The Brazilian Churrascaria-craze hit our local shores a few years back, and the list of restaurants have spring up quite a few others to have a share of the pie. Think Brazil Churrascaria, Samba Brazil Steakhouse Churrascaria, Vibe Restaurant @ Pan Pacific, Mamma Lucia Brazilian Churrascaria and now we have Rio Brazilian Restaurant
I was rather fascinated by the Brazilian Churrascaria concept. Churrascaria is Portuguese for barbecue restaurant, and it works as buffet style where the passadors (meat waiter) will bring the whole skewer of grilled meat to your table and wield their knife to cut the meat onto your plate.
The main reason for delaying a trip to a Churrascaria restaurant until now was mainly because of the price. I admit the price for Churrascaria are rather on the high side, with lunch going at $30 range, and dinner for $40 range at most Churrascaria restaurants here.
But Rio Brazilian restaurant is having a promotion, and its freaking cheap. $18.90 for its lunch buffet, with 5 churrasco meat, salad bar, soup, hot dishes and desserts. Think $18.90 is cheap already right? Their promotion is 1-for-1, which means $18.90 for two person!
You must thinking whats the catch right? I didn’t found any, but i think the main reason they are able to offer at cheaper rates because their churrasco meat are lesser, the usual standards for lunch will be around 7-8 items, but they have just 5 items.
There’s the al fresco area which was beside a mini-lake. For people who don’t perspire, or for you to sweat it out and enjoy the sun.
The salad bar offers a few types of salad, and they are life-savers, you will need them when you start on the meat. We didn’t bother touching the hot dishes buffet, first thing first they don’t look appealing to us, and better save your stomach for the meats.
Chicken Drumstick There you have it, the passadors (meat waiters) bring the skewer of meat to your table and served. And the number of meat you want is unlimited!
Pork Sausage The pork sausage was not bad too, both of us had a total of 6 sausages.
Honey Baked ham The honey baked ham was too salty, really in excess of salt. We only had 4 slices of the ham, drink lots of water!
Dory Fish The dory fish failed too, a bite into it and thats the end. We took 2 pieces and couldn’t finish it. What do you think?
Beef Hump The beef hump was slightly better, if you love beef then this must be the one for you. We had 8 slices of beef.
Total bill was $22.11 for 2 person, which works out to be around $11 for a person? For the quantity and amount of meat that we had, its definitely value for money. But the quality-wise, not so i guess. The meat wasn’t excellent, but they should suffice in stuffing your stomach up.
One thing to note, all the churrsaco are really salty in taste, we had a lot helpings of the salad bar to quench our thirst. And they don’t served ice water, i suppose another reason why they offer the food so cheap is because they have to earn from the drinks section.
One can of drink cost 4 bucks, we didn’t had any since i “prepared” and brace for the storm since before i went there i found out that they don’t served ice water, so i brought a couple of bottles of water along.
A bit cheapo i guess, but one can of drink at 4 bucks is definitely not enough to quench the thirst. The location is quite ulu if you don’t know the place, its at Queenstown, beside the National Library there’s this golf range. If you need help finding the place, drop me a email [email protected]
And oh ya, i’m not sure whether the promotion still last now, because i went during march, which was like two months ago? Do give them a call before going down.
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 : )
Preceding my previous visit to Chef Chan almost a year back just before it closed to go private, I was back again after its reopening to sample what private dining had to offer. Of course it helped that Chef Chan was offering a promotion which showcased its signature dishes from all 23 years it has been in business.
Located in a nondescript section of the posh and grand National Museum, Chef Chan takes quite a bit of luck to find. There are no signs whatsoever as to where the restaurant is and even the signboard faces inwards into the restaurant. Asking around would probably be a better option. The place is small, filled mainly with antiques Chef Chan has amassed over the years and of course 4 private rooms and a large dining area which seats up to 46 pax by reservations only (No walk in customers are allowed). Honestly I didn't find the rooms too private as we were only seperated from the next table by a peusdo wall partition.
Melon Strips Enlivened with Orange Juice - Probably melon strips soaked with orange juice would be more apt in describing this dish. The melon strips were crunchy but was completely overwhelmed by the excessively sweet orange taste. I would have suspected that the melon strips were dipped into F&N Fanta orange juice if not for the fact that there was visible pulp on the melons.
Prawn Balls Stuffed with Pate and Wine - Each of us had 1 prawn ball to our name and that was insufficient to say the least. The prawn balls were crispy but a tad too salty with a very strong prawn taste which overwhelmed any taste from the pate and probably the wine as well.
Stir Fried Shark's Fin with Eggs, Bean Sprouts and Spring Onion Served in Lettuce Leaves - This dish was actually very similar to what I had at Joo Heng sometime back except that Joo Heng's rendition probably cost much less than this one, with noticeably less shark's fin as well (Not that theres much to start with anyway). Paired up with lettuce, this dish was lightly salty and nice but failed to wow me. I reckon you don't really need much culinary skill to whip up such a dish.
Steamed Lobster with Garlic - Each of us got a lobster probably weighing in at about 300g or so. Fresh and sweet, this should have been one of the highlights of our meal. Unfortunately, the copious amount of garlic over parts of the lobster threatened to kill my tastebuds, rendering me almost immune to whatever succulent sweetness the lobster had to offer.
Steamed Sliced Garoupa in Village Style - The fish was freshly sweet with the flesh firm yet tender. Complementing it was a lightly savoury but a tad too starchy gravy. Portions were ridiculously small and each of us probably got only 4-5 slices of fish.
Sauteed Vegetable with Shredded Mushroom - This dish was greeted with much dismay and comments that anyone could have whipped up such a simple dish. I agree. The vegetables were a little too drenched in the gravy and didn't taste out of the ordinary. I'm pretty sure I've eaten better vegetable dishes at the coffeeshop cze char stall near my place.
Chef Chan's Famous Crispy Roast Chicken - Undisputedly the Pièce de résistance of the entire meal and probably the most well known dish of Chef Chan, the Crispy Roast Chicken. The last time I had it, it was lacking in flavours so I didn't quite get my expectations too high this time round. I don't know if my low expectations were the reason but the chicken blew me away. It was, if I may say, nothing short of excellent. Crispy skin that crackled with every bite coupled with tender, moist and flavourful meat. A gem indeed! The only tiny gripe I had was that the meat tended towards the salty side closer to the bone.
Papaya with White Fungus & Herbal Jelly with Glutinous Rice & Mango - We had the option of 2 desserts, 1 warm and 1 cold. I chose the latter which was the herbal jelly and promptly regretted it. The mango pieces that came with it seemed very unripe, crunchy and sour. It definitely didn't go well with the sweet glutinous rice or the slightly bitter herbal jelly. All in all a total disaster.
I had a taste of the papaya with white fungus and it was quite decent, sweet yet very light on the palate. But nothing fantastic.
The 9 of us chalked up a bill of about $860, which works out to be about $96 per person and the truth is, I wasn't even full after that. Food quality overall was decent with only the chicken shining through. For the price, I had really expected more. Especially when most of the dishes are supposedly Chef Chan's signature dishes and being private dining, most, if not all dishes should be prepared by Chef Chan himself.
I can only take cold comfort in the fact that service was good and we had a 10% discount off the bill. I really cannot fathom paying anymore.
The shoe boutique, which find its new home to 44 Haji Lane, Level 2, moving from its original place at Far East Plaza.
The boutique is done up in a lush, intimate setting, perfect for trying on your shoes in unhurried comfort.
In conceptualising the designs of the shoes, Bianca’s team of designers have came up with effortlessly stylish shoes that are practical for everyday wear, with designs that can take women from work to play.
And if you think only women get to shop here, fear not gentlemen, besides the one-of-a-kind accessories you can get for your girlfriends, watch out for their upcoming launch of men’s label, Jacques, from the designers of Bianca.
Tucked in the corner of the eclectic Haji Lane, there lies a café in a simply refurbished shophouse that you may seek harmony, peacefulness and bliss within the confines.
Set up by Mr Barry Tan and Mr Oliver Pang, Going Om is a café with a western subculture concept of New Age, where besides food, fun and activities (Flow toys performers e.g. movement artists, spinners, twirlers, circus freaks, martial artists, jugglers, object manipulators gather every Thursday nights) patrons can also get to indulge in intuitive card readings, crystal healing and meditation classes, the latter to be held every Sunday evening at 7pm where one can learn to focus on visualisation and manifestation techniques amongst other skills. The place offers a two-storey option.
One gets to sit on an out of the ordinary wooden platform with small tables on the ground level, and as you make your way up a very steep flight of stairs, you will be greeted by a huge Buddha rug hung on the wall and a very spacious room, where customers can have a choice of sitting on the wooden sofa set at the corner or the many mattresses strewn all over – as for me, I definitely prefer the latter.
One of the many interesting feature you will find at Going Om is a trap door on the 2nd floor that opens up to a wooden staircase, that leads you back to the outside of the café on the ground level, the other is the pet parakeets that Barry and Oliver will bring around on their shoulder as they make their rounds to chat up with you.
Besides the usual finger food, Going Om dishes out interesting homemade desserts at $4.50 each that leave you craving for more. The Strawberry Surprise, a creation from Barry, is a warm savoury dessert of cheese and cream, where the delightful surprise is the chilled refreshing strawberries found in the middle of it. This pleasurable mix of sweet and savoury, hot versus cold leaves one wonder for more.
The Apple and Pear Crumble is another excellent homemade creation, this time by Oliver, who picked up this recipe while he was living in UK. What I like about this dessert was the fruits are sliced thickly, still retaining the crunch, unlike the usual cubes you get from outside. The sweet and sour combination of the fruits was enjoyable, plus the generous topping of cereal gives the dessert a fulfilling ending.
We also enjoyed the interesting Chakra drinks ($11.00), an alcoholic beverage that is made of Advocaat, a rich and creamy liqueur from Holland that is made from eggs, sugar and brandy – it is smooth to the throat and leaves an almond aftertaste when one drinks it.
There are 7 colours or choices to choose from and each a different flavour and symbolises a different meaning, which Barry and Oliver will be delighted to share them with you (it was just too complex for me to remember actually). I truly enjoyed my time spent there and before I knew it, 5 hours past quickly.
So Have You Gone Om Lately?!
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
I've been to the new Kallang Leisure Park quite a few times since its reopening. There's a cinema, a KBox, a supermarket, an ice skating rink as well as some other shops. The place still seems quite dead when I went to the Kbox there a couple of weeks back. But the place has potential when the new kallang stadium is completed. Question remains to be seen if the tenants can last that long in the first place.
Had the opportunity to partake in a tasting session at Persimmon one Wednesday evening, courtesy of its co owner, Helena, who also co owns the casual eatery Epicurious at Roberston Quay. Persimmon bills itself as a fusion restaurant, incorporating both chinese and western food to blend up its own variety of fusion. Think somewhere along the lines of another Singapore fusion restaurant, Wild Rocket.
Stepping into Persimmon is reminiscent of stepping into a high class coffeeshop, with its checkered tile floors, white top tables and wooden chairs. What it lacks is the spinning ceiling fans which have been replaced by air conditioning units but I'm definitely not complaining. Not with Singapore's heat and humidity. Coupled with a low ceiling and retro music, it made for a soothing and laid back atmosphere.
Mushroom & Sesame Shooter - I liked this inconspicuous little shot glass of warm mushroom soup. Savoury with a hint of sesame and bits of mushroom. There was suppose to be 绍兴酒 in it but that was apparently not evident.
Fisherman's Pie - Persimmon's rendition of the fisherman's pie took a different twist from the norm. Instead of the usual seafood ingredients enveloped within a mould of pastry, this one was more of a soup bowl covered with a puff pastry lid. Another interesting thing was the choice of soup, which was a less oily version of the ubiquitous Laksa gravy. Honestly, I didn't find the soup or the ingredients very outstanding, coming across as decent at best. The pastry also needed some reworking in my humble opinion, probably through the addition of more butter to make it more fragrant and creamier to the tastebuds.
Fried Kway Teow with Wagyu Beef - I'm sorry to say this, but as fragrant and tasty as the kway teow may be, it is still CKT (Char Kway Teow), albeit of a less oily version than the ones you find in hawker centres outside. It came with a poached quail egg and mushrooms but lacked the discernible wok hei taste due to it being pan fried I believe. Did I mention that it was a tad too salty as well?
The accompanying wagyu beef came served atop a bed of beansprouts and was tender, juicy and almost mouthwatering. But being too thinly sliced, it was a little overcooked and I honestly couldn't tell that it was wagyu beef. So much for such an expensive breed of beef.
On a side note, it would definitely be funny if someone called it 牛肉河粉.
Wagyu Beef - As with the wagyu beef from the CKT, this dish of wagyu was thinly sliced and a tad overcooked, but at least portions were more significant and each slice held more bite. I just wonder how much would such a dish cost.
White Pepper Crab Cake with Tunghoon Salad & Scallop - I've never really been a fan of crab cakes and Persimmon's offering wasn't just about to change that. But thats not to say it wasn't good. As a matter of fact, it was quite decent, with lots of shredded crab, but just not outstanding.
The tunghoon salad held quite a few surprises with its overly zesty taste harbouring a spicy aftermath that hits you slowly but surely. And the lone fleshy scallop that came alongside was a little too undercooked, soft and bland.
Pineapple Tart - Now this was one huge unconventional pineapple tart. A scoop of ice cream atop a sweet pineapple ring, covering a layer of caramelised pineapple, all on a huge tart base. I'm a sucker for pineapple tarts so I liked it quite a fair bit with the nice and smooth ice cream but I did think that it could have been better. The tart base lacked the oven baked taste which I personally like and it wasn't crumbly enough. That aside, its really quite worth the eat.
Overall I think the food is pretty decent and probably a few minor tweaks here and there would suffice. As mentioned earlier, it was a complimentary tasting session hence I am unsure of the prices but a quick glance at the regular menu shows most main courses to be in the $20 range. I might do a revisit, just as soon as I am able to ascertain the food prices.
To end, please allow me to extend my thanks to Helena for the invite and for being an excellent host.
Due to my dad's birthday, I decided to buy emicakes as it was intro by my colleague and I want to try different cake from different cake shop. So my BF accompany me went to downtown east purchase the cake.
As I know Emicakes is famous in their D24 Durian cake, Durian stuff but sorry to say that I don't like durian and I didn't choose the durian cake for my dad. I brought 1 Chocolate cake & 1 Chocolate Puffs.
Pure Addiction Chocolate Cake - $33.90, 0.6kg
The cake filled with thick chocolate mousse, it sweet and not bad. Inside the cake has chocolate-coated almonds and chocolate ganache. But the chocolate mousse was not really that soft, but overall it not bad.
Chocolate Puffs - $3.80, 6 Pieces
The puff were soft, the chocolate was thick and sweet and nice.
Their service was alright.
Total Bill: $33.93 (Before discount $37.70)
As there is 10% discount for UOB card.
Do check out the website or branches for their cakes and mini items.
Joe’s kitchen may look ordinary on the outside, or even you might totally missed it when you passed by the place at its location at Bukit Merah, just directly opposite Alexander Hospital. I did. Having passed by the area a few times, i didn’t know there was this hidden gem offering authentic thai food experience in our midst of our heartland.
I was given this opportunity for the wonderful Makan experience organized by Leslie of ieatishootipost fame. A total of 47 food punters joined us on this occasion. Some of which were ieat’s old makan kakis, while many like me were first-timers joining ieat on his makan session.
The interior of the place was simple, the place wasn’t very big but it managed to squeeze all 47 of us inside the place. I wondered how all of us managed to eat inside that night. Miracle!
The event was supposed to start at 7pm, i got there around 645pm and there were people there already. Damien was the co-organizer for the outing. Jiawei and Shanice were the earliest there if i’m not wrong, i seated in the same table with them. Also on the same table as me were liverpool, eastcoastlife & hubby, yanti & friend. All of us had a wonderful time chatting taking photos, and savouring the food.
The crowd starts to come in and by around 740pm or thereabouts almost everyone arrived. The menu was to be 14 dishes including some starters, mains, and desserts. All the dishes came in sampling tasting size so that we can have a bit of everything. The female boss, Jamie (chef Joe’s wife) is friendly and attended to us warmly.
Crispy rice cake The Kao Dang Na Dang help to kick-start our makan session. Not commonly found in Singapore. the cripsy rice cake, was supposed to go together with the peanut sauce. I didn’t quite enjoy this appetizer as i found it to be way too dry for my liking.
Prawn Cakes The Thot Man Goong or Prawn Cakes was nice to eat, it was crispy and the prawn taste is just right.
Mango Salad The mango salad is one the appetizer dish that you will not be surprised to find in a Thai restaurant. No doubt about it, th salad is packed with everything. The first taste of it, refreshing. The initial impression was its not as spicy as i thought. But the magical part of it was the longer it gets, the spicier it became. A few more bites and the mango salad got to its “full level”
As most of us waited quite long for everyone to turn up before the dishes to serve, by the time the mango salad came out everybody were famished. We literally “attacked” the salad, and it was until ieat told us to hold our horses, that the salad was supposed to eat together with the sticky rice and chicken which were not out yet then we realized that.
Gai Yang (Grilled Chicken) The grilled chicken was quite good to be honest, everyone got a bite of it. Placing the mango salad and the chicken onto the sticky rice, the taste is very different from eating the three dishes separately.
Grilled Pork Collar This was no doubt for me, the star of the show! The Khaw Mu Yang, or grilled pork collar was somewhat similar to our Chinese char siew, albeit Thai style. Many of the kakis found it to be good too! Its also commonly eaten together with the sticky rice and mango salad. But its so good that we eat it on its own.
Tom Yum soup with fried fish In my personal opinion, how good a Thai restaurant is can be based on the test of their Tom Yum soup. Unquestionably. Tom Yum soup is the first thing that most people will think of when they think of Thai food. Well i say the Tom Yum soup by Chef Joe should passed with flying colours. The soup is really spicy, at least from my perspective. Dipping the crispy fried fish into the soup was quite a experience for me.
Green curry beef The beef was tender, and immersed with the essence of the green curry.
Deep fried Grouper with Thai chili The Thai chili was excellent here, real hot and a little sweet spicy. But i couldn’t help drinking more water so as to have a few more mouthful of the chili with the deep fried grouper.
Red Curry Roasted Duck Having seen the green curry earlier, my first thought was red curry after green? This was followed by roasted duck curry? I have never heard of roasted duck curry, let alone tasting it. But this dish was really not bad, i’m not sure how the roasted duck came about, whether Chef Joe roasted the duck, or he brought it from elsewhere and cook it with the red curry, but nevertheless its good.
And to our astonishment, there were grapes, yes grapes inside the curry! Talk about surprise, first roasted duck in curry, then grapes?
Basil leave minced pork I was never a fan of minced pork in the first place, n’uff said!
Claypot Crab Vermicelli with fatty pork Although the claypot crab was suppose to be the highlight here, but we got into eating the vermicelli instead. After cooking, the essence of the crab and fatty pork all went into the vermicelli, that alone should suffice for eating the vermicelli.
Poom Fy Dang - Kang Kong Thai style Like all the other dishes in Joe’s Kitchen, the first taste was not very spicy, but the second bite was real hot. The Kang Kong got hotter with each bite, i suggested just swallow the veggies!
Mango Stick rice To round off our authentic Thai food experience, we had Mango sticky rice, the mango was real sweet!
Tapioca with Coconut milk I didn’t like tapioca, so this dish was not to my taste bud
Total Bill was $1646 for 47 people, $35 per head for the Authentic Thai food experience at Chef Joe’s place. I love going to Makan outings with big groups because we can get to know more people. Think Yebber Party @ MINT where there were about 50 people, the Social Media Breakfast with around 40 odds people, and now this ieat makan outing with 47 people.
Credits to Leslie (ieat) and Damien whom organized this makan session for everyone to get together and enjoyed food. I looked forward to the many more outings organized by them, to meet more people and eat more food!
The beauty of food, it can bring everyone from all ages, different backgrounds together, for one common purpose that is to savour all the good food. How often do you see strangers getting together and seating down for a meal? I’m going to organised LIC food event soon, do watch out for the post!
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 : )
” Authentic Thai Food experience, in the midst of our heartland “
Had dinner at Da Paolo La Terrazza - one of 7 Italian restaurants/bars/gourmet shops that the Da Paolo group has opened up since their early days as Trattoria Da Paolo in Tanjong Pagar.
Located just a stone's throwaway from the ever crowded Holland Village in the quiet, tree lined stretch of Jalan Merah Sage, La Terrazza offers a respite from the hustle and bustle of life as the rat race takes a back seat in this charming little neighbourhood restaurant. The decor is simple yet comfortable, with its rattan chairs and a small alfresco dining area to cater to those who wish to enjoy the humidity of Singapore. Then again, there's only the air curtain to seperate the air conditioned area and the alfresco area so sitting inside doesn't guarantee a cool dinner, which was the case that very night I was there.
The complimentary bread was a good start to the meal. Fragrant, soft and moist on the inside yet crisp on the outside. It would have been better if served warm though.
La Terrazza's offering of the minestrone soup hit some rather flat notes to render it painfully average. I could have gotten the same standard of soup at most decent western restaurants for a lower price. Probably the only interesting thing was that the soup came with a slice of cheese in it, something I've not seen anywhere else. Not that it really made much of a difference to the taste of the soup though.
Cappesante Alle Erbe e Brandy - Sauteed Scallops with Brandy and Herbs - I like scallops hence I tend to have higher expectations of them. And these failed miserably. The scallops were bland and soft, not firm as I would have expected and there was no taste of brandy whatsoever. The only discernible taste came from the ground pepper scattered atop.
Tagliatelle Al Granchio - The Tagliatelle Al Granchio aka crab meat pasta provided a much needed boost to the disappointing dinner thus far. Al dente without being too heavy on the cream or taste. Nice and filling just the way I liked it. Could do with a little more crab meat though.
Crespelle Alla Crema - Caramelised Thin Pancakes with Vanilla Pastry Cream and Vanilla Ice Cream - This is probably one of the very very few times where I order pancakes for dessert. But I'm glad I did. The caramelised pancakes were rather interesting because as the name implies, the pancakes were coated with a hardened layer of caramel, making it sweet. Personally, I would have prefered chocolate cream instead of vanilla cream inside though.
Tiramisu - Undoubtedly the star of the evening, and one of the main reasons why I wanted to eat at La Terrazza - the tiramisu. The not overly wet sponge to mascarpone cheese ratio was quite even and overall the tiramisu came across as light and fluffy with a stronger than usual hint of alcohol. A slice costs $10 and if you want the entire cake, its $60.
$94 for a soup, an appetiser, a main and 2 desserts certainly isn't prohibitively expensive considering the relatively above average quality of food in general. But it isn't cheap either. On the flip side, service is good and efficient but rather mechanical, lacking the personal touch and warmth.
ladyironchef finally got his namecard!! Namecards are important, first they tell others your name, and then they also make them remember your contact number. Its a hassle to liase or socialise with people if you don't have one.
Encountering the problem at Yebber first anniversary party at MINT, and at the Social Media Breakfast where LIC got to meet many people but didn't have any namecard to exchange with.
LIC got a friend to design his namecard, the layout is simple and nice (i hope), styled in black background at the front and white background at the back.
And the rest is easy, bringing down the template in thumbdrive saved as the format required. There was two lady when LIC went to Tommy Print. One was cold and had few words, while the other was friendly and helpful.
They guided me to choosing the different things required for my namecard, and it was not much of a problem. I choose the cheapest, but very nice Gloss/Matte Lamination.
As this is my first time printing my own namecards, i chose 200 pieces at $24, instead of the otherwise more worth-it 300 pieces at $30. Its suppose to take them 4-5 working days to print, but i got the call from them on the 3rd day. So i guess they are quite efficient.
The results of the namecard are nice, better than what i expected really. And at $24 for two box, its really very cheap and affordable for anyone and everyone to own their own namecards.
Meet me at the next Yebber outing, i'll pass you one of mine : )
1=SGD 0.0587
The Brazilian Churrascaria-craze hit our local shores a few years back, and the list of restaurants have spring up quite a few others to have a share of the pie. Think Brazil Churrascaria, Samba Brazil Steakhouse Churrascaria, Vibe Restaurant @ Pan Pacific, Mamma Lucia Brazilian Churrascaria and now we have Rio Brazilian Restaurant
I was rather fascinated by the Brazilian Churrascaria concept. Churrascaria is Portuguese for barbecue restaurant, and it works as buffet style where the passadors (meat waiter) will bring the whole skewer of grilled meat to your table and wield their knife to cut the meat onto your plate.
The main reason for delaying a trip to a Churrascaria restaurant until now was mainly because of the price. I admit the price for Churrascaria are rather on the high side, with lunch going at $30 range, and dinner for $40 range at most Churrascaria restaurants here.
But Rio Brazilian restaurant is having a promotion, and its freaking cheap. $18.90 for its lunch buffet, with 5 churrasco meat, salad bar, soup, hot dishes and desserts. Think $18.90 is cheap already right? Their promotion is 1-for-1, which means $18.90 for two person!
You must thinking whats the catch right? I didn’t found any, but i think the main reason they are able to offer at cheaper rates because their churrasco meat are lesser, the usual standards for lunch will be around 7-8 items, but they have just 5 items.
There’s the al fresco area which was beside a mini-lake. For people who don’t perspire, or for you to sweat it out and enjoy the sun.
The salad bar offers a few types of salad, and they are life-savers, you will need them when you start on the meat. We didn’t bother touching the hot dishes buffet, first thing first they don’t look appealing to us, and better save your stomach for the meats.
Chicken Drumstick
There you have it, the passadors (meat waiters) bring the skewer of meat to your table and served. And the number of meat you want is unlimited!
Pork Sausage
The pork sausage was not bad too, both of us had a total of 6 sausages.
Honey Baked ham
The honey baked ham was too salty, really in excess of salt. We only had 4 slices of the ham, drink lots of water!
Dory Fish
The dory fish failed too, a bite into it and thats the end. We took 2 pieces and couldn’t finish it. What do you think?
Beef Hump
The beef hump was slightly better, if you love beef then this must be the one for you. We had 8 slices of beef.
Total bill was $22.11 for 2 person, which works out to be around $11 for a person? For the quantity and amount of meat that we had, its definitely value for money. But the quality-wise, not so i guess. The meat wasn’t excellent, but they should suffice in stuffing your stomach up.
One thing to note, all the churrsaco are really salty in taste, we had a lot helpings of the salad bar to quench our thirst. And they don’t served ice water, i suppose another reason why they offer the food so cheap is because they have to earn from the drinks section.
One can of drink cost 4 bucks, we didn’t had any since i “prepared” and brace for the storm since before i went there i found out that they don’t served ice water, so i brought a couple of bottles of water along.
A bit cheapo i guess, but one can of drink at 4 bucks is definitely not enough to quench the thirst. The location is quite ulu if you don’t know the place, its at Queenstown, beside the National Library there’s this golf range. If you need help finding the place, drop me a email [email protected]
And oh ya, i’m not sure whether the promotion still last now, because i went during march, which was like two months ago? Do give them a call before going down.
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 : )
” Meat, meat and meat “
Rating given:
Preceding my previous visit to Chef Chan almost a year back just before it closed to go private, I was back again after its reopening to sample what private dining had to offer. Of course it helped that Chef Chan was offering a promotion which showcased its signature dishes from all 23 years it has been in business.
Located in a nondescript section of the posh and grand National Museum, Chef Chan takes quite a bit of luck to find. There are no signs whatsoever as to where the restaurant is and even the signboard faces inwards into the restaurant. Asking around would probably be a better option. The place is small, filled mainly with antiques Chef Chan has amassed over the years and of course 4 private rooms and a large dining area which seats up to 46 pax by reservations only (No walk in customers are allowed). Honestly I didn't find the rooms too private as we were only seperated from the next table by a peusdo wall partition.
Melon Strips Enlivened with Orange Juice - Probably melon strips soaked with orange juice would be more apt in describing this dish. The melon strips were crunchy but was completely overwhelmed by the excessively sweet orange taste. I would have suspected that the melon strips were dipped into F&N Fanta orange juice if not for the fact that there was visible pulp on the melons.
Prawn Balls Stuffed with Pate and Wine - Each of us had 1 prawn ball to our name and that was insufficient to say the least. The prawn balls were crispy but a tad too salty with a very strong prawn taste which overwhelmed any taste from the pate and probably the wine as well.
Stir Fried Shark's Fin with Eggs, Bean Sprouts and Spring Onion Served in Lettuce Leaves - This dish was actually very similar to what I had at Joo Heng sometime back except that Joo Heng's rendition probably cost much less than this one, with noticeably less shark's fin as well (Not that theres much to start with anyway). Paired up with lettuce, this dish was lightly salty and nice but failed to wow me. I reckon you don't really need much culinary skill to whip up such a dish.
Steamed Lobster with Garlic - Each of us got a lobster probably weighing in at about 300g or so. Fresh and sweet, this should have been one of the highlights of our meal. Unfortunately, the copious amount of garlic over parts of the lobster threatened to kill my tastebuds, rendering me almost immune to whatever succulent sweetness the lobster had to offer.
Steamed Sliced Garoupa in Village Style - The fish was freshly sweet with the flesh firm yet tender. Complementing it was a lightly savoury but a tad too starchy gravy. Portions were ridiculously small and each of us probably got only 4-5 slices of fish.
Sauteed Vegetable with Shredded Mushroom - This dish was greeted with much dismay and comments that anyone could have whipped up such a simple dish. I agree. The vegetables were a little too drenched in the gravy and didn't taste out of the ordinary. I'm pretty sure I've eaten better vegetable dishes at the coffeeshop cze char stall near my place.
Chef Chan's Famous Crispy Roast Chicken - Undisputedly the Pièce de résistance of the entire meal and probably the most well known dish of Chef Chan, the Crispy Roast Chicken. The last time I had it, it was lacking in flavours so I didn't quite get my expectations too high this time round. I don't know if my low expectations were the reason but the chicken blew me away. It was, if I may say, nothing short of excellent. Crispy skin that crackled with every bite coupled with tender, moist and flavourful meat. A gem indeed! The only tiny gripe I had was that the meat tended towards the salty side closer to the bone.
Papaya with White Fungus & Herbal Jelly with Glutinous Rice & Mango - We had the option of 2 desserts, 1 warm and 1 cold. I chose the latter which was the herbal jelly and promptly regretted it. The mango pieces that came with it seemed very unripe, crunchy and sour. It definitely didn't go well with the sweet glutinous rice or the slightly bitter herbal jelly. All in all a total disaster.
I had a taste of the papaya with white fungus and it was quite decent, sweet yet very light on the palate. But nothing fantastic.
The 9 of us chalked up a bill of about $860, which works out to be about $96 per person and the truth is, I wasn't even full after that. Food quality overall was decent with only the chicken shining through. For the price, I had really expected more. Especially when most of the dishes are supposedly Chef Chan's signature dishes and being private dining, most, if not all dishes should be prepared by Chef Chan himself.
I can only take cold comfort in the fact that service was good and we had a 10% discount off the bill. I really cannot fathom paying anymore.
See all my pictures here.
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The shoe boutique, which find its new home to 44 Haji Lane, Level 2, moving from its original place at Far East Plaza.
The boutique is done up in a lush, intimate setting, perfect for trying on your shoes in unhurried comfort.
In conceptualising the designs of the shoes, Bianca’s team of designers have came up with effortlessly stylish shoes that are practical for everyday wear, with designs that can take women from work to play.
And if you think only women get to shop here, fear not gentlemen, besides the one-of-a-kind accessories you can get for your girlfriends, watch out for their upcoming launch of men’s label, Jacques, from the designers of Bianca.
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Tucked in the corner of the eclectic Haji Lane, there lies a café in a simply refurbished shophouse that you may seek harmony, peacefulness and bliss within the confines.
Set up by Mr Barry Tan and Mr Oliver Pang, Going Om is a café with a western subculture concept of New Age, where besides food, fun and activities (Flow toys performers e.g. movement artists, spinners, twirlers, circus freaks, martial artists, jugglers, object manipulators gather every Thursday nights) patrons can also get to indulge in intuitive card readings, crystal healing and meditation classes, the latter to be held every Sunday evening at 7pm where one can learn to focus on visualisation and manifestation techniques amongst other skills. The place offers a two-storey option.
One gets to sit on an out of the ordinary wooden platform with small tables on the ground level, and as you make your way up a very steep flight of stairs, you will be greeted by a huge Buddha rug hung on the wall and a very spacious room, where customers can have a choice of sitting on the wooden sofa set at the corner or the many mattresses strewn all over – as for me, I definitely prefer the latter.
One of the many interesting feature you will find at Going Om is a trap door on the 2nd floor that opens up to a wooden staircase, that leads you back to the outside of the café on the ground level, the other is the pet parakeets that Barry and Oliver will bring around on their shoulder as they make their rounds to chat up with you.
Besides the usual finger food, Going Om dishes out interesting homemade desserts at $4.50 each that leave you craving for more. The Strawberry Surprise, a creation from Barry, is a warm savoury dessert of cheese and cream, where the delightful surprise is the chilled refreshing strawberries found in the middle of it. This pleasurable mix of sweet and savoury, hot versus cold leaves one wonder for more.
The Apple and Pear Crumble is another excellent homemade creation, this time by Oliver, who picked up this recipe while he was living in UK. What I like about this dessert was the fruits are sliced thickly, still retaining the crunch, unlike the usual cubes you get from outside. The sweet and sour combination of the fruits was enjoyable, plus the generous topping of cereal gives the dessert a fulfilling ending.
We also enjoyed the interesting Chakra drinks ($11.00), an alcoholic beverage that is made of Advocaat, a rich and creamy liqueur from Holland that is made from eggs, sugar and brandy – it is smooth to the throat and leaves an almond aftertaste when one drinks it.
There are 7 colours or choices to choose from and each a different flavour and symbolises a different meaning, which Barry and Oliver will be delighted to share them with you (it was just too complex for me to remember actually). I truly enjoyed my time spent there and before I knew it, 5 hours past quickly.
So Have You Gone Om Lately?!
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
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I've been to the new Kallang Leisure Park quite a few times since its reopening. There's a cinema, a KBox, a supermarket, an ice skating rink as well as some other shops. The place still seems quite dead when I went to the Kbox there a couple of weeks back. But the place has potential when the new kallang stadium is completed. Question remains to be seen if the tenants can last that long in the first place.
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Had the opportunity to partake in a tasting session at Persimmon one Wednesday evening, courtesy of its co owner, Helena, who also co owns the casual eatery Epicurious at Roberston Quay. Persimmon bills itself as a fusion restaurant, incorporating both chinese and western food to blend up its own variety of fusion. Think somewhere along the lines of another Singapore fusion restaurant, Wild Rocket.
Stepping into Persimmon is reminiscent of stepping into a high class coffeeshop, with its checkered tile floors, white top tables and wooden chairs. What it lacks is the spinning ceiling fans which have been replaced by air conditioning units but I'm definitely not complaining. Not with Singapore's heat and humidity. Coupled with a low ceiling and retro music, it made for a soothing and laid back atmosphere.
Mushroom & Sesame Shooter - I liked this inconspicuous little shot glass of warm mushroom soup. Savoury with a hint of sesame and bits of mushroom. There was suppose to be 绍兴酒 in it but that was apparently not evident.
Fisherman's Pie - Persimmon's rendition of the fisherman's pie took a different twist from the norm. Instead of the usual seafood ingredients enveloped within a mould of pastry, this one was more of a soup bowl covered with a puff pastry lid. Another interesting thing was the choice of soup, which was a less oily version of the ubiquitous Laksa gravy. Honestly, I didn't find the soup or the ingredients very outstanding, coming across as decent at best. The pastry also needed some reworking in my humble opinion, probably through the addition of more butter to make it more fragrant and creamier to the tastebuds.
Fried Kway Teow with Wagyu Beef - I'm sorry to say this, but as fragrant and tasty as the kway teow may be, it is still CKT (Char Kway Teow), albeit of a less oily version than the ones you find in hawker centres outside. It came with a poached quail egg and mushrooms but lacked the discernible wok hei taste due to it being pan fried I believe. Did I mention that it was a tad too salty as well?
The accompanying wagyu beef came served atop a bed of beansprouts and was tender, juicy and almost mouthwatering. But being too thinly sliced, it was a little overcooked and I honestly couldn't tell that it was wagyu beef. So much for such an expensive breed of beef.
On a side note, it would definitely be funny if someone called it 牛肉河粉.
Wagyu Beef - As with the wagyu beef from the CKT, this dish of wagyu was thinly sliced and a tad overcooked, but at least portions were more significant and each slice held more bite. I just wonder how much would such a dish cost.
White Pepper Crab Cake with Tunghoon Salad & Scallop - I've never really been a fan of crab cakes and Persimmon's offering wasn't just about to change that. But thats not to say it wasn't good. As a matter of fact, it was quite decent, with lots of shredded crab, but just not outstanding.
The tunghoon salad held quite a few surprises with its overly zesty taste harbouring a spicy aftermath that hits you slowly but surely. And the lone fleshy scallop that came alongside was a little too undercooked, soft and bland.
Pineapple Tart - Now this was one huge unconventional pineapple tart. A scoop of ice cream atop a sweet pineapple ring, covering a layer of caramelised pineapple, all on a huge tart base. I'm a sucker for pineapple tarts so I liked it quite a fair bit with the nice and smooth ice cream but I did think that it could have been better. The tart base lacked the oven baked taste which I personally like and it wasn't crumbly enough. That aside, its really quite worth the eat.
Overall I think the food is pretty decent and probably a few minor tweaks here and there would suffice. As mentioned earlier, it was a complimentary tasting session hence I am unsure of the prices but a quick glance at the regular menu shows most main courses to be in the $20 range. I might do a revisit, just as soon as I am able to ascertain the food prices.
To end, please allow me to extend my thanks to Helena for the invite and for being an excellent host.
See all pictures here.
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Due to my dad's birthday, I decided to buy emicakes as it was intro by my colleague and I want to try different cake from different cake shop. So my BF accompany me went to downtown east purchase the cake.
As I know Emicakes is famous in their D24 Durian cake, Durian stuff but sorry to say that I don't like durian and I didn't choose the durian cake for my dad. I brought 1 Chocolate cake & 1 Chocolate Puffs.
Pure Addiction Chocolate Cake - $33.90, 0.6kg
The cake filled with thick chocolate mousse, it sweet and not bad. Inside the cake has chocolate-coated almonds and chocolate ganache. But the chocolate mousse was not really that soft, but overall it not bad.
Chocolate Puffs - $3.80, 6 Pieces
The puff were soft, the chocolate was thick and sweet and nice.
Their service was alright.
Total Bill: $33.93 (Before discount $37.70)
As there is 10% discount for UOB card.
Do check out the website or branches for their cakes and mini items.
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Joe’s kitchen may look ordinary on the outside, or even you might totally missed it when you passed by the place at its location at Bukit Merah, just directly opposite Alexander Hospital. I did. Having passed by the area a few times, i didn’t know there was this hidden gem offering authentic thai food experience in our midst of our heartland.
I was given this opportunity for the wonderful Makan experience organized by Leslie of ieatishootipost fame. A total of 47 food punters joined us on this occasion. Some of which were ieat’s old makan kakis, while many like me were first-timers joining ieat on his makan session.
The interior of the place was simple, the place wasn’t very big but it managed to squeeze all 47 of us inside the place. I wondered how all of us managed to eat inside that night. Miracle!
The event was supposed to start at 7pm, i got there around 645pm and there were people there already. Damien was the co-organizer for the outing. Jiawei and Shanice were the earliest there if i’m not wrong, i seated in the same table with them. Also on the same table as me were liverpool, eastcoastlife & hubby, yanti & friend. All of us had a wonderful time chatting taking photos, and savouring the food.
The crowd starts to come in and by around 740pm or thereabouts almost everyone arrived. The menu was to be 14 dishes including some starters, mains, and desserts. All the dishes came in sampling tasting size so that we can have a bit of everything. The female boss, Jamie (chef Joe’s wife) is friendly and attended to us warmly.
Crispy rice cake
The Kao Dang Na Dang help to kick-start our makan session. Not commonly found in Singapore. the cripsy rice cake, was supposed to go together with the peanut sauce. I didn’t quite enjoy this appetizer as i found it to be way too dry for my liking.
Prawn Cakes
The Thot Man Goong or Prawn Cakes was nice to eat, it was crispy and the prawn taste is just right.
Mango Salad
The mango salad is one the appetizer dish that you will not be surprised to find in a Thai restaurant. No doubt about it, th salad is packed with everything. The first taste of it, refreshing. The initial impression was its not as spicy as i thought. But the magical part of it was the longer it gets, the spicier it became. A few more bites and the mango salad got to its “full level”
As most of us waited quite long for everyone to turn up before the dishes to serve, by the time the mango salad came out everybody were famished. We literally “attacked” the salad, and it was until ieat told us to hold our horses, that the salad was supposed to eat together with the sticky rice and chicken which were not out yet then we realized that.
Gai Yang (Grilled Chicken)
The grilled chicken was quite good to be honest, everyone got a bite of it. Placing the mango salad and the chicken onto the sticky rice, the taste is very different from eating the three dishes separately.
Grilled Pork Collar
This was no doubt for me, the star of the show! The Khaw Mu Yang, or grilled pork collar was somewhat similar to our Chinese char siew, albeit Thai style. Many of the kakis found it to be good too! Its also commonly eaten together with the sticky rice and mango salad. But its so good that we eat it on its own.
Tom Yum soup with fried fish
In my personal opinion, how good a Thai restaurant is can be based on the test of their Tom Yum soup. Unquestionably. Tom Yum soup is the first thing that most people will think of when they think of Thai food. Well i say the Tom Yum soup by Chef Joe should passed with flying colours. The soup is really spicy, at least from my perspective. Dipping the crispy fried fish into the soup was quite a experience for me.
Green curry beef
The beef was tender, and immersed with the essence of the green curry.
Deep fried Grouper with Thai chili
The Thai chili was excellent here, real hot and a little sweet spicy. But i couldn’t help drinking more water so as to have a few more mouthful of the chili with the deep fried grouper.
Red Curry Roasted Duck
Having seen the green curry earlier, my first thought was red curry after green? This was followed by roasted duck curry? I have never heard of roasted duck curry, let alone tasting it. But this dish was really not bad, i’m not sure how the roasted duck came about, whether Chef Joe roasted the duck, or he brought it from elsewhere and cook it with the red curry, but nevertheless its good.
And to our astonishment, there were grapes, yes grapes inside the curry! Talk about surprise, first roasted duck in curry, then grapes?
Basil leave minced pork
I was never a fan of minced pork in the first place, n’uff said!
Claypot Crab Vermicelli with fatty pork
Although the claypot crab was suppose to be the highlight here, but we got into eating the vermicelli instead. After cooking, the essence of the crab and fatty pork all went into the vermicelli, that alone should suffice for eating the vermicelli.
Poom Fy Dang - Kang Kong Thai style
Like all the other dishes in Joe’s Kitchen, the first taste was not very spicy, but the second bite was real hot. The Kang Kong got hotter with each bite, i suggested just swallow the veggies!
Mango Stick rice
To round off our authentic Thai food experience, we had Mango sticky rice, the mango was real sweet!
Tapioca with Coconut milk
I didn’t like tapioca, so this dish was not to my taste bud
Total Bill was $1646 for 47 people, $35 per head for the Authentic Thai food experience at Chef Joe’s place. I love going to Makan outings with big groups because we can get to know more people. Think Yebber Party @ MINT where there were about 50 people, the Social Media Breakfast with around 40 odds people, and now this ieat makan outing with 47 people.
Credits to Leslie (ieat) and Damien whom organized this makan session for everyone to get together and enjoyed food. I looked forward to the many more outings organized by them, to meet more people and eat more food!
The beauty of food, it can bring everyone from all ages, different backgrounds together, for one common purpose that is to savour all the good food. How often do you see strangers getting together and seating down for a meal? I’m going to organised LIC food event soon, do watch out for the post!
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 : )
” Authentic Thai Food experience, in the midst of our heartland “
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Had dinner at Da Paolo La Terrazza - one of 7 Italian restaurants/bars/gourmet shops that the Da Paolo group has opened up since their early days as Trattoria Da Paolo in Tanjong Pagar.
Located just a stone's throwaway from the ever crowded Holland Village in the quiet, tree lined stretch of Jalan Merah Sage, La Terrazza offers a respite from the hustle and bustle of life as the rat race takes a back seat in this charming little neighbourhood restaurant. The decor is simple yet comfortable, with its rattan chairs and a small alfresco dining area to cater to those who wish to enjoy the humidity of Singapore. Then again, there's only the air curtain to seperate the air conditioned area and the alfresco area so sitting inside doesn't guarantee a cool dinner, which was the case that very night I was there.
The complimentary bread was a good start to the meal. Fragrant, soft and moist on the inside yet crisp on the outside. It would have been better if served warm though.
La Terrazza's offering of the minestrone soup hit some rather flat notes to render it painfully average. I could have gotten the same standard of soup at most decent western restaurants for a lower price. Probably the only interesting thing was that the soup came with a slice of cheese in it, something I've not seen anywhere else. Not that it really made much of a difference to the taste of the soup though.
Cappesante Alle Erbe e Brandy - Sauteed Scallops with Brandy and Herbs - I like scallops hence I tend to have higher expectations of them. And these failed miserably. The scallops were bland and soft, not firm as I would have expected and there was no taste of brandy whatsoever. The only discernible taste came from the ground pepper scattered atop.
Tagliatelle Al Granchio - The Tagliatelle Al Granchio aka crab meat pasta provided a much needed boost to the disappointing dinner thus far. Al dente without being too heavy on the cream or taste. Nice and filling just the way I liked it. Could do with a little more crab meat though.
Crespelle Alla Crema - Caramelised Thin Pancakes with Vanilla Pastry Cream and Vanilla Ice Cream - This is probably one of the very very few times where I order pancakes for dessert. But I'm glad I did. The caramelised pancakes were rather interesting because as the name implies, the pancakes were coated with a hardened layer of caramel, making it sweet. Personally, I would have prefered chocolate cream instead of vanilla cream inside though.
Tiramisu - Undoubtedly the star of the evening, and one of the main reasons why I wanted to eat at La Terrazza - the tiramisu. The not overly wet sponge to mascarpone cheese ratio was quite even and overall the tiramisu came across as light and fluffy with a stronger than usual hint of alcohol. A slice costs $10 and if you want the entire cake, its $60.
$94 for a soup, an appetiser, a main and 2 desserts certainly isn't prohibitively expensive considering the relatively above average quality of food in general. But it isn't cheap either. On the flip side, service is good and efficient but rather mechanical, lacking the personal touch and warmth.
See all my pictures here.
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ladyironchef finally got his namecard!! Namecards are important, first they tell others your name, and then they also make them remember your contact number. Its a hassle to liase or socialise with people if you don't have one.
Encountering the problem at Yebber first anniversary party at MINT, and at the Social Media Breakfast where LIC got to meet many people but didn't have any namecard to exchange with.
LIC got a friend to design his namecard, the layout is simple and nice (i hope), styled in black background at the front and white background at the back.
And the rest is easy, bringing down the template in thumbdrive saved as the format required. There was two lady when LIC went to Tommy Print. One was cold and had few words, while the other was friendly and helpful.
They guided me to choosing the different things required for my namecard, and it was not much of a problem. I choose the cheapest, but very nice Gloss/Matte Lamination.
As this is my first time printing my own namecards, i chose 200 pieces at $24, instead of the otherwise more worth-it 300 pieces at $30. Its suppose to take them 4-5 working days to print, but i got the call from them on the 3rd day. So i guess they are quite efficient.
The results of the namecard are nice, better than what i expected really. And at $24 for two box, its really very cheap and affordable for anyone and everyone to own their own namecards.
Meet me at the next Yebber outing, i'll pass you one of mine : )
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