hburn10's Reviews
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Botak Jones is overhyped.
My friend wanted so much to go there, so we did. Queued for half an hour just to take the orders, then another 45mins for our food. Had heard the cajun chicken is their speciality so I took that. The chicken was okay, although really thick as compared to what you'd get at a normal hawker western food stall. The fries were disappointing, served lukewarm and tastd really just normal.
It is actually good western food, but taste for price, I really think it is really overhyped and overpriced.
My personal views I guess.
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I finally had a chance to try Wood after so long~
I'm a sucker for food cooked in wood-y things eg. claypot rice, korean bimbibab, firewood pizza etc, so when the choice of dinner venue was up to me, I thought "Finally!!".
Strangely quiet at 7pm on a Saturday night, and a little overwhelmed by the quietness actually. Not sure if it is because its tucked right at a corner of Vivo and not visible to the weekend browsing crowd. We were offered the booth seat, which was fabulously comfortable and provided loads of privacy. Call ahead to get one~
I loved the ambience, as its quite hard to find a cosy place for a quiet dinner without the stiffness and intimidation of fine dining. If you get a seat in the open tables, you can actually see the action going on in the kitchen.
Bread was served complimentary, which was quite good. Didn't quite know what it was but tasted like herb toasted pita slices, very good as a starter. Comes with normal olive oil for dip but tasted good on its own. Refilling of bread is also quick so beware not to OD on it~
Warm wood smoked scallops with leek puree and salted black beans ($19)- very good. Nicely smoked taste and scallops were tender and incredibly fresh. Leek puree was excellent, and so were the side salad with vinegrette that came with it.
Hot pan seafood spaghetti with wood roasted manila clams, squid, ang ka prawns ($28) - Excellent, if you're like me who prefers your pasta done the simple alio olio way. Again, seafood were incredibly fresh and was a rather light combination with the pasta. I have no idea what are "ang ka" is, but the prawns were large! Generous quantity of clams made the whole dish rather value for money~
Grilled sakura chicken with lemongrass, shallots and parsley ($25) - didn't actually taste it, but it came nicely grilled and apparently quite good too. Supposedly free of antibiotics (or so I remember), so healthnuts can try it. Wasn't too filling a portion for guys, maybe because there's no carbs (the 2 chicken pieces were served with side salad), so my friend had to fill up with the bread~
Their drinks, cocktails and wine selection are apparently a big thing there, as the menu is much much bigger than that of the food. The wine cellar is the first thing you see when you walk in...impressive~ Shall try it next time.
Service was very good too, very efficient and many smiling faces (which you don't see very much of nowadays).
Definitely worth a second visit for me!!
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Went there with my family for a Friday dinner; not too crowdeded :D
The seating inside is more comfortable as the outside seats are arranged in such a way that you'll be elbowed by fellow diners going to the tables past you and service staff serving the said tables.
Soup of the day ($12) - the medium size one, more than enough for 4 pax. That day was pork ribs and lotus root, which was not bad and tasted quite full bodied (although my mum said its full of MSG but I just can't taste it).
French beans with minced meat ($10) - wok-fried nicely with the beans still crunchy. Plus, not too oily, a crime that other places tend to commit.
Salad prawn ($16) - a little expensive for the portions. Still,the prawns were fresh and came with a nicely deep fried batter, mixed with some mayo. I would have preferred they drizzle the mayo on top rather than mix it in though.
Yang Chow fried rice ($10) - I have to admit I have no idea what's "Yang Chow" anymore because restaurants like to name their 'chap-ba-lang" rice Yang Chow Fried Rice. This one was just normal with usual mix veg and egg, and a tad oily for my liking, although it had a faint 'wok hei'.
Samsui chicken ($12) - medium size too. I've never really fancy this signature dish of theirs actually, but my sis loves it. That said, it is a healthy dish, good for low-carb fans. Its cold lean chicken meat served with sliced cucumber, lettuce, and a ginger / garlic mix. You're supposed to wrap the chicken in lettuce, add cucumber, and top it off with the ginger-garlic mix. The strange sounding combination actually tastes quite nice together, and it is very light on the palette. Reminds me of Peking duck but this is much healthier.
Being in the heartland makes this place a bit pricey in comparison but good for special dinners with mums and dads. Beware though, if you're unlucky, you might get grouchy rude China-national service staff. Also, food quality is not consistent as my last visit was much worse off. Depends on the chef or mood of the chef I guess.
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Popped in for an early dinner on Saturday at about 6pm, and the place was buzzing with families and kids. I'm not a fan of Swenson's but my friend's little girl wanted to try, although this is a bit deviant from the normal Swenson menu.
They have a salad bar :D Reminds me of places like Sizzler but this is much smaller in terms of variety. An ala carte salad bar buffet will cost you $11.30 but if you order a main from the Grill, Wharf, or Farm selection, the salad bar comes along with it. A rather good deal I think.
Salad bar ($11.30) - mixed greens with thousand island dressing, mashed potatoes ham, thai tang hoon salad, fried wanton skin, coleslaw, were the items I tried. Average at most, with the tang hoon being the best. The fried wantons added a nice crunch though.
Jumbo chicken frank ($13.90)- disappointing. Although big in portion, the sausage used was not fragrant enough, and the bun was oily. Ugh. They had tomato sauce and melted cheese on top, which made it taste like pizza. The mustard sauce didn't help much. The meslcun salad on the side was basically a few tatters of leaves and lacking a dressing. The wedges was cold and tasteless.
Omelette ($5.90) - this is in the kids menu, my friend's little girl ordered one for herself and we ordered one to share. Turned out to be a bad topping to an already unsatisfactory dish. Served cold and without any hint of ham nor cheese as reflected in the menu. The harsh browns and mashed potatoes that came along with it was...sigh...
Grilled seafood combo ($28) & Sausage combo ($17.90) - my friends had these so I can't comment on taste. The seafood looked okay enough, but the sausage was pathetically small in portion.
Service was nothing to complain about, and our water was refilled constantly without us having to ask. No ambience to speak of, as although the sofas are quite nice to sit on, the place is full of weekend families, kids, and babies in prams.
If I had a choice, I'd probably not come here again as the same amount of moolah I spent can get me better food. If I had no choice, I'll just take fries or salad bar~
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I have never been to this part of the road, let alone dine in Gallery Hotel. Armed with the Singapore Women's Weekly 1-for-1 main voucher, i made a trip down with a girlfriend last Thursday.
The lift at the lobby takes you straight to the 4th floor, where Zenden is. You actually step out of the lift right to the restaurant entrance because there's no doors to the place.
Soft jazzy music compliments the dimly-lit interior, and the best seats are the ones right next to the glass panes, although the bright lamps on each of these tables tend to make the seats slightly warm.
Menu is actually a clipboard with the different pages clipped on. Smart move I thought, as changes to the menu can be done quite easily in this case.
Bread (complimentary) - normal soft white rolls, served warm and with butter.
Baked scallops & prawns ($22) - it came with mushroom risotto and a few pieces of asparagus. The seafood was very fresh and came in a generous portion. There was also this crab/lobster bisque-like kind of sauce that came with the rice: not bad, but have it while its hot. The asparagus was too old though, I poked it aside after my 1st bite.
Flambe Tenderloin ($28) - my friend ordered this as there is something rather attractive about flambe dishes (we think). The 2 pieces of small tenderloin was done rather nicely, and it was fun watching the service staff cook it in front of you. Apparently the taste is not bad. The sauce that accompanied the beef was extremely salty however, really really salty. There was also this square of alternate layers of potatoes and cheese, baked, and very good!!. Its a french thing supposedly but I don't know what it's called.
Thick cut fries ($5) - technically we didn't order this, as my friend has requested for her side of mashed potato to be changed to this. Not bad actually, although it wasn't served hot enough for me.
Vanilla ice cream - this sweet surprise was served to us at the end of the meal, a scoop for each of us. Your normal King's ice cream, but still a nice touch I thought.
Quality of food exceeded my expectations to be honest; I had expected lesser fare from a hotel 'coffeehouse'.
Service needs to be much improved though. The place was a tad understaffed, with some of them disappearing at times, leaving only 2 staff throughout the restaurant. Very hard to get staff's attention, and I realised some of them had the tendency to walk backwards (i'm not kidding!) while looking at things or mumbling stuff, which makes getting to them even harder!
We wanted to change our main course to those under the flambe section after they took our orders so we asked a staff if he can check if they've already started preparing our orders, and if not, we would like to change our choices. He smiled sheepishly, asked us to wait a minute, then asked someone in a jacket which we assumed is the supervisor or captain to come over. So we repeated our request; he walked off to the kitchen for a while, then walked away to do other stuff. So we were puzzled, not sure if it meant yes or no??? So we asked him again, to which he said okay, and brought us the menus. We deliberated over it, then finally when I wanted to place my new order, the same guy told me: oh, im sorry, I think the chef has already started to prepare your order". Eh???
Finally, we realised they had no idea of what we were talking about just now, at all! I never did find out what he went over to the kitchen for, but we were just amused~~
Service aside, the prices here are very reasonable for a hotel, mains between $12 - $28 and desserts around $6-8. Will be a possible dinner option if I'm in the vicinity :D
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