I was there today to check out some gadgets and decided to have our dinner at the Food Junction. There were so many choices, even a Pepper Lunch Express stall. But don't know why, we decided to go for the Indian stall right at the entrance of the food court.
I ordered their chicken biryani and bf ordered mutton mutabak. At first look, the biryani looks not bad. Chicken given was pretty huge and there was cabbage and bean sprout and papadum. But when I cut into the chicken, I knew its going to be bad. The chicken had been fried before putting into the gravy and its too tough. As its fried chicken, it didn't manage to absorb the flavor of the curry. Very badly cooked. Than the cabbage had a weird taste and was too hard. The bean sprout tasted like it was half cooked! I could taste the rawness of it! Yucks!
The mutabak taste was normal but its very small. The thickness was the same as an egg prata and the filling was very little. Not worth the try.
So next time when you're there, you might want to try other stalls instead.
Beside the bad experience, I've to comment that this food junction is a good place to go for cheap food and comfort meetings. There's a corner that's decorated nicely with red cushioned chairs and round cushioned sofa seats around the sides of this corner. Great place to go to study or meeting clients. There's wifi there too.
Giving 1/5 for the bad food at the Indian stall. If its only for the place, it'll be 4/5 for the nice comfy corner within the food junction.
After hearing soooo much about Botak Jones at AMK (yes there are other outlets, which I only knew of TODAY), I was delighted to hear that there's one at Bedok! ie, very near me (; And so, dragging along a food-enthusiast like myself, we headed down as soon as we could, with much anticipation.
It was almost 2pm by the time we got there. All right, face it, I was disappointed because I thought we'd be seeing a little shop instead of that-stall-at-the-food-court-under-that-block. But that seems to be the trend, somehow. If you heard of, there's Blackboard doing that too.
So anyway, we got a menu each and sat down, trying to decide on what to eat. I must say BJ is trying hard to sound/look cool, but they're trying a little too hard. What with the "dawg"s in the menu and short narratives in Comic Sans, font size 14 words, it was really an eye sore for me. All that effort put in to inject that little bit of "humour" into the menu could have been converted to beautifying the menu which reminds my friend of our school's lecture notes, mistreated.
Eventually, I ordered a Cajun Chicken - supposedly the 2nd most popular meal. It came with a generous portion of Spicy Fries and Coleslaw. To be honest, I didn't quite like the idea of eating from a black plate as it felt as though the plate could have been dirty (but you'll never know). The chicken had a layer of melted cheese and cajun sauce. I thought the portion of the meat was reasonable, only that it was a tad too dry. But it went pretty well with the cheese and sauce, only that I thought they could drizzle more sauce on the chicken (isn't that why it's Cajun chicken?). The coleslaw had a weird, bitter after-taste. The fries were not too bad, just that it would have been better if it were tastier. I paid $7.50 for it.
With the price I paid, I'd say it was rather worth it. Large portion, enough to fill your tummy. Not too bad for the price I guess, but don't go with too high expectations in terms of quality of food. What with all the hoo-ha about BJ, some may probably find it over-rated by the time they've gotten down to trying it. Well, at least I did. (Ah, but I think I'd still rate it a 3.5 / 5 for the price and fairly satisfactory service.)
Good Value. Many Varieties. One Pot. Many Cultures.
I passed by Hotpot Culture everytime I go Marina Square. But never got chance to go try it. Finally, at the Yebber shoutbox, one day we decided that this is the place to go for our Chinese New Year gathering. Together with fellow Yebbers, we cheong (rushed) down to HPC with $19.80 (promotional price) in our pocket.
You must be wondering why there's so many photos of cooked food when this place is call Hotpot Culture. Well, this is the one thing that's unique. So far its the only place that I've been to that has so much too choose from beside the mini steamboat selection. The usual steamboat buffet, you'll have less than 10 selections all cooked and "dumped" at the counter for all to take. But here at HPC, they'll serve you when you order and the food served are fresh and warm. The serving size varies with the number of pax at the table.
Some of the cooked food I tired and like includes... Fried Tofu (2nd photo) - This is the crispy outside and soft inside kind of tofu. Simple yet nice. Taste well with the sauce and chilipadi.
Sweet and Sour Fish (3rd photo) - I love to eat sweet and sour fish. This one served at HPC is not bad. They fried the fish first then cooked it with the sweet and sour sauce. I could taste the slight texture of the fried fish still even thou I ate it only after awhile its served.
Fried Garlic Chicken - I'm not a garlic person, but this one I enjoyed. The chicken is crispy and flavorful. As recommended by Polarbear, this you have to eat it while its hot.
At HPC, everyone gets a mini pot and you get to choose the soup base from the 5 available. If I've not remembered wrongly, there's the Chicken, Fish, Hot & Spicy, Kimchi and Herbal. I had the Kimchi one and I love it! First time I had Kimchi steamboat. I drank 2 full pot of Kimchi soup. I think the next time I go, I'll just put cabbage and golden mushrooms in my Kimchi soup. Yummilicious!
I'll leave it to the rest to share their experience with you. If you would like to see the photos and happenings that day, check out at... Blog: Night Out with Yebbers Blog: Comics - Yebbers Night Out
Tao’s Restaurant was established by Mr Huang Yen Kun in June 2003. During a date with his girlfriend while still in college, they came across a famous French restaurant that was serving 7-course set meal. Mr Huang really wanted to dine in, but at $100 per set, the price was beyond what he could afford at that moment. This incident sparked off his idea of opening a restaurant that serves full 7-courses set meals at a price that will be affordable for everyone.
To further value-add the concept, the price for the set-meal is fixed. This means that customers can choose the dish of their preference for each category, without worrying about the price. In addition, there will be new dishes available for customers to choose from every 2 – 3 months.
Another special concept that Mr Huang added, was to present all dishes in specially designed “Tao Tzu” (pottery) plates (thus the name Tao’s). Tao Tzu plates in itself is a fine art, and most importantly, “Tao Tzu” has a high heat withstanding level which will help to preserve the temperature of the food in a very natural way. All these make up the unique restaurant that Tao’s currently is, and why it is well received by all its customers around Singapore
Tao’s serve a 6 course set lunch for $19.80 , and a 7 course set dinner for $28.80 . From the starters, salads, soups, to the Main entrees, desserts, until the beverages, you can pick your choice from the menu. Ordering was definitely easy for the 3 of us since under each category there isn’t that much of a option.
What we did was we look at each category and decided on the dish that we DO NOT want, for example there are four salads, we give a pass on huai san salad, and took the other 3 salad to share. That will make the whole process simpler and hassle-free isn’t it?
Bacon & Mushroom Gratin To kick-start our meal at Tao’s, we had the Bacon & mushroom gratin. At first we were unsure about the dish, because it doesn’t look appetizing to us, but to our surprise this came out really well, coupled with the soft yet fluffy bread (below), both combine together give a unique taste.
Toasted Bread Like mention above, the toasted bread is soft and fluffy, and it comes free-flow. Seriously we could just eat the bread, its so good it can be eaten on its own! No doubt the bread is free-flow, don’t gorge yourself silly, there’s more to come.
Fruit Salad The first of the three salad, the fruit salad was pretty decent, i guess out of the three salad this will be my pick. If you like fruits then this is the one for you.
Ham & Spud salad I have no idea what’s spud, i guess its refering to the potato since there is only ham, potato, and lettuce. I don’t really like the ham & spud salad so much as i find the potato to be pretty tasteless. However my dining companion is a potato-person, so she finish the whole thing without much problem
Farm Boy Splendor The name’s definitely a eye-catcher, having no idea what the salad is, i guess most people will order this one. Thats what we did. But the farm boy splendor came out quite flat, first the presence of peanut has an overwhelming effect on the lettuce and the chicken. The taste of lettuce and chicken is covered by the peanut, but we like the sour-plum dressing.
Cream of mushroom The cream of mushroom was quite similar to the one i had at Friends@Jelita. The mushroom soup has small bits of mushroom among the creamy soup. I find the soup to be quite balanced, not too creamy, not too diluted. Well, if you like your mushroom soup, this will be the one.
Shark-fin melon herbal soup One thing is for sure, there is certainly no shark-fin inside, stop looking for it. Otherwise, i find the shark-fin melon herbal soup quite similar to my mother’s home-cooked soup, thumbs up.
Fish soup The fish soup is unlike other soup you will find. First thing first, it is served not in a bowl, but in a teapot. Pouring out the soup onto a teacup, and you appreciate the soup just like you appreciate tea. Only thing is its not tea, its soup. The innovative is surely there, and the soup isn’t too fishy which makes it a good appetizer.
Baby lobster pasta in white wine sauce My favourite lobster! Unfortunately we got to be realistic, they cant possibly serve a whole lobster in a meal like this, so the baby lobster. Even so, the baby lobster still stands out, baked with cheese, the meal no doubt little, but is good.
The pasta is not my cup of tea, i found it to be too creamy, and there isn’t really the taste of white wine sauce. Nevertheless, the spaghetti is chewy, and comes in a generous helping.
Tao’s oven roasted steak We were debating what’s the yellow colour thing, at first we though it was sorbet, but after tasting, it is not. And we still haven’t figure out what is it. Anyway, Tao’s oven roasted steak is medium-rare, quite tender i will say, but then somehow that something is missing from the steak. Not excellent, but not too bad either.
Baked Atlantic flounder with cheese The presentation of the baked atlantic flounder looks nice, the cheese after baked, looks golden on the fish. Having the first bite into the fish with a layer of cheese on top, the combination is good one, as the melted cheese and the soft taste of the fish goes down well together. However, we were discussing whether there is egg used, because we do experience a very strong egg taste. Mayb a tad too much eggs used.
Ice grape mallow tea You know what? I think this is ribena, no kidding. Like ribena, the tea has grapes. hence the taste of ribena. But the ice grape mallow tea is really good, somewhat like tea, yet not like tea. If you don’t wan a strong tea smell, this one will do the job finely.
Ice rose apple tea There is the scent of rose, and the taste of apple. Blend together and you got the ice rose apple tea
lavander tea Actually we were eating our main course happily, before they served us our three teas. Then for about a few minutes or so, savouring the different tea we completely forgot about our main course. The lavander tea is all about lavander. N’uff said already.
home-made chocolate Mousse Even after a filling meal, there’s always room for dessert, and this instance was no exception. Three small cubes of home-made chocolate mousse, pop one into your mouth, and it melts instantly
Creme Brulee Compared it with the one i had at Al Dente Pronto, the creme brulee was cold while the other one is warm. Given the two, i say i will prefer the one at Al Dente Pronto, warm egg custard does taste better.
Sesame Pudding I’m not really a big fan of sesame, but the Sesame pudding turns out to be all right.
Total bill for 3 set lunch comes up to $69.90 which i must say isn’t expensive considering the fact that we are having a six course meal. The food isn’t outstanding, but its not too bad also. Located at Paradiz centre, its convenient to reach the place. The staffs are friendly, the service and the waiting time in between the different courses is fast.
However, i believe Tao's must update their menu more regularly if they wants to attract me to go back. Simply the fact that three of us share and tried most of their dishes, except for their main entries. And oh ya, please go to Tao's for their set lunch rather than set dinner, because set dinner has only one course more, grilled mango and mushroom sorbet, but it cost $9 more. Nonetheless, for the sheer variety Tao's offers, it is certainly good value if you have not been there before.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” For the sheer variety Tao’s offer, its certainly good value “
Had one of my Chinese New Year dinner at Plaza Brasserie. It's an Asian Buffet dinner that seems more International to me. The selection was quite good, like all standard international buffet, there's the appetizers spread, cooked food (mostly chinese style), the sashimi counter, roasted meat, noodles, desserts (including chocolate fondue) and prata counter! This one was perhaps the one that killed my appetite that night.
After first round of appetizers and sashimi, I spotted the prata counter hidden behind and I just couldn't resist trying all the flavors! There's the usual plain and egg, and there's chocolate, banana and durian!! I loveee durian! I took a little too much and my tummy was filled with prata and didn't have too much space for the rest. I still managed to squeeze in some prawns, there's the giant one but I prefer the regular prawns. The meat is softer and tastier.
Ended my meal with desserts and chocolate fondue. Avoid the mushmellows if you're there. It's not nice one! Go for the fruits and waffles for the fondue. As for the cakes, you can perhaps give it a miss. Nothing to wow(talk) about.
Overall the buffet was good. Enjoyed the meal and most importantly, enjoyed the company. When's the next one? Hmm... LOL!
Thanks to Sylvia's recommendation, I went down to check out this place recently and yes its truly value for money. In fact, I had been to The Cathay a few times trying to find a place to eat, but always ended up at Billy Bombers. But now that I've found Indulge, I'll be going back for more.
This little piece of haven is hidden behind Shilin Taiwan Chicken stall. Right at the corner waiting to be discovered. The place is quiet and have comfortable seats. Great place to just relax and chill out with friends and love ones.
They have quite a wide spread of food and you'll sure be spoiled for choice. The photos taken of the dishes in the menu is very tempting too. Makes everything look so yummy! Great photography skill! I like the way they arranged the order in their menu. First look in the menu, you'll be greeted by the various types of beverages they have. So you can order your drink first and slowly discover their little wonders inside their menu. I tried their Pink Guava smoothies and its very refreshing. Served in a margarita glass, the amount is just right to quench your thirst and last you through your meal. If you need ice water, you'll have to pay 30cents for it and its refillable.
Food we ordered...
Wok-Braised Fusilli w/Fried Chicken, Shitake Mushroom in Creamy Pesto Sauce @ $8.90 This is an award winning dish and it very well deserved it! The pasta was cooked to the right texture and the creamy pesto sauce is well blended into the fusilli. This dish is very easy to eat and you just need your spoon. Every bite into this is like being transported to creamy pesto land. Unlike other places where they sliced their mushroom, at Indulge, they cut it in slightly bigger chunks so that you can savor the mushroom and not get blended together with the pasta and sauce. The fried chicken is very crispy and juicy too. But not recommended for those on diet. Fried chicken plus pasta in cream sauce... ermm... wrong choice.
Crispy Dory Pasta w/White Wine Sauce @ $8.90 This one looks good and the white wine is mixed well with the pasta. The fish seem crispy too. Overall the person who ate this said was good.
Stir Fried Beef Strips Pasta w/Tomato Cream Sauce @ $7.90 This one looks like pasta in curry. The person who ate this said the first few bites tasted weird, but after that it's actually very pleasant. The sauce I tried a little was very tomato-cy. But this person said mine tasted better. (Of cos lah! Award winning leh!)
Overall Indulge really deserves to get 5/5. For its value for money and yummy pasta. It's much better than the one I had previously at the other pasta place. And its half the price! Serving wise, its the same and its good to fill one hungry man. We had problem finishing up ours even!
I've a feeling this will be one place I'll visit frequently.
Updated 26 Feb 2008...
I WENT BACK AGAIN!
Yap! Thanks to the group I'm volunteering, they had our recent meet-up at Indulge, I went back again for dinner and it's fantastic! This time I tried their Grilled Ribeye with Mushroom Braised. It's yet another of their award winning dish. One thing I regretted is to order for a medium-done one. Usually I would order for it to be medium-rare, so its a little too tough for me. But still its good. The mushroom braised complemented the beef well and the cold potatoe that came beneath the steak was very yummy too! The steak comes with rice and soup too! Which I didn't expect. The rice was very fragrant and the soup is simple yet flavorful. For drink, I ordered Lychee Smoothies. I love it too! Refreshing and quenched my thirst. I enjoyed the food alot. There's so much more waiting for me to try! Looks like I'll be going back often.
Went back to Astons Express recently to try their steak. The first time I was there, I didn't know they were supposed to be very good at the steak. So I had chicken chop then.
Now that I'm a Yebber, I get to learn so much more about food and what not, I'm a better educated eater now. Haha!
I tried their ehh... I can't remember the name! It's a $11.90 sirloin steak with mushroom sauce. I had fries and coslaw for my sides.
The steak was cooked just right with slightly charred exterior. First few bites were great, but I think the fries filled me up faster than I expected. I loveeee the fries. Its crunchy and the chili powder they sprinkle on it makes it ultra sexy. (haha! yap! sexy! I loveee eating it. Makes me high! haha!) Coslaw was good too.
My bf had grilled fish which was very nice too. Slightly crispy exterior and soft in the inside. The pasta salad that came with it was tasteful too.
Will sure go back whenever I can. Lovee the fries!
I remember frequently patronising the now defunct Dolphins Restaurant around the Macpherson area when I was still a secondary school student for its value for money set lunches and dinners. Fast forward a decade and the only hint of Dolphins existence is its flagship outlet along Genting Lane.
Oddly located on the 7th floor of an aging industrial building, it is so obscure that you would have to actually know that such a place existed. The interior is homely and reminiscent of steak houses of yesteryear (think Jack's place in the early 90s), made complete with nice booth seats in one corner.
Cream of Mushroom - The soup came with my set lunch and was rather starchy. Beats a watered down version I guess. And I'm pretty sure it came straight out of a can.
Tenderloin with Slipper Lobster - Done up medium rare, the tenderloin was decent but not outstanding. The meat tasted a little flat and could have done with some seasoning. On the up side, the slipper lobster was relatively big and sweet. But as with all lobsters, meat is always limited.
Pasta with Beef - Surprisingly, the pasta was al dente and the addition of capsicum gave this dish a very interesting twist - one that did not sit too well with me however. The beef cubes were plentiful though but lacking in taste and texture.
I guess $47 for 2 for lunch isn't exactly cheap or value for money, but I would say its still decent and definitely a nice quiet place to have a meal. That, plus the nostalgic factor and decent service, is enough for a revisit.
I have a confession to make, i’ll have to admit New Harbour Cafe wasn’t my first choice for dinner. My initial preference for our gathering was at Tuckshop (also on the same stretch of road at Tanjong Pagar).
Well, the catastrophe occurs like this, i din make any reservation because i wasn’t sure whether my friends wanted to go to Tuckshop, so we just happily set off there. It was a long 15-20 min walk from Outram MRT, please be smart and take the Tanjong Pagar MRT instead. When we finally reach Tuckshop, the whole place was empty, right at 7pm. To our dismay, the waiteress told us the cafe is fully booked at 730pm and there was NO WAY she can make space for us. Ten of us.
Now its my turn to panic, since i was the organiser and i din have a back-up plan because i thought Tuckshop will be available. We walk around (not easy to bring a big group around looking for a dining place), and finally settled on New Harbour Cafe, simply because i have no other alternatives.
At any rate, you might be wondering whether you should continue reading through this entry since i already said New Harbour cafe was because there was no other selection, well you should, don’t write off the place, just yet.
New Harbour Cafe is located at Tanjong Pagar, a whole stretch of road that houses many pubs, & wedding bridal shops. A Cafe & Bar theme concept, New Harbour Cafe was rather empty when we got there, but after we got seated the other diners soon fill up the seats.
One of the minus point of the place was the dim lighting. Definitely not a good place for food bloggers to be, well unless you got superb cameras, which i do not have as you can see from the pictures : (
N.Z Sirloin Steak & Mash ($17.90) My friend had the N.Z Sirloin Steak well done. Gosh, i was thinking can a well done steak even be eaten? To my suprise, the steak isn’t perfectly well done, there are still blood stains within.
Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($11.90) Chicken chop with black pepper sauce, accompanied with sides of mushrooms and mashed potatos
Crackling Roast Pork ($14.90) Roast Pork with crispy crackling served with daily vegetables and mashed potatos. Onion gravy topped with apple sauce. On first look, i though it looks like Roast pork (cos i didn’t see the menu), and to my astonish it really is. Now now, when did you see a cafe serve roast pork as a main before? Mayb i am not yet a experience diner around, but from what i can remember i didn’t see roast pork as main course in all my previous dining experience.
On first bite, the crackling roast pork was crispy, and the apple sauce was a refreshing change to the usual roast pork taste. The apple sauce provided little touches of tangy sweetness with each cut of roast pork. However, this is only good for people with a sweet tooth, or for sharing because the sweetness of the apple sauce does slightly overwhelm your palette. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant experience because the next time i will be able to say i got see Roast Pork as main course before!
Special Chinese New Year Pork Chop ($15.90)
We intially wanted to order Pork Chop with apple sauce, but the waitress highly recommend this instead. Personally i find the pork chop to be all right, but my friend commented that it was too tough.
Harbour Fish & Chips ($12.90) New Harbour Cafe has a column under its menu titled black board & daily special. There is something special everyday, roast leg of lamb on Mon, Madras curry being on tue, and on wed we have oxtail stew, there is the Hainanese pork chop available on thu, and of course our harbour fish & chips on the friday that we patronise the place.
The crispy exterior was complemented with the soft and fresh interior of the fish, with a faint flavouring of spices. The chips in new harbour cafe was cut in huge wedges shape which i must compliment was quite good.
Grilled Dory Fish Fillet ($12.90) We had two of this, and the result was rather pleasing. The Grilled dory fish fillet was fresh, together with a squeeze of the lemon, adds a freshing twist to the fish. The serving was generous as well, with a huge cut of fish fillet which two person can actually share.
Spaghetti Alfredo with ham & mushroom ($11.90) The spaghetti was a nice change with ham & mushroom. Now here, not that my knowledge fails me again, but i don’t remember seeing ham use frequently together with spaghetti? Or am i wrong here? But the usage of ham and mushroom gives me the feeling of pizza rather than spaghetti.
Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger ($12.90) One word for the burger, Humongous! The Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger was huge, large, enormous, and whatever word you can think of. The beef patty was definitely bigger than the one i had at Botak Jones. If you were to compare both beef burger, the one at Botak there is cheese added which gives the burger another flavouring, but harbour’s one allows the taste of the beef patty without any disturbance as there is no other extra ingredient.
The beef patty was made like all good beef patty, juicy and tender. And the serving of the burger certainly fills one up. With the harbour fries, its tough to finish up the meal.
Brownie with ice cream ($5.80) As sweet notes to end off the meal, we had the brownie with ice cream. The brownie alone is $3.80 while an additional scope of ice cream makes it $5.80. We only ordered one dessert because most of us are too full after our main course. The brownie was soft and chocolate-ly.
The total bill (10 person) for 9 mains, 7 drinks and 1 desserts comes up to $158.30, which i must say is rather reasonable. The drinks add up quite a fair bit of damages to the bill, $28 for 7 drinks. Otherwise it will even be cheaper. The one positive thing that i’ll like to highlight will be New Harbour Cafe does not charge any GST & service charge. For a large group of us, no extra charges mean easier calculation of the bill. hahahah!
However, the negative aspects of the place will be they do not serve ice water. which leads to us ordering drinks. And like what i mentioned earlier, their cafe has poor lighting, not suitable for taking photos. Service wise not much, the staff there are all foreign workers.
We saw this while we were about to leave, Makansutra salutes them in recognition of their culinary standards & quality. So they can’t be that bad after all, so give them a visit if you are in the area. Even if you don’t like the food, damages will be reduced as their prices are all in the 10s range.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Nothing beats eating with your mates, nothing! “
My parents had lunch at Boon Tong Kee, half a chicken at $13, and buy back a packet for me @ $3.80.
I'll say the chicken from Boon Tong Kee is quite good, but mayb not good until i will pay $13 for half a chicken. There are better one out there in other neighbour coffee shops really.
1=SGD 0.0587
Avoid the Indian stall at this food junction.
I was there today to check out some gadgets and decided to have our dinner at the Food Junction. There were so many choices, even a Pepper Lunch Express stall. But don't know why, we decided to go for the Indian stall right at the entrance of the food court.
I ordered their chicken biryani and bf ordered mutton mutabak. At first look, the biryani looks not bad. Chicken given was pretty huge and there was cabbage and bean sprout and papadum. But when I cut into the chicken, I knew its going to be bad. The chicken had been fried before putting into the gravy and its too tough. As its fried chicken, it didn't manage to absorb the flavor of the curry. Very badly cooked. Than the cabbage had a weird taste and was too hard. The bean sprout tasted like it was half cooked! I could taste the rawness of it! Yucks!
The mutabak taste was normal but its very small. The thickness was the same as an egg prata and the filling was very little. Not worth the try.
So next time when you're there, you might want to try other stalls instead.
Beside the bad experience, I've to comment that this food junction is a good place to go for cheap food and comfort meetings. There's a corner that's decorated nicely with red cushioned chairs and round cushioned sofa seats around the sides of this corner. Great place to go to study or meeting clients. There's wifi there too.
Giving 1/5 for the bad food at the Indian stall.
If its only for the place, it'll be 4/5 for the nice comfy corner within the food junction.
Rating given:
After hearing soooo much about Botak Jones at AMK (yes there are other outlets, which I only knew of TODAY), I was delighted to hear that there's one at Bedok! ie, very near me (; And so, dragging along a food-enthusiast like myself, we headed down as soon as we could, with much anticipation.
It was almost 2pm by the time we got there. All right, face it, I was disappointed because I thought we'd be seeing a little shop instead of that-stall-at-the-food-court-under-that-block. But that seems to be the trend, somehow. If you heard of, there's Blackboard doing that too.
So anyway, we got a menu each and sat down, trying to decide on what to eat. I must say BJ is trying hard to sound/look cool, but they're trying a little too hard. What with the "dawg"s in the menu and short narratives in Comic Sans, font size 14 words, it was really an eye sore for me. All that effort put in to inject that little bit of "humour" into the menu could have been converted to beautifying the menu which reminds my friend of our school's lecture notes, mistreated.
Eventually, I ordered a Cajun Chicken - supposedly the 2nd most popular meal. It came with a generous portion of Spicy Fries and Coleslaw. To be honest, I didn't quite like the idea of eating from a black plate as it felt as though the plate could have been dirty (but you'll never know). The chicken had a layer of melted cheese and cajun sauce. I thought the portion of the meat was reasonable, only that it was a tad too dry. But it went pretty well with the cheese and sauce, only that I thought they could drizzle more sauce on the chicken (isn't that why it's Cajun chicken?). The coleslaw had a weird, bitter after-taste. The fries were not too bad, just that it would have been better if it were tastier. I paid $7.50 for it.
With the price I paid, I'd say it was rather worth it. Large portion, enough to fill your tummy. Not too bad for the price I guess, but don't go with too high expectations in terms of quality of food. What with all the hoo-ha about BJ, some may probably find it over-rated by the time they've gotten down to trying it. Well, at least I did. (Ah, but I think I'd still rate it a 3.5 / 5 for the price and fairly satisfactory service.)
Rating given:
Good Value. Many Varieties. One Pot. Many Cultures.
I passed by Hotpot Culture everytime I go Marina Square. But never got chance to go try it. Finally, at the Yebber shoutbox, one day we decided that this is the place to go for our Chinese New Year gathering. Together with fellow Yebbers, we cheong (rushed) down to HPC with $19.80 (promotional price) in our pocket.
You must be wondering why there's so many photos of cooked food when this place is call Hotpot Culture. Well, this is the one thing that's unique. So far its the only place that I've been to that has so much too choose from beside the mini steamboat selection. The usual steamboat buffet, you'll have less than 10 selections all cooked and "dumped" at the counter for all to take. But here at HPC, they'll serve you when you order and the food served are fresh and warm. The serving size varies with the number of pax at the table.
Some of the cooked food I tired and like includes...
Fried Tofu (2nd photo) - This is the crispy outside and soft inside kind of tofu. Simple yet nice. Taste well with the sauce and chilipadi.
Sweet and Sour Fish (3rd photo) - I love to eat sweet and sour fish. This one served at HPC is not bad. They fried the fish first then cooked it with the sweet and sour sauce. I could taste the slight texture of the fried fish still even thou I ate it only after awhile its served.
Fried Garlic Chicken - I'm not a garlic person, but this one I enjoyed. The chicken is crispy and flavorful. As recommended by Polarbear, this you have to eat it while its hot.
At HPC, everyone gets a mini pot and you get to choose the soup base from the 5 available. If I've not remembered wrongly, there's the Chicken, Fish, Hot & Spicy, Kimchi and Herbal. I had the Kimchi one and I love it! First time I had Kimchi steamboat. I drank 2 full pot of Kimchi soup. I think the next time I go, I'll just put cabbage and golden mushrooms in my Kimchi soup. Yummilicious!
I'll leave it to the rest to share their experience with you. If you would like to see the photos and happenings that day, check out at...
Blog: Night Out with Yebbers
Blog: Comics - Yebbers Night Out
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Tao’s Restaurant was established by Mr Huang Yen Kun in June 2003. During a date with his girlfriend while still in college, they came across a famous French restaurant that was serving 7-course set meal. Mr Huang really wanted to dine in, but at $100 per set, the price was beyond what he could afford at that moment. This incident sparked off his idea of opening a restaurant that serves full 7-courses set meals at a price that will be affordable for everyone.
To further value-add the concept, the price for the set-meal is fixed. This means that customers can choose the dish of their preference for each category, without worrying about the price. In addition, there will be new dishes available for customers to choose from every 2 – 3 months.
Another special concept that Mr Huang added, was to present all dishes in specially designed “Tao Tzu” (pottery) plates (thus the name Tao’s). Tao Tzu plates in itself is a fine art, and most importantly, “Tao Tzu” has a high heat withstanding level which will help to preserve the temperature of the food in a very natural way. All these make up the unique restaurant that Tao’s currently is, and why it is well received by all its customers around Singapore
Tao’s serve a 6 course set lunch for $19.80 , and a 7 course set dinner for $28.80 . From the starters, salads, soups, to the Main entrees, desserts, until the beverages, you can pick your choice from the menu. Ordering was definitely easy for the 3 of us since under each category there isn’t that much of a option.
What we did was we look at each category and decided on the dish that we DO NOT want, for example there are four salads, we give a pass on huai san salad, and took the other 3 salad to share. That will make the whole process simpler and hassle-free isn’t it?
Bacon & Mushroom Gratin
To kick-start our meal at Tao’s, we had the Bacon & mushroom gratin. At first we were unsure about the dish, because it doesn’t look appetizing to us, but to our surprise this came out really well, coupled with the soft yet fluffy bread (below), both combine together give a unique taste.
Toasted Bread
Like mention above, the toasted bread is soft and fluffy, and it comes free-flow. Seriously we could just eat the bread, its so good it can be eaten on its own! No doubt the bread is free-flow, don’t gorge yourself silly, there’s more to come.
Fruit Salad
The first of the three salad, the fruit salad was pretty decent, i guess out of the three salad this will be my pick. If you like fruits then this is the one for you.
Ham & Spud salad
I have no idea what’s spud, i guess its refering to the potato since there is only ham, potato, and lettuce. I don’t really like the ham & spud salad so much as i find the potato to be pretty tasteless. However my dining companion is a potato-person, so she finish the whole thing without much problem
Farm Boy Splendor
The name’s definitely a eye-catcher, having no idea what the salad is, i guess most people will order this one. Thats what we did. But the farm boy splendor came out quite flat, first the presence of peanut has an overwhelming effect on the lettuce and the chicken. The taste of lettuce and chicken is covered by the peanut, but we like the sour-plum dressing.
Cream of mushroom
The cream of mushroom was quite similar to the one i had at Friends@Jelita. The mushroom soup has small bits of mushroom among the creamy soup. I find the soup to be quite balanced, not too creamy, not too diluted. Well, if you like your mushroom soup, this will be the one.
Shark-fin melon herbal soup
One thing is for sure, there is certainly no shark-fin inside, stop looking for it. Otherwise, i find the shark-fin melon herbal soup quite similar to my mother’s home-cooked soup, thumbs up.
Fish soup
The fish soup is unlike other soup you will find. First thing first, it is served not in a bowl, but in a teapot. Pouring out the soup onto a teacup, and you appreciate the soup just like you appreciate tea. Only thing is its not tea, its soup. The innovative is surely there, and the soup isn’t too fishy which makes it a good appetizer.
Baby lobster pasta in white wine sauce
My favourite lobster! Unfortunately we got to be realistic, they cant possibly serve a whole lobster in a meal like this, so the baby lobster. Even so, the baby lobster still stands out, baked with cheese, the meal no doubt little, but is good.
The pasta is not my cup of tea, i found it to be too creamy, and there isn’t really the taste of white wine sauce. Nevertheless, the spaghetti is chewy, and comes in a generous helping.
Tao’s oven roasted steak
We were debating what’s the yellow colour thing, at first we though it was sorbet, but after tasting, it is not. And we still haven’t figure out what is it. Anyway, Tao’s oven roasted steak is medium-rare, quite tender i will say, but then somehow that something is missing from the steak. Not excellent, but not too bad either.
Baked Atlantic flounder with cheese
The presentation of the baked atlantic flounder looks nice, the cheese after baked, looks golden on the fish. Having the first bite into the fish with a layer of cheese on top, the combination is good one, as the melted cheese and the soft taste of the fish goes down well together. However, we were discussing whether there is egg used, because we do experience a very strong egg taste. Mayb a tad too much eggs used.
Ice grape mallow tea
You know what? I think this is ribena, no kidding. Like ribena, the tea has grapes. hence the taste of ribena. But the ice grape mallow tea is really good, somewhat like tea, yet not like tea. If you don’t wan a strong tea smell, this one will do the job finely.
Ice rose apple tea
There is the scent of rose, and the taste of apple. Blend together and you got the ice rose apple tea
lavander tea
Actually we were eating our main course happily, before they served us our three teas. Then for about a few minutes or so, savouring the different tea we completely forgot about our main course. The lavander tea is all about lavander. N’uff said already.
home-made chocolate Mousse
Even after a filling meal, there’s always room for dessert, and this instance was no exception. Three small cubes of home-made chocolate mousse, pop one into your mouth, and it melts instantly
Creme Brulee
Compared it with the one i had at Al Dente Pronto, the creme brulee was cold while the other one is warm. Given the two, i say i will prefer the one at Al Dente Pronto, warm egg custard does taste better.
Sesame Pudding
I’m not really a big fan of sesame, but the Sesame pudding turns out to be all right.
Total bill for 3 set lunch comes up to $69.90 which i must say isn’t expensive considering the fact that we are having a six course meal. The food isn’t outstanding, but its not too bad also. Located at Paradiz centre, its convenient to reach the place. The staffs are friendly, the service and the waiting time in between the different courses is fast.
However, i believe Tao's must update their menu more regularly if they wants to attract me to go back. Simply the fact that three of us share and tried most of their dishes, except for their main entries. And oh ya, please go to Tao's for their set lunch rather than set dinner, because set dinner has only one course more, grilled mango and mushroom sorbet, but it cost $9 more. Nonetheless, for the sheer variety Tao's offers, it is certainly good value if you have not been there before.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” For the sheer variety Tao’s offer, its certainly good value “
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Had one of my Chinese New Year dinner at Plaza Brasserie. It's an Asian Buffet dinner that seems more International to me. The selection was quite good, like all standard international buffet, there's the appetizers spread, cooked food (mostly chinese style), the sashimi counter, roasted meat, noodles, desserts (including chocolate fondue) and prata counter! This one was perhaps the one that killed my appetite that night.
After first round of appetizers and sashimi, I spotted the prata counter hidden behind and I just couldn't resist trying all the flavors! There's the usual plain and egg, and there's chocolate, banana and durian!! I loveee durian! I took a little too much and my tummy was filled with prata and didn't have too much space for the rest. I still managed to squeeze in some prawns, there's the giant one but I prefer the regular prawns. The meat is softer and tastier.
Ended my meal with desserts and chocolate fondue. Avoid the mushmellows if you're there. It's not nice one! Go for the fruits and waffles for the fondue. As for the cakes, you can perhaps give it a miss. Nothing to wow(talk) about.
Overall the buffet was good. Enjoyed the meal and most importantly, enjoyed the company. When's the next one? Hmm... LOL!
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Value for money!
Thanks to Sylvia's recommendation, I went down to check out this place recently and yes its truly value for money. In fact, I had been to The Cathay a few times trying to find a place to eat, but always ended up at Billy Bombers. But now that I've found Indulge, I'll be going back for more.
This little piece of haven is hidden behind Shilin Taiwan Chicken stall. Right at the corner waiting to be discovered. The place is quiet and have comfortable seats. Great place to just relax and chill out with friends and love ones.
They have quite a wide spread of food and you'll sure be spoiled for choice. The photos taken of the dishes in the menu is very tempting too. Makes everything look so yummy! Great photography skill! I like the way they arranged the order in their menu. First look in the menu, you'll be greeted by the various types of beverages they have. So you can order your drink first and slowly discover their little wonders inside their menu. I tried their Pink Guava smoothies and its very refreshing. Served in a margarita glass, the amount is just right to quench your thirst and last you through your meal. If you need ice water, you'll have to pay 30cents for it and its refillable.
Food we ordered...
Wok-Braised Fusilli w/Fried Chicken, Shitake Mushroom in Creamy Pesto Sauce @ $8.90
This is an award winning dish and it very well deserved it! The pasta was cooked to the right texture and the creamy pesto sauce is well blended into the fusilli. This dish is very easy to eat and you just need your spoon. Every bite into this is like being transported to creamy pesto land. Unlike other places where they sliced their mushroom, at Indulge, they cut it in slightly bigger chunks so that you can savor the mushroom and not get blended together with the pasta and sauce. The fried chicken is very crispy and juicy too. But not recommended for those on diet. Fried chicken plus pasta in cream sauce... ermm... wrong choice.
Crispy Dory Pasta w/White Wine Sauce @ $8.90
This one looks good and the white wine is mixed well with the pasta. The fish seem crispy too. Overall the person who ate this said was good.
Stir Fried Beef Strips Pasta w/Tomato Cream Sauce @ $7.90
This one looks like pasta in curry. The person who ate this said the first few bites tasted weird, but after that it's actually very pleasant. The sauce I tried a little was very tomato-cy. But this person said mine tasted better. (Of cos lah! Award winning leh!)
Overall Indulge really deserves to get 5/5. For its value for money and yummy pasta. It's much better than the one I had previously at the other pasta place. And its half the price! Serving wise, its the same and its good to fill one hungry man. We had problem finishing up ours even!
I've a feeling this will be one place I'll visit frequently.
Updated 26 Feb 2008...
I WENT BACK AGAIN!
Yap! Thanks to the group I'm volunteering, they had our recent meet-up at Indulge, I went back again for dinner and it's fantastic! This time I tried their Grilled Ribeye with Mushroom Braised. It's yet another of their award winning dish. One thing I regretted is to order for a medium-done one. Usually I would order for it to be medium-rare, so its a little too tough for me. But still its good. The mushroom braised complemented the beef well and the cold potatoe that came beneath the steak was very yummy too! The steak comes with rice and soup too! Which I didn't expect. The rice was very fragrant and the soup is simple yet flavorful. For drink, I ordered Lychee Smoothies. I love it too! Refreshing and quenched my thirst. I enjoyed the food alot. There's so much more waiting for me to try! Looks like I'll be going back often.
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Went back to Astons Express recently to try their steak. The first time I was there, I didn't know they were supposed to be very good at the steak. So I had chicken chop then.
Now that I'm a Yebber, I get to learn so much more about food and what not, I'm a better educated eater now. Haha!
I tried their ehh... I can't remember the name! It's a $11.90 sirloin steak with mushroom sauce. I had fries and coslaw for my sides.
The steak was cooked just right with slightly charred exterior. First few bites were great, but I think the fries filled me up faster than I expected. I loveeee the fries. Its crunchy and the chili powder they sprinkle on it makes it ultra sexy. (haha! yap! sexy! I loveee eating it. Makes me high! haha!) Coslaw was good too.
My bf had grilled fish which was very nice too. Slightly crispy exterior and soft in the inside. The pasta salad that came with it was tasteful too.
Will sure go back whenever I can. Lovee the fries!
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I remember frequently patronising the now defunct Dolphins Restaurant around the Macpherson area when I was still a secondary school student for its value for money set lunches and dinners. Fast forward a decade and the only hint of Dolphins existence is its flagship outlet along Genting Lane.
Oddly located on the 7th floor of an aging industrial building, it is so obscure that you would have to actually know that such a place existed. The interior is homely and reminiscent of steak houses of yesteryear (think Jack's place in the early 90s), made complete with nice booth seats in one corner.
Cream of Mushroom - The soup came with my set lunch and was rather starchy. Beats a watered down version I guess. And I'm pretty sure it came straight out of a can.
Tenderloin with Slipper Lobster - Done up medium rare, the tenderloin was decent but not outstanding. The meat tasted a little flat and could have done with some seasoning. On the up side, the slipper lobster was relatively big and sweet. But as with all lobsters, meat is always limited.
Pasta with Beef - Surprisingly, the pasta was al dente and the addition of capsicum gave this dish a very interesting twist - one that did not sit too well with me however. The beef cubes were plentiful though but lacking in taste and texture.
I guess $47 for 2 for lunch isn't exactly cheap or value for money, but I would say its still decent and definitely a nice quiet place to have a meal. That, plus the nostalgic factor and decent service, is enough for a revisit.
See all my pictures here
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I have a confession to make, i’ll have to admit New Harbour Cafe wasn’t my first choice for dinner. My initial preference for our gathering was at Tuckshop (also on the same stretch of road at Tanjong Pagar).
Well, the catastrophe occurs like this, i din make any reservation because i wasn’t sure whether my friends wanted to go to Tuckshop, so we just happily set off there. It was a long 15-20 min walk from Outram MRT, please be smart and take the Tanjong Pagar MRT instead. When we finally reach Tuckshop, the whole place was empty, right at 7pm. To our dismay, the waiteress told us the cafe is fully booked at 730pm and there was NO WAY she can make space for us. Ten of us.
Now its my turn to panic, since i was the organiser and i din have a back-up plan because i thought Tuckshop will be available. We walk around (not easy to bring a big group around looking for a dining place), and finally settled on New Harbour Cafe, simply because i have no other alternatives.
At any rate, you might be wondering whether you should continue reading through this entry since i already said New Harbour cafe was because there was no other selection, well you should, don’t write off the place, just yet.
New Harbour Cafe is located at Tanjong Pagar, a whole stretch of road that houses many pubs, & wedding bridal shops. A Cafe & Bar theme concept, New Harbour Cafe was rather empty when we got there, but after we got seated the other diners soon fill up the seats.
One of the minus point of the place was the dim lighting. Definitely not a good place for food bloggers to be, well unless you got superb cameras, which i do not have as you can see from the pictures : (
N.Z Sirloin Steak & Mash ($17.90)
My friend had the N.Z Sirloin Steak well done. Gosh, i was thinking can a well done steak even be eaten? To my suprise, the steak isn’t perfectly well done, there are still blood stains within.
Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($11.90)
Chicken chop with black pepper sauce, accompanied with sides of mushrooms and mashed potatos
Crackling Roast Pork ($14.90)
Roast Pork with crispy crackling served with daily vegetables and mashed potatos. Onion gravy topped with apple sauce. On first look, i though it looks like Roast pork (cos i didn’t see the menu), and to my astonish it really is. Now now, when did you see a cafe serve roast pork as a main before? Mayb i am not yet a experience diner around, but from what i can remember i didn’t see roast pork as main course in all my previous dining experience.
On first bite, the crackling roast pork was crispy, and the apple sauce was a refreshing change to the usual roast pork taste. The apple sauce provided little touches of tangy sweetness with each cut of roast pork. However, this is only good for people with a sweet tooth, or for sharing because the sweetness of the apple sauce does slightly overwhelm your palette. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant experience because the next time i will be able to say i got see Roast Pork as main course before!
Special Chinese New Year Pork Chop ($15.90)
We intially wanted to order Pork Chop with apple sauce, but the waitress highly recommend this instead. Personally i find the pork chop to be all right, but my friend commented that it was too tough.
Harbour Fish & Chips ($12.90)
New Harbour Cafe has a column under its menu titled black board & daily special. There is something special everyday, roast leg of lamb on Mon, Madras curry being on tue, and on wed we have oxtail stew, there is the Hainanese pork chop available on thu, and of course our harbour fish & chips on the friday that we patronise the place.
The crispy exterior was complemented with the soft and fresh interior of the fish, with a faint flavouring of spices. The chips in new harbour cafe was cut in huge wedges shape which i must compliment was quite good.
Grilled Dory Fish Fillet ($12.90)
We had two of this, and the result was rather pleasing. The Grilled dory fish fillet was fresh, together with a squeeze of the lemon, adds a freshing twist to the fish. The serving was generous as well, with a huge cut of fish fillet which two person can actually share.
Spaghetti Alfredo with ham & mushroom ($11.90)
The spaghetti was a nice change with ham & mushroom. Now here, not that my knowledge fails me again, but i don’t remember seeing ham use frequently together with spaghetti? Or am i wrong here? But the usage of ham and mushroom gives me the feeling of pizza rather than spaghetti.
Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger ($12.90)
One word for the burger, Humongous! The Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger was huge, large, enormous, and whatever word you can think of. The beef patty was definitely bigger than the one i had at Botak Jones. If you were to compare both beef burger, the one at Botak there is cheese added which gives the burger another flavouring, but harbour’s one allows the taste of the beef patty without any disturbance as there is no other extra ingredient.
The beef patty was made like all good beef patty, juicy and tender. And the serving of the burger certainly fills one up. With the harbour fries, its tough to finish up the meal.
Brownie with ice cream ($5.80)
As sweet notes to end off the meal, we had the brownie with ice cream. The brownie alone is $3.80 while an additional scope of ice cream makes it $5.80. We only ordered one dessert because most of us are too full after our main course. The brownie was soft and chocolate-ly.
The total bill (10 person) for 9 mains, 7 drinks and 1 desserts comes up to $158.30, which i must say is rather reasonable. The drinks add up quite a fair bit of damages to the bill, $28 for 7 drinks. Otherwise it will even be cheaper. The one positive thing that i’ll like to highlight will be New Harbour Cafe does not charge any GST & service charge. For a large group of us, no extra charges mean easier calculation of the bill. hahahah!
However, the negative aspects of the place will be they do not serve ice water. which leads to us ordering drinks. And like what i mentioned earlier, their cafe has poor lighting, not suitable for taking photos. Service wise not much, the staff there are all foreign workers.
We saw this while we were about to leave, Makansutra salutes them in recognition of their culinary standards & quality. So they can’t be that bad after all, so give them a visit if you are in the area. Even if you don’t like the food, damages will be reduced as their prices are all in the 10s range.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Nothing beats eating with your mates, nothing! “
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My parents had lunch at Boon Tong Kee, half a chicken at $13, and buy back a packet for me @ $3.80.
I'll say the chicken from Boon Tong Kee is quite good, but mayb not good until i will pay $13 for half a chicken. There are better one out there in other neighbour coffee shops really.
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