This Chi Zhar stall is very ulu lah! Hidden right at the corner of the estate, it's not easy to spot! There are many other coffee shops and eateries around that area, and every one of them were packed to the rim this evening. Hoping I got to the right place, finally I found this tiny stall hidden at the back of this quiet coffee shop.
It was Mum's birthday and we decided to give this place a try. Am glad that Mum enjoyed it, but I got "bitten" by the crab! My upper right lips hurts. Ok, nuff of whining, so what's good about this place?
We ordered "3 Glass Chicken", Claypot Seafood Tofu, Stout Pork Ribs, "Hei Zhou" (prawn roll like dish) and the highly recommended Jin Sha Xie (Golden Sand Crab) and fried Man Tou. Total bill came up to $108. All the dishes were the biggest portion one. (But it wasn't THAT big after all.)
The "3 Glass Chicken" was too dry and the meat was too tough. But the outside of the chicken was rather tasty.
Claypot Seafood Tofu was not bad. There were tofu, cuttlefish, sliced fish, vegetables and carrots. The sauce was not too thick nor diluted. Just nice to go with plain rice.
I didn't eat the pork ribs so I don't know how it tastes.
"Hei Zhou" was pretty good. Fried to the right texture and its crispy and flavorful.
Star of the night was the Golden Sand Crab. Dad picked up one bigger and one medium size crabs. The crab was not the freshiest, as there wasn't any sweetness to the meat. But there was plenty of meat in the crabs. The best part was the sauce! As described by Reiko and Lucardia, the sauce is very well prepared. It was creamy, milky and spicy! Great with man tou and I couldn't stop dipping my crab meat in the sauce before every mouthful. The entire plate was cleared (almost spotless) at the end of dinner! Will go back just for the crab when I'm around the area.
Had a craving for American style thick crust pizzas so ventured to California Pizza Kitchen's (CPK) sole Singapore outlet at Orchard. CPK is actually an international chain with 235 outlets worldwide and is well known for its extensive menu which features everything from creative pizzas to pastas, sandwiches and salads.
Occupying two levels at Forum the Shopping Mall, CPK offers air conditioned dining on both levels and al fresco dining on the lower level as well. Tables are spaced comfortably apart and if you sit downstairs, you can get a partial view of the kitchen and the counter where the pizzas are placed to be served. All in all a family style cosy interior with the option of booth seats if you so wish.
BBQ Chicken Pizza - Branded as a hot favourite amongst customers in the US, the BBQ Chicken pizza has withstood the test of time by being on the menu since the first CPK restaurant opened up in Beverly Hills in 1985. Sizing in at 10 inches and 6 slices, the BBQ chicken was relatively heavy on the tastebuds with BBQ chicken breast cubes (duh!) and onions. Cheese was also plentiful and complemented the mild tomato base which covered the chewy and hearty pizza dough. But it could probably do with alot more ingredients for the price. Heck, pizza hut gives more for roughly the same price!
Hawaiian Pizza - The Hawaiian was much much lighter on the palate then the BBQ chicken, which isn't a bad thing really. Fresh pineapples and bacon coupled with a generous layer of gooey cheese and a moderately thick and chewy crust with lots of bite made for an excellent pizza. But as with the BBQ chicken pizza, the amount of ingredients could have increased.
Chocolate Banana Cheesecake - This is seriously one decadent dessert. Extremely chocolaty and rich from the drizzled triple thick hot fudge, the cake was a tad soft but went very well with the smooth vanilla ice cream. Definitely not recommended for people who can't tolerate high levels of sugar in every mouthful. And at $12 a pop, its not recommended for budget/value for money seekers as well.
I like the food and the place, I can accept the relatively higher price ($60 for 2 pax) but I hate the location (and parking charges as well). Unless CPK can move to the heartlands or I'm around the area, I'll probably have to stick to Canadian Pizza or Pizza Hut for my frequent pizza urges.
Happened to be on the 4th floor of The Cathay yesterday. And happened to see a familiar sign at the corner. It was Astons Specialties! They've just opened this new outlet on Friday, 4 July 2008.
Am very happy to see that they had keep the price and no service charge policy at this new outlet although its in town. The place is very clean and simple. No fancy decor. Just monochromatic pictures on the walls, and simple and comfy tables and chairs neatly aligned. There is also outdoor sittings which wasn't set-up yet when I was there. (It's only day 2 of their operations!) There's also the familiar chalkboard with the day's special written on it.
Feeling hungry at 4pm, as I didn't eat anything since that morning, I ordered the Prime Ribeye X'tra Cut with fries and pasta salad ($16.50), and a glass of ice lemon tea ($1.80).
The fries was crispy and nice. Just like those I had at Astons Express. I love them! And the pasta salad was fresh and the pasta was cooked just right. The prime ribeye was cooked to the right medium-rare and the meat was tender, chewy and juicy. I cleared the entire plate (which was relatively huge) on my own!
If you're craving for good and reasonably priced steak in town, why not go to The Cathay for Astons Specialties?
Eden Cafe is acknowledged for its delicate florals cuisines to bring a whole new dining experience for the customers’ palate. Owner of the former Helio Cafe at Marina Square, Mr Clement Ng is the brain behind the floral concept at Eden Cafe.
Positioned at Club Street, just beside Ann Siang Hill, Eden Cafe is a quaint flower inspired cafe seated at the F&B robust street with other eminent neighbours like Les Brasseries, Senso Ristorante, Spizza, Seven on Club, Da Paolo II Ristorante, and Indochine restaurant.
There is the make-to-order option for dinner which is very interesting. Contact Mr Clement Ng to custom-made a dinner which is unique for you.
The interior is done in very unsophisticated manner, with soft soothing music as background. The cafe has such a cozy and homely feel that my friend and i can just sit there for the whole day. It is that comfortable, just like home.
Sundried Tomato Omelette ($9.50) Eden’s brunch menu is only available during the weekends and public holiday. It is the draw of the brunch menu which actually brings my visit to Eden. I’m always fascinated by the prospects of eating brunch at some comfy cafe on a laid-back weekend.
The brunch selections here are mostly toast and sandwiches. The omelette is the one which caught my attention. I was rather astonish when the dish came, not that i was expecting a lot, but at almost ten bucks for omelette on a toast, coupled with lots of greens, it do seem a tad expensive.
I understand that many places which offer brunch might be even pricier than this, but still paying ten bucks for the definitely-not-filling brunch do makes ordering lunch seems a more reasonable option.
Nevertheless, the Sundried Tomato omelette is quite good, with a hint of cheese within the egg, and i must commended that not many places actually have such a healthy serving of salads to go along.
Honey Mustard Chicken ($14.90) The main courses at Eden cafe takes longer to serve, with a waiting time of about 20mins. At first sight, the chicken is certainly tiny, with two small pieces of chicken breast, which comes along with again, very generous servings of greens.
The honey mustard flavours the chicken well, although we felt that the use of chicken drumstick can add more zest to the overall dish. At $15, the honey mustard chicken is definitely not filling for folks with big appetite. If only the serving size can be bigger.
Hibiscus Soft Cheesecake ($6.90) Desserts are where Eden really excels at. The Hibiscus soft cheesecake is one of the better cheesecakes i have tasted so far. The cheesy flavor might come a tad too strong for non-cheese lovers, but its still acceptable for me, although towards the end it might be slightly overwhelming if you finish this cake on your own.
Coated with a layer of hibiscus top, and a bright red strawberry on top, the cheesecake is done pleasant to the eye and satisfying to the palates.
Total bill for 2 comes up to $36.70. I still find Eden to be rather expensive given its minuscule serving size, and quintessentially there is nothing that fantastic about the food. The floral concept is unquestionably interesting, with the tranquil ambience of the cafe a positive plus.
But food-wise its done very simple, i guess this is the selling point of Eden’s, which sometimes make you feel that it does not justify the price tag. Nonetheless, Eden’s definitely a great place to chill and sit the whole day, and desserts are excellent which will tempt me into a recurrent visit.
Until the price drop, or with greater serving size, i’ll just come back to Eden’s for their desserts and the nice ambience. And just for information, Eden has a new sister restaurant at the hip Rochester park, Eden Sanctuary.
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!
Was back at Mingles for lunch one weekday afternoon because I wanted to try out their seemingly inexpensive set lunches. It also helped that the place was virtually empty.
Complimentary Bread & Cream of Pumpkin - I didn't think too much of either the complimentary bread or the cream of pumpkin soup. The bread was well, bread that you can get off the shelves at any supermarket. The cream of pumpkin was way too sweet for my liking and I don't know if my tastebuds were playing tricks on me, but the soup actually tasted very strongly of curry powder.
Crispy Salmon with Couscous - I tried a little of this and found it quite decent with the skin pan fried till crispy. There was also a noticeable absence of the overpowering (to me) fishy taste that is common to salmons. I didn't quite fancy the couscous though, but thats just a personal preference.
Crispy Chicken With Yogurt - Served up atop a mound of subtly sweet mashed sweet potato, the crispy chicken was surprisingly quite good with its crisp skin and succulent meat. However the down side to crispy skin is the inordinate amount of oil that comes with it. And I couldn't taste any yogurt at all.
Ice Cream in Waffle Basket - The ice cream tasted rather normal although it was supposed to be from New Zealand. The waffle basket tasted funny though , dry with a kept for too long in the cupboard taste.
2 set lunches set us back by about $48, which puts it in the mid range for set lunch prices. Service is still excellent and the environment is definitely cosy. Will definitely drop by for lunch again.
De Coder’s Cafe is one of the latest board game cafe in town, think along the line of The Mind Cafe, and Settlers Cafe and you pretty much get the picture. Located along Bukit Timah road at Balmoral Plaza, where Waffletown is also situated at.
Like what i mentioned previously, the place is actually quite accessible because its only about ten minutes walk away from Newton MRT. Taking a bus from Orchard road takes a mere ten minutes too.
It is puzzling as to why LIC haven’t been to any board game cafe when Mind, settlers, and De coder’s have open for quite some time, and are available in quite a few locations.
We are here for Claudia’s birthday. The Cafe isn’t very big, in fact its quite a squeeze for about twenty of us. The interior is simple, you can choose to seat at the sofas, or at the tables and chairs which are in red and black theme.
The highlight of De Coder’s cafe is definitely their wide range of board games. And speaking of board games, they aren’t your normal monopoly or you know those usual ones. They have so many different types which we totally haven’t seen before.
Root Beer float ($4.50) The root beer float is really just your normal root beer float. Pour the root beer from a bottle, and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. To charge $4.50 for it is kind of outrageous, but then again, they don’t charge for the games play, so i suppose their source of revenue will be through the drinks and food.
Pasta ($9.80) We ordered quite a few pasta, like Beefy beefy, ocean catch, mushy mushroom. All their pastas does not really suit our tastebud. Period.
Spicy Drumlets ($5) If their main course doesn’t works, what else is there to eat you ask? Finger food, but again, we tried almost all of their finger food, and most of them can’t quite make it as well.
The spicy drumlets is one of the few that is decent, but the consistency isn’t there. The first round we ordered this the drumlets are still okay, but the second time we ordered this one again, the chicken is kind of soggy, and its supposed to be fried and crispy.
Chicken Cubes ($5) The chicken cubes is definitely on the list of finger food that you should not be ordering. Soggy and tasteless. Period.
Cheesy Wedges ($5) They have two types of wedges, the potato wedges and cheesy wedges. We had both, and i guess the two wedges are still all right.
Americaya ($10) American’s all time favourite chicken burger served with wedges and baked beans. They are right, American favourite is chicken burger, but unfortunately, its not the Americaya served here. I literally had a hard time finishing the burger, and its not because i am full.
All in all, i may seem quite harsh on the food in De Coder’s cafe, but really the food isn’t good. Then again, you are there to play board games, and not because of the food, so we shouldn’t be complaining. But i feel that a board game cafe is a great idea, and to serve simple and good food actually isn’t that difficult.
Desserts like cheesecakes and brownies are decent. Fried food is in fact the easiest food to do it simple and nice, but they mess it up. If only they can improve on the standards of their food, i'll foresee myself making perennial visits, otherwise, stay away from most of the food, maybe just the desserts and drinks.
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!
Dinner once again at Seah Street Deli, my choice of a hearty western meal in a laid back and noisy environment, when I have the money of course.
Nice American diner style place to eat in, complete with a full size jukebox that belts out perennial favourites. Reminded me of the small diners I used to frequent in North American when I was still a student. Only difference is that this one didn't come with booth seats.
Cheese Fries - Well, as the name suggests, this dish was essentially cheese with fries, except that the cheese wasn't drizzled onto the fries. It came in a small saucer for you to dip your fries in. The fries were not too badly done, crispy and fresh. The cheese was thick and gooey, just that the portion was quite miserable considering the amount of fries we had.
Cheese Macaroni Chicken - Cheese atop macaroni with slices of grilled chicken is a rather simple dish to make but sadly not many places in Singapore sell it. Seah Street Deli's rendition is probably one of the better ones. However on this occasion, the macaroni was a little dry and burnt. The cheese was nice and thick but could do with a more generous serving. No complains about the chickens though, which were grilled with a slightly smoky taste.
Beef Pot Roast - My must order dish whenever I drop by. The pot roast consists of thinly sliced chewy pieces of beef which are a little charred along the edges , giving it that nice burnt taste and mashed potatoes with a buttery texture and taste. Very good!
Chocolate Decadence - The chocolate decadence was still as big as I remembered it to be. Only difference is the price, which has shot up from $7.95 a few months back to its present $11.95, a 50% increase over its old price! I would have been cool about it if the quality had been maintained, but no, the eatery decided to cut down on the ingredients as well. The all important layer of black forest between the layers of chocolate and cake was now gone. It breathed life into what was originally a mundane chocolate cake and made it great. Don't get me wrong though, the chocolate cake was still quite good, with the chocolate concentrated and not too sweet. But it can be really overwhelming if you decide to finish it all alone.
The prices have certainly increased since my last visit here in August last year. Food quality has dipped a wee bit, but its still pretty decent for the pricing. I should still be patronising.
Seah Street Deli has an American air around it, it is after all a restaurant serving your good old American food. Don’t let the name Seah Street fool you, the place is call Seah Street deli because the restaurant is located in Raffles Hotel, which is just beside Seah Street.
Step into Seah Street Deli, and you will be transported back in time to 1950s New York. The restaurant does imitates the look of a Big Apple Deli quite well, the lightning, the decors and the furnitures all oosh a certain classical American touch.
Located at the colonial Raffles Hotel, Seah Street Deli is just a 5 minutes walk away from Raffles City. Certainly an accessible place for a meal if you are in the area and do not want to be in the crowd.
Nowadays where else can you find a jukebox? Talk about nostalgic, they certainly roll back the good old time.
Wild Pacific Dory Fillet ($18.50) Served with natural organic vegetables, baby potatos, and lemon wine sauce. The wild pacific dory fillet comes up to be quite ordinary actually. The dory is fresh, but not much of a surprise there, and at $18.50, its a tad expensive. Serving size is definitely huge, well it should be, we are talking about American food after all.
Grilled Salmon Steak ($18.95) Salmon marinated with mix herbs, grilled zucchini, garlic mashed potatoes and dill cream sauce. The Grilled salmon steak taste to us slightly under-flavored, it will be better if the flavor can be stronger.
The garlic mashed potatoes are plentiful, and really, you can’t finish them off unless you really got a big appetite.
Southern Style Chicken ($17.50) Deep fried chicken, served with fries. The portion is gigantic, but really thats it. The chicken is deep fried, done in your American style, fries are decent. But at $17.50, the Southern Style chicken is a suspect for rip-off
Seah Street Burger ($14.95) Seah Street Deli’s very own freshly ground all beef patty with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions served on a toasted sesame bun. If you think the Seah Street Burger is big, think again. You haven’t seen the bigger burger.
Their Texas Burger a 12 ounce sized beef patty. Granted i heard quite good things about the Texas burger, but the stomach didn’t have room for it, so i ordered Seah Street burger instead.
Seah Street Burger is not too bad, the beef patty is nicely mashed, put together with the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions inside the sesame bun, you will be wondering how do you start eating the whopping burger.
Having eaten burgers in restaurants like Relish and Seah Street, not at your fastfood joints, i came to realise the only feasible way to consume them will be to cut by bites, otherwise you can always choose the alternative, take a big mouthful!
Chocolate Decadence cake ($11.95) The all time favourite chocolate decadence cake at $11.95 do seems a bit steep. But the serving size of the cake more than make up for it. The cake is ginormous (gigantic & enormous)! Seriously, i have never seen places cutting such a big size of cake.
The chocolate decadence cake is made up of 7 layers, and each layer is sweeter than the other. Even though i have a sweet tooth, i find the cake to be too sweet. But its good to indulge in such decadence once in while. After having our main courses, the four of us actually struggle to finish the cake. A must-try if you visit Seah Street Deli.
Total bill is $95.76 for 4 mains and 1 desserts. But Citibank is offering a 15% discount for Seah Street Deli, so our bill after the discount is $81.90. Prices are slightly steep here considering the fact that the food is not bad, but not to the point excellent. At around the same price, there might be some other places which can be better.
Portions are definitely huge, this is where we made a mistake. I think for 4 person, just order 3 main course to share will be more than suffice. The chocolate decadence cake is a must try for desserts. If prices can be cheaper, then i say Seah Street is a nice and cheerful place to dine out, until then, maybe once is enough.
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!
Emperor's Soup - a restaurant headed by Executive Chef Edmond Lui, whose stellar resume includes a decade of service at Pine Court, stints at Marina Mandarin, Lei Garden and the now defunct Boulevard Hotel. Purportedly well versed in the art of high end Cantonese cuisine, Chef Lui aims to offer restaurant quality food at neighbourhood prices.
Nestled in the former seedy neighbourhood of Joo Chiat just down the road from Canton Wok and Joo Heng, Emperor's Soup occupies a small unit space that probably seats about 30 pax, so if you are coming on weekends for dinner, a reservation might be a good thing to have. The interior is simply done up with red curtains and wooden racks exhibiting replica Chinese antiques and ornaments. Instrumental Chinese music wafts through the air from a portable stereo system located near the entrance to the washroom.
Double Boiled Shark Bone Soup with Mushroom and Bamboo Shoots & Fish Maw with Sea Cucumber and Shark's Fin Broth - At first glance, I thought the bowl holding the milky broth would be the shark bone soup but it turned out to be the shark's fin broth, which was really quite a deviation from the norm, especially when the shark bone soup turned out brownish in colour. This non milky shark bone soup is definitely a first for me and it tasted exactly like shark's fin soup but much starchier. Very average if you ask me.
The averageness carried on to the shark's fin broth, which came across as a little too milky for my liking. I couldn't actually make out any sea cucumber so either they missed it out or I wasn't looking hard enough.
Soft Shell Crab with Minced Pork - I honestly didn't quite take to this dish although I must admit that the soft shell crab was quite well fried. The minced pork or 肉松 was crispy and not too sweet as well but personally I found it overly oily from the amount of oil the deep fried batter absorbed. Sans the oil, I would probably have liked it a whole lot more.
Superior Bird's Nest with Fresh Milk - I thought I had landed myself a bargain at $8 for superior bird's nest. But as the adage goes, you get what you pay for. Served atop a bed of egg white cooked with milk, the bird's nest was barely a teaspoonful which wasn't even sufficient to gauge the quality of it (not that I know much about differentiating the various grades of bird's nest). One peeve I have with this dish was the raw fishy smell that emitted from the egg white, although the egg white came across as rather bland.
Fried Crispy Duck - I must say that the crispy duck was quite decent, crisp on the outside yet tender on the inside. It tasted uncannily like KFC's original chicken except that this was duck. What I liked about the duck was that it tasted fresh. No traces of reused oil which is prevalent in a lot of such deep fried dishes. It also helped that the duck was boneless.
Steamed Beancurd and Scallop in Black Bean Sauce - Smooth quivery beancurd topped with thinly sliced scallops and covered with a mild black bean sauce. The verdict? Decent enough but would have been better if the scallops actually had some taste in them.
A slightly above average meal set the 2 of us back by almost $75, which doesn't quite equate value for money. Service was decent though. To be brutally honest, I didn't feel like an emperor after the meal, more like a pauper really. So much for the name.
A long long time ago, we have A & W for our fix of waffles and root beer floats. Now that they are gone, Waffletown seems to be the only substitute for A & W. Located in Balmoral Plaza at Bukit Timah, the place is actually quite accessible because its only about ten minutes walk away from Newton MRT. Taking a bus from Orchard road takes a mere ten minutes too.
Offering the same “American” style of fastfood, even the seats are “A & W”-like. There’s seats outside if you prefer to seat in their “al fresco” area, otherwise go on in to their air-conditioned areas inside.
The place is a let-down though, the seats are all right, just like your fastfood restaurant chain. But i find the interior to be a little shabby. Actually i am saying this because i felt that Waffletown has great potentials but the management somehow don’t seem to be too bothered about business.
To prove my point, look at the first picture, they took some ugly shots of their food and post it at their entrance. The unglam shots are not even their focus which is waffles. Instead the shots are pictures of some totally unrelated food like black pepper steak, fish and chips, grilled fish.
Single scoop chocolate chip waffle ($3.70)
As the name Waffletown imples, its a place for waffles after all. Thus selections for waffles are aplenty, with your plain waffles at $2.50, there’s ham waffle, sausage waffle, turkey bacon waffle, and of course ice cream waffles.
At $3.70 for a single scoop ice cream waffle, its really a steal though. Even Haato which has one of the cheaper waffles around, are selling at $6 for their single scoop waffles. But then again you can’t compare it this way because the ice cream at Haato are gelato, while the ones here are the normal ice cream.
Single scoop raspberry waffle ($3.70)
The raspberry ice cream is really nostalgic, remember the raspberry ice cream which we buy from the motorcycle uncle when we were young? Its exactly the same one! My friend says that raspberry flavor is still available at supermarket, but i can’t seem to find it.
But i can conclude that at the waffles are definitely better than Gelare. That one is expensive, normal days single scoop waffle is almost ten bucks, and their waffle isn’t even good.
2 Pc Fried Chicken set ($6.70)
The two piece fried chicken set at $6.70, prices are comparable to KFC, but the chicken is slightly better. For one, the chicken isn’t as oily as KFC’s, and nowadays KFC standards really are not consistent. The coleslaw and potato here are at most average, with the chicken faring better.
Total bill is $14.1 for 2 waffles and 2 piece fried chicken. Although the place can’t really substitute A&W which is deep in our heart, but it can be a replacement for now, until someone brings back A&W. I won’t say the waffles are that excellent, but at $3.70 they are really worth the price, and their fried chicken is all right if you dislike KFC.
You are always welcome to visit http://www.ladyironchef.com/2008/07/02/waffletown 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!
1=SGD 0.0587
This Chi Zhar stall is very ulu lah! Hidden right at the corner of the estate, it's not easy to spot! There are many other coffee shops and eateries around that area, and every one of them were packed to the rim this evening. Hoping I got to the right place, finally I found this tiny stall hidden at the back of this quiet coffee shop.
It was Mum's birthday and we decided to give this place a try. Am glad that Mum enjoyed it, but I got "bitten" by the crab! My upper right lips hurts. Ok, nuff of whining, so what's good about this place?
We ordered "3 Glass Chicken", Claypot Seafood Tofu, Stout Pork Ribs, "Hei Zhou" (prawn roll like dish) and the highly recommended Jin Sha Xie (Golden Sand Crab) and fried Man Tou. Total bill came up to $108. All the dishes were the biggest portion one. (But it wasn't THAT big after all.)
The "3 Glass Chicken" was too dry and the meat was too tough. But the outside of the chicken was rather tasty.
Claypot Seafood Tofu was not bad. There were tofu, cuttlefish, sliced fish, vegetables and carrots. The sauce was not too thick nor diluted. Just nice to go with plain rice.
I didn't eat the pork ribs so I don't know how it tastes.
"Hei Zhou" was pretty good. Fried to the right texture and its crispy and flavorful.
Star of the night was the Golden Sand Crab. Dad picked up one bigger and one medium size crabs. The crab was not the freshiest, as there wasn't any sweetness to the meat. But there was plenty of meat in the crabs. The best part was the sauce! As described by Reiko and Lucardia, the sauce is very well prepared. It was creamy, milky and spicy! Great with man tou and I couldn't stop dipping my crab meat in the sauce before every mouthful. The entire plate was cleared (almost spotless) at the end of dinner! Will go back just for the crab when I'm around the area.
Rating given:
Had a craving for American style thick crust pizzas so ventured to California Pizza Kitchen's (CPK) sole Singapore outlet at Orchard. CPK is actually an international chain with 235 outlets worldwide and is well known for its extensive menu which features everything from creative pizzas to pastas, sandwiches and salads.
Occupying two levels at Forum the Shopping Mall, CPK offers air conditioned dining on both levels and al fresco dining on the lower level as well. Tables are spaced comfortably apart and if you sit downstairs, you can get a partial view of the kitchen and the counter where the pizzas are placed to be served. All in all a family style cosy interior with the option of booth seats if you so wish.
BBQ Chicken Pizza - Branded as a hot favourite amongst customers in the US, the BBQ Chicken pizza has withstood the test of time by being on the menu since the first CPK restaurant opened up in Beverly Hills in 1985. Sizing in at 10 inches and 6 slices, the BBQ chicken was relatively heavy on the tastebuds with BBQ chicken breast cubes (duh!) and onions. Cheese was also plentiful and complemented the mild tomato base which covered the chewy and hearty pizza dough. But it could probably do with alot more ingredients for the price. Heck, pizza hut gives more for roughly the same price!
Hawaiian Pizza - The Hawaiian was much much lighter on the palate then the BBQ chicken, which isn't a bad thing really. Fresh pineapples and bacon coupled with a generous layer of gooey cheese and a moderately thick and chewy crust with lots of bite made for an excellent pizza. But as with the BBQ chicken pizza, the amount of ingredients could have increased.
Chocolate Banana Cheesecake - This is seriously one decadent dessert. Extremely chocolaty and rich from the drizzled triple thick hot fudge, the cake was a tad soft but went very well with the smooth vanilla ice cream. Definitely not recommended for people who can't tolerate high levels of sugar in every mouthful. And at $12 a pop, its not recommended for budget/value for money seekers as well.
I like the food and the place, I can accept the relatively higher price ($60 for 2 pax) but I hate the location (and parking charges as well). Unless CPK can move to the heartlands or I'm around the area, I'll probably have to stick to Canadian Pizza or Pizza Hut for my frequent pizza urges.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Happened to be on the 4th floor of The Cathay yesterday. And happened to see a familiar sign at the corner. It was Astons Specialties! They've just opened this new outlet on Friday, 4 July 2008.
Am very happy to see that they had keep the price and no service charge policy at this new outlet although its in town. The place is very clean and simple. No fancy decor. Just monochromatic pictures on the walls, and simple and comfy tables and chairs neatly aligned. There is also outdoor sittings which wasn't set-up yet when I was there. (It's only day 2 of their operations!) There's also the familiar chalkboard with the day's special written on it.
Feeling hungry at 4pm, as I didn't eat anything since that morning, I ordered the Prime Ribeye X'tra Cut with fries and pasta salad ($16.50), and a glass of ice lemon tea ($1.80).
The fries was crispy and nice. Just like those I had at Astons Express. I love them! And the pasta salad was fresh and the pasta was cooked just right. The prime ribeye was cooked to the right medium-rare and the meat was tender, chewy and juicy. I cleared the entire plate (which was relatively huge) on my own!
If you're craving for good and reasonably priced steak in town, why not go to The Cathay for Astons Specialties?
Rating given:
Eden Cafe is acknowledged for its delicate florals cuisines to bring a whole new dining experience for the customers’ palate. Owner of the former Helio Cafe at Marina Square, Mr Clement Ng is the brain behind the floral concept at Eden Cafe.
Positioned at Club Street, just beside Ann Siang Hill, Eden Cafe is a quaint flower inspired cafe seated at the F&B robust street with other eminent neighbours like Les Brasseries, Senso Ristorante, Spizza, Seven on Club, Da Paolo II Ristorante, and Indochine restaurant.
There is the make-to-order option for dinner which is very interesting. Contact Mr Clement Ng to custom-made a dinner which is unique for you.
The interior is done in very unsophisticated manner, with soft soothing music as background. The cafe has such a cozy and homely feel that my friend and i can just sit there for the whole day. It is that comfortable, just like home.
Sundried Tomato Omelette ($9.50)
Eden’s brunch menu is only available during the weekends and public holiday. It is the draw of the brunch menu which actually brings my visit to Eden. I’m always fascinated by the prospects of eating brunch at some comfy cafe on a laid-back weekend.
The brunch selections here are mostly toast and sandwiches. The omelette is the one which caught my attention. I was rather astonish when the dish came, not that i was expecting a lot, but at almost ten bucks for omelette on a toast, coupled with lots of greens, it do seem a tad expensive.
I understand that many places which offer brunch might be even pricier than this, but still paying ten bucks for the definitely-not-filling brunch do makes ordering lunch seems a more reasonable option.
Nevertheless, the Sundried Tomato omelette is quite good, with a hint of cheese within the egg, and i must commended that not many places actually have such a healthy serving of salads to go along.
Honey Mustard Chicken ($14.90)
The main courses at Eden cafe takes longer to serve, with a waiting time of about 20mins. At first sight, the chicken is certainly tiny, with two small pieces of chicken breast, which comes along with again, very generous servings of greens.
The honey mustard flavours the chicken well, although we felt that the use of chicken drumstick can add more zest to the overall dish. At $15, the honey mustard chicken is definitely not filling for folks with big appetite. If only the serving size can be bigger.
Hibiscus Soft Cheesecake ($6.90)
Desserts are where Eden really excels at. The Hibiscus soft cheesecake is one of the better cheesecakes i have tasted so far. The cheesy flavor might come a tad too strong for non-cheese lovers, but its still acceptable for me, although towards the end it might be slightly overwhelming if you finish this cake on your own.
Coated with a layer of hibiscus top, and a bright red strawberry on top, the cheesecake is done pleasant to the eye and satisfying to the palates.
Total bill for 2 comes up to $36.70. I still find Eden to be rather expensive given its minuscule serving size, and quintessentially there is nothing that fantastic about the food. The floral concept is unquestionably interesting, with the tranquil ambience of the cafe a positive plus.
But food-wise its done very simple, i guess this is the selling point of Eden’s, which sometimes make you feel that it does not justify the price tag. Nonetheless, Eden’s definitely a great place to chill and sit the whole day, and desserts are excellent which will tempt me into a recurrent visit.
Until the price drop, or with greater serving size, i’ll just come back to Eden’s for their desserts and the nice ambience. And just for information, Eden has a new sister restaurant at the hip Rochester park, Eden Sanctuary.
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!
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Was back at Mingles for lunch one weekday afternoon because I wanted to try out their seemingly inexpensive set lunches. It also helped that the place was virtually empty.
Complimentary Bread & Cream of Pumpkin - I didn't think too much of either the complimentary bread or the cream of pumpkin soup. The bread was well, bread that you can get off the shelves at any supermarket. The cream of pumpkin was way too sweet for my liking and I don't know if my tastebuds were playing tricks on me, but the soup actually tasted very strongly of curry powder.
Crispy Salmon with Couscous - I tried a little of this and found it quite decent with the skin pan fried till crispy. There was also a noticeable absence of the overpowering (to me) fishy taste that is common to salmons. I didn't quite fancy the couscous though, but thats just a personal preference.
Crispy Chicken With Yogurt - Served up atop a mound of subtly sweet mashed sweet potato, the crispy chicken was surprisingly quite good with its crisp skin and succulent meat. However the down side to crispy skin is the inordinate amount of oil that comes with it. And I couldn't taste any yogurt at all.
Ice Cream in Waffle Basket - The ice cream tasted rather normal although it was supposed to be from New Zealand. The waffle basket tasted funny though , dry with a kept for too long in the cupboard taste.
2 set lunches set us back by about $48, which puts it in the mid range for set lunch prices. Service is still excellent and the environment is definitely cosy. Will definitely drop by for lunch again.
See all my pictures here.
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De Coder’s Cafe is one of the latest board game cafe in town, think along the line of The Mind Cafe, and Settlers Cafe and you pretty much get the picture. Located along Bukit Timah road at Balmoral Plaza, where Waffletown is also situated at.
Like what i mentioned previously, the place is actually quite accessible because its only about ten minutes walk away from Newton MRT. Taking a bus from Orchard road takes a mere ten minutes too.
It is puzzling as to why LIC haven’t been to any board game cafe when Mind, settlers, and De coder’s have open for quite some time, and are available in quite a few locations.
We are here for Claudia’s birthday. The Cafe isn’t very big, in fact its quite a squeeze for about twenty of us. The interior is simple, you can choose to seat at the sofas, or at the tables and chairs which are in red and black theme.
The highlight of De Coder’s cafe is definitely their wide range of board games. And speaking of board games, they aren’t your normal monopoly or you know those usual ones. They have so many different types which we totally haven’t seen before.
Root Beer float ($4.50)
The root beer float is really just your normal root beer float. Pour the root beer from a bottle, and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. To charge $4.50 for it is kind of outrageous, but then again, they don’t charge for the games play, so i suppose their source of revenue will be through the drinks and food.
Pasta ($9.80)
We ordered quite a few pasta, like Beefy beefy, ocean catch, mushy mushroom. All their pastas does not really suit our tastebud. Period.
Spicy Drumlets ($5)
If their main course doesn’t works, what else is there to eat you ask? Finger food, but again, we tried almost all of their finger food, and most of them can’t quite make it as well.
The spicy drumlets is one of the few that is decent, but the consistency isn’t there. The first round we ordered this the drumlets are still okay, but the second time we ordered this one again, the chicken is kind of soggy, and its supposed to be fried and crispy.
Chicken Cubes ($5)
The chicken cubes is definitely on the list of finger food that you should not be ordering. Soggy and tasteless. Period.
Cheesy Wedges ($5)
They have two types of wedges, the potato wedges and cheesy wedges. We had both, and i guess the two wedges are still all right.
Americaya ($10)
American’s all time favourite chicken burger served with wedges and baked beans. They are right, American favourite is chicken burger, but unfortunately, its not the Americaya served here. I literally had a hard time finishing the burger, and its not because i am full.
All in all, i may seem quite harsh on the food in De Coder’s cafe, but really the food isn’t good. Then again, you are there to play board games, and not because of the food, so we shouldn’t be complaining. But i feel that a board game cafe is a great idea, and to serve simple and good food actually isn’t that difficult.
Desserts like cheesecakes and brownies are decent. Fried food is in fact the easiest food to do it simple and nice, but they mess it up. If only they can improve on the standards of their food, i'll foresee myself making perennial visits, otherwise, stay away from most of the food, maybe just the desserts and drinks.
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!
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Dinner once again at Seah Street Deli, my choice of a hearty western meal in a laid back and noisy environment, when I have the money of course.
Nice American diner style place to eat in, complete with a full size jukebox that belts out perennial favourites. Reminded me of the small diners I used to frequent in North American when I was still a student. Only difference is that this one didn't come with booth seats.
Cheese Fries - Well, as the name suggests, this dish was essentially cheese with fries, except that the cheese wasn't drizzled onto the fries. It came in a small saucer for you to dip your fries in. The fries were not too badly done, crispy and fresh. The cheese was thick and gooey, just that the portion was quite miserable considering the amount of fries we had.
Cheese Macaroni Chicken - Cheese atop macaroni with slices of grilled chicken is a rather simple dish to make but sadly not many places in Singapore sell it. Seah Street Deli's rendition is probably one of the better ones. However on this occasion, the macaroni was a little dry and burnt. The cheese was nice and thick but could do with a more generous serving. No complains about the chickens though, which were grilled with a slightly smoky taste.
Beef Pot Roast - My must order dish whenever I drop by. The pot roast consists of thinly sliced chewy pieces of beef which are a little charred along the edges , giving it that nice burnt taste and mashed potatoes with a buttery texture and taste. Very good!
Chocolate Decadence - The chocolate decadence was still as big as I remembered it to be. Only difference is the price, which has shot up from $7.95 a few months back to its present $11.95, a 50% increase over its old price! I would have been cool about it if the quality had been maintained, but no, the eatery decided to cut down on the ingredients as well. The all important layer of black forest between the layers of chocolate and cake was now gone. It breathed life into what was originally a mundane chocolate cake and made it great. Don't get me wrong though, the chocolate cake was still quite good, with the chocolate concentrated and not too sweet. But it can be really overwhelming if you decide to finish it all alone.
The prices have certainly increased since my last visit here in August last year. Food quality has dipped a wee bit, but its still pretty decent for the pricing. I should still be patronising.
See all my pictures here.
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Seah Street Deli has an American air around it, it is after all a restaurant serving your good old American food. Don’t let the name Seah Street fool you, the place is call Seah Street deli because the restaurant is located in Raffles Hotel, which is just beside Seah Street.
Step into Seah Street Deli, and you will be transported back in time to 1950s New York. The restaurant does imitates the look of a Big Apple Deli quite well, the lightning, the decors and the furnitures all oosh a certain classical American touch.
Located at the colonial Raffles Hotel, Seah Street Deli is just a 5 minutes walk away from Raffles City. Certainly an accessible place for a meal if you are in the area and do not want to be in the crowd.
Nowadays where else can you find a jukebox? Talk about nostalgic, they certainly roll back the good old time.
Wild Pacific Dory Fillet ($18.50)
Served with natural organic vegetables, baby potatos, and lemon wine sauce. The wild pacific dory fillet comes up to be quite ordinary actually. The dory is fresh, but not much of a surprise there, and at $18.50, its a tad expensive. Serving size is definitely huge, well it should be, we are talking about American food after all.
Grilled Salmon Steak ($18.95)
Salmon marinated with mix herbs, grilled zucchini, garlic mashed potatoes and dill cream sauce. The Grilled salmon steak taste to us slightly under-flavored, it will be better if the flavor can be stronger.
The garlic mashed potatoes are plentiful, and really, you can’t finish them off unless you really got a big appetite.
Southern Style Chicken ($17.50)
Deep fried chicken, served with fries. The portion is gigantic, but really thats it. The chicken is deep fried, done in your American style, fries are decent. But at $17.50, the Southern Style chicken is a suspect for rip-off
Seah Street Burger ($14.95)
Seah Street Deli’s very own freshly ground all beef patty with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions served on a toasted sesame bun. If you think the Seah Street Burger is big, think again. You haven’t seen the bigger burger.
Their Texas Burger a 12 ounce sized beef patty. Granted i heard quite good things about the Texas burger, but the stomach didn’t have room for it, so i ordered Seah Street burger instead.
Seah Street Burger is not too bad, the beef patty is nicely mashed, put together with the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions inside the sesame bun, you will be wondering how do you start eating the whopping burger.
Having eaten burgers in restaurants like Relish and Seah Street, not at your fastfood joints, i came to realise the only feasible way to consume them will be to cut by bites, otherwise you can always choose the alternative, take a big mouthful!
Chocolate Decadence cake ($11.95)
The all time favourite chocolate decadence cake at $11.95 do seems a bit steep. But the serving size of the cake more than make up for it. The cake is ginormous (gigantic & enormous)! Seriously, i have never seen places cutting such a big size of cake.
The chocolate decadence cake is made up of 7 layers, and each layer is sweeter than the other. Even though i have a sweet tooth, i find the cake to be too sweet. But its good to indulge in such decadence once in while. After having our main courses, the four of us actually struggle to finish the cake. A must-try if you visit Seah Street Deli.
Total bill is $95.76 for 4 mains and 1 desserts. But Citibank is offering a 15% discount for Seah Street Deli, so our bill after the discount is $81.90. Prices are slightly steep here considering the fact that the food is not bad, but not to the point excellent. At around the same price, there might be some other places which can be better.
Portions are definitely huge, this is where we made a mistake. I think for 4 person, just order 3 main course to share will be more than suffice. The chocolate decadence cake is a must try for desserts. If prices can be cheaper, then i say Seah Street is a nice and cheerful place to dine out, until then, maybe once is enough.
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!
" Roll back the good old times! "
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Emperor's Soup - a restaurant headed by Executive Chef Edmond Lui, whose stellar resume includes a decade of service at Pine Court, stints at Marina Mandarin, Lei Garden and the now defunct Boulevard Hotel. Purportedly well versed in the art of high end Cantonese cuisine, Chef Lui aims to offer restaurant quality food at neighbourhood prices.
Nestled in the former seedy neighbourhood of Joo Chiat just down the road from Canton Wok and Joo Heng, Emperor's Soup occupies a small unit space that probably seats about 30 pax, so if you are coming on weekends for dinner, a reservation might be a good thing to have. The interior is simply done up with red curtains and wooden racks exhibiting replica Chinese antiques and ornaments. Instrumental Chinese music wafts through the air from a portable stereo system located near the entrance to the washroom.
Double Boiled Shark Bone Soup with Mushroom and Bamboo Shoots & Fish Maw with Sea Cucumber and Shark's Fin Broth - At first glance, I thought the bowl holding the milky broth would be the shark bone soup but it turned out to be the shark's fin broth, which was really quite a deviation from the norm, especially when the shark bone soup turned out brownish in colour. This non milky shark bone soup is definitely a first for me and it tasted exactly like shark's fin soup but much starchier. Very average if you ask me.
The averageness carried on to the shark's fin broth, which came across as a little too milky for my liking. I couldn't actually make out any sea cucumber so either they missed it out or I wasn't looking hard enough.
Soft Shell Crab with Minced Pork - I honestly didn't quite take to this dish although I must admit that the soft shell crab was quite well fried. The minced pork or 肉松 was crispy and not too sweet as well but personally I found it overly oily from the amount of oil the deep fried batter absorbed. Sans the oil, I would probably have liked it a whole lot more.
Superior Bird's Nest with Fresh Milk - I thought I had landed myself a bargain at $8 for superior bird's nest. But as the adage goes, you get what you pay for. Served atop a bed of egg white cooked with milk, the bird's nest was barely a teaspoonful which wasn't even sufficient to gauge the quality of it (not that I know much about differentiating the various grades of bird's nest). One peeve I have with this dish was the raw fishy smell that emitted from the egg white, although the egg white came across as rather bland.
Fried Crispy Duck - I must say that the crispy duck was quite decent, crisp on the outside yet tender on the inside. It tasted uncannily like KFC's original chicken except that this was duck. What I liked about the duck was that it tasted fresh. No traces of reused oil which is prevalent in a lot of such deep fried dishes. It also helped that the duck was boneless.
Steamed Beancurd and Scallop in Black Bean Sauce - Smooth quivery beancurd topped with thinly sliced scallops and covered with a mild black bean sauce. The verdict? Decent enough but would have been better if the scallops actually had some taste in them.
A slightly above average meal set the 2 of us back by almost $75, which doesn't quite equate value for money. Service was decent though. To be brutally honest, I didn't feel like an emperor after the meal, more like a pauper really. So much for the name.
See all my pictures here.
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A long long time ago, we have A & W for our fix of waffles and root beer floats. Now that they are gone, Waffletown seems to be the only substitute for A & W. Located in Balmoral Plaza at Bukit Timah, the place is actually quite accessible because its only about ten minutes walk away from Newton MRT. Taking a bus from Orchard road takes a mere ten minutes too.
Offering the same “American” style of fastfood, even the seats are “A & W”-like. There’s seats outside if you prefer to seat in their “al fresco” area, otherwise go on in to their air-conditioned areas inside.
The place is a let-down though, the seats are all right, just like your fastfood restaurant chain. But i find the interior to be a little shabby. Actually i am saying this because i felt that Waffletown has great potentials but the management somehow don’t seem to be too bothered about business.
To prove my point, look at the first picture, they took some ugly shots of their food and post it at their entrance. The unglam shots are not even their focus which is waffles. Instead the shots are pictures of some totally unrelated food like black pepper steak, fish and chips, grilled fish.
Single scoop chocolate chip waffle ($3.70)
As the name Waffletown imples, its a place for waffles after all. Thus selections for waffles are aplenty, with your plain waffles at $2.50, there’s ham waffle, sausage waffle, turkey bacon waffle, and of course ice cream waffles.
At $3.70 for a single scoop ice cream waffle, its really a steal though. Even Haato which has one of the cheaper waffles around, are selling at $6 for their single scoop waffles. But then again you can’t compare it this way because the ice cream at Haato are gelato, while the ones here are the normal ice cream.
Single scoop raspberry waffle ($3.70)
The raspberry ice cream is really nostalgic, remember the raspberry ice cream which we buy from the motorcycle uncle when we were young? Its exactly the same one! My friend says that raspberry flavor is still available at supermarket, but i can’t seem to find it.
But i can conclude that at the waffles are definitely better than Gelare. That one is expensive, normal days single scoop waffle is almost ten bucks, and their waffle isn’t even good.
2 Pc Fried Chicken set ($6.70)
The two piece fried chicken set at $6.70, prices are comparable to KFC, but the chicken is slightly better. For one, the chicken isn’t as oily as KFC’s, and nowadays KFC standards really are not consistent. The coleslaw and potato here are at most average, with the chicken faring better.
Total bill is $14.1 for 2 waffles and 2 piece fried chicken. Although the place can’t really substitute A&W which is deep in our heart, but it can be a replacement for now, until someone brings back A&W. I won’t say the waffles are that excellent, but at $3.70 they are really worth the price, and their fried chicken is all right if you dislike KFC.
You are always welcome to visit http://www.ladyironchef.com/2008/07/02/waffletown 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!
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