In a less than 4 minutes ride, one can be transported quickly and comfortably from the Sentosa Station at Vivocity to the resort island, Sentosa.
Yes! It is this light rail way system called Sentosa Express, which provides a convenient link to the island. With the purchase of a Sentosa pass (which is a contactless smart access pass) at $3 a person a day, not only can one ride on the Sentosa Express but also gain entry into Sentosa.
The Sentosa Express is just a two-cabin long train. However, at the frequency that it comes, you don't have to worry about the train getting too packed.
The staff at the stations are very friendly too. They will smile and wave to you when your train passes the stations. It really makes me feel like a tourist. Haha...
This is the newest outlet opened by Planet Fitness to replace the one at Far East Square. So naturally, one will compare it with the FES outlet.
It is located at the basement of China Square Central but can be easily spotted by its black, white & blue signboard.
Just one quick peek through the glass doors, I can easily see the entire interior of the club. In othe words, the place is pretty small. The equipments are neatly arranged according to the type of fitness training, a little cramped though. However, I'm not so much of a gym equipment workout person, so I am more concerned with the group exercise studios.
Sadly, the number of such studios have been down from the previous three at FES to two over here. Not only that the variety of classes has been reduced, the size of the studio was much smaller too.
As expected, the locker room was just as cramped. Locker was small but still of reasonable size for me to put in all my belongings. There isn't many shower rooms, but the hardest part for me to get used to is the nearly transparent glass separating the shower cubicles. It just feels awkward.
Well, this place is just disappointing. I guess I'll just stick to the other clubs for classes.
I had my first taste of Sarpino's pizza at the Singapore Discovery Centre (SDC), don't ask why i was there, long story!
Anyway i didn't previously recalled knowing the existance of Sarpino Pizza, well besides Pizza hut, i know Canadian pizza.
And like Canadian Pizza, Sarpino's have the buy 1 get 1 offer too, except that their prices i think are slightly cheaper. Ànd obviously there will be a difference between their normal pizza and the promotions pizza.
Lets see an example, for the popular choice of hawaiian pizza, for the normal one, its call tropical hawaiian special which comes with ingredients of turkey ham, smoked turkey bacon, pineapples, cheddar and mozzarella cheese.
While for the promotion 1-for-1 pizza, there is also hawaiian pizza, just that its call The Aloha, with turkey bacon sweet pineapples, topped with italian cheese. A whole lot of difference right? I guess if you want quality be prepared to pay more
Otherwise like us just take the promotions one, and eat to your heart content! We had The Aloha, and double pepperoni. Large 14'' is $34, one for one and it works out to be about $17 for each pizza.
I say the pizza is value for money given the price, and it wont lose out to pizza hut. I'm eating less of pizza hut nowadays since the pizza quality dropped, and its rather expensive compared to canadian and sarpino's.
Jurong East is getting a reputation for being a banking hub, just beside Citibank at the CPF building, there is HSBC and OCBC, with POSB, Maybank, and a few others all in the vicinity.
I was at Citibank jurong east since its the one nearest to my home, and the one here is more of a regional hub than a small branch.
Anyway, my objective for the visit was to apply for citibank credit card, (i couldn't, my dad sup for me).
I was amazed by the simple procedures of getting a credit card nowadays, even though i'm a banking and finance student and i do know that the rules have relaxed a lot compared to last time, but i was still amazed.
How simple you asked? From the time we walked into the bank to the time we walked out, it took slightly less than 20mins. And poof! you got your credit card!
I cant remember the name of the sales person who attended to me, but he was polite and helpful to any questions and enquiries which i had.
Just for information i was tempted by the promotions offered in the citi gourmet promotions, so in the end i got two cards, citi mastercard, and citi clear platinium.
That guy suggested getting two since there was firstly no charge on the cards, and secondly he said just in case one card couldn't be use the other will be available. But thinking of it now even though there's no charges involved, but its still quite dumb to get two cards from a same bank.
In short, i'm pretty happy with the no-hassle service provided.
Steaming hot mini soon kuehs make the perfect finger food for me in between my workout sessions. Yes, because it is both tasty and healthy yet not extremely filling.
Before you even have a bite on the mini soon kueh, you can see how generous and rich the filling is through the translucent pastry skin. Lots of shredded turnip and dried shrimps in it. You got to eat it with sweet sauce and chilli sauce while it's hot to truly enjoy their soon kuehs!
Not only do they sell soon kuehs, gu-cai kuehs, mushroom soon kuehs (vegetarian) and rice kuehs are in their menu as well. All come in miniature size, packed in a box of 5 at $3 per packet. If you can't decide which type of kueh to go for, you can even get their mixed pack.
Besides the kuehs, other items on their menu include chui kueh and yam cake. However, having tried those, my advise is to stick to their speciality kuehs which I've mentioned earlier.
What is the typical munchie you will bring into a cinema??
Yes. It's popcorn!
So before the start of our show, my partner & I decided to buy some popcorn. Many times, we walked past this little shop, which purely sells popcorn, located in a conspicuous corner at the basement level of The Cathay. This time round, we finally bought a small packet of caramelised popcorn which costs $5.50 (if I remember correctly). Actually, there are other flavours of popcorn as well. I remember seeing an interesting flavour, sour cream. So far, I have only eaten potato chips with sour cream but not popcorn with sour cream. So I was pretty keen to try it. Will probably do it next time then. Haha... Oh yah, the popcorns come in 2 package size. The popcorns have already been pre-packed in clear plastic bag and sealed up. Upon purchase, the staff will put the packet of popcorn into a cute pink box (picture). Nice packaging!
It looked good on the outside but how about its taste? In the first place, I am not a person with sweet cravings but I find the sweetness of their popcorn acceptable. It was impressive that the coat of caramel was quite even on every pieces of popcorn. Unlike some popcorns where there's bits of sugar unevenly coated on the popcorn. What's more, this popcorn has a strong buttery taste and it kind of balance up with the sweetness from the caramel.
So next time when you are catching a movie at The Cathay, you can consider getting your popcorn from here. It's definitely worth a try!
Rochester Park consists of several refurbished 70-year old colonial black and white bungalows, which were once homes of British officers. Now, these bungalows have been turned into restaurants and the seclusion of the park as well as the beautiful greenery have definitely provided a unique dining experience for people.
Just like other restaurants located at Rochester Park, Da Paolo Bistro Bar was housed in one of these bungalows. Since it was just a stone's throw away from my office, we conveniently walked over for our lunch yesterday.
We took up the set lunch menu, which comes with a starter, main course, dessert and tea/coffee to complete the meal. The choice of main course can either be the pasta ($24 per set lunch) or fish/meat of the day ($32 per set). There were about 10 types of pasta for you to choose from but the fish of the day was just limited to seabass with garlic and baby spinach and meat was tenderloin steak with mashed potato. Starter came with a generous choice of salads and soup, and dessert fixed as apple crumple.
Here’s my choice!
Starter: Insalata con salmon affumicato Wild rocket with black olive and cherry tomato tossed in olive oil & vinegar and two huge slices of smoked salmon. Sounds like a normal smoked salmon salad? No no. With a squeeze of lemon onto the salad, it tasted really good. The more I ate it, the hungrier I got. But it was definitely a good start to get my stomach prepared for the upcoming main course.
Main course: Tenderloin steak with mashed potato (I don’t remember the exact name for it, sorry.)
I requested the steak to be medium-rare done. Sad to say, it was more of medium done and the steak was a little too tough for my liking, although I do like the a little charred outer layer of the steak. However, what made up for it was it mashed potato which was smooth and creamy. Eat it together with the sauce, it is simply yummy!
Dessert: Apple Crumble Like I’ve mentioned earlier, the dessert wasn’t a choice but fixed in set lunch menu. But anyway, it was a generous slice of apple crumble serve with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. The huge chunks of apple taste good, though a little too sweet for me. Probably because I was given the middle slice of the apple crumble (without the crust), I find the apple crumble a little too soft & soggy.
On the overall, the dining experience was good. Excellent service, as for food wise, there were hits and misses. Well, since it’s a free lunch I can’t complain too much as well. Haha.. So I'll give 3.5 stars now.
With the wide choice of pasta in the menu, I’ll probably try the pasta next time.
I love the National Museum and the romantic-ness of it all. To be very honest, I didn't really know about Chef Chan until my little Birdie friend told me. All to happy to have a chance to dine at the charming Museum, I jumped at this chance.
Arriving at the place, I wasn't disappointed by the place! I love the entire atmosphere. Chef Chan was tucked away in an obscure corner of the museum, but the restaurant was very appropriately designed. The entire oriental theme was soothing and not overly gaudy, which was often so with Chinese restaurants.
What we had that night:
Melon Strips Enlivened with Orange Juice You know the F&N Orange squash we used to drink during CNY? It tastes like that... with lots of crunch. I liked it but I didn't think I would have something like this in this restaurant. I'd have to agree with the rest that this was easy to make at home. But I guess it's a reasonable starter.
Prawn Balls Stuffed with Pate and Wine I could taste neither pate nor wine. We only had one ball each and mind you, it wasn't very big. It was salty and that was the only obvious taste I could get from the ball. The only thing it reminded me of was those balls you could microwave once you take them out from the freezer.
Stir Fried Shark’s Fin with Eggs, Bean Sprouts and Spring Onion Served in Lettuce Leaves Someone said it looked like a whole lot of Tunghoon. There was some shark's fin I guess and a mix of everything else. This dish was lightly flavoured and I liked it pretty much. But the cabbage I had below was a bit thick and had a contrasting bitter taste to the salad sitting on it. So I refused to eat it after a few bites.
Steamed Lobster with Garlic You could SMELL the garlic from a distance. Everyone had one half of the lobster which was a nice serving to have. Mine wasn't so covered in garlic so I was pretty happy with it. The lobster was pretty fresh I guess but the garlic really burned in my middle when I'd finished it.
Steamed Sliced Garoupa in Village Style I had 2-3 pieces of this (unlike some people). The fish bits had a nice texture but the gravy that came with it was horrid. It's was sickeningly sticky which made me baulk at the first taste. I rubbed it off at the side of the dish so that I didn't have to eat too much of it. Relatively acceptable dish I guess... They need to do something about the gravy.
Sauteed Vegetable with Shredded Mushroom A dish you can definitely find at your neighbourhood Chze Char stall.
Chef Chan’s Famous Crispy Roast Chicken This is a YUMMY! I loved this one. The skin was crisp and I ate it too, despite being the sort who usually peels it off. The meat was very tasty on its own. I liked the texture (cos I got the part I wanted) This was definitely the winning dish of the night that kept everyone very quiet.
Papaya with White Fungus & Herbal Jelly with Glutinous Rice & Mango Mistake Mistake Mistake. The texture of the glutinous rice did not go well with the Guilingao! Terrible... it took me a few tries before I figured I had to eat all the glutinous rice first then have the mango and the herbal jelly together. Any other way just made me quite sick really.
We chalked up a bill of about $860, which works out to be about $96 per person. It would have been more expensive but thanks to someone's credit card, we had a discount.
I wouldn't say this is below average... in actual fact I didn't think that the food "sucked". It was below expectations, thanks to its price. But it's not terrible food. Just expensive average food I guess. The chicken saved it from a 2-star.
I had walked past this place so many times and yet I had not had a thought of walking in for a meal. There are a few reasons, first being there always seem to be a long queue outside the restaurant. Secondly, the place serves the kind of food that does not appeal to me. Thirdly, I was always in rush when I was walking past this place. So finally one fine day, we decided to give this place a try, well there was no queue and I thought that it was all good timing. I sort of regretted my choice when I stood there waiting to be shown to a table.
The place did not seem crowded, in fact can see a few empty tables, but we have to wait at the counter. It seems like the waiters and waitresses, even the managers (well they are the ones wearing more formal), are all very busy and everywhere except the counter where we are waiting. Not even one saw us standing at the counter, making me like an idiot. After about 5 mins of waiting, I told my partner that I will count to five, if till then, no one comes up to us, we will go another place for dinner. Lucky enough (don’t know for them or us), we were ushered to a table that is pretty much near to the edge of the corridor where tons and tons of people walked past, felt like animals on display.
The decoration of the place is pretty much trying to be hip and getting the attention of the teenagers, so that they can come in, eat and spend money. There is a pool table to play and even a candy floss station where you can get free candy floss. There are tables like a capsule where a big group can be seated together. The rest of the tables are like those normal kind.
Well after the bad start, my mood was not very good to start off with. Being seated at that location, it was difficult to get the attention of the waiters. It was really frustrating but finally managed to get one and come and take our orders. So what we ordered?
Root beer float @ $7.60: This came in the A&W style. Big mug of nice cold root beer with a big scoop of ice cream in it. Nothing special but it still taste great. Nice. I do find it a bit expensive for it though. Sigh.
London style fish and chip @ $9.90: This came with a big piece of fish, chips and tartar sauce. That it! No coleslaw or salad or whatever. This is really a ripped off! The fish is a bit flaky, not really fresh, maybe frozen. The batter is a bit too thick. Nothing to wow about. I wonder what do they mean by the London part. I understand in London they served it with vinegar but I dun see them doing that. Hmm….. This is really disappointing.
American Coleslaw @ $4.90: I don’t know it is me or the coleslaw but I do find the taste of the coleslaw a bit weird. Maybe too much mayo or too much vinegar but it does not taste like any normal coleslaw. I got to say this is one of the worst coleslaw that I ever eaten. It was so bad that I did not even finished the whole coleslaw. It is that bad. There is no way I am going to order that again.
Rotisserie Chix Whole @ $14.90: After eating or tasting all the above mentioned food, I did not have high expectation for this dish. However, I was wrong. The dish turned out to be great. The chicken was moist and tender, not dry at all. The size of the chicken is also quite huge, for small eaters, they can just order this and share. The sauce that came with the chicken is perfect for it. This dish is above average. Try this and you will not regret especially after a string of disappointments. This is the one that deserves 4 stars.
After this, we decided to give the desserts a miss and asked for the bill. Again, it took us sometime to get the attention of the waiters for the bill. The bill came to us pretty fast but we paid for it and waited for it to return. We waited and waited with the water at least topped up twice. We asked for the waiter to check on the bill but it seems that it never came back. I wonder why? In the end, I got a bit pissed off and signaled to the manager and ask him to check the bill which after a wait of 10 mins, the waiter finally brought it back to us. I really wonder what happen at that time. I have therefore decided after this experience, there is NO CHANCE that I will ever return to this place for any meal ever again!
Held our annual excuse to dine out in the guise of mother's day at Si Chuan Dou Hua, Plaza Park Royal. Scarred from the barely satisfying dinner at Sun Japanese Dining last year, my family decided to stick to the traditional Chinese route this year. Expectations were high as I had a relatively good experience at Si Chuan Dou Hua UOB Plaza at the beginning of last year.
Wood seems to be the focus for the entire restaurant, with overhanging oriental lamps capping a most traditional Chinese interior that oozes finesse through its plush carpeted floors and doorway arches. Here you can peer through the floor to ceiling windows but the view really isn't something you would want to see - tour coaches.
I liked the keropok (crackers) which came in the usual fish and prawn variety. Crackling with every bite, it wasn't soft or soggy and made for a rather unusual but pleasing appetiser.
Sliced Beef and Tripe in Chilli Sauce - A most appetite whetting way to start off our meal, the sliced beef and tripe was nice and chewy and not to mention very spicy from all the chilli oil. This dish has a rating of 5 chillis on the menu, probably the most number awarded. Just a side comment (please correct me if I am wrong), Szechuan chilli seems to be all about spice and no fragrance.
Eight Treasure Seafood Soup - My choice of soup the last time round and this time as well. The soup definitely doesn't conform to the traditional seafood soup with its greenish colour due to the addition of ground spinach to the mix. It tasted exactly like shark's fin soup, a tad starchy with tiny bits and pieces of shark's fin, scallops, fish maw etc. Overall quite a tasty soup which bears the signature dish tag adequately.
Spicy Pork Belly - Chilli oil plus fatty pork belly is a sure fire recipe for cardiac arrest. And with the pork belly this average, I would rather listen to my doctor. Sure, the pork was chewy and not too spicy but all I could taste was the chilli and nothing else. It definitely didn't help that the pork slices were a tad too dry for my liking as well.
Fried Bittergourd with Bean Paste - A terribly executed dish honestly. The whole dish was very salty and the bittergourd was very plain bitter. Cooking the bittergourd with other stuff like beef would have made it alot better in my humble opinion. So much for a $15 plate of vegetables.
Beancurd with Dried Scallop - I'm a sucker for beancurd and this one didn't disappoint. Nice and smooth with a light smoky aftertaste. Only gripe I had was that the skin seemed a tad too dry and shrivelled. The accompanying gravy was good as well, not too starchy with shredded scallops. Very nice.
Steamed Garoupa - Have you ever eaten a garoupa, or fish for that matter, that costs $300/kg? Well its definitely a first for me and probably the last. The black garoupa, though extremely fresh and sweet with a firm meat texture to boot, cost a whooping $225 . How's that for a shocker? Pretty fishy business if you ask me.
Braised Pork Spare Rib - I really didn't quite take to the spare rib. For starters, it was way too fatty and the sauce was too sweet. The meat was also a tad too soft though still fibrous. Probably the only thing that I liked was the stick shaped man tou which was nice and crispy on the outside yet soft and compact on the inside. And at $10/piece, its definitely not cheap.
Peking Duck - Speechless. That was my initial reaction after popping a slice of the skin covered with a crepe into my mouth. The skin wasn't crispy and instead, tasted soft and limp with lots of fats underneath it. Adding to that was the non egg based crepe which was way too thick and chewy for my liking. We opted to stir fry the remains for the duck with noodles and even that tasted flat as the noodles were soft and bland.
Custard Bun - Honestly I've never had custard bun for dessert before or seen it listed under the dessert section of a menu because its usually under the dim sum portion. The custard bun was seriously quite good but very sinful with all the oil in it. Biting into one releases a gush of melted butter and custard which is guaranteed to make your heart stop. Traces of egg yolk were present in the filling as evident by the sediment. However I would have preferred a slightly more coagulated filling with a stronger custard taste .
Yam Rolls - The second of our complimentary desserts, the yam rolls were essentially yam paste wrapped up in deep fried dough and coated with sesame at both ends. The yam paste tasted like a milder version of Orh Nee and actually went quite well with the dough and sesame, very much like eating dough fritters with a sweet filling.
Fine Beancurd with Syrup - As mentioned before, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, from its name, that Si Chuan Dou Hua is known for its dou hua aka fine beancurd. At $3 a pop, this is one expensive bowl of dou hua. But I like it quite a bit. Silky smooth yet firm through the addition of egg. You get to decide how much sugar syrup you want in it as well.
The food at Si Chuan Dou Hua was a case of hits and misses but for the price, $550 for 5 pax for lunch, its pure insanity. If the desserts weren't complimentary, we would probably be paying something to the tune of $600. Would you pay so much for a meal like that?
1=SGD 0.0587
In a less than 4 minutes ride, one can be transported quickly and comfortably from the Sentosa Station at Vivocity to the resort island, Sentosa.
Yes! It is this light rail way system called Sentosa Express, which provides a convenient link to the island. With the purchase of a Sentosa pass (which is a contactless smart access pass) at $3 a person a day, not only can one ride on the Sentosa Express but also gain entry into Sentosa.
The Sentosa Express is just a two-cabin long train. However, at the frequency that it comes, you don't have to worry about the train getting too packed.
The staff at the stations are very friendly too. They will smile and wave to you when your train passes the stations. It really makes me feel like a tourist. Haha...
Rating given:
This is the newest outlet opened by Planet Fitness to replace the one at Far East Square. So naturally, one will compare it with the FES outlet.
It is located at the basement of China Square Central but can be easily spotted by its black, white & blue signboard.
Just one quick peek through the glass doors, I can easily see the entire interior of the club. In othe words, the place is pretty small. The equipments are neatly arranged according to the type of fitness training, a little cramped though. However, I'm not so much of a gym equipment workout person, so I am more concerned with the group exercise studios.
Sadly, the number of such studios have been down from the previous three at FES to two over here. Not only that the variety of classes has been reduced, the size of the studio was much smaller too.
As expected, the locker room was just as cramped. Locker was small but still of reasonable size for me to put in all my belongings. There isn't many shower rooms, but the hardest part for me to get used to is the nearly transparent glass separating the shower cubicles. It just feels awkward.
Well, this place is just disappointing. I guess I'll just stick to the other clubs for classes.
Rating given:
I had my first taste of Sarpino's pizza at the Singapore Discovery Centre (SDC), don't ask why i was there, long story!
Anyway i didn't previously recalled knowing the existance of Sarpino Pizza, well besides Pizza hut, i know Canadian pizza.
And like Canadian Pizza, Sarpino's have the buy 1 get 1 offer too, except that their prices i think are slightly cheaper. Ànd obviously there will be a difference between their normal pizza and the promotions pizza.
Lets see an example, for the popular choice of hawaiian pizza, for the normal one, its call tropical hawaiian special which comes with ingredients of turkey ham, smoked turkey bacon, pineapples, cheddar and mozzarella cheese.
While for the promotion 1-for-1 pizza, there is also hawaiian pizza, just that its call The Aloha, with turkey bacon sweet pineapples, topped with italian cheese. A whole lot of difference right? I guess if you want quality be prepared to pay more
Otherwise like us just take the promotions one, and eat to your heart content! We had The Aloha, and double pepperoni. Large 14'' is $34, one for one and it works out to be about $17 for each pizza.
I say the pizza is value for money given the price, and it wont lose out to pizza hut. I'm eating less of pizza hut nowadays since the pizza quality dropped, and its rather expensive compared to canadian and sarpino's.
Rating given:
Jurong East is getting a reputation for being a banking hub, just beside Citibank at the CPF building, there is HSBC and OCBC, with POSB, Maybank, and a few others all in the vicinity.
I was at Citibank jurong east since its the one nearest to my home, and the one here is more of a regional hub than a small branch.
Anyway, my objective for the visit was to apply for citibank credit card, (i couldn't, my dad sup for me).
I was amazed by the simple procedures of getting a credit card nowadays, even though i'm a banking and finance student and i do know that the rules have relaxed a lot compared to last time, but i was still amazed.
How simple you asked? From the time we walked into the bank to the time we walked out, it took slightly less than 20mins. And poof! you got your credit card!
I cant remember the name of the sales person who attended to me, but he was polite and helpful to any questions and enquiries which i had.
Just for information i was tempted by the promotions offered in the citi gourmet promotions, so in the end i got two cards, citi mastercard, and citi clear platinium.
That guy suggested getting two since there was firstly no charge on the cards, and secondly he said just in case one card couldn't be use the other will be available. But thinking of it now even though there's no charges involved, but its still quite dumb to get two cards from a same bank.
In short, i'm pretty happy with the no-hassle service provided.
Rating given:
Steaming hot mini soon kuehs make the perfect finger food for me in between my workout sessions. Yes, because it is both tasty and healthy yet not extremely filling.
Before you even have a bite on the mini soon kueh, you can see how generous and rich the filling is through the translucent pastry skin. Lots of shredded turnip and dried shrimps in it. You got to eat it with sweet sauce and chilli sauce while it's hot to truly enjoy their soon kuehs!
Not only do they sell soon kuehs, gu-cai kuehs, mushroom soon kuehs (vegetarian) and rice kuehs are in their menu as well. All come in miniature size, packed in a box of 5 at $3 per packet. If you can't decide which type of kueh to go for, you can even get their mixed pack.
Besides the kuehs, other items on their menu include chui kueh and yam cake. However, having tried those, my advise is to stick to their speciality kuehs which I've mentioned earlier.
Rating given:
What is the typical munchie you will bring into a cinema??
Yes. It's popcorn!
So before the start of our show, my partner & I decided to buy some popcorn. Many times, we walked past this little shop, which purely sells popcorn, located in a conspicuous corner at the basement level of The Cathay. This time round, we finally bought a small packet of caramelised popcorn which costs $5.50 (if I remember correctly). Actually, there are other flavours of popcorn as well. I remember seeing an interesting flavour, sour cream. So far, I have only eaten potato chips with sour cream but not popcorn with sour cream. So I was pretty keen to try it. Will probably do it next time then. Haha... Oh yah, the popcorns come in 2 package size. The popcorns have already been pre-packed in clear plastic bag and sealed up. Upon purchase, the staff will put the packet of popcorn into a cute pink box (picture). Nice packaging!
It looked good on the outside but how about its taste? In the first place, I am not a person with sweet cravings but I find the sweetness of their popcorn acceptable. It was impressive that the coat of caramel was quite even on every pieces of popcorn. Unlike some popcorns where there's bits of sugar unevenly coated on the popcorn. What's more, this popcorn has a strong buttery taste and it kind of balance up with the sweetness from the caramel.
So next time when you are catching a movie at The Cathay, you can consider getting your popcorn from here. It's definitely worth a try!
Rating given:
Rochester Park consists of several refurbished 70-year old colonial black and white bungalows, which were once homes of British officers. Now, these bungalows have been turned into restaurants and the seclusion of the park as well as the beautiful greenery have definitely provided a unique dining experience for people.
Just like other restaurants located at Rochester Park, Da Paolo Bistro Bar was housed in one of these bungalows. Since it was just a stone's throw away from my office, we conveniently walked over for our lunch yesterday.
We took up the set lunch menu, which comes with a starter, main course, dessert and tea/coffee to complete the meal. The choice of main course can either be the pasta ($24 per set lunch) or fish/meat of the day ($32 per set). There were about 10 types of pasta for you to choose from but the fish of the day was just limited to seabass with garlic and baby spinach and meat was tenderloin steak with mashed potato. Starter came with a generous choice of salads and soup, and dessert fixed as apple crumple.
Here’s my choice!
Starter: Insalata con salmon affumicato
Wild rocket with black olive and cherry tomato tossed in olive oil & vinegar and two huge slices of smoked salmon. Sounds like a normal smoked salmon salad? No no. With a squeeze of lemon onto the salad, it tasted really good. The more I ate it, the hungrier I got. But it was definitely a good start to get my stomach prepared for the upcoming main course.
Main course: Tenderloin steak with mashed potato (I don’t remember the exact name for it, sorry.)
I requested the steak to be medium-rare done. Sad to say, it was more of medium done and the steak was a little too tough for my liking, although I do like the a little charred outer layer of the steak. However, what made up for it was it mashed potato which was smooth and creamy. Eat it together with the sauce, it is simply yummy!
Dessert: Apple Crumble
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, the dessert wasn’t a choice but fixed in set lunch menu. But anyway, it was a generous slice of apple crumble serve with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. The huge chunks of apple taste good, though a little too sweet for me. Probably because I was given the middle slice of the apple crumble (without the crust), I find the apple crumble a little too soft & soggy.
On the overall, the dining experience was good. Excellent service, as for food wise, there were hits and misses. Well, since it’s a free lunch I can’t complain too much as well. Haha.. So I'll give 3.5 stars now.
With the wide choice of pasta in the menu, I’ll probably try the pasta next time.
Rating given:
I love the National Museum and the romantic-ness of it all. To be very honest, I didn't really know about Chef Chan until my little Birdie friend told me. All to happy to have a chance to dine at the charming Museum, I jumped at this chance.
Arriving at the place, I wasn't disappointed by the place! I love the entire atmosphere. Chef Chan was tucked away in an obscure corner of the museum, but the restaurant was very appropriately designed. The entire oriental theme was soothing and not overly gaudy, which was often so with Chinese restaurants.
What we had that night:
Melon Strips Enlivened with Orange Juice
You know the F&N Orange squash we used to drink during CNY? It tastes like that... with lots of crunch. I liked it but I didn't think I would have something like this in this restaurant. I'd have to agree with the rest that this was easy to make at home. But I guess it's a reasonable starter.
Prawn Balls Stuffed with Pate and Wine
I could taste neither pate nor wine. We only had one ball each and mind you, it wasn't very big. It was salty and that was the only obvious taste I could get from the ball. The only thing it reminded me of was those balls you could microwave once you take them out from the freezer.
Stir Fried Shark’s Fin with Eggs, Bean Sprouts and Spring Onion Served in Lettuce Leaves
Someone said it looked like a whole lot of Tunghoon. There was some shark's fin I guess and a mix of everything else. This dish was lightly flavoured and I liked it pretty much. But the cabbage I had below was a bit thick and had a contrasting bitter taste to the salad sitting on it. So I refused to eat it after a few bites.
Steamed Lobster with Garlic
You could SMELL the garlic from a distance. Everyone had one half of the lobster which was a nice serving to have. Mine wasn't so covered in garlic so I was pretty happy with it. The lobster was pretty fresh I guess but the garlic really burned in my middle when I'd finished it.
Steamed Sliced Garoupa in Village Style
I had 2-3 pieces of this (unlike some people). The fish bits had a nice texture but the gravy that came with it was horrid. It's was sickeningly sticky which made me baulk at the first taste. I rubbed it off at the side of the dish so that I didn't have to eat too much of it. Relatively acceptable dish I guess... They need to do something about the gravy.
Sauteed Vegetable with Shredded Mushroom A dish you can definitely find at your neighbourhood Chze Char stall.
Chef Chan’s Famous Crispy Roast Chicken
This is a YUMMY! I loved this one. The skin was crisp and I ate it too, despite being the sort who usually peels it off. The meat was very tasty on its own. I liked the texture (cos I got the part I wanted) This was definitely the winning dish of the night that kept everyone very quiet.
Papaya with White Fungus & Herbal Jelly with Glutinous Rice & Mango
Mistake Mistake Mistake. The texture of the glutinous rice did not go well with the Guilingao! Terrible... it took me a few tries before I figured I had to eat all the glutinous rice first then have the mango and the herbal jelly together. Any other way just made me quite sick really.
We chalked up a bill of about $860, which works out to be about $96 per person. It would have been more expensive but thanks to someone's credit card, we had a discount.
I wouldn't say this is below average... in actual fact I didn't think that the food "sucked". It was below expectations, thanks to its price. But it's not terrible food. Just expensive average food I guess. The chicken saved it from a 2-star.
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I had walked past this place so many times and yet I had not had a thought of walking in for a meal. There are a few reasons, first being there always seem to be a long queue outside the restaurant. Secondly, the place serves the kind of food that does not appeal to me. Thirdly, I was always in rush when I was walking past this place. So finally one fine day, we decided to give this place a try, well there was no queue and I thought that it was all good timing. I sort of regretted my choice when I stood there waiting to be shown to a table.
The place did not seem crowded, in fact can see a few empty tables, but we have to wait at the counter. It seems like the waiters and waitresses, even the managers (well they are the ones wearing more formal), are all very busy and everywhere except the counter where we are waiting. Not even one saw us standing at the counter, making me like an idiot. After about 5 mins of waiting, I told my partner that I will count to five, if till then, no one comes up to us, we will go another place for dinner. Lucky enough (don’t know for them or us), we were ushered to a table that is pretty much near to the edge of the corridor where tons and tons of people walked past, felt like animals on display.
The decoration of the place is pretty much trying to be hip and getting the attention of the teenagers, so that they can come in, eat and spend money. There is a pool table to play and even a candy floss station where you can get free candy floss. There are tables like a capsule where a big group can be seated together. The rest of the tables are like those normal kind.
Well after the bad start, my mood was not very good to start off with. Being seated at that location, it was difficult to get the attention of the waiters. It was really frustrating but finally managed to get one and come and take our orders. So what we ordered?
Root beer float @ $7.60: This came in the A&W style. Big mug of nice cold root beer with a big scoop of ice cream in it. Nothing special but it still taste great. Nice. I do find it a bit expensive for it though. Sigh.
London style fish and chip @ $9.90: This came with a big piece of fish, chips and tartar sauce. That it! No coleslaw or salad or whatever. This is really a ripped off! The fish is a bit flaky, not really fresh, maybe frozen. The batter is a bit too thick. Nothing to wow about. I wonder what do they mean by the London part. I understand in London they served it with vinegar but I dun see them doing that. Hmm….. This is really disappointing.
American Coleslaw @ $4.90: I don’t know it is me or the coleslaw but I do find the taste of the coleslaw a bit weird. Maybe too much mayo or too much vinegar but it does not taste like any normal coleslaw. I got to say this is one of the worst coleslaw that I ever eaten. It was so bad that I did not even finished the whole coleslaw. It is that bad. There is no way I am going to order that again.
Rotisserie Chix Whole @ $14.90: After eating or tasting all the above mentioned food, I did not have high expectation for this dish. However, I was wrong. The dish turned out to be great. The chicken was moist and tender, not dry at all. The size of the chicken is also quite huge, for small eaters, they can just order this and share. The sauce that came with the chicken is perfect for it. This dish is above average. Try this and you will not regret especially after a string of disappointments. This is the one that deserves 4 stars.
After this, we decided to give the desserts a miss and asked for the bill. Again, it took us sometime to get the attention of the waiters for the bill. The bill came to us pretty fast but we paid for it and waited for it to return. We waited and waited with the water at least topped up twice. We asked for the waiter to check on the bill but it seems that it never came back. I wonder why? In the end, I got a bit pissed off and signaled to the manager and ask him to check the bill which after a wait of 10 mins, the waiter finally brought it back to us. I really wonder what happen at that time. I have therefore decided after this experience, there is NO CHANCE that I will ever return to this place for any meal ever again!
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Held our annual excuse to dine out in the guise of mother's day at Si Chuan Dou Hua, Plaza Park Royal. Scarred from the barely satisfying dinner at Sun Japanese Dining last year, my family decided to stick to the traditional Chinese route this year. Expectations were high as I had a relatively good experience at Si Chuan Dou Hua UOB Plaza at the beginning of last year.
Wood seems to be the focus for the entire restaurant, with overhanging oriental lamps capping a most traditional Chinese interior that oozes finesse through its plush carpeted floors and doorway arches. Here you can peer through the floor to ceiling windows but the view really isn't something you would want to see - tour coaches.
I liked the keropok (crackers) which came in the usual fish and prawn variety. Crackling with every bite, it wasn't soft or soggy and made for a rather unusual but pleasing appetiser.
Sliced Beef and Tripe in Chilli Sauce - A most appetite whetting way to start off our meal, the sliced beef and tripe was nice and chewy and not to mention very spicy from all the chilli oil. This dish has a rating of 5 chillis on the menu, probably the most number awarded. Just a side comment (please correct me if I am wrong), Szechuan chilli seems to be all about spice and no fragrance.
Eight Treasure Seafood Soup - My choice of soup the last time round and this time as well. The soup definitely doesn't conform to the traditional seafood soup with its greenish colour due to the addition of ground spinach to the mix. It tasted exactly like shark's fin soup, a tad starchy with tiny bits and pieces of shark's fin, scallops, fish maw etc. Overall quite a tasty soup which bears the signature dish tag adequately.
Spicy Pork Belly - Chilli oil plus fatty pork belly is a sure fire recipe for cardiac arrest. And with the pork belly this average, I would rather listen to my doctor. Sure, the pork was chewy and not too spicy but all I could taste was the chilli and nothing else. It definitely didn't help that the pork slices were a tad too dry for my liking as well.
Fried Bittergourd with Bean Paste - A terribly executed dish honestly. The whole dish was very salty and the bittergourd was very plain bitter. Cooking the bittergourd with other stuff like beef would have made it alot better in my humble opinion. So much for a $15 plate of vegetables.
Beancurd with Dried Scallop - I'm a sucker for beancurd and this one didn't disappoint. Nice and smooth with a light smoky aftertaste. Only gripe I had was that the skin seemed a tad too dry and shrivelled. The accompanying gravy was good as well, not too starchy with shredded scallops. Very nice.
Steamed Garoupa - Have you ever eaten a garoupa, or fish for that matter, that costs $300/kg? Well its definitely a first for me and probably the last. The black garoupa, though extremely fresh and sweet with a firm meat texture to boot, cost a whooping $225 . How's that for a shocker? Pretty fishy business if you ask me.
Braised Pork Spare Rib - I really didn't quite take to the spare rib. For starters, it was way too fatty and the sauce was too sweet. The meat was also a tad too soft though still fibrous. Probably the only thing that I liked was the stick shaped man tou which was nice and crispy on the outside yet soft and compact on the inside. And at $10/piece, its definitely not cheap.
Peking Duck - Speechless. That was my initial reaction after popping a slice of the skin covered with a crepe into my mouth. The skin wasn't crispy and instead, tasted soft and limp with lots of fats underneath it. Adding to that was the non egg based crepe which was way too thick and chewy for my liking.
We opted to stir fry the remains for the duck with noodles and even that tasted flat as the noodles were soft and bland.
Custard Bun - Honestly I've never had custard bun for dessert before or seen it listed under the dessert section of a menu because its usually under the dim sum portion. The custard bun was seriously quite good but very sinful with all the oil in it. Biting into one releases a gush of melted butter and custard which is guaranteed to make your heart stop. Traces of egg yolk were present in the filling as evident by the sediment. However I would have preferred a slightly more coagulated filling with a stronger custard taste .
Yam Rolls - The second of our complimentary desserts, the yam rolls were essentially yam paste wrapped up in deep fried dough and coated with sesame at both ends. The yam paste tasted like a milder version of Orh Nee and actually went quite well with the dough and sesame, very much like eating dough fritters with a sweet filling.
Fine Beancurd with Syrup - As mentioned before, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, from its name, that Si Chuan Dou Hua is known for its dou hua aka fine beancurd. At $3 a pop, this is one expensive bowl of dou hua. But I like it quite a bit. Silky smooth yet firm through the addition of egg. You get to decide how much sugar syrup you want in it as well.
The food at Si Chuan Dou Hua was a case of hits and misses but for the price, $550 for 5 pax for lunch, its pure insanity. If the desserts weren't complimentary, we would probably be paying something to the tune of $600. Would you pay so much for a meal like that?
See all my pictures here.
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