Yes its Dim Sum for me and my gf on a weekend morning again. This time round, the venue of choice was Wah Lok. Known for its exquisite Dim Sum offerings and excellent Cantonese food, Wah Lok sits on the second floor of Carlton Hotel. Wood, like in many other mainstream Chinese restaurants, plays a main role in bringing out the understated opulence of the interior, especially that of the main dining hall. One can't help but feel very at home in this subtly lavish yet comfortable layout.
The Appetizer of BBQ Pork, Salted Vegetables, Chilli and Sesame Seeds was something that I've honestly never tried before. And it was good. The BBQ pork was sweet while the salted vegetables were salty, naturally. This balanced things out really well and the sesame seeds gave it a nice fragrance while the mild chilli spiced things up a little.
The Steamed Carrot Cake was a great dish to start off with. The carrot cake came piping hot in a small glass bowl and was very smooth without coming across as too soft and mashed up.
I've always been a fan of BBQ Pork Pastry, or better known as Char Siew Sou, so it's no surprise that this dish was in our order list. The BBQ Pork Pastry was quite well done with the pastry being flaky and a little sweet from the exterior glazing. The BBQ Pork filling was held together by a semi thick and sweet gravy, which is very unlike most of the Dim Sum places I've tried that only wraps the meat without any gravy. However, the pork itself lacked the barbequed taste - a flaw that could make or break this dish. But all in all, still an above average eat.
The Baked Egg Tart came across as pretty normal in terms of taste and texture. There was no slightly burnt crust taste which I like, but the egg filling was not too sweet, which was a plus. Other than that, just an average egg tart.
Now this dish came recommended by our server and it proved to be excellent. The fried beancurd skin was brittlely(If there's such a word) crispy with fillings of prawns and some vegetables. Dip it in the accompanying premium grade soya sauce and you get a match made it heaven. The soya sauce gives it the salty yet zesty flavour. And I'm not kidding about the premium soya sauce label. It really is of premium grade. Try it and you'll know what I mean.
Steamed prawn dumplings or better known as Har Gao is one of the de facto dishes of Dim Sum literally. Wah Lok's rendition tasted quite fine, with the shrimps evidently fresh. The skin was also relatively thin and moist.
Like the Steamed prawn dumplings, the Steamed pork dumplings aka Siu Mai, are also another de facto dish of Dim Sum. I found this rather normal, but it didn't come across as too heavy on the palate, which was a change from the nausea inducing ones that I often eat.
Century Egg porridge - This is my gf's favourite dish and although I'm no fan of it, I did find it quite good. The porridge was not too starchy neither was it too watery. I can't quite describe the taste because I honestly know nuts to nothing about Century Egg Porridge.
Shark's fin dumpling - This was the most expensive dish we ordered ($7.80 per serving) but it was well worth the money. The shark's fin soup was light and sweet and came with a few strands of inferior quality shark's fin(hey its $7.80, what do you expect?). I did find the dumpling's skin a little too soft though, probably from soaking in the soup for too long.
Fried Ice Cream - This is one rare dessert. I can't really tell you where to find this delicacy anymore. Wah Lok's rendition is different from all the others that I've tried. Here, the Mango Ice Cream is coated with a layer of Coconut shreds and flour before deep frying. The result is a crispy Coconut exterior encompassing a rather pleasant Mango Ice Cream. Quite good!
The 2 for 1 tag line is recognized with Canadian Pizza, and their easy-to-remember hotline 6241 0241 is another reason which has make Canadian Pizza a widely popular choice for pizza delivery services.
With mainstream competitors Pizza Hut which besides the delivery services has their own restaurants, and Sarpino’s which offer the same gimmick by having the 1-for-1 promotion, and the new Rite pizza, it can only mean good things for consumers who want a quick one on their pizzas.
Having tried Canadian Pizza a couple of times before, i thought that for the prices their pizzas are actually not bad, so on this occasion i decided on having Canadian Pizza instead of Sarpino’s as the previous time i have tried them already.
Teriyaki Chicken (Reg 10”) Teriyaki chicken, mushrooms, sweet corn, capsium, roasted sesame seed. The first bite of the pizza already told me everything i should know, i ordered the wrong pizza! All right, i understand that you can’t really be expecting huge chunks of the teriyaki chicken, even though i accepted the small bits of chicken, but where’s the taste? There’s not much of a flavor in the chicken, and this is supposed to be a teriyaki chicken pizza.
Canadian pizzas are all thin-sliced, personally i would prefer my pizza to be those thicker kinds rather than the thin ones. But there are places which served excellent thin slices, and the same goes for thick slices, so it largely depends on the place where you get your pizza.
Hawaiian Classic (Reg 10″) Turkey ham, turkey bacon, diced pineapples, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and edam cheese. The Hawaiian classic fared slightly better, although not much to redeem Canadian Pizza. I supposed the turkey ham is cut rather generously, but other than that, not much really.
This shows exactly the effects of not having enough cheese. If the pizza is cheesy enough, then when you pull the scene will be a total different one. Yes cheese can be expensive and its understandable that Canadian needs to cut cost given the pizzas are 1-for-1. But i feel pizza without enough cheese is not pizza. Period.
Total bill is $23.90 for 2 reg 10″ pizza. To say that i am utterly disappointed with the quality of Canadian pizza is not an understatement. And i will probably not call 6241 0241 again. Based on my previous experience with Sarpino’s, i think they fared better than Canadian, but i’ll have to try again to find out.
Pizza hut is of course the better one among the three, but obviously more expensive. But one common problem among the three pizza deliveries, is that they often does not provides enough cheese sachet. For this order, they only provided me with one cheese sachet, and i remember my previous encounter with Sarpino’s, they didn’t even give me any cheese sachet!
I have to admit, on my part i forgot to remind them to give me more cheese sachet. But really, how much can a pack of cheese sachet cost? Does it happens to you too, or i happened to be unfortunate on those severals occasions i called for pizza?
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!
Winner of the Singapore Tatler Best Restaurant award for more than 10 consecutive years, Wah Lok has much to live up to in terms of food and ambience. Visitors to Singapore who would like a taste of authentic Cantonese cuisine should not give Wah Lok a miss.
The cantonese restaurant is set like an opulent dining paradise with its Oriental-themed settings. Its rotunda hall, an extension built above the terrace, with its grand high ceiling and floor to ceiling glass windows, adds a touch of refined elegance to the restaurant renowned for its Cantonese dim sum and fine cuisine.
Perhaps it is also one of the largest round tables that we have ever sat in. With a group of about 10 of us, the table still feels empty and there seems to be much more space in between persons to still sit another 6 more.
The table being large left us wondering if the dishes that we ordered would equally be large enough to fill the table space and most importantly our stomachs. It did not disappoint.
For starters we had the BBQ Sucking Pig Combination. This was a mix of suckling pig, BBQ pork, roasted duck, Soy chicken and jelly fish. The clear winner here is the sucking pig and roasted dusk. Just can't have enough of the skin which is both crispy and tasty.
Next came the Braised sharksfin soup with crabmeat and shredded chicken. The taste was not overpowering and unlike other sharksfin soup, there wasn't that "jelak" feeling after finishing one bowl. The interesting thing about this is the generous amount of sharksfin *oops...not for the environmentalist and wildlife activitst* and the shredded chicken. I do not know about you, but this is the first time I remembered having chicken in sharksfin soup. Or maybe I did not get to notice it when I ate it at other times.
Another memorable dish is the Steamed Garoupa in Thai style. The word "Thai style" evokes sweet chilli if you order it from food courts and the like so we were very much relieved that that is not the case here. The steamed garoupa was served in an excitably huge plate (fit for a king) and had the most ugly looking garoupa. But looks are deceiving as it tasted great! The winner in this dish is the Thai sauce. Yes, this steam garoupa was hot....the taste that is. It was like garoupa in tom yam sauce...but also not exactly tom yum sauce. It was thick gravy and just made eating the garoupa a facinating experience. Surely would order this again!
The Crispy 'Pi Pa' Duck was another clear favourite. The skin was crispy and thin. The only setback was the presence of too much fats in between the layers. But this might be the reason why some love it!
Sauted Deer Meat was another dish ordered. The meat was tender and cut to bite size so there was no need to perform any complex operation on it. Easily another favourite.
Other dishes ordered were the Scallops with brocolli and Braised Abalone with Black mushrooms. For desert, we had the Mango Pudding. It had a layer of evaporated milk which brough flavour to the pudding and was a nice finish to a satisfying meal.
Service was prompt and efficient and overall the servers were a friendly bunch of people. The total damage was $1150 for 10 persons. Overall a satisfying meal.
Went here after dinner at P.S cafe. The place's deco is the same as the rest of the Party World. The only difference is the usage only and most Party World KTV has got very "used" deco and furnishing. (Except the branch at Taman Jurong).
Songs are also not in the review as we all know Party World has got a great selection of songs though I prefer Neway (Johor)....
Drinks seems rather dilute and of course the tidbits are in small portion (charged ok?). However the service attitude is quite good and crews are rather friendly and polite. Recently there seems to be a trend to have China crews compared to in the past. Still, their service is very good I must say. Just improve on the cleanliness of the toilet k?
A lazy weekend afternoon is spend at Starbucks @ Holland Village. What I like about Starbucks is their free WiFi via Wireless@SG which enables me to sip my coffee and blog at the same time.
Not being a coffee lover didn't deter me from this place as I fell in love with their Cafe Mocha (less whip) since poly days. The coffee is smooth and the chocolate syrup adds a dimension that seeks to satisfy the non-coffee lover in me.
I have also recently fell in love with their Banana Nut Muffin that is made from banana puree and chopped walnuts. Do remember to ask them to heat it up for you - that's when you will be overwhelmed by the flavoursome banana aroma when you have a bite to it!
Had another bout of Thai food craving and didn't fancy braving the terrible parking(and exorbitant drink prices) at First Thai so decided to try out P&P Thai Food, which is just a 15 min drive from my house. Formerly located at a coffeeshop along Veerasamy Road in Little India, P&P's claim to fame is its authentic Thai food and the various newspaper writeups are a testament to that.
Located under a block of HDBs at Geylang Bahru, P&P occupies a rather small and inconspicuous unit which faces the main road. The place is done up simply with white washed wall and limited tables, probably at about 10 tops, including those placed along the pavement. Air conditioning here is at a premium, with barely cool air whispering out of 2 air conditioning units.
Mango Salad - A nice appetiser would have started the meal just right, but the mango salad, though spicy, didn't taste out of the ordinary. Everything was overwhelmed by the spiciness. Also, 6 bucks does seem a tad pricey for just some shredded vegetables and fruit.
Tom Yam Soup - Served up in a small claypot, the tom yam soup was actually quite good. Clear spicy broth with an overhanging heavy dosage of zest that didn't weigh down too much on the palate. One thing I found odd about the soup was the inclusion of slices of hotdog - a sign of cost cutting?
Phad Thai - I found P&P's Phad Thai comparable to the one I had at First Thai just a couple of weeks back except that the glass noodles used in the former were slightly finer than usual. Both were of the wet variant but the prawns in P&P's offering weren't exactly fresh and that marred the experience for me. I still stand by the Phad Thai from Sweet Salty Spicy.
Olive Fried Rice - The undisputed star of our meal, the humble olive fried rice. Served with sides of egg, cashew nuts and a mixture of what seemed like dried shrimp and pork, the rice was fragrant and very well fried sans the oil with a lingering tinge of olive. I would have gone for seconds if not for the rather steep pricing ($7 for 1 scoop).
Fried Kang Kong - What looked like an ordinary dish turned out to be something rather top notch. The Kang Kong had a wok hei taste to it and was rather spicy although it didn't look the part. Only gripe I had was the excessive salt content, which can be a little overwhelming.
P&P Crispy Pork - I would have expected more from a dish bearing the name of the restaurant but sadly it came across as rather normal, if not on the salty side. The flour was crispy without being too oily but the meat did seem a little too fatty at certain parts, which made me a tad nervous about my health.
Durian Sticky Rice - I was looking forward to this delectable dessert and all hopes for a humongous portion were dashed when it came served in a small leaf shaped plate. The glutinous rice was a tad savoury with lots of bite while the durian flesh was sweet but rather runny. Drizzled with coconut milk, the entire dish made for a very nice ending. However $10 for such a small portion is a rip off in my humble opinion.
$57 for 3 pax isn't exactly expensive but I wouldn't deem it cheap either. Food quality is actually quite decent and personally I prefer it to First Thai. Price wise, both are comparable but service and ambience at P&P is definitely better. When we finished my dinner at about 7pm on a Sunday evening, there were still a few tables empty so I guess having no queues is a plus point too. One thing to note though, P&P doesn't serve free ice water. Its 50 cents for a refillable cup.
Having been there twice for late night movies, I found the place average. The queues for the tickets and popcorn counters often cut into the entrance to the cinemas.
The cafes in front of the counters take up space in an awkward manner and I find it difficult to navigate from the escalators to the counters when the crowd gets huge.
What I do like is that the person sitting in front won't be blocking my view unless he/she is really very tall. The seats are comfortable.
However, the exits to the multistorey carpark were locked after midnight so we had to go to 2nd level and take the carpark lift to the 6th level after the movie.
The lesson learnt was that the car should be parked at level 1 or 2 or in the open space carpark just opposite the building when watching late night shows.
Just opened at basement of Plaza Singapura on August 1st. This is the place to go for quick takeaway meals. They offer curry rice and curry udon sets where you can choose to have the curry mild or spicy. They also sell bento set which includes potato salad, vegetable sald, rice, fukujinzuke (japanese pickles) and takuan (japanese radish).
Mum bought 2 sets for dinner last night. Seafood Croquette Curry Udon Set ($5.90) and Ebi Unagi Bento Set ($8.90).
We had the sets an hour later when we reached home. The food was not too cold for consumption yet. It was still a little warm when we ate the food.
Mum's first verdict after tasting the rice in her bento set "Not nice!" The rice didn't have the usual stickiness of japanese rice and was tasteless. Not even taste of the usual rice fragrant. But the ebi and unagi was still acceptable. Though we felt that the unagi was a tad too small. The salads that came with the bento set was not bad. Nothing to wow about.
The Curry Udon was still alright for me. I don't recall tasting any japanese curry recently and have forgotten how it should taste like. But this one has quite a strong smell which I don't really enjoy. The seafood croquette was quite sad. There was only a small piece of prawn in it. I remembered the lady told me its a mixed of seafood. But I couldn't taste any.
Overall I feel that the food was not up to standard. Perhaps they're still new in such creations. Hope they'll improve as they gain more experience. Will probably give it another try few months later.
I like the way the staff greet you by name after they know your name. They provide drinks while you do your hair. There are 2 sections, the salon and the spa.
This salon provides services for hair treatment and hair cuts. I have seen only 3 hair stylists who will trim your crowning glory with satisfying results.
I have been going to this salon for my hair treatments and my problem with oily scalp being more controlled.
I have eaten a few times at this cafe at different times of the day. The service was average while the lady boss was friendly. It would have been good to let us know before our entrance especially when the kitchen would be closed an hour earlier than the closing time.
Thus, we felt rushed to order our food. The food arrived soon after our orders as we were one of the last customers. I felt the wedges lacked in taste for the frying part. It was crispy but it lacked the spices.
The melted cheese was cool and not warm like what I usually get from other places. Since it was still soft, I didn't want to put up a fuss. No wow factor but a nice place for some finger food.
1=SGD 0.0587
Yes its Dim Sum for me and my gf on a weekend morning again. This time round, the venue of choice was Wah Lok. Known for its exquisite Dim Sum offerings and excellent Cantonese food, Wah Lok sits on the second floor of Carlton Hotel. Wood, like in many other mainstream Chinese restaurants, plays a main role in bringing out the understated opulence of the interior, especially that of the main dining hall. One can't help but feel very at home in this subtly lavish yet comfortable layout.
The Appetizer of BBQ Pork, Salted Vegetables, Chilli and Sesame Seeds was something that I've honestly never tried before. And it was good. The BBQ pork was sweet while the salted vegetables were salty, naturally. This balanced things out really well and the sesame seeds gave it a nice fragrance while the mild chilli spiced things up a little.
The Steamed Carrot Cake was a great dish to start off with. The carrot cake came piping hot in a small glass bowl and was very smooth without coming across as too soft and mashed up.
I've always been a fan of BBQ Pork Pastry, or better known as Char Siew Sou, so it's no surprise that this dish was in our order list. The BBQ Pork Pastry was quite well done with the pastry being flaky and a little sweet from the exterior glazing. The BBQ Pork filling was held together by a semi thick and sweet gravy, which is very unlike most of the Dim Sum places I've tried that only wraps the meat without any gravy. However, the pork itself lacked the barbequed taste - a flaw that could make or break this dish. But all in all, still an above average eat.
The Baked Egg Tart came across as pretty normal in terms of taste and texture. There was no slightly burnt crust taste which I like, but the egg filling was not too sweet, which was a plus. Other than that, just an average egg tart.
Now this dish came recommended by our server and it proved to be excellent. The fried beancurd skin was brittlely(If there's such a word) crispy with fillings of prawns and some vegetables. Dip it in the accompanying premium grade soya sauce and you get a match made it heaven. The soya sauce gives it the salty yet zesty flavour. And I'm not kidding about the premium soya sauce label. It really is of premium grade. Try it and you'll know what I mean.
Steamed prawn dumplings or better known as Har Gao is one of the de facto dishes of Dim Sum literally. Wah Lok's rendition tasted quite fine, with the shrimps evidently fresh. The skin was also relatively thin and moist.
Like the Steamed prawn dumplings, the Steamed pork dumplings aka Siu Mai, are also another de facto dish of Dim Sum. I found this rather normal, but it didn't come across as too heavy on the palate, which was a change from the nausea inducing ones that I often eat.
Century Egg porridge - This is my gf's favourite dish and although I'm no fan of it, I did find it quite good. The porridge was not too starchy neither was it too watery. I can't quite describe the taste because I honestly know nuts to nothing about Century Egg Porridge.
Shark's fin dumpling - This was the most expensive dish we ordered ($7.80 per serving) but it was well worth the money. The shark's fin soup was light and sweet and came with a few strands of inferior quality shark's fin(hey its $7.80, what do you expect?). I did find the dumpling's skin a little too soft though, probably from soaking in the soup for too long.
Fried Ice Cream - This is one rare dessert. I can't really tell you where to find this delicacy anymore. Wah Lok's rendition is different from all the others that I've tried. Here, the Mango Ice Cream is coated with a layer of Coconut shreds and flour before deep frying. The result is a crispy Coconut exterior encompassing a rather pleasant Mango Ice Cream. Quite good!
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
The 2 for 1 tag line is recognized with Canadian Pizza, and their easy-to-remember hotline 6241 0241 is another reason which has make Canadian Pizza a widely popular choice for pizza delivery services.
With mainstream competitors Pizza Hut which besides the delivery services has their own restaurants, and Sarpino’s which offer the same gimmick by having the 1-for-1 promotion, and the new Rite pizza, it can only mean good things for consumers who want a quick one on their pizzas.
Having tried Canadian Pizza a couple of times before, i thought that for the prices their pizzas are actually not bad, so on this occasion i decided on having Canadian Pizza instead of Sarpino’s as the previous time i have tried them already.
Teriyaki Chicken (Reg 10”)
Teriyaki chicken, mushrooms, sweet corn, capsium, roasted sesame seed. The first bite of the pizza already told me everything i should know, i ordered the wrong pizza! All right, i understand that you can’t really be expecting huge chunks of the teriyaki chicken, even though i accepted the small bits of chicken, but where’s the taste? There’s not much of a flavor in the chicken, and this is supposed to be a teriyaki chicken pizza.
Canadian pizzas are all thin-sliced, personally i would prefer my pizza to be those thicker kinds rather than the thin ones. But there are places which served excellent thin slices, and the same goes for thick slices, so it largely depends on the place where you get your pizza.
Hawaiian Classic (Reg 10″)
Turkey ham, turkey bacon, diced pineapples, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and edam cheese. The Hawaiian classic fared slightly better, although not much to redeem Canadian Pizza. I supposed the turkey ham is cut rather generously, but other than that, not much really.
This shows exactly the effects of not having enough cheese. If the pizza is cheesy enough, then when you pull the scene will be a total different one. Yes cheese can be expensive and its understandable that Canadian needs to cut cost given the pizzas are 1-for-1. But i feel pizza without enough cheese is not pizza. Period.
Total bill is $23.90 for 2 reg 10″ pizza. To say that i am utterly disappointed with the quality of Canadian pizza is not an understatement. And i will probably not call 6241 0241 again. Based on my previous experience with Sarpino’s, i think they fared better than Canadian, but i’ll have to try again to find out.
Pizza hut is of course the better one among the three, but obviously more expensive. But one common problem among the three pizza deliveries, is that they often does not provides enough cheese sachet. For this order, they only provided me with one cheese sachet, and i remember my previous encounter with Sarpino’s, they didn’t even give me any cheese sachet!
I have to admit, on my part i forgot to remind them to give me more cheese sachet. But really, how much can a pack of cheese sachet cost? Does it happens to you too, or i happened to be unfortunate on those severals occasions i called for pizza?
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Winner of the Singapore Tatler Best Restaurant award for more than 10 consecutive years, Wah Lok has much to live up to in terms of food and ambience. Visitors to Singapore who would like a taste of authentic Cantonese cuisine should not give Wah Lok a miss.
The cantonese restaurant is set like an opulent dining paradise with its Oriental-themed settings. Its rotunda hall, an extension built above the terrace, with its grand high ceiling and floor to ceiling glass windows, adds a touch of refined elegance to the restaurant renowned for its Cantonese dim sum and fine cuisine.
Perhaps it is also one of the largest round tables that we have ever sat in. With a group of about 10 of us, the table still feels empty and there seems to be much more space in between persons to still sit another 6 more.
The table being large left us wondering if the dishes that we ordered would equally be large enough to fill the table space and most importantly our stomachs. It did not disappoint.
For starters we had the BBQ Sucking Pig Combination. This was a mix of suckling pig, BBQ pork, roasted duck, Soy chicken and jelly fish. The clear winner here is the sucking pig and roasted dusk. Just can't have enough of the skin which is both crispy and tasty.
Next came the Braised sharksfin soup with crabmeat and shredded chicken. The taste was not overpowering and unlike other sharksfin soup, there wasn't that "jelak" feeling after finishing one bowl. The interesting thing about this is the generous amount of sharksfin *oops...not for the environmentalist and wildlife activitst* and the shredded chicken. I do not know about you, but this is the first time I remembered having chicken in sharksfin soup. Or maybe I did not get to notice it when I ate it at other times.
Another memorable dish is the Steamed Garoupa in Thai style. The word "Thai style" evokes sweet chilli if you order it from food courts and the like so we were very much relieved that that is not the case here. The steamed garoupa was served in an excitably huge plate (fit for a king) and had the most ugly looking garoupa. But looks are deceiving as it tasted great! The winner in this dish is the Thai sauce. Yes, this steam garoupa was hot....the taste that is. It was like garoupa in tom yam sauce...but also not exactly tom yum sauce. It was thick gravy and just made eating the garoupa a facinating experience. Surely would order this again!
The Crispy 'Pi Pa' Duck was another clear favourite. The skin was crispy and thin. The only setback was the presence of too much fats in between the layers. But this might be the reason why some love it!
Sauted Deer Meat was another dish ordered. The meat was tender and cut to bite size so there was no need to perform any complex operation on it. Easily another favourite.
Other dishes ordered were the Scallops with brocolli and Braised Abalone with Black mushrooms. For desert, we had the Mango Pudding. It had a layer of evaporated milk which brough flavour to the pudding and was a nice finish to a satisfying meal.
Service was prompt and efficient and overall the servers were a friendly bunch of people. The total damage was $1150 for 10 persons. Overall a satisfying meal.
Rating given:
Went here after dinner at P.S cafe. The place's deco is the same as the rest of the Party World. The only difference is the usage only and most Party World KTV has got very "used" deco and furnishing. (Except the branch at Taman Jurong).
Songs are also not in the review as we all know Party World has got a great selection of songs though I prefer Neway (Johor)....
Drinks seems rather dilute and of course the tidbits are in small portion (charged ok?). However the service attitude is quite good and crews are rather friendly and polite. Recently there seems to be a trend to have China crews compared to in the past. Still, their service is very good I must say. Just improve on the cleanliness of the toilet k?
Rating given:
A lazy weekend afternoon is spend at Starbucks @ Holland Village. What I like about Starbucks is their free WiFi via Wireless@SG which enables me to sip my coffee and blog at the same time.
Not being a coffee lover didn't deter me from this place as I fell in love with their Cafe Mocha (less whip) since poly days. The coffee is smooth and the chocolate syrup adds a dimension that seeks to satisfy the non-coffee lover in me.
I have also recently fell in love with their Banana Nut Muffin that is made from banana puree and chopped walnuts. Do remember to ask them to heat it up for you - that's when you will be overwhelmed by the flavoursome banana aroma when you have a bite to it!
Rating given:
Had another bout of Thai food craving and didn't fancy braving the terrible parking(and exorbitant drink prices) at First Thai so decided to try out P&P Thai Food, which is just a 15 min drive from my house. Formerly located at a coffeeshop along Veerasamy Road in Little India, P&P's claim to fame is its authentic Thai food and the various newspaper writeups are a testament to that.
Located under a block of HDBs at Geylang Bahru, P&P occupies a rather small and inconspicuous unit which faces the main road. The place is done up simply with white washed wall and limited tables, probably at about 10 tops, including those placed along the pavement. Air conditioning here is at a premium, with barely cool air whispering out of 2 air conditioning units.
Mango Salad - A nice appetiser would have started the meal just right, but the mango salad, though spicy, didn't taste out of the ordinary. Everything was overwhelmed by the spiciness. Also, 6 bucks does seem a tad pricey for just some shredded vegetables and fruit.
Tom Yam Soup - Served up in a small claypot, the tom yam soup was actually quite good. Clear spicy broth with an overhanging heavy dosage of zest that didn't weigh down too much on the palate. One thing I found odd about the soup was the inclusion of slices of hotdog - a sign of cost cutting?
Phad Thai - I found P&P's Phad Thai comparable to the one I had at First Thai just a couple of weeks back except that the glass noodles used in the former were slightly finer than usual. Both were of the wet variant but the prawns in P&P's offering weren't exactly fresh and that marred the experience for me. I still stand by the Phad Thai from Sweet Salty Spicy.
Olive Fried Rice - The undisputed star of our meal, the humble olive fried rice. Served with sides of egg, cashew nuts and a mixture of what seemed like dried shrimp and pork, the rice was fragrant and very well fried sans the oil with a lingering tinge of olive. I would have gone for seconds if not for the rather steep pricing ($7 for 1 scoop).
Fried Kang Kong - What looked like an ordinary dish turned out to be something rather top notch. The Kang Kong had a wok hei taste to it and was rather spicy although it didn't look the part. Only gripe I had was the excessive salt content, which can be a little overwhelming.
P&P Crispy Pork - I would have expected more from a dish bearing the name of the restaurant but sadly it came across as rather normal, if not on the salty side. The flour was crispy without being too oily but the meat did seem a little too fatty at certain parts, which made me a tad nervous about my health.
Durian Sticky Rice - I was looking forward to this delectable dessert and all hopes for a humongous portion were dashed when it came served in a small leaf shaped plate. The glutinous rice was a tad savoury with lots of bite while the durian flesh was sweet but rather runny. Drizzled with coconut milk, the entire dish made for a very nice ending. However $10 for such a small portion is a rip off in my humble opinion.
$57 for 3 pax isn't exactly expensive but I wouldn't deem it cheap either. Food quality is actually quite decent and personally I prefer it to First Thai. Price wise, both are comparable but service and ambience at P&P is definitely better. When we finished my dinner at about 7pm on a Sunday evening, there were still a few tables empty so I guess having no queues is a plus point too. One thing to note though, P&P doesn't serve free ice water. Its 50 cents for a refillable cup.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Having been there twice for late night movies, I found the place average. The queues for the tickets and popcorn counters often cut into the entrance to the cinemas.
The cafes in front of the counters take up space in an awkward manner and I find it difficult to navigate from the escalators to the counters when the crowd gets huge.
What I do like is that the person sitting in front won't be blocking my view unless he/she is really very tall. The seats are comfortable.
However, the exits to the multistorey carpark were locked after midnight so we had to go to 2nd level and take the carpark lift to the 6th level after the movie.
The lesson learnt was that the car should be parked at level 1 or 2 or in the open space carpark just opposite the building when watching late night shows.
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"Curry so Good"
Just opened at basement of Plaza Singapura on August 1st. This is the place to go for quick takeaway meals. They offer curry rice and curry udon sets where you can choose to have the curry mild or spicy. They also sell bento set which includes potato salad, vegetable sald, rice, fukujinzuke (japanese pickles) and takuan (japanese radish).
Mum bought 2 sets for dinner last night. Seafood Croquette Curry Udon Set ($5.90) and Ebi Unagi Bento Set ($8.90).
We had the sets an hour later when we reached home. The food was not too cold for consumption yet. It was still a little warm when we ate the food.
Mum's first verdict after tasting the rice in her bento set "Not nice!" The rice didn't have the usual stickiness of japanese rice and was tasteless. Not even taste of the usual rice fragrant. But the ebi and unagi was still acceptable. Though we felt that the unagi was a tad too small. The salads that came with the bento set was not bad. Nothing to wow about.
The Curry Udon was still alright for me. I don't recall tasting any japanese curry recently and have forgotten how it should taste like. But this one has quite a strong smell which I don't really enjoy. The seafood croquette was quite sad. There was only a small piece of prawn in it. I remembered the lady told me its a mixed of seafood. But I couldn't taste any.
Overall I feel that the food was not up to standard. Perhaps they're still new in such creations. Hope they'll improve as they gain more experience. Will probably give it another try few months later.
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I like the way the staff greet you by name after they know your name. They provide drinks while you do your hair. There are 2 sections, the salon and the spa.
This salon provides services for hair treatment and hair cuts. I have seen only 3 hair stylists who will trim your crowning glory with satisfying results.
I have been going to this salon for my hair treatments and my problem with oily scalp being more controlled.
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I have eaten a few times at this cafe at different times of the day. The service was average while the lady boss was friendly. It would have been good to let us know before our entrance especially when the kitchen would be closed an hour earlier than the closing time.
Thus, we felt rushed to order our food. The food arrived soon after our orders as we were one of the last customers. I felt the wedges lacked in taste for the frying part. It was crispy but it lacked the spices.
The melted cheese was cool and not warm like what I usually get from other places. Since it was still soft, I didn't want to put up a fuss. No wow factor but a nice place for some finger food.
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