Spring Ju Chun Yuan - a collaboration between Far East Hospitality and Ju Chun Yuan, which is known for its Fuzhou cuisine in China. Apparently the boss of Far East ate at the restaurant in China and was so impressed by the food that he decided to bring it to Singapore, lock, stock and barrel with no modifications done to suit the Singaporean palate. And Ju Chun Yuan's claim to fame? It's purportedly the birth place of the extremely pricey and decadent "Buddha Jumps Over The Wall" (佛跳墙).
Aptly located at Far East Square, Ju Chun Yuan is housed in a conserved Chinese courtyard complete with traditional frontage and a tiled roof from ancient Chinese times as well as bamboo shoots flanking the walkway that leads to the restaurant. The interior however, is modern Chinese with a touch of class and sophistication.
Three Delicacies "Min Appetizers" Combination - The first of the three delicacies - Cashew nuts lightly coated with sugar to give it a mild sweetness and sheen. Nice and crunchy and I happen to have a weakness for cashews so this suited me just fine. The second delicacy was essentially winter melon strips dipped into orange syrup. The strips had a nice crunch and tasted mildy sweet with a zesty tinge of orange. Great as a snack. Third was the cucumber slices that had a mild and sharp spicy taste to it. Not a big fan of cucumbers though, so I didn't venture past my first piece.
Pan Fried Cod Fish with House Recipes - According to the waitress, the house recipe contained about 10 different spices in it and I was sold, especially when you throw cod fish into the equation. But honestly, it didn't quite pan out as expected. Sure, the sauce was mildly sweet and very light but the batter coating on the fish slices was a little too thick and I couldn't quite make out the texture of the cod nor the sweetness of the flesh. Disappointing.
Braised Beancurd with Vegetables Served in Fuzhou Style - Beancurd is comfort food to me and I like it done in any way, well almost. I don't exactly know what fuzhou style tofu entails but this dish tasted like normal braised beancurd (红烧豆府) to me. Average but edible.
Braised "Lychee" Minced Pork with Water Chestnut - I opted for this dish because I was intrigued by lychee, water chestnut and minced pork together in 1 dish. It turned out to be a most unwise decision. For starters, the minced pork comprised mostly fatty pork and carried an overwhelming pork taste. The lump of chestnut in the center of the meat ball added a nice crunch to it while the drizzled sauce tasted sweet, very much like those you would find on sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉). There was no taste of lychee whatsoever.
Fried Rice with Minced Shrimp and Egg White Served in Fuzhou Style - As aesthetically pleasing as the fried rice looked with its homogeneously egg coated grains of rice, it fell short in taste. There was no discernible wok hei taste and the whole dish lacked any flavour to the extent of being bland. Still edible though as the rice was soft and moist with reasonable servings of chopped prawns and other condiments. One thing I realised was that the rice seemed more steamed then fried. The restaurant probably steamed it for quite a bit before doing a fast fry with minimal oil.
Cold White Fungus with Osmanthus Syrup - A light and sweet cold white fungus dessert with floral connotations from the osmanthus to end off the disappointing meal. As average as it gets.
Fuzhou Yam Pudding - I had been dying to try out Ju Chun Yuan's rendition of my favourite dessert, yam pudding, ever since it was billed as one of the best by local media sometime back. On hindsight, I should have known about the overhyping that plagues most local media these days. Though the yam pudding was smooth, it retained little moisture, making it a tad dry. It wasn't fragrant either, probably due to the minimal or lack of lard. What was different was the addition of sesame seeds, which really boils down to personal preference.
Dinner for 2 cost to the tune of $71, which isn't expensive for the quantity and variety of food. However, quality is suspect, which does make $71 seem a little over the top. To be fair, it may be because I am not used to authentic Fuzhou cuisine like the way they do it in China? Either that, or they really need to work on their food.
I decided on Visage over places like Striped and Honeypot for my virgin brazilian waxing session because they have been around much longer than the others.
It seems like a strange reason, but I'm the type who believes in well-established brands (:
They leave you alone to get washed up first and even though the towels are in serious need of fabric softeners, I can't complain about the level of hygiene. Most important factor when it comes to waxing!
I have to say I'm pretty satisfied by the service there. Firstly, the staff are friendly. My waxer, (is that how you address them?) Evonne, is really professional and puts me at ease before getting down to business, so it's less awkward.
She explains exactly what she's going to do and warns you about the pain factor. Also, she applies just enough pressure on the skin right after the ripping to lessen the pain. This is done in quite a short time too.
But trust me when I say waxing is painful. I thought my navel piercing was bad, but this is at least 1000 times worse! Well worth it, though. The smoothness is great!
It's a bit pricey but I like it that it's in a less popular part of Orchard so there's a BIT more privacy... I think.
Went to this place for lunch before going for a performance. Being a dessert lover, was attracted here by the replicas of the desserts outside the store. This place is noisy, being an enclosed area and people around talking loudly and a constant flow of customers.
I ordered Beef Stew and Ichigo Milk Parfait. While my friends ordered the Beef curry rice and some mushroom pasta which I forgot the name.
Soup base for the beef stew was tomato which was too sour for my liking. Though I will give a thumbs up for the beefy taste of the beef and its great texture. Other ingredients in the bowl are brocoli and carrots cooked just right to retain some crunchiness. I did not finish my bowl of pasta though, as the portion of pasta was too large with comparatively small portion of other ingredients.
Beef curry was too sweet and taste just like any other curried rice. Nothing special.
I did try some of the soup for the clear mushroom base pasta. Salty was the word and nothing else to it. Though the portion was upsized, it doesn't look like much cept for the taller bowl that made eating difficult.
Ichigo Milk Parfait saved the day with the Milky ice cream not too sweet, creamily smooth (yum yum~~) and blended well with the sweet ichigo lined on top. However, the pool of ichigo sauce at the bottom of the cup spoils a little for me as the concentration was too sweet to eat with the cornflakes. Without this, this dessert would be perfect~
Service of the restaurant was not so desired though. The male service crew kept appearing behind me (towered over me) though he could have stood at the side of our table and we could hear him well (vice versa). Got a shocked from him on several occasions plus the fact I was wearing a dress with low V cutting added to the annoyance.
Nevertheless, menu was quite extensive and we were spoiled for choices. Will definitely visit again to try its other kinds of pasta and of course the ichigo milk parfait ;D
It was quite some time ago that i had a go trying out Vientai and the results were less then spectacular.
The food was lacklustre due to a lack of identity.
I had the Vietnam hor fun which came with some fried crisps and beef balls in a dark transparent soup base. It wasn't totally bad since the soup itself was rather thick with taste reminiscent of prawn soup. But its the feeling after the noodles were finished that you feel rather disappointed. After all, paying $10 for a bowl of prawn soup hor fun isn't exactly a value for money event.
The other item we had was something akin to phad thai. Slightly spicy and rank with peanut taste. The prawns were pretty good as is the rice noodles itself. But its still the aftertaste of receiving the bill that really ticks it off.
In the end, if this was a normal coffee shop set up and price. I would have recommended it to no end. But as it stands now, i'd have to say no thanks.
With a poached egg sitting pretty on top of the pastas, the Carbonara ($13.50) looks great and tasty when it first arrived. But when I finally got to try it, the cream base pasta was a tad too strong; it was great for the initial few bites, but the cream was way too overwhelming.
Spaghetti tossed in a classic rich tomato meat sauce and aged Parmesan cheese, the classic Bolognaise ($14.50).
Bolognaise and poached eggs doria ($16), the traditional baked rice covered with cheese, and did you saw that? Poached eggs!
Croque Madame ($13.50) Homemade pain de mie (white toast bread) baked with ham, Swiss Gruyere cheese, sunny side up and side salad with house dressing.
“Sandwich for dinner?” You raised your eyebrow. “Why not?” Don’t look down on this Madame, she can sure hold her weight with the others; the thick slice of bread, the heavy cheese, the egg, ham, and salad - everything you need for a filling meal.
Something sweet, to end the meal, before we continue elsewhere
One of us had the Earl Grey ice cream ($8) from Canele before, and she was bend on having it, wish acceded, it’s her birthday that we’re celebrating after all. The very distinctive earl grey flavour, the seemingly-smaller-scoop-than-my-previous-visit, and the milk chocolate shards.
We almost fought over this, the madagascar ($8) was way too, common (read:plain), to worth the money. But I was proved wrong; open your eyes wide, that’s vanilla beans you’re looking at! Ooh, ah! That, alone, made me felt better about paying eight dollars for a scoop of ice cream. Fresh strawberries that were not very sweet, and almond crumble at the bottom to provide a crunchy texture to the smooth and soft ice cream.
I looked around the adjacent tables, throwing envious glances to the mont blanc, the tiramisu, the macarons, that the others were having. Unfortunately, the rest (on my table) did not have the same feeling as me, they never like cakes you see.
* * *
I wasn’t really impressed with the main course that Canele offered, but, to be fair, I think they are priced reasonably. And if I may, I’ll also like to think that the ice cream here are under-recognised; people always rave about the cakes available, but I don’t think much people know that they serve good ice cream too.
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!
I usually go there for facial threading - this place is really good. They are very quick and professional when it comes to threading.
The end result? My eyebrows are nicely shaped and complement my eye shape. Best of all, they give you a disposable wet towel straight from the fridge after threading to reduce the redness and relieve the pain.
Recently, I decided to try their eyelash perming service. I've got to admit I was sorely disappointed by it - the girl doesn't seem to know what to do to hold my eyelashes in place before applying the perm lotion!
I have very Asian eyes - small, slitty, mono-lidded with poker-straight lashes and she had to try to re-clamp it with an oversized eyelash-curler-looking device. She even tried forcing and I almost got a bruised eye!
After the entire ordeal, my eyelashes were only permed slightly at the very tip. Quite a waste of my time (45 mins!) and money I must say.
I only recommend you try their threading - its good, fast and cheap. The rest? Well you're definitely better off heading to a good beauty salon for that.
This restaurant is attached to the Party World KTV at Shenton way. Though been to the KTV for many times, this is the first time We went to this restaurant for dinner. Went with a group of girlfriends for Hen's Party.
There were very few customers there. Inclusive of us, there were only 3 tables of customers.
If you want cheap food in big portions, this is the right place to come to. Food types are a mixture of Western food (e.g steak, fish, chicken cutlet), Chinese (e.g Stir Fried Vege, Tzu2 Cha4) and Malay (e.g Fish head curry). Purchase the set meal to get also, salad, soup, drink and dessert. Soup and dessert are free flow. The set I ordered was steak and it only cost me approx $14 .
Wanted the steak to be well done and it came as well done, with the meat not too tough and enough of the "beefy" taste that I would like my steak to have. Salad was fresh though it seems a bit strange to have Watercress soup with steak. Taste of the soup I've heard, was great. So great that my friend had 3 helpings of it.
The place look a bit sleazy since it was attached with the KTV but nevertheless, a great place to have a quiet dinner with friends (unless you're down on your luck and met people having a Hen's Party there) at budget cost.
Twenty four of us descended to Gunther’s in a foodgraphy-frenzy. Hells hath no fury like a floggers' hunger. The long discussion of food, followed by the occasional exclaims of ‘ooh‘, and ‘aah‘. Welcome to the world of the food lovers.
It was smooth, and silky, strands of it sticking out; yet in the dim light setting against the white background, it looked angelic, yes, this must be it: Cold Angel-hair pasta. I enjoyed every slurp, and I’ll gladly have it again.
This, is the In-thing for this season, like the latest fashion trends for each year; rejoiced people, it is this time of the year for the sacred white asaparagus, not green, not red, but white. And then, I spotted the yellowish sauce over the the Poached white asparagus with Bouchot mussels.
I stopped, and slowly took a bit of it with my spoon; “it couldn’t be, Oh yes it is!” I dipped everything on the plate with the hollandaise sauce, and made sure not a single drop of it was left.
“Have you had white asparagus before?”
“No, I don’t see what's the craze over them..”
A surprise always had the biggest impact when you least expected it, and it came pleasantly of course.
There was pata negra, and salted baked seabass for the folks who couldn’t have beef; and damn, the roasted black pig from Spain sounded so good, I should have claimed to have allergies against cows!
My piece was very well balanced in the portions of the fats and meat (read: too much fats). I took a bite of the meat, and chewed down some fats. And it’s not that the Grilled Cote de Boeuf wasn’t good. In fact it was more than excellent; the slightly tinge of pink fully captured my imagination.
My eyes tweaked to see what was coming. It was supposed to be desserts next, but they were serving us, pizzas. You know, the elongated slice of thin-crust bread with toppings all over. Ah no, I was clearly mistaken, this was no pizza, it’s the Fine apple tart a la dragees, with rum & raisin ice-cream.
Once we had our desserts, once we paid off the bill, it would be bye-bye until a year later. Or at least that’s what the script wrote. A year, is far too long a time for us to meet up. We should meet up regularly my friends, and hunt down all the good food around our island.
Note: The 4 course Carte Blanche set menu was $45 per person and done especially for our Food Bloggers lunch, it's not available to public.
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!
Went to this restaurant for the first time due to a friend's craving for its “梦幻黑猪”... we went in quite late as it was after a performance at about 930pm and the last order was at 10pm. The restaurant was still quite crowded then. We were urshered to an almost empty area.
Space usage was quite poor as the place was quite cramped. 5 mins from sitting down, we changed places as the aircon was leaking water. No black face from the waitor though no smiles too.
We were not rushed into making up our mind even though its only like 20 mins left to closing the till. I ordered this Hakodate Shio Ramen and was extremely satisfied by it. The shio soup base was unique, not too heavy nor too light. Blended well with the saltish meat. However, the meat will be too salty to be tasted alone though those who love heavier taste would love it.
Also ordered the Edamame which came hot and covered with shio. Tasted wonderful though the salt proved to be too much when we came to the bottom of the bowl.
My husband ordered Beef Curry Rice. Contrary to other places' curry, we could taste beef in the curry itself. Meaning they either used beef stock as one of the ingredients or cooked the beef in the curry. I would like to order that the next time I'm there.
Overall, we were quite satisfied with our meal there. But it could be because we were all famished from having no dinner and a tiring performance and rehearsals. Should definitely visit there again as there are more to be tried out.
Went in search of Hokkien food one weekend evening and ended up at Quan Xian Yuan, which came highly recommended to me for its quality food and reasonable prices. Apparently it is so popular that when we tried making reservations for 630pm in the afternoon itself, it was full and the only option was to rush down at 530pm and finish our meal by 630pm. And so we did.
The place isn't located at somewhere you would term as accessible - an inconspicuous restaurant occupying 2 rather dilapidated units along Jalan Besar Road. The interior is dated as well, looking more like a scene out from a sixties movie set then a modern Chinese restaurant.
Prawn Roll - The prawn roll aka ha zhor had too much batter for my liking. It looked a little like goreng pisang (deep fried banana fritters) to me and that's definitely not a good thing. I couldn't quite make out the subtle presence of the prawns, if any and honestly, it was filled with more flour then anything.
Broccoli with Scallops - You can't really go wrong with broccoli and scallops and thankfully this one wasn't the exception. Apart from the scallops being a little too soft, I thought that this dish was still quite decent, but nothing to shout about of course.
Kong Ba Pao (扣肉包) - The answer to all weight loss programs, diets and they key to having a short life - that's what popping a serving of kong ba in your mouth does for you. I would have gladly thrown any health concerns out of the window if the kong ba had been good. Sadly, that wasn't the case. The meat was overly fatty to the point of being gross and the gravy was seriously bland. A little sugar might have made it more palatable.
Hokkien Mee - If the taste of alkaline was my thing, then this dish would have been a delicacy. Otherwise, it was terrible. Bland save for the strong hint of alkaline from the noodles, coupled with not so fresh prawns and a watery gravy that was more for the colour then taste, the noodles were limp and soggy. Not exactly my idea of a signature dish.
To be fair to the restaurant, the food isn't expensive (save for the scallops dish). As a matter of fact, it's considered quite cheap, standing at $48 for the 3 of us. But something really needs to be done about the quality of food. We tried the signature dishes and they turned out so bad. I really can't imagine how the "normal" dishes will turn out. Makes me wonder about the crowds.
1=SGD 0.0587
Spring Ju Chun Yuan - a collaboration between Far East Hospitality and Ju Chun Yuan, which is known for its Fuzhou cuisine in China. Apparently the boss of Far East ate at the restaurant in China and was so impressed by the food that he decided to bring it to Singapore, lock, stock and barrel with no modifications done to suit the Singaporean palate. And Ju Chun Yuan's claim to fame? It's purportedly the birth place of the extremely pricey and decadent "Buddha Jumps Over The Wall" (佛跳墙).
Aptly located at Far East Square, Ju Chun Yuan is housed in a conserved Chinese courtyard complete with traditional frontage and a tiled roof from ancient Chinese times as well as bamboo shoots flanking the walkway that leads to the restaurant. The interior however, is modern Chinese with a touch of class and sophistication.
Three Delicacies "Min Appetizers" Combination - The first of the three delicacies - Cashew nuts lightly coated with sugar to give it a mild sweetness and sheen. Nice and crunchy and I happen to have a weakness for cashews so this suited me just fine. The second delicacy was essentially winter melon strips dipped into orange syrup. The strips had a nice crunch and tasted mildy sweet with a zesty tinge of orange. Great as a snack. Third was the cucumber slices that had a mild and sharp spicy taste to it. Not a big fan of cucumbers though, so I didn't venture past my first piece.
Pan Fried Cod Fish with House Recipes - According to the waitress, the house recipe contained about 10 different spices in it and I was sold, especially when you throw cod fish into the equation. But honestly, it didn't quite pan out as expected. Sure, the sauce was mildly sweet and very light but the batter coating on the fish slices was a little too thick and I couldn't quite make out the texture of the cod nor the sweetness of the flesh. Disappointing.
Braised Beancurd with Vegetables Served in Fuzhou Style - Beancurd is comfort food to me and I like it done in any way, well almost. I don't exactly know what fuzhou style tofu entails but this dish tasted like normal braised beancurd (红烧豆府) to me. Average but edible.
Braised "Lychee" Minced Pork with Water Chestnut - I opted for this dish because I was intrigued by lychee, water chestnut and minced pork together in 1 dish. It turned out to be a most unwise decision. For starters, the minced pork comprised mostly fatty pork and carried an overwhelming pork taste. The lump of chestnut in the center of the meat ball added a nice crunch to it while the drizzled sauce tasted sweet, very much like those you would find on sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉). There was no taste of lychee whatsoever.
Fried Rice with Minced Shrimp and Egg White Served in Fuzhou Style - As aesthetically pleasing as the fried rice looked with its homogeneously egg coated grains of rice, it fell short in taste. There was no discernible wok hei taste and the whole dish lacked any flavour to the extent of being bland. Still edible though as the rice was soft and moist with reasonable servings of chopped prawns and other condiments. One thing I realised was that the rice seemed more steamed then fried. The restaurant probably steamed it for quite a bit before doing a fast fry with minimal oil.
Cold White Fungus with Osmanthus Syrup - A light and sweet cold white fungus dessert with floral connotations from the osmanthus to end off the disappointing meal. As average as it gets.
Fuzhou Yam Pudding - I had been dying to try out Ju Chun Yuan's rendition of my favourite dessert, yam pudding, ever since it was billed as one of the best by local media sometime back. On hindsight, I should have known about the overhyping that plagues most local media these days. Though the yam pudding was smooth, it retained little moisture, making it a tad dry. It wasn't fragrant either, probably due to the minimal or lack of lard. What was different was the addition of sesame seeds, which really boils down to personal preference.
Dinner for 2 cost to the tune of $71, which isn't expensive for the quantity and variety of food. However, quality is suspect, which does make $71 seem a little over the top. To be fair, it may be because I am not used to authentic Fuzhou cuisine like the way they do it in China? Either that, or they really need to work on their food.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
I decided on Visage over places like Striped and Honeypot for my virgin brazilian waxing session because they have been around much longer than the others.
It seems like a strange reason, but I'm the type who believes in well-established brands (:
They leave you alone to get washed up first and even though the towels are in serious need of fabric softeners, I can't complain about the level of hygiene. Most important factor when it comes to waxing!
I have to say I'm pretty satisfied by the service there. Firstly, the staff are friendly. My waxer, (is that how you address them?) Evonne, is really professional and puts me at ease before getting down to business, so it's less awkward.
She explains exactly what she's going to do and warns you about the pain factor. Also, she applies just enough pressure on the skin right after the ripping to lessen the pain. This is done in quite a short time too.
But trust me when I say waxing is painful. I thought my navel piercing was bad, but this is at least 1000 times worse! Well worth it, though. The smoothness is great!
It's a bit pricey but I like it that it's in a less popular part of Orchard so there's a BIT more privacy... I think.
Would definitely go back again!
Rating given:
Went to this place for lunch before going for a performance. Being a dessert lover, was attracted here by the replicas of the desserts outside the store. This place is noisy, being an enclosed area and people around talking loudly and a constant flow of customers.
I ordered Beef Stew and Ichigo Milk Parfait. While my friends ordered the Beef curry rice and some mushroom pasta which I forgot the name.
Soup base for the beef stew was tomato which was too sour for my liking. Though I will give a thumbs up for the beefy taste of the beef and its great texture. Other ingredients in the bowl are brocoli and carrots cooked just right to retain some crunchiness. I did not finish my bowl of pasta though, as the portion of pasta was too large with comparatively small portion of other ingredients.
Beef curry was too sweet and taste just like any other curried rice. Nothing special.
I did try some of the soup for the clear mushroom base pasta. Salty was the word and nothing else to it. Though the portion was upsized, it doesn't look like much cept for the taller bowl that made eating difficult.
Ichigo Milk Parfait saved the day with the Milky ice cream not too sweet, creamily smooth (yum yum~~) and blended well with the sweet ichigo lined on top. However, the pool of ichigo sauce at the bottom of the cup spoils a little for me as the concentration was too sweet to eat with the cornflakes. Without this, this dessert would be perfect~
Service of the restaurant was not so desired though. The male service crew kept appearing behind me (towered over me) though he could have stood at the side of our table and we could hear him well (vice versa). Got a shocked from him on several occasions plus the fact I was wearing a dress with low V cutting added to the annoyance.
Nevertheless, menu was quite extensive and we were spoiled for choices. Will definitely visit again to try its other kinds of pasta and of course the ichigo milk parfait ;D
Rating given:
It was quite some time ago that i had a go trying out Vientai and the results were less then spectacular.
The food was lacklustre due to a lack of identity.
I had the Vietnam hor fun which came with some fried crisps and beef balls in a dark transparent soup base. It wasn't totally bad since the soup itself was rather thick with taste reminiscent of prawn soup. But its the feeling after the noodles were finished that you feel rather disappointed. After all, paying $10 for a bowl of prawn soup hor fun isn't exactly a value for money event.
The other item we had was something akin to phad thai. Slightly spicy and rank with peanut taste. The prawns were pretty good as is the rice noodles itself. But its still the aftertaste of receiving the bill that really ticks it off.
In the end, if this was a normal coffee shop set up and price. I would have recommended it to no end. But as it stands now, i'd have to say no thanks.
Rating given:
With a poached egg sitting pretty on top of the pastas, the Carbonara ($13.50) looks great and tasty when it first arrived. But when I finally got to try it, the cream base pasta was a tad too strong; it was great for the initial few bites, but the cream was way too overwhelming.
Spaghetti tossed in a classic rich tomato meat sauce and aged Parmesan cheese, the classic Bolognaise ($14.50).
Bolognaise and poached eggs doria ($16), the traditional baked rice covered with cheese, and did you saw that? Poached eggs!
Croque Madame ($13.50) Homemade pain de mie (white toast bread) baked with ham, Swiss Gruyere cheese, sunny side up and side salad with house dressing.
“Sandwich for dinner?” You raised your eyebrow. “Why not?” Don’t look down on this Madame, she can sure hold her weight with the others; the thick slice of bread, the heavy cheese, the egg, ham, and salad - everything you need for a filling meal.
Something sweet, to end the meal, before we continue elsewhere
One of us had the Earl Grey ice cream ($8) from Canele before, and she was bend on having it, wish acceded, it’s her birthday that we’re celebrating after all. The very distinctive earl grey flavour, the seemingly-smaller-scoop-than-my-previous-visit, and the milk chocolate shards.
We almost fought over this, the madagascar ($8) was way too, common (read:plain), to worth the money. But I was proved wrong; open your eyes wide, that’s vanilla beans you’re looking at! Ooh, ah! That, alone, made me felt better about paying eight dollars for a scoop of ice cream. Fresh strawberries that were not very sweet, and almond crumble at the bottom to provide a crunchy texture to the smooth and soft ice cream.
I looked around the adjacent tables, throwing envious glances to the mont blanc, the tiramisu, the macarons, that the others were having. Unfortunately, the rest (on my table) did not have the same feeling as me, they never like cakes you see.
* * *
I wasn’t really impressed with the main course that Canele offered, but, to be fair, I think they are priced reasonably. And if I may, I’ll also like to think that the ice cream here are under-recognised; people always rave about the cakes available, but I don’t think much people know that they serve good ice cream too.
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:
I usually go there for facial threading - this place is really good. They are very quick and professional when it comes to threading.
The end result? My eyebrows are nicely shaped and complement my eye shape. Best of all, they give you a disposable wet towel straight from the fridge after threading to reduce the redness and relieve the pain.
Recently, I decided to try their eyelash perming service. I've got to admit I was sorely disappointed by it - the girl doesn't seem to know what to do to hold my eyelashes in place before applying the perm lotion!
I have very Asian eyes - small, slitty, mono-lidded with poker-straight lashes and she had to try to re-clamp it with an oversized eyelash-curler-looking device. She even tried forcing and I almost got a bruised eye!
After the entire ordeal, my eyelashes were only permed slightly at the very tip. Quite a waste of my time (45 mins!) and money I must say.
I only recommend you try their threading - its good, fast and cheap. The rest? Well you're definitely better off heading to a good beauty salon for that.
Rating given:
This restaurant is attached to the Party World KTV at Shenton way. Though been to the KTV for many times, this is the first time We went to this restaurant for dinner. Went with a group of girlfriends for Hen's Party.
There were very few customers there. Inclusive of us, there were only 3 tables of customers.
If you want cheap food in big portions, this is the right place to come to. Food types are a mixture of Western food (e.g steak, fish, chicken cutlet), Chinese (e.g Stir Fried Vege, Tzu2 Cha4) and Malay (e.g Fish head curry). Purchase the set meal to get also, salad, soup, drink and dessert. Soup and dessert are free flow. The set I ordered was steak and it only cost me approx $14 .
Wanted the steak to be well done and it came as well done, with the meat not too tough and enough of the "beefy" taste that I would like my steak to have. Salad was fresh though it seems a bit strange to have Watercress soup with steak. Taste of the soup I've heard, was great. So great that my friend had 3 helpings of it.
The place look a bit sleazy since it was attached with the KTV but nevertheless, a great place to have a quiet dinner with friends (unless you're down on your luck and met people having a Hen's Party there) at budget cost.
Rating given:
Twenty four of us descended to Gunther’s in a foodgraphy-frenzy. Hells hath no fury like a floggers' hunger. The long discussion of food, followed by the occasional exclaims of ‘ooh‘, and ‘aah‘. Welcome to the world of the food lovers.
It was smooth, and silky, strands of it sticking out; yet in the dim light setting against the white background, it looked angelic, yes, this must be it: Cold Angel-hair pasta. I enjoyed every slurp, and I’ll gladly have it again.
This, is the In-thing for this season, like the latest fashion trends for each year; rejoiced people, it is this time of the year for the sacred white asaparagus, not green, not red, but white. And then, I spotted the yellowish sauce over the the Poached white asparagus with Bouchot mussels.
I stopped, and slowly took a bit of it with my spoon; “it couldn’t be, Oh yes it is!” I dipped everything on the plate with the hollandaise sauce, and made sure not a single drop of it was left.
“Have you had white asparagus before?”
“No, I don’t see what's the craze over them..”
A surprise always had the biggest impact when you least expected it, and it came pleasantly of course.
There was pata negra, and salted baked seabass for the folks who couldn’t have beef; and damn, the roasted black pig from Spain sounded so good, I should have claimed to have allergies against cows!
My piece was very well balanced in the portions of the fats and meat (read: too much fats). I took a bite of the meat, and chewed down some fats. And it’s not that the Grilled Cote de Boeuf wasn’t good. In fact it was more than excellent; the slightly tinge of pink fully captured my imagination.
My eyes tweaked to see what was coming. It was supposed to be desserts next, but they were serving us, pizzas. You know, the elongated slice of thin-crust bread with toppings all over. Ah no, I was clearly mistaken, this was no pizza, it’s the Fine apple tart a la dragees, with rum & raisin ice-cream.
Once we had our desserts, once we paid off the bill, it would be bye-bye until a year later. Or at least that’s what the script wrote. A year, is far too long a time for us to meet up. We should meet up regularly my friends, and hunt down all the good food around our island.
Note: The 4 course Carte Blanche set menu was $45 per person and done especially for our Food Bloggers lunch, it's not available to public.
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:
Went to this restaurant for the first time due to a friend's craving for its “梦幻黑猪”... we went in quite late as it was after a performance at about 930pm and the last order was at 10pm. The restaurant was still quite crowded then. We were urshered to an almost empty area.
Space usage was quite poor as the place was quite cramped. 5 mins from sitting down, we changed places as the aircon was leaking water. No black face from the waitor though no smiles too.
We were not rushed into making up our mind even though its only like 20 mins left to closing the till. I ordered this Hakodate Shio Ramen and was extremely satisfied by it. The shio soup base was unique, not too heavy nor too light. Blended well with the saltish meat. However, the meat will be too salty to be tasted alone though those who love heavier taste would love it.
Also ordered the Edamame which came hot and covered with shio. Tasted wonderful though the salt proved to be too much when we came to the bottom of the bowl.
My husband ordered Beef Curry Rice. Contrary to other places' curry, we could taste beef in the curry itself. Meaning they either used beef stock as one of the ingredients or cooked the beef in the curry. I would like to order that the next time I'm there.
Overall, we were quite satisfied with our meal there. But it could be because we were all famished from having no dinner and a tiring performance and rehearsals. Should definitely visit there again as there are more to be tried out.
Rating given:
Went in search of Hokkien food one weekend evening and ended up at Quan Xian Yuan, which came highly recommended to me for its quality food and reasonable prices. Apparently it is so popular that when we tried making reservations for 630pm in the afternoon itself, it was full and the only option was to rush down at 530pm and finish our meal by 630pm. And so we did.
The place isn't located at somewhere you would term as accessible - an inconspicuous restaurant occupying 2 rather dilapidated units along Jalan Besar Road. The interior is dated as well, looking more like a scene out from a sixties movie set then a modern Chinese restaurant.
Prawn Roll - The prawn roll aka ha zhor had too much batter for my liking. It looked a little like goreng pisang (deep fried banana fritters) to me and that's definitely not a good thing. I couldn't quite make out the subtle presence of the prawns, if any and honestly, it was filled with more flour then anything.
Broccoli with Scallops - You can't really go wrong with broccoli and scallops and thankfully this one wasn't the exception. Apart from the scallops being a little too soft, I thought that this dish was still quite decent, but nothing to shout about of course.
Kong Ba Pao (扣肉包) - The answer to all weight loss programs, diets and they key to having a short life - that's what popping a serving of kong ba in your mouth does for you. I would have gladly thrown any health concerns out of the window if the kong ba had been good. Sadly, that wasn't the case. The meat was overly fatty to the point of being gross and the gravy was seriously bland. A little sugar might have made it more palatable.
Hokkien Mee - If the taste of alkaline was my thing, then this dish would have been a delicacy. Otherwise, it was terrible. Bland save for the strong hint of alkaline from the noodles, coupled with not so fresh prawns and a watery gravy that was more for the colour then taste, the noodles were limp and soggy. Not exactly my idea of a signature dish.
To be fair to the restaurant, the food isn't expensive (save for the scallops dish). As a matter of fact, it's considered quite cheap, standing at $48 for the 3 of us. But something really needs to be done about the quality of food. We tried the signature dishes and they turned out so bad. I really can't imagine how the "normal" dishes will turn out. Makes me wonder about the crowds.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given: