John 3: 16 has the BEST services if you are looking for your camera. The staff there are real friendly, and always more than willing to answer your any doubts or enquiries.
Just asked them for a hands-on experience on a dslr or camera, and there was no slight frown, or look that says "are you really going to buy?"
Leslie is the one who attended to me, and he's very knowledgable about the products that he's selling. Real friendly too. I had some hands-on testing with the dslr, and he patiently explained to me the difference between the diff models and lens.
But, good services come with a price after all, the quotes you get from John 3:16 will not come cheaper than the other shops. In fact i think the price tag is slightly higher by $20-$30?
Not much diff, but still enough to buy another additional memory card. If you are the kind looking for service and don't mind paying a bit more, then John 3:16 is definitely the place for you, but if you don't mind poor service, so long can get a cheaper deal, den please look else-where.
Oh ya, i forgot to mention, John 3:16 lot is totally pro-canon. They support canon, so despite me telling myself they are not biased, but i cant help feeling that they will advice and tend to pyscho their customers to buying canon products.
One obvious part which i noticed was, John 3:16 is not a Nikon authorised dealer. And i wondered why.
Was DSLR-hunting, and went into the sony shop to enquire on the sony alpha series model. The salesman uncle was quite polite to explain about the alpha 200. and the different pricing for diff lens.
I think there's a sony promotion going on right now, and if you buy the alpha series, it comes with free original battery. But then wasn't pretty much interested in sony dslr anyway, so the deal doesn't attract me.
De-Luxe Cameras and Cathay Photos are two of the authorized Nikon dealers, looking for a nikon dslr, i went in to take a look.
They have two shops (i only realise later). The first shop i went in was tended by an old uncle, he was quite all right i guess, as in altitude wise.
He quoted me $890 (before GST) for the Nikon D60. After GSt its somewhere in the region of $970, and with no free SD card, the deal wasn't cheap. So i move on to the other shops.
I went to the back, and saw this shop, its also call De-Luxe, only then i realise they have two shops in the same place. So i went in and there was this younger man tending the shop.
He's a little eccentric, for every question i asked him, he only gave a very short reply, and wasn't very friendly and doesn't seem bother to talk to the customer.
He quoted me $880 (AFTER GST). If really the price of Nikon D60 is $880 after gst, then its really a great deal since for so many shops i asked around there's no one that quote so low.
However i was pretty much skeptical, and from the double-standards in quoting, i figure there's no such good deal in the world, must been a catch somewhere. Please try asking them for a quote to prove me wrong.
Alan Photo (or more commonly known as AP on the online forums), is one of the more reputable and bigger camera shops in the local scenes. With the others being Cathay Photo, MS Colour and so on.
Stepping into the shop at its store in Funan, it was crowded with customers shopping for their cameras, lens, DSLR and equipments.
There was a mix of ang moh and local customers. Inside the shop was also quite a number of staff attending to them. I went in for the first time but it was too crowded and couldn't talk to any of the staff. After half an hour i went back again, this time there were less people there.
The impressions i got from the staff there were haughty, proud, snobbish. The i-don't-give-a-damn attitude was obvious for all to see.
I got the apparent feeling that they preferred ang moh customers more, maybe they're easier to be "carrot-head chops". There was this ang moh beside haggling the price with another staff though.
The price quotes that i got from the bigger reputable shops were all of less the same, but for the same price and poor poor services, i rather go elsewhere to buy.
Billed as a restaurant serving Memphis style BBQ and country style all American food. Jerry's is no stranger in the neighborhood as they have been serving and satisfying appetites for at least 8 years. Appearing in media interviews, American carnivals and now boasting 3 outlets since its inception, Jerry's seems to be growing albeit at a slower pace. How does it taste? Lets find out.
Honestly, its difficult to spot the place in a bus as it is located on the far end of a group of shophouses. The only discernible feature is small sign which says "Jerry's BBQ and Grill". Thats not to say its a bad looking place of course. Its interior houses a small bar and seating capacity of about 15 people. There's nothing much to look at but its a homely and country feeling place which generally relaxes people.
Hoegarden ($7.95) - Now, this Hoegarden came in a bottle which basically means it doesn't qualify as a pint but for what its worth, this is definitely worth it. Why is that so? Thats because its ice cold. Not just a statement used by so many outlets as a gimmick, but Jerry's do serve ice cold beer in a frosted mug. And there's nothing as good on a hot afternoon then a freezing cold glass of Hoegarden. If only the price got me a pint of ice cold beer, now that would be heavenly.
Fried Country Mushrooms ($10.95) - Anyplace thats serves fried mushrooms deserve a try ever since my visit to MFM. Jerry's version is certainly more expensive and sad to say, not as tasty. The batter is very thin but lacks taste while the tartar sauce it is served with does not elicit the same elation MFM versions provide. The choice of button mushrooms also seem to diminish the juiciness the dish should have. Its not bad per se, just not as good as it should be. Good to have with beer though.
Hickory Smoked BBQ Beef And Pork Combo ($29.95) - We ordered this platter thinking it was going to be a huge portion because it actually costs $30. What did come was anything but a huge portion which is totally unlike the picture shown on the menu as well. All smoked items come with a choice of 2 side dishes and for this time, we had baked beans and a potato salad. Lets talk about the sides first, the beans were actually pretty big and moderately soft which is quite a surprise. Definitely not canned beans and tastes much better then we expected. The potato salad has the same result of being just right. Soft and firm at the same time for a good chewy experience. The meats came next and the beef turn out to be a little too hard for my tastes. Its very chewy and each bite accentuates the fact that it is hickory smoked because you can practically taste the smokey aftertaste in each bite. I didn't like it being so tough though. The pulled pork was good. Juicy slices with the same smokey taste and some really good BBQ sauce makes it a must have at the place. The catch is that having too much can be overwhelming so we were glad that it wasn't too much.
Chocolate Fondant ($6.95) - The real disappointment came in the form of the chocolate fondant. With a crust that tastes like kueh and a core that is not even melting, its pretty akin to eating badly kept chocolate. No doubt it was sweet had a slightly bitter dark chocolate taste, but this is still badly done in my opinion. Skip this if you do eat here.
1 drink, 1 dessert, 1 appetiser and 1 main actually brought the bill to $65.70 for 2 people! Imagine my shock. Value for money? Definitely not!
In all fairness, it wasn't all bad. The smoked items and sides were pretty good and interesting but the price is really too much for the quality and quantity that was served. I wouldn't mind returning for the smoked meat items if they could increase the portions but until then, i'm just going to settle for my ice cold beer if i visit.
Caught a late night show at the new Cathay cineplex at Downtown East. Arriving at the cinema level, I knew it's not going to be as good as the original The Cathay at orchard. Obviously this is one of the smallest Cathay around their cineplexes.
The cinema I went to was no. 3. It was relatively small but leg room was sufficient but not as wide as those at GV vivo. I've to disagree with genesis with the seats. After 100 mins of watching the show, my partner and I both suffered from neck ache and strain. We were seated on Row E, which's still considered among the back rows. The seats were uncomfortable and we were blocked by the couples in front of us. (Not alot thou, but still we can see their heads popping above the seats.)
Unlike GV cinemas, cathay still only provides "couple seats" with reclining arm rest at the 2 back rows. So if you're looking at getting some cuddling, especially for horror shows with your girlfriends, you might want to book the tickets in advance.
Another inconvenient thing about this Cathay is the toilet. It's located outside of the cinema and boy it was wet and dirty! Although the place is still pretty new, but the toilets were badly maintained. Guess the crowd overpowered the frequency of toilet maintenances.
Although the place is not up to our standard as compared to other Cathay and GV cinemas, we'll probably still go back for movies at nights. Reasons? Well, it's nearby our homes and the open space public parking outside is free after 10pm!
Pine Valley Restaurant at Laguna National Golf & country club. Lunch is courtesy on Yebber. We had our first Yebber Ambassador lunch (for the record i’m one of the six, the other five is Bobo, Claudia, Lucardia, Polarbear & Trumpat).
The interior of the restaurant is your typical Chinese restaurant settings. Most of the tables accommodate large crowd and with a few smaller tables around. Before we went into the restaurant, we were given a mini-tour of the golf club by Steward. The entrance to the restaurant is by the side of the main hall, quite different to miss out if you didn’t see the sign carefully.
The staff busy cutting away slices of the Peking duck skin. But before they served, of course is photo-taking time!!
As this was the first dish, the staff didn’t know there was this group of crazy Yebbers at this table. We demanded the dish to be displayed on the table for photo-taking before they can sliced the duck. Well they learned their lessons pretty fast, and from this onwards, every dish was placed on the table before they need to serve us.
Peking Duck The Peking duck was nice, i always love this dish, but the only complain i had for this dish was the duck skin too little, not “shiok” enough!
Well as they only used the duck skin, we couldn’t throw away the meat right? The duck meat was stir-fried and served. Not very sure about the method of cooking, but the taste was awesome!
Shark-fin Next up was shark-fin. Yes i know the animal-lovers out there are going to complain about this, but the shark fin was good nevertheless. I’m not really a big fan of shark-fin, usually i ate it because its there, and not that i liked it.
Wasabi Prawn Balls This was no doubt the star of the show. Tagged as Pine Valley signature dish, the wasabi prawn balls live up to its name indeed. The prawn balls were springy, and although the wasabi flavoring wasn’t strong enough, i liked it that way.
Fish The steamed fish was pretty decent, nothing to shout about.
Cereal Prawn This was the other prawn dish that we had. I wasn’t too sure whether it was cereal prawn, but the rendition seems pretty close to it. I still preferred the wasabi prawn roll to this.
Veggies Spinach with mushrooms. Another ordinary dish.
Fried Noodles The fried noodles is served with eggs and lar-cheong (chinese sausages). We agreed that the lar-cheong flavor was too strong for the noodles.
Desserts tofu with long-gan fruits assortments.
Overall, the lunch was pretty nice, with the wasabi prawn roll my particular favorite. Sorry, no total bill shown because its a treat and we didn’t know the prices. But with shark-fin, peking ducks, prawns, fish, or commonly known as da-yu-da-rou (big fish and big meat), the bill is likely to be quite heavy.
Thanks to Yebber for the treat, and my fellow Yebber-mates for their company on this enjoyable lunch. Like i always said, its the company that makes the food taste nice.
And as always, i’m looking to the next Yebber outing already!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
Hubs the restaurant is not open to the public as this is an exclusive club reserved only for the employees of Singapore Airlines. So how did i get in to have a meal and even do a review on this place? Well, i play badminton here almost every week and basically, my dad's a member so i get to visit the place for a meal when i want to. On to the important part then!
3 course set lunch for $9.90
Soup of the day (Mushroom Soup) - Being from the service industry, i can say that the service rendered by the floor manager at Hubs is impeccably good. He made a good attempt to engage me in conversation, find me a seat even though the restaurant was packed and made me feel comfortable even though i was at a totally foreign place with no one i knew of. Having lunch alone is weird actually. The soup was nothing noteworthy i should say, just a simple mushroom soup probably fresh out of a campbell's can. A little salty but still alright.
Sweet and Sour Dory with Mashed Potatoes - I like the mashed potatoes on this one. Very soft and still maintaining a little spring to it. The dory is normal. Basically, sweet and sour pork but replayed with fish. Nothing too fancy but not entirely bad either.
Chendol? Red Bean? - There was dessert as well and this was actually warm. I have no idea what this is but its got coconut milk, red beans and jelly in it as well. Its not too sweet and honestly, i was quite amused by the taste. To round off the entire meal was a cup of coffee. Again, nothing out of the ordinary but still sufficient.
The bill came up to $11.65 for one person for a 3 course meal.
Given the price, i'd say its a pretty good deal to have lunch here. 3 course meal that actually fills you up, tastes average and yet provide a nice environment. Its pretty much a steal. There are ala carte items which i'm pretty sure will be worth a try. Will attempt a revisit sometime in the future.
The crayfish hor fun was recommended to me by some former-colleagues. Located at Hong Lim food centre 2nd floor, the store is at the corner area, but food lovers still can find the area with ease.
Coming in sizes of $3.5, $4, and $5, I had the smallest version which offers a small crayfish and some small prawns. My pals had the bigger price tags one, which definitely comes with bigger crayfish and more prawns.
I found the hor fun to be quite all right, then again i'm not really a big fan of hor fun. The crayfish was quite good given the price, if you wanna the real taste i guess the $5 portion is the one to go for.
Japanese food. I love Japanese food but not just any run of the mill japanese food. I only like good Japanese food. It was this thought that i joined our dear friend, HFB's invitation to try out a place which he has raved about since his visit. 3 times in 2 months? Definitely a must try for foodies when a tongue as tough to please as his, wags praises about a restaurant.
First up, it took us a long time to locate the restaurant because it was supposed to be found in UE square. The truth of the matter is, it can be found along the sides of UE square. In fact, its directly opposite Mohammad Sultan road and next to another restaurant called Bonta. En jap also boasts 2 different settings for seating. There's the semi alfresco seats on the outside and the oily and stuffy seats on the inside. Good thing for us, HFB managed to secure the alfresco seats which was still a double edged sword at best. Why is that so? Because the weather is so darn warm, its impossible not to sweat regardless of where you sit in this restaurant. However, a good point is that the waiters noticed that and actually turned the fans in our direction. Thats a good start in terms of service.
2 x Salmon Belly Sashimi ($13 x 2) - Recommended by HFB as the must eat and must have dish of the day, we had 2 servings of this elusive salmon sashimi. Well, i'm no expert but i have to say its rather interesting. Unlike normal salmon sashimi, it has a layer of fats which gives it a certain new degree of texture. The salmon is fresh and sweet but not cold enough even with all that ice beneath it. Its nice but sinful due to the fats.
maiyu Salad ($15) - Yummy. Appetising and definitely a must try. The Imaiyu salad comes with generous salmon sashimi pieces scattered throughout the immaculately chosen greens. Its also topped with delicious sour dressing which serves its purpose well in whetting our appetites. Definitely worth the time and effort to enjoy.
Beef Carpaccio ($16) - The star of the day in my book. This beef carpaccio beats every other beef carpaccio i've eaten thus far. Tender and thinly sliced beef smothered in something akin to cheese and a sweet and sour soya sauce dressing that has to be tasted to be believed. You can taste the fragrant cheesy taste in every bite and the beef is literally juicy and melts in your mouth. Must try this!
Kushi Mori ($17) - HFB introduced that En Jap is actually famous for their skewered meat but unfortunately on this case, i have to say i disagree. I had minimal tastings of the above but from what i did have, basically the bacon and asparagus and the chicken, it tasted fairly normal to me. Nothing particularly interesting about the item at all.
Unagi Fried Rice ($13) - Now this is a close second when it was served. Unagi fried rice. The fragrance of the rice is unbearable to the point that smelling it invariably makes you want to savor the dish immediately, but it was the generous serving of unagi mingled with the rice that makes it so much more special. When had together, its simply sweet, fragrant and undeniably good, not to mention the portion was generous as well. A must have on any visit!
Satsuma Age ($7) - We were nearing the end when we ordered this and honestly, it looked so much more promising on the menu. When it was served, we were slightly taken aback that we had ordered fish cake. And worst of all, its 2 miserly pieces at a whooping $7. Now this takes the cake as a royal waste of money. How it tastes like? Just like any 50 cent fish cake you can find outside, and i'm not even trying to be nasty.
Salmon Belly ($13) Mekajiki ($12) Tako ($11.50) = $36.50 - Another sashimi platter which we ordered. Needless to say, the salmon belly is as fresh as ever and the same goes for the squid and the swordfish pieces. I didn't get to try much of the rest but i'd say that for the price, they really could have given more sashimi. The portions as above were miserly at best and a rip off at worst.
Wafu Steak ($17) - Recommended by HFB as one of the better items on the menu as well, this was our last order of the day. Juicy thick cubes of beef prepared simply can still turn out to be an art form. Fresh juices accompany each bite of this little gem and is a joy to have. The only gripe here is that its too oily and there's too little beef to go around. Other then that, i'd love to have it again.
A semi satisfying and interesting meal turned out to be $173.16 for 5 people. Effectively, i'm a happy man because of the company and some of the hits we've found.
Thank you HFB for introducing the place. Its pretty good. Not excellent, but pretty good still. The good items like the carpaccio, unagi fried rice and the Imaiyu Salad are items not to be missed while the rest are either too miserly portioned to recommend or simply don't measure up. I've heard comments that the standard is inconsistent as well but overall, i'm still happy with my visit here. Definitely return for the value items and the carpaccio.
1=SGD 0.0587
John 3: 16 has the BEST services if you are looking for your camera. The staff there are real friendly, and always more than willing to answer your any doubts or enquiries.
Just asked them for a hands-on experience on a dslr or camera, and there was no slight frown, or look that says "are you really going to buy?"
Leslie is the one who attended to me, and he's very knowledgable about the products that he's selling. Real friendly too. I had some hands-on testing with the dslr, and he patiently explained to me the difference between the diff models and lens.
But, good services come with a price after all, the quotes you get from John 3:16 will not come cheaper than the other shops. In fact i think the price tag is slightly higher by $20-$30?
Not much diff, but still enough to buy another additional memory card. If you are the kind looking for service and don't mind paying a bit more, then John 3:16 is definitely the place for you, but if you don't mind poor service, so long can get a cheaper deal, den please look else-where.
Oh ya, i forgot to mention, John 3:16 lot is totally pro-canon. They support canon, so despite me telling myself they are not biased, but i cant help feeling that they will advice and tend to pyscho their customers to buying canon products.
One obvious part which i noticed was, John 3:16 is not a Nikon authorised dealer. And i wondered why.
Rating given:
Was DSLR-hunting, and went into the sony shop to enquire on the sony alpha series model. The salesman uncle was quite polite to explain about the alpha 200. and the different pricing for diff lens.
I think there's a sony promotion going on right now, and if you buy the alpha series, it comes with free original battery. But then wasn't pretty much interested in sony dslr anyway, so the deal doesn't attract me.
Rating given:
De-Luxe Cameras and Cathay Photos are two of the authorized Nikon dealers, looking for a nikon dslr, i went in to take a look.
They have two shops (i only realise later). The first shop i went in was tended by an old uncle, he was quite all right i guess, as in altitude wise.
He quoted me $890 (before GST) for the Nikon D60. After GSt its somewhere in the region of $970, and with no free SD card, the deal wasn't cheap. So i move on to the other shops.
I went to the back, and saw this shop, its also call De-Luxe, only then i realise they have two shops in the same place. So i went in and there was this younger man tending the shop.
He's a little eccentric, for every question i asked him, he only gave a very short reply, and wasn't very friendly and doesn't seem bother to talk to the customer.
He quoted me $880 (AFTER GST). If really the price of Nikon D60 is $880 after gst, then its really a great deal since for so many shops i asked around there's no one that quote so low.
However i was pretty much skeptical, and from the double-standards in quoting, i figure there's no such good deal in the world, must been a catch somewhere. Please try asking them for a quote to prove me wrong.
Rating given:
Alan Photo (or more commonly known as AP on the online forums), is one of the more reputable and bigger camera shops in the local scenes. With the others being Cathay Photo, MS Colour and so on.
Stepping into the shop at its store in Funan, it was crowded with customers shopping for their cameras, lens, DSLR and equipments.
There was a mix of ang moh and local customers. Inside the shop was also quite a number of staff attending to them. I went in for the first time but it was too crowded and couldn't talk to any of the staff. After half an hour i went back again, this time there were less people there.
The impressions i got from the staff there were haughty, proud, snobbish. The i-don't-give-a-damn attitude was obvious for all to see.
I got the apparent feeling that they preferred ang moh customers more, maybe they're easier to be "carrot-head chops". There was this ang moh beside haggling the price with another staff though.
The price quotes that i got from the bigger reputable shops were all of less the same, but for the same price and poor poor services, i rather go elsewhere to buy.
Rating given:
Billed as a restaurant serving Memphis style BBQ and country style all American food. Jerry's is no stranger in the neighborhood as they have been serving and satisfying appetites for at least 8 years. Appearing in media interviews, American carnivals and now boasting 3 outlets since its inception, Jerry's seems to be growing albeit at a slower pace. How does it taste? Lets find out.
Honestly, its difficult to spot the place in a bus as it is located on the far end of a group of shophouses. The only discernible feature is small sign which says "Jerry's BBQ and Grill". Thats not to say its a bad looking place of course. Its interior houses a small bar and seating capacity of about 15 people. There's nothing much to look at but its a homely and country feeling place which generally relaxes people.
Hoegarden ($7.95) - Now, this Hoegarden came in a bottle which basically means it doesn't qualify as a pint but for what its worth, this is definitely worth it. Why is that so? Thats because its ice cold. Not just a statement used by so many outlets as a gimmick, but Jerry's do serve ice cold beer in a frosted mug. And there's nothing as good on a hot afternoon then a freezing cold glass of Hoegarden. If only the price got me a pint of ice cold beer, now that would be heavenly.
Fried Country Mushrooms ($10.95) - Anyplace thats serves fried mushrooms deserve a try ever since my visit to MFM. Jerry's version is certainly more expensive and sad to say, not as tasty. The batter is very thin but lacks taste while the tartar sauce it is served with does not elicit the same elation MFM versions provide. The choice of button mushrooms also seem to diminish the juiciness the dish should have. Its not bad per se, just not as good as it should be. Good to have with beer though.
Hickory Smoked BBQ Beef And Pork Combo ($29.95) - We ordered this platter thinking it was going to be a huge portion because it actually costs $30. What did come was anything but a huge portion which is totally unlike the picture shown on the menu as well. All smoked items come with a choice of 2 side dishes and for this time, we had baked beans and a potato salad. Lets talk about the sides first, the beans were actually pretty big and moderately soft which is quite a surprise. Definitely not canned beans and tastes much better then we expected. The potato salad has the same result of being just right. Soft and firm at the same time for a good chewy experience. The meats came next and the beef turn out to be a little too hard for my tastes. Its very chewy and each bite accentuates the fact that it is hickory smoked because you can practically taste the smokey aftertaste in each bite. I didn't like it being so tough though. The pulled pork was good. Juicy slices with the same smokey taste and some really good BBQ sauce makes it a must have at the place. The catch is that having too much can be overwhelming so we were glad that it wasn't too much.
Chocolate Fondant ($6.95) - The real disappointment came in the form of the chocolate fondant. With a crust that tastes like kueh and a core that is not even melting, its pretty akin to eating badly kept chocolate. No doubt it was sweet had a slightly bitter dark chocolate taste, but this is still badly done in my opinion. Skip this if you do eat here.
1 drink, 1 dessert, 1 appetiser and 1 main actually brought the bill to $65.70 for 2 people! Imagine my shock. Value for money? Definitely not!
In all fairness, it wasn't all bad. The smoked items and sides were pretty good and interesting but the price is really too much for the quality and quantity that was served. I wouldn't mind returning for the smoked meat items if they could increase the portions but until then, i'm just going to settle for my ice cold beer if i visit.
Rating given:
Caught a late night show at the new Cathay cineplex at Downtown East. Arriving at the cinema level, I knew it's not going to be as good as the original The Cathay at orchard. Obviously this is one of the smallest Cathay around their cineplexes.
The cinema I went to was no. 3. It was relatively small but leg room was sufficient but not as wide as those at GV vivo. I've to disagree with genesis with the seats. After 100 mins of watching the show, my partner and I both suffered from neck ache and strain. We were seated on Row E, which's still considered among the back rows. The seats were uncomfortable and we were blocked by the couples in front of us. (Not alot thou, but still we can see their heads popping above the seats.)
Unlike GV cinemas, cathay still only provides "couple seats" with reclining arm rest at the 2 back rows. So if you're looking at getting some cuddling, especially for horror shows with your girlfriends, you might want to book the tickets in advance.
Another inconvenient thing about this Cathay is the toilet. It's located outside of the cinema and boy it was wet and dirty! Although the place is still pretty new, but the toilets were badly maintained. Guess the crowd overpowered the frequency of toilet maintenances.
Although the place is not up to our standard as compared to other Cathay and GV cinemas, we'll probably still go back for movies at nights. Reasons? Well, it's nearby our homes and the open space public parking outside is free after 10pm!
Rating given:
Pine Valley Restaurant at Laguna National Golf & country club. Lunch is courtesy on Yebber. We had our first Yebber Ambassador lunch (for the record i’m one of the six, the other five is Bobo, Claudia, Lucardia, Polarbear & Trumpat).
The interior of the restaurant is your typical Chinese restaurant settings. Most of the tables accommodate large crowd and with a few smaller tables around. Before we went into the restaurant, we were given a mini-tour of the golf club by Steward. The entrance to the restaurant is by the side of the main hall, quite different to miss out if you didn’t see the sign carefully.
The staff busy cutting away slices of the Peking duck skin. But before they served, of course is photo-taking time!!
As this was the first dish, the staff didn’t know there was this group of crazy Yebbers at this table. We demanded the dish to be displayed on the table for photo-taking before they can sliced the duck. Well they learned their lessons pretty fast, and from this onwards, every dish was placed on the table before they need to serve us.
Peking Duck
The Peking duck was nice, i always love this dish, but the only complain i had for this dish was the duck skin too little, not “shiok” enough!
Well as they only used the duck skin, we couldn’t throw away the meat right? The duck meat was stir-fried and served. Not very sure about the method of cooking, but the taste was awesome!
Shark-fin
Next up was shark-fin. Yes i know the animal-lovers out there are going to complain about this, but the shark fin was good nevertheless. I’m not really a big fan of shark-fin, usually i ate it because its there, and not that i liked it.
Wasabi Prawn Balls
This was no doubt the star of the show. Tagged as Pine Valley signature dish, the wasabi prawn balls live up to its name indeed. The prawn balls were springy, and although the wasabi flavoring wasn’t strong enough, i liked it that way.
Fish
The steamed fish was pretty decent, nothing to shout about.
Cereal Prawn
This was the other prawn dish that we had. I wasn’t too sure whether it was cereal prawn, but the rendition seems pretty close to it. I still preferred the wasabi prawn roll to this.
Veggies
Spinach with mushrooms. Another ordinary dish.
Fried Noodles
The fried noodles is served with eggs and lar-cheong (chinese sausages). We agreed that the lar-cheong flavor was too strong for the noodles.
Desserts
tofu with long-gan fruits assortments.
Overall, the lunch was pretty nice, with the wasabi prawn roll my particular favorite. Sorry, no total bill shown because its a treat and we didn’t know the prices. But with shark-fin, peking ducks, prawns, fish, or commonly known as da-yu-da-rou (big fish and big meat), the bill is likely to be quite heavy.
Thanks to Yebber for the treat, and my fellow Yebber-mates for their company on this enjoyable lunch. Like i always said, its the company that makes the food taste nice.
And as always, i’m looking to the next Yebber outing already!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
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Hubs the restaurant is not open to the public as this is an exclusive club reserved only for the employees of Singapore Airlines. So how did i get in to have a meal and even do a review on this place? Well, i play badminton here almost every week and basically, my dad's a member so i get to visit the place for a meal when i want to. On to the important part then!
3 course set lunch for $9.90
Soup of the day (Mushroom Soup) - Being from the service industry, i can say that the service rendered by the floor manager at Hubs is impeccably good. He made a good attempt to engage me in conversation, find me a seat even though the restaurant was packed and made me feel comfortable even though i was at a totally foreign place with no one i knew of. Having lunch alone is weird actually.
The soup was nothing noteworthy i should say, just a simple mushroom soup probably fresh out of a campbell's can. A little salty but still alright.
Sweet and Sour Dory with Mashed Potatoes - I like the mashed potatoes on this one. Very soft and still maintaining a little spring to it. The dory is normal. Basically, sweet and sour pork but replayed with fish. Nothing too fancy but not entirely bad either.
Chendol? Red Bean? - There was dessert as well and this was actually warm. I have no idea what this is but its got coconut milk, red beans and jelly in it as well. Its not too sweet and honestly, i was quite amused by the taste.
To round off the entire meal was a cup of coffee. Again, nothing out of the ordinary but still sufficient.
The bill came up to $11.65 for one person for a 3 course meal.
Given the price, i'd say its a pretty good deal to have lunch here. 3 course meal that actually fills you up, tastes average and yet provide a nice environment. Its pretty much a steal. There are ala carte items which i'm pretty sure will be worth a try. Will attempt a revisit sometime in the future.
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The crayfish hor fun was recommended to me by some former-colleagues. Located at Hong Lim food centre 2nd floor, the store is at the corner area, but food lovers still can find the area with ease.
Coming in sizes of $3.5, $4, and $5, I had the smallest version which offers a small crayfish and some small prawns. My pals had the bigger price tags one, which definitely comes with bigger crayfish and more prawns.
I found the hor fun to be quite all right, then again i'm not really a big fan of hor fun. The crayfish was quite good given the price, if you wanna the real taste i guess the $5 portion is the one to go for.
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Japanese food. I love Japanese food but not just any run of the mill japanese food. I only like good Japanese food. It was this thought that i joined our dear friend, HFB's invitation to try out a place which he has raved about since his visit. 3 times in 2 months? Definitely a must try for foodies when a tongue as tough to please as his, wags praises about a restaurant.
First up, it took us a long time to locate the restaurant because it was supposed to be found in UE square. The truth of the matter is, it can be found along the sides of UE square. In fact, its directly opposite Mohammad Sultan road and next to another restaurant called Bonta. En jap also boasts 2 different settings for seating. There's the semi alfresco seats on the outside and the oily and stuffy seats on the inside. Good thing for us, HFB managed to secure the alfresco seats which was still a double edged sword at best. Why is that so? Because the weather is so darn warm, its impossible not to sweat regardless of where you sit in this restaurant. However, a good point is that the waiters noticed that and actually turned the fans in our direction. Thats a good start in terms of service.
2 x Salmon Belly Sashimi ($13 x 2) - Recommended by HFB as the must eat and must have dish of the day, we had 2 servings of this elusive salmon sashimi. Well, i'm no expert but i have to say its rather interesting. Unlike normal salmon sashimi, it has a layer of fats which gives it a certain new degree of texture. The salmon is fresh and sweet but not cold enough even with all that ice beneath it. Its nice but sinful due to the fats.
maiyu Salad ($15) - Yummy. Appetising and definitely a must try. The Imaiyu salad comes with generous salmon sashimi pieces scattered throughout the immaculately chosen greens. Its also topped with delicious sour dressing which serves its purpose well in whetting our appetites. Definitely worth the time and effort to enjoy.
Beef Carpaccio ($16) - The star of the day in my book. This beef carpaccio beats every other beef carpaccio i've eaten thus far. Tender and thinly sliced beef smothered in something akin to cheese and a sweet and sour soya sauce dressing that has to be tasted to be believed. You can taste the fragrant cheesy taste in every bite and the beef is literally juicy and melts in your mouth. Must try this!
Kushi Mori ($17) - HFB introduced that En Jap is actually famous for their skewered meat but unfortunately on this case, i have to say i disagree. I had minimal tastings of the above but from what i did have, basically the bacon and asparagus and the chicken, it tasted fairly normal to me. Nothing particularly interesting about the item at all.
Unagi Fried Rice ($13) - Now this is a close second when it was served. Unagi fried rice. The fragrance of the rice is unbearable to the point that smelling it invariably makes you want to savor the dish immediately, but it was the generous serving of unagi mingled with the rice that makes it so much more special. When had together, its simply sweet, fragrant and undeniably good, not to mention the portion was generous as well. A must have on any visit!
Satsuma Age ($7) - We were nearing the end when we ordered this and honestly, it looked so much more promising on the menu. When it was served, we were slightly taken aback that we had ordered fish cake. And worst of all, its 2 miserly pieces at a whooping $7. Now this takes the cake as a royal waste of money. How it tastes like? Just like any 50 cent fish cake you can find outside, and i'm not even trying to be nasty.
Salmon Belly ($13) Mekajiki ($12) Tako ($11.50) = $36.50 - Another sashimi platter which we ordered. Needless to say, the salmon belly is as fresh as ever and the same goes for the squid and the swordfish pieces. I didn't get to try much of the rest but i'd say that for the price, they really could have given more sashimi. The portions as above were miserly at best and a rip off at worst.
Wafu Steak ($17) - Recommended by HFB as one of the better items on the menu as well, this was our last order of the day. Juicy thick cubes of beef prepared simply can still turn out to be an art form. Fresh juices accompany each bite of this little gem and is a joy to have. The only gripe here is that its too oily and there's too little beef to go around. Other then that, i'd love to have it again.
A semi satisfying and interesting meal turned out to be $173.16 for 5 people. Effectively, i'm a happy man because of the company and some of the hits we've found.
Thank you HFB for introducing the place. Its pretty good. Not excellent, but pretty good still. The good items like the carpaccio, unagi fried rice and the Imaiyu Salad are items not to be missed while the rest are either too miserly portioned to recommend or simply don't measure up. I've heard comments that the standard is inconsistent as well but overall, i'm still happy with my visit here. Definitely return for the value items and the carpaccio.
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