaining that it was way too noisy for her to eat anything. Surprised, we stepped in to experience it for ourselves.
She was right! The music was way too loud and distasteful for a dessert bar meant for chilling. They were playing house music as if it were a club and everyone was talking at the top of their voices so that they could be heard. It certainly didn't help that there was one huge group of 10 people there that day.
That said the colours and design of the interior looks good but it was a little too cramp for me. Also the chairs and sofas chosen were not very comfortable. Maybe they are trying to make their patrons uncomfortable so that they wouldn't stay too long. Despite maximizing seating capacity by making it cramp, there still weren't enough seats that night.
The selection was a little limited for me. As a dessert bar I don't expect it to have many food items so the number (about 5-6) of food items was fine. But there weren't many dessert items too. I believe there were about 8-9 items which some of which are not very different from each other.
Food Ordered: Chocolate Tart $14 The most popular one that night and it certainly made sense why. The chocolate was reasonably tasty. The crust had some orange in it which gave a zesty taste when you have it with the chocolate. Presented beautifully, this was the only item which received some nods that night.
Twix $13 Tasteless. Truly tasteless. I was wondering what it was suppose to be and I picked up the menu to read again. It certainly didn't taste like caramel mousse to me. Only the peanut crumble (little peanut bits) served with it had some taste. Even the ice cream wasn't even satisfactory. Tiramisu $15 This is the worst Tiramisu I've ever tasted. I've had some weird ones before but this one was in a class of its own. The texture was very soggy and it irked me to have to swallow it anyway.
2am Meatballs $14 6 little meatballs served on a few pieces of veg. Presentation wise, this was the least attractive. No doubt the meatballs weren't just taken out from a frozen pack but it certainly didn't justify the price tag. I don't relish eating some of the fatty bits in it too.
The above plus a glass of wine, ginger beer and some peppermint tea cost 3 of us $78 (after 10% discount).
How did we get the 10% discount? Well after taking our orders, we were OFFERED by the staff to change to the sofa seats by the side. Attracted by the novelty of sitting on the sofa seats we were excited and moved over immediately. After which the server who took our orders, saw that we were no longer at our places, threw our order away. He walked past us a few times when we were at our new seats but still didn't realise his mistake. Only after we noticed people who came later were getting their food before us, then we raised the issue. After some clarification, the lady (whom we suppose to be the manager) apologised and explained to us that the order was thrown away. Sigh.
By then the music was making me nauseous. Bad ambience, bad food, high prices and service requires improvement. What rating did you expect?
Jelita seems an unlikely place to go to, with the main draw being Cold Storage, a video-shop, couple of other shops. However thats precisely where Friends are situated. A Modern European restaurant which proclaims to offer casual fine dining, Friends @ Jelita is just a stone throw away from the popular Holland Village, but offers you the serene environment which the latter could not afford with the omni-present large crowd there.
Having signed up as a member with Friends online at its website, i received a $50 voucher for every $150 spend, or a 1-for-1 Executive Set Lunch/Dinner promotion. Armed with the coupon, my companion and me made our way to Jelita, and arrived at 1250pm. Being a monday, we were not surprise to see the restaurant quite empty, but there were still some patrons though. The staff there told us that Monday is usually a good time to visit Friends as there are less customers, and you probably will not want to come here on a weekend as that’s when the families bring their kids along.
The first notion that striked me was the decorations and furnitures presented in the restaurant. The comfy grey large seats definitely make us feel at home. The lighting was dimmed, which creates a tranquil atmosphere. On the other hand, it pose a predicament to food bloggers because the poor lighting makes the photos turn out not-as-good, that is not a problem if you are a pro at photoshop.
There are two types available, the Classic Set Lunch and the Executive Set Lunch, with Executive being more expensive among the both, undoubtedly the level of standard demand will be higher. It was only sensible to order the Executive Set Lunch since it was 1-for-1. But i was intially sceptical to how good the Set Lunch can be, as the a la carte menu are all priced reasonably higher than that of the set lunch. Friends proved me wrong in this, the executive set lunch ($24.90 ) albeit being limited in options, is certainly value for money.
Australian Garden Salad Each Set Lunch comes with the Australian Garden Salad. Topped with dried fruits, raspberry vinaigrette, the hors d’oeuvre is positively a good way to begin the meal.
Soup of the day Mushroom soup with a hint of mashed potatos. This was good until we tried the other wild forest mushroom soup. The latter makes the mushroom soup seems ordinary. Actually its not bad, just that the mushroom soup meet its match with the wild forest mushroom, which is a tad better.
Wild Forest mushroom Soup (Additional Upgrade of $2)
This is the one that makes the Soup of the day seems inferior. Well, you always expect more especially when there is an additional upgrade of $2. The Wild forest mushroom soup does not fails to deliver taste-wise, it is a good appetizer as the soup helps to unlock our tastebuds for the rest of the meal.
Sautèed chicken fillet For our first main course, we had the Sautèed chicken fillet which was complemented with dried chili, rosemary & garlic anchovy. The first bite of the chicken tells it all, the fillet was tender and soft, It was unlike what normal chicken taste like, Friends re-defined the chicken experience, this certainly impressed me.
The sauce of the chicken fillet was equally good. The dried chili, rosemary & garlic anchovy combinations creates a unique taste. Sometimes the sauce of a dish gets so strong that it cover the meat, but thats not the case at Friends. The chicken fillet with the sauce seems to harmonize and blend with each other, which brings us the Sautèed chicken fillet.
Oven Baked Salmon fillet Topped with Cajun crust & lemon butter sauce, the Oven Baked Salmon fillet is another winner which bright up our meal. The cripsy cajun crust on the exterior of the salmon was complemented by its soft interior.
The lemon butter sauce has a cheesy taste, and we almost mistook it for cheese. Both mains are accompanied by mashed potatos toppled with mixed vegies. My companion had a slight issue with the salmon though. Being a big fan of salmon, she remarked that the fillet was slightly dried as compared to the other salmons she had previously. Otherwise, the salmon will be faultless.
Cappuccino The pretty sight makes us admire the Cappuccino for a while before we harden our heart and stirred the coffee.
Dessert of the day To end off our meal, we had egg crustard for desserts. This one is good, egg crustard underneath the breaded top. Every spoonful of egg crustard taste warm, like straight from the oven. We felt that it’s rather similar to whats more commonly known to us, egg tarts.
Friends Total bill for two executive set lunch was $60.6, under the 1-for-1 promotion, we paid $31.70 for the delightful lunch. The set lunch and dinner at Friends are definitely value-for-money, and should worth your try unless you want to go for the a la carte menu. The service-wise are definitely one of the better ones which i encountered on my food experience so far, the staff are polite, knowledgable and a smile is always on their face which make diners feel welcome.
By the way, we took slightly more than 1 half hours to finish our lunch, so i thought it might not be so good if you visit Friends during your lunch work break. This is one place where they waited for you to finish the starter before serving on the soup, the main, the dessert and the drink. So really it all depends on how fast you approach your dishes. My companion and I were starving when we start the meal with the salad and soup, so we were wondering when will then they served the main course. Well, if the main course is what you want, advice will be to finish the starters fast and get on with the main.
All in all, the dining experience at Friends is no doubt a pleasant one, which my companion and i both very much enjoyed. I would say this is the place where you can really have your Casual Fine Dining without really burning a hole in your pocket. For people who felt that fine-dining equates to dress-up, this is not a issue at Friends. Whether you are decked out in suits and ties, or your comfy jeans & t-shirts, you’ll be welcome at Friends all the same. On a side note, if you are driving, remember to call the restaurant for directions, as free private parking are available for diners. The next visit to Friends again, will be for their executive set dinner, or A la carte menu. And lastly i’ll like to thank my companion for accompanying me on this lovely lunch. In the company of a good friend, it just makes the meal at Friends better.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Wah Lok is a Cantonese restaurant which has been on the 2nd floor of Carlton for a long time. The interior is quite lavish and traditional looking with a nice dome shaped main dining hall at the end which overlooks Chjimes.
We ordered SO MUCH I just can't list them all. Also the receipt is with my companion and I forgot to take a picture of it. haha Some of the food we ordered:
Century Egg Porridge This was one nice small bowl for me. I enjoyed it really. But it wasn't anything special. The serving was just right for one and the texture of the porridge was just right. It wasn't the watery sort one sometimes gets. Egg Tarts They were cute mini dim sum egg tarts. The filling was not tasty enough for me. The crust was a little too crumbly which forced me to put the entire thing in my mouth and I couldn't take my time with it. Average I guess.
Steamed Prawn Dumplings - Har Gao Har gao is one dish I always look forward to when I eat dim sum. This one was not really what I like though. Although I attacked right after all the photo taking, it was already pretty dry and the edges were a tad hard. The prawn was pretty fresh but the skin wasn't what I would prefer. Sigh.
Roasted Pork Bun - Char Siew Bao I like that the filling wasn't too sweet and there weren't fatty bits. But the dough portion was a little too thick. I like those that are thinner and open up more. Not bad really. Beancurd Skin with Prawn It was oily (as usual) but very crisp. I'm not a fan of beancurd skin but this was one I pretty much liked.
It cost us about $28-$29 each. There were three of us that day. Service was pretty good though I didn't get my water filled at all throughout. My friend's warm water did get filled though. I find Wah Lok's dim sum too "heavy" for me... get full very easily. I guess, in a way, that's more traditional.
New York New York (NYNY), the eye-catching restaurant located at the underground of Citylink. NYNY stands out with its dazzling name, and always caught the attention with its alluring interior decorations. The green and cozy furnitures are the signature of NYNY. Having pass by NYNY many times but fail to go inside, a timely visit is always due on the cards as my companion and me went there for lunch.
Seafood Platter for 2 ($33.90)
We ordered the Seafood Platter for 2 to share. A platter fit for the Kings and Queens of New York! Cold Crab, prawn fritters, crispy fish salmon and calamari rings, compose of the delightful meal. Having ordered Seafood platters previously before at Manhattan Fish Market and Fish & Co, i was pleasantly surprise when the platter arrive. All right i admitted, i did not pay much attention when i made the order, so i didn’t really notice the word “Cold Crab” on the menu. Yep, thats the surprise, neither was my companion ready for it. Nonetheless, let us take a peek into what is present in the platter.
Crispy fish & chips
Well you know the ever-present fish & chips? Steady and reliable
Prawn Fritters
The prawn fritters were excellent. I loved this one. No doubt the prawn might not be very big, but then the bigger the prawn, i feel the less tasty it is. The prawn here is deep-fried, coupled with the Tata sauce, it is simply irresistible.
Fish Salmon
The Fish salmon here eaten raw, a tad too fishy for me, so i’ll give it a pass
Calamari Rings
Now then, everybody should know Calamaris are actually fried squids right? O well just in case. The Calamari rings here are up to the mark, tender and juicy. In my humble opinion, i consider the calamari rings here to be one level up from the one at Fish & Co. The main explanation being the ones at Fish & Co are too salty for my liking.
Cold Crab
North Altantic Fishermen love their chilled steamed crabs. Just some background information on the crustacean. In case you don’t know what is a crustacean, they are large group of arthropods, comprising approximately 52,000 described species. Baffled already? All right all right, to put it in short, some of the names we are familar with; lobsters, crabs, shrimps, crayfish,
The sea creature with the claws that are ready to pinch you if you are not too careful. To be honest, i am not a big fan of crabs. Why? Because i am lazy, yes pure lazy.
It takes skill to eat a crab you know? there are so many different parts of the crab to be eaten, well i like the big hammer of the crab, there’s lots of meat there. The small leg? Nah, you can have it. You’ll have to slowly suck the meat out of the thin skinny leg. Well be careful while you are having a suck at it, the cute guy or pretty girl next table might just be looking at you.
Nevertheless, both of us took quite a long time to finish it, the Cold Crab is fresh, too bad we are not crab lovers huh? hahaha!
Some might say New York New York is not good, they excel in the decorations but failed in the food. But my contrarian view tells me that they are good and a excellent place to hang out with your friends. The decorations are well done, in fact the environment of a restaurant plays a huge role as to whether the food is good. The food might not be the best, but they are still good. The crucial factor to this will be the price, its within reasonable pricing, and all this only sums up to one equation, i will be back.
Total bill was $39.90 for 2 person, which i find it to be inexpensive. NYNY @ Citylink is strategically located to tap on the huge crowd travelling from City Hall to Suntec/Marine Square. Thus, the restaurant being full even when it is not during lunch or dinner time is not an uncommon sight. There are more to try from the comprehensive menu of NYNY. Until then!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
I was sick for a week and was really wrecking my brains for something to eat. A friend suggested Vietnamese food and we went to Le Viet. I'd walked past this place many times and never stepped in to try the food.
Simple and modern decor. It had this nice water tank running along the side of the restaurant. There were guppies and goldfish swimming about it. When we got there, they had just put fresh food in so all the fish were coming to the surface. It was certainly nice to look at.
There were few people there that weekday evening. So it wasn't too noisy. Just right with a few tables occupied.
There was quite a variety and being a noob to vietnamese food, I spent a lot of time poring over the descriptions....
Food Ordered:
Goi Cuon - Fresh Rice Paper Roll ($6) There were 3 rolls and you had a choice of chicken or pork. We picked chicken. The shredded chicken was wrapped in a paper thin translucent skin with vermicelli, beansprouts and basil. I liked this very much. It was light yet savoury. Bun Ga Nuong - Dry Vietnamese Vermicelli w Chicken ($8.50) This arrived looking like your regular Kueh Tiao with Grilled Chicken. But flip it and you'll find a host of crunchy vegetables right underneath! Toss it well and you have yourself a savoury noodle salad! Yummy!!
Pho Bo Thap Cam - 3-in-1 Mixed Noodles ($8.50) My friend had this with slices and beef balls. You can choose 2 out of 3 options and those were his choices. I didn't eat this because I'm not a fan of beef. But the soup was very very tasty!
Including drinks our bill came u to about $30 (and a little more) which I find pretty reasonable. Every thing was served fast cos it's not too hard to prepare... and the service was satisfactory.
This is one place where I'll return often for the cheap salmon don and yummilicious desserts! It was the cheapest I’ve seen so far! When the Salmon Don was served, I was pretty shocked. It didn’t looked like it cost just $3.80! I wondered if they’d served a wrong order! It was also served with miso soup and pickles. There were lots of rice and the number of slices of salmon served was more than those you get from sushi belt where you paid $6.50 for. Although its not as thick, it was still fresh and nice. I’m not a chosey eater, so this entire set for $3.80 was definitely very value for money. CHEAP!!
Their showcase of desserts outside the restaurants attracts the most attention and this is one of their pull factors for customers. Whoever walks by their showcase will be tempted by their mouth-watering display of plastic/rubber/clay food that's made to look so so real and good! (Beauty of the crafty craftman)
I tried their mango ice cream dessert that cost about $6.80. (I pay lesser for the salmon don! HA!) But still, this dessert is very nice. Freshly diced mango with soft vanilla ice-cream on top of a pile of cornflakes! *droooooling* Just thinking about it makes me want to go back for more!
Tried other dishes too like the cheese tofu, karage chicken and others which I can't remember. Next time I go again, I'll make sure I write more about them k.
Talk about pizza in Singapore and the first name to jump at you will be Pizza Hut. However, there are quite a variety of other offerings out there yet to be noticed or even recommended. Most are targeted at niche markets instead of the usual crowd and honestly, i think Pizza Hut is charging a little too much these days. In comes New York Pizza, more casual and easy going then Pizza Hut, and also decidedly Halal so it can be enjoyed by even more people. Lets have a bite and find out if its a contender shall we?
Simple and gets the job done. The location is alfresco and thats about all there is to it. I wasn't very happy that i'd have to stay in the sun and get all comfy with it and the fact that there's a noticeable waiting time of about 10 minutes after you order makes it look less palatable
The container - Do not let the picture fool you. This is not a small piece of pizza at all. To put it in perspective, think about the length of pizza huts biggest pizza and you get the idea of how long this is.
Queens Meal = Pepperoni Pizza Chicken Wing Pepsi ($6.90) - Queens meal, nice name though it belies the actual fact that its quite simply a big piece of pepperoni pizza with green pepper, pepperoni and bits of beef. The pizza itself is pretty big and can be split into 4 further pieces for consumption. Its crust is reasonable but very crunchy and crispy which is a refreshing change from pizza huts rather flour filled pizzas. The toppings weren't much to shout about however and i soon got sick of the same taste it offered. The chicken wing was strangely fragrant and sweet, not to mention piping hot
Hawaiian Pizza Meal ($6.90) - Its crust is alike with the pepperoni version which i suppose is the determining factor and difference it is bringing to the scene. Crunchy but a little overdone such that you could see the charred portions from over baking. The Hawaiian pizza is a little too sweet and easily overwhelmed after more then 3 bites into it. The ingredients used were also a little miserly when compared to other pizza places i got to try.
The lunch came up to $13.80 which can't be considered expensive. We did get very sick of the pizza after our 2 helpings so i don't think i will be returning.
I actually tried the place a long time ago when it first started. During that time i had the fish and chips and also tried its pizza burger. Both were pretty good and the fish and chips in particular had a wonderful fresh taste to it. During this visit, the machine was spoiled and thats why we settled for its less then optimal pizzas. Well, i wouldn't know if the fish and chips are any good now since i probably won't try it again. If anyone else tries, let me know if it tastes good alright? Cheers!
Mazazu Crepe is the Singapore franchise of the Japanese crepe chain, Mother’s Crepe and Cafe. It is located at 3 Temasek Boulevard #01-140 Suntec City Mall Singapore 038983.
My Dear & I were looking for FOOD at a late hour around 9pm and most of the stall were closed except this Crepe Shop. Normally pple will eat Sweet filling crepe, but for me… its a no-no. I prefer savoury stuff. They offered sweet and savoury fillings which suits my taste bud! I bought the Mushroom and Cheese to try. ;) It's Yummy!
1=SGD 0.0587
Recently went to Astons Specialties at East Coast for a meal. It was highly recommended by my friend. But I dun eat beef, so I have to go for their Chickens.
The queue was freaking long. The main reason is that they served ‘good’ and cheap western food. I personally find it so-so. The price starts from SGD5.90 for a set that comes with 2 sides.
Chargrilled Chicken - It reminds me of Hans. The chicken chop is a bit too tough. I like the bake beans though. The pasta salad is well prepared. Not too dry.
My Dear ordered for their Prime Cut. He said it’s good and better than the wagyu beef that my friend had. Wagyu Beef - He forgot how much he is paying for it. - $38.90 Cannot compare lah… :p
Rating given:
I don't commonly patronize a Chinese restaurant in a small group. The neighborhood kopitiam or food centre usually have something similar without the pinch on the pocket. But this time, an occasion calls for it, and I am glad I get to try this place out when the Girlfriend decided to treat her god-family and me together.
Imperial Treasure (Cantonese Cuisine) is somehow extremely popular for weekend dining. The food is pretty good and you can even have a private dining experience in one of the exclusive rooms. However, I had dined the spacious common area which was nevertheless a nice place. The intricate decor was a pleasant sight to behold and it added to the positive experience.
Service standards here is really good with attentive staff literally seeing to every table they walk past. Response was quick and always reassuring when reactions from them required longer time. The staff are evidently well-trained, pleasant and extremely helpful.
The food here, though on the pricey side is a testament of the chefs experience and skill.
The roast goose was perfectly done with the skin crispy and the meat well-cooked but remaining tender to the bite. The special plum sauce accentuates the texture of the meat as well as the crispy skin.
The next dish was a tofu dish. The tofu was deep-fried on on the outside but soft and delicate on the inside and place on over a layer of spinach. A thick, tasty mushroom-based gravy is generously drizzled over them. The gravy and the tofu blended very well together while the spinach helped to clear palate for the next dish.
The third dish was Sweet and Sour Pork. I found this dish more on the sweet side, but it was still pretty good with the meat chunks crispy to the bite despite being totally covered in the sweet and sour sauce. The side vegetables of diced capsicums and pineapples provided a good balance of taste.
We then had sauteed fresh prawns. The prawns were deep fried before being sauteed with seasoning as the shells were crunchy and edible, especially the head. Every bite released a pleasant fragrance from the head shell and the flesh had the crunchiness only available from fresh prawns.
We then realized that it took a very long time for our Winter Melon Soup to be served. We asked the wait staff twice for the item only to have them reply that "it will come soon". It was only when the dish arrived did we understand why it had taken so long. The soup was served in an actual winter melon. To serve, the wait staff had to scrap out the winter melon flesh. carefully so as not to break the skin. The contents were served in small bowls. The soup was light and flavorful at the same time and really tasty with plenty of condiments. In total, the winter melon held 14 portions of soup which we were able to finish eventually.
The food here was great and I would love to come back for more.
Rating given:
Heard about 2am:dessert bar and did read that it was pretty good, so when I was asked to go along, I was happy to.
Upon reaching Holland V, we did have a bit of trouble locating it. Thank goodness for friends who live in the West and frequent Holland V, we found this little place near the multi-storey carpark. It's at the end of the row where you can find the popular bakery Provence. BTW you have to look up because it's on the second floor.
At the entrance to the stairs leading upstairs, we were "greeted" by a small group of people who were on their way out. Apparently there were seats for them but the woman was complaining that it was way too noisy for her to eat anything. Surprised, we stepped in to experience it for ourselves.
She was right! The music was way too loud and distasteful for a dessert bar meant for chilling. They were playing house music as if it were a club and everyone was talking at the top of their voices so that they could be heard. It certainly didn't help that there was one huge group of 10 people there that day.
That said the colours and design of the interior looks good but it was a little too cramp for me. Also the chairs and sofas chosen were not very comfortable. Maybe they are trying to make their patrons uncomfortable so that they wouldn't stay too long. Despite maximizing seating capacity by making it cramp, there still weren't enough seats that night.
The selection was a little limited for me. As a dessert bar I don't expect it to have many food items so the number (about 5-6) of food items was fine. But there weren't many dessert items too. I believe there were about 8-9 items which some of which are not very different from each other.
Food Ordered:
Chocolate Tart $14
The most popular one that night and it certainly made sense why. The chocolate was reasonably tasty. The crust had some orange in it which gave a zesty taste when you have it with the chocolate. Presented beautifully, this was the only item which received some nods that night.
Twix $13
Tasteless. Truly tasteless. I was wondering what it was suppose to be and I picked up the menu to read again. It certainly didn't taste like caramel mousse to me. Only the peanut crumble (little peanut bits) served with it had some taste. Even the ice cream wasn't even satisfactory.
Tiramisu $15
This is the worst Tiramisu I've ever tasted. I've had some weird ones before but this one was in a class of its own. The texture was very soggy and it irked me to have to swallow it anyway.
2am Meatballs $14
6 little meatballs served on a few pieces of veg. Presentation wise, this was the least attractive. No doubt the meatballs weren't just taken out from a frozen pack but it certainly didn't justify the price tag. I don't relish eating some of the fatty bits in it too.
The above plus a glass of wine, ginger beer and some peppermint tea cost 3 of us $78 (after 10% discount).
How did we get the 10% discount? Well after taking our orders, we were OFFERED by the staff to change to the sofa seats by the side. Attracted by the novelty of sitting on the sofa seats we were excited and moved over immediately. After which the server who took our orders, saw that we were no longer at our places, threw our order away. He walked past us a few times when we were at our new seats but still didn't realise his mistake. Only after we noticed people who came later were getting their food before us, then we raised the issue. After some clarification, the lady (whom we suppose to be the manager) apologised and explained to us that the order was thrown away. Sigh.
By then the music was making me nauseous. Bad ambience, bad food, high prices and service requires improvement. What rating did you expect?
Rating given:
Jelita seems an unlikely place to go to, with the main draw being Cold Storage, a video-shop, couple of other shops. However thats precisely where Friends are situated. A Modern European restaurant which proclaims to offer casual fine dining, Friends @ Jelita is just a stone throw away from the popular Holland Village, but offers you the serene environment which the latter could not afford with the omni-present large crowd there.
Having signed up as a member with Friends online at its website, i received a $50 voucher for every $150 spend, or a 1-for-1 Executive Set Lunch/Dinner promotion. Armed with the coupon, my companion and me made our way to Jelita, and arrived at 1250pm. Being a monday, we were not surprise to see the restaurant quite empty, but there were still some patrons though. The staff there told us that Monday is usually a good time to visit Friends as there are less customers, and you probably will not want to come here on a weekend as that’s when the families bring their kids along.
The first notion that striked me was the decorations and furnitures presented in the restaurant. The comfy grey large seats definitely make us feel at home. The lighting was dimmed, which creates a tranquil atmosphere. On the other hand, it pose a predicament to food bloggers because the poor lighting makes the photos turn out not-as-good, that is not a problem if you are a pro at photoshop.
There are two types available, the Classic Set Lunch and the Executive Set Lunch, with Executive being more expensive among the both, undoubtedly the level of standard demand will be higher. It was only sensible to order the Executive Set Lunch since it was 1-for-1. But i was intially sceptical to how good the Set Lunch can be, as the a la carte menu are all priced reasonably higher than that of the set lunch. Friends proved me wrong in this, the executive set lunch ($24.90 ) albeit being limited in options, is certainly value for money.
Australian Garden Salad
Each Set Lunch comes with the Australian Garden Salad. Topped with dried fruits, raspberry vinaigrette, the hors d’oeuvre is positively a good way to begin the meal.
Soup of the day
Mushroom soup with a hint of mashed potatos. This was good until we tried the other wild forest mushroom soup. The latter makes the mushroom soup seems ordinary. Actually its not bad, just that the mushroom soup meet its match with the wild forest mushroom, which is a tad better.
Wild Forest mushroom Soup (Additional Upgrade of $2)
This is the one that makes the Soup of the day seems inferior. Well, you always expect more especially when there is an additional upgrade of $2. The Wild forest mushroom soup does not fails to deliver taste-wise, it is a good appetizer as the soup helps to unlock our tastebuds for the rest of the meal.
Sautèed chicken fillet
For our first main course, we had the Sautèed chicken fillet which was complemented with dried chili, rosemary & garlic anchovy. The first bite of the chicken tells it all, the fillet was tender and soft, It was unlike what normal chicken taste like, Friends re-defined the chicken experience, this certainly impressed me.
The sauce of the chicken fillet was equally good. The dried chili, rosemary & garlic anchovy combinations creates a unique taste. Sometimes the sauce of a dish gets so strong that it cover the meat, but thats not the case at Friends. The chicken fillet with the sauce seems to harmonize and blend with each other, which brings us the Sautèed chicken fillet.
Oven Baked Salmon fillet
Topped with Cajun crust & lemon butter sauce, the Oven Baked Salmon fillet is another winner which bright up our meal. The cripsy cajun crust on the exterior of the salmon was complemented by its soft interior.
The lemon butter sauce has a cheesy taste, and we almost mistook it for cheese. Both mains are accompanied by mashed potatos toppled with mixed vegies. My companion had a slight issue with the salmon though. Being a big fan of salmon, she remarked that the fillet was slightly dried as compared to the other salmons she had previously. Otherwise, the salmon will be faultless.
Cappuccino
The pretty sight makes us admire the Cappuccino for a while before we harden our heart and stirred the coffee.
Dessert of the day
To end off our meal, we had egg crustard for desserts. This one is good, egg crustard underneath the breaded top. Every spoonful of egg crustard taste warm, like straight from the oven. We felt that it’s rather similar to whats more commonly known to us, egg tarts.
Friends
Total bill for two executive set lunch was $60.6, under the 1-for-1 promotion, we paid $31.70 for the delightful lunch. The set lunch and dinner at Friends are definitely value-for-money, and should worth your try unless you want to go for the a la carte menu. The service-wise are definitely one of the better ones which i encountered on my food experience so far, the staff are polite, knowledgable and a smile is always on their face which make diners feel welcome.
By the way, we took slightly more than 1 half hours to finish our lunch, so i thought it might not be so good if you visit Friends during your lunch work break. This is one place where they waited for you to finish the starter before serving on the soup, the main, the dessert and the drink. So really it all depends on how fast you approach your dishes. My companion and I were starving when we start the meal with the salad and soup, so we were wondering when will then they served the main course. Well, if the main course is what you want, advice will be to finish the starters fast and get on with the main.
All in all, the dining experience at Friends is no doubt a pleasant one, which my companion and i both very much enjoyed. I would say this is the place where you can really have your Casual Fine Dining without really burning a hole in your pocket. For people who felt that fine-dining equates to dress-up, this is not a issue at Friends. Whether you are decked out in suits and ties, or your comfy jeans & t-shirts, you’ll be welcome at Friends all the same. On a side note, if you are driving, remember to call the restaurant for directions, as free private parking are available for diners. The next visit to Friends again, will be for their executive set dinner, or A la carte menu. And lastly i’ll like to thank my companion for accompanying me on this lovely lunch. In the company of a good friend, it just makes the meal at Friends better.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Modern European Cuisine at its finest “
Rating given:
Wah Lok is a Cantonese restaurant which has been on the 2nd floor of Carlton for a long time. The interior is quite lavish and traditional looking with a nice dome shaped main dining hall at the end which overlooks Chjimes.
We ordered SO MUCH I just can't list them all. Also the receipt is with my companion and I forgot to take a picture of it. haha
Some of the food we ordered:
Century Egg Porridge
This was one nice small bowl for me. I enjoyed it really. But it wasn't anything special. The serving was just right for one and the texture of the porridge was just right. It wasn't the watery sort one sometimes gets.
Egg Tarts
They were cute mini dim sum egg tarts. The filling was not tasty enough for me. The crust was a little too crumbly which forced me to put the entire thing in my mouth and I couldn't take my time with it. Average I guess.
Steamed Prawn Dumplings - Har Gao
Har gao is one dish I always look forward to when I eat dim sum. This one was not really what I like though. Although I attacked right after all the photo taking, it was already pretty dry and the edges were a tad hard. The prawn was pretty fresh but the skin wasn't what I would prefer. Sigh.
Roasted Pork Bun - Char Siew Bao
I like that the filling wasn't too sweet and there weren't fatty bits. But the dough portion was a little too thick. I like those that are thinner and open up more. Not bad really.
Beancurd Skin with Prawn
It was oily (as usual) but very crisp. I'm not a fan of beancurd skin but this was one I pretty much liked.
It cost us about $28-$29 each. There were three of us that day. Service was pretty good though I didn't get my water filled at all throughout. My friend's warm water did get filled though. I find Wah Lok's dim sum too "heavy" for me... get full very easily. I guess, in a way, that's more traditional.
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New York New York (NYNY), the eye-catching restaurant located at the underground of Citylink. NYNY stands out with its dazzling name, and always caught the attention with its alluring interior decorations. The green and cozy furnitures are the signature of NYNY. Having pass by NYNY many times but fail to go inside, a timely visit is always due on the cards as my companion and me went there for lunch.
Seafood Platter for 2 ($33.90)
We ordered the Seafood Platter for 2 to share. A platter fit for the Kings and Queens of New York! Cold Crab, prawn fritters, crispy fish salmon and calamari rings, compose of the delightful meal. Having ordered Seafood platters previously before at Manhattan Fish Market and Fish & Co, i was pleasantly surprise when the platter arrive. All right i admitted, i did not pay much attention when i made the order, so i didn’t really notice the word “Cold Crab” on the menu. Yep, thats the surprise, neither was my companion ready for it. Nonetheless, let us take a peek into what is present in the platter.
Crispy fish & chips
Well you know the ever-present fish & chips? Steady and reliable
Prawn Fritters
The prawn fritters were excellent. I loved this one. No doubt the prawn might not be very big, but then the bigger the prawn, i feel the less tasty it is. The prawn here is deep-fried, coupled with the Tata sauce, it is simply irresistible.
Fish Salmon
The Fish salmon here eaten raw, a tad too fishy for me, so i’ll give it a pass
Calamari Rings
Now then, everybody should know Calamaris are actually fried squids right? O well just in case. The Calamari rings here are up to the mark, tender and juicy. In my humble opinion, i consider the calamari rings here to be one level up from the one at Fish & Co. The main explanation being the ones at Fish & Co are too salty for my liking.
Cold Crab
North Altantic Fishermen love their chilled steamed crabs. Just some background information on the crustacean. In case you don’t know what is a crustacean, they are large group of arthropods, comprising approximately 52,000 described species. Baffled already? All right all right, to put it in short, some of the names we are familar with; lobsters, crabs, shrimps, crayfish,
The sea creature with the claws that are ready to pinch you if you are not too careful. To be honest, i am not a big fan of crabs. Why? Because i am lazy, yes pure lazy.
It takes skill to eat a crab you know? there are so many different parts of the crab to be eaten, well i like the big hammer of the crab, there’s lots of meat there. The small leg? Nah, you can have it. You’ll have to slowly suck the meat out of the thin skinny leg. Well be careful while you are having a suck at it, the cute guy or pretty girl next table might just be looking at you.
Nevertheless, both of us took quite a long time to finish it, the Cold Crab is fresh, too bad we are not crab lovers huh? hahaha!
Some might say New York New York is not good, they excel in the decorations but failed in the food. But my contrarian view tells me that they are good and a excellent place to hang out with your friends. The decorations are well done, in fact the environment of a restaurant plays a huge role as to whether the food is good. The food might not be the best, but they are still good. The crucial factor to this will be the price, its within reasonable pricing, and all this only sums up to one equation, i will be back.
Total bill was $39.90 for 2 person, which i find it to be inexpensive. NYNY @ Citylink is strategically located to tap on the huge crowd travelling from City Hall to Suntec/Marine Square. Thus, the restaurant being full even when it is not during lunch or dinner time is not an uncommon sight. There are more to try from the comprehensive menu of NYNY. Until then!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Food all the way from New York City “
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I was sick for a week and was really wrecking my brains for something to eat. A friend suggested Vietnamese food and we went to Le Viet. I'd walked past this place many times and never stepped in to try the food.
Simple and modern decor. It had this nice water tank running along the side of the restaurant. There were guppies and goldfish swimming about it. When we got there, they had just put fresh food in so all the fish were coming to the surface. It was certainly nice to look at.
There were few people there that weekday evening. So it wasn't too noisy. Just right with a few tables occupied.
There was quite a variety and being a noob to vietnamese food, I spent a lot of time poring over the descriptions....
Food Ordered:
Goi Cuon - Fresh Rice Paper Roll ($6)
There were 3 rolls and you had a choice of chicken or pork. We picked chicken. The shredded chicken was wrapped in a paper thin translucent skin with vermicelli, beansprouts and basil. I liked this very much. It was light yet savoury.
Bun Ga Nuong - Dry Vietnamese Vermicelli w Chicken ($8.50)
This arrived looking like your regular Kueh Tiao with Grilled Chicken. But flip it and you'll find a host of crunchy vegetables right underneath! Toss it well and you have yourself a savoury noodle salad! Yummy!!
Pho Bo Thap Cam - 3-in-1 Mixed Noodles ($8.50)
My friend had this with slices and beef balls. You can choose 2 out of 3 options and those were his choices. I didn't eat this because I'm not a fan of beef. But the soup was very very tasty!
Including drinks our bill came u to about $30 (and a little more) which I find pretty reasonable. Every thing was served fast cos it's not too hard to prepare... and the service was satisfactory.
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Cheapest Salmon Don and Nice desserts!
This is one place where I'll return often for the cheap salmon don and yummilicious desserts! It was the cheapest I’ve seen so far! When the Salmon Don was served, I was pretty shocked. It didn’t looked like it cost just $3.80! I wondered if they’d served a wrong order! It was also served with miso soup and pickles. There were lots of rice and the number of slices of salmon served was more than those you get from sushi belt where you paid $6.50 for. Although its not as thick, it was still fresh and nice. I’m not a chosey eater, so this entire set for $3.80 was definitely very value for money. CHEAP!!
Their showcase of desserts outside the restaurants attracts the most attention and this is one of their pull factors for customers. Whoever walks by their showcase will be tempted by their mouth-watering display of plastic/rubber/clay food that's made to look so so real and good! (Beauty of the crafty craftman)
I tried their mango ice cream dessert that cost about $6.80. (I pay lesser for the salmon don! HA!) But still, this dessert is very nice. Freshly diced mango with soft vanilla ice-cream on top of a pile of cornflakes! *droooooling* Just thinking about it makes me want to go back for more!
Tried other dishes too like the cheese tofu, karage chicken and others which I can't remember. Next time I go again, I'll make sure I write more about them k.
Anyone want to go with me? :P
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Talk about pizza in Singapore and the first name to jump at you will be Pizza Hut. However, there are quite a variety of other offerings out there yet to be noticed or even recommended. Most are targeted at niche markets instead of the usual crowd and honestly, i think Pizza Hut is charging a little too much these days. In comes New York Pizza, more casual and easy going then Pizza Hut, and also decidedly Halal so it can be enjoyed by even more people. Lets have a bite and find out if its a contender shall we?
Simple and gets the job done. The location is alfresco and thats about all there is to it. I wasn't very happy that i'd have to stay in the sun and get all comfy with it and the fact that there's a noticeable waiting time of about 10 minutes after you order makes it look less palatable
The container - Do not let the picture fool you. This is not a small piece of pizza at all. To put it in perspective, think about the length of pizza huts biggest pizza and you get the idea of how long this is.
Queens Meal = Pepperoni Pizza Chicken Wing Pepsi ($6.90) - Queens meal, nice name though it belies the actual fact that its quite simply a big piece of pepperoni pizza with green pepper, pepperoni and bits of beef. The pizza itself is pretty big and can be split into 4 further pieces for consumption. Its crust is reasonable but very crunchy and crispy which is a refreshing change from pizza huts rather flour filled pizzas. The toppings weren't much to shout about however and i soon got sick of the same taste it offered. The chicken wing was strangely fragrant and sweet, not to mention piping hot
Hawaiian Pizza Meal ($6.90) - Its crust is alike with the pepperoni version which i suppose is the determining factor and difference it is bringing to the scene. Crunchy but a little overdone such that you could see the charred portions from over baking. The Hawaiian pizza is a little too sweet and easily overwhelmed after more then 3 bites into it. The ingredients used were also a little miserly when compared to other pizza places i got to try.
The lunch came up to $13.80 which can't be considered expensive. We did get very sick of the pizza after our 2 helpings so i don't think i will be returning.
I actually tried the place a long time ago when it first started. During that time i had the fish and chips and also tried its pizza burger. Both were pretty good and the fish and chips in particular had a wonderful fresh taste to it. During this visit, the machine was spoiled and thats why we settled for its less then optimal pizzas. Well, i wouldn't know if the fish and chips are any good now since i probably won't try it again. If anyone else tries, let me know if it tastes good alright? Cheers!
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Mazazu Crepe is the Singapore franchise of the Japanese crepe chain, Mother’s Crepe and Cafe. It is located at 3 Temasek Boulevard #01-140 Suntec City Mall Singapore 038983.
My Dear & I were looking for FOOD at a late hour around 9pm and most of the stall were closed except this Crepe Shop. Normally pple will eat Sweet filling crepe, but for me… its a no-no. I prefer savoury stuff. They offered sweet and savoury fillings which suits my taste bud! I bought the Mushroom and Cheese to try. ;) It's Yummy!
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