I realise that I've never written anything about Outback Steakhouse despite quite a few visits to to the restaurant both in Singapore and overseas, so here goes. Popped by with my gf on a not so quiet Thursday evening.
The interior is cosy and cheerful with wooden booth seats for extra privacy. Signs and stickers adorn the wall with overhanging lamp shades for a casual laid back atmosphere. Interestingly, while Outback is supposed to embody the spirit of the Australian outback - rugged, friendly and casual, this successful chain actually started out in the US and the owners have never stepped foot into Australia! So much for authenticity I guess.
Complimentary Bread & Cheese Fries - The complimentary bread was relatively huge and came served on a cutting board with a knife and butter. I thought it was rather average tasting though. I'm a sucker for fries and cheese so anything that combines these two ingredients together works magic for me. It definitely helped that the fries were chunky and crispy while the cheese was thick and had lots of bacon chips in it.
Prime Minister's Prime Rib - At 8oz, this is one of the smaller prime ribs that I've had (I usually prefer a 10oz or 12oz). Slow roasted in an oven, the medium rare rib was succulent and tender but I did find it a little too fatty. It could have done with a dash of salt and pepper as well to complement the natural beefy taste of the rib. There's an option to add on homemade mushroom sauce or peppercorn sauce, but at $6.90 a pop, I'd rather pass.
Sizzling Chicken - The sizzling chicken had me salivating at the fragrance it emitted at the table. However I did find this dish a little lacking. The boneless chicken came across as a tad too dry though still reasonably fibrous. Nothing special but still very palatable.
Chocolate Thunder from Down Under - Warm and rich chocolate sauce drizzled over soft and moist pecan brownie with a nice smooth scoop of vanilla ice cream. Whats not to like?However, at $15.90 for this dessert, I had expected a humongous slab of brownie topped with yet another humongous scoop of ice cream, enough to stuff 2 people. What I got was really disappointing, size wise. To be fair, the brownie and ice cream was bigger than usual, but only by that much. A very nice and sinful dessert!
$111 for 2 pax is certainly on the high side for a hearty but relatively unimpressive dinner. Food quality is above average at best but what I like is the casual setting and friendly service. Soft drinks are free flow if you order a glass, so please don't spend unnecessary money by ordering 2 glasses when you can order 1 glass to share, alongside free ice water.
This is one of my fav "hidden find" especially on a busy weekend evening. As we all know, orchard road is usually packed with crowds especially at all the coffee joints and chill out cafe - therefore Marriott Hotel enables me to chill away at night with my friends away from all the buzz. At the same time, it also provides me with good service and delicious looking pastries.
My all time favourite would have to be their New York Cheesecake with Strawberry Jam. Light and not too sweet, the jam goes is also well paired with the cake.
Go along with a pot of Earl Grey and what you get is a relax and chill out environment at similar cost.
You can view the all photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
The first thing I'd think of is this noodle stall when I go to Seah Im Food Centre. This is the stall I miss ever since I left my previous workplace in Harbourfront. I used to frequent this stall for their tomyam noodle, and last week I went back again, the noodle was still as good!
The business owners of this stall were always polite. I'd never seen them shout or get agitated.
Their queue was often long during office lunch hours. People would queue up for their delicious lor mee, duck noodle, and prawn noodle for $2.50/$3, and tomyam noodle for $3.50/$5.
My favourite would be the tomyam noodle. Really like the soup and ingredients inside. The noodles were cooked just nice.
This one and only outlet in singapore is located at marina square third level. Since we cannot really decide if to eat teppanyaki or steamboat, we decided to have just both. Yes, and this restuarant just serves both of them. Whats even better is that it comes in buffet style, so one can get to eat as much as he wants.
Bascially the whole concept of dining here will requires one to DIY (do it your self). It does not really matter if you choose to have teppanyaki or steamboat, one still have to cook them before he gets to savour the food. A pretty interesting concept, i could say.
The varieties of food was not really as much as i have expected. It consists of the varieties of meat such as beef, pork, chicken, prawns; varieties of yong tau fu such as crab stick, tau kwa, dumplings ; varieties of vegetables such as dou miao.
Of course, if one is really hungry and cannot wait till the food is cooked. They also served ready made sushi. Of course the varieties of sushi is not alot, but taste reasonably ok. Particularly liked their colourful maki, which tasted not too bad.
They also have quite a few varieties of sauce and drinks. Beside soft drinks, they also served green tea which i find it quite rare in buffet restuarant. Perhaps due to the fact that this is a japanese restuarant, thats why they serve green tea here.
Oh not forgetting, this restuarant also served DIY ice cream. Since its DIY, one will have to 'cook' them before he can eat the ice cream. The ice cream flavours varieites include the good old favorites like chocolate and valina, as well as some fruitty flavours like the passionfruit, durian, yam, green tea and raspberry.
Basically one will get the ice cream mixture stored in the freezer and pour them on to the cold pan. Once the mixture get solidify, one can start to stir and 'fry' them. One can also add in ingredients such as peanuts, chocolate chip, chocolate bits and biscuit stick to make your special flavoured ice cream.
Pretty interesting concept to be able to 'fry' ice cream. However, feel that the taste of the ice cream is not really to my liking. Tried the raspberry flavour, but find that its taste seems abit too empowering.
Overall, the dining experience was pretty good. Staffs were very friendly and they would always keep a look out to see if any customers will need their help. Food were replenished quite frequently to ensure customers will get fresh food at all times.
It was one of those occasion that I travelled all the way down to Serangoon Gardens for desserts. It was the first time I visited Ice³(Ice Cube) and it didn't exactly WOW me.
Firstly, it was noisy and packed with kids on a weekend such that we have to end up sitting on the high chairs at the bar top table that were uncomfortable to sit on, although we did eventually managed to find a table.
4 of us have a dessert each and ordered Apple Crumble w Cinnamon Ice Cream & Caramel Syrup, Choc Brownie w Choc Ice Cream, Choc Fudge & Choc Chunks, Waffle w Vanilla Ice Cream & Choc Fudge and Rum & Raisin Ice Cream on Oreo Crust w Raisins, Almond Flakes & Butterscotch Syrup.
To be honest none of the dessert won me over except for their signatured Rum & Raisin Ice Cream on Oreo Crust w Raisins, Almond Flakes & Butterscotch Syrup. The ice cream was fully flavoured with Rum and the topping of 'REAL' Raisins sealed the deal (Not that I am a big fan of raisins though). Coupled with a nice Butterscotch Syrup at the top and you have an award winning deserving dessert!
You can view the all photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Upon hearing that the one of the oldest hotels in Singapore will make way for the new Bugis MRT station for Downtown Line by the end of December, HFB cannot help but make his way to the quaint 7th Storey Hotel to sample their popular Hainanese Charcoal Steamboat and inimitable, or so they say, Hainanese Chicken Rice.
A reservation for two was made a day before the dinner, but even then I was told that only tables on the outside (or back lane rather) was available – is the food really that great that business is so fantastic, or are Singaporeans just like me curious to have a last experience of their food?
We ordered the standard steamboat set for 2 ($29.00), which consist of Vegetables (Bao Pek, Cabbage, Tang ‘O’, Golden Mushroom, Button Mushroom and Abalone Mushroom), Seafood (Sliced Fish, Sea Cucumber, Cuttlefish and Home Made Fishball, Prawns), Meat (Sliced Chicken, Fishball with Meat Stuffing, Fish Maw with Meat Stuffing), Yam and Tofu, and additional orders of Sliced Beef ($9.80) and my all time favourite steamboat item – Cockles ($6.80)!
Do not be deceived by the portion of the beef though as we realised it was stacked on top of a pile of veggies below. With no MSG added in the soup, customers start off with a clear, almost tasteless soup base – similar to Japanese and their Shabu Shabu hotpot – no fanciful Tom Yum, or what not flavours that one gets nowadays from novelty steamboat places.
But this sits in totally fine with me as it enables me to taste the natural freshness of the ingredients provided without the encumbrance from the soup. At the end of it all, one also usually gets a nice tasty soup base concocted from the essence of the ingredients, unlike those that comes with strong flavours to begin with, and way too salty for consumption towards the end. We also ordered a small portion of Steamed Chicken ($11.80) and a bowl of Chicken Rice ($0.80) to share.
One would probably like the fact that the skin doesn’t come across as excessively oily, but taste wise it didn’t exactly wow me – it kinda lacked flavour and wasn’t as tender compared to the many I have tasted.
However, what did won my heart was the rice itself – it was fully flavoured with ginger and garlic (more so the former) and wasn’t overcooked – just the way I like it ‘al dente’ style – with a bite to each grain. Overall, I paid $58.20 (with a 10% discount) inclusive of taxes and miscellaneous which was pretty expensive if you ask me. The ingredients were fresh but wasn’t exactly of high quality and portion was small. Also the chicken was disappointing.
Whatever that is worth, is probably the experience knowing that this place will be demolished soon – so catch while it last!
You can view the all photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Place is rather small and cramp. Went with a group of 7 people but 2 of us went to get seats. We stood there where the plate says to wait for seats but we stood there for very long but no service crew even stop to ask us anything.
We had to stand in front of the crew to stop her and ask her for seats. She ask us to wait but we saw that since the service is like that, we decided to combine tables by ourselves and sit down.
Mushroom soup tasted blend and its garlic bread was tasteless and not even crispy like what it was in other branches. Looks like the garlic sauce on the bread was too little or the flavor just wasn't enough.
I ordered Mediterranean Linguini. Linguini was under cooked and very hard. Its sauce was too little so by the time I start to eat, the pasta was quite dry. Vegetables in the pasta was also not fresh as they tasted sour.
Mushroom and steak sandwich. The mushroom looked a bit erm.... wormy but the sauce for the mushroom was flavorful and real tasty though the cut of the steak was not so good though the crispy bread was totally awesome.
Chicken dumpling soup. Though it doesn't taste really that nice but it was the best among the soups that we ordered that day. Soup made of Cordyceps (I guessed) and other herbs together with dumplings with chicken meat filing. Chicken meat was plain in flavor together with the soup that was also plain in flavor summarizes into ... oh well, you got the idea. Its a tad ex too... being $5 for a small bowl with 2 dumplings.
Pasta dishes were nice and rated higher than average in comparison to those I've eaten. But there's nothing special worthed a mention cept that the amount of garlic in their cream-sauce types of pasta was a huge heap.
Flaky pizza. Husband commented that the crust of the pizza taste and feels like curry puff skin. (Thats why its called flaky pizza ba) He didn't like the pizza's crust but finds the filing very nice. I didn't had a taste of it but it seems like the dressing of the salad was great enough to make my husband eat the greens though he hates to eat vegetables.
Desserts were the best of the lot. We were having a headache trying to choose what to order.
I would recommend this Warm chocolate cake to people but provided you like the combination of dark chocolate and orange. The portion was big though compared to its creme brulee etc but one can gag from eating so much dark chocolate cake at once. The orange slice and vanilla ice cream seems to be there to lessen this effect. I was oohhing and ahhing when I ate this and they wanted to box me in the head. Lolx...
First time I've been there and we walked from Paragon to Plaza Sing. I've heard about Giraffe and read its review so I was rather interested in going there for drinks. The atmosphere down stairs was very good though we pampered kids prefer sitting indoors as we were sweating ourselves silly and there weren't any seats down stairs.
The deco upstairs disappointed me though. It looks like a wilderness wannabe that failed. Especially the uniform of the service crew there. The top was still fine but the pants made me think that they wore sleeping clothes to work. Untidy was the word.
Ordered Chamomile tea, San Miguel and grape Cosmopolitan. At first the San Miguel tasted like a plainer Tiger (That's not their fault). Then dirty cups and plates were used for Dephil's Chamomile Tea changed quickly on request. No honey was served with the tea too though available on request. I was rather happy with my Grape Cosmo. Prices seems to be lower than other pubs with an extensive menu to choose from.
It closes rather early too. The counter closes at 1am and the area upstairs closes at 1230am. I do hope it can close later especially on a Saturday night which we usually will go to a late night cafe/pub and sit there to talk/eat/drink.
Went dinner with my friends at Hachi Tei Japanese Cuisine 2 weeks ago. My friend had been raving for many years. It was till that very night that I (finally) dine there.
Hachi Tei was once featured on Sunday Times some years ago, I think I read about it but never tried them out. Previously Hachi Tei was situated at #B1-27 China Square Food Centre until China Square Food Centre owner, Wah Khiaw Developments transformed it into an office block. So it moved to the current new location in May 2008.
The new place gives me a very homely and cozy feel, the Japanese songs playing in the background further enhance the atmosphere. I'm not sure why, when I dine at Hachi Tei, I just don't feel that I'm dining in Singapore, I feel that I'm dining in Taiwan. I'm not sure why I have that feeling. I think must be the super friendliness of the lady boss Cherine as she really do communicate with her customers.
We ordered Chirashi Don ($12.00), my friend always order Chirashi Don whenever he visits Hachi Tei. He told me that once I tried it, I would not order other items anymore.... Teriyaki Chicken Don ($7.00). I didn't ask whether it's nice... but I do find the serving pretty small. Sashimi Set ($15.00) I always love sashimi, that's why I ordered sashimi set. I loved the 'shiok shiok' feeling of dipping sashimi in the sauce with lots of wasabi and little soy sauce. By the way, the sashimi are really fresh!!
Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable dinner. Nice atmosphere, yummy food, no GST and service charge, reasonable cheap prices. I'm surely going back again. By the way, my friend treated me that night. Hahahaha.....
1=SGD 0.0587
I realise that I've never written anything about Outback Steakhouse despite quite a few visits to to the restaurant both in Singapore and overseas, so here goes. Popped by with my gf on a not so quiet Thursday evening.
The interior is cosy and cheerful with wooden booth seats for extra privacy. Signs and stickers adorn the wall with overhanging lamp shades for a casual laid back atmosphere. Interestingly, while Outback is supposed to embody the spirit of the Australian outback - rugged, friendly and casual, this successful chain actually started out in the US and the owners have never stepped foot into Australia! So much for authenticity I guess.
Complimentary Bread & Cheese Fries - The complimentary bread was relatively huge and came served on a cutting board with a knife and butter. I thought it was rather average tasting though.
I'm a sucker for fries and cheese so anything that combines these two ingredients together works magic for me. It definitely helped that the fries were chunky and crispy while the cheese was thick and had lots of bacon chips in it.
Prime Minister's Prime Rib - At 8oz, this is one of the smaller prime ribs that I've had (I usually prefer a 10oz or 12oz). Slow roasted in an oven, the medium rare rib was succulent and tender but I did find it a little too fatty. It could have done with a dash of salt and pepper as well to complement the natural beefy taste of the rib. There's an option to add on homemade mushroom sauce or peppercorn sauce, but at $6.90 a pop, I'd rather pass.
Sizzling Chicken - The sizzling chicken had me salivating at the fragrance it emitted at the table. However I did find this dish a little lacking. The boneless chicken came across as a tad too dry though still reasonably fibrous. Nothing special but still very palatable.
Chocolate Thunder from Down Under - Warm and rich chocolate sauce drizzled over soft and moist pecan brownie with a nice smooth scoop of vanilla ice cream. Whats not to like?However, at $15.90 for this dessert, I had expected a humongous slab of brownie topped with yet another humongous scoop of ice cream, enough to stuff 2 people. What I got was really disappointing, size wise. To be fair, the brownie and ice cream was bigger than usual, but only by that much. A very nice and sinful dessert!
$111 for 2 pax is certainly on the high side for a hearty but relatively unimpressive dinner. Food quality is above average at best but what I like is the casual setting and friendly service. Soft drinks are free flow if you order a glass, so please don't spend unnecessary money by ordering 2 glasses when you can order 1 glass to share, alongside free ice water.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
This is one of my fav "hidden find" especially on a busy weekend evening. As we all know, orchard road is usually packed with crowds especially at all the coffee joints and chill out cafe - therefore Marriott Hotel enables me to chill away at night with my friends away from all the buzz. At the same time, it also provides me with good service and delicious looking pastries.
My all time favourite would have to be their New York Cheesecake with Strawberry Jam. Light and not too sweet, the jam goes is also well paired with the cake.
Go along with a pot of Earl Grey and what you get is a relax and chill out environment at similar cost.
You can view the all photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Rating given:
The first thing I'd think of is this noodle stall when I go to Seah Im Food Centre. This is the stall I miss ever since I left my previous workplace in Harbourfront. I used to frequent this stall for their tomyam noodle, and last week I went back again, the noodle was still as good!
The business owners of this stall were always polite. I'd never seen them shout or get agitated.
Their queue was often long during office lunch hours. People would queue up for their delicious lor mee, duck noodle, and prawn noodle for $2.50/$3, and tomyam noodle for $3.50/$5.
My favourite would be the tomyam noodle. Really like the soup and ingredients inside. The noodles were cooked just nice.
Would definitely return for it.
Rating given:
This one and only outlet in singapore is located at marina square third level. Since we cannot really decide if to eat teppanyaki or steamboat, we decided to have just both. Yes, and this restuarant just serves both of them. Whats even better is that it comes in buffet style, so one can get to eat as much as he wants.
Bascially the whole concept of dining here will requires one to DIY (do it your self). It does not really matter if you choose to have teppanyaki or steamboat, one still have to cook them before he gets to savour the food. A pretty interesting concept, i could say.
The varieties of food was not really as much as i have expected. It consists of the varieties of meat such as beef, pork, chicken, prawns; varieties of yong tau fu such as crab stick, tau kwa, dumplings ; varieties of vegetables such as dou miao.
Of course, if one is really hungry and cannot wait till the food is cooked. They also served ready made sushi. Of course the varieties of sushi is not alot, but taste reasonably ok. Particularly liked their colourful maki, which tasted not too bad.
They also have quite a few varieties of sauce and drinks. Beside soft drinks, they also served green tea which i find it quite rare in buffet restuarant. Perhaps due to the fact that this is a japanese restuarant, thats why they serve green tea here.
Oh not forgetting, this restuarant also served DIY ice cream. Since its DIY, one will have to 'cook' them before he can eat the ice cream. The ice cream flavours varieites include the good old favorites like chocolate and valina, as well as some fruitty flavours like the passionfruit, durian, yam, green tea and raspberry.
Basically one will get the ice cream mixture stored in the freezer and pour them on to the cold pan. Once the mixture get solidify, one can start to stir and 'fry' them. One can also add in ingredients such as peanuts, chocolate chip, chocolate bits and biscuit stick to make your special flavoured ice cream.
Pretty interesting concept to be able to 'fry' ice cream. However, feel that the taste of the ice cream is not really to my liking. Tried the raspberry flavour, but find that its taste seems abit too empowering.
Overall, the dining experience was pretty good. Staffs were very friendly and they would always keep a look out to see if any customers will need their help. Food were replenished quite frequently to ensure customers will get fresh food at all times.
Rating given:
It was one of those occasion that I travelled all the way down to Serangoon Gardens for desserts. It was the first time I visited Ice³(Ice Cube) and it didn't exactly WOW me.
Firstly, it was noisy and packed with kids on a weekend such that we have to end up sitting on the high chairs at the bar top table that were uncomfortable to sit on, although we did eventually managed to find a table.
4 of us have a dessert each and ordered Apple Crumble w Cinnamon Ice Cream & Caramel Syrup, Choc Brownie w Choc Ice Cream, Choc Fudge & Choc Chunks, Waffle w Vanilla Ice Cream & Choc Fudge and Rum & Raisin Ice Cream on Oreo Crust w Raisins, Almond Flakes & Butterscotch Syrup.
To be honest none of the dessert won me over except for their signatured Rum & Raisin Ice Cream on Oreo Crust w Raisins, Almond Flakes & Butterscotch Syrup. The ice cream was fully flavoured with Rum and the topping of 'REAL' Raisins sealed the deal (Not that I am a big fan of raisins though). Coupled with a nice Butterscotch Syrup at the top and you have an award winning deserving dessert!
You can view the all photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Rating given:
Upon hearing that the one of the oldest hotels in Singapore will make way for the new Bugis MRT station for Downtown Line by the end of December, HFB cannot help but make his way to the quaint 7th Storey Hotel to sample their popular Hainanese Charcoal Steamboat and inimitable, or so they say, Hainanese Chicken Rice.
A reservation for two was made a day before the dinner, but even then I was told that only tables on the outside (or back lane rather) was available – is the food really that great that business is so fantastic, or are Singaporeans just like me curious to have a last experience of their food?
We ordered the standard steamboat set for 2 ($29.00), which consist of Vegetables (Bao Pek, Cabbage, Tang ‘O’, Golden Mushroom, Button Mushroom and Abalone Mushroom), Seafood (Sliced Fish, Sea Cucumber, Cuttlefish and Home Made Fishball, Prawns), Meat (Sliced Chicken, Fishball with Meat Stuffing, Fish Maw with Meat Stuffing), Yam and Tofu, and additional orders of Sliced Beef ($9.80) and my all time favourite steamboat item – Cockles ($6.80)!
Do not be deceived by the portion of the beef though as we realised it was stacked on top of a pile of veggies below. With no MSG added in the soup, customers start off with a clear, almost tasteless soup base – similar to Japanese and their Shabu Shabu hotpot – no fanciful Tom Yum, or what not flavours that one gets nowadays from novelty steamboat places.
But this sits in totally fine with me as it enables me to taste the natural freshness of the ingredients provided without the encumbrance from the soup. At the end of it all, one also usually gets a nice tasty soup base concocted from the essence of the ingredients, unlike those that comes with strong flavours to begin with, and way too salty for consumption towards the end. We also ordered a small portion of Steamed Chicken ($11.80) and a bowl of Chicken Rice ($0.80) to share.
One would probably like the fact that the skin doesn’t come across as excessively oily, but taste wise it didn’t exactly wow me – it kinda lacked flavour and wasn’t as tender compared to the many I have tasted.
However, what did won my heart was the rice itself – it was fully flavoured with ginger and garlic (more so the former) and wasn’t overcooked – just the way I like it ‘al dente’ style – with a bite to each grain. Overall, I paid $58.20 (with a 10% discount) inclusive of taxes and miscellaneous which was pretty expensive if you ask me. The ingredients were fresh but wasn’t exactly of high quality and portion was small. Also the chicken was disappointing.
Whatever that is worth, is probably the experience knowing that this place will be demolished soon – so catch while it last!
You can view the all photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Rating given:
Place is rather small and cramp. Went with a group of 7 people but 2 of us went to get seats. We stood there where the plate says to wait for seats but we stood there for very long but no service crew even stop to ask us anything.
We had to stand in front of the crew to stop her and ask her for seats. She ask us to wait but we saw that since the service is like that, we decided to combine tables by ourselves and sit down.
Mushroom soup tasted blend and its garlic bread was tasteless and not even crispy like what it was in other branches. Looks like the garlic sauce on the bread was too little or the flavor just wasn't enough.
I ordered Mediterranean Linguini. Linguini was under cooked and very hard. Its sauce was too little so by the time I start to eat, the pasta was quite dry. Vegetables in the pasta was also not fresh as they tasted sour.
Rating given:
Mushroom and steak sandwich. The mushroom looked a bit erm.... wormy but the sauce for the mushroom was flavorful and real tasty though the cut of the steak was not so good though the crispy bread was totally awesome.
Chicken dumpling soup. Though it doesn't taste really that nice but it was the best among the soups that we ordered that day. Soup made of Cordyceps (I guessed) and other herbs together with dumplings with chicken meat filing. Chicken meat was plain in flavor together with the soup that was also plain in flavor summarizes into ... oh well, you got the idea. Its a tad ex too... being $5 for a small bowl with 2 dumplings.
Pasta dishes were nice and rated higher than average in comparison to those I've eaten. But there's nothing special worthed a mention cept that the amount of garlic in their cream-sauce types of pasta was a huge heap.
Flaky pizza. Husband commented that the crust of the pizza taste and feels like curry puff skin. (Thats why its called flaky pizza ba) He didn't like the pizza's crust but finds the filing very nice. I didn't had a taste of it but it seems like the dressing of the salad was great enough to make my husband eat the greens though he hates to eat vegetables.
Desserts were the best of the lot. We were having a headache trying to choose what to order.
I would recommend this Warm chocolate cake to people but provided you like the combination of dark chocolate and orange. The portion was big though compared to its creme brulee etc but one can gag from eating so much dark chocolate cake at once. The orange slice and vanilla ice cream seems to be there to lessen this effect. I was oohhing and ahhing when I ate this and they wanted to box me in the head. Lolx...
Rating given:
First time I've been there and we walked from Paragon to Plaza Sing. I've heard about Giraffe and read its review so I was rather interested in going there for drinks. The atmosphere down stairs was very good though we pampered kids prefer sitting indoors as we were sweating ourselves silly and there weren't any seats down stairs.
The deco upstairs disappointed me though. It looks like a wilderness wannabe that failed.
Especially the uniform of the service crew there. The top was still fine but the pants made me think that they wore sleeping clothes to work. Untidy was the word.
Ordered Chamomile tea, San Miguel and grape Cosmopolitan. At first the San Miguel tasted like a plainer Tiger (That's not their fault). Then dirty cups and plates were used for Dephil's Chamomile Tea changed quickly on request. No honey was served with the tea too though available on request. I was rather happy with my Grape Cosmo. Prices seems to be lower than other pubs with an extensive menu to choose from.
It closes rather early too. The counter closes at 1am and the area upstairs closes at 1230am. I do hope it can close later especially on a Saturday night which we usually will go to a late night cafe/pub and sit there to talk/eat/drink.
Rating given:
Went dinner with my friends at Hachi Tei Japanese Cuisine 2 weeks ago. My friend had been raving for many years. It was till that very night that I (finally) dine there.
Hachi Tei was once featured on Sunday Times some years ago, I think I read about it but never tried them out. Previously Hachi Tei was situated at #B1-27 China Square Food Centre until China Square Food Centre owner, Wah Khiaw Developments transformed it into an office block. So it moved to the current new location in May 2008.
The new place gives me a very homely and cozy feel, the Japanese songs playing in the background further enhance the atmosphere. I'm not sure why, when I dine at Hachi Tei, I just don't feel that I'm dining in Singapore, I feel that I'm dining in Taiwan. I'm not sure why I have that feeling. I think must be the super friendliness of the lady boss Cherine as she really do communicate with her customers.
We ordered Chirashi Don ($12.00), my friend always order Chirashi Don whenever he visits Hachi Tei. He told me that once I tried it, I would not order other items anymore.... Teriyaki Chicken Don ($7.00). I didn't ask whether it's nice... but I do find the serving pretty small. Sashimi Set ($15.00) I always love sashimi, that's why I ordered sashimi set. I loved the 'shiok shiok' feeling of dipping sashimi in the sauce with lots of wasabi and little soy sauce. By the way, the sashimi are really fresh!!
Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable dinner. Nice atmosphere, yummy food, no GST and service charge, reasonable cheap prices. I'm surely going back again. By the way, my friend treated me that night. Hahahaha.....
Rating given: