I was excited when a friend asked me along to the new Persimmon opened by the same people from Epicurious. We had such a nice time at Epi that I was pretty sure that Persimmon would be good too! So despite my busy schedule I went down with my friend for the food-tasting session.
Armed with a street directory and a good navigator (moi) we managed to find the carpark behind the Link Hotel. By the way, I found Link Hotel quite interesting and am really thinking of giving it a try. But the parking was $4 per entry in an open air carpark which I found quite a rip-off. But this is the nearest carpark so there isn't much of a choice.
One wouldn't be able to miss Persimmon with its bright orange lights standing tall just outside of it.
After much discussion on how to take a good photo of the front of the restaurant, we finally stepped into the place, greeted by Helena, one of the owners. She introduced us to the rest of the crowd for the evening who were all very friendly people and got us some wine before seating us at this long table meant for large groups.
The black and white tiled flooring and the coffeeshop table and chairs gave it a local feel. But the modern white finishings of the counter and the sides complemented it nicely. I loved the antique-looking sofa sets and the live orchids which gave the place an artsy touch. Old Chinese tunes and jazz helped me relax here.
Food we had:
Mushroom and Sesame Shooter First up was this warm soup in a little glass. I loved the taste and thickness of it. We were told that there was some alcohol in it... but honestly? I couldn't taste it and was happy with that.
Tunghoon Salad with Crabcake This was served with scallop and the presentation was very nice. The Tunghoon had a sourish-spicy taste to it and I liked it very very much! I think it would be better with some cashew bits in it but then that would be very common in Thai salad dishes I guess. As for the crabcake, I would have liked it with more flavour as it was a little bland next to the salad.
Fried Kwayteow served with Wagyu Beef I wanted to write Char Kuay Teow... but then, it wasn't quite that either. I generally try not to eat both CKT and Beef actually. But I did like this version of CKT. It was still oily nonetheless (what is CKT without oil?!) but it did seem healthier somewhat. The noodles were not flimsy and drenched in oil like the hawker centre types but they still have some bite in them. But it was a little too salty but not over the top. I did enjoy the beef though, despite trying to stay away from it. But it was really good, very flavourful and the beansprouts that came with it gave the dish some crunch.
Fisherman's Pie This version had laksa swimming below the puff pastry. The puff pastry is nice but it would have been better with some butter as my friend suggested. I think it would have made it softer and more "fluffy". I wasn't really too concerned that it didn't puff up but I think some softness was missing. I liked the gravy mostly but not quite for drinking though. The ingredients were pretty much what you would expect and they tasted ok. But the potato had probably been floating inside for sometime and its texture was a little too soft.
Pineapple Tart For the first time, I had a giant pineapple tart for dessert. The top has your usual pineapple ring which I wasn't a fan of as it was a little sourish and hard to chew. Beneath it was sweet caramelised pineapple which was very tasty, especially when eaten with the crust! I loved the crust and tried to finish everything but I couldn't as I was too full.
I can't give a pricing for the items I had as I was there for food-tasting. But I took a glance at the menu and the prices are more or less like those in a cafe with mains going in the $20 range.
Not to mention, we took a surprise visit into THE KITCHEN! Helena was so nice to bring us around and show us different sections of the place and we soon realised how much effort was put into planning and designing a place like this! She also showed us a speciall little room that can seat 8 people. It's very cosy and there isn't a minimum spending amount before you can use the room!
Pine Valley Restaurant at Laguna National Golf & country club. Lunch is courtesy on Yebber. We had our first Yebber Ambassador lunch (for the record i’m one of the six, the other five is Bobo, Claudia, Lucardia, Polarbear & Trumpat).
The interior of the restaurant is your typical Chinese restaurant settings. Most of the tables accommodate large crowd and with a few smaller tables around. Before we went into the restaurant, we were given a mini-tour of the golf club by Steward. The entrance to the restaurant is by the side of the main hall, quite different to miss out if you didn’t see the sign carefully.
The staff busy cutting away slices of the Peking duck skin. But before they served, of course is photo-taking time!!
As this was the first dish, the staff didn’t know there was this group of crazy Yebbers at this table. We demanded the dish to be displayed on the table for photo-taking before they can sliced the duck. Well they learned their lessons pretty fast, and from this onwards, every dish was placed on the table before they need to serve us.
Peking Duck The Peking duck was nice, i always love this dish, but the only complain i had for this dish was the duck skin too little, not “shiok” enough!
Well as they only used the duck skin, we couldn’t throw away the meat right? The duck meat was stir-fried and served. Not very sure about the method of cooking, but the taste was awesome!
Shark-fin Next up was shark-fin. Yes i know the animal-lovers out there are going to complain about this, but the shark fin was good nevertheless. I’m not really a big fan of shark-fin, usually i ate it because its there, and not that i liked it.
Wasabi Prawn Balls This was no doubt the star of the show. Tagged as Pine Valley signature dish, the wasabi prawn balls live up to its name indeed. The prawn balls were springy, and although the wasabi flavoring wasn’t strong enough, i liked it that way.
Fish The steamed fish was pretty decent, nothing to shout about.
Cereal Prawn This was the other prawn dish that we had. I wasn’t too sure whether it was cereal prawn, but the rendition seems pretty close to it. I still preferred the wasabi prawn roll to this.
Veggies Spinach with mushrooms. Another ordinary dish.
Fried Noodles The fried noodles is served with eggs and lar-cheong (chinese sausages). We agreed that the lar-cheong flavor was too strong for the noodles.
Desserts tofu with long-gan fruits assortments.
Overall, the lunch was pretty nice, with the wasabi prawn roll my particular favorite. Sorry, no total bill shown because its a treat and we didn’t know the prices. But with shark-fin, peking ducks, prawns, fish, or commonly known as da-yu-da-rou (big fish and big meat), the bill is likely to be quite heavy.
Thanks to Yebber for the treat, and my fellow Yebber-mates for their company on this enjoyable lunch. Like i always said, its the company that makes the food taste nice.
And as always, i’m looking to the next Yebber outing already!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
The crayfish hor fun was recommended to me by some former-colleagues. Located at Hong Lim food centre 2nd floor, the store is at the corner area, but food lovers still can find the area with ease.
Coming in sizes of $3.5, $4, and $5, I had the smallest version which offers a small crayfish and some small prawns. My pals had the bigger price tags one, which definitely comes with bigger crayfish and more prawns.
I found the hor fun to be quite all right, then again i'm not really a big fan of hor fun. The crayfish was quite good given the price, if you wanna the real taste i guess the $5 portion is the one to go for.
Melvados is the first and only specialty brownie café in Singapore. The brownie menu offers several unique brownie creations such as ‘Nuts about Bananas’ and ‘Sizzling Brownie Sensation’.
Apart from brownies, the food menu features appetizers like fresh salads and finger food. Their main course selections ranges from sandwiches at $6, baked rice, lasagnes, to spaghetti, bread bowls, pizza, chicken and fish.
The drinks menu offers Gourmet coffee, organic juices, and specialty drinks such as flavoured coffee, ice blends and fizzies. Retail items includes condiments such as basil pesto, sundried tomato pesto as well as gourmet cookies such as hazelnut cookie, blackforest cookie and many more. Samplings available for all cookies and brownies.
After lunch at Relish for their gourmet burgers, we decided to skip the wild rocket signature cheesecakes for the ‘gourmet desserts’ at Melvados which was just across a street away from Relish.
Stepping into Melvados, it was definitely smaller than what i had expected, the interior can accommodate at most 20 seaters, with the al fresco adding another 8 or thereabouts.
The walls are done in bright colors, with a cozy corner for the sofa seats. But the granite floor looks out-of-place for a cafe interior. Furthermore, there is a large fridge displayed openly and looks messy.
Rich Chocolate Madness ($4.80) & triple choc ice cream ($1) Rich Chocolate brownie with chunky walnuts, served warm with a layer of chocolate sauce. Pure indulgence for chocolate lovers. The whole taste about this brownie is chocolate-ty! Even though i love sweet things and chocolates, it’s still way too sweet for me.
But not mention i had the triple choc ice cream to go along with it. The vanilla ice cream was sold out, and the other brownie had cookie & cream so i thought i had something different.
Surprisingly the triple choc ice cream does not taste sweet when we eat it together with the brownie, i guess the sweetness of the brownie overwhelmed the triple choc and in contrast the ice-cream did not taste very sweet.
Black & White Kisses ($4.80) cookie & cream gelato ($1) Dark chocolate brownie topped with black and white Hershey’s kisses, accompanied with Cookie & Cream gelato. If you ordered the brownie, an additional scoop of ice cream is a dollar, while ordering the ice cream on its own is $3.20 for single scoop and $4.50 for double scoop.
Touted as Melvados signature brownie, the black & white kisses did not disappoint. We preferred it to the Rich Chocolate Madness. The dark chocolate was not very sweet, but coupled with the black & white Hershey’s kisses, the taste blended in perfectly.
A scoop of the cold cookie & cream gelato, on top of the warm chocolate brownie, the result was an instant melt in the mouth effect.
Total Bill for 2 brownies come up to $13.6, not very expensive for 2 desserts. There are plenty of other desserts selection which looks interesting to me. Most of the food items at Melvados are reasonably priced, with the most expensive at $12 for the pizza. Desserts like brownies and cakes are mostly going at $5 each.
While I have not tried the food, but Melvados is billed as a brownie specialty cafe after all. I doubt the food quality will be that fantastic, but given the price i guess there’s no harm trying it. Located at King’s Arcade (besides Coronation plaza), it is not very convenient by people not living in the west, but there are a lot of buses which goes through the area. And its about 20min bus ride from Orchard.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
A food blogger’s life is tough. On the glamorous part, we always travel around in search of good food.
“Wow, you all always get to eat good food at expensive places!”
Behind the scenes, not many people understand what the group of us (foodies) go through. When others are happily enjoying their meals, we labored on to take perfect shots of the delicacy for the sake of showing to our share-readers. Pictures after all tell a thousand words.
And thats just the beginning, thinking of the way to describe the food, how to phrase the sentence, what to write so as to make the review more reader-friendly and interesting. All these take times, and writing a review nowadays is not a laughing matter.
We have to be creative in our writing otherwise all our readers run away (who wants to read a boring review?). So foodies have to crack their brain (at least for me) and spending at least 3 hours on a review has become part and parcel of my life.
But don’t get me wrong, i was just ranting about our “tough life” because Relish was supposed to LIC first food outing. Tons of people were supposed to turn up, but for some reason or other almost all of them cannot make it last minute. For the sake of reviewing though, i bravely forged on and went to Relish with a friend.
Organizing a food outing is no easy feat. I learned a few lessons, never do it on weekends, and at ulu places like Bukit timah. Hopefully the next food outing in May will go out smoothly.
Burgers, when we think of them, fast food chains like MacDonald’s, Burger King, Mos Burger, Carl’s Jr instantly comes into mind. Understandably, the price range associates with fast food are naturally cheaper.
Relish is the sister restaurant of the more popular-known Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily is a casual chic joint dedicated to burgers. Putting it in a simpler term, Gourmet Burger Restaurant.
Now the question is, how do we define a Gourmet Burger? Other than the prices are at a hefty $17-$19 range, Relish also provides special creations like the BBQ charsiew soft-bone pork open foccacia burger, a garam masala lamb and mint hummus pita burger and even a portebello to-fu burger with eggplant salsa.
Seafood Burger with lemon mayo ($19) The Seafood burger comprises of crab, fish, prawn, squid, and toppled with generous serving of the lemon mayo and veggies. Every burger at Relish is accompanied with fries.
Colossal is the word to describe the seafood patty! We were quite astonished when the staff served us the burger, and the surprise soon turns to excitement as we figure out whats the best way to consume the burger. Should we ignore everything and just pick up the whole burger and bite, or should we take the fork and knife to cut? Well in the end we took the first massive bite, after that we came to a decision that using the knife is a better option.
This burger is for all the seafood lovers out there. The lemon mayo is the key here. It combined well with the seafood patty, & added an refreshing taste to the patty. The burger was really huge and it took quite an appetite to finish the whole thing.
One special thing to note about Relish, they actually came up with gourmet beers to go along with the gourmet burgers, interesting idea right? For the seafood burger, it’s best with Titje (Belgian beer)
Curry Chicken Burger ($17) Chicken Pattie dished up with curry mayo, caramelized onions and curry leaves. The curry mayonnaise mix was nice, with the inclusion of the curry leaves further enhancing the “curry flavor”.
However, the chicken pattie was a tad too dry for our liking. The curry mayonnaise sauce in a regular burger would have been enough “wetness” as mayonnaise is a main ingredient for making a burger not too dry. But because the pattie was a chicken and not beef, it tends to dry out due to the longer cooking time required.
We lamented the fact that the chicken mayo was not enough, and the Curry Chicken burger was overall too dry to finish. Anyway, the burger is best served with Australian Rogers beer.
LIC discussed the definition of good fries with my friend. To us, good fries mean that it should have a salty start in the first bite, but it should not be too salty to the extent that you can’t taste the slightly sweet finish of the potato. A bit buttery flavor of the fries will also be good. But unfortunately, the fries at Relish are also too dry and lack the “buttery” taste.
Total Bill for 2 was $42.37. Relish is a interesting concept, by far there isn’t any restaurant that delicates to serving gourmet burgers. Kudos to lawyer-turn-chef Willin who came up with Relish!
However LIC still find the price of a gourmet burger slightly on the high side. If the price will drop a little, or there is some other promotions, you will surely see the other burgers surfacing at LIC. Perhaps we didn’t order their signatures like the wild rocket burger, and other interesting ones like the BBQ char siew burger, Ram-lee burger. My friend doesn’t eat beef (most of the inclusion), lamb and pork. This left us with limited options.
If you are the type that doesn’t conclude burger as a under $10 dish, then Relish could just be the place for you. Do remember to make a reservation before you go, when we went there at 1pm on a Sunday, it was packed to the crowd. By the way, do try the wildrocket signature cheesecake, we didn’t had any because we went to Melvados (just opposite) for our brownie dessert. But their cheesecakes are really awesome, i had it the last time i went to Wild Rocket
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
Tong Shui Cafe (TSC) is one of the many Hong Kong Cafe located in Singapore. Frankly speaking, I disliked Hong Kong Cafe, because i felt that they are rip-offs for the food that they provided. One bowl of instant noodles, a sunny side-up, and luncheon meat for 5-6 bucks? Give me the money, i’ll gladly cooked it for ya!
You get my meaning? Hong Kong cafe that serves authentic Hong Kong food are definitely good, but they are sadly nowhere to be found in Singapore.
The branch that we visited was at Zion Road, opposite Great World City.We went there for desserts after finishing the meal at Al Den Pronto (yes i know, its been ages ago, but i forgot to make this post).
A quick glance into the small cafe tells it all, bright colorful backgrounds are the theme for Tong Shui. The menu is quite comprehensive, with quite a variety of food available, but we skipped all of those having had dinner already.
TSC tuttii fruitti summit ($11.90) The extra large fruit pudding for 2 persons and more. A single pudding on its own cost $3.9 on its own, while we ordered the jumbo-size one at $11.90, doing some simple maths actually there is no “discount” for ordering the big version. Perhaps the serving is better than ordering three separates one? It can be anyone’s guess.
With choices of durian tutti fruitti, mango tutti fruitti, kiwi tutti fruitti, and strawberry tutti fruitti. We left out durian since not all people can said to enjoy the fruit. Mango tutti fruitti is good, everyone loves mango, well at least i do.
The kiwi one does not taste very nice (i don’t like kiwi), and the strawberry one has an over-strong milky taste which does not taste right for a pudding.
Tong Shui Cafe slogan is “more than just desserts“, but sad to say, I’m afraid that they are really a place just for desserts. Well maybe its based on my personal opinion on the standards of Hong Kong Cafe in Singapore, the last time i went to another Hong Kong Cafe, Xin Wang Cafe was also for desserts. Maybe LIC is biased, will someone like to prove me wrong?
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
Many would have known by now that I've been suffering from teeth problems for a few weeks now. I had been the patient of a popular dental chain until recently when the last job by them was poorly done and was very painful.
The last job started to give me problems and I asked around for recommendations. My colleague gave me the address of this clinic and I booked an appointment. There are four inhouse dentists so it's quite easy to get an appointment.
I went for my first visit which was pretty normal. A Dr. Chan (I think), a lady dentist, tended to me and she explained that she needed to do a re-filling. She was gentle and professional but certainly didn't waste any time with me. I was out in a jiffy so that she could move on to the next patient. No complaints I guess. But she did mention that the refilling might not help things as the damage might be too bad. So she told me to go back if the pain continues.
True enough, the pain came back fast and more furious. So I called them and managed to get an appointment with Dr. Leonard Tan in a few days.
Dr. Tan is the reason why I'm writing this review really. With the pain I was having I was really afraid when I went into the room as my gums and teeth were really sensitive at that point. But Dr. Tan was really gentle and I felt at ease in the chair. He was really careful when probing the affected area and didn't poke too hard until he was sure I wouldn't scream. (heh) Then he took me over for an X-ray and while waiting for the X-ray results, he patiently explained to me my options if the results were BAD.
He clearly explained what the root canal treatment was and told me exactly how much it cost. He didn't harp on it and told me I have other options like having the problem extracted.
When the results came back and were not conclusive, he advised me to tolerate the pain a bit and told me to do a number of things to see if they spark off unbearable pain which will point to damaged nerves.
What I really liked was how he wasn't money-minded and gave me my options and let me make the choice. He didn't charge me for this consultation and he gave me painkillers for free too. He only charged me $15 for the X-ray. Very reasonable isn't it?
Immensely happy with the service, I think I will make Dr. Tan my regular dentist. My colleague also recommended Dr. Zhou whom she said had plenty of experience.
Absolute Haven pride itself in serving Modern European Cuisine. Barely one years old, the restaurant has attracted numerous food-lovers and had rave reviews about the place. Thus its no wonder LIC must make a visit to Absolute Haven for a dinner.
Located at Prinsep street, the area has seen the entry of many new restaurants and has become a dining spot positioned within walking distance to Orchard. Absolute Haven is probably the crown among the many restaurants there, with the others not really being competitiors to it, but as complements which help to build Prinsep street as a place to dine.
Entering through the gates of Absolute Haven, there is the alfresco dining area where you can chill out with your friends. Otherwise, if you are on a romantic date and do not want to be seen sweating while enjoying your meal, step inside, to the cozy and chic environment of Absolute Haven.
When my friend and i reached the place at 7pm, the place was not full yet, but the crowd starts to come in subsequently. Being brought to our seats, we browse through the menu and placed our orders.
Mushroom Soup ($5.80) A very mushroom mushroom soup, made from portobello mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, and button mushroom. The rendition here is quite similar to the ones I had at Friends @ Jelita, except this one comes up stronger in the "mushroom taste"
Soup of the day ($5.80) We begin our delightful meal with the soup of the day. I'm not really a soup person while dining out so my view may not paint an accurate picture.
Oriental Cod-Fish ($24.0) Steamed cod-fish done in oriental style topped with wolfberries, shitake mushrooms and bacon, served on a bed of asparagus.
This is truly an fusion where East meet West. You will never expect a dish like Oriental steamed cod fish to appear in a modish European restaurant like Absolute Haven.
Wolfberries as a ingredient, are by far rarely found in European restaurant, it further emphasized the oriental-ness of the dish. The use of bacon added flavoring which enhance the taste of the fish.
It does seems slightly weird to have a oriental steamed cod fish as a main course as usually it is more common to find it in Chinese restaurants. Nevertheless we enjoyed the unique experience, there's always a first for everything.But from what we gathered from Phyllis (Absolute's Manager), some customers find it to be too fishy, and the fish will be taken off the new menu which will commerce on 9th April.
Chef's Special Norwergian Salmon ($32) Herb oil confit Norwergian Salmon drizzled with Vanilla cream sauce, walnut & black olive pilaf rice, accompanied with organic butternut pumpkin braised in Earl grey tea.
The food at Absolute Haven are all presented very well, the chef really does put in effort in making the dishes look nice. After all, a good appearance of the food does makes it taste better. Applause to the chefs for their hard work!
Having try quite a few Salmons recently, the version here is slightly different to the ones i had before which are mostly grilled or pan-fried. The herb oil confit salmon is a nice change, and i dutifully finish every bit of it.
The walnut & black olive pilaf rice is good, without a doubt. The organic butternut pumpkin braised in Earl grey tea isn't really to my liking, but i do appreciated the effort put into making this side dish.
Tira Mi Su ($9) A classical Italian dessert served with espresso coffee and liqueur in light mascarpone cheese mousse. The Tira Mi Su here simply melts in my mouth, the liqueur was not too strong which does well for me. The slight hint of cheese in the mousse also provides a variation from the normal Tiramisu.
The thought of the Tira Mi Su dissolving at the tip of my tongue is enough to make me visit Absolute Haven again.
Passion Fruit Panna Cotta ($9) This dessert wasn't on the menu when we visited Absolute Haven on the 22th March. There was another choice, lavender Panna Cotta, which offers a sweet version instead of the slightly more sour flavor of the passion fruit panna cotta. My friend preferred sour to sweet, so we got the Passion Fruit.
Total Bill came up to around $100.15 for two person. I got two Absolute Haven vouchers (entitled to two free soup and main course). But do not let this fact spoils the review. I deliberately left this fact for the end so that my share-readers can read through this review without any hint of biasness. Absolute Haven is excellent, and i'm not saying this because i got a free meal.
We paid $13.30 for this excellent dinner for the Tiramisu, the Panna Cotta was on the house, courtesy of Phyllis. Absolute Haven promise romantic fine-dining at an affordable price, without burning a hole in your pocket, you can bring your dates there for special occasions. Even for normal events, it's a great place to chill out with your family and friends. The price of their mains ranges from $16 to $32, and desserts are valued at $9-$12.
The friendly manager, Phyllis came up and spoke to us about our meal halfway through. She is a real nice person. You could feel her earnest and sincerity while she was talking to us. There are few managers or bosses in the local food & beverage industry that come across to me as genuine as her. Do call her 9766 3798 or even drop her a sms (which i did) to make your reservations.
The service staff there are polite and quick to help out if we got any inquiries, and my friend note that most of them are good-looking. Anyway thats not the main point, the service at Absolute Haven is indeed what other new start-ups should learn from. Excellent services can never go wrong!
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 biasness. 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 : )
This is a long overdue post. It's been so long that I even got rid of the pictures I took at this place unknowingly.
I dropped by one weekday afternoon with two other friends for an early lunch and was pretty excited to try out the more upmarket version of Aston's Specialties.
I ordered the King Salmon Steak ($22.90) whilst my two friends had steak. You can get their opinion of the steaks above. I tried a couple of bites from their steak and wasn't impressed. They asked for their steaks to be done medium rare... but didn't get medium rare....
My Salmon turned out to be medium rare instead. One end was even uncooked. I've never tasted salmon so horribly done really. Somewhere in between the salmon was mushy and I couldn't tell whether it's because of the way it was done or that it wasn't fresh. I struggled to finish and in the end I couldn't bear to finish it anymore.
The only thing I really liked was the fries. They were the fat sort I liked and were lightly seasoned, making them tasty on their own without sauces. *yums*
The service was reasonable with the people talking to us before the cameras were whipped out. But when they did notice the cameras, I reckoned we got more attention than other patrons.
I seriously think I would really consder before going back again.
I'd never really been a fan of U.R.S but I was on a hunt for shoes that day and have exhausted all other options. So into this shop I went looking for the right shoes.
I was surprised to see the very similiar designs... almost identical to the ones I've seen in the other shops. They also have the designs I wanted in more acceptable colours like white brown and black. They also seem to have a larger range of working class shoes.
At first when I walked in, I was ignored by the staff nearest to the door. We looked at each other eye to eye and she turned away quickly. I had expected at least a smile or a "welcome" but was given none. I was tempted to walk out but knowing that I didn't have any other shops to go, I stayed a bit more.
Then I spotted them. The shoes I wanted in simple brown colour and they were on sale! I picked up the shoes and immediately a sweet young sales assistant appeared by my side. She offered to get the shoes in two different sizes as I wasn't sure what size I would wear. She also recommended some others which were similiar and I happily agreed to try.
After trying on about 7-9 pairs of shoes I finally bought three. The same lady served me throughout while serving some other customers. I found her to be very approachable, unlike her colleague. But later on when I was paying I found out that all of them were trainees. Apparently they are all studying and this is like attachment for them. So the other girl was very nervous which was why she turned away. I guess it's relatively forgivable then. The prices of the shoes are reasonable. An alternative to Charles and Keith I guess... despite U.R.S being around much longer than them.
1=SGD 0.0587
I was excited when a friend asked me along to the new Persimmon opened by the same people from Epicurious. We had such a nice time at Epi that I was pretty sure that Persimmon would be good too! So despite my busy schedule I went down with my friend for the food-tasting session.
Armed with a street directory and a good navigator (moi) we managed to find the carpark behind the Link Hotel. By the way, I found Link Hotel quite interesting and am really thinking of giving it a try. But the parking was $4 per entry in an open air carpark which I found quite a rip-off. But this is the nearest carpark so there isn't much of a choice.
One wouldn't be able to miss Persimmon with its bright orange lights standing tall just outside of it.
After much discussion on how to take a good photo of the front of the restaurant, we finally stepped into the place, greeted by Helena, one of the owners. She introduced us to the rest of the crowd for the evening who were all very friendly people and got us some wine before seating us at this long table meant for large groups.
The black and white tiled flooring and the coffeeshop table and chairs gave it a local feel. But the modern white finishings of the counter and the sides complemented it nicely. I loved the antique-looking sofa sets and the live orchids which gave the place an artsy touch. Old Chinese tunes and jazz helped me relax here.
Food we had:
Mushroom and Sesame Shooter
First up was this warm soup in a little glass. I loved the taste and thickness of it. We were told that there was some alcohol in it... but honestly? I couldn't taste it and was happy with that.
Tunghoon Salad with Crabcake
This was served with scallop and the presentation was very nice. The Tunghoon had a sourish-spicy taste to it and I liked it very very much! I think it would be better with some cashew bits in it but then that would be very common in Thai salad dishes I guess. As for the crabcake, I would have liked it with more flavour as it was a little bland next to the salad.
Fried Kwayteow served with Wagyu Beef
I wanted to write Char Kuay Teow... but then, it wasn't quite that either. I generally try not to eat both CKT and Beef actually. But I did like this version of CKT. It was still oily nonetheless (what is CKT without oil?!) but it did seem healthier somewhat. The noodles were not flimsy and drenched in oil like the hawker centre types but they still have some bite in them. But it was a little too salty but not over the top. I did enjoy the beef though, despite trying to stay away from it. But it was really good, very flavourful and the beansprouts that came with it gave the dish some crunch.
Fisherman's Pie
This version had laksa swimming below the puff pastry. The puff pastry is nice but it would have been better with some butter as my friend suggested. I think it would have made it softer and more "fluffy". I wasn't really too concerned that it didn't puff up but I think some softness was missing. I liked the gravy mostly but not quite for drinking though. The ingredients were pretty much what you would expect and they tasted ok. But the potato had probably been floating inside for sometime and its texture was a little too soft.
Pineapple Tart
For the first time, I had a giant pineapple tart for dessert. The top has your usual pineapple ring which I wasn't a fan of as it was a little sourish and hard to chew. Beneath it was sweet caramelised pineapple which was very tasty, especially when eaten with the crust! I loved the crust and tried to finish everything but I couldn't as I was too full.
I can't give a pricing for the items I had as I was there for food-tasting. But I took a glance at the menu and the prices are more or less like those in a cafe with mains going in the $20 range.
Not to mention, we took a surprise visit into THE KITCHEN! Helena was so nice to bring us around and show us different sections of the place and we soon realised how much effort was put into planning and designing a place like this! She also showed us a speciall little room that can seat 8 people. It's very cosy and there isn't a minimum spending amount before you can use the room!
Definitely worth another visit!
For more pictures, go to my blog
Rating given:
Pine Valley Restaurant at Laguna National Golf & country club. Lunch is courtesy on Yebber. We had our first Yebber Ambassador lunch (for the record i’m one of the six, the other five is Bobo, Claudia, Lucardia, Polarbear & Trumpat).
The interior of the restaurant is your typical Chinese restaurant settings. Most of the tables accommodate large crowd and with a few smaller tables around. Before we went into the restaurant, we were given a mini-tour of the golf club by Steward. The entrance to the restaurant is by the side of the main hall, quite different to miss out if you didn’t see the sign carefully.
The staff busy cutting away slices of the Peking duck skin. But before they served, of course is photo-taking time!!
As this was the first dish, the staff didn’t know there was this group of crazy Yebbers at this table. We demanded the dish to be displayed on the table for photo-taking before they can sliced the duck. Well they learned their lessons pretty fast, and from this onwards, every dish was placed on the table before they need to serve us.
Peking Duck
The Peking duck was nice, i always love this dish, but the only complain i had for this dish was the duck skin too little, not “shiok” enough!
Well as they only used the duck skin, we couldn’t throw away the meat right? The duck meat was stir-fried and served. Not very sure about the method of cooking, but the taste was awesome!
Shark-fin
Next up was shark-fin. Yes i know the animal-lovers out there are going to complain about this, but the shark fin was good nevertheless. I’m not really a big fan of shark-fin, usually i ate it because its there, and not that i liked it.
Wasabi Prawn Balls
This was no doubt the star of the show. Tagged as Pine Valley signature dish, the wasabi prawn balls live up to its name indeed. The prawn balls were springy, and although the wasabi flavoring wasn’t strong enough, i liked it that way.
Fish
The steamed fish was pretty decent, nothing to shout about.
Cereal Prawn
This was the other prawn dish that we had. I wasn’t too sure whether it was cereal prawn, but the rendition seems pretty close to it. I still preferred the wasabi prawn roll to this.
Veggies
Spinach with mushrooms. Another ordinary dish.
Fried Noodles
The fried noodles is served with eggs and lar-cheong (chinese sausages). We agreed that the lar-cheong flavor was too strong for the noodles.
Desserts
tofu with long-gan fruits assortments.
Overall, the lunch was pretty nice, with the wasabi prawn roll my particular favorite. Sorry, no total bill shown because its a treat and we didn’t know the prices. But with shark-fin, peking ducks, prawns, fish, or commonly known as da-yu-da-rou (big fish and big meat), the bill is likely to be quite heavy.
Thanks to Yebber for the treat, and my fellow Yebber-mates for their company on this enjoyable lunch. Like i always said, its the company that makes the food taste nice.
And as always, i’m looking to the next Yebber outing already!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
Rating given:
The crayfish hor fun was recommended to me by some former-colleagues. Located at Hong Lim food centre 2nd floor, the store is at the corner area, but food lovers still can find the area with ease.
Coming in sizes of $3.5, $4, and $5, I had the smallest version which offers a small crayfish and some small prawns. My pals had the bigger price tags one, which definitely comes with bigger crayfish and more prawns.
I found the hor fun to be quite all right, then again i'm not really a big fan of hor fun. The crayfish was quite good given the price, if you wanna the real taste i guess the $5 portion is the one to go for.
Rating given:
Melvados is the first and only specialty brownie café in Singapore. The brownie menu offers several unique brownie creations such as ‘Nuts about Bananas’ and ‘Sizzling Brownie Sensation’.
Apart from brownies, the food menu features appetizers like fresh salads and finger food. Their main course selections ranges from sandwiches at $6, baked rice, lasagnes, to spaghetti, bread bowls, pizza, chicken and fish.
The drinks menu offers Gourmet coffee, organic juices, and specialty drinks such as flavoured coffee, ice blends and fizzies. Retail items includes condiments such as basil pesto, sundried tomato pesto as well as gourmet cookies such as hazelnut cookie, blackforest cookie and many more. Samplings available for all cookies and brownies.
After lunch at Relish for their gourmet burgers, we decided to skip the wild rocket signature cheesecakes for the ‘gourmet desserts’ at Melvados which was just across a street away from Relish.
Stepping into Melvados, it was definitely smaller than what i had expected, the interior can accommodate at most 20 seaters, with the al fresco adding another 8 or thereabouts.
The walls are done in bright colors, with a cozy corner for the sofa seats. But the granite floor looks out-of-place for a cafe interior. Furthermore, there is a large fridge displayed openly and looks messy.
Rich Chocolate Madness ($4.80) & triple choc ice cream ($1)
Rich Chocolate brownie with chunky walnuts, served warm with a layer of chocolate sauce. Pure indulgence for chocolate lovers. The whole taste about this brownie is chocolate-ty! Even though i love sweet things and chocolates, it’s still way too sweet for me.
But not mention i had the triple choc ice cream to go along with it. The vanilla ice cream was sold out, and the other brownie had cookie & cream so i thought i had something different.
Surprisingly the triple choc ice cream does not taste sweet when we eat it together with the brownie, i guess the sweetness of the brownie overwhelmed the triple choc and in contrast the ice-cream did not taste very sweet.
Black & White Kisses ($4.80) cookie & cream gelato ($1)
Dark chocolate brownie topped with black and white Hershey’s kisses, accompanied with Cookie & Cream gelato. If you ordered the brownie, an additional scoop of ice cream is a dollar, while ordering the ice cream on its own is $3.20 for single scoop and $4.50 for double scoop.
Touted as Melvados signature brownie, the black & white kisses did not disappoint. We preferred it to the Rich Chocolate Madness. The dark chocolate was not very sweet, but coupled with the black & white Hershey’s kisses, the taste blended in perfectly.
A scoop of the cold cookie & cream gelato, on top of the warm chocolate brownie, the result was an instant melt in the mouth effect.
Total Bill for 2 brownies come up to $13.6, not very expensive for 2 desserts. There are plenty of other desserts selection which looks interesting to me. Most of the food items at Melvados are reasonably priced, with the most expensive at $12 for the pizza. Desserts like brownies and cakes are mostly going at $5 each.
While I have not tried the food, but Melvados is billed as a brownie specialty cafe after all. I doubt the food quality will be that fantastic, but given the price i guess there’s no harm trying it. Located at King’s Arcade (besides Coronation plaza), it is not very convenient by people not living in the west, but there are a lot of buses which goes through the area. And its about 20min bus ride from Orchard.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
” Brownie Specialty Cafe “
Rating given:
A food blogger’s life is tough. On the glamorous part, we always travel around in search of good food.
“Wow, you all always get to eat good food at expensive places!”
Behind the scenes, not many people understand what the group of us (foodies) go through. When others are happily enjoying their meals, we labored on to take perfect shots of the delicacy for the sake of showing to our share-readers. Pictures after all tell a thousand words.
And thats just the beginning, thinking of the way to describe the food, how to phrase the sentence, what to write so as to make the review more reader-friendly and interesting. All these take times, and writing a review nowadays is not a laughing matter.
We have to be creative in our writing otherwise all our readers run away (who wants to read a boring review?). So foodies have to crack their brain (at least for me) and spending at least 3 hours on a review has become part and parcel of my life.
But don’t get me wrong, i was just ranting about our “tough life” because Relish was supposed to LIC first food outing. Tons of people were supposed to turn up, but for some reason or other almost all of them cannot make it last minute. For the sake of reviewing though, i bravely forged on and went to Relish with a friend.
Organizing a food outing is no easy feat. I learned a few lessons, never do it on weekends, and at ulu places like Bukit timah. Hopefully the next food outing in May will go out smoothly.
Burgers, when we think of them, fast food chains like MacDonald’s, Burger King, Mos Burger, Carl’s Jr instantly comes into mind. Understandably, the price range associates with fast food are naturally cheaper.
Relish is the sister restaurant of the more popular-known Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily is a casual chic joint dedicated to burgers. Putting it in a simpler term, Gourmet Burger Restaurant.
Now the question is, how do we define a Gourmet Burger? Other than the prices are at a hefty $17-$19 range, Relish also provides special creations like the BBQ charsiew soft-bone pork open foccacia burger, a garam masala lamb and mint hummus pita burger and even a portebello to-fu burger with eggplant salsa.
Seafood Burger with lemon mayo ($19)
The Seafood burger comprises of crab, fish, prawn, squid, and toppled with generous serving of the lemon mayo and veggies. Every burger at Relish is accompanied with fries.
Colossal is the word to describe the seafood patty! We were quite astonished when the staff served us the burger, and the surprise soon turns to excitement as we figure out whats the best way to consume the burger. Should we ignore everything and just pick up the whole burger and bite, or should we take the fork and knife to cut? Well in the end we took the first massive bite, after that we came to a decision that using the knife is a better option.
This burger is for all the seafood lovers out there. The lemon mayo is the key here. It combined well with the seafood patty, & added an refreshing taste to the patty. The burger was really huge and it took quite an appetite to finish the whole thing.
One special thing to note about Relish, they actually came up with gourmet beers to go along with the gourmet burgers, interesting idea right? For the seafood burger, it’s best with Titje (Belgian beer)
Curry Chicken Burger ($17)
Chicken Pattie dished up with curry mayo, caramelized onions and curry leaves. The curry mayonnaise mix was nice, with the inclusion of the curry leaves further enhancing the “curry flavor”.
However, the chicken pattie was a tad too dry for our liking. The curry mayonnaise sauce in a regular burger would have been enough “wetness” as mayonnaise is a main ingredient for making a burger not too dry. But because the pattie was a chicken and not beef, it tends to dry out due to the longer cooking time required.
We lamented the fact that the chicken mayo was not enough, and the Curry Chicken burger was overall too dry to finish. Anyway, the burger is best served with Australian Rogers beer.
LIC discussed the definition of good fries with my friend. To us, good fries mean that it should have a salty start in the first bite, but it should not be too salty to the extent that you can’t taste the slightly sweet finish of the potato. A bit buttery flavor of the fries will also be good. But unfortunately, the fries at Relish are also too dry and lack the “buttery” taste.
Total Bill for 2 was $42.37. Relish is a interesting concept, by far there isn’t any restaurant that delicates to serving gourmet burgers. Kudos to lawyer-turn-chef Willin who came up with Relish!
However LIC still find the price of a gourmet burger slightly on the high side. If the price will drop a little, or there is some other promotions, you will surely see the other burgers surfacing at LIC. Perhaps we didn’t order their signatures like the wild rocket burger, and other interesting ones like the BBQ char siew burger, Ram-lee burger. My friend doesn’t eat beef (most of the inclusion), lamb and pork. This left us with limited options.
If you are the type that doesn’t conclude burger as a under $10 dish, then Relish could just be the place for you. Do remember to make a reservation before you go, when we went there at 1pm on a Sunday, it was packed to the crowd. By the way, do try the wildrocket signature cheesecake, we didn’t had any because we went to Melvados (just opposite) for our brownie dessert. But their cheesecakes are really awesome, i had it the last time i went to Wild Rocket
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
” Casual chic gourmet burger joint “
Rating given:
Tong Shui Cafe (TSC) is one of the many Hong Kong Cafe located in Singapore. Frankly speaking, I disliked Hong Kong Cafe, because i felt that they are rip-offs for the food that they provided. One bowl of instant noodles, a sunny side-up, and luncheon meat for 5-6 bucks? Give me the money, i’ll gladly cooked it for ya!
You get my meaning? Hong Kong cafe that serves authentic Hong Kong food are definitely good, but they are sadly nowhere to be found in Singapore.
The branch that we visited was at Zion Road, opposite Great World City.We went there for desserts after finishing the meal at Al Den Pronto (yes i know, its been ages ago, but i forgot to make this post).
A quick glance into the small cafe tells it all, bright colorful backgrounds are the theme for Tong Shui. The menu is quite comprehensive, with quite a variety of food available, but we skipped all of those having had dinner already.
TSC tuttii fruitti summit ($11.90)
The extra large fruit pudding for 2 persons and more. A single pudding on its own cost $3.9 on its own, while we ordered the jumbo-size one at $11.90, doing some simple maths actually there is no “discount” for ordering the big version. Perhaps the serving is better than ordering three separates one? It can be anyone’s guess.
With choices of durian tutti fruitti, mango tutti fruitti, kiwi tutti fruitti, and strawberry tutti fruitti. We left out durian since not all people can said to enjoy the fruit. Mango tutti fruitti is good, everyone loves mango, well at least i do.
The kiwi one does not taste very nice (i don’t like kiwi), and the strawberry one has an over-strong milky taste which does not taste right for a pudding.
Tong Shui Cafe slogan is “more than just desserts“, but sad to say, I’m afraid that they are really a place just for desserts. Well maybe its based on my personal opinion on the standards of Hong Kong Cafe in Singapore, the last time i went to another Hong Kong Cafe, Xin Wang Cafe was also for desserts. Maybe LIC is biased, will someone like to prove me wrong?
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. 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 : )
” Only just for desserts “
Rating given:
Many would have known by now that I've been suffering from teeth problems for a few weeks now. I had been the patient of a popular dental chain until recently when the last job by them was poorly done and was very painful.
The last job started to give me problems and I asked around for recommendations. My colleague gave me the address of this clinic and I booked an appointment. There are four inhouse dentists so it's quite easy to get an appointment.
I went for my first visit which was pretty normal. A Dr. Chan (I think), a lady dentist, tended to me and she explained that she needed to do a re-filling. She was gentle and professional but certainly didn't waste any time with me. I was out in a jiffy so that she could move on to the next patient. No complaints I guess. But she did mention that the refilling might not help things as the damage might be too bad. So she told me to go back if the pain continues.
True enough, the pain came back fast and more furious. So I called them and managed to get an appointment with Dr. Leonard Tan in a few days.
Dr. Tan is the reason why I'm writing this review really. With the pain I was having I was really afraid when I went into the room as my gums and teeth were really sensitive at that point. But Dr. Tan was really gentle and I felt at ease in the chair. He was really careful when probing the affected area and didn't poke too hard until he was sure I wouldn't scream. (heh) Then he took me over for an X-ray and while waiting for the X-ray results, he patiently explained to me my options if the results were BAD.
He clearly explained what the root canal treatment was and told me exactly how much it cost. He didn't harp on it and told me I have other options like having the problem extracted.
When the results came back and were not conclusive, he advised me to tolerate the pain a bit and told me to do a number of things to see if they spark off unbearable pain which will point to damaged nerves.
What I really liked was how he wasn't money-minded and gave me my options and let me make the choice. He didn't charge me for this consultation and he gave me painkillers for free too. He only charged me $15 for the X-ray. Very reasonable isn't it?
Immensely happy with the service, I think I will make Dr. Tan my regular dentist. My colleague also recommended Dr. Zhou whom she said had plenty of experience.
Rating given:
Absolute Haven pride itself in serving Modern European Cuisine. Barely one years old, the restaurant has attracted numerous food-lovers and had rave reviews about the place. Thus its no wonder LIC must make a visit to Absolute Haven for a dinner.
Located at Prinsep street, the area has seen the entry of many new restaurants and has become a dining spot positioned within walking distance to Orchard. Absolute Haven is probably the crown among the many restaurants there, with the others not really being competitiors to it, but as complements which help to build Prinsep street as a place to dine.
Entering through the gates of Absolute Haven, there is the alfresco dining area where you can chill out with your friends. Otherwise, if you are on a romantic date and do not want to be seen sweating while enjoying your meal, step inside, to the cozy and chic environment of Absolute Haven.
When my friend and i reached the place at 7pm, the place was not full yet, but the crowd starts to come in subsequently. Being brought to our seats, we browse through the menu and placed our orders.
Mushroom Soup ($5.80)
A very mushroom mushroom soup, made from portobello mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, and button mushroom. The rendition here is quite similar to the ones I had at Friends @ Jelita, except this one comes up stronger in the "mushroom taste"
Soup of the day ($5.80)
We begin our delightful meal with the soup of the day. I'm not really a soup person while dining out so my view may not paint an accurate picture.
Oriental Cod-Fish ($24.0)
Steamed cod-fish done in oriental style topped with wolfberries, shitake mushrooms and bacon, served on a bed of asparagus.
This is truly an fusion where East meet West. You will never expect a dish like Oriental steamed cod fish to appear in a modish European restaurant like Absolute Haven.
Wolfberries as a ingredient, are by far rarely found in European restaurant, it further emphasized the oriental-ness of the dish. The use of bacon added flavoring which enhance the taste of the fish.
It does seems slightly weird to have a oriental steamed cod fish as a main course as usually it is more common to find it in Chinese restaurants. Nevertheless we enjoyed the unique experience, there's always a first for everything.But from what we gathered from Phyllis (Absolute's Manager), some customers find it to be too fishy, and the fish will be taken off the new menu which will commerce on 9th April.
Chef's Special Norwergian Salmon ($32)
Herb oil confit Norwergian Salmon drizzled with Vanilla cream sauce, walnut & black olive pilaf rice, accompanied with organic butternut pumpkin braised in Earl grey tea.
The food at Absolute Haven are all presented very well, the chef really does put in effort in making the dishes look nice. After all, a good appearance of the food does makes it taste better. Applause to the chefs for their hard work!
Having try quite a few Salmons recently, the version here is slightly different to the ones i had before which are mostly grilled or pan-fried. The herb oil confit salmon is a nice change, and i dutifully finish every bit of it.
The walnut & black olive pilaf rice is good, without a doubt. The organic butternut pumpkin braised in Earl grey tea isn't really to my liking, but i do appreciated the effort put into making this side dish.
Tira Mi Su ($9)
A classical Italian dessert served with espresso coffee and liqueur in light mascarpone cheese mousse. The Tira Mi Su here simply melts in my mouth, the liqueur was not too strong which does well for me. The slight hint of cheese in the mousse also provides a variation from the normal Tiramisu.
The thought of the Tira Mi Su dissolving at the tip of my tongue is enough to make me visit Absolute Haven again.
Passion Fruit Panna Cotta ($9)
This dessert wasn't on the menu when we visited Absolute Haven on the 22th March. There was another choice, lavender Panna Cotta, which offers a sweet version instead of the slightly more sour flavor of the passion fruit panna cotta. My friend preferred sour to sweet, so we got the Passion Fruit.
Total Bill came up to around $100.15 for two person. I got two Absolute Haven vouchers (entitled to two free soup and main course). But do not let this fact spoils the review. I deliberately left this fact for the end so that my share-readers can read through this review without any hint of biasness. Absolute Haven is excellent, and i'm not saying this because i got a free meal.
We paid $13.30 for this excellent dinner for the Tiramisu, the Panna Cotta was on the house, courtesy of Phyllis. Absolute Haven promise romantic fine-dining at an affordable price, without burning a hole in your pocket, you can bring your dates there for special occasions. Even for normal events, it's a great place to chill out with your family and friends. The price of their mains ranges from $16 to $32, and desserts are valued at $9-$12.
The friendly manager, Phyllis came up and spoke to us about our meal halfway through. She is a real nice person. You could feel her earnest and sincerity while she was talking to us. There are few managers or bosses in the local food & beverage industry that come across to me as genuine as her. Do call her 9766 3798 or even drop her a sms (which i did) to make your reservations.
The service staff there are polite and quick to help out if we got any inquiries, and my friend note that most of them are good-looking. Anyway thats not the main point, the service at Absolute Haven is indeed what other new start-ups should learn from. Excellent services can never go wrong!
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 biasness. 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 : )
" Romantic Fine Dining at an affordable price "
Rating given:
This is a long overdue post. It's been so long that I even got rid of the pictures I took at this place unknowingly.
I dropped by one weekday afternoon with two other friends for an early lunch and was pretty excited to try out the more upmarket version of Aston's Specialties.
I ordered the King Salmon Steak ($22.90) whilst my two friends had steak. You can get their opinion of the steaks above. I tried a couple of bites from their steak and wasn't impressed. They asked for their steaks to be done medium rare... but didn't get medium rare....
My Salmon turned out to be medium rare instead. One end was even uncooked. I've never tasted salmon so horribly done really. Somewhere in between the salmon was mushy and I couldn't tell whether it's because of the way it was done or that it wasn't fresh. I struggled to finish and in the end I couldn't bear to finish it anymore.
The only thing I really liked was the fries. They were the fat sort I liked and were lightly seasoned, making them tasty on their own without sauces. *yums*
The service was reasonable with the people talking to us before the cameras were whipped out. But when they did notice the cameras, I reckoned we got more attention than other patrons.
I seriously think I would really consder before going back again.
Rating given:
I'd never really been a fan of U.R.S but I was on a hunt for shoes that day and have exhausted all other options. So into this shop I went looking for the right shoes.
I was surprised to see the very similiar designs... almost identical to the ones I've seen in the other shops. They also have the designs I wanted in more acceptable colours like white brown and black. They also seem to have a larger range of working class shoes.
At first when I walked in, I was ignored by the staff nearest to the door. We looked at each other eye to eye and she turned away quickly. I had expected at least a smile or a "welcome" but was given none. I was tempted to walk out but knowing that I didn't have any other shops to go, I stayed a bit more.
Then I spotted them. The shoes I wanted in simple brown colour and they were on sale! I picked up the shoes and immediately a sweet young sales assistant appeared by my side. She offered to get the shoes in two different sizes as I wasn't sure what size I would wear. She also recommended some others which were similiar and I happily agreed to try.
After trying on about 7-9 pairs of shoes I finally bought three. The same lady served me throughout while serving some other customers. I found her to be very approachable, unlike her colleague. But later on when I was paying I found out that all of them were trainees. Apparently they are all studying and this is like attachment for them. So the other girl was very nervous which was why she turned away. I guess it's relatively forgivable then. The prices of the shoes are reasonable. An alternative to Charles and Keith I guess... despite U.R.S being around much longer than them.
Rating given: