The promotion of Wednesday 1-for-1 buffet dinner for ladies using DBS card was too hard to resist so off I went with the ladies in my family. When we arrived at 6:30pm, the places was not packed but the crowd started swelling about 7pm – 90% were ladies of course, with a occasional men milling around.
The last time I came to Greenhouse was for their champagne brunch which was absolutely fabulous, and I was expecting the same standard although of course not the same fare. In fact I half expected them to stinge on the quality and quantity as almost all of us there were paying half price with the promotion but they didn’t. Nice!
Seafood – an extravagant spread of freshly oysters, flower crabs, prawns, clams, and mussels. All were very fresh and the prawns of a very good size I must say. The only gripe is that the flower crab were not cracked so I gave up on some pieces halfway.
Sashimi – salmon, tuna, mackerel. I only had the salmon and it was very fresh too! Plus they were all sliced very well, not like some sad thin pieces at some buffets. Sushi, soba, appetizers – a superb selection of sushi, cold soba and some typical Japanese appetizers like marinated scallops, jellyfish etc. The scallops were indeed very good, with silvers of cucumbers and cabbage thrown in for a crunch. There was also squid salad which was quite nice.
Soup – they had 2 choices that night: white bean soup and herbal chicken soup. The white bean was a creamy broth which honestly tasted only okay. Didn’t try the herbal soup but heard that it was a tad salty. I think they were trying to be special but I would rather much prefer the comforting mushroom or pumpkin.
Bread – A good selection of bread, even one that looked blood-red which I suspect is beetroot. But bread is not something I will eat at buffets so no comments.
Cheese selection – about 6 types of cheeses including the very pungent blue cheese, with crackers and different accompaniments on the side. I tried some nice light milky ones but have no idea what they were as I didn’t look closely at the signage.
Salad – Different types of leaves with choices of toppings and dressings, which I didn’t try as was too distracted with the other stuff.
Hot dishes – chilli crab, butter prawns, roasted potatoes, fried hokkien mee, kalian with mushrooms, mushroom tortellini, teriyaki chicken, braised beef, lamb. The chilli crab was gone almost as soon as each fresh batch arrived but I didn’t try as I heard that it was not too nice. The butter prawns were fragrant and very big sized; roasted potatoes good; hokkien mee decent; kalian crunchy; mushroom tortellini very nicely done. Chicken teriyaki was not good though, and didn’t try the red meats. Indian food - naan, plain rice, spcied rice, curries, all of which I didn’t try but looked very appetizing. They deep fry their own Indian crackers too.
Vegetable station – think this station is supposed to give vegetarians more choices. Corn on the cobs, root vegetables, mushrooms, and something like looked like a hybrid between yam and radish.
Ramen station – they actually have something like tonkatsu soup with ramen, and you pick your choice of seafood to go into the broth.
Desserts – at least 10 different kind of cakes (but absolutely no signage to indicate what they are), with plated mousse creations and macaroons on top of it. Chocolate fondue with strawberries, prunes etc. The chocolate mousse thingy I tried was okay but the macaroon not up to par.
Ice Cream and crepe station – 6 ice cream flavours (chocolate, cookies & cream, vanilla, raspberry shorbet, lime & lemon shorbet etc) with your choice of too many toppings. The chef makes crepes on the spot too which was buttery and very nice but I made the mistake of adding an ice cream scoop on it but it only made the crepe soggy.
Ice lemon tea station – free flow of ice lemon tea is included as part of the buffet and they have choices of syrup for you: mango, peach, passionfruit, raspberry, strawberry. Nice but not exciting.
Coffee / tea – also included in the buffet but the staff does not seem to offer unless you ask.
Service was okay except sitting at a corner made the clearing of our plates seem slower. The corner table beside us was also having trouble getting the bill despite different people putting up their hands trying to get some attention. Kudos to them though for the thoughtful initiative of providing my heavily pregnant sis with a pillow for her back.
This is seriously value for money with the 1-for-1 promotion; ladies should not miss it!
If you are into retro themed hotels, Hotel Re!, a rather new addition to the boutique hotel scene in Singapore, might just be what you are looking for. However, I'm not so much a hotel person and I'm actually more interested in what the restaurant (in this case, Re!Fill) has to offer.
Personally I think the cafe's decor is clean and cozy but I don't quite see signs or indications of a retro theme. Well, except maybe for the psychedelic strips of wallpaper that adorn the L boxes. There is a different lunch menu each day and you get to choose 1 of 2 main courses that are available each day. Everything else (appetisers and dessert) is pre decided, which can be good or bad, depending on your personal preferences.
Complimentary Bread - Decent but tasted not unlike a packaged loaf of bread off the supermarket shelf, nicely toasted and served up with a small container of SCS salted butter. Simple but satisfying.
Seasoned Baby Octopus, Egg Foo Yong, Sweet Potato & Taro Fritter - I liked how everything was presented in one long platter in bite sized portions. The baby octopus was a tad sweet and chewy whilst the Egg Foo Yong tasted savoury and all but had so much oil in it that it made my heart beat faster. Just imagine the oil from the egg sitting in a shooter glass. Gross. Luckily the fritter didn't turn out to be an oil sponge as well but I did find the flour a little too thick. Still crisp and enjoyable in small quantities though.
Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crabmeat - Although I could make out respectable slivers of shark's fin and crab meat, the soup was too starchy and rather bland. But for the price of the set lunch, I really shouldn't be complaining.
Salted Egg Prawn, Parisienne of Fruits & Almond Flake, Garlic Fried Rice, Sauteed Asparagus - I'm usually a fan of salted egg prawns but this one seemed a little too moist and soggy for my liking. Flavour was also lacking and honestly, the salted egg coating was aesthetically unpleasing. But at least it was edible.
Wok Fried Duck Breast with Olive Vegetable, Garlic Fried Rice, Sauteed Asparagus - At first glance, I thought the duck slices looked uncannily like beef. Even the texture was similar to the beef slices you would find at a typical beef hor fun stall - chewy from the addition of lots of flour. Compounding matters was the fact that the duck just tasted salty with a dash of pepper. No inherent fowl taste whatsoever.
Hotel Re! Temptation Delight - It sounded grand but came as a flop. I liked the presentation but the taste left much to be desired. In short, everything tasted out of sorts and even something as basic as the lychee agar agar tasted artificial. Ditto the apple crumble.
I have read rave reviews online about the food at Re!Fill but unfortunately, mine turned out to be a disaster. Honestly, $49 nett for 2 pax for set lunch isn't over the top and service was decent. However, food quality really needs to buck up in my humble opinion. And the number of customers the cafe had that day was testament to that. We were pretty much the only table that afternoon. Only when we were about to leave did a couple drop by.
I usually eat through Indian vegetarian food without knowing in specific how / what they are made of and this time too so this will be as layman as you can get.
This place was recommended by a vegetarian friend and so was a natural choice for a farewell dinner for a close friend who was vegetarian.
The place can be quite hard to find but if its useful, its located opposite Woodlands and in an white-ish sort of low shophouse with an outdoor alfresco area. It was surprisingly empty on a Sunday evening:
Bhatura Set ($5) - this, to quote my friend, looks like an UFO. Its basically deep fried carbs and the huge thing is quite a memorable. Comes with 3 dips.
Chicken Murtabak ($6) - Quite good I must say, although its not real chicken. Firmly packed pockets of dough and its stuffing and not oily too!
Plain Naan ($2) - Nice fluffy warm naan. Nice.
Mysore Masala Dosai ($5.50) - This was supposed to be a spicy thosai and it was when we last came but this time it seemed to be tamed down. The masala was not bad though.
Crispy Cereal Prawn ($7.50) - In my opinion the best of the lot! Super crispy cereal coating what tasted like fishcake to me. Very ncie!
Chicken Sizzler ($11) - Came on a banana leaf on a hotplate. Nice bite sized 'chicken' in some sweet-ish red sauce and with bell peppers.
Vegetable kurma ($7) - I have no idea what this is made of but suspect its some cream / yohurt / coconut sauce which became quite jia lat after a while. It comes as mixed vegetables but we requested for cauliflower only as we quite liked it last time.
Sambal Goreng ($6.50) - Basically bits of tofu, tempeh, and long beans mixed together in a sambal sauce. Too dry for me.
Teh Tarik ($2) - Not good at all.
Masala Tea ($3) - Didnt try but hopefully its better than the above!
Service was not too bad but it can be sporadic once the places starts to be busy. Prices are reasonable too. I would come back again of course but not in the near future.
We only made a deliberate trip down on a Saturday evening due to the SG Deal of $10.50 for a main course, soup, and drink.
It was extremely quiet on a Saturday evening at 7pm, with only 1 other table of 3, but then again the whole Wilkie Edge is quiet. The place is small-ish and probably seats only 25pax but the whole decor is quite nice I thought.
We tried different soups and mains for the 2 set meals:
Mixed vegetables soup - we had thought this would be like minestrone but it was more like a cross between creamy and clear soup, almost similar to a thick dip. It tasted like a canned tomato soup but with bits of fresh vegetables thrown in. It was served not hot at all and we asked for them to heat it up, after which it came steaming hot. It should have been so in the first place - serving lukewarm soup is just not right.
Pumpkin soup - strangely enough, this came in a pastel green hue and tasted like a bland version of broccoli soup instead. Hmmm. Nothing wrong but nothing excellent, and had the same issue of being not hot when served.
Fish and chips ($10.90) - served with tartar sauce, lemon, and chunky chips - surprisingly good! The fish was crumbed and served hot with almost no trace of oil at all. The only let down was the chips which was soft. Freshly shredded carrot and 1 puny cherry tomato added some veg to it.
Smoked Salmon pizza ($16.90) - smoked salmon with onions, capers and mozzarella cheese - this has to be the hardest crust I have ever tasted - like hard biscuit. Salmon was too fishy, too little onions and an absolute overload on cheese. If all their pizza are like that, you're better off skipping the entire section.
Ice Tea - Way too much syrup which we only saw too late.
The staff was nice enough to forewarn us that the mains will take about 20mins at the point of order and we had no problem with it. They also asked how was the food when we were leaving and I was honestly quite pleasantly surprised at how they were concerned about our feedback as small establishments are usually not. We gave them our honest feedback and they acknowledged it.
I guess some may say for the voucher value we couldn't have expected much. But if those were reflective of their usual standard then it is not value for money. Not worth a return visit for me.
Prices reflected for the 2 mains above are how much they usually cost on the menu.
This was a choice for a staff lunch and a good deal as well since UOB cards have a 1-4-1 promotion. The place was quite packed on a weekday 12:30pm and seemingly many people were there for the 1-4-1.
Cold dishes - spicy chicken salad, salad station, smoked salmon, tuna salad - didnt try alot but the smoked salmon was a tad salty for me.
Seafood - Mussels, clams, and also cold tiger prawns which appeared sporadically. When I reached, the platter was already empty and it was never refilled until maybe 1 hour later, and even so it was carelessly strewn about. No other refills for the rest of the lunch buffet. Some were alright, some were not fresh. At least the clams tasted fresh.
Bread - Didnt try as I try not to take bread at buffets. My colleagues commented that the garlic butter spread was good, even though there were some instances of fellow diners 'stealing' pieces which were buttered as they somehow thought the ready pieces were done by the hotel.
Soups - Mushroom and barley soup (clear soup) and szechuan sour & spicy - both of which were alright except I couldn't quite understand why the mushroom and barley was so oily, altbough it was comfortingly steaming hot. The sour & spicy soup was a little bland for me.
Japanese - Saw sushi and cold soba but didnt try.
Indian - Various curries and prata and naans which were just alright.
Chinese - self assembled chicken rice, sambal sotong, sweet and sour pork, spinach, stir fried beef, kambing (lamb), fried hokkien mee, and various other chinese food. Too many chinese choices for me. Most of what I tried were mediocre at most, with the sambal sotong the only memorable one.
Western - potato wedges and no pasta or pizza that I can remember.
Live station - Laksa, minced pork noodles, grilled (normal) sausages. The laksa was a little disappointing.
Desserts - Ice cream, cakes, waffles, sweets, puddings, and the ever popular chocolate fondue. Again nothing memorable. A let down as the dessert station is usually my favourite.
I had expected a better quality spread to be honest, given that this is under the Shangri-la family no doubt cheaper. The variety was also a let down. Service seems to be quite erratic, plus on one point the floor manager was arguing with one of the chefs right behind me while I was taking my food. Not professional at all.
The buffet comes with a choice of coffee, tea, coke, or sprite. At least the coffee's not too bad.
For the original price this would be a no-no. But I will probably not return even with the 1-4-1 promotion too. (My rating for 'value; is based on original price; total amount spent is nett spent after considering the promotion).
The buffet breakfast is a definite treat for in-house guests due to its sheer variety and quality. I'm not sure about having to pay ala carte for it though as am not sure how much it costs. So for hotel guests - make sure you have breakfast included with your room.
To be honest I didnt expect the variety to be as per their lunch and dinners and I was pleasantly surprised! It was a blur of dim sum, noodle station, fruit juices station, cheese platter, bread, pastries, indian, chinese, western, the ever popular egg station, and some very local things including chweh kwey and chee chong fun.
I didnt try the bread and pastries but everything else was quite good, especially the dim sim and the noodle soup. It helped that the auntie who cooks the noodle was super friendly and kept asking me to try her noodles, then reminded me again when I walked past a 2nd time, and finally hurried me one last time saying the noodles are almost finished). Very tough to find a hotel staff who takes so much pride in her work.
The potato wedges were very nice, grilled in their skin with rosemary instead of deep fried. Juice station is amazing with your pick of watermelon, orange, apple, banana, honeydew, pineapple, grapes (not sure how you make grape juice though), carrots etc. Skip the chweh kwey and chee chong fun as they tasted it came right out of a frozen packing.
Clearing of plates were a little slow at times but the breakfast crowd does get quite busy. Their brewed coffee was medicore as all other breakfast coffees are. But still one of the best hotel buffet breakfast I have ever tried.
Their GSS buy 1 main course & get a pasta free is an excellent excuse to try their food. At 3pm on a Sunday the place was packed and the outdoors only the high seats available but luckily a 4-seater opened up just when we were leaving.
3 of us decided on ordering just 2 main courses with a salad for a late lunch:
Pumpkin Lagsana ($16.50) - this was good! The sweetness of the pumpkin was evident and it also contained small pumpkin cubes to add a bite to the usually mushy dish. The cheese was not overwhelming and in fact just nice and it helps that the dish was served hotly from the oven. The presentation was nice too.
Tofu Pattie ($18.50) - this had mashed potato and sauteed mushrooms along with the pattie. The pattie itself was of a good portion with cubes of tofu in it, and although deep fried but not oily. It was also smothered in a pink-ish sauce which unfortunately made it soggy if you leave it for a while. The mushrooms were okay but the mash potato was very dry and uninspiring.
Spinach and mushroom salad ($13) - we were attracted by the combi of this with pine nuts and balsamic vinaigrette. The dressing was suitably tart and the spinach leaves very fresh. The mushrooms were done same as per the tofu pattie dish.
Service was average, except requests to top up our iced / warm water were sporadically forgotten.
They also have quite some choices of bottled beer which is worth trying out although I think they do not have a Happy Hour promo.
With the promo, it added up to only $37 for 3pax which was such a deal. Come before it ends (ends on 24 July)!
The opening of myVillage @ Serangoon Gardens has added a variety of new restaurants to the area, with mostly established brands like Da Paolo, Shin Kushiya and Old Hong Kong vying for pole position in this vibrant dining scene. Enthralled by the prospect of having dim sum in the neighbourhood, we dropped by Old Hong Kong Taste (OHKT for short) - one of the 4 restaurants under the Old Hong Kong Group.
OHKT's open kitchen greeted us as we took the escalator up to the 2nd floor of the mall, allowing us a peek at the culinary maestros ( I hope!) who would be whipping up our orders soon.
There is a variety of tea, ranging from Rose Tea to Longan Tea, all served up in a glass kettle atop a glass stove with a candle to keep the tea warm.
The appetiser was simple yet satisfying. Anchovies dotted the beancurd cubes alongside sweet chopped chilli - would have loved seconds or a bigger serving.
Dim Sum in The Cage - I was intrigued by the name, however gimmicky it may have sounded. This dim sum platter had a combination of various items such as -
Bird Nest Egg Tart - The custard was quivery and not too sweet with strands of birds nest. Couldn't make out any taste or texture from the birds nest so it's really just a gimmick. Crust was a tad too soft for my liking.
Deep Fried Prawn Wanton - A little too oily but prawns were plentiful. Best eaten with the bowl of accompanying soup.
Deep Fried Prawn Roll with Cheese - Lots of prawns but lacking in cheese, which made it rather similar in taste to the prawn wanton. Best eaten with Mayonnaise.
Siew Mai - Full of bite without too much fatty meat. Prawns fresh and crunchy.
Har Gao - The skin was a little too thick for my liking but the generous serving of crunch prawns made up for it.
Steamed Mushroom Wrap - As with the Har Gao, the wrap was a wee bit too thick for comfort but I did appreciate the mushrooms which didn't come across as too overwhelming.
Marinated Duck - A signature dish of OHKT, the duck came across as rather gamy but tender with a bit of roughage for a nice chewing sensation. The accompanying beancurd slices were very smooth and overall, quite a good dish.
Braised Homemade Beancurd with Scallops & Mushrooms - I loved this dish. Not because it's beancurd but because it was very well executed. Topped with generous servings of sliced scallops and mushrooms, the beancurd was silky and had a nice savoury charred taste to it.
Bo Lo Bun with Barbecued Pork - Served up piping hot, the Bo Lo Bun was decent with the BBQ pork pieces soaking in the mildly sweet and viscous gravy. Only gripe? The flour was a tad too thick and dry.
Steamed Egg Yolk Custard Bun - Now this was rather disappointing. Sure, it had molten custard oozing out with a breach in the shell but the custard was a tad overwhelming and I couldn't make out any traces of egg yolk sediment. I've had better.
Lunch cost the both of us about $83 after taxes which honestly isn't cheap for the amount/type of dishes we ordered and the location. However I must admit that overall, food quality was above average and this meal was worth it (well, except for the Bo Lo buns and the Custard buns). I will definitely be back but this time I'll be more inclined towards ordering from the ala carte menu rather than the dim sum menu.
Hopped onto a cab to find this as really, who ever know where Penhas Road is? Its quite quite easy to spot once you hit the stretch - just look out for something that is out of place in that almost dilapidated industrial area. The pristine white will grab you if you still can't see it.
The place was only about 4tables full but I guessed its due to it's because it was only opened on 14 June. Many different types of seatings to choose from and a terribly nice spot to impress a girl I must say. Its all sweets, chocolates, a little victorian style decor with cushy seats. What's not to like?
The sight of a huge assortment of meringue, cookies, pastries, caneles, macaroons can be quite distracting but we were there for the cakes after all!
Antoinette ($9) - milk chocolate mousse infused with earl grey tea, chocolate biscuit, raspberry coulis, and earl grey tea crumble - their signature cake. Very strong earl grey smell and taste, with the chocolate biscuit pairing extremely well with the raspberry coulis. Very good!
Saint Honore L'amour ($8) - almond biscuit, choux pastry ring, red fruit compote, choux puff filled with rose cream and rose vanilla creme chantilly - to be honest, this looked better than it tasted. I am not a big fan of rose cream although the chou puff was nice, plus what you see on the rose petal is NOT water droplets - its sugar syrup. Nice.
Chocolicieux ($9.50) - Magnum ice cream bar-like chocolate cake on a stick covered with dark chocolate studded with nuts - this is the ultimate 'magnum'. The inside was very densely filled with either mousse or cake and some caramel bits and the dark chocolate coating completing the experience with the nuts providing a nice crunch.
Latte ($4.50) - A typical good coffee.
Service was okay although some staff seemed a bit new, evident in their too-careful serving of drinks and cakes, but nothing too bad about it.
We were also entertained by the fact that the bill came in a metal bling box. Cute ending to the whole experience.
Made a deliberate trip down on a Sunday late afternoon after hearing about its good coffee and part of me wanted to test out if their baristas are really all professionally trained - 'months of intensive training' - as claimed on their website.
The place can be quite hard to find for first time. The directions on their website does not help too much either.
For such a small place, it is terribly packed. A few outdoor tables lining the entrance / exit door and inside, its elbow-tight space and almost communal dining environment. Thanks to the narrowish design of the inside, the walkway is basically blocked once there is someone standing at the counter to order or look at the display shelves. You wedge your way through while trying not to knock over someone's coffee hoping to find some sort of a space inside. There are some more tables at the back of the cafe but any space is basically taken up.
Scookie ($2.50) - This is basically a hybrid between a cookie and a scone, and I quite like this mutant thing! The typically scone is too dry for me and the cookie too hard for me, so this balances out everything. With a flavour like chocolate hazelnut, its quite hard to mess it up. Warming it up makes it even better.
Carrot cake ($5.50) - Not as moist as I would have liked but generous ingredients coupled with a excellent cream cheese frosting made it good, and almost worth its calories.
Latte ($4.50) - Excellent coffee with the foam expertly done. I am stumped by their way of serving it though: a glass cup without any handles which makes having it steaming hot very difficult. Oh well.
The staff were all wearing smiley faces despite the never ending crowd and tables were cleared rather quickly. Expect the nearby condo crowd and people looking for a leisurely afternoon with good coffee, peacefulness not included though. They also have a good selection of sandwiches and brunch items (on weekends) which looked pretty good on paper.
Would return but getting there is a bit of a deterrent.
1=SGD 0.0587
The promotion of Wednesday 1-for-1 buffet dinner for ladies using DBS card was too hard to resist so off I went with the ladies in my family. When we arrived at 6:30pm, the places was not packed but the crowd started swelling about 7pm – 90% were ladies of course, with a occasional men milling around.
The last time I came to Greenhouse was for their champagne brunch which was absolutely fabulous, and I was expecting the same standard although of course not the same fare. In fact I half expected them to stinge on the quality and quantity as almost all of us there were paying half price with the promotion but they didn’t. Nice!
Seafood – an extravagant spread of freshly oysters, flower crabs, prawns, clams, and mussels. All were very fresh and the prawns of a very good size I must say. The only gripe is that the flower crab were not cracked so I gave up on some pieces halfway.
Sashimi – salmon, tuna, mackerel. I only had the salmon and it was very fresh too! Plus they were all sliced very well, not like some sad thin pieces at some buffets.
Sushi, soba, appetizers – a superb selection of sushi, cold soba and some typical Japanese appetizers like marinated scallops, jellyfish etc. The scallops were indeed very good, with silvers of cucumbers and cabbage thrown in for a crunch. There was also squid salad which was quite nice.
Soup – they had 2 choices that night: white bean soup and herbal chicken soup. The white bean was a creamy broth which honestly tasted only okay. Didn’t try the herbal soup but heard that it was a tad salty. I think they were trying to be special but I would rather much prefer the comforting mushroom or pumpkin.
Bread – A good selection of bread, even one that looked blood-red which I suspect is beetroot. But bread is not something I will eat at buffets so no comments.
Cheese selection – about 6 types of cheeses including the very pungent blue cheese, with crackers and different accompaniments on the side. I tried some nice light milky ones but have no idea what they were as I didn’t look closely at the signage.
Salad – Different types of leaves with choices of toppings and dressings, which I didn’t try as was too distracted with the other stuff.
Hot dishes – chilli crab, butter prawns, roasted potatoes, fried hokkien mee, kalian with mushrooms, mushroom tortellini, teriyaki chicken, braised beef, lamb. The chilli crab was gone almost as soon as each fresh batch arrived but I didn’t try as I heard that it was not too nice. The butter prawns were fragrant and very big sized; roasted potatoes good; hokkien mee decent; kalian crunchy; mushroom tortellini very nicely done. Chicken teriyaki was not good though, and didn’t try the red meats.
Indian food - naan, plain rice, spcied rice, curries, all of which I didn’t try but looked very appetizing. They deep fry their own Indian crackers too.
Vegetable station – think this station is supposed to give vegetarians more choices. Corn on the cobs, root vegetables, mushrooms, and something like looked like a hybrid between yam and radish.
Ramen station – they actually have something like tonkatsu soup with ramen, and you pick your choice of seafood to go into the broth.
Desserts – at least 10 different kind of cakes (but absolutely no signage to indicate what they are), with plated mousse creations and macaroons on top of it. Chocolate fondue with strawberries, prunes etc. The chocolate mousse thingy I tried was okay but the macaroon not up to par.
Ice Cream and crepe station – 6 ice cream flavours (chocolate, cookies & cream, vanilla, raspberry shorbet, lime & lemon shorbet etc) with your choice of too many toppings. The chef makes crepes on the spot too which was buttery and very nice but I made the mistake of adding an ice cream scoop on it but it only made the crepe soggy.
Ice lemon tea station – free flow of ice lemon tea is included as part of the buffet and they have choices of syrup for you: mango, peach, passionfruit, raspberry, strawberry. Nice but not exciting.
Coffee / tea – also included in the buffet but the staff does not seem to offer unless you ask.
Service was okay except sitting at a corner made the clearing of our plates seem slower. The corner table beside us was also having trouble getting the bill despite different people putting up their hands trying to get some attention. Kudos to them though for the thoughtful initiative of providing my heavily pregnant sis with a pillow for her back.
This is seriously value for money with the 1-for-1 promotion; ladies should not miss it!
Rating given:
If you are into retro themed hotels, Hotel Re!, a rather new addition to the boutique hotel scene in Singapore, might just be what you are looking for. However, I'm not so much a hotel person and I'm actually more interested in what the restaurant (in this case, Re!Fill) has to offer.
Personally I think the cafe's decor is clean and cozy but I don't quite see signs or indications of a retro theme. Well, except maybe for the psychedelic strips of wallpaper that adorn the L boxes. There is a different lunch menu each day and you get to choose 1 of 2 main courses that are available each day. Everything else (appetisers and dessert) is pre decided, which can be good or bad, depending on your personal preferences.
Complimentary Bread - Decent but tasted not unlike a packaged loaf of bread off the supermarket shelf, nicely toasted and served up with a small container of SCS salted butter. Simple but satisfying.
Seasoned Baby Octopus, Egg Foo Yong, Sweet Potato & Taro Fritter - I liked how everything was presented in one long platter in bite sized portions. The baby octopus was a tad sweet and chewy whilst the Egg Foo Yong tasted savoury and all but had so much oil in it that it made my heart beat faster. Just imagine the oil from the egg sitting in a shooter glass. Gross. Luckily the fritter didn't turn out to be an oil sponge as well but I did find the flour a little too thick. Still crisp and enjoyable in small quantities though.
Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crabmeat - Although I could make out respectable slivers of shark's fin and crab meat, the soup was too starchy and rather bland. But for the price of the set lunch, I really shouldn't be complaining.
Salted Egg Prawn, Parisienne of Fruits & Almond Flake, Garlic Fried Rice, Sauteed Asparagus - I'm usually a fan of salted egg prawns but this one seemed a little too moist and soggy for my liking. Flavour was also lacking and honestly, the salted egg coating was aesthetically unpleasing. But at least it was edible.
Wok Fried Duck Breast with Olive Vegetable, Garlic Fried Rice, Sauteed Asparagus - At first glance, I thought the duck slices looked uncannily like beef. Even the texture was similar to the beef slices you would find at a typical beef hor fun stall - chewy from the addition of lots of flour. Compounding matters was the fact that the duck just tasted salty with a dash of pepper. No inherent fowl taste whatsoever.
Hotel Re! Temptation Delight - It sounded grand but came as a flop. I liked the presentation but the taste left much to be desired. In short, everything tasted out of sorts and even something as basic as the lychee agar agar tasted artificial. Ditto the apple crumble.
I have read rave reviews online about the food at Re!Fill but unfortunately, mine turned out to be a disaster. Honestly, $49 nett for 2 pax for set lunch isn't over the top and service was decent. However, food quality really needs to buck up in my humble opinion. And the number of customers the cafe had that day was testament to that. We were pretty much the only table that afternoon. Only when we were about to leave did a couple drop by.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
I usually eat through Indian vegetarian food without knowing in specific how / what they are made of and this time too so this will be as layman as you can get.
This place was recommended by a vegetarian friend and so was a natural choice for a farewell dinner for a close friend who was vegetarian.
The place can be quite hard to find but if its useful, its located opposite Woodlands and in an white-ish sort of low shophouse with an outdoor alfresco area. It was surprisingly empty on a Sunday evening:
Bhatura Set ($5) - this, to quote my friend, looks like an UFO. Its basically deep fried carbs and the huge thing is quite a memorable. Comes with 3 dips.
Chicken Murtabak ($6) - Quite good I must say, although its not real chicken. Firmly packed pockets of dough and its stuffing and not oily too!
Plain Naan ($2) - Nice fluffy warm naan. Nice.
Mysore Masala Dosai ($5.50) - This was supposed to be a spicy thosai and it was when we last came but this time it seemed to be tamed down. The masala was not bad though.
Crispy Cereal Prawn ($7.50) - In my opinion the best of the lot! Super crispy cereal coating what tasted like fishcake to me. Very ncie!
Chicken Sizzler ($11) - Came on a banana leaf on a hotplate. Nice bite sized 'chicken' in some sweet-ish red sauce and with bell peppers.
Vegetable kurma ($7) - I have no idea what this is made of but suspect its some cream / yohurt / coconut sauce which became quite jia lat after a while. It comes as mixed vegetables but we requested for cauliflower only as we quite liked it last time.
Sambal Goreng ($6.50) - Basically bits of tofu, tempeh, and long beans mixed together in a sambal sauce. Too dry for me.
Teh Tarik ($2) - Not good at all.
Masala Tea ($3) - Didnt try but hopefully its better than the above!
Service was not too bad but it can be sporadic once the places starts to be busy. Prices are reasonable too. I would come back again of course but not in the near future.
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We only made a deliberate trip down on a Saturday evening due to the SG Deal of $10.50 for a main course, soup, and drink.
It was extremely quiet on a Saturday evening at 7pm, with only 1 other table of 3, but then again the whole Wilkie Edge is quiet. The place is small-ish and probably seats only 25pax but the whole decor is quite nice I thought.
We tried different soups and mains for the 2 set meals:
Mixed vegetables soup - we had thought this would be like minestrone but it was more like a cross between creamy and clear soup, almost similar to a thick dip. It tasted like a canned tomato soup but with bits of fresh vegetables thrown in. It was served not hot at all and we asked for them to heat it up, after which it came steaming hot. It should have been so in the first place - serving lukewarm soup is just not right.
Pumpkin soup - strangely enough, this came in a pastel green hue and tasted like a bland version of broccoli soup instead. Hmmm. Nothing wrong but nothing excellent, and had the same issue of being not hot when served.
Fish and chips ($10.90) - served with tartar sauce, lemon, and chunky chips - surprisingly good! The fish was crumbed and served hot with almost no trace of oil at all. The only let down was the chips which was soft. Freshly shredded carrot and 1 puny cherry tomato added some veg to it.
Smoked Salmon pizza ($16.90) - smoked salmon with onions, capers and mozzarella cheese - this has to be the hardest crust I have ever tasted - like hard biscuit. Salmon was too fishy, too little onions and an absolute overload on cheese. If all their pizza are like that, you're better off skipping the entire section.
Ice Tea - Way too much syrup which we only saw too late.
The staff was nice enough to forewarn us that the mains will take about 20mins at the point of order and we had no problem with it. They also asked how was the food when we were leaving and I was honestly quite pleasantly surprised at how they were concerned about our feedback as small establishments are usually not. We gave them our honest feedback and they acknowledged it.
I guess some may say for the voucher value we couldn't have expected much. But if those were reflective of their usual standard then it is not value for money. Not worth a return visit for me.
Prices reflected for the 2 mains above are how much they usually cost on the menu.
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This was a choice for a staff lunch and a good deal as well since UOB cards have a 1-4-1 promotion. The place was quite packed on a weekday 12:30pm and seemingly many people were there for the 1-4-1.
Cold dishes - spicy chicken salad, salad station, smoked salmon, tuna salad - didnt try alot but the smoked salmon was a tad salty for me.
Seafood - Mussels, clams, and also cold tiger prawns which appeared sporadically. When I reached, the platter was already empty and it was never refilled until maybe 1 hour later, and even so it was carelessly strewn about. No other refills for the rest of the lunch buffet. Some were alright, some were not fresh. At least the clams tasted fresh.
Bread - Didnt try as I try not to take bread at buffets. My colleagues commented that the garlic butter spread was good, even though there were some instances of fellow diners 'stealing' pieces which were buttered as they somehow thought the ready pieces were done by the hotel.
Soups - Mushroom and barley soup (clear soup) and szechuan sour & spicy - both of which were alright except I couldn't quite understand why the mushroom and barley was so oily, altbough it was comfortingly steaming hot. The sour & spicy soup was a little bland for me.
Japanese - Saw sushi and cold soba but didnt try.
Indian - Various curries and prata and naans which were just alright.
Chinese - self assembled chicken rice, sambal sotong, sweet and sour pork, spinach, stir fried beef, kambing (lamb), fried hokkien mee, and various other chinese food. Too many chinese choices for me. Most of what I tried were mediocre at most, with the sambal sotong the only memorable one.
Western - potato wedges and no pasta or pizza that I can remember.
Live station - Laksa, minced pork noodles, grilled (normal) sausages. The laksa was a little disappointing.
Desserts - Ice cream, cakes, waffles, sweets, puddings, and the ever popular chocolate fondue. Again nothing memorable. A let down as the dessert station is usually my favourite.
I had expected a better quality spread to be honest, given that this is under the Shangri-la family no doubt cheaper. The variety was also a let down. Service seems to be quite erratic, plus on one point the floor manager was arguing with one of the chefs right behind me while I was taking my food. Not professional at all.
The buffet comes with a choice of coffee, tea, coke, or sprite. At least the coffee's not too bad.
For the original price this would be a no-no. But I will probably not return even with the 1-4-1 promotion too. (My rating for 'value; is based on original price; total amount spent is nett spent after considering the promotion).
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The buffet breakfast is a definite treat for in-house guests due to its sheer variety and quality. I'm not sure about having to pay ala carte for it though as am not sure how much it costs. So for hotel guests - make sure you have breakfast included with your room.
To be honest I didnt expect the variety to be as per their lunch and dinners and I was pleasantly surprised! It was a blur of dim sum, noodle station, fruit juices station, cheese platter, bread, pastries, indian, chinese, western, the ever popular egg station, and some very local things including chweh kwey and chee chong fun.
I didnt try the bread and pastries but everything else was quite good, especially the dim sim and the noodle soup. It helped that the auntie who cooks the noodle was super friendly and kept asking me to try her noodles, then reminded me again when I walked past a 2nd time, and finally hurried me one last time saying the noodles are almost finished). Very tough to find a hotel staff who takes so much pride in her work.
The potato wedges were very nice, grilled in their skin with rosemary instead of deep fried. Juice station is amazing with your pick of watermelon, orange, apple, banana, honeydew, pineapple, grapes (not sure how you make grape juice though), carrots etc. Skip the chweh kwey and chee chong fun as they tasted it came right out of a frozen packing.
Clearing of plates were a little slow at times but the breakfast crowd does get quite busy. Their brewed coffee was medicore as all other breakfast coffees are. But still one of the best hotel buffet breakfast I have ever tried.
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Their GSS buy 1 main course & get a pasta free is an excellent excuse to try their food. At 3pm on a Sunday the place was packed and the outdoors only the high seats available but luckily a 4-seater opened up just when we were leaving.
3 of us decided on ordering just 2 main courses with a salad for a late lunch:
Pumpkin Lagsana ($16.50) - this was good! The sweetness of the pumpkin was evident and it also contained small pumpkin cubes to add a bite to the usually mushy dish. The cheese was not overwhelming and in fact just nice and it helps that the dish was served hotly from the oven. The presentation was nice too.
Tofu Pattie ($18.50) - this had mashed potato and sauteed mushrooms along with the pattie. The pattie itself was of a good portion with cubes of tofu in it, and although deep fried but not oily. It was also smothered in a pink-ish sauce which unfortunately made it soggy if you leave it for a while. The mushrooms were okay but the mash potato was very dry and uninspiring.
Spinach and mushroom salad ($13) - we were attracted by the combi of this with pine nuts and balsamic vinaigrette. The dressing was suitably tart and the spinach leaves very fresh. The mushrooms were done same as per the tofu pattie dish.
Service was average, except requests to top up our iced / warm water were sporadically forgotten.
They also have quite some choices of bottled beer which is worth trying out although I think they do not have a Happy Hour promo.
With the promo, it added up to only $37 for 3pax which was such a deal. Come before it ends (ends on 24 July)!
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The opening of myVillage @ Serangoon Gardens has added a variety of new restaurants to the area, with mostly established brands like Da Paolo, Shin Kushiya and Old Hong Kong vying for pole position in this vibrant dining scene. Enthralled by the prospect of having dim sum in the neighbourhood, we dropped by Old Hong Kong Taste (OHKT for short) - one of the 4 restaurants under the Old Hong Kong Group.
OHKT's open kitchen greeted us as we took the escalator up to the 2nd floor of the mall, allowing us a peek at the culinary maestros ( I hope!) who would be whipping up our orders soon.
There is a variety of tea, ranging from Rose Tea to Longan Tea, all served up in a glass kettle atop a glass stove with a candle to keep the tea warm.
The appetiser was simple yet satisfying. Anchovies dotted the beancurd cubes alongside sweet chopped chilli - would have loved seconds or a bigger serving.
Dim Sum in The Cage - I was intrigued by the name, however gimmicky it may have sounded. This dim sum platter had a combination of various items such as -
Bird Nest Egg Tart - The custard was quivery and not too sweet with strands of birds nest. Couldn't make out any taste or texture from the birds nest so it's really just a gimmick. Crust was a tad too soft for my liking.
Deep Fried Prawn Wanton - A little too oily but prawns were plentiful. Best eaten with the bowl of accompanying soup.
Deep Fried Prawn Roll with Cheese - Lots of prawns but lacking in cheese, which made it rather similar in taste to the prawn wanton. Best eaten with Mayonnaise.
Siew Mai - Full of bite without too much fatty meat. Prawns fresh and crunchy.
Har Gao - The skin was a little too thick for my liking but the generous serving of crunch prawns made up for it.
Steamed Mushroom Wrap - As with the Har Gao, the wrap was a wee bit too thick for comfort but I did appreciate the mushrooms which didn't come across as too overwhelming.
Marinated Duck - A signature dish of OHKT, the duck came across as rather gamy but tender with a bit of roughage for a nice chewing sensation. The accompanying beancurd slices were very smooth and overall, quite a good dish.
Braised Homemade Beancurd with Scallops & Mushrooms - I loved this dish. Not because it's beancurd but because it was very well executed. Topped with generous servings of sliced scallops and mushrooms, the beancurd was silky and had a nice savoury charred taste to it.
Bo Lo Bun with Barbecued Pork - Served up piping hot, the Bo Lo Bun was decent with the BBQ pork pieces soaking in the mildly sweet and viscous gravy. Only gripe? The flour was a tad too thick and dry.
Steamed Egg Yolk Custard Bun - Now this was rather disappointing. Sure, it had molten custard oozing out with a breach in the shell but the custard was a tad overwhelming and I couldn't make out any traces of egg yolk sediment. I've had better.
Lunch cost the both of us about $83 after taxes which honestly isn't cheap for the amount/type of dishes we ordered and the location. However I must admit that overall, food quality was above average and this meal was worth it (well, except for the Bo Lo buns and the Custard buns). I will definitely be back but this time I'll be more inclined towards ordering from the ala carte menu rather than the dim sum menu.
See all my pictures here.
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Hopped onto a cab to find this as really, who ever know where Penhas Road is? Its quite quite easy to spot once you hit the stretch - just look out for something that is out of place in that almost dilapidated industrial area. The pristine white will grab you if you still can't see it.
The place was only about 4tables full but I guessed its due to it's because it was only opened on 14 June. Many different types of seatings to choose from and a terribly nice spot to impress a girl I must say. Its all sweets, chocolates, a little victorian style decor with cushy seats. What's not to like?
The sight of a huge assortment of meringue, cookies, pastries, caneles, macaroons can be quite distracting but we were there for the cakes after all!
Antoinette ($9) - milk chocolate mousse infused with earl grey tea, chocolate biscuit, raspberry coulis, and earl grey tea crumble - their signature cake. Very strong earl grey smell and taste, with the chocolate biscuit pairing extremely well with the raspberry coulis. Very good!
Saint Honore L'amour ($8) - almond biscuit, choux pastry ring, red fruit compote, choux puff filled with rose cream and rose vanilla creme chantilly - to be honest, this looked better than it tasted. I am not a big fan of rose cream although the chou puff was nice, plus what you see on the rose petal is NOT water droplets - its sugar syrup. Nice.
Chocolicieux ($9.50) - Magnum ice cream bar-like chocolate cake on a stick covered with dark chocolate studded with nuts - this is the ultimate 'magnum'. The inside was very densely filled with either mousse or cake and some caramel bits and the dark chocolate coating completing the experience with the nuts providing a nice crunch.
Latte ($4.50) - A typical good coffee.
Service was okay although some staff seemed a bit new, evident in their too-careful serving of drinks and cakes, but nothing too bad about it.
We were also entertained by the fact that the bill came in a metal bling box. Cute ending to the whole experience.
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Made a deliberate trip down on a Sunday late afternoon after hearing about its good coffee and part of me wanted to test out if their baristas are really all professionally trained - 'months of intensive training' - as claimed on their website.
The place can be quite hard to find for first time. The directions on their website does not help too much either.
For such a small place, it is terribly packed. A few outdoor tables lining the entrance / exit door and inside, its elbow-tight space and almost communal dining environment. Thanks to the narrowish design of the inside, the walkway is basically blocked once there is someone standing at the counter to order or look at the display shelves. You wedge your way through while trying not to knock over someone's coffee hoping to find some sort of a space inside. There are some more tables at the back of the cafe but any space is basically taken up.
Scookie ($2.50) - This is basically a hybrid between a cookie and a scone, and I quite like this mutant thing! The typically scone is too dry for me and the cookie too hard for me, so this balances out everything. With a flavour like chocolate hazelnut, its quite hard to mess it up. Warming it up makes it even better.
Carrot cake ($5.50) - Not as moist as I would have liked but generous ingredients coupled with a excellent cream cheese frosting made it good, and almost worth its calories.
Latte ($4.50) - Excellent coffee with the foam expertly done. I am stumped by their way of serving it though: a glass cup without any handles which makes having it steaming hot very difficult. Oh well.
The staff were all wearing smiley faces despite the never ending crowd and tables were cleared rather quickly. Expect the nearby condo crowd and people looking for a leisurely afternoon with good coffee, peacefulness not included though. They also have a good selection of sandwiches and brunch items (on weekends) which looked pretty good on paper.
Would return but getting there is a bit of a deterrent.
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