After hearing soooo much about Botak Jones at AMK (yes there are other outlets, which I only knew of TODAY), I was delighted to hear that there's one at Bedok! ie, very near me (; And so, dragging along a food-enthusiast like myself, we headed down as soon as we could, with much anticipation.
It was almost 2pm by the time we got there. All right, face it, I was disappointed because I thought we'd be seeing a little shop instead of that-stall-at-the-food-court-under-that-block. But that seems to be the trend, somehow. If you heard of, there's Blackboard doing that too.
So anyway, we got a menu each and sat down, trying to decide on what to eat. I must say BJ is trying hard to sound/look cool, but they're trying a little too hard. What with the "dawg"s in the menu and short narratives in Comic Sans, font size 14 words, it was really an eye sore for me. All that effort put in to inject that little bit of "humour" into the menu could have been converted to beautifying the menu which reminds my friend of our school's lecture notes, mistreated.
Eventually, I ordered a Cajun Chicken - supposedly the 2nd most popular meal. It came with a generous portion of Spicy Fries and Coleslaw. To be honest, I didn't quite like the idea of eating from a black plate as it felt as though the plate could have been dirty (but you'll never know). The chicken had a layer of melted cheese and cajun sauce. I thought the portion of the meat was reasonable, only that it was a tad too dry. But it went pretty well with the cheese and sauce, only that I thought they could drizzle more sauce on the chicken (isn't that why it's Cajun chicken?). The coleslaw had a weird, bitter after-taste. The fries were not too bad, just that it would have been better if it were tastier. I paid $7.50 for it.
With the price I paid, I'd say it was rather worth it. Large portion, enough to fill your tummy. Not too bad for the price I guess, but don't go with too high expectations in terms of quality of food. What with all the hoo-ha about BJ, some may probably find it over-rated by the time they've gotten down to trying it. Well, at least I did. (Ah, but I think I'd still rate it a 3.5 / 5 for the price and fairly satisfactory service.)
Tao’s Restaurant was established by Mr Huang Yen Kun in June 2003. During a date with his girlfriend while still in college, they came across a famous French restaurant that was serving 7-course set meal. Mr Huang really wanted to dine in, but at $100 per set, the price was beyond what he could afford at that moment. This incident sparked off his idea of opening a restaurant that serves full 7-courses set meals at a price that will be affordable for everyone.
To further value-add the concept, the price for the set-meal is fixed. This means that customers can choose the dish of their preference for each category, without worrying about the price. In addition, there will be new dishes available for customers to choose from every 2 – 3 months.
Another special concept that Mr Huang added, was to present all dishes in specially designed “Tao Tzu” (pottery) plates (thus the name Tao’s). Tao Tzu plates in itself is a fine art, and most importantly, “Tao Tzu” has a high heat withstanding level which will help to preserve the temperature of the food in a very natural way. All these make up the unique restaurant that Tao’s currently is, and why it is well received by all its customers around Singapore
Tao’s serve a 6 course set lunch for $19.80 , and a 7 course set dinner for $28.80 . From the starters, salads, soups, to the Main entrees, desserts, until the beverages, you can pick your choice from the menu. Ordering was definitely easy for the 3 of us since under each category there isn’t that much of a option.
What we did was we look at each category and decided on the dish that we DO NOT want, for example there are four salads, we give a pass on huai san salad, and took the other 3 salad to share. That will make the whole process simpler and hassle-free isn’t it?
Bacon & Mushroom Gratin To kick-start our meal at Tao’s, we had the Bacon & mushroom gratin. At first we were unsure about the dish, because it doesn’t look appetizing to us, but to our surprise this came out really well, coupled with the soft yet fluffy bread (below), both combine together give a unique taste.
Toasted Bread Like mention above, the toasted bread is soft and fluffy, and it comes free-flow. Seriously we could just eat the bread, its so good it can be eaten on its own! No doubt the bread is free-flow, don’t gorge yourself silly, there’s more to come.
Fruit Salad The first of the three salad, the fruit salad was pretty decent, i guess out of the three salad this will be my pick. If you like fruits then this is the one for you.
Ham & Spud salad I have no idea what’s spud, i guess its refering to the potato since there is only ham, potato, and lettuce. I don’t really like the ham & spud salad so much as i find the potato to be pretty tasteless. However my dining companion is a potato-person, so she finish the whole thing without much problem
Farm Boy Splendor The name’s definitely a eye-catcher, having no idea what the salad is, i guess most people will order this one. Thats what we did. But the farm boy splendor came out quite flat, first the presence of peanut has an overwhelming effect on the lettuce and the chicken. The taste of lettuce and chicken is covered by the peanut, but we like the sour-plum dressing.
Cream of mushroom The cream of mushroom was quite similar to the one i had at Friends@Jelita. The mushroom soup has small bits of mushroom among the creamy soup. I find the soup to be quite balanced, not too creamy, not too diluted. Well, if you like your mushroom soup, this will be the one.
Shark-fin melon herbal soup One thing is for sure, there is certainly no shark-fin inside, stop looking for it. Otherwise, i find the shark-fin melon herbal soup quite similar to my mother’s home-cooked soup, thumbs up.
Fish soup The fish soup is unlike other soup you will find. First thing first, it is served not in a bowl, but in a teapot. Pouring out the soup onto a teacup, and you appreciate the soup just like you appreciate tea. Only thing is its not tea, its soup. The innovative is surely there, and the soup isn’t too fishy which makes it a good appetizer.
Baby lobster pasta in white wine sauce My favourite lobster! Unfortunately we got to be realistic, they cant possibly serve a whole lobster in a meal like this, so the baby lobster. Even so, the baby lobster still stands out, baked with cheese, the meal no doubt little, but is good.
The pasta is not my cup of tea, i found it to be too creamy, and there isn’t really the taste of white wine sauce. Nevertheless, the spaghetti is chewy, and comes in a generous helping.
Tao’s oven roasted steak We were debating what’s the yellow colour thing, at first we though it was sorbet, but after tasting, it is not. And we still haven’t figure out what is it. Anyway, Tao’s oven roasted steak is medium-rare, quite tender i will say, but then somehow that something is missing from the steak. Not excellent, but not too bad either.
Baked Atlantic flounder with cheese The presentation of the baked atlantic flounder looks nice, the cheese after baked, looks golden on the fish. Having the first bite into the fish with a layer of cheese on top, the combination is good one, as the melted cheese and the soft taste of the fish goes down well together. However, we were discussing whether there is egg used, because we do experience a very strong egg taste. Mayb a tad too much eggs used.
Ice grape mallow tea You know what? I think this is ribena, no kidding. Like ribena, the tea has grapes. hence the taste of ribena. But the ice grape mallow tea is really good, somewhat like tea, yet not like tea. If you don’t wan a strong tea smell, this one will do the job finely.
Ice rose apple tea There is the scent of rose, and the taste of apple. Blend together and you got the ice rose apple tea
lavander tea Actually we were eating our main course happily, before they served us our three teas. Then for about a few minutes or so, savouring the different tea we completely forgot about our main course. The lavander tea is all about lavander. N’uff said already.
home-made chocolate Mousse Even after a filling meal, there’s always room for dessert, and this instance was no exception. Three small cubes of home-made chocolate mousse, pop one into your mouth, and it melts instantly
Creme Brulee Compared it with the one i had at Al Dente Pronto, the creme brulee was cold while the other one is warm. Given the two, i say i will prefer the one at Al Dente Pronto, warm egg custard does taste better.
Sesame Pudding I’m not really a big fan of sesame, but the Sesame pudding turns out to be all right.
Total bill for 3 set lunch comes up to $69.90 which i must say isn’t expensive considering the fact that we are having a six course meal. The food isn’t outstanding, but its not too bad also. Located at Paradiz centre, its convenient to reach the place. The staffs are friendly, the service and the waiting time in between the different courses is fast.
However, i believe Tao's must update their menu more regularly if they wants to attract me to go back. Simply the fact that three of us share and tried most of their dishes, except for their main entries. And oh ya, please go to Tao's for their set lunch rather than set dinner, because set dinner has only one course more, grilled mango and mushroom sorbet, but it cost $9 more. Nonetheless, for the sheer variety Tao's offers, it is certainly good value if you have not been there before.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” For the sheer variety Tao’s offer, its certainly good value “
Bored of friendster or myspace or other social web portals which promise you fun and discovery, yet fail to deliver? Well, look no further 'cos here's a place where you can meet new people, keep in touch with your friends, write on walls (without getting screamed at!) engage in texas holdem, bet on pet races, trade stocks........ and the list goes on!
Facebook allows users to add tons of external applications onto their profile! Instead of the usual boring "About Me", "Interests", "Who I want to meet" and "Favourite Music/TV shows/Movies", Facebook lets the applications do the talking! As they said, a picture says a thousand words!
There are many different applications designed to cater to different users' various interests. Should users feel like spreading or sharing their interests with friends, they will be given an option to select friends to send the application to! You'll never be alone!
Should you find yourself bored, simply log onto your account and start doing different tests to kill time. These tests are fun and exciting and not to forgot, very refreshing and light-hearted! A very good way of destressing!
Certain applications also help to polish certain skills which may come in handy in life. Personally, i am completely useless when it comes to betting or investing, or simply just doing things to make my money grow. Also, for the longest time, my mom has been against furry animals as pets. Therefore, i added the (fluff)Friend application! This application has allowed me to raise my very own baby kangaroo (something i'll never have in real life), buy (fluff)food for it and feed it to increase its speed when racing! Also, i get to practice betting on the races! Its very useful to me because i've managed to experiment with many different methods of betting, and finally discovered a safe and profitable way of making munny, which is the fluff currency. Even if i lost munny, no worries! I can simply go around petting other (fluff)owner's pets and i get 5 munny for doing so! Its all very easy and enjoyable!
The only thing about Facebook which is not so good, is that while you get to enjoy so many applications and even engage in activities which you are not able to in real life, the profile page will get untidy and rather unsightly if left unorganized. Therefore users HAVE to take the time to organize the boxes on the profile time and again to ensure that your profile is not a pain to look at!
Dropped by with a group of friends after dinner one night. Not a really good experience actually.
The decor was not too bad on the second floor, with a little jacuzzi pool (which I doubt anyone would use, except for the one I saw that night). The seats in the open area weren't totally comfortable, but I guess it was still fine.
I didn't like the service. They were pressing for orders to be placed, and seemed more than willing to have us leave after our first round of drinks.
The drinks aren't exactly cheap considering the quality. It tasted diluted, both lacking taste and alcohol, considering the same price I paid at another bar in CHIJMES for the same cocktail.
The music was so-so, and I guess it would still be a decent place to sit down and chill for a drink while you are around the area.
I remember frequently patronising the now defunct Dolphins Restaurant around the Macpherson area when I was still a secondary school student for its value for money set lunches and dinners. Fast forward a decade and the only hint of Dolphins existence is its flagship outlet along Genting Lane.
Oddly located on the 7th floor of an aging industrial building, it is so obscure that you would have to actually know that such a place existed. The interior is homely and reminiscent of steak houses of yesteryear (think Jack's place in the early 90s), made complete with nice booth seats in one corner.
Cream of Mushroom - The soup came with my set lunch and was rather starchy. Beats a watered down version I guess. And I'm pretty sure it came straight out of a can.
Tenderloin with Slipper Lobster - Done up medium rare, the tenderloin was decent but not outstanding. The meat tasted a little flat and could have done with some seasoning. On the up side, the slipper lobster was relatively big and sweet. But as with all lobsters, meat is always limited.
Pasta with Beef - Surprisingly, the pasta was al dente and the addition of capsicum gave this dish a very interesting twist - one that did not sit too well with me however. The beef cubes were plentiful though but lacking in taste and texture.
I guess $47 for 2 for lunch isn't exactly cheap or value for money, but I would say its still decent and definitely a nice quiet place to have a meal. That, plus the nostalgic factor and decent service, is enough for a revisit.
Having watched a few movies there a few times, I must say, I'm quite satisfied with the seats and the range of finger food being offered. I like potato wedges and I think this is the only place where wedges are being offered, although a tad more expensive and less than having them in cafe.
The seats are not too uncomfortable although there are too many commercials running running for around 30 minutes before showing the movie.
It would be better to show the movie after 5 - 6 minutes of commercials since we pay for the movie, not the commercials. Overall, I like the legroom. However, if there were to be someone sitting in front of me, I would have a head outline instead of having the privilege to watch the whole screen.
I have a confession to make, i’ll have to admit New Harbour Cafe wasn’t my first choice for dinner. My initial preference for our gathering was at Tuckshop (also on the same stretch of road at Tanjong Pagar).
Well, the catastrophe occurs like this, i din make any reservation because i wasn’t sure whether my friends wanted to go to Tuckshop, so we just happily set off there. It was a long 15-20 min walk from Outram MRT, please be smart and take the Tanjong Pagar MRT instead. When we finally reach Tuckshop, the whole place was empty, right at 7pm. To our dismay, the waiteress told us the cafe is fully booked at 730pm and there was NO WAY she can make space for us. Ten of us.
Now its my turn to panic, since i was the organiser and i din have a back-up plan because i thought Tuckshop will be available. We walk around (not easy to bring a big group around looking for a dining place), and finally settled on New Harbour Cafe, simply because i have no other alternatives.
At any rate, you might be wondering whether you should continue reading through this entry since i already said New Harbour cafe was because there was no other selection, well you should, don’t write off the place, just yet.
New Harbour Cafe is located at Tanjong Pagar, a whole stretch of road that houses many pubs, & wedding bridal shops. A Cafe & Bar theme concept, New Harbour Cafe was rather empty when we got there, but after we got seated the other diners soon fill up the seats.
One of the minus point of the place was the dim lighting. Definitely not a good place for food bloggers to be, well unless you got superb cameras, which i do not have as you can see from the pictures : (
N.Z Sirloin Steak & Mash ($17.90) My friend had the N.Z Sirloin Steak well done. Gosh, i was thinking can a well done steak even be eaten? To my suprise, the steak isn’t perfectly well done, there are still blood stains within.
Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($11.90) Chicken chop with black pepper sauce, accompanied with sides of mushrooms and mashed potatos
Crackling Roast Pork ($14.90) Roast Pork with crispy crackling served with daily vegetables and mashed potatos. Onion gravy topped with apple sauce. On first look, i though it looks like Roast pork (cos i didn’t see the menu), and to my astonish it really is. Now now, when did you see a cafe serve roast pork as a main before? Mayb i am not yet a experience diner around, but from what i can remember i didn’t see roast pork as main course in all my previous dining experience.
On first bite, the crackling roast pork was crispy, and the apple sauce was a refreshing change to the usual roast pork taste. The apple sauce provided little touches of tangy sweetness with each cut of roast pork. However, this is only good for people with a sweet tooth, or for sharing because the sweetness of the apple sauce does slightly overwhelm your palette. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant experience because the next time i will be able to say i got see Roast Pork as main course before!
Special Chinese New Year Pork Chop ($15.90)
We intially wanted to order Pork Chop with apple sauce, but the waitress highly recommend this instead. Personally i find the pork chop to be all right, but my friend commented that it was too tough.
Harbour Fish & Chips ($12.90) New Harbour Cafe has a column under its menu titled black board & daily special. There is something special everyday, roast leg of lamb on Mon, Madras curry being on tue, and on wed we have oxtail stew, there is the Hainanese pork chop available on thu, and of course our harbour fish & chips on the friday that we patronise the place.
The crispy exterior was complemented with the soft and fresh interior of the fish, with a faint flavouring of spices. The chips in new harbour cafe was cut in huge wedges shape which i must compliment was quite good.
Grilled Dory Fish Fillet ($12.90) We had two of this, and the result was rather pleasing. The Grilled dory fish fillet was fresh, together with a squeeze of the lemon, adds a freshing twist to the fish. The serving was generous as well, with a huge cut of fish fillet which two person can actually share.
Spaghetti Alfredo with ham & mushroom ($11.90) The spaghetti was a nice change with ham & mushroom. Now here, not that my knowledge fails me again, but i don’t remember seeing ham use frequently together with spaghetti? Or am i wrong here? But the usage of ham and mushroom gives me the feeling of pizza rather than spaghetti.
Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger ($12.90) One word for the burger, Humongous! The Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger was huge, large, enormous, and whatever word you can think of. The beef patty was definitely bigger than the one i had at Botak Jones. If you were to compare both beef burger, the one at Botak there is cheese added which gives the burger another flavouring, but harbour’s one allows the taste of the beef patty without any disturbance as there is no other extra ingredient.
The beef patty was made like all good beef patty, juicy and tender. And the serving of the burger certainly fills one up. With the harbour fries, its tough to finish up the meal.
Brownie with ice cream ($5.80) As sweet notes to end off the meal, we had the brownie with ice cream. The brownie alone is $3.80 while an additional scope of ice cream makes it $5.80. We only ordered one dessert because most of us are too full after our main course. The brownie was soft and chocolate-ly.
The total bill (10 person) for 9 mains, 7 drinks and 1 desserts comes up to $158.30, which i must say is rather reasonable. The drinks add up quite a fair bit of damages to the bill, $28 for 7 drinks. Otherwise it will even be cheaper. The one positive thing that i’ll like to highlight will be New Harbour Cafe does not charge any GST & service charge. For a large group of us, no extra charges mean easier calculation of the bill. hahahah!
However, the negative aspects of the place will be they do not serve ice water. which leads to us ordering drinks. And like what i mentioned earlier, their cafe has poor lighting, not suitable for taking photos. Service wise not much, the staff there are all foreign workers.
We saw this while we were about to leave, Makansutra salutes them in recognition of their culinary standards & quality. So they can’t be that bad after all, so give them a visit if you are in the area. Even if you don’t like the food, damages will be reduced as their prices are all in the 10s range.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Nothing beats eating with your mates, nothing! “
My parents had lunch at Boon Tong Kee, half a chicken at $13, and buy back a packet for me @ $3.80.
I'll say the chicken from Boon Tong Kee is quite good, but mayb not good until i will pay $13 for half a chicken. There are better one out there in other neighbour coffee shops really.
Food portion was large, menu described the dishes, and other instructions (e.g rare, medium rare) well. Ordered Chef's salad, Mixed grill and garlic steak. Chef's salad was the best dish that day with extremely fresh vegetables and sliced chicken. Garlic steak was also not bad though the fried garlic was too overwhelming and covered the taste of beef. Service was fast and swift without any encounter of rude service crew. Overall a nice place for a date or dinner night out.
Con:
Peach cooler wasn't exactly a nice drink. We were sort of forced into ordering it by the (auntie) manager. Its quite expensive at about $4 per glass.
Today marks the second time that I am doing a review on Astons Specialities, albeit a rather short one. The first review can be found here. This time however, the location is different. That's right, Astons has a new outlet in the Serangoon Gardens estate. Unlike the original outlet, the new outlet isn't a stand alone unit by itself. Instead, it is housed inside a coffeeshop just next to HSBC and Borsch Steak House. Not really visible from the main road if you ask me, unless you happen to be walking towards the Starbucks/Cafe Cartel area.
On to the food. I had an order of Sirloin Steak medium rare with sides of fries and baked beans. My dad had the Sirloin as well, medium well though and my mum had the Char Grilled Chicken. Both my dad's and my steak turned out overcooked. Mine came almost medium well whereas my dad's one came well done. However, the meat was still a little juicy and sweet in my case, which was a relief in some ways. My mum's chicken was just average.
In my conversation with the cook/owner later on, he explained that the stall was only 3 days old and they weren't familiar with the equipment yet, hence the overcooking. He even offered to change our steaks for us and gave us a small discount on the food, which I felt was a nice gesture on his part.
Total damage was $25. Not cheap, but not expensive either. I'm sure once they get the hang of the equipment, the food will get better and the crowds will come. I'll definitely be back.
1=SGD 0.0587
After hearing soooo much about Botak Jones at AMK (yes there are other outlets, which I only knew of TODAY), I was delighted to hear that there's one at Bedok! ie, very near me (; And so, dragging along a food-enthusiast like myself, we headed down as soon as we could, with much anticipation.
It was almost 2pm by the time we got there. All right, face it, I was disappointed because I thought we'd be seeing a little shop instead of that-stall-at-the-food-court-under-that-block. But that seems to be the trend, somehow. If you heard of, there's Blackboard doing that too.
So anyway, we got a menu each and sat down, trying to decide on what to eat. I must say BJ is trying hard to sound/look cool, but they're trying a little too hard. What with the "dawg"s in the menu and short narratives in Comic Sans, font size 14 words, it was really an eye sore for me. All that effort put in to inject that little bit of "humour" into the menu could have been converted to beautifying the menu which reminds my friend of our school's lecture notes, mistreated.
Eventually, I ordered a Cajun Chicken - supposedly the 2nd most popular meal. It came with a generous portion of Spicy Fries and Coleslaw. To be honest, I didn't quite like the idea of eating from a black plate as it felt as though the plate could have been dirty (but you'll never know). The chicken had a layer of melted cheese and cajun sauce. I thought the portion of the meat was reasonable, only that it was a tad too dry. But it went pretty well with the cheese and sauce, only that I thought they could drizzle more sauce on the chicken (isn't that why it's Cajun chicken?). The coleslaw had a weird, bitter after-taste. The fries were not too bad, just that it would have been better if it were tastier. I paid $7.50 for it.
With the price I paid, I'd say it was rather worth it. Large portion, enough to fill your tummy. Not too bad for the price I guess, but don't go with too high expectations in terms of quality of food. What with all the hoo-ha about BJ, some may probably find it over-rated by the time they've gotten down to trying it. Well, at least I did. (Ah, but I think I'd still rate it a 3.5 / 5 for the price and fairly satisfactory service.)
Rating given:
Tao’s Restaurant was established by Mr Huang Yen Kun in June 2003. During a date with his girlfriend while still in college, they came across a famous French restaurant that was serving 7-course set meal. Mr Huang really wanted to dine in, but at $100 per set, the price was beyond what he could afford at that moment. This incident sparked off his idea of opening a restaurant that serves full 7-courses set meals at a price that will be affordable for everyone.
To further value-add the concept, the price for the set-meal is fixed. This means that customers can choose the dish of their preference for each category, without worrying about the price. In addition, there will be new dishes available for customers to choose from every 2 – 3 months.
Another special concept that Mr Huang added, was to present all dishes in specially designed “Tao Tzu” (pottery) plates (thus the name Tao’s). Tao Tzu plates in itself is a fine art, and most importantly, “Tao Tzu” has a high heat withstanding level which will help to preserve the temperature of the food in a very natural way. All these make up the unique restaurant that Tao’s currently is, and why it is well received by all its customers around Singapore
Tao’s serve a 6 course set lunch for $19.80 , and a 7 course set dinner for $28.80 . From the starters, salads, soups, to the Main entrees, desserts, until the beverages, you can pick your choice from the menu. Ordering was definitely easy for the 3 of us since under each category there isn’t that much of a option.
What we did was we look at each category and decided on the dish that we DO NOT want, for example there are four salads, we give a pass on huai san salad, and took the other 3 salad to share. That will make the whole process simpler and hassle-free isn’t it?
Bacon & Mushroom Gratin
To kick-start our meal at Tao’s, we had the Bacon & mushroom gratin. At first we were unsure about the dish, because it doesn’t look appetizing to us, but to our surprise this came out really well, coupled with the soft yet fluffy bread (below), both combine together give a unique taste.
Toasted Bread
Like mention above, the toasted bread is soft and fluffy, and it comes free-flow. Seriously we could just eat the bread, its so good it can be eaten on its own! No doubt the bread is free-flow, don’t gorge yourself silly, there’s more to come.
Fruit Salad
The first of the three salad, the fruit salad was pretty decent, i guess out of the three salad this will be my pick. If you like fruits then this is the one for you.
Ham & Spud salad
I have no idea what’s spud, i guess its refering to the potato since there is only ham, potato, and lettuce. I don’t really like the ham & spud salad so much as i find the potato to be pretty tasteless. However my dining companion is a potato-person, so she finish the whole thing without much problem
Farm Boy Splendor
The name’s definitely a eye-catcher, having no idea what the salad is, i guess most people will order this one. Thats what we did. But the farm boy splendor came out quite flat, first the presence of peanut has an overwhelming effect on the lettuce and the chicken. The taste of lettuce and chicken is covered by the peanut, but we like the sour-plum dressing.
Cream of mushroom
The cream of mushroom was quite similar to the one i had at Friends@Jelita. The mushroom soup has small bits of mushroom among the creamy soup. I find the soup to be quite balanced, not too creamy, not too diluted. Well, if you like your mushroom soup, this will be the one.
Shark-fin melon herbal soup
One thing is for sure, there is certainly no shark-fin inside, stop looking for it. Otherwise, i find the shark-fin melon herbal soup quite similar to my mother’s home-cooked soup, thumbs up.
Fish soup
The fish soup is unlike other soup you will find. First thing first, it is served not in a bowl, but in a teapot. Pouring out the soup onto a teacup, and you appreciate the soup just like you appreciate tea. Only thing is its not tea, its soup. The innovative is surely there, and the soup isn’t too fishy which makes it a good appetizer.
Baby lobster pasta in white wine sauce
My favourite lobster! Unfortunately we got to be realistic, they cant possibly serve a whole lobster in a meal like this, so the baby lobster. Even so, the baby lobster still stands out, baked with cheese, the meal no doubt little, but is good.
The pasta is not my cup of tea, i found it to be too creamy, and there isn’t really the taste of white wine sauce. Nevertheless, the spaghetti is chewy, and comes in a generous helping.
Tao’s oven roasted steak
We were debating what’s the yellow colour thing, at first we though it was sorbet, but after tasting, it is not. And we still haven’t figure out what is it. Anyway, Tao’s oven roasted steak is medium-rare, quite tender i will say, but then somehow that something is missing from the steak. Not excellent, but not too bad either.
Baked Atlantic flounder with cheese
The presentation of the baked atlantic flounder looks nice, the cheese after baked, looks golden on the fish. Having the first bite into the fish with a layer of cheese on top, the combination is good one, as the melted cheese and the soft taste of the fish goes down well together. However, we were discussing whether there is egg used, because we do experience a very strong egg taste. Mayb a tad too much eggs used.
Ice grape mallow tea
You know what? I think this is ribena, no kidding. Like ribena, the tea has grapes. hence the taste of ribena. But the ice grape mallow tea is really good, somewhat like tea, yet not like tea. If you don’t wan a strong tea smell, this one will do the job finely.
Ice rose apple tea
There is the scent of rose, and the taste of apple. Blend together and you got the ice rose apple tea
lavander tea
Actually we were eating our main course happily, before they served us our three teas. Then for about a few minutes or so, savouring the different tea we completely forgot about our main course. The lavander tea is all about lavander. N’uff said already.
home-made chocolate Mousse
Even after a filling meal, there’s always room for dessert, and this instance was no exception. Three small cubes of home-made chocolate mousse, pop one into your mouth, and it melts instantly
Creme Brulee
Compared it with the one i had at Al Dente Pronto, the creme brulee was cold while the other one is warm. Given the two, i say i will prefer the one at Al Dente Pronto, warm egg custard does taste better.
Sesame Pudding
I’m not really a big fan of sesame, but the Sesame pudding turns out to be all right.
Total bill for 3 set lunch comes up to $69.90 which i must say isn’t expensive considering the fact that we are having a six course meal. The food isn’t outstanding, but its not too bad also. Located at Paradiz centre, its convenient to reach the place. The staffs are friendly, the service and the waiting time in between the different courses is fast.
However, i believe Tao's must update their menu more regularly if they wants to attract me to go back. Simply the fact that three of us share and tried most of their dishes, except for their main entries. And oh ya, please go to Tao's for their set lunch rather than set dinner, because set dinner has only one course more, grilled mango and mushroom sorbet, but it cost $9 more. Nonetheless, for the sheer variety Tao's offers, it is certainly good value if you have not been there before.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” For the sheer variety Tao’s offer, its certainly good value “
Rating given:
Bored of friendster or myspace or other social web portals which promise you fun and discovery, yet fail to deliver? Well, look no further 'cos here's a place where you can meet new people, keep in touch with your friends, write on walls (without getting screamed at!) engage in texas holdem, bet on pet races, trade stocks........ and the list goes on!
Facebook allows users to add tons of external applications onto their profile! Instead of the usual boring "About Me", "Interests", "Who I want to meet" and "Favourite Music/TV shows/Movies", Facebook lets the applications do the talking! As they said, a picture says a thousand words!
There are many different applications designed to cater to different users' various interests. Should users feel like spreading or sharing their interests with friends, they will be given an option to select friends to send the application to! You'll never be alone!
Should you find yourself bored, simply log onto your account and start doing different tests to kill time. These tests are fun and exciting and not to forgot, very refreshing and light-hearted! A very good way of destressing!
Certain applications also help to polish certain skills which may come in handy in life. Personally, i am completely useless when it comes to betting or investing, or simply just doing things to make my money grow. Also, for the longest time, my mom has been against furry animals as pets. Therefore, i added the (fluff)Friend application! This application has allowed me to raise my very own baby kangaroo (something i'll never have in real life), buy (fluff)food for it and feed it to increase its speed when racing! Also, i get to practice betting on the races! Its very useful to me because i've managed to experiment with many different methods of betting, and finally discovered a safe and profitable way of making munny, which is the fluff currency. Even if i lost munny, no worries! I can simply go around petting other (fluff)owner's pets and i get 5 munny for doing so! Its all very easy and enjoyable!
The only thing about Facebook which is not so good, is that while you get to enjoy so many applications and even engage in activities which you are not able to in real life, the profile page will get untidy and rather unsightly if left unorganized. Therefore users HAVE to take the time to organize the boxes on the profile time and again to ensure that your profile is not a pain to look at!
Rating given:
Dropped by with a group of friends after dinner one night. Not a really good experience actually.
The decor was not too bad on the second floor, with a little jacuzzi pool (which I doubt anyone would use, except for the one I saw that night). The seats in the open area weren't totally comfortable, but I guess it was still fine.
I didn't like the service. They were pressing for orders to be placed, and seemed more than willing to have us leave after our first round of drinks.
The drinks aren't exactly cheap considering the quality. It tasted diluted, both lacking taste and alcohol, considering the same price I paid at another bar in CHIJMES for the same cocktail.
The music was so-so, and I guess it would still be a decent place to sit down and chill for a drink while you are around the area.
Rating given:
I remember frequently patronising the now defunct Dolphins Restaurant around the Macpherson area when I was still a secondary school student for its value for money set lunches and dinners. Fast forward a decade and the only hint of Dolphins existence is its flagship outlet along Genting Lane.
Oddly located on the 7th floor of an aging industrial building, it is so obscure that you would have to actually know that such a place existed. The interior is homely and reminiscent of steak houses of yesteryear (think Jack's place in the early 90s), made complete with nice booth seats in one corner.
Cream of Mushroom - The soup came with my set lunch and was rather starchy. Beats a watered down version I guess. And I'm pretty sure it came straight out of a can.
Tenderloin with Slipper Lobster - Done up medium rare, the tenderloin was decent but not outstanding. The meat tasted a little flat and could have done with some seasoning. On the up side, the slipper lobster was relatively big and sweet. But as with all lobsters, meat is always limited.
Pasta with Beef - Surprisingly, the pasta was al dente and the addition of capsicum gave this dish a very interesting twist - one that did not sit too well with me however. The beef cubes were plentiful though but lacking in taste and texture.
I guess $47 for 2 for lunch isn't exactly cheap or value for money, but I would say its still decent and definitely a nice quiet place to have a meal. That, plus the nostalgic factor and decent service, is enough for a revisit.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
Having watched a few movies there a few times, I must say, I'm quite satisfied with the seats and the range of finger food being offered. I like potato wedges and I think this is the only place where wedges are being offered, although a tad more expensive and less than having them in cafe.
The seats are not too uncomfortable although there are too many commercials running running for around 30 minutes before showing the movie.
It would be better to show the movie after 5 - 6 minutes of commercials since we pay for the movie, not the commercials. Overall, I like the legroom. However, if there were to be someone sitting in front of me, I would have a head outline instead of having the privilege to watch the whole screen.
Rating given:
I have a confession to make, i’ll have to admit New Harbour Cafe wasn’t my first choice for dinner. My initial preference for our gathering was at Tuckshop (also on the same stretch of road at Tanjong Pagar).
Well, the catastrophe occurs like this, i din make any reservation because i wasn’t sure whether my friends wanted to go to Tuckshop, so we just happily set off there. It was a long 15-20 min walk from Outram MRT, please be smart and take the Tanjong Pagar MRT instead. When we finally reach Tuckshop, the whole place was empty, right at 7pm. To our dismay, the waiteress told us the cafe is fully booked at 730pm and there was NO WAY she can make space for us. Ten of us.
Now its my turn to panic, since i was the organiser and i din have a back-up plan because i thought Tuckshop will be available. We walk around (not easy to bring a big group around looking for a dining place), and finally settled on New Harbour Cafe, simply because i have no other alternatives.
At any rate, you might be wondering whether you should continue reading through this entry since i already said New Harbour cafe was because there was no other selection, well you should, don’t write off the place, just yet.
New Harbour Cafe is located at Tanjong Pagar, a whole stretch of road that houses many pubs, & wedding bridal shops. A Cafe & Bar theme concept, New Harbour Cafe was rather empty when we got there, but after we got seated the other diners soon fill up the seats.
One of the minus point of the place was the dim lighting. Definitely not a good place for food bloggers to be, well unless you got superb cameras, which i do not have as you can see from the pictures : (
N.Z Sirloin Steak & Mash ($17.90)
My friend had the N.Z Sirloin Steak well done. Gosh, i was thinking can a well done steak even be eaten? To my suprise, the steak isn’t perfectly well done, there are still blood stains within.
Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($11.90)
Chicken chop with black pepper sauce, accompanied with sides of mushrooms and mashed potatos
Crackling Roast Pork ($14.90)
Roast Pork with crispy crackling served with daily vegetables and mashed potatos. Onion gravy topped with apple sauce. On first look, i though it looks like Roast pork (cos i didn’t see the menu), and to my astonish it really is. Now now, when did you see a cafe serve roast pork as a main before? Mayb i am not yet a experience diner around, but from what i can remember i didn’t see roast pork as main course in all my previous dining experience.
On first bite, the crackling roast pork was crispy, and the apple sauce was a refreshing change to the usual roast pork taste. The apple sauce provided little touches of tangy sweetness with each cut of roast pork. However, this is only good for people with a sweet tooth, or for sharing because the sweetness of the apple sauce does slightly overwhelm your palette. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant experience because the next time i will be able to say i got see Roast Pork as main course before!
Special Chinese New Year Pork Chop ($15.90)
We intially wanted to order Pork Chop with apple sauce, but the waitress highly recommend this instead. Personally i find the pork chop to be all right, but my friend commented that it was too tough.
Harbour Fish & Chips ($12.90)
New Harbour Cafe has a column under its menu titled black board & daily special. There is something special everyday, roast leg of lamb on Mon, Madras curry being on tue, and on wed we have oxtail stew, there is the Hainanese pork chop available on thu, and of course our harbour fish & chips on the friday that we patronise the place.
The crispy exterior was complemented with the soft and fresh interior of the fish, with a faint flavouring of spices. The chips in new harbour cafe was cut in huge wedges shape which i must compliment was quite good.
Grilled Dory Fish Fillet ($12.90)
We had two of this, and the result was rather pleasing. The Grilled dory fish fillet was fresh, together with a squeeze of the lemon, adds a freshing twist to the fish. The serving was generous as well, with a huge cut of fish fillet which two person can actually share.
Spaghetti Alfredo with ham & mushroom ($11.90)
The spaghetti was a nice change with ham & mushroom. Now here, not that my knowledge fails me again, but i don’t remember seeing ham use frequently together with spaghetti? Or am i wrong here? But the usage of ham and mushroom gives me the feeling of pizza rather than spaghetti.
Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger ($12.90)
One word for the burger, Humongous! The Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger was huge, large, enormous, and whatever word you can think of. The beef patty was definitely bigger than the one i had at Botak Jones. If you were to compare both beef burger, the one at Botak there is cheese added which gives the burger another flavouring, but harbour’s one allows the taste of the beef patty without any disturbance as there is no other extra ingredient.
The beef patty was made like all good beef patty, juicy and tender. And the serving of the burger certainly fills one up. With the harbour fries, its tough to finish up the meal.
Brownie with ice cream ($5.80)
As sweet notes to end off the meal, we had the brownie with ice cream. The brownie alone is $3.80 while an additional scope of ice cream makes it $5.80. We only ordered one dessert because most of us are too full after our main course. The brownie was soft and chocolate-ly.
The total bill (10 person) for 9 mains, 7 drinks and 1 desserts comes up to $158.30, which i must say is rather reasonable. The drinks add up quite a fair bit of damages to the bill, $28 for 7 drinks. Otherwise it will even be cheaper. The one positive thing that i’ll like to highlight will be New Harbour Cafe does not charge any GST & service charge. For a large group of us, no extra charges mean easier calculation of the bill. hahahah!
However, the negative aspects of the place will be they do not serve ice water. which leads to us ordering drinks. And like what i mentioned earlier, their cafe has poor lighting, not suitable for taking photos. Service wise not much, the staff there are all foreign workers.
We saw this while we were about to leave, Makansutra salutes them in recognition of their culinary standards & quality. So they can’t be that bad after all, so give them a visit if you are in the area. Even if you don’t like the food, damages will be reduced as their prices are all in the 10s range.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Nothing beats eating with your mates, nothing! “
Rating given:
My parents had lunch at Boon Tong Kee, half a chicken at $13, and buy back a packet for me @ $3.80.
I'll say the chicken from Boon Tong Kee is quite good, but mayb not good until i will pay $13 for half a chicken. There are better one out there in other neighbour coffee shops really.
Rating given:
Pro:
Food portion was large, menu described the dishes, and other instructions (e.g rare, medium rare) well. Ordered Chef's salad, Mixed grill and garlic steak. Chef's salad was the best dish that day with extremely fresh vegetables and sliced chicken. Garlic steak was also not bad though the fried garlic was too overwhelming and covered the taste of beef. Service was fast and swift without any encounter of rude service crew. Overall a nice place for a date or dinner night out.
Con:
Peach cooler wasn't exactly a nice drink. We were sort of forced into ordering it by the (auntie) manager. Its quite expensive at about $4 per glass.
Rating given:
Today marks the second time that I am doing a review on Astons Specialities, albeit a rather short one. The first review can be found here. This time however, the location is different. That's right, Astons has a new outlet in the Serangoon Gardens estate. Unlike the original outlet, the new outlet isn't a stand alone unit by itself. Instead, it is housed inside a coffeeshop just next to HSBC and Borsch Steak House. Not really visible from the main road if you ask me, unless you happen to be walking towards the Starbucks/Cafe Cartel area.
On to the food. I had an order of Sirloin Steak medium rare with sides of fries and baked beans. My dad had the Sirloin as well, medium well though and my mum had the Char Grilled Chicken. Both my dad's and my steak turned out overcooked. Mine came almost medium well whereas my dad's one came well done. However, the meat was still a little juicy and sweet in my case, which was a relief in some ways. My mum's chicken was just average.
In my conversation with the cook/owner later on, he explained that the stall was only 3 days old and they weren't familiar with the equipment yet, hence the overcooking. He even offered to change our steaks for us and gave us a small discount on the food, which I felt was a nice gesture on his part.
Total damage was $25. Not cheap, but not expensive either. I'm sure once they get the hang of the equipment, the food will get better and the crowds will come. I'll definitely be back.
See all my pictures here
Rating given: