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Sport & Recreation
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Ema’s Diner located at Greenwood Avenue, is formally known as 8 on Greenwood. Opened by the Halia group at the stretch of restaurants along Greenwood. Greenwood is being spoken at the same breath as Dempsey, Holland Village, Rochester Park as the hidden and hot spot to go.
All these used-to be forgotten little outposts of Singapore have been transformed into mini lifestyle destinations of their own. The location of the restaurant is no longer a issue, so long there is the “hot” and “in” place to go, well-travelled food enthusiants living in all corners of Singapore will be willing to travel to other corners as well.
Maybe not known to all, Greenwood Avenue was created by Les Amis group, one of Singapore dining giant. Out of close to 13 restaurants there, 5 belongs to Les Amis Group;
The Grill at Hillcrest
Sebastien’s Bistrot
Peperoni Pizzeria
Raku Japanese Restaurant
L’estaminet Bar
Anyway, thats for the background information on Greenwood, but Les Amis is really good, first they find a hidden street, this is follow up with opening several separate restaurants with different themes, to complement not to compete with each other. And poof! Greenwood Avenue is born.
Initially we wanted to try out Sebastien’s Bistrot, but it was kind of late when we reached the area, so we went for quick lunch at Ema’s Diner. The first impression of the restaurant was its sort of kiddy? There was those stuff-toys cushion on the seats at one of the tables outside.
The menu was an one-pager, it certaintly did not impress me as it seems unprofessional, like a child-drawn menu. Even though Ema did not offer much variety, but i thought the least they could do was separate out the one-page menu into several page and make it look more appropriate like a menu.
We proceed on to browse through the menu since we had already entered the place, a rough count shows that it was about 25-30 seater restaurant. Not much diners around, mayb it was the timing that we went.
Ema’s Burger ($14.90)
Home-made beef patty, melted cheese, picked vege, bacon & hickory smoked bbq sauce, accompanied by fries. This was pretty decent i guess. You won’t really go wrong ordering this from the short list of food available.
Braised Lamb Shank ($15.90)
With carrot, turnip, celery & mashed potato. The inquisitive side finally got me into trouble. There are safe options to order, but no, my mind tell me not to, and instead Braised lamb shank is served onto my table. Not really good, i didn’t finish the dish if thats what you want to know.
French fries ($3.50)
We made a mistake of ordering french fries for starters because while ordering Ema’s burger, we missed out that it came with fries, otherwise, the fries were okay, and the servings were quite generous too
Total damage came to $43.78 for two person. Also had one mango ice blend ($5.50). The food there wasn’t that bad i guess, mayb its just a case of ordering the wrong stuff, for the price range i though it is still consider reasonable given the fact that it is located beside much high-end restaurants, and the rent at Greenwood isn’t really what you will mention as cheap.
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 : )
“ It can’t be smooth-sailing all the way, sometimes you will encounter bad dining experience ”
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Went with Maz for food-hunting, started at Wheelock place, den to wisma, and finally Taka. Can’t decide wad to eat, finally chose Breeks because it was late and we were hungry. The restaurant has the usual things u would find in a normal western one, so nothing special.
For side dish, we ordered the Breeks! Buffalo Wing, its actually chicken wing dipped in sweet and spicy sauce. There is 6 wings, which comes at $4.90. I quite like the wings, but maz found it too sweet. O well. It came with quite a healthy servings of vegies, i like. 4 out of 5
Maz had fish & chips for his main course because he wanted to try the waffle fries that came with it. Overall, the chips is ordinary, nothing special, there are better chips out there. 2.5 out of 5
I had grilled chicken chop on hotplates for my main course. The chop was quite nice, with the special sauce that was diff from the normal chicken-chop-sauce. BUT, wads with the servings that came with it? Burned potatos, carrots does not really taste nice. I wld prefer mashed potatos or give me coleslaw vegies anyday. 3 out of 5
All in all, the food was average, service was average (they don’t refill iced water fast enough), price was average. So if other places are too crowded, check out Breeks at Taka, note: it also has other branches.
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 : )
" I am your superman, and you are my wonderwoman "
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After a relatively good experience from my previous visit to Pu Tien, I headed back down with my parents for dinner on a busy Sunday evening. Needless to say, parking was a major headache, even to the extent of hazardous with the throngs of foreign workers recklessly heading towards Mustafa.
Salted Pig Trotter with Pepper - We tried Pu Tien's rendition of the pig's trotters for the first time and left rather disappointed. True, the skin was crispy and lightly salted to bring out the balance of flavours. But it was more of soggy crispy rather than crackling crispy and most of it was just fats and minimal meat, which made swallowing a rather difficult task because of the preconceived notions of unhealthiness.
Stir Fried Kailan with Beancurd Skin - This dish was supposed to have more kailan than beancurd skin, but strangely enough, it was vice versa. The beancurd skin was a huge blob and practically covered out whatever small portions of the kailan that was given. And eating too much soft beancurd skin is a sure fire recipe for getting woozy really fast. A rather lacklustre but decently palatable dish overall.
Deep Fried Chicken with Garlic - This time round, the Deep Fried Chicken with Garlic was merely normal. The skin was as crispy as I remembered it to be but the meat came across as a little dry. Also, it tasted rather bland even with the fried garlic atop.
Homemade Beancurd - Undoubtedly the best dish of the evening, the homemade beancurd was soft yet firm and had a nice savoury after taste. I wouldn't go so far as to call it out of this world, but its really a gem. I must say that even my parents were quite impressed with this dish and thats coming from 2 very fussy eaters.
Hing Wa Fried Bee Hoon - As with my previous visit, I didn't find this dish the least bit impressive. The bee hoon was very fine but a little too dry and bland for my liking.
Dinner for 3 stood at about $51, which is in line with my idea of a reasonable dinner given the quality of food. But do not expect top notch food for the price. Its merely comfort food done up with a little more finesse.
See all my pictures here
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Had intended to try out HK Kim Gary at Vivo City, but threw the idea out of the window when we saw the ridiculously long queue. Actually there were long queues at most, if not all of the food outlets at Vivo City. Pure madness. So we drove to Orchard and after wandering aimlessly for a bit, settled for Lei Garden at Orchard Shopping Centre. The lift opens up to the reception area of Lei Garden and first looks, it hardly resembled a Chinese restaurant, with the exception of the wooden chairs. The brick linings in the walls were very evident and the low ceiling finished with wooden frames gave the whole place a very cottage feel. Add on a couple of Christmas decorations and lights and viola, you have a very pretty cottage dining area.
Since we got there at about 9pm, alot of stuff were sold out, like the soup of the day and the smoked duck. So we had to settle for some recommendations by the captain. Namely, Double Boiled Fish's Bone with "Tian Ma", Deep Fried Prawns Coated with Salted Egg Yolk and Stewed Chicken with Young Ginger in Honey Sauce. We rounded up the meal with Durian Pudding and Glutinous Rice Balls with sesame filling.
Lei Garden is well known for its double boiled soups and I never fail to order at least a serving every time I patronise. As such, I had high expectations for the Double Boiled Fish's Bone with "Tian Ma" and it didn't disappoint. The soup was sweet and light with a hint of rawness. However, I did get a little sick of drinking the soup after the first bowl mainly because the slight fishy taste made me queasy. So too much of a good thing isn't always good. Just a little nugget of information, this soup is supposed to relieve dizziness and calm the mind. How true? I have no idea.
The Deep Fried Prawns Coated with Salted Egg Yolk was a delicacy in the making. The egg yolk gave the prawns a slight salty taste and the flavours were evident throughout. The prawns were also very fresh and biting into one is akin to eating Cereal Prawns - You just pop the whole thing into your mouth and enjoy the crunching sounds. However, I say that this dish is a delicacy still in the making because there is room for improvement. For one, the frying batter was uneven. Some prawns had more batter on the front, some had more on the back. This made the overall taste non homogeneous, with some parts being saltier than others.
The Stewed Chicken with Young Ginger in Honey Sauce sounded interesting, but it was no more than Sweet and Sour Chicken, at least that was what it tasted like. Yes, the chicken meat was definitely more tender than the usual stuff you get outside and the sauce was decidedly lighter and less pronounced than the normal ones outside that threaten to overpower the taste of everything else. I liked this dish and so did my gf. Funny that there was no ginger taste though.
Desserts have never really been a forte for Lei Garden and their desserts speak for themselves. My Durian Pudding tasted rather artificial although there were significant chunks of Durian meat in it. The Gelatine was in excess and gave the pudding a very creamy yet mashed up texture. My gf's Glutinous Rice Balls with sesame filling was rather tasteless. The rice balls were coated with ground peanuts, which made them fragrant. However, the sesame filling could do with more flavour.
Dinner blew us away at about $110/-. We certainly didn't expect the bill to be so high, especially since our dishes weren't exactly expensive stuff. Nevertheless, the food quality is there and it is certainly quite refined. No one said good food comes cheap right? Service was good as well, so that kind of eased the pain when I saw the bill.
See all my pictures here.
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Hanging around Marina with a bunch of friends who were feeling hungry, we somehow settled down here for dinner. It was more of a 'go and test' experience, and it turned out rather well.
The place was done up pretty nicely and the seating was quite comfortable. Service was pretty up to standard too, and the food didn't take long to come.
Food portions were quite ok, partly because we were a hungry bunch, but taste-wise, it is nothing to shout about. Quite a variety to choose from (we really took some time to decide), but nothing very special that caught my attention.
Drinks are quite good though. Quite alot of refreshing flavours to choose from, and the serving's pretty huge. Only thing is that it comes at a relatively hefty price.
Overall, prices are a little steep for the quality of food. Other than that, the dining experience's quite good, and I guess it's still worth a try if you have not eaten there before.
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The location of this outlet might be a little bit of a trouble for some, but for someone who lives just 5 minutes away by foot, this is heaven!
Botak Jones is a MUST-TRY. You just cannot miss out on their big, juicy burgers which comes served with a huge - and I do mean HUGE - portion of fries. Their fries are good, not too dry, just crispy. And oh, do try out their jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese. It's really quite good.
Prices are decent over at Botak Jones. You can totally fill yourself up with about $10. If you happen to have a huge appetite, just get more fries, or throw in an extra side dish. Granted, it's slightly expensive for a 'coffee-shop stall', but the food definitely is way above any kopitiam-stall standard.
The Toa Payoh outlet is located in a rather spacious place, but it gets really crowded during lunch and dinner hours, so try to get there earlier if you don't want to wait too long.
I think I might just go back there again next week.
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I found the fillings of the Paus rather normal, but the Da Bao didn't have ginger inside, which I personally prefer because I simply dislike ginger. The Pau skin was soft and not too thick, with lots of bite. Its really a cut above the rest. Little wonder about the long queues. Try it!
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Farewell meetings and dinners are usually bittersweet affairs where affected parties are more or less torn between feelings of delight for having great friends and feelings of sadness of having to leave the hard earned connections behind to reach for the future. Nonetheless, its always wonderful to have a good meal with all these people who have been a big part of my life. The location was introduced by Emma who recommended the place to no end for its value for money and supposedly good food.
The interior is nothing to shout about but comfortable to be in with its soft lighting and open ambiance. The air conditioning is very powerful though, probably to diminish the discomfort of having a hot stove in front of you but unfortunately, we opted for the kitchen to cook for us, which made us end up feeling extremely cold.
Refillable Korean Side Dishes - These dishes are refillable and comes in small portions. Each refill is random and contains different sample dishes to excite your taste buds. Each is nicely done but some, like the bean sprouts and kimchi ended up being the main attractions in this selection. The problem with the refills is, it came too slowly and the serving staff had alot of problems attending to our needs. Their frustration is apparent as they struggled to keep pace with our speed of eating and the small but heavy bowls did not help their job one bit. Add the fact that the set menu for 8 is a first for them as nobody has ordered it before and you got a huge headache in terms of service.
Seafood Pancake with Spring Onion - This is very good. Fragrant, crispy and strangely juicy (its not because of the oil though), this dish gained sounds of "Oooo's" and "yums" from the all members of the group. Who would have figured beaten eggs with prawns, squid and fish cake thrown into the mix along with spring onions could make a pancake taste this good. Its available on ala carte and very much worth a try.
BBQ Beef?, BBQ Beef Short Rib? - The '?' you see behind both names are not there by accident. They are there because i can't tell which is which since they taste almost exactly the same. If not for the slight beef taste each dish contained, this could have been venison or pork and we wouldn't have been any the wiser. That said, both dishes tasted mediocre despite the tender and chewy beef pieces. Not recommended.
BBQ Chicken and BBQ Pork Collar - After tasting these 2, i'm beginning to feel they marinated everything and cooked everything in the exact same way because it sure doesn't taste any different from each other. Both were sweet, spicy and even had almost the same texture with the small difference of chicken meat being tougher and harder (that's not good by the way).
Authentic Ginseng Chicken Soup - Another mediocre dish. This started out with much promise as we noticed on ala carte, its costs between $3-5 for a refill of the ginseng stock. A sign of good things to come? Sadly, that is not to be. The ginseng soup tastes like it was only just prepared and was very bland, with only slight hints that ginseng had been used in the soup. The chicken was nothing spectacular but tore easily as it was very tender but not recommended.
Boiled Sliced Pork With Cabbage - Simple as this dish may seem, it actually tastes pretty good. The pork was firm and springy which contrasted with the cold crunchiness of the cabbage which is further enhanced by the sour balachan chilli. Nicely done but too bad about the portion size though, which was rather small.
Sauteed Vermicelli with Pork - Another nicely done dish. The vermicelli packed lots of taste and was very pleasing to consume with aromatic sesame sprinkled all over it and traces of pork spread throughout the dish. I can't quite describe why its good but it is, try it to find out.
Stone Bowl Rice - Served in a piping hot stone bowl and mixed by the customers themselves, this is an interesting and authentic Korean dish. As you can see, the bowl consists of a lone egg surrounded by bean sprouts, carrots, cabbage, sliced mushrooms, rice and minced pork. The trick is to mix the dish quickly before serving. So is this any good? For me, i liked it but i liked the cold rice version better, where everything was cold and somehow, it tasted better. This is still decent though.
Seafood and Vegetable in Claypot - Another simple yet nicely done dish. The seafood was fresh and added a dimension of sweetness to the seafood broth which tasted like seafood soup without too much salt like other offerings elsewhere. The ingredients include, mushrooms, fresh prawns, carrots, shittakes, bean curd and even scallops which we fought to have. There were even some clams thrown in for good measure. Good stuff.
Sauteed Crab Korean Style - First impressions was that the crab was small and subsequent tastes did not improve upon that impression. The sauce it was cooked in is a form of chilli which resembles kimchi and turned out overly salty. The crab meat was also minimal and not sweet nor firm which points questions at its freshness. This is something i won't try again.
Seafood Fried Rice - Simplicity is the best policy and this is apparent when this dish came out very well done yet again. Generous servings of squid and shrimp were given with its fragrant and very tasty egg fried rice. On a side note however, i myself can actually do a one up on their fried rice so maybe they should hire me instead?
Complimentary Fruit -
Looks can be deceiving as these pieces of fruit turned out to be very sweet and satisfying which i'm sure you'll agree that it simply is a huge contrast between the picture and the actual taste.
The total bill came up to $296.25 for a bittersweet hit and miss farewell dinner.
For a place with lots of service blunders, i've given them a benefit of the doubt since they admitted upfront that this was the first time anyone has ordered the set meal for 8 people. And food wise, like i've said, there are hits and misses on a pretty much 50-50 basis. I do however, recommend trying the hits on their own to see if you like it but deter on ordering via set menus. Try at your own risk because Korean food is an acquired taste and it certainly doesn't come cheap.
To the people who turned up for the meal. Thank you for all the good times we've had and for turning up. Hopefully we'll get together again soon. Cheers and all the best!
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Bright and eye catching, this Japanese Halal food chain caught my eye many times when i drove past Tampines Century Square and so, one day after work, me and my gf went straight down for dinner hoping to leave satisfied and happy. (Ain't that always the case when eating out?)
Interiors are nicely decorated and pleasing to the eye. The green. brown and red combination gives the illusion of elegance amidst normal settings. The plastic chairs did not add to the effect however and the dispersion of seats are minimal which means if the crowds set in, get ready for lots of knocking around and spilled items. The 'cushioned' seats are fared better but are limited.
Blue Lagoon ($3.90) - Sourish, gassy and overly sweet at the bottom. It doesn't quite fit the bill as a 'refreshment' and at its price, its way too over priced. I suppose its a trend that drinking almost anything outside of home is a way to get closer to poverty, iced water anyone? Oh! A point to note, they do not serve ice water as well. You need to pay $1 for Evian mineral water.
Tom Yam Chicken La Mian ($8.90) - On the menu, this showed 3 chilli's which is supposed to mean it is very spicy since the maximum number of chilli's awarded thus far is 3. My gf was greatly disappointed though since it was not spicy in the least (at least for her) and the stock wasn't much to shout about. The katsu was also not throughly crispy due to it being soaked in the soup and the Ramen was actually soggy which certainly doesn't bode well.
Beef Paper Steamboat Set ($13.90) - Mayo Prawns ($6.50) - The mayo prawns was an additional order and we given a grand total of 4 prawns for the price. That works out to be more then $1.50 per prawn which is very steep since the quality of it was only just passable. The prawns were small and nicely fried in a thin batter which didn't quite add much taste to the dish. The mayo was also of the normal variety but i would have appreciated the Wasabi Mayo prawns which would have been much better. Either way, still over priced for its quantity.
Chicken Karaage - The chicken karaage was actually quite generous and was served piping hot. The meat tasted tender and reminiscent of the seaweed wrapped chicken available at NTUC (thats not really a compliment is it?) and had a general sweetness to the meat that made it quite enjoyable but otherwise, utterly normal.
Beef Pot - The beef set actually came with rice as well and because the first order botched up since they sent me a salmon steamboat instead of my ordered beef steamboat, they made up for it by giving me a huge portion of beef which literally filled the paper steamboat to the brim. Given the choice of Tom Yam soup base or Miso, i picked Miso since Tom Yam to me meant sweating. The beef steamboat is very enjoyable as the portion i had was very generous. There was more then enough to go with the rice and much more left for simple enjoyment. The meat was quite fresh and added much taste to the normally bland miso. Another note on the miso was that it got better the longer the meat was boiled in it. The rice however, lacked any spring or taste but was serviceable to a certain degree.
The bill for 2 came up to $36.05 with a nice 10% discount for UOB card holders. Quite expensive given the quality of the food and environment.
I was generally surprised with the fact that this was a halal outlet but quite glad that it was since it means the market has changed to cater more for the masses. The service was pretty good with the manager offering additional meat for my pot and automatically deducting 10% off my bill without me asking for it but i did dislike the fact that the first order or serving was wrong. Interior wise, they should space out and provide better chairs since it feels too cramped at the moment and food wise, i felt everything was mediocre except for the beef steamboat but thats also because of the generous serving so that might change. Either way, i find this too expensive and will probably not return.
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On my mother's 48th birthday, we brought her to her favorite vegetarian restaurant for a meal since she was vegetarian (that has changed though), and has been a pure vegan for 3 years. I do not claim to be well versed in this particular type of cuisine but i'll be doing my best to throw my prejudices away and give a relatively fair review.
As the location is somewhat of a humble coffeeshop in the vicinity of everyday housing blocks, i figured a snap shot of the location was unnecessary. However, being in such a location meant everyday low prices which does motivate somewhat. My mother does recommend the place and i have tried their spinach fried rice as well, which was really good.
Vegetarian Seafood Pot ($6-8) - This dish was an enigma of sorts because i couldn't quite understand what kind of seafood pot it was imitating. It contained assortments of bean curd ( the normal variety), button mushrooms, black fungi, snow peas and mini corns. The stock was quite salty and the bean curd which made up much of the dish really wasn't anything special. Serviceable but not something i'll order again.
Broccoli and Vegetarian Scallops and Fish Maw ($4-8) - Another lackluster dish, the broccoli was served in huge stalks and were difficult to chew on. The 'fish maw' was interesting because i couldn't make out what it was made of while the 'scallops' were made of 'dao gua' or 'dou gan' which did not taste the least bit the way it was supposed to. As a dish on its own, its rather bland and the broccoli could have been steamed longer before serving.
Sweet and Sour 'Pork' ($4-8) - The first item which actually tasted good. The sweet and sour 'pork' actually tasted authentic which is decidedly easy since the sauce is mostly vegetarian based in the first place. Being made of green peppers, tomatoes, pineapples, onions and tomato ketchup in general. The difference is the 'pork' which was deep fried as normal but is made of 'dou gan' instead. And even more surprising is that it actually works. This was quite easily enjoyable.
Vegetarian Shark's Fin Soup ($8-10) - It is a widely known fact that shark's fin itself has no taste, the real providers of taste in that department happens to be the stock or broth that houses it. So in this case, this doesn't taste much different from the actual thing. However, the broth used isn't up to par, probably due to the lack of chicken or seafood used in its stock. This resulted in a somewhat mild and bland tasting stew that has a long way to go before being a good sell.
Peking Duck ($8-10) - We called this out of curiosity and when it was served, it only resulted in even more questions as we struggle to understand why it was given its namesake in the first place. It tastes and looks nothing like Peking duck but that isn't to say it didn't taste good though. Similar to the sweet and sour 'pork' before it, this is made of beans and flour as usual and its seasoned with something akin to char siew sauce which makes it kind of sweet. The outer layer was thin and crispy with the inner layer actually having a texture very similar to chicken. Pretty nicely done.
Hot Plate Bean Curd ($4-8) - More bean curd again! This time, its done hot pate style with loads of spices and chilli thrown into the mix. The results are fiery hot and a little sweet at the same time in terms of the sauce used but the bean curd is sadly the same generic ones they used for almost every other dish. Average but could have been better.
Stir Fried Sweet Potato Leaf ($4-6) - This is interesting. How did they get the item to have the taste of dried shrimp when its a vegetarian restaurant? I guess i probably won't get to know. Either way, the dish tasted authentic yet again rivaling similar offerings fried with dried shrimp made outside but of course, thats about all that is good about it. So if you didn't like it when its made of shrimp, you wouldn't like it when its made here.
Fish Head Pot ($5-10) - This is also pretty nicely done, making it actually feel like i'm having fish soup with all the assorted sweet taste and even a fishy smell to go with it. Intriguing but apart from the vegetable, which turn out to be sweet potato leaf and cabbage again, the other ingredients and the fake fish failed to stir my taste buds.
"Shrimp" fritters ($4-6) - Yet another item that actually tasted pretty good. (I believe deep fried stuff tastes good easily because its not good for you.) The 'shrimp', which should be a mixture of radish and flour, was crunchy and appetising when paired with the salad cream and oddly enough, there's minimal oil to be found.
The bill was actually around $40 for this meal for 6 people. (I lost the bill, sorry) There's a multitude of items to try and many things you never thought could taste as alike as it does here. And if my mother's happy, thats fine with me.
I was quite surprised that quite a few items there were actually quite easy to stomach. This is because i largely assume vegetarian food to be the haven of artificial flavors and colors which does next to no good for my health. Still, i cannot deny that the food there wasn't too bad but i maintain my stand that as much as possible. Novelty aside, i would still prefer the natural stuff to something fabricated by man. If you are a vegan, you can give it a try because it does have some authentic stuff but if you are like me, a carnivore, stay away.
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