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fin1710's Reviews

    971. Terra Cafe (VivoCity)   
       06 Jan 2008 at 4:29 pm
    Category: American
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    When you are at Vivocity and did not feel like going to foodcourt, but at the same time also want to give the posh-yet-expensive restaurants a miss, Terra Cafe might just work for you. Although the food there might not be comparable to good restaurants, but the price certainly will give most cafes or restaurant a run for their money, especially so with their set meals available whole day.

    Terra Cafe have different set meals available, and of course all this are the difference in the price. Decor-wise, simple and plain, but then do you really expect more for the interior when the set menus are at this price? Service-wise, i do not really appreciate the waiter’s attitude, he wasn’t very interested in taking orders. A friendlier approach and a smile on the face do makes patrons feel more welcome.

    All set meats include a soup, choice of a main course and a scoop of ice-cream for dessert.

    Fish & Chips ($11.90)

    Starting the bang at Terra Cafe was the ever-present in every restaurant, fish & chips. I would say the fish is decent, not lest for the price of a dish at a cafe, but there do exist better fish & chips at around the same price you know?

    Pasta Lasagna ($11.90)

    Grilled Pork Chop ($13.90)

    The pork chop was all right i guess, pork-items are slowly becoming more popular nowadays (except for the muslims). Last time it used to be quite little pork-related items available in restaurants, but now u can surely find quite a number of them around in restaurants. Kudos! More variety offer only means good things for foodie.

    Grilled Lamb Chop ($13.90)

    The lamb chop served here looks good on the outside, but then on the inside too much fats. A case of more fats than meat never wins you over, unless you are a fat-lover : )

    Ice-cream

    Single scoop ice-cream for each of us, coffee, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate.

    All in all, Terra Cafe offers reasonable food at affordable pricing. The food might not be excellent, but for the value i suppose they are still acceptable. Total Bill was $80.50 for five of us, but then trying it once, i am not sure whether i will be back again since the food there are all ordinary nothing special. Frankly speaking, in the sort of price range Terra Cafe offers, there are better alternatives such as Miss Clarity.

    You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )

    " I am your superman, and you are my wonderwoman "


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

    972. Swa Garden Restaurant   
       06 Jan 2008 at 2:37 pm
    feizhu feizhu says:

    My family's hunt for good Teochew food continues with a visit to Swa Garden located along MacPherson road. It is a small reclusive restaurant with no outstanding signage or features. Frilly white curtains from yesteryear don the eatery and shelter diners from the prying eyes of passersby. The interior is sparsely furnished, with tiled walls and foam block ceilings. Although the set menus looked reasonable and interesting, we decided to go ala carte. Ordered the Braised goose, Four Treasures Beancurd, Sea Cucumber with Fish Maw, Ha Zhor (Prawn roll), Stir Fried Kailan and Orh Nee.

    The dishes came fast and furious, almost simultaneously. The braised goose was a little too soft for my liking and was nowhere as good as the ones from Guan Hin, Hung Kang or Huat Kee. However the portions are quite substantial, which propels it to the top of the food portions category. Stir fried Kailan was pretty normal. The Ha Zhor was pretty good. Crispy and compact. However the dipping sauce was sweet sauce and not the traditional plum sauce.

    I only had a bite of the Fish Maw and found it quite decent, but nothing too outstanding unlike the one I had at Beng Hiang. The Four Treasures beancurd is slightly better than the homemade beancurd I had at Guan Hin. Though made in the same way(I presume so cause both had rough textures), Swa Garden's offering was slightly more robust in texture and flavour. However, having said that, I am still of the opinion that it was not impressive.

    Swa Garden's Orh Nee is a little different from the Orh Nees that I have eaten. Firstly, it comes submerged under a layer of syrup. Secondly, it is more watery than the others that I've tried, which isn't a bad thing really. It makes the paste smoother and it just glides down your throat. However, I did find it a little too watery for my liking. My dad liked it though.

    $78 for 4 pax isn't really too expensive, but it stops short of being cheap. Not exactly an impressive dinner, but an enjoyable one nevertheless. The set menu for 4 does offer some really good bargains and I'll definitely be back to try it.

    See all my pictures here


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

    973. Japanese Dining Sun   
       06 Jan 2008 at 1:39 am
    Category: Japanese
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Japanese Dining Sun at Chijmes, went there last night with zh, tay, karen to celebrate zh birthday. At chijmes, from the outside u cant tell how the restaurants looked like, but once we stepped into Dining sun, they had very nice decor, the kitchen is a open-concept where u can see the chef cook. I made a reservation specially requesting good seats, in the end got a seat in the corner that was uncomfortable with the spot light. O well

    I had Salmon Steak ($16.80), the dish is done quite nicely, but then i had tried better ones elsewhere. 3 out of 5. I also had the garlic rice ($5.50) to go along, its nice, quite similar to fried rice but nicer. 4.5 out of 5

    Zh had the Unagi Kabayaki ($15.50) which is eel, i had a taste of it and it tasted great, at least better than my salmon. But then i think if u just ordered the eel, u wont be full. 4 out of 5.

    Karen had Amaebi & Zuwaigani Don ($19.50) which is actually sweet prawn & pacifice snow crab. The appearance tell it all, need i say more? 4 out of 5

    Tay had the Yakiniku Kameneshi ($14.80) which is stir-fried beef topped with raw egg, and another dish called Tontoro Yaki ($12.80) which is pork. We found the stir-fried beef quite delicious, it is fried beef and egg on top of rice. The Tontoro Yaki (pork) is also very nice, the meat is quite tender, and is very diff from the normal pork we eat.

    Desserts!! The fame tofu cheesecake ($5) of Dining sun. Its very nice, a must try if you go dining sun. Pity its too small. No words to describe, just try it. 5 out of 5

    Uji Macha Min Parfait ($6.50) or rather green tea ice cream. Lol. At the price i find it a bit ex, you can always get better one at a cheaper price at island creamy or the daily scoop. 3 out of 5

    Thats the end of all the dishes folks! The total bill comes up to $132.75 for 4 person. I think its quite reasonable consider the fact that it is fine dining in a posh restaurant. But i find the fact that they charge us 10% service charge when there is really not much service provided. I got a lousy seat, a bit hard to get the waitress attention, takes a while for the bill to come.

    BUT hold on a sec, you MUST go and try Dining sun at least once. Except for my poor seats, the food is great, the decor is pretty, and the price is reasonable. Go on, try it tomorrow or the next weekend.

    You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )

    " I love food and food love me "


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

       06 Jan 2008 at 1:35 am
    Category: Thai
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Hmm.. Don’t know what to eat, so after walking around for a while, we saw siam kitchen was having a eat-all-you-can lunch buffet for $14.90, 14 dishes to choose from, add $1.99 for your free-flow of iced lemon tea. Mr tay was keen to try and besides nothing much to choose from, so here we go.

    The menu is basically what is available in the “buffet”, actually i dun really think it is a “buffet”. Definition of buffet, courtesy from wikipedia: A buffet is a meal-serving system where patrons serve themselves. It is a popular method of feeding large numbers of people with minimal staff. So you have it, we certainly didn’t serve ourselve by getting the food from the usual-buffet-style, instead we choose from the menu the 14 dishes. The first round they gave us all to test-test, so after that we can ordered what we like for our “second round”. This supposely is not to waste food.

    Well well, the 14 dishes but hold on a sec, i think they onli serve us 13. O well, they must have somehow missed out one dish. The food was so-so, serving was for two person because the restaurant was afraid we “wasted”food, they say we can always ordered in the second round if we liked the food.

    Lets see, the dishes that i notably still remember; the lemongrass chicken wing was okay i guess, as for the spicy thai vegetable pickles i found it rather refreshing. Omelette with onion was fine but they came in two small slices. Kangkong with chili was not hot at all, pineapple fried rice does not have any pineapple but still taste quite nice all the same.

    As for the rest of the dishes, you have to try it for yrself as i can’t remember, or rather i only have a bite of them. Although the food i did not enjoy, but the service in the restaurant was good, the staff was quite attentive and they re-filled our free flow ice lemon tea very fast, we had about 7-8 glass i think.

    Conclusion of meal, thai food is not for me, or rather i am not for thai food.

    You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )

    " I am your beloved's, and my beloved's is mine "


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

    975. 8 On Greenwood   
       06 Jan 2008 at 1:32 am
    Category: Fusion
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Ema’s Diner located at Greenwood Avenue, is formally known as 8 on Greenwood. Opened by the Halia group at the stretch of restaurants along Greenwood. Greenwood is being spoken at the same breath as Dempsey, Holland Village, Rochester Park as the hidden and hot spot to go.

    All these used-to be forgotten little outposts of Singapore have been transformed into mini lifestyle destinations of their own. The location of the restaurant is no longer a issue, so long there is the “hot” and “in” place to go, well-travelled food enthusiants living in all corners of Singapore will be willing to travel to other corners as well.

    Maybe not known to all, Greenwood Avenue was created by Les Amis group, one of Singapore dining giant. Out of close to 13 restaurants there, 5 belongs to Les Amis Group;

    The Grill at Hillcrest
    Sebastien’s Bistrot
    Peperoni Pizzeria
    Raku Japanese Restaurant
    L’estaminet Bar

    Anyway, thats for the background information on Greenwood, but Les Amis is really good, first they find a hidden street, this is follow up with opening several separate restaurants with different themes, to complement not to compete with each other. And poof! Greenwood Avenue is born.

    Initially we wanted to try out Sebastien’s Bistrot, but it was kind of late when we reached the area, so we went for quick lunch at Ema’s Diner. The first impression of the restaurant was its sort of kiddy? There was those stuff-toys cushion on the seats at one of the tables outside.

    The menu was an one-pager, it certaintly did not impress me as it seems unprofessional, like a child-drawn menu. Even though Ema did not offer much variety, but i thought the least they could do was separate out the one-page menu into several page and make it look more appropriate like a menu.

    We proceed on to browse through the menu since we had already entered the place, a rough count shows that it was about 25-30 seater restaurant. Not much diners around, mayb it was the timing that we went.

    Ema’s Burger ($14.90)

    Home-made beef patty, melted cheese, picked vege, bacon & hickory smoked bbq sauce, accompanied by fries. This was pretty decent i guess. You won’t really go wrong ordering this from the short list of food available.

    Braised Lamb Shank ($15.90)

    With carrot, turnip, celery & mashed potato. The inquisitive side finally got me into trouble. There are safe options to order, but no, my mind tell me not to, and instead Braised lamb shank is served onto my table. Not really good, i didn’t finish the dish if thats what you want to know.

    French fries ($3.50)

    We made a mistake of ordering french fries for starters because while ordering Ema’s burger, we missed out that it came with fries, otherwise, the fries were okay, and the servings were quite generous too

    Total damage came to $43.78 for two person. Also had one mango ice blend ($5.50). The food there wasn’t that bad i guess, mayb its just a case of ordering the wrong stuff, for the price range i though it is still consider reasonable given the fact that it is located beside much high-end restaurants, and the rent at Greenwood isn’t really what you will mention as cheap.

    You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )

    “ It can’t be smooth-sailing all the way, sometimes you will encounter bad dining experience ”


    Rating given:Rating: 1 out of 5Rating: 1 out of 5Rating: 1 out of 5Rating: 1 out of 5Rating: 1 out of 5

       06 Jan 2008 at 1:08 am
    Category: American, Fusion
    ladyironchef ladyironchef says:

    Went with Maz for food-hunting, started at Wheelock place, den to wisma, and finally Taka. Can’t decide wad to eat, finally chose Breeks because it was late and we were hungry. The restaurant has the usual things u would find in a normal western one, so nothing special.

    For side dish, we ordered the Breeks! Buffalo Wing, its actually chicken wing dipped in sweet and spicy sauce. There is 6 wings, which comes at $4.90. I quite like the wings, but maz found it too sweet. O well. It came with quite a healthy servings of vegies, i like. 4 out of 5

    Maz had fish & chips for his main course because he wanted to try the waffle fries that came with it. Overall, the chips is ordinary, nothing special, there are better chips out there. 2.5 out of 5

    I had grilled chicken chop on hotplates for my main course. The chop was quite nice, with the special sauce that was diff from the normal chicken-chop-sauce. BUT, wads with the servings that came with it? Burned potatos, carrots does not really taste nice. I wld prefer mashed potatos or give me coleslaw vegies anyday. 3 out of 5

    All in all, the food was average, service was average (they don’t refill iced water fast enough), price was average. So if other places are too crowded, check out Breeks at Taka, note: it also has other branches.

    You are always welcome to visit Ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )

    " I am your superman, and you are my wonderwoman "


    Rating given:Rating: 1 out of 5Rating: 1 out of 5Rating: 1 out of 5Rating: 1 out of 5Rating: 1 out of 5

       06 Jan 2008 at 12:35 am
    feizhu feizhu says:

    After a relatively good experience from my previous visit to Pu Tien, I headed back down with my parents for dinner on a busy Sunday evening. Needless to say, parking was a major headache, even to the extent of hazardous with the throngs of foreign workers recklessly heading towards Mustafa.

    Salted Pig Trotter with Pepper - We tried Pu Tien's rendition of the pig's trotters for the first time and left rather disappointed. True, the skin was crispy and lightly salted to bring out the balance of flavours. But it was more of soggy crispy rather than crackling crispy and most of it was just fats and minimal meat, which made swallowing a rather difficult task because of the preconceived notions of unhealthiness.

    Stir Fried Kailan with Beancurd Skin - This dish was supposed to have more kailan than beancurd skin, but strangely enough, it was vice versa. The beancurd skin was a huge blob and practically covered out whatever small portions of the kailan that was given. And eating too much soft beancurd skin is a sure fire recipe for getting woozy really fast. A rather lacklustre but decently palatable dish overall.

    Deep Fried Chicken with Garlic - This time round, the Deep Fried Chicken with Garlic was merely normal. The skin was as crispy as I remembered it to be but the meat came across as a little dry. Also, it tasted rather bland even with the fried garlic atop.

    Homemade Beancurd - Undoubtedly the best dish of the evening, the homemade beancurd was soft yet firm and had a nice savoury after taste. I wouldn't go so far as to call it out of this world, but its really a gem. I must say that even my parents were quite impressed with this dish and thats coming from 2 very fussy eaters.

    Hing Wa Fried Bee Hoon - As with my previous visit, I didn't find this dish the least bit impressive. The bee hoon was very fine but a little too dry and bland for my liking.

    Dinner for 3 stood at about $51, which is in line with my idea of a reasonable dinner given the quality of food. But do not expect top notch food for the price. Its merely comfort food done up with a little more finesse.

    See all my pictures here


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

       06 Jan 2008 at 12:28 am
    feizhu feizhu says:

    Had intended to try out HK Kim Gary at Vivo City, but threw the idea out of the window when we saw the ridiculously long queue. Actually there were long queues at most, if not all of the food outlets at Vivo City. Pure madness. So we drove to Orchard and after wandering aimlessly for a bit, settled for Lei Garden at Orchard Shopping Centre. The lift opens up to the reception area of Lei Garden and first looks, it hardly resembled a Chinese restaurant, with the exception of the wooden chairs. The brick linings in the walls were very evident and the low ceiling finished with wooden frames gave the whole place a very cottage feel. Add on a couple of Christmas decorations and lights and viola, you have a very pretty cottage dining area.

    Since we got there at about 9pm, alot of stuff were sold out, like the soup of the day and the smoked duck. So we had to settle for some recommendations by the captain. Namely, Double Boiled Fish's Bone with "Tian Ma", Deep Fried Prawns Coated with Salted Egg Yolk and Stewed Chicken with Young Ginger in Honey Sauce. We rounded up the meal with Durian Pudding and Glutinous Rice Balls with sesame filling.

    Lei Garden is well known for its double boiled soups and I never fail to order at least a serving every time I patronise. As such, I had high expectations for the Double Boiled Fish's Bone with "Tian Ma" and it didn't disappoint. The soup was sweet and light with a hint of rawness. However, I did get a little sick of drinking the soup after the first bowl mainly because the slight fishy taste made me queasy. So too much of a good thing isn't always good. Just a little nugget of information, this soup is supposed to relieve dizziness and calm the mind. How true? I have no idea.

    The Deep Fried Prawns Coated with Salted Egg Yolk was a delicacy in the making. The egg yolk gave the prawns a slight salty taste and the flavours were evident throughout. The prawns were also very fresh and biting into one is akin to eating Cereal Prawns - You just pop the whole thing into your mouth and enjoy the crunching sounds. However, I say that this dish is a delicacy still in the making because there is room for improvement. For one, the frying batter was uneven. Some prawns had more batter on the front, some had more on the back. This made the overall taste non homogeneous, with some parts being saltier than others.

    The Stewed Chicken with Young Ginger in Honey Sauce sounded interesting, but it was no more than Sweet and Sour Chicken, at least that was what it tasted like. Yes, the chicken meat was definitely more tender than the usual stuff you get outside and the sauce was decidedly lighter and less pronounced than the normal ones outside that threaten to overpower the taste of everything else. I liked this dish and so did my gf. Funny that there was no ginger taste though.

    Desserts have never really been a forte for Lei Garden and their desserts speak for themselves. My Durian Pudding tasted rather artificial although there were significant chunks of Durian meat in it. The Gelatine was in excess and gave the pudding a very creamy yet mashed up texture. My gf's Glutinous Rice Balls with sesame filling was rather tasteless. The rice balls were coated with ground peanuts, which made them fragrant. However, the sesame filling could do with more flavour.

    Dinner blew us away at about $110/-. We certainly didn't expect the bill to be so high, especially since our dishes weren't exactly expensive stuff. Nevertheless, the food quality is there and it is certainly quite refined. No one said good food comes cheap right? Service was good as well, so that kind of eased the pain when I saw the bill.

    See all my pictures here.


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

       05 Jan 2008 at 9:17 pm
    Category: Hawker Centres
    Bobo Bobo says:

    I found the fillings of the Paus rather normal, but the Da Bao didn't have ginger inside, which I personally prefer because I simply dislike ginger. The Pau skin was soft and not too thick, with lots of bite. Its really a cut above the rest. Little wonder about the long queues. Try it!


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

    980. Tao’s   
       04 Jan 2008 at 12:51 am
    Category: Fusion
    feizhu feizhu says:

    Its been a while since I last stepped into Tao's, with my last visit being about one and a half years ago. Since I was in the vicinity, I couldn't resist dropping by to renew my acquaintance with this small humble eatery.

    Occupying a space big enough for about 50 pax at the basement of Paradiz Centre, Tao's retains its clean lines and bright lighting to give the wholesome family dining feel. Tao's dining concept is rather different as the menu is fixed and you get to choose a dish for each course. There are 7 courses in total for dinner (I believe its 6 for lunch) but choices are rather limited.

    Mushroom & Cheese Gratin and Toasted Bread - I personally like the gratin quite a bit, tasty yet not nausea inducing. It did come across as a little more watery this time round but portion size seemed to have grown slightly. When eaten with the lightly toasted bread, the combination really got me craving for more.

    Curry Yogurt Prawn Salad - The prawn salad was a joke really. 3 thin slivers of prawns covering asparagus, cherry tomatoes and golden mushrooms. I could have easily stuffed all 3 into my mouth at one go. It didn't help that the accompanying curry sauce was rather strong and sweet.

    Farm Boy Splendor - Having ordered the farm boy splendor on previous occasions, it certainly didn't impress me very much, coming across as very average. On a positive note, the pieces of chicken in it were sizable and the vegetables were relatively fresh.

    Cream of Mushroom Soup - A most decent rendition of the humble cream of mushroom, with bits of mushroom in it and obviously not tasting like a straight out of the can variation. It would have been better if it was slightly more coagulated (less watery) though.

    Wild Mushrooms - This has to be the only time that I found the wild mushrooms more enjoyable because they didn't taste too wild for me nor were there the irritating little hard bits present, unlike previous occasions. Not that I really fancy it that much still.

    Slow Cooked Pork Back Ribs - The pork ribs is Tao's signature dish which has apparently won an award in some competition. The meat was fall of the bone tender but did come across as a tad too sweet, which made me rather sick after a while.

    Tao's Oven Roasted Steak - The steak came almost well done although I had asked for medium rare. The presence of excessive tenderizer was also evident as the meat did seem a little too tender by normal standards. Probably the only positive thing about this dish was the gravy, which was a little peppery and relatively tasty.

    Creme Brulee - Good Creme Brulees are made from real vanilla beans, not vanilla extract. Tao's rendition was made from the latter. Not that it tasted bad though, just that the layer of sugar atop was too thin and not even hard. Talk about poor execution.

    Home Made Chocolate Mousse - Homemade stuff usually entail a certain standard, but the chocolate mousse was just plain weird by any standards. It tasted like a 2 layer cake with the mousse on top and kueh at the bottom. Definitely not for me.

    Ice Grass Jelly Mint Tea - An excellent way to end off dinner, with a choice of teas. I personally like the grass jelly mint tea because its sweet and cool with a dash of freshness from the mint.

    Prices at Tao's have not gone up since more than a year back, which is really commendable given the rising costs. $61 for 2 set dinners is rather reasonable for the quality and quantity of food if you ask me. Service is excellent and friendly as well. I can't find a reason not to return.

    See all my pictures here


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

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