Decided to have a quick lunch at Uno after reading fatpig review on it. Didn’t know that the Jumbo coffee shop at Dover has Uno as its new tenant since the last time i went to the coffee shop it wasn’t there. Anyway for the introduction, Uno Beef House is something like Botak Jones, “restaurant-style” western food sell in coffee shop environment.
Actually from the name Beef House we can tell that Uno is famous for its steak, but then feeling rather full i wasn’t quite ready to eat steak for lunch, so i had fish & chips ($5).
The fish wasn’t too exceptional, quite normal like those normal coffee shop western food. The coleslaw was nice though. Prehaps u really have to try steak at Uno, they aren’t call Beef house for no reason. 3.5 out of 5
Mister Ang had chicken chop ($5). I felt the chicken chop was okay, nothing too special but still slightly above average. 3.5 out of 5
Overall, the food was quite okay, mayb we didn’t try its signature steak. But considering the rather cheap price at $5 for most of the items, it is still acceptable. Most importantly it doesn’t has a long Q like Botak, and Dover is near my home : )
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 : )
This little hidden stall was introduced by one of my colleague after we were all full from lunch. Then me being a person must try everything, decided to tao pao some of it and go back office and eat. Hee…
So what do they sell, they are selling all fried stuff from all the usual stuff from pisang (bananas), to green beans, sweet potato and to even chicken (recently new addition).
Below are some of my favs:
Their famous sweet and sour goreng pisang. I wonder if it is the bananas or it is their batter that make the end product taste both sweet and sour. Haa… I am sure the sweet part come from banana but the sour part, I am not that sure. However the end product was good especially it came of crispy and hot! Yet the banana inside is soft, juicy and melts in the mouth type. The batter is not too thick as well and fried to crispy golden brown. Of cos size matters and they got 2 sizes to choose from.
Green bean / Red bean. I loved to eat this cos I loved green bean a lot. It is mashed up, smooth and fried to golden brown. Since it is made from fresh beans, it is not too sweet as well. Red bean, I think only this place serves this. I have to say that it is my new fav. The red beans are mashed whole so the skin is actually still intact. Loved the texture when I eat it.
One thing to take note, it is better to eat when bought, if you leave it aside, it is better to put it in the toastor for a while to heat it before it.
I think each of their items cost $0.70, however if you choose 3 red tagged items, they will cost $2. Cheap when their portion are considered quite big. Therefore everytime I walked past them, I will always stop to buy from them.
Was walking along North Canal Road when I spotted this Authentic Hock Lam Street Popular Beef Kway Teow stall. Had, on previous occasions, tried out the other 2 Hock Lam beef kway teow stalls at Far East Square and Purvis Street respectively, so jumped in to try this one.
$5 got me a medium serving of kway teow ($4 for small and $6 for large) with about 5 beef balls. The beef balls tasted like they came right off the shelves of some supermarket. My guess is that they really did. The beef slices were nicely done though I found them to be a little too thick, which rendered them a tad too chewy at some point. Overall quite decent and more value for money than the one I had at Far East Square and comparable to the outlet at Purvis street.
Had dinner at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Jurong Point with my gf as we were too lazy to go anywhere far for dinner.
There are actually many Crystal Jade variations around with La Mian Xiao Long Bao being one of them. The Jurong Point outlet was packed to the brim when we dropped by, just like all of the food outlets in the mall (whats new?). We had the set menu for 2, which included a side dish, a rice/noodle, a dim sum item and a cooked dish, all of which must be selected from a preset menu.
Crispy Beancurd Skin Roll - This dish was actually quite decent, with the beancurd skin crispy and not too oily. The filling of flour was a little chewy, tasting and looking very much like small cubes of mushroom. But beware, consuming too much of it will make you sick really fast because of the starch. This dish is best consumed with the accompanying zesty soya sauce.
Fried Rice with Prawn, Chicken & Ham - I would say that the fried rice was surprisingly quite good. Homogeneously fried with a generous serving of prawns, chicken and ham. The only thing that was lacking was the "Wok Hei" taste which was a pity really.
Sauteed Egg White with Fish Meat & Conpoy - As mentioned in a few of my earlier reviews, Prima serves a kick ass rendition of this dish and unfortunately, Crystal Jade's offering is nowhere in sight. Sure, its eggy from all that egg white and a little raw from the fish meat, but it just didn't manage to gel the flavours together like the one from Prima. However, this is still one very palatable dish and I will not hesitate to order it if I do go to Crystal Jade again.
Shanghai Steamed Pork Dumpling - A forte of Crystal Jade, the Shanghai Steamed Pork Dumplings or Xiao Long Baos (XLBs) were just a wee bit short of fantastic, owing to the minimally thicker than usual skin. Everything else was the same though, nice lean meat with lots of juice encapsuled within the skin and gushing out as the skin was breached.
Souffle Egg White Ball -
The only other place that I know that sells such a dessert is Cheng Li Yuan, which also happens to do up a meaner version of it. Crystal Jade's rendition utilises a lot of icing sugar to make it sweet and the pastry is comparatively not as tasty or fluffy. But then again, Crystal Jade is closer to home.
A hearty meal for 2 stood at about $37, which isn't really too expensive. I must say that of all the Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao outlets I've tried in Singapore (I believe I've tried all of them), Jurong Point's outlet is comparatively better than the rest in terms of food quality. You can read my writeup on the Takashimaya outlet here. However, service is another matter altogether. Though not rude or unfriendly , service was slow and spotty and I could spot quite a few aggrieved customers.
Being one of those born in the "Strawberry Generation", film cameras aren't totally foreign. But by the time we grow up and start working, digital has taken over. So I never really got to own my very own film camera.
Digital is convenient and all, but somehow black & white photography in digital just seem to lack something. Or it simply feels unauthentic to me when you can easily convert that colour image to b&w in a single click.
So one faithful day, I saw this used camera shop at the ground floor of Peninsula Excelsior Hotel. Much to my surprise, not only do they have the pictured camera that I have been eyeing, they had two units. One of them was in pretty bad shape, while the other looked almost perfect. Amazing for a camera that is made in the 70s.
So without hesitation, I grabbed the good one at just $100, which is the typical price even if you buy one online. The owner of the shop was really experienced, as he patiently showed me every detail of the camera to the film-idiot me.
For his patience, his experience shown in handling the camera, and the good price he gave, I'm giving him a 4-star. Knocking off one star was due to the other unit that was in really bad shape. The lens was ridden with fungus, which I really do not think it should be sold at the same $100 price tag. So be sure to check meticulously if you choose to purchase a used camera here.
Having breakfast at Ng Ah Sio was a case of third time lucky. The first time my gf and I visited, it was a Monday and the shop was closed. The second time, it was closed for Chinese New Year. Third time round, our perseverance finally paid off. For those not in the know, Ng Ah Sio is the infamous Bak Kut Teh stall which turned down Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tseng, when he wanted to visit for a late night meal.
$5.50 gets you a relatively average sized bowl with 3 pieces of meat which are a little too dry and tough as compared to the one at Founder. The soup was the clear winner though, with its extremely heavy dosage of pepper and garlic. Very flavourful and guaranteed to make your nose run. I guess the word "Shiok" would be most apt in describing the feeling.
Please note that Ng Ah Sio opens early (6am) and closes early too (2pm) and its usually attracts quite a crowd whenever its open.
Had a go at Pow Sing Restaurant near my house last night as both my gf and I were ravenous and too lazy to travel. Chomp chomp was out as it was madly crowded. The place was packed to the brim when we got there at about 2030hrs. We ordered 2 plates of chicken rice and a Nonya Tofu to share. The dishes came pretty fast and service was efficient but not really friendly. The chicken was average and portion size was adequate. I particularly liked the Nonya tofu, which was a little crispy on the outside and soft and smooth on the inside due to it being deep fried.
Bill came to about $18 for 2 pax, which was quite affordable I guess. All in all, a good place to fill your stomach in an air conditioned environment minus the exorbitant prices.
A backpack hotel seems an unlikely place to find a swanky restaurant serving international fusion, but that is exactly where Wild Rocket is located. Lawyer turned sous chef, Wilin serves contemporary western cuisine with a Singaporean twist. Having heard good things about Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily (the name also rouses my curiosity), my mind begin to sub-consiously tell me “go to Wild Rocket…”
Wild rocket @ Mount Emily is definitely quite a romantic place to bring your date to impress. Prior to this visit, i have totally no idea that Singapore have two ‘Mounts’ in town, lest to mention Orchard Road. But thats where the two Mount are at, Mount Sohpia and Mount Emily behind Plaza Singapura. Having said this, i hope you understand we are talking about Mount, eh you know Mount Faber?
Ahh.. finally get the idea right? Mayb you’ll say Singapore where got Mountains? The highest is Bukit Timah Hill what? Nevertheless, Wild Rocket is on the very top of Mount Emily. And to get there, public transport i.e buses and trains are a Big No No. Only cars and cabs, unless you’ll prefer to walk up Mount Emily with your date and arriving in fashionable stinky sweat-smell. Go only car and cab, but when you finish your meal, it might be quite nice to stroll down Mount Emily with your date : )
One of the corner of Wild Rocket. My companion mention that it will be quite a good place to hold a birthday party or a mini gathering of the spacious corner. The lighting is a bit dark on this side though, which makes photo-taking not nice. But the comfy of the seats definitely make up for it.
The other side of the restaurant. The place is quite small though, at a rough estimate i’ll say mayb 30 seaters or less? And it can be quite cram when it gets crowded, so please make sure you make your reservations before you go. Recommended for lunch, and necessary for dinner. The car park was also very limited, only around 5-6 parking lots? And there is barely any space outside the hostel for parking, as the area is all private estates.
We browse through the menu, the first page was their 3 course Set lunch. A starter, a main course and a dessert, all at the price of $25 which i though was rather cheap when i saw that their A la carte mains are mostly in the 30s and 40s range of pricing. But then we didn’t have lunch there as we just had dim sum for brunch at Red Star. Despite being quite full, we braced our stomaches for the desserts. It will be a pity not to have anything after coming all the way here.
Oh yes, before coming to Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily, we went to Old School @ Mount Sophia (that will be the next review coming up). Mount Sophia is beside Mount Emily, at first we didn’t plan to come to Wild Rocket because we didn’t know where Mount Emily is at. But after coming down from Mount Sophia, i saw the road Wilkie road, and the name sounds a bell in my head, i gesture excitedly to my companion that i conjuncted this is the place where Wild Rocket is located. Poof, less than 30 seconds, we drove up Wilkie road and found ourselves facing Mount Emily Park, and further up is hang out @ Mount Emily. Cheers!
Oreo cheesecake with fudge & hazelnut ice cream ($9.5)
Astonishment is the word to describe us when the waitress serves us our desserts. The Oreo Cheesecake is de-constructed and instead of the slide of cakes you will normally see in all restaurants, Wild Rocket went one step up and reassembled the cheesecake in a tall martini glass. Kudos to the chef for being so creative and creating a winner dessert. Normally i will feel the pinch in my pocket if i have to pay close to ten bucks for a slice of cake. But not at Wild Rocket, i was immerse in the indulgence of the cake that no pain is felt. Presentation-wise score full marks, and the taste of the cake also won me over. A strong hint of cheese covering the top, with the cake and hazelnut ice cream in the middle, oreo cookie smashed filling the bottom.
Kueh buloh Tiramisu with espresso ice cream ($9.0)
The first question is what the heck is Kueh buloh? But then after the first bite of the cake, it doesn’t really matters. My companion a self-proclaimed Pro in baking Tiramisu, when he took the first taste of the cake, he gave me a strange look, without saying anything he took a second bite. After which he annouced, “not too bad, got my standard!” Indeed, the Tiramisu is good, and similarly it does not comes in the usual form of a cake. Deconstruction and reassembled is the way desserts go @ Wild Rocket, at least that applies for this two desserts.
I’ll definitely come back to Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily for their Main course, and of course more desserts. Some may say the place is over-rated, over-priced, or inaccessible, i gave it a thumbs up. While not in the fine-dining league, its unquestionably a good restaurant with the ambience you want to bring a date to.
The price isn’t that expensive when you account in the feel-good factors, and the creativity of the chef. The dining industry in Singapore definitely can do with more chef like Wilin who produce top-notch food. The brunch menu is also quite comprehensive. My evil-twin took a snap-shot of the brunch menu, anyone interested can tell me to send it to you. Anybody wants to go with me to Wild Rocket for my next visit?? *Raise hand* *Waving* *ME!* *ME!*
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 : )
Swensen's the name that all are us are familiar with, the place that is famous for its ice cream. Swensen’s a household name in Singapore, the trademark tiffany lamps for relaxing meal comes into mind when we used to think of Swensen’s. Nowadays, we are always hearing people say how Swensen’s food has decline and was not as good as before, but I decided to give a Swensen’s a try because the promise of its newly launch menu, which Swensen’s claim that it is their biggest & tasiest menu ever, with a additional 27 new dishes added, and 21 ice cream sundae and drinks. Oh boy was i proved right by what people say, Swensen’s really on the decline.
Went to Swensen’s Cafe Restaurant @ West Mall with my bro since i just wanted a quick and simple lunch. Upon reaching the place, we waited a while outside for someone to attend to us, but none came. So we took our own initiative to enter the place, then a waiter finally “notice” us and bring us to a table. We browse through the “new” menu and made our orders
Swensen’s all time favourite, Fish & Chips ($12.90) I though this was quite ordinary here, nothing special about the fish nor chips, and at that price, i guess i will be better off having a fish & chips at a hawker centre. 2 out of 5
BBQ Half Chicken ($13.90) the portion doesn’t really look like it is a half chicken, the chicken was okay really, but thats not really what you will except to find it at a restaurant with the price tag and the portion. 2 out of 5
Well, you can’t say you have been to Swensen’s if you didn’t have ice-cream can you? Swensen’s Banana Spilt ($7.60) - strawberry, chocolate, vanilla ice cream drenched with chocolate fudge, strawberry and pineapple toppings, fresh banana slices and almonds. The ice cream was pretty decent i guess, maybe Swensen’s should stick to what they are best at, doing ice cream. 3 out of 5
Total damage was $40.49 for 2 person. In conclusion, for all the things that Swensen’s new menu promise, it doesn’t work. I’ll be hard-pressed to find the positives of Swensen’s , lets see, convenient with 20 branches around island-wide? Nah, thats not the main reason for dining in a restaurant, cosy and comfortable booth seats? Their seats are’nt really cosy, and besides most of the restaurants nowadays are trying to make their place as cosy and comfortable as possible. Good for ice-cream? Mayb, but then again, more and more ice-cream places are coming up, think Ben & Jerry, Island Creamery and many more. Thus i won’t be going back to Swensen for the foreseeable future, unless someone is giving a treat : )
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 : )
“Botak Jones offer authentic American style, restaurant quality food. The food quality is the same or better as any full sevice restaurant. Saying this, it also takes the same amount of time a restaurant takes to prepare your food as all of our food is cooked to order. This means your meat doesn’t hit the grill, your fish isn’t fried and your salad isn’t tossed until you placed your order… “
Quoted from the botak jones menu (a long list of menu typed-print in yellow papers). Mister Ang, Mister Ong and me reached the place at around 130pm, not really a long Q, but can see that most of the people in the coffee shop is eating botak jones. Actually we wanted to visit Botak quite a long time ago, but just didn’t had the opportunity, was always going to some other places for meal. We waited for about 20 mins or so for the food to come.
Botak Jones most popular item, or so they claimed. Premium pacific dory ($6) not the cheap cream one (also claimed by them), season the fish and bread it with japanese bread crumb. The servings are generous, with lots of fries and big piece of fish. 4 out of 5
Rosemary lamb chop - medium well ($11) Ordered this because the rest order the other two already, so i though i try something different. The lamb chop was quite good i suppose, tender, fatty, juicy and delicious. But the price was rather on the high side 4 out of 5
Cajun Chicken ($7) Second most popular item (claimed by Botak), chicken breast grilled with cheese and toppled with spicy cajun sauce. I though this was pretty good, but then i don’t really fancy chicken breast meat, prefer the thigh : ) 3.5 out of 5
In conclusion, Botak Jones is the western type of restaurant found in our daily coffee shop, comparing it to restaurant, you will find the price reasonable cheap, considering it with coffee shop, you will find the price expensive. Restaurant or coffee shop? Your choice, your call.
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 : )
1=SGD 0.0587
Decided to have a quick lunch at Uno after reading fatpig review on it. Didn’t know that the Jumbo coffee shop at Dover has Uno as its new tenant since the last time i went to the coffee shop it wasn’t there. Anyway for the introduction, Uno Beef House is something like Botak Jones, “restaurant-style” western food sell in coffee shop environment.
Actually from the name Beef House we can tell that Uno is famous for its steak, but then feeling rather full i wasn’t quite ready to eat steak for lunch, so i had fish & chips ($5).
The fish wasn’t too exceptional, quite normal like those normal coffee shop western food. The coleslaw was nice though. Prehaps u really have to try steak at Uno, they aren’t call Beef house for no reason. 3.5 out of 5
Mister Ang had chicken chop ($5). I felt the chicken chop was okay, nothing too special but still slightly above average. 3.5 out of 5
Overall, the food was quite okay, mayb we didn’t try its signature steak. But considering the rather cheap price at $5 for most of the items, it is still acceptable. Most importantly it doesn’t has a long Q like Botak, and Dover is near my home : )
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 : )
" Food brings people together "
Rating given:
This little hidden stall was introduced by one of my colleague after we were all full from lunch. Then me being a person must try everything, decided to tao pao some of it and go back office and eat. Hee…
So what do they sell, they are selling all fried stuff from all the usual stuff from pisang (bananas), to green beans, sweet potato and to even chicken (recently new addition).
Below are some of my favs:
Their famous sweet and sour goreng pisang. I wonder if it is the bananas or it is their batter that make the end product taste both sweet and sour. Haa… I am sure the sweet part come from banana but the sour part, I am not that sure. However the end product was good especially it came of crispy and hot! Yet the banana inside is soft, juicy and melts in the mouth type. The batter is not too thick as well and fried to crispy golden brown. Of cos size matters and they got 2 sizes to choose from.
Green bean / Red bean. I loved to eat this cos I loved green bean a lot. It is mashed up, smooth and fried to golden brown. Since it is made from fresh beans, it is not too sweet as well. Red bean, I think only this place serves this. I have to say that it is my new fav. The red beans are mashed whole so the skin is actually still intact. Loved the texture when I eat it.
One thing to take note, it is better to eat when bought, if you leave it aside, it is better to put it in the toastor for a while to heat it before it.
I think each of their items cost $0.70, however if you choose 3 red tagged items, they will cost $2. Cheap when their portion are considered quite big. Therefore everytime I walked past them, I will always stop to buy from them.
Rating given:
Was walking along North Canal Road when I spotted this Authentic Hock Lam Street Popular Beef Kway Teow stall. Had, on previous occasions, tried out the other 2 Hock Lam beef kway teow stalls at Far East Square and Purvis Street respectively, so jumped in to try this one.
$5 got me a medium serving of kway teow ($4 for small and $6 for large) with about 5 beef balls. The beef balls tasted like they came right off the shelves of some supermarket. My guess is that they really did. The beef slices were nicely done though I found them to be a little too thick, which rendered them a tad too chewy at some point. Overall quite decent and more value for money than the one I had at Far East Square and comparable to the outlet at Purvis street.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
Had dinner at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Jurong Point with my gf as we were too lazy to go anywhere far for dinner.
There are actually many Crystal Jade variations around with La Mian Xiao Long Bao being one of them. The Jurong Point outlet was packed to the brim when we dropped by, just like all of the food outlets in the mall (whats new?). We had the set menu for 2, which included a side dish, a rice/noodle, a dim sum item and a cooked dish, all of which must be selected from a preset menu.
Crispy Beancurd Skin Roll - This dish was actually quite decent, with the beancurd skin crispy and not too oily. The filling of flour was a little chewy, tasting and looking very much like small cubes of mushroom. But beware, consuming too much of it will make you sick really fast because of the starch. This dish is best consumed with the accompanying zesty soya sauce.
Fried Rice with Prawn, Chicken & Ham - I would say that the fried rice was surprisingly quite good. Homogeneously fried with a generous serving of prawns, chicken and ham. The only thing that was lacking was the "Wok Hei" taste which was a pity really.
Sauteed Egg White with Fish Meat & Conpoy - As mentioned in a few of my earlier reviews, Prima serves a kick ass rendition of this dish and unfortunately, Crystal Jade's offering is nowhere in sight. Sure, its eggy from all that egg white and a little raw from the fish meat, but it just didn't manage to gel the flavours together like the one from Prima. However, this is still one very palatable dish and I will not hesitate to order it if I do go to Crystal Jade again.
Shanghai Steamed Pork Dumpling - A forte of Crystal Jade, the Shanghai Steamed Pork Dumplings or Xiao Long Baos (XLBs) were just a wee bit short of fantastic, owing to the minimally thicker than usual skin. Everything else was the same though, nice lean meat with lots of juice encapsuled within the skin and gushing out as the skin was breached.
Souffle Egg White Ball -
The only other place that I know that sells such a dessert is Cheng Li Yuan, which also happens to do up a meaner version of it. Crystal Jade's rendition utilises a lot of icing sugar to make it sweet and the pastry is comparatively not as tasty or fluffy. But then again, Crystal Jade is closer to home.
A hearty meal for 2 stood at about $37, which isn't really too expensive. I must say that of all the Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao outlets I've tried in Singapore (I believe I've tried all of them), Jurong Point's outlet is comparatively better than the rest in terms of food quality. You can read my writeup on the Takashimaya outlet here. However, service is another matter altogether. Though not rude or unfriendly , service was slow and spotty and I could spot quite a few aggrieved customers.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
Being one of those born in the "Strawberry Generation", film cameras aren't totally foreign. But by the time we grow up and start working, digital has taken over. So I never really got to own my very own film camera.
Digital is convenient and all, but somehow black & white photography in digital just seem to lack something. Or it simply feels unauthentic to me when you can easily convert that colour image to b&w in a single click.
So one faithful day, I saw this used camera shop at the ground floor of Peninsula Excelsior Hotel. Much to my surprise, not only do they have the pictured camera that I have been eyeing, they had two units. One of them was in pretty bad shape, while the other looked almost perfect. Amazing for a camera that is made in the 70s.
So without hesitation, I grabbed the good one at just $100, which is the typical price even if you buy one online. The owner of the shop was really experienced, as he patiently showed me every detail of the camera to the film-idiot me.
For his patience, his experience shown in handling the camera, and the good price he gave, I'm giving him a 4-star. Knocking off one star was due to the other unit that was in really bad shape. The lens was ridden with fungus, which I really do not think it should be sold at the same $100 price tag. So be sure to check meticulously if you choose to purchase a used camera here.
Rating given:
Having breakfast at Ng Ah Sio was a case of third time lucky. The first time my gf and I visited, it was a Monday and the shop was closed. The second time, it was closed for Chinese New Year. Third time round, our perseverance finally paid off. For those not in the know, Ng Ah Sio is the infamous Bak Kut Teh stall which turned down Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tseng, when he wanted to visit for a late night meal.
$5.50 gets you a relatively average sized bowl with 3 pieces of meat which are a little too dry and tough as compared to the one at Founder. The soup was the clear winner though, with its extremely heavy dosage of pepper and garlic. Very flavourful and guaranteed to make your nose run. I guess the word "Shiok" would be most apt in describing the feeling.
Please note that Ng Ah Sio opens early (6am) and closes early too (2pm) and its usually attracts quite a crowd whenever its open.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
Had a go at Pow Sing Restaurant near my house last night as both my gf and I were ravenous and too lazy to travel. Chomp chomp was out as it was madly crowded. The place was packed to the brim when we got there at about 2030hrs. We ordered 2 plates of chicken rice and a Nonya Tofu to share. The dishes came pretty fast and service was efficient but not really friendly. The chicken was average and portion size was adequate. I particularly liked the Nonya tofu, which was a little crispy on the outside and soft and smooth on the inside due to it being deep fried.
Bill came to about $18 for 2 pax, which was quite affordable I guess. All in all, a good place to fill your stomach in an air conditioned environment minus the exorbitant prices.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
A backpack hotel seems an unlikely place to find a swanky restaurant serving international fusion, but that is exactly where Wild Rocket is located. Lawyer turned sous chef, Wilin serves contemporary western cuisine with a Singaporean twist. Having heard good things about Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily (the name also rouses my curiosity), my mind begin to sub-consiously tell me “go to Wild Rocket…”
Wild rocket @ Mount Emily is definitely quite a romantic place to bring your date to impress. Prior to this visit, i have totally no idea that Singapore have two ‘Mounts’ in town, lest to mention Orchard Road. But thats where the two Mount are at, Mount Sohpia and Mount Emily behind Plaza Singapura. Having said this, i hope you understand we are talking about Mount, eh you know Mount Faber?
Ahh.. finally get the idea right? Mayb you’ll say Singapore where got Mountains? The highest is Bukit Timah Hill what? Nevertheless, Wild Rocket is on the very top of Mount Emily. And to get there, public transport i.e buses and trains are a Big No No. Only cars and cabs, unless you’ll prefer to walk up Mount Emily with your date and arriving in fashionable stinky sweat-smell. Go only car and cab, but when you finish your meal, it might be quite nice to stroll down Mount Emily with your date : )
One of the corner of Wild Rocket. My companion mention that it will be quite a good place to hold a birthday party or a mini gathering of the spacious corner. The lighting is a bit dark on this side though, which makes photo-taking not nice. But the comfy of the seats definitely make up for it.
The other side of the restaurant. The place is quite small though, at a rough estimate i’ll say mayb 30 seaters or less? And it can be quite cram when it gets crowded, so please make sure you make your reservations before you go. Recommended for lunch, and necessary for dinner. The car park was also very limited, only around 5-6 parking lots? And there is barely any space outside the hostel for parking, as the area is all private estates.
We browse through the menu, the first page was their 3 course Set lunch. A starter, a main course and a dessert, all at the price of $25 which i though was rather cheap when i saw that their A la carte mains are mostly in the 30s and 40s range of pricing. But then we didn’t have lunch there as we just had dim sum for brunch at Red Star. Despite being quite full, we braced our stomaches for the desserts. It will be a pity not to have anything after coming all the way here.
Oh yes, before coming to Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily, we went to Old School @ Mount Sophia (that will be the next review coming up). Mount Sophia is beside Mount Emily, at first we didn’t plan to come to Wild Rocket because we didn’t know where Mount Emily is at. But after coming down from Mount Sophia, i saw the road Wilkie road, and the name sounds a bell in my head, i gesture excitedly to my companion that i conjuncted this is the place where Wild Rocket is located. Poof, less than 30 seconds, we drove up Wilkie road and found ourselves facing Mount Emily Park, and further up is hang out @ Mount Emily. Cheers!
Oreo cheesecake with fudge & hazelnut ice cream ($9.5)
Astonishment is the word to describe us when the waitress serves us our desserts. The Oreo Cheesecake is de-constructed and instead of the slide of cakes you will normally see in all restaurants, Wild Rocket went one step up and reassembled the cheesecake in a tall martini glass. Kudos to the chef for being so creative and creating a winner dessert. Normally i will feel the pinch in my pocket if i have to pay close to ten bucks for a slice of cake. But not at Wild Rocket, i was immerse in the indulgence of the cake that no pain is felt. Presentation-wise score full marks, and the taste of the cake also won me over. A strong hint of cheese covering the top, with the cake and hazelnut ice cream in the middle, oreo cookie smashed filling the bottom.
Kueh buloh Tiramisu with espresso ice cream ($9.0)
The first question is what the heck is Kueh buloh? But then after the first bite of the cake, it doesn’t really matters. My companion a self-proclaimed Pro in baking Tiramisu, when he took the first taste of the cake, he gave me a strange look, without saying anything he took a second bite. After which he annouced, “not too bad, got my standard!” Indeed, the Tiramisu is good, and similarly it does not comes in the usual form of a cake. Deconstruction and reassembled is the way desserts go @ Wild Rocket, at least that applies for this two desserts.
I’ll definitely come back to Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily for their Main course, and of course more desserts. Some may say the place is over-rated, over-priced, or inaccessible, i gave it a thumbs up. While not in the fine-dining league, its unquestionably a good restaurant with the ambience you want to bring a date to.
The price isn’t that expensive when you account in the feel-good factors, and the creativity of the chef. The dining industry in Singapore definitely can do with more chef like Wilin who produce top-notch food. The brunch menu is also quite comprehensive. My evil-twin took a snap-shot of the brunch menu, anyone interested can tell me to send it to you. Anybody wants to go with me to Wild Rocket for my next visit?? *Raise hand* *Waving* *ME!* *ME!*
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 : )
” Deconstruction and reassemble with creativity “
Rating given:
Swensen's the name that all are us are familiar with, the place that is famous for its ice cream. Swensen’s a household name in Singapore, the trademark tiffany lamps for relaxing meal comes into mind when we used to think of Swensen’s. Nowadays, we are always hearing people say how Swensen’s food has decline and was not as good as before, but I decided to give a Swensen’s a try because the promise of its newly launch menu, which Swensen’s claim that it is their biggest & tasiest menu ever, with a additional 27 new dishes added, and 21 ice cream sundae and drinks. Oh boy was i proved right by what people say, Swensen’s really on the decline.
Went to Swensen’s Cafe Restaurant @ West Mall with my bro since i just wanted a quick and simple lunch. Upon reaching the place, we waited a while outside for someone to attend to us, but none came. So we took our own initiative to enter the place, then a waiter finally “notice” us and bring us to a table. We browse through the “new” menu and made our orders
Swensen’s all time favourite, Fish & Chips ($12.90) I though this was quite ordinary here, nothing special about the fish nor chips, and at that price, i guess i will be better off having a fish & chips at a hawker centre. 2 out of 5
BBQ Half Chicken ($13.90) the portion doesn’t really look like it is a half chicken, the chicken was okay really, but thats not really what you will except to find it at a restaurant with the price tag and the portion. 2 out of 5
Well, you can’t say you have been to Swensen’s if you didn’t have ice-cream can you? Swensen’s Banana Spilt ($7.60) - strawberry, chocolate, vanilla ice cream drenched with chocolate fudge, strawberry and pineapple toppings, fresh banana slices and almonds. The ice cream was pretty decent i guess, maybe Swensen’s should stick to what they are best at, doing ice cream. 3 out of 5
Total damage was $40.49 for 2 person. In conclusion, for all the things that Swensen’s new menu promise, it doesn’t work. I’ll be hard-pressed to find the positives of Swensen’s , lets see, convenient with 20 branches around island-wide? Nah, thats not the main reason for dining in a restaurant, cosy and comfortable booth seats? Their seats are’nt really cosy, and besides most of the restaurants nowadays are trying to make their place as cosy and comfortable as possible. Good for ice-cream? Mayb, but then again, more and more ice-cream places are coming up, think Ben & Jerry, Island Creamery and many more. Thus i won’t be going back to Swensen for the foreseeable future, unless someone is giving a treat : )
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 : )
Rating given:
“Botak Jones offer authentic American style, restaurant quality food. The food quality is the same or better as any full sevice restaurant. Saying this, it also takes the same amount of time a restaurant takes to prepare your food as all of our food is cooked to order. This means your meat doesn’t hit the grill, your fish isn’t fried and your salad isn’t tossed until you placed your order… “
Quoted from the botak jones menu (a long list of menu typed-print in yellow papers). Mister Ang, Mister Ong and me reached the place at around 130pm, not really a long Q, but can see that most of the people in the coffee shop is eating botak jones. Actually we wanted to visit Botak quite a long time ago, but just didn’t had the opportunity, was always going to some other places for meal. We waited for about 20 mins or so for the food to come.
Botak Jones most popular item, or so they claimed. Premium pacific dory ($6) not the cheap cream one (also claimed by them), season the fish and bread it with japanese bread crumb. The servings are generous, with lots of fries and big piece of fish. 4 out of 5
Rosemary lamb chop - medium well ($11) Ordered this because the rest order the other two already, so i though i try something different. The lamb chop was quite good i suppose, tender, fatty, juicy and delicious. But the price was rather on the high side 4 out of 5
Cajun Chicken ($7) Second most popular item (claimed by Botak), chicken breast grilled with cheese and toppled with spicy cajun sauce. I though this was pretty good, but then i don’t really fancy chicken breast meat, prefer the thigh : ) 3.5 out of 5
In conclusion, Botak Jones is the western type of restaurant found in our daily coffee shop, comparing it to restaurant, you will find the price reasonable cheap, considering it with coffee shop, you will find the price expensive. Restaurant or coffee shop? Your choice, your call.
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 : )
Rating given: