If you get into an accident, i hope they don't send you there.
I feel VERY disappointed with TTSH.
My boyfriend got hit by a car in October at Novena, so naturally, the ambulance brought him there. I received a call and i rushed down to the hospital, but when i got there, i realized i had no idea where the A&E was since i hadn't had any chances to go there before.
I went to the reception/information counter, but the lady was on the phone! I even waved at her frantically to get her attention to ask for directions to the A&E, but i was COMPLETELY IGNORED!! It was ridiculous. Another passing doctor told me how to get to the A&E at basement 1.
When i got to basement 1, i couldn't immediately locate the A&E, so i asked another random hospital stuff for directions. Guess what? The guy said, "Erm.... I don't know... I don't think we have that...."
A hospital that doesn't have an A&E. RIGHT. I was utterly furious at the hospital by then. Why are the staff so poorly educated on the hospital facilities?? I really expected that all the staff at least know where the A&E would be! The receptionist was horribly rude too! Not doing her job at all.
We waited for about 5hours until they saw my boyfriend. The nurse who was supposed to take down the condition of my boyfriend did a very bad job too. While asking questions, she kept fiddling with the printer and trying to change the paper, therefore wasn't listening to anything we said. She ended up asking questions more than once, and i got very impatient and told her off. She even DARED to glare at me! Obviously i glared back because SHE WAS IN THE WRONG.
My boyfriend was warded from 11.30pm to 12noon the next day, and rightfully, he should be able to claim the hospital stay from Medisave, but TTSH sent him the bill and stated that he was admitted at 10am and discharged at 12noon, therefore not qualifying for Medisave coverage as it was under 8hours, and they didn't hesitate to charge him for breakfast and lunch too. That was SO DESPICABLE of TTSH! I can't believe they would go to this extent to earn that little bit of money!!
I am THOROUGHLY UNIMPRESSED at TTSH and i suggest you all transfer your check ups or follow ups to another hospital.
Television often play an important part in our life, and definitely have great influence on many people. But the debates on whether it is a good thing or not continues to rage on. Many certainly thinks that Television’s one of the greatest inventions, while some in the other camp believe that it is a bad influence on children, especially so when they get addicted to watching TV programmes. Did you ever hear a parent telling her kid to watch more TV shows?
Recently, we have a television show on Channel 8, “Buffet Buffet” which has garnered much interest among the young and the old. And its hard not to see why, food-related programmes have always been a hit with the audience, not to mention this one introduce all kinds of buffets in Singapore. I saw Penang place restaurant on one of the episodes, and since the price is reasonably cheap and near to my place, why not?
If you just watch the crowd in the place without knowing where is it, you’ll never guess its located within the International Business park (IBP) at Jurong. Perhaps that’s exactly the reason why the owner set up shop there, since there’s so many hungry white collar workers in all the offices around. The atrium building is just beside Creative, so its pretty easy to find, and there’s shutter bus from Jurong East mrt station.
Penang place oozes a sense of tranquil with its simple furnitures, and the water settings just beside the restaurant. It was fully packed when we visited on a weekday lunch, Singaporeans do love their buffets!
The selections actually is pretty decent given its reasonable pricing of $19.80 for weekday buffet lunch.
The Penang laksa actually comes in the form of Assam laksa, sour and spicy in taste, which differed greatly from our local version. The katong-laksa purist might not take quite well to this, which is more like a mix between tom-yam soup and laksa, with the sourish taste dominating the taste bud. But that’s the authentic Penang laksa for you.
I was rather impressed with the seafood soup, well for one it tasted like shark fin soup (even though there’s no shark fin of course), and secondly, i felt that it was similar to my mom’s home-made soup, and that’s a compliment!
What do you think of when I mentioned Penang? The name synonymous with the city is definitely Char Koay Teow. And if you didn’t notice, even the spelling differs slightly from ours. Well, there’s also Assam laksa, wonton mee and hokkien mee too, but Char Koay Teow certainly is the one which leave most people with memorable memories of Penang. Their rendition comes slightly spicy, not too oily and with a generous serving of ingredients. And the best part? Penang Place actually replenished their char koay teow in small portions very often, since it’s like the most popular dish there. While Char koay teow has a reputation for being unhealthy, and even though i had eaten it twice that week, i couldn’t help myself to second helpings. My sinful food.
The Nasi Lemak is served simple and nice with the fragnant rice, crunchy ikan billies, crispy peanut with cooling cucumbers. There are some other common dishes like curry chicken, fried food, but one dish which i found it good was the Batu Uban Ayam Panggang, which was seasoned grilled chicken with peanut sauce. A pity it was gone when i wanted to take a shot of it.
Glutinous rice is often use in the Asian context, and its no surprise to see the Kueh Salat here. Basically steamed glutinous rice topped with a layer of pandan flavoured custard. Well, i didn’t know if it’s just me or what, but i didn’t really enjoy glutinous rice done this way. The taste was rather weird for my liking, and i guessed i still prefer the Chinese dim sum glutinous rice in lotus leaf.
One of my personal favourites, the Kueh Dardan was actually pandan flavoured pancakes filled with sweetened coconut shavings. The pancakes were very soft and nice, with the coconut shavings coming not too heavy. Easily finished a few of them even thought we were full from the buffet.
Another dessert, or rather kueh that i enjoyed was the Kueh Talam. Essentially a pandan flavoured cake topped with a savoury coconut milk layer, the pandan cake was very fragnant indeed.
Total bill was $69.90 for 3 person at their weekday lunch buffet. I must say, for $23 per head after taxes and service charges, its rather reasonable for the amount of food served. Note, i didn’t say its excellent, but for the price, its rather acceptable since i find it hard to name another place serving buffet in the 20 dollar range which is good. I guess the money will be worth it if you eat more of their Char Koay teow which will cost $8.90 if you order a plate a la carte.
The location might be a tad difficult, since its within the International Business Park, people wouldn’t travel all the way there just for their buffet, but i did. Well for the rest of you lucky souls who are working in the area, i’ll say this is one place to check out for lunch when you are in the mood for a longer lunch.
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 couldn’t forget you, no, not after what happen last time.
The two sided face of you. You were rich and good to me before.
But you showed me your cold side now.
I know we couldn’t be together.
But i can’t stop thinking of you.
Until we meet again, my duck.
The scones ($2.50) from Caffe Beviamo was soft and fluffy, with a buttery undertone.There wasn’t any “wow” from the strawberry jam, but it was enough to compliment the warm scones. If i may say so in my humble opinion, the ones here are better than the legendary Royal Copenhagen scones.
When you run out of names for your desserts, why not try some creative ones which can attract others attention? That’s exactly what Beviamo did. The hummingbird cake ($3.50) had was pineapple, banana and coconut involved, definitely no bird or what so ever. I love to eat pineapple and banana on its own, but to have them in cake is completely a different story all together. Banana cakes are just not for me, some things just can’t be forced.
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!
With franchise monsters like Crystal Jade and Din Tai Fung numbing our palates away from gastronomic adventures and weaning us off truly good food, it is nice to see an independent setup working to bring true authenticity back to pique our taste buds.
Ye Shanghai surprises by serving up a wide range of Shanghai, Beijing fare and occasionally crossing to Hong Kong territories with a few bamboo baskets of dim sum, all from the confines of a little kitchen in an already tiny shop front.
Shanghai style fried fish On the outset, this looked like a very simple plate of deep fried fish until I sank my teeth into it. Fried till crispy on the outside, the flesh of the fish is fluffy, moist and light inside. There was also a pleasant tinge of sweetness that went very well together.
Drunken Chicken I personally liked Ye Shanghai's offering thanks to the strong wine flavour that permeates the meat. It is a lot more potent compared to Din Tai Fung's limp counterpart that I tend to mistaken as plain steamed chicken.
Fried Rice with Crab Roe While I could hardly taste the crab roe, Ye Shanghai serves up a mean fried rice that is comparable to Crystal Jade and Din Tai Fung's.
Mango Mochi With bits of fresh mangoes and light fluffy unsweetened cream in a thin translucent chewy dough skin, Ye Shanghai's mango mochi is provided a Midas' touch to an already satisfying and good valued meal. The natural sweetness from the mangoes was just right without leaving that heavy feeling that you usually get from too much sugar.
The "Bao"s are really nice, especially Char Siew Bao, the bao is soft and the fillings are chewy! Yum! Yum! The fillings for the char siew bao is different the the typical char siew bao, you can find elsewhere, its not red, but dark soya sauce colour. It is must try!
I also tried the Har Gow(prawn dumping), but i think this is really a letdown. I did not know that Har Gow has no prawn inside. They change the fillings to meat fillings, they should have told me that before i even order. But it should be called Bak Gow( meat Dumpling ) then. No doubt, it is still nice.
One of the nicest Bak Chor Mee that you can find in singapore. Only served with soup base. I personally feel that the soup is th e one that make it taste so nice and tasty, i think if they are going to serve in "dry", i think he will starts to lose customers. Also notice that the standard did drop by a bit recently, the noodles seems to be overcooked. Well, maybe of the long queue, but that does not give the reason of not maintaining the standard.
Please take note, there are 2 of them side by side, i usually eat the one at the left. Tried both, concluded that the one at the right is not as nice as the left.
Should try if you love Bak Chor Mee, as it is not the best, but definitely one of the best.
If you're looking for a quiet and pleasant place for French cuisine, I would say Vis-A-Vis would satisfy your requirements. The warm orange lightings and neatly furnished restaurant makes one feel very comfortable. On top of that, the restaurant is usually peaceful and is not very crowded. However, beware - this is not the place to go if you're on a budget.
Service Something I noticed and was surprised for some unknown reason - the waiters were all middle-aged men, minus the lady behind the bar in charge of the bill (whom I reckon is the boss/ co-owner).
Upon entering, it seems like there would always be someone attending to you, hence minimizing your waiting time. A waiter is assigned to the table and is always ready to take your order or answer any queries. While I have to give them credit for their effort in providing good service, it occasionally felt like the waiters were "doing too much". Having them looking over at your table all the time sometimes did make me feel a little uneasy.
Food and Price We ordered a Christmas special that was $86 (original: $78, but we changed the dessert for something else outside the set) and is fairly cheap, relative to the prices of their individual items. All in all, we ordered an additional Clam Chowder, Roasted Lamb, Roasted Prime Rib, Creme Brulee Ice Cream, Escargots and a bisque (but I forgot what was in it).
I especially liked the Clam Chowder. It was unexpected but a pleasant surprise. The soup tasted sweet and came in a large portion. Also, it did not have any clams in it. Where did the clams go? That's where it's different. On the side, they served a strip of bamboo clam flambed in whisky, topped with garlic and some spices. So now we have Clam Chowder, with the whole Clam! Perfect for clam-lovers. I'd say it was great.
The Escargots were part of the set and came in a bowl with some salad and half a potato. And the verdict? Disappointing. There were only 4 pieces of escargots (and I was expecting the usual 6...) that was garnished with some butter and garlic I believe, which made it rather tasty I admit. However, the potato used was that of a boiling potato rather than a baking potato, which is a whole world of difference. To me, it was rather shocking to know that a restaurant like this would serve potatoes that we usually use in making clear soup (and perhaps with some tomato and pork).
The Lamb (medium) was well-decorated and looked very appetizing. So was the Prime Rib. However, the gravy that came along with the Lamb had a smell that usually comes with the meat. Ironically, the meat did not have that smell. However it was rather soft and chewy. The Prime Rib (medium-rare) was not too bad, but just a little over-done. This could be because it was a really thin slice. The beef was sweet and tender, but had a little more fat than expected. So part of the slice of steak was wasted.
So, everything but dessert was done. Wasn't all satisfied, considering how much they cost, but the dessert was.. worse. We had a Creme Brulee Ice Cream. Firstly, it tasted from like coffee/ dark chocolate ice cream. It tasted nothing like caramel/ cream. Then, there were 3 balls of fritters that was stuffed with sweet potato, with some melted chocolate in it. Not exactly the best French dessert combination, plus the fact that I'm not a fan of sweet potato. On the other hand, my friend quite liked it for the slight bitterness and sweet potato with chocolate. So it couldn't be all that bad.
Along with the meal, we had a glass of red wine and rose wine. The whole meal came up to came up to $220 . The lamb was about $50. For your information, deserts are priced at $20 , soups are slightly below 20, main course above $40. Final verdict? It was alright, but I wouldn't go back again even though it tasted alright. But for this price, alright shouldn't be what you expect.
Had a go at Ah Yat Seafood at The Village after reading about its recent opening in the papers. Actually there wasn't much of a choice, with only 3 eating places available and one of them didn't even bother to acknowledge our presence even though we stood at the entrance for a couple of minutes and the place was relatively empty.
The place is typical of many seafood restaurants - brightly lighted, cramped with tables and a hotbed of noise pollution. And surprisingly, the place was packed for such a wayside location which is hardly accessible by public transport.
Deep Fried Beancurd Cubes - This was more of an appetiser and though I liked the simplicity of it, the dish wasn't much to shout about. For one, the beancurd skin was too a little too thick.
Roasted Meat Combination - We waited 45mins for this dish all because the waiter forgot to log it in. And guess what? No one had the decency to tell me anything or apologize. It was only through overhearing the conversation between the waiter and another waitress regarding my order that I learnt what transpired. Service grievances aside, this roasted meat combination probably ranks as one of the worst I've tried this year. The duck reeked strongly of fowl taste with lots of oil to boot while the char siew was rather fatty with a gross oily aftertaste. Even the chicken was very oily and tasted very bland. Seriously disappointing with a not too wallet friendly pricing ($20 ) to boot.
Broccoli with Crab Meat - You can't really go wrong with vegetables so no complaints about the broccoli. I liked the crab meat sauce though, which came across as not too starchy with strands of crab meat in it. Mildly savoury and complemented the broccoli relatively well.
I don't reckon $57 for a 2 pax dinner is anywhere near value for money for food of such quality. Add to that the less then stellar service and I am seriously better off taking my money elsewhere.
Thanks to a dear friend, I got a chance to enjoy their lunch buffet recently. According to her, the variety of dishes has become lesser as compared to before they renovated and moved up the place. Not sure how long ago was that thou.
When I was there, the crowd were mostly the senior citizens who've retired and has lots of time (and money) to spend. There were also families and taitai look-alike there. If not for the lunch meeting, I would probably never have a chance to dine at such a place.
The food though variety is not plentiful, but the spread was good enough for lunch. And the most important thing is that its fresh and taste very well.
My favorite from that day was the Thai Seafood Curry, Fresh Salmon Sashimi, couple of the appertisers and the hazelnut chocolate cake from the desserts bar.
And the highlight at Rose Veranda is the huge variety of tea available free-flow(!!!) for customers. I spent 15minutes going through and deciding which to try. If I had the time, I would have ordered like few options (one after another) to try more varieties.
Rose Veranda is a great place to spend the afternoon with friends over good quality tea and great food. The setting is very comfortable and they've got very comfy sofa seats too.
If you're planning to give it a try, don't forget to call for reservations! Even if its on a weekday!
Its one of those rare days where you'll find me in a KTV room. But after that night with the crazy bunch, I think I'll be visiting these cosy rooms pretty often! They made KTV so fun and enjoyable! It's the best session I've had in years!
Like all KTV places, there'll be the standard fruit platters and tidbits which you're "forced" to pay for. And imo, the tidbits is to make our throat feel uncomfortable so that we will order more drinks to smoothen it so we can sing more songs/ better. But of course, you can choose not to those these tidbits and let it lao hong (gets soften) over the 4 hours in the air con room.
The collection of songs was great and about 85% of those we selected were of original mtv. The sound system was very good too. Except for one of the mic in our room which couldn't be turned off. The room was just nice for 9 of us, and the sofas were clean and comfortable too.
One thing I learned about singing at KTV rooms is never to go late! If you book the room at 10pm, be there on time. Their clock starts counting from 10pm instead of 10.30pm where we finally got settled in the room. So instead of the full 4 hours of singing time, we sang for only 3.5 hours.
I'm so looking forward to our next session together! Let's try their other outlets too!
If you get into an accident, i hope they don't send you there.
I feel VERY disappointed with TTSH.
My boyfriend got hit by a car in October at Novena, so naturally, the ambulance brought him there. I received a call and i rushed down to the hospital, but when i got there, i realized i had no idea where the A&E was since i hadn't had any chances to go there before.
I went to the reception/information counter, but the lady was on the phone! I even waved at her frantically to get her attention to ask for directions to the A&E, but i was COMPLETELY IGNORED!! It was ridiculous. Another passing doctor told me how to get to the A&E at basement 1.
When i got to basement 1, i couldn't immediately locate the A&E, so i asked another random hospital stuff for directions. Guess what? The guy said, "Erm.... I don't know... I don't think we have that...."
A hospital that doesn't have an A&E. RIGHT. I was utterly furious at the hospital by then. Why are the staff so poorly educated on the hospital facilities?? I really expected that all the staff at least know where the A&E would be! The receptionist was horribly rude too! Not doing her job at all.
We waited for about 5hours until they saw my boyfriend. The nurse who was supposed to take down the condition of my boyfriend did a very bad job too. While asking questions, she kept fiddling with the printer and trying to change the paper, therefore wasn't listening to anything we said. She ended up asking questions more than once, and i got very impatient and told her off. She even DARED to glare at me! Obviously i glared back because SHE WAS IN THE WRONG.
My boyfriend was warded from 11.30pm to 12noon the next day, and rightfully, he should be able to claim the hospital stay from Medisave, but TTSH sent him the bill and stated that he was admitted at 10am and discharged at 12noon, therefore not qualifying for Medisave coverage as it was under 8hours, and they didn't hesitate to charge him for breakfast and lunch too. That was SO DESPICABLE of TTSH! I can't believe they would go to this extent to earn that little bit of money!!
I am THOROUGHLY UNIMPRESSED at TTSH and i suggest you all transfer your check ups or follow ups to another hospital.
Rating given:
Television often play an important part in our life, and definitely have great influence on many people. But the debates on whether it is a good thing or not continues to rage on. Many certainly thinks that Television’s one of the greatest inventions, while some in the other camp believe that it is a bad influence on children, especially so when they get addicted to watching TV programmes. Did you ever hear a parent telling her kid to watch more TV shows?
Recently, we have a television show on Channel 8, “Buffet Buffet” which has garnered much interest among the young and the old. And its hard not to see why, food-related programmes have always been a hit with the audience, not to mention this one introduce all kinds of buffets in Singapore. I saw Penang place restaurant on one of the episodes, and since the price is reasonably cheap and near to my place, why not?
If you just watch the crowd in the place without knowing where is it, you’ll never guess its located within the International Business park (IBP) at Jurong. Perhaps that’s exactly the reason why the owner set up shop there, since there’s so many hungry white collar workers in all the offices around. The atrium building is just beside Creative, so its pretty easy to find, and there’s shutter bus from Jurong East mrt station.
Penang place oozes a sense of tranquil with its simple furnitures, and the water settings just beside the restaurant. It was fully packed when we visited on a weekday lunch, Singaporeans do love their buffets!
The selections actually is pretty decent given its reasonable pricing of $19.80 for weekday buffet lunch.
The Penang laksa actually comes in the form of Assam laksa, sour and spicy in taste, which differed greatly from our local version. The katong-laksa purist might not take quite well to this, which is more like a mix between tom-yam soup and laksa, with the sourish taste dominating the taste bud. But that’s the authentic Penang laksa for you.
I was rather impressed with the seafood soup, well for one it tasted like shark fin soup (even though there’s no shark fin of course), and secondly, i felt that it was similar to my mom’s home-made soup, and that’s a compliment!
What do you think of when I mentioned Penang? The name synonymous with the city is definitely Char Koay Teow. And if you didn’t notice, even the spelling differs slightly from ours. Well, there’s also Assam laksa, wonton mee and hokkien mee too, but Char Koay Teow certainly is the one which leave most people with memorable memories of Penang. Their rendition comes slightly spicy, not too oily and with a generous serving of ingredients. And the best part? Penang Place actually replenished their char koay teow in small portions very often, since it’s like the most popular dish there. While Char koay teow has a reputation for being unhealthy, and even though i had eaten it twice that week, i couldn’t help myself to second helpings. My sinful food.
The Nasi Lemak is served simple and nice with the fragnant rice, crunchy ikan billies, crispy peanut with cooling cucumbers. There are some other common dishes like curry chicken, fried food, but one dish which i found it good was the Batu Uban Ayam Panggang, which was seasoned grilled chicken with peanut sauce. A pity it was gone when i wanted to take a shot of it.
Glutinous rice is often use in the Asian context, and its no surprise to see the Kueh Salat here. Basically steamed glutinous rice topped with a layer of pandan flavoured custard. Well, i didn’t know if it’s just me or what, but i didn’t really enjoy glutinous rice done this way. The taste was rather weird for my liking, and i guessed i still prefer the Chinese dim sum glutinous rice in lotus leaf.
One of my personal favourites, the Kueh Dardan was actually pandan flavoured pancakes filled with sweetened coconut shavings. The pancakes were very soft and nice, with the coconut shavings coming not too heavy. Easily finished a few of them even thought we were full from the buffet.
Another dessert, or rather kueh that i enjoyed was the Kueh Talam. Essentially a pandan flavoured cake topped with a savoury coconut milk layer, the pandan cake was very fragnant indeed.
Total bill was $69.90 for 3 person at their weekday lunch buffet. I must say, for $23 per head after taxes and service charges, its rather reasonable for the amount of food served. Note, i didn’t say its excellent, but for the price, its rather acceptable since i find it hard to name another place serving buffet in the 20 dollar range which is good. I guess the money will be worth it if you eat more of their Char Koay teow which will cost $8.90 if you order a plate a la carte.
The location might be a tad difficult, since its within the International Business Park, people wouldn’t travel all the way there just for their buffet, but i did. Well for the rest of you lucky souls who are working in the area, i’ll say this is one place to check out for lunch when you are in the mood for a longer lunch.
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:
Love is just like raindrops.
They evaporate, and leave stains behind.
I couldn’t forget you, no, not after what happen last time.
The two sided face of you.
You were rich and good to me before.
But you showed me your cold side now.
I know we couldn’t be together.
But i can’t stop thinking of you.
Until we meet again, my duck.
The scones ($2.50) from Caffe Beviamo was soft and fluffy, with a buttery undertone.There wasn’t any “wow” from the strawberry jam, but it was enough to compliment the warm scones. If i may say so in my humble opinion, the ones here are better than the legendary Royal Copenhagen scones.
When you run out of names for your desserts, why not try some creative ones which can attract others attention? That’s exactly what Beviamo did. The hummingbird cake ($3.50) had was pineapple, banana and coconut involved, definitely no bird or what so ever. I love to eat pineapple and banana on its own, but to have them in cake is completely a different story all together. Banana cakes are just not for me, some things just can’t be forced.
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:
Killing franchise monsters one dish at a time
With franchise monsters like Crystal Jade and Din Tai Fung numbing our palates away from gastronomic adventures and weaning us off truly good food, it is nice to see an independent setup working to bring true authenticity back to pique our taste buds.
Ye Shanghai surprises by serving up a wide range of Shanghai, Beijing fare and occasionally crossing to Hong Kong territories with a few bamboo baskets of dim sum, all from the confines of a little kitchen in an already tiny shop front.
Shanghai style fried fish
On the outset, this looked like a very simple plate of deep fried fish until I sank my teeth into it. Fried till crispy on the outside, the flesh of the fish is fluffy, moist and light inside. There was also a pleasant tinge of sweetness that went very well together.
Drunken Chicken
I personally liked Ye Shanghai's offering thanks to the strong wine flavour that permeates the meat. It is a lot more potent compared to Din Tai Fung's limp counterpart that I tend to mistaken as plain steamed chicken.
Fried Rice with Crab Roe
While I could hardly taste the crab roe, Ye Shanghai serves up a mean fried rice that is comparable to Crystal Jade and Din Tai Fung's.
Mango Mochi
With bits of fresh mangoes and light fluffy unsweetened cream in a thin translucent chewy dough skin, Ye Shanghai's mango mochi is provided a Midas' touch to an already satisfying and good valued meal. The natural sweetness from the mangoes was just right without leaving that heavy feeling that you usually get from too much sugar.
Rating given:
The "Bao"s are really nice, especially Char Siew Bao, the bao is soft and the fillings are chewy! Yum! Yum! The fillings for the char siew bao is different the the typical char siew bao, you can find elsewhere, its not red, but dark soya sauce colour. It is must try!
I also tried the Har Gow(prawn dumping), but i think this is really a letdown. I did not know that Har Gow has no prawn inside. They change the fillings to meat fillings, they should have told me that before i even order. But it should be called Bak Gow( meat Dumpling ) then. No doubt, it is still nice.
Try only if you love bao!
Rating given:
One of the nicest Bak Chor Mee that you can find in singapore. Only served with soup base. I personally feel that the soup is th e one that make it taste so nice and tasty, i think if they are going to serve in "dry", i think he will starts to lose customers. Also notice that the standard did drop by a bit recently, the noodles seems to be overcooked. Well, maybe of the long queue, but that does not give the reason of not maintaining the standard.
Please take note, there are 2 of them side by side, i usually eat the one at the left. Tried both, concluded that the one at the right is not as nice as the left.
Should try if you love Bak Chor Mee, as it is not the best, but definitely one of the best.
Rating given:
If you're looking for a quiet and pleasant place for French cuisine, I would say Vis-A-Vis would satisfy your requirements. The warm orange lightings and neatly furnished restaurant makes one feel very comfortable. On top of that, the restaurant is usually peaceful and is not very crowded. However, beware - this is not the place to go if you're on a budget.
Service
Something I noticed and was surprised for some unknown reason - the waiters were all middle-aged men, minus the lady behind the bar in charge of the bill (whom I reckon is the boss/ co-owner).
Upon entering, it seems like there would always be someone attending to you, hence minimizing your waiting time. A waiter is assigned to the table and is always ready to take your order or answer any queries. While I have to give them credit for their effort in providing good service, it occasionally felt like the waiters were "doing too much". Having them looking over at your table all the time sometimes did make me feel a little uneasy.
Food and Price
We ordered a Christmas special that was $86 (original: $78, but we changed the dessert for something else outside the set) and is fairly cheap, relative to the prices of their individual items. All in all, we ordered an additional Clam Chowder, Roasted Lamb, Roasted Prime Rib, Creme Brulee Ice Cream, Escargots and a bisque (but I forgot what was in it).
I especially liked the Clam Chowder. It was unexpected but a pleasant surprise. The soup tasted sweet and came in a large portion. Also, it did not have any clams in it. Where did the clams go? That's where it's different. On the side, they served a strip of bamboo clam flambed in whisky, topped with garlic and some spices. So now we have Clam Chowder, with the whole Clam! Perfect for clam-lovers. I'd say it was great.
The Escargots were part of the set and came in a bowl with some salad and half a potato. And the verdict? Disappointing. There were only 4 pieces of escargots (and I was expecting the usual 6...) that was garnished with some butter and garlic I believe, which made it rather tasty I admit. However, the potato used was that of a boiling potato rather than a baking potato, which is a whole world of difference. To me, it was rather shocking to know that a restaurant like this would serve potatoes that we usually use in making clear soup (and perhaps with some tomato and pork).
The Lamb (medium) was well-decorated and looked very appetizing. So was the Prime Rib. However, the gravy that came along with the Lamb had a smell that usually comes with the meat. Ironically, the meat did not have that smell. However it was rather soft and chewy. The Prime Rib (medium-rare) was not too bad, but just a little over-done. This could be because it was a really thin slice. The beef was sweet and tender, but had a little more fat than expected. So part of the slice of steak was wasted.
So, everything but dessert was done. Wasn't all satisfied, considering how much they cost, but the dessert was.. worse. We had a Creme Brulee Ice Cream. Firstly, it tasted from like coffee/ dark chocolate ice cream. It tasted nothing like caramel/ cream. Then, there were 3 balls of fritters that was stuffed with sweet potato, with some melted chocolate in it. Not exactly the best French dessert combination, plus the fact that I'm not a fan of sweet potato. On the other hand, my friend quite liked it for the slight bitterness and sweet potato with chocolate. So it couldn't be all that bad.
Along with the meal, we had a glass of red wine and rose wine. The whole meal came up to came up to $220 . The lamb was about $50. For your information, deserts are priced at $20 , soups are slightly below 20, main course above $40. Final verdict? It was alright, but I wouldn't go back again even though it tasted alright. But for this price, alright shouldn't be what you expect.
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Had a go at Ah Yat Seafood at The Village after reading about its recent opening in the papers. Actually there wasn't much of a choice, with only 3 eating places available and one of them didn't even bother to acknowledge our presence even though we stood at the entrance for a couple of minutes and the place was relatively empty.
The place is typical of many seafood restaurants - brightly lighted, cramped with tables and a hotbed of noise pollution. And surprisingly, the place was packed for such a wayside location which is hardly accessible by public transport.
Deep Fried Beancurd Cubes - This was more of an appetiser and though I liked the simplicity of it, the dish wasn't much to shout about. For one, the beancurd skin was too a little too thick.
Roasted Meat Combination - We waited 45mins for this dish all because the waiter forgot to log it in. And guess what? No one had the decency to tell me anything or apologize. It was only through overhearing the conversation between the waiter and another waitress regarding my order that I learnt what transpired. Service grievances aside, this roasted meat combination probably ranks as one of the worst I've tried this year. The duck reeked strongly of fowl taste with lots of oil to boot while the char siew was rather fatty with a gross oily aftertaste. Even the chicken was very oily and tasted very bland. Seriously disappointing with a not too wallet friendly pricing ($20 ) to boot.
Broccoli with Crab Meat - You can't really go wrong with vegetables so no complaints about the broccoli. I liked the crab meat sauce though, which came across as not too starchy with strands of crab meat in it. Mildly savoury and complemented the broccoli relatively well.
I don't reckon $57 for a 2 pax dinner is anywhere near value for money for food of such quality. Add to that the less then stellar service and I am seriously better off taking my money elsewhere.
See all my pictures here.
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Thanks to a dear friend, I got a chance to enjoy their lunch buffet recently. According to her, the variety of dishes has become lesser as compared to before they renovated and moved up the place. Not sure how long ago was that thou.
When I was there, the crowd were mostly the senior citizens who've retired and has lots of time (and money) to spend. There were also families and taitai look-alike there. If not for the lunch meeting, I would probably never have a chance to dine at such a place.
The food though variety is not plentiful, but the spread was good enough for lunch. And the most important thing is that its fresh and taste very well.
My favorite from that day was the Thai Seafood Curry, Fresh Salmon Sashimi, couple of the appertisers and the hazelnut chocolate cake from the desserts bar.
And the highlight at Rose Veranda is the huge variety of tea available free-flow(!!!) for customers. I spent 15minutes going through and deciding which to try. If I had the time, I would have ordered like few options (one after another) to try more varieties.
Rose Veranda is a great place to spend the afternoon with friends over good quality tea and great food. The setting is very comfortable and they've got very comfy sofa seats too.
If you're planning to give it a try, don't forget to call for reservations! Even if its on a weekday!
Next to find chance to try The Line!
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Its one of those rare days where you'll find me in a KTV room. But after that night with the crazy bunch, I think I'll be visiting these cosy rooms pretty often! They made KTV so fun and enjoyable! It's the best session I've had in years!
Like all KTV places, there'll be the standard fruit platters and tidbits which you're "forced" to pay for. And imo, the tidbits is to make our throat feel uncomfortable so that we will order more drinks to smoothen it so we can sing more songs/ better. But of course, you can choose not to those these tidbits and let it lao hong (gets soften) over the 4 hours in the air con room.
The collection of songs was great and about 85% of those we selected were of original mtv. The sound system was very good too. Except for one of the mic in our room which couldn't be turned off. The room was just nice for 9 of us, and the sofas were clean and comfortable too.
One thing I learned about singing at KTV rooms is never to go late! If you book the room at 10pm, be there on time. Their clock starts counting from 10pm instead of 10.30pm where we finally got settled in the room. So instead of the full 4 hours of singing time, we sang for only 3.5 hours.
I'm so looking forward to our next session together! Let's try their other outlets too!
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