I know what you are thinking of when i mentioned hawker centre stalls, plain, boring, unfanciful, the run-of-the-mill look! But recently food lovers are spoil with more options as more food & beverage owners look to “attack” the heartlands, the place where you and I grew up in. Botak Jones, Cilantro are some of the better-known names to “invade” our familiar neighbourhood.
Putting that aside, Mr Avocado isn’t exactly “new”, they have been around since 1990, and participated in the Singapore Food Festival 2003, 2004. Well just that last time i didn’t really keep an eye for good food, so i only came to know its existence after a friend recommended me there.
Avocado ($2) They are not called Mr Avocado for nothing, the avocado being their signature drink is surely a must-order drink when you are here. Although i am not a fan of avocado, but Mr Avocado’s rendition win me over with its smooth, creamy and milky interpretation.
Avocado fruits contain a high concentration of dietary fiber, vitamins and potassium. And definitely makes a good drink on a hot day. Mr Avocado’s tagline is “exotic fruit juice”. With some of their specialty like dragon fruit, wintermelon, waterchestnut, loh han kuo, soursop, aloe vera, white fungus definitely sounds more exotic than your usual watermelon, apple, orange.
And i noticed the fact that within Alexandra village hawker centre there are at least four fruit drink stalls selling almost identical drinks. My guess is the hawker centre is always crowded with the office folks working nearby coming in for lunch, and you know fruit juice is always a pleaser for the ladies.
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 Sushi Tei for the first time two days ago.
I ordered the salmon belly soup, which was on promotion, sashimi salad, Golden roll, as well as a couple of Nigiri sushi namely the salmon sushi and the hokkigai sushi.
The taste was quite good and the sushi were fresh as well. However, one thing that needs to be improved would be the service as they tended to be slow in serving my table, even though there wasn't much of a crowd. In addition, I think that the pricing may be slightly higher to other similar Japanese restaurants.
Overall I find that the ambience was quite nice. The crowd there generally was more of the working class and thus was quite quiet, which was good. However, given the pricing and somewhat limited variety of food and also no discount given unless you are a Sushi Tei member , I would rather go for a buffet at Hanabi or Hoijin, which would be more value for money.
Read some good reviews and had some good recommendation from friend. We were warned that the place will be damn full and sure enough even when we wanted to make reservations, the reservation was full.
We were greeted by the friendly and sunshine waitress and their very polite manager. We did not had a long wait... at most 15 mins and we were led to our seats.
Ordered steak lunch set, curry udon (with rice), seafood platter and spaghetti bolognaise (don't know how to spell)
After many good reviews and the full reservations, the full house, I was quite disappointed with the place.
Steak: Although they mentioned their sauce is very special etc etc... the portion I ate wasn't that very special. Very salty and tasted like soy sauce to me. The saltiness of the sauce also covered the taste of the beef However the tenderness of the steak is just right and the set is quite valued.
Curry Udon : Came with rice too. This seems to be the best among all the dishes. A tad too sweet for me though most Jap curry are like that.
Seafood Platter: Rice wasn't that great... taste doesn't seem to be there. I feel like I'm just biting something. The person who ordered this mentioned that the combination of the taste of oyster, prawns and the rice is strange.
Not much comments about the spaghetti just that its oily and nothing special.
Atmosphere was rather good and service staffs there friendly, fast and commendable.
Just had our "dessert" here before our movie is dued. We bought Choco and Oreo Mash mellow, I had Strawberry Choco, Chocolate rice, blueberry flavours (Paisei I don't remember their names) Apart from the lack of facial expression crew, we love our yogurts~!
Definitely a change from the normal yogurt, mine was a refreshing and delicious blend of strawberry and chocolate fudge though a little too milky for me.
Dar's chocolate and oreo mash mellow was nice but a bit to the sour side.
Blueberry and chocolate rice are definite must try~!
We were wondering whether the yogurt is the same for all the flavors as I tasted them to be different but Claire said they tasted different because of the sides e.g strawberry sauce.
Definitely must try. There are still many flavors to choose from~!
Heard many good things about this tiny little stall serving up handmade beef burgers that were purportedly one of the best around. Apparently its burger is so well known that it featured in one of the recent articles in the Straits Times.
Occupying one of the four F&B units at a small alfresco dining area along Bukit Timah Road, Smok'inn Frogz plays neighbour to an Indian food stall, a Thai food stall and a small bar counter. And that is where its charm lies. Seating on high wooden stools against the backdrop of million dollar homes, all in a fan induced cool environment has a certain laid back charm to it.
Calamari ($8) - At $8 a basket, the calamari wasn't too expensive really and came rather well done. The batter wasn't too thick and didn't come across as too oily while the squid retained some of its elasticity and chewiness. Only thing that I thought could have been improved was the frying time. The batter was deep fried for a little too long, rendering it a darker shade of golden brown.
Homemade Beef Burger ($12)- Being a fan of beef burgers, I was most eager to try out their much raved about homemade beef burger. While the burger was very decent with the texture of the patty uneven and full of bite yet retaining its tenderness, I did find it lacking in the inherent beefy taste, which kinda took some points off the score. $12 gets you the burger and some fries with a small serving of salad as well.
$20 for a meal is rather reasonable for the quantity and quality of food. Drinks can be bought from the neighbouring stall at $1.50 per can of soft drink and if you need a quick Thai or Indian fix, there's the other stalls as well.
The cravings for dim sum meant that i am always on the lookout for places be it restaurants or eateries which can answer to my stomach’s calling. Victor’s Kitchen has been around for quite a while now, and has been labeled with the “good dim sum at affordable price” tag.
Located at Sunshine Plaza off the corner at Bencoolen street, it is a no-frills, grab-your-seats kind of place. Victor’s is divided into two seating area, with both holding a maximum of maybe fifteen people each. Seats are limited, you must be prepared to queue up for them, and squeeze in the small seating area. Well, more like a small eatery than a cafe or restaurant kind of environment.
Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous rice ($4) I always like glutinous rice, dim sum style. Opening the leave that wrapped the rice, the aroma of the glutinous rice flowed out, and it was just so good. The chicken was tender and the chinese sausage palatable, the fragrant and soft rice, all the combinations made the glutinous rice a praiseworthy dish.
Tasty Queen size Siew Mai ($3) You don’t say you eat dim sum if you did not order siew mai and har gau. Nicknamed the queen size siew mai, its actually the normal size i guess that’s why they didn’t named it as King size siew mai instead.
The pork meat in the siew mai is very lean, not those fatty type. The portion of prawn to pork is actually very low, so not much of prawn taste, its the more porky kind.
Victor’s King prawn dumpling ($3.80) Prawn dumpling or har gau, another mainstay in the dim sum menu. The skin of the Victor’s King prawn dumpling is rather thin, and the prawns inside looked like its going to burst out anytime. The fresh prawns go easy on the palates and always welcome with second helpings.
Carrot cake with XO sauce ($3.80) I was rather amazed when i saw the Carrot cake with XO sauce served. For one i wasn’t expecting the carrot cake to be literally soaked in xo sauce, i thought it will be something like the one i had at Peach Garden, or Yan Ting, but i guess again, there isn’t any “fried” or “pan-seared” attached with the name here.
The name’s scallop, sausage carrot cake with xo sauce, but i hardly had any hint of the presence of scallop and sausage in it, and i think i still preferred my carrot cake to be fried than soup. Nonetheless, the amount of XO sauce given was rather generous, and i guess its more of a personal issue, some might just fancy this over the normal fried carrot cake.
Oyster sauce Char Siew Bun ($2.80) I preferred my char siew bun to be those restaurants-type where there is three parts one. There’s no trace of oyster sauce in the char siew bun, or maybe i happened to miss the flavor.
Nevertheless, the char siew bun is still quite soft and fluffy, the juicy char siew captured within is also enjoyable. Not the best char siew bun i had, but it will suffice.
Milky Custard Bun ($2.80) I am getting warm up to Custard bun nowadays since i used to only flavor char siew bun when i had dim sum. You know a good custard bun when you see one, hot milky custard oozing out of the bun, tempting you with both visual and taste.
However, the case is not to be with Victor’s Milky custard bun. Touted as their signature dish, i was totally disappointed with the one i had here. Maybe the ones at Victor’s don’t ooze out, but for the custard buns to come cold is another complete matter all together.
Having heard many wonderful things about their signature custard bun, i must said i was shocked by the revelation in the quality of the buns. Maybe its a case of a bad hair day, but i’ll give it a chance and re-visit to try it again the next time.
Spare Ribs rice ($3) I’m not even sure if i want to elaborate on the spare ribs rice. First thing first, the rice is hard, too hard. I do understand that ribs being ribs do not have much meat, but this one, the pork ribs were not even tasteful. A waste of 3 bucks, kindly ignore this if you ever go to Victor’s.
Phoenix Porridge ($3.50) The century egg porridge or pi dan chow is transform in the name of Phoenix porridge. However the majestic name did itself no favors with a run of the mill watery porridge. There are bits of century egg and chicken chunks, but i don’t see the point in paying $3.50 for an average small bowl porridge.
Deep fried spring roll ($3) The deep fried spring roll is pretty decent, with the usual mix of turnips inside. The vinger dip was a commendable mention, with the slightly sourish sauce going well together with the deep fried stuff. The spring roll was crispy and you could hear the “crisp” sound with every bite you took.
Char siew cheong fun ($3) The trails of a good char siew cheong fun are smooth and silky skin, which comes with juicy char siew. However the skin of the cheong fun or rice roll is rather thick, i’ll prefer it to be slightly thinner. The char siew within the cheong fun is still acceptable.
King prawn cheong fun ($3.50) I think we over ordered, which results in having another one, the King prawn cheong fun. I presumed the prawns are the same as the ones in the har gau, and they are fresh and good, pity the skin of the cheong fun though.
Total Bill is $51.1 for 3 person. Victor’s kitchen is definitely affordable and rather cheap with its array of dim sum served. The maths work out to be around less than a dollar per piece for most of the items, which can be a good place for your dim sum fix if you want something cheap and not bad.
Victor’s Kitchen is a case of hits and misses. However the misses hit me more because i had high expectations of the place since there are much rave about the dim sum here. With the silky custard bun as the biggest upset in this visit, it is likely i will visit the place again in the future, to prove whether its a fluke or one-off thing.
The place is small, and they don’t take any reservations, do go at earlier timings or be prepared to queue a while for the seats. Its also advisable to go in small groups since there aren’t much space and table to accommodate a large crowd.
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 there for lunch after choir. The lunch set meal is really valued for money @ $14.90 with free flow of their famous mushroom soup.
Indeed the soup tasted great. The taste of the mushroom was thick but not too much. Tasted well even without addition of pepper.
Fish and Chip. Feedback was that it was tasteless though I felt that it was alright. But the size of the portion was too big and trying to finish it makes us uncomfortable.
Steak. Asked for the steak in medium well done but it came out medium rare instead. Taste was great if not for the done-ness of the steak.
Salmon (don't know what) Miso Spaget. It's Miso spaghetti was the best. Definitely the best tasting sauce that we've ever had for spaghetti. However, the salmon that came with it doesn't seem fresh and had an odd taste to it.
Service attitude was fine though there were only like 2 waitress for the restaurant, service was prompt because there were only 2 tables to be served.
Will definitely visit again as there are other interesting dishes to try.
Located at a coffee shop on Block 412 Bedok North is this small Italian eatery called Il Picolo. After the emergence of Astons, Botak J and the likes, there seem to be an influx of such "restaurant" like feel to coffee shops in the heartlands. It seems that the trend is taking off. We now have steaks, burgers and italian food. Guess what is next?
Prices for mains range from between $5 to $15 for 12" size pizzas. Since it was lunch time, I just had the Beef Lasagna ($6) while the other half decided to go with Botak J. which was in the same coffee shop.
It was a decent portion and sizable enough to have a satisfying lunch. The layers of pasta were not too thick and the chunks of beef were well balanced. It was served piping hot and unlike some other lasagnas this one does not have the burnt out taste. It also helped that there was a generous amount of melted cheese which served as a great dip for the fries that came with the dish ordered from Botak J. :)
Yes its Dim Sum for me and my gf on a weekend morning again. This time round, the venue of choice was Wah Lok. Known for its exquisite Dim Sum offerings and excellent Cantonese food, Wah Lok sits on the second floor of Carlton Hotel. Wood, like in many other mainstream Chinese restaurants, plays a main role in bringing out the understated opulence of the interior, especially that of the main dining hall. One can't help but feel very at home in this subtly lavish yet comfortable layout.
The Appetizer of BBQ Pork, Salted Vegetables, Chilli and Sesame Seeds was something that I've honestly never tried before. And it was good. The BBQ pork was sweet while the salted vegetables were salty, naturally. This balanced things out really well and the sesame seeds gave it a nice fragrance while the mild chilli spiced things up a little.
The Steamed Carrot Cake was a great dish to start off with. The carrot cake came piping hot in a small glass bowl and was very smooth without coming across as too soft and mashed up.
I've always been a fan of BBQ Pork Pastry, or better known as Char Siew Sou, so it's no surprise that this dish was in our order list. The BBQ Pork Pastry was quite well done with the pastry being flaky and a little sweet from the exterior glazing. The BBQ Pork filling was held together by a semi thick and sweet gravy, which is very unlike most of the Dim Sum places I've tried that only wraps the meat without any gravy. However, the pork itself lacked the barbequed taste - a flaw that could make or break this dish. But all in all, still an above average eat.
The Baked Egg Tart came across as pretty normal in terms of taste and texture. There was no slightly burnt crust taste which I like, but the egg filling was not too sweet, which was a plus. Other than that, just an average egg tart.
Now this dish came recommended by our server and it proved to be excellent. The fried beancurd skin was brittlely(If there's such a word) crispy with fillings of prawns and some vegetables. Dip it in the accompanying premium grade soya sauce and you get a match made it heaven. The soya sauce gives it the salty yet zesty flavour. And I'm not kidding about the premium soya sauce label. It really is of premium grade. Try it and you'll know what I mean.
Steamed prawn dumplings or better known as Har Gao is one of the de facto dishes of Dim Sum literally. Wah Lok's rendition tasted quite fine, with the shrimps evidently fresh. The skin was also relatively thin and moist.
Like the Steamed prawn dumplings, the Steamed pork dumplings aka Siu Mai, are also another de facto dish of Dim Sum. I found this rather normal, but it didn't come across as too heavy on the palate, which was a change from the nausea inducing ones that I often eat.
Century Egg porridge - This is my gf's favourite dish and although I'm no fan of it, I did find it quite good. The porridge was not too starchy neither was it too watery. I can't quite describe the taste because I honestly know nuts to nothing about Century Egg Porridge.
Shark's fin dumpling - This was the most expensive dish we ordered ($7.80 per serving) but it was well worth the money. The shark's fin soup was light and sweet and came with a few strands of inferior quality shark's fin(hey its $7.80, what do you expect?). I did find the dumpling's skin a little too soft though, probably from soaking in the soup for too long.
Fried Ice Cream - This is one rare dessert. I can't really tell you where to find this delicacy anymore. Wah Lok's rendition is different from all the others that I've tried. Here, the Mango Ice Cream is coated with a layer of Coconut shreds and flour before deep frying. The result is a crispy Coconut exterior encompassing a rather pleasant Mango Ice Cream. Quite good!
The 2 for 1 tag line is recognized with Canadian Pizza, and their easy-to-remember hotline 6241 0241 is another reason which has make Canadian Pizza a widely popular choice for pizza delivery services.
With mainstream competitors Pizza Hut which besides the delivery services has their own restaurants, and Sarpino’s which offer the same gimmick by having the 1-for-1 promotion, and the new Rite pizza, it can only mean good things for consumers who want a quick one on their pizzas.
Having tried Canadian Pizza a couple of times before, i thought that for the prices their pizzas are actually not bad, so on this occasion i decided on having Canadian Pizza instead of Sarpino’s as the previous time i have tried them already.
Teriyaki Chicken (Reg 10”) Teriyaki chicken, mushrooms, sweet corn, capsium, roasted sesame seed. The first bite of the pizza already told me everything i should know, i ordered the wrong pizza! All right, i understand that you can’t really be expecting huge chunks of the teriyaki chicken, even though i accepted the small bits of chicken, but where’s the taste? There’s not much of a flavor in the chicken, and this is supposed to be a teriyaki chicken pizza.
Canadian pizzas are all thin-sliced, personally i would prefer my pizza to be those thicker kinds rather than the thin ones. But there are places which served excellent thin slices, and the same goes for thick slices, so it largely depends on the place where you get your pizza.
Hawaiian Classic (Reg 10″) Turkey ham, turkey bacon, diced pineapples, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and edam cheese. The Hawaiian classic fared slightly better, although not much to redeem Canadian Pizza. I supposed the turkey ham is cut rather generously, but other than that, not much really.
This shows exactly the effects of not having enough cheese. If the pizza is cheesy enough, then when you pull the scene will be a total different one. Yes cheese can be expensive and its understandable that Canadian needs to cut cost given the pizzas are 1-for-1. But i feel pizza without enough cheese is not pizza. Period.
Total bill is $23.90 for 2 reg 10″ pizza. To say that i am utterly disappointed with the quality of Canadian pizza is not an understatement. And i will probably not call 6241 0241 again. Based on my previous experience with Sarpino’s, i think they fared better than Canadian, but i’ll have to try again to find out.
Pizza hut is of course the better one among the three, but obviously more expensive. But one common problem among the three pizza deliveries, is that they often does not provides enough cheese sachet. For this order, they only provided me with one cheese sachet, and i remember my previous encounter with Sarpino’s, they didn’t even give me any cheese sachet!
I have to admit, on my part i forgot to remind them to give me more cheese sachet. But really, how much can a pack of cheese sachet cost? Does it happens to you too, or i happened to be unfortunate on those severals occasions i called for pizza?
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
1=SGD 0.0587
I know what you are thinking of when i mentioned hawker centre stalls, plain, boring, unfanciful, the run-of-the-mill look! But recently food lovers are spoil with more options as more food & beverage owners look to “attack” the heartlands, the place where you and I grew up in. Botak Jones, Cilantro are some of the better-known names to “invade” our familiar neighbourhood.
Putting that aside, Mr Avocado isn’t exactly “new”, they have been around since 1990, and participated in the Singapore Food Festival 2003, 2004. Well just that last time i didn’t really keep an eye for good food, so i only came to know its existence after a friend recommended me there.
Avocado ($2)
They are not called Mr Avocado for nothing, the avocado being their signature drink is surely a must-order drink when you are here. Although i am not a fan of avocado, but Mr Avocado’s rendition win me over with its smooth, creamy and milky interpretation.
Avocado fruits contain a high concentration of dietary fiber, vitamins and potassium. And definitely makes a good drink on a hot day. Mr Avocado’s tagline is “exotic fruit juice”. With some of their specialty like dragon fruit, wintermelon, waterchestnut, loh han kuo, soursop, aloe vera, white fungus definitely sounds more exotic than your usual watermelon, apple, orange.
And i noticed the fact that within Alexandra village hawker centre there are at least four fruit drink stalls selling almost identical drinks. My guess is the hawker centre is always crowded with the office folks working nearby coming in for lunch, and you know fruit juice is always a pleaser for the ladies.
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 Sushi Tei for the first time two days ago.
I ordered the salmon belly soup, which was on promotion, sashimi salad, Golden roll, as well as a couple of Nigiri sushi namely the salmon sushi and the hokkigai sushi.
The taste was quite good and the sushi were fresh as well. However, one thing that needs to be improved would be the service as they tended to be slow in serving my table, even though there wasn't much of a crowd. In addition, I think that the pricing may be slightly higher to other similar Japanese restaurants.
Overall I find that the ambience was quite nice. The crowd there generally was more of the working class and thus was quite quiet, which was good. However, given the pricing and somewhat limited variety of food and also no discount given unless you are a Sushi Tei member , I would rather go for a buffet at Hanabi or Hoijin, which would be more value for money.
Rating given:
Read some good reviews and had some good recommendation from friend. We were warned that the place will be damn full and sure enough even when we wanted to make reservations, the reservation was full.
We were greeted by the friendly and sunshine waitress and their very polite manager. We did not had a long wait... at most 15 mins and we were led to our seats.
Ordered steak lunch set, curry udon (with rice), seafood platter and spaghetti bolognaise (don't know how to spell)
After many good reviews and the full reservations, the full house, I was quite disappointed with the place.
Steak: Although they mentioned their sauce is very special etc etc... the portion I ate wasn't that very special. Very salty and tasted like soy sauce to me. The saltiness of the sauce also covered the taste of the beef However the tenderness of the steak is just right and the set is quite valued.
Curry Udon : Came with rice too. This seems to be the best among all the dishes. A tad too sweet for me though most Jap curry are like that.
Seafood Platter: Rice wasn't that great... taste doesn't seem to be there. I feel like I'm just biting something. The person who ordered this mentioned that the combination of the taste of oyster, prawns and the rice is strange.
Not much comments about the spaghetti just that its oily and nothing special.
Atmosphere was rather good and service staffs there friendly, fast and commendable.
Rating given:
Just had our "dessert" here before our movie is dued. We bought Choco and Oreo Mash mellow, I had Strawberry Choco, Chocolate rice, blueberry flavours (Paisei I don't remember their names) Apart from the lack of facial expression crew, we love our yogurts~!
Definitely a change from the normal yogurt, mine was a refreshing and delicious blend of strawberry and chocolate fudge though a little too milky for me.
Dar's chocolate and oreo mash mellow was nice but a bit to the sour side.
Blueberry and chocolate rice are definite must try~!
We were wondering whether the yogurt is the same for all the flavors as I tasted them to be different but Claire said they tasted different because of the sides e.g strawberry sauce.
Definitely must try. There are still many flavors to choose from~!
Rating given:
Heard many good things about this tiny little stall serving up handmade beef burgers that were purportedly one of the best around. Apparently its burger is so well known that it featured in one of the recent articles in the Straits Times.
Occupying one of the four F&B units at a small alfresco dining area along Bukit Timah Road, Smok'inn Frogz plays neighbour to an Indian food stall, a Thai food stall and a small bar counter. And that is where its charm lies. Seating on high wooden stools against the backdrop of million dollar homes, all in a fan induced cool environment has a certain laid back charm to it.
Calamari ($8) - At $8 a basket, the calamari wasn't too expensive really and came rather well done. The batter wasn't too thick and didn't come across as too oily while the squid retained some of its elasticity and chewiness. Only thing that I thought could have been improved was the frying time. The batter was deep fried for a little too long, rendering it a darker shade of golden brown.
Homemade Beef Burger ($12)- Being a fan of beef burgers, I was most eager to try out their much raved about homemade beef burger. While the burger was very decent with the texture of the patty uneven and full of bite yet retaining its tenderness, I did find it lacking in the inherent beefy taste, which kinda took some points off the score. $12 gets you the burger and some fries with a small serving of salad as well.
$20 for a meal is rather reasonable for the quantity and quality of food. Drinks can be bought from the neighbouring stall at $1.50 per can of soft drink and if you need a quick Thai or Indian fix, there's the other stalls as well.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
The cravings for dim sum meant that i am always on the lookout for places be it restaurants or eateries which can answer to my stomach’s calling. Victor’s Kitchen has been around for quite a while now, and has been labeled with the “good dim sum at affordable price” tag.
Located at Sunshine Plaza off the corner at Bencoolen street, it is a no-frills, grab-your-seats kind of place. Victor’s is divided into two seating area, with both holding a maximum of maybe fifteen people each. Seats are limited, you must be prepared to queue up for them, and squeeze in the small seating area. Well, more like a small eatery than a cafe or restaurant kind of environment.
Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous rice ($4)
I always like glutinous rice, dim sum style. Opening the leave that wrapped the rice, the aroma of the glutinous rice flowed out, and it was just so good. The chicken was tender and the chinese sausage palatable, the fragrant and soft rice, all the combinations made the glutinous rice a praiseworthy dish.
Tasty Queen size Siew Mai ($3)
You don’t say you eat dim sum if you did not order siew mai and har gau. Nicknamed the queen size siew mai, its actually the normal size i guess that’s why they didn’t named it as King size siew mai instead.
The pork meat in the siew mai is very lean, not those fatty type. The portion of prawn to pork is actually very low, so not much of prawn taste, its the more porky kind.
Victor’s King prawn dumpling ($3.80)
Prawn dumpling or har gau, another mainstay in the dim sum menu. The skin of the Victor’s King prawn dumpling is rather thin, and the prawns inside looked like its going to burst out anytime. The fresh prawns go easy on the palates and always welcome with second helpings.
Carrot cake with XO sauce ($3.80)
I was rather amazed when i saw the Carrot cake with XO sauce served. For one i wasn’t expecting the carrot cake to be literally soaked in xo sauce, i thought it will be something like the one i had at Peach Garden, or Yan Ting, but i guess again, there isn’t any “fried” or “pan-seared” attached with the name here.
The name’s scallop, sausage carrot cake with xo sauce, but i hardly had any hint of the presence of scallop and sausage in it, and i think i still preferred my carrot cake to be fried than soup. Nonetheless, the amount of XO sauce given was rather generous, and i guess its more of a personal issue, some might just fancy this over the normal fried carrot cake.
Oyster sauce Char Siew Bun ($2.80)
I preferred my char siew bun to be those restaurants-type where there is three parts one. There’s no trace of oyster sauce in the char siew bun, or maybe i happened to miss the flavor.
Nevertheless, the char siew bun is still quite soft and fluffy, the juicy char siew captured within is also enjoyable. Not the best char siew bun i had, but it will suffice.
Milky Custard Bun ($2.80)
I am getting warm up to Custard bun nowadays since i used to only flavor char siew bun when i had dim sum. You know a good custard bun when you see one, hot milky custard oozing out of the bun, tempting you with both visual and taste.
However, the case is not to be with Victor’s Milky custard bun. Touted as their signature dish, i was totally disappointed with the one i had here. Maybe the ones at Victor’s don’t ooze out, but for the custard buns to come cold is another complete matter all together.
Having heard many wonderful things about their signature custard bun, i must said i was shocked by the revelation in the quality of the buns. Maybe its a case of a bad hair day, but i’ll give it a chance and re-visit to try it again the next time.
Spare Ribs rice ($3)
I’m not even sure if i want to elaborate on the spare ribs rice. First thing first, the rice is hard, too hard. I do understand that ribs being ribs do not have much meat, but this one, the pork ribs were not even tasteful. A waste of 3 bucks, kindly ignore this if you ever go to Victor’s.
Phoenix Porridge ($3.50)
The century egg porridge or pi dan chow is transform in the name of Phoenix porridge. However the majestic name did itself no favors with a run of the mill watery porridge. There are bits of century egg and chicken chunks, but i don’t see the point in paying $3.50 for an average small bowl porridge.
Deep fried spring roll ($3)
The deep fried spring roll is pretty decent, with the usual mix of turnips inside. The vinger dip was a commendable mention, with the slightly sourish sauce going well together with the deep fried stuff. The spring roll was crispy and you could hear the “crisp” sound with every bite you took.
Char siew cheong fun ($3)
The trails of a good char siew cheong fun are smooth and silky skin, which comes with juicy char siew. However the skin of the cheong fun or rice roll is rather thick, i’ll prefer it to be slightly thinner. The char siew within the cheong fun is still acceptable.
King prawn cheong fun ($3.50)
I think we over ordered, which results in having another one, the King prawn cheong fun. I presumed the prawns are the same as the ones in the har gau, and they are fresh and good, pity the skin of the cheong fun though.
Total Bill is $51.1 for 3 person. Victor’s kitchen is definitely affordable and rather cheap with its array of dim sum served. The maths work out to be around less than a dollar per piece for most of the items, which can be a good place for your dim sum fix if you want something cheap and not bad.
Victor’s Kitchen is a case of hits and misses. However the misses hit me more because i had high expectations of the place since there are much rave about the dim sum here. With the silky custard bun as the biggest upset in this visit, it is likely i will visit the place again in the future, to prove whether its a fluke or one-off thing.
The place is small, and they don’t take any reservations, do go at earlier timings or be prepared to queue a while for the seats. Its also advisable to go in small groups since there aren’t much space and table to accommodate a large crowd.
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!
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Went there for lunch after choir. The lunch set meal is really valued for money @ $14.90 with free flow of their famous mushroom soup.
Indeed the soup tasted great. The taste of the mushroom was thick but not too much. Tasted well even without addition of pepper.
Fish and Chip. Feedback was that it was tasteless though I felt that it was alright. But the size of the portion was too big and trying to finish it makes us uncomfortable.
Steak. Asked for the steak in medium well done but it came out medium rare instead. Taste was great if not for the done-ness of the steak.
Salmon (don't know what) Miso Spaget. It's Miso spaghetti was the best. Definitely the best tasting sauce that we've ever had for spaghetti. However, the salmon that came with it doesn't seem fresh and had an odd taste to it.
Service attitude was fine though there were only like 2 waitress for the restaurant, service was prompt because there were only 2 tables to be served.
Will definitely visit again as there are other interesting dishes to try.
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Affordable Italian Cuisine
Located at a coffee shop on Block 412 Bedok North is this small Italian eatery called Il Picolo. After the emergence of Astons, Botak J and the likes, there seem to be an influx of such "restaurant" like feel to coffee shops in the heartlands. It seems that the trend is taking off. We now have steaks, burgers and italian food. Guess what is next?
Prices for mains range from between $5 to $15 for 12" size pizzas. Since it was lunch time, I just had the Beef Lasagna ($6) while the other half decided to go with Botak J. which was in the same coffee shop.
It was a decent portion and sizable enough to have a satisfying lunch. The layers of pasta were not too thick and the chunks of beef were well balanced. It was served piping hot and unlike some other lasagnas this one does not have the burnt out taste. It also helped that there was a generous amount of melted cheese which served as a great dip for the fries that came with the dish ordered from Botak J. :)
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Yes its Dim Sum for me and my gf on a weekend morning again. This time round, the venue of choice was Wah Lok. Known for its exquisite Dim Sum offerings and excellent Cantonese food, Wah Lok sits on the second floor of Carlton Hotel. Wood, like in many other mainstream Chinese restaurants, plays a main role in bringing out the understated opulence of the interior, especially that of the main dining hall. One can't help but feel very at home in this subtly lavish yet comfortable layout.
The Appetizer of BBQ Pork, Salted Vegetables, Chilli and Sesame Seeds was something that I've honestly never tried before. And it was good. The BBQ pork was sweet while the salted vegetables were salty, naturally. This balanced things out really well and the sesame seeds gave it a nice fragrance while the mild chilli spiced things up a little.
The Steamed Carrot Cake was a great dish to start off with. The carrot cake came piping hot in a small glass bowl and was very smooth without coming across as too soft and mashed up.
I've always been a fan of BBQ Pork Pastry, or better known as Char Siew Sou, so it's no surprise that this dish was in our order list. The BBQ Pork Pastry was quite well done with the pastry being flaky and a little sweet from the exterior glazing. The BBQ Pork filling was held together by a semi thick and sweet gravy, which is very unlike most of the Dim Sum places I've tried that only wraps the meat without any gravy. However, the pork itself lacked the barbequed taste - a flaw that could make or break this dish. But all in all, still an above average eat.
The Baked Egg Tart came across as pretty normal in terms of taste and texture. There was no slightly burnt crust taste which I like, but the egg filling was not too sweet, which was a plus. Other than that, just an average egg tart.
Now this dish came recommended by our server and it proved to be excellent. The fried beancurd skin was brittlely(If there's such a word) crispy with fillings of prawns and some vegetables. Dip it in the accompanying premium grade soya sauce and you get a match made it heaven. The soya sauce gives it the salty yet zesty flavour. And I'm not kidding about the premium soya sauce label. It really is of premium grade. Try it and you'll know what I mean.
Steamed prawn dumplings or better known as Har Gao is one of the de facto dishes of Dim Sum literally. Wah Lok's rendition tasted quite fine, with the shrimps evidently fresh. The skin was also relatively thin and moist.
Like the Steamed prawn dumplings, the Steamed pork dumplings aka Siu Mai, are also another de facto dish of Dim Sum. I found this rather normal, but it didn't come across as too heavy on the palate, which was a change from the nausea inducing ones that I often eat.
Century Egg porridge - This is my gf's favourite dish and although I'm no fan of it, I did find it quite good. The porridge was not too starchy neither was it too watery. I can't quite describe the taste because I honestly know nuts to nothing about Century Egg Porridge.
Shark's fin dumpling - This was the most expensive dish we ordered ($7.80 per serving) but it was well worth the money. The shark's fin soup was light and sweet and came with a few strands of inferior quality shark's fin(hey its $7.80, what do you expect?). I did find the dumpling's skin a little too soft though, probably from soaking in the soup for too long.
Fried Ice Cream - This is one rare dessert. I can't really tell you where to find this delicacy anymore. Wah Lok's rendition is different from all the others that I've tried. Here, the Mango Ice Cream is coated with a layer of Coconut shreds and flour before deep frying. The result is a crispy Coconut exterior encompassing a rather pleasant Mango Ice Cream. Quite good!
See all my pictures here.
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The 2 for 1 tag line is recognized with Canadian Pizza, and their easy-to-remember hotline 6241 0241 is another reason which has make Canadian Pizza a widely popular choice for pizza delivery services.
With mainstream competitors Pizza Hut which besides the delivery services has their own restaurants, and Sarpino’s which offer the same gimmick by having the 1-for-1 promotion, and the new Rite pizza, it can only mean good things for consumers who want a quick one on their pizzas.
Having tried Canadian Pizza a couple of times before, i thought that for the prices their pizzas are actually not bad, so on this occasion i decided on having Canadian Pizza instead of Sarpino’s as the previous time i have tried them already.
Teriyaki Chicken (Reg 10”)
Teriyaki chicken, mushrooms, sweet corn, capsium, roasted sesame seed. The first bite of the pizza already told me everything i should know, i ordered the wrong pizza! All right, i understand that you can’t really be expecting huge chunks of the teriyaki chicken, even though i accepted the small bits of chicken, but where’s the taste? There’s not much of a flavor in the chicken, and this is supposed to be a teriyaki chicken pizza.
Canadian pizzas are all thin-sliced, personally i would prefer my pizza to be those thicker kinds rather than the thin ones. But there are places which served excellent thin slices, and the same goes for thick slices, so it largely depends on the place where you get your pizza.
Hawaiian Classic (Reg 10″)
Turkey ham, turkey bacon, diced pineapples, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and edam cheese. The Hawaiian classic fared slightly better, although not much to redeem Canadian Pizza. I supposed the turkey ham is cut rather generously, but other than that, not much really.
This shows exactly the effects of not having enough cheese. If the pizza is cheesy enough, then when you pull the scene will be a total different one. Yes cheese can be expensive and its understandable that Canadian needs to cut cost given the pizzas are 1-for-1. But i feel pizza without enough cheese is not pizza. Period.
Total bill is $23.90 for 2 reg 10″ pizza. To say that i am utterly disappointed with the quality of Canadian pizza is not an understatement. And i will probably not call 6241 0241 again. Based on my previous experience with Sarpino’s, i think they fared better than Canadian, but i’ll have to try again to find out.
Pizza hut is of course the better one among the three, but obviously more expensive. But one common problem among the three pizza deliveries, is that they often does not provides enough cheese sachet. For this order, they only provided me with one cheese sachet, and i remember my previous encounter with Sarpino’s, they didn’t even give me any cheese sachet!
I have to admit, on my part i forgot to remind them to give me more cheese sachet. But really, how much can a pack of cheese sachet cost? Does it happens to you too, or i happened to be unfortunate on those severals occasions i called for pizza?
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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