This is a good althernative to the noisy seafood places at East Coast. The Big Splash itself is a much better dinner option if you ask me, with better parking options too.
730pm on a Sunday night was crowded. They do not take reservations so we had to get write down our names and contact numbers and the staff will call you when your table's ready. The system seems to be a bit messy though, with people going off to 'take a walk' after leaving their details and not answering their phones when called. Under-staffing also seems to be an issue here.
Claypot rice with mushrooms and chicken ($16.80) - the menu says its for 2pax but it is sufficient for 3 smaller eaters actually. I'm not sure if they actually cook the rice from scratch in the claypot itself as it didnt quite have the fragrance that it was supposed to have. Topped off with a handful of half mushrooms with thick chicken strips. It doesnt come with the dark sauce but instead light soya sauce. When asked, the staff just said their version is like that. The taste was really only so so, nothing too spectacular.
Spinach in soup ($6.00) - Generous serving of spinach claypot in what seemed like very bland stock (not tasteless but something very watered down). Healthy but can be more tasty I guess.
Lotus root and pork rib soup ($5.80) - Disappointing as it tasted watered down too.
Prawn gyoza ($6.00) - we odered this from the neighbouring Yoshimaru Ramen Bar which is helmed by the same management, while waiting for our proper food to arrive, which took almost 45 mins. 6 small sized gyozas nicely browned the prawn bits could have been bigger.
Food wise, I feel it is nothing fantastic. But the place itself is a refreshing change from the usual noisy packed seafood crowd.
Wanted a nice quiet lunch / brunch place after the holiday craze and a friend recommended this. The place was strangely quiet at about 1230pm on the 2nd day of the New Year but just as well.
I like the decor of the place, furnished in wooden tables and chairs with some comfy sofa seats as an alternative. Menu was quite comprehensive with additional brunch options. We had:
Bubbles & Squeak ($14.80) - I have no idea why its called what its called. It was onions, mushrooms, and potato cakes, and 3 patties of it. The description says its 'pancakes' and technically its not wrong but still I found it a little misleading. Not too bad for the taste with the cakes nicely browned outside and the insides still hot and fresh, but can be less oily as the otoil gets to you after 3 patties of the same thing. Served with a side of salad.
Blueberry Pancakes ($13.80) - Nice! 2 pieces of fluffy pancakes with real blueberries, so you get the natural sweetness of the berries on top of the aroma of the pancakes. Served with 2 short sausages which was quite bland actually.
Americano ($4.50) - They didnt have this on the menu, only the ready brewed coffee which I didnt want. It took some effort before the clueless staff understood what I wanted: Expresso with hot water.
Pomegranate tea ($4.50) - Light and very fragrant, a very good alternative to coffee!
The place started to fill up about 1pm onwards but generally still a getaway from the usual Taka crowd. Good place to catch up with friends but beware of clueless staff. Worth a place to revisit as the cupcakes on the shleves looked very very tempting~
I admit, I’m spoil. And I blame everything on Yanting. If I have not had better dim sum before, the ones at Wen Dao Shi might be consider pretty decent, but the truth is – they are not.
They need not be anyway, people come here for the nostaglic feeling of sitting by the roadside in the red district area. People come all the way here because there’s not much options when you suddenly have a craving for dim sum in the middle of the night. And people like it here because it’s unpretentious and affordable.
This is not a food review, it’s a night where old friends come together and have fun. I will tell you absolutely nothing about the food here, because on this night the food becomes secondary. But I can’t do that can I? You are after all here to find out more about the place, so here’s a few snippets about the dim sum:
For around ten dollars per person, we had quite a lot of food. There was the usual Siew mai & Har gau, the former was pretty decent while the latter did not impress. The skin of the shrimp dumpling cracked even before we picked it up.
You probably want to go with the fried stuff instead. The fried prawn dumpling that came with the mayo dip was pretty competent and the xiaolongbao was fairly average.
We had the steamed pork-ribs, and also the cheong fun. The rice roll came with a different type of sauce that I couldn’t make out, and there’s too little fillings inside.
If you are there, don’t bother to get the Char siew sou, the taste was completely flat – the puff lacked the crispy buttery flakes, and the char siew did not have the attributes to earn the rights to be inside the char siew sou. But I was surprised by the char siew bao, the buns were fluffy and soft, and it came pipping hot.
Since most places do not serve dim sum at night, and even for places that have dim sum for dinner, they close early and Wen Dao Shi is probably one of the few places that can satisfy your dim sum cravings in the middle of the night. While there are others who felt that the dim sum here is over-priced, on the contrary I thought that the pricing is pretty reasonable.
But the next time I have a dim sum craving? I will sulk, go to bed with an empty stomach, dream about it and wait till the next day for my favorite dim sum.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
It was down to Chinese cuisine and at Changi airport, choices were far and few. I was generally sick of Crystal Jade Shanghai Kitchen so Imperial Treasure it was. It definitely helped that I had a positive experience at Imperial Treasure Teochew Cuisine before.
Located in the main lobby of Crowne Plaza Hotel at Changi Airport, the restaurant utilizes a dark wooden paneled facade to portray an air of exclusivity and class. Plush cushion seats amidst a carpeted flooring complete the picture.
Roasted Goose - Geese are a scarce commodity nowadays, especially after the banning of birds from China and Taiwan during the bird flu outbreak a couple of months back. And I baulked at paying $30 for probably just a quarter of a goose. But I did so nonetheless and am glad that it turned out splendid. A thin layer of fat sandwiched between crackling crisp skin and succulent meat, lying in a shallow pool of oily fluid. If you are the sort to squirm in the presence of excessive oil, it would be in your best interests to steer clear of this dish.
Sauteed Scallops with Truffle Oil - I loved this dish, especially with the aroma of truffle oil. The four scallops were huge, juicy and came served on a bed of lip smacking egg white. There is actually an option of having this dish without the truffle oil (its quite a fair bit cheaper too) but my advice would be to stick to truffle oil.
Broccoli with Mushroom - I personally thought that the broccoli was a little undercooked, rendering it a tad too hard for my liking. However the plentiful mushrooms more then made up for it and overall a very decent dish.
A most gratifying dinner for 2 didn't make it past the century mark, standing at a shade over $90, which was still reasonable in my context. I did think that $3 for a bowl of rice was a little over the top though. Service was good and I can't really find any reason not to return.
Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?
We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.
How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.
Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.
The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.
This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.
I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?
It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.
* * *
This is part of a series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
It started with another email thread again, this time Camemberu suggested to check out the famous Founder Bak Ku Teh and a date was set. I don’t usually write posts about hawker food. It’s not like I don’t eat hawker food, but the problem is I have too many backlogs of the nice places that I went recently.
Founder is one of the few popular choices that most people will think of them when you mention Bak Kut Teh. You know a place is famous when we actually queued up twenty minutes for a table by the road side of Balastier road, watching the others slurping down their warm peppery soup.
The fact that the walls are filled with the numerous photographs of famous celebrities, and there’s hardly any empty space for new photographs that they probably paste it over some of the fallen-stars. Or the fact that even when we left the place, there’s still a snake-like queue waiting outing for their turn to get in – just for a bowl of bak ku teh.
While the highlight of the show should be the pork ribs, but the pork trotters was even better. Surprisingly, the proportion of lean meat to fats was just right; there wasn’t much fats like the usual pork trotters. The meat was so tender that it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth splendidly.
We also had an pig organ soup that consisted of kidney, liver and small intestines. I like how the medium-rare liver retained it’s tinge of pink, and the robust flavour of the kidney, but the soup lacked the wow factor.
The Bak kut teh was quite a let-down – we were expecting a lot for the fact that we queued twenty minutes for this. Or for the fact that we ordered wrongly and had the normal tough pork ribs instead of the supposedly superior loin ribs. There was the usual side-dishes like youtiao, beancurd skin, salted vegetable, and braised taupok (beancurd).
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
One of the reasons why I hardly blog about Japanese food is because I always have difficulty in remembering all the mind-boggling names. I heard of Standing Sushi Bar a while back when it just opened, and the first question on my mind: “are there seats inside?”
The catchy name certainly helps to pique the curiosity of most people, and I found out that the theory of stand, order sushi and eat only applies to lunch where there are no seats. For dinner you can sit down comfortably (although it’s kind of cramp) and enjoy your sushi.
There was six pieces of the California roll ($6) each; since the others were saving up their stomach for the other courses to come, I had the lion’s share of it. There’s just something about California roll that attracts me; this is the kind of thing I could keep eating and still never get enough. Okay fine, that’s just an excuse – I’m a glutton.
SSB’s owner Howard made the selections, and he chose a platter of five nigiri sushi for us; Maguro ($2), Sake Toro ($2), Hamachi ($4), Aburi Hotate ($4), Shime Saba ($3). I particularly enjoyed the scallop which had a tangy sauce to further enhance the sweetness of it.
And how can we do without Sashimi? The Chef’s special ($25) will definitely delight all the sashimi fans out there; I bet you are already salivating at the prospect of putting the thickly sliced, fresh sashimi with a pinch of wasabi into your mouth.
I was particularly intrigued by the Anago nigiri ($6) when it arrived on our table. The long and slimy salt-water sea eel looks so tantalizing with a coat of sauce, and there was the challenge of gobbling it up with one bite.
I have mentioned it before, but girls seem to love their Salmon a lot. And the Salmon Yuzu Yama-mayo yaki ($15) will be the perfect choice; the fish crumbled at the lightest touch and it was tasty with the appetizing sauce, but I would prefer it to be slightly more charred on the surface.
Besides all the raw nigiri sushi and sashimi, there was also some cooked food available and we had the Mix Kinoko Foil Yaki ($10) which by all accounts, wasn’t cheap for just mushrooms, but I have to say it was delicious. There was the special-sauce-which-the-chef-absolutely-refused-to-divulge that is supposedly the success behind the three mushrooms.
And we also had the Tori Karaage ($6) which was quintessentially fried chicken wrapped with seaweed. After having so much raw food, it was nice to have some sinful, deep-fried food for a change.
Standing Sushi Bar has a pretty value for money set lunch, so if you are working in the area, check them out, but you have been warned – there’s no seats during lunch.
* * *
This is the first part of a series that I will be doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
This small eatery was featured in a Singaporean food variety shows as well as a number of local newspaper lifestyle reports for its unique variety of waffles e.g. oreo, durian, honey.
From 10am to 10pm daily, you can experience an all-you-can-eat buffet of waffles of many different flavours. You can also pick from a (One-time) selection of ice-creams and drinks to complement your waffles. All these for just $8.80! If somehow you are still hungry, you can top-up $3 for a main course e.g. spaghetti.
However, you should also take note of some house rules e.g. the standard buffet wastage charges. As the Durian flavor waffles is the most requested flavor at Waffle Factory, each buffet diner is entitled to only 1 Durian flavor waffle. You just have to try the waffle to understand why - instead of a durian-flavored paste, this is a real fresh durian filling!
We tried a total of 12 waffles - each waffle is about the size of a palm and there are many flavours to choose from. Some must-try flavors include Oreo and Sweet Corn.
We ordered a chocolate float and ice-cream waffle cone (included in the buffet price). They complemented the hot waffles perfectly.
Perhaps because its still early (11am+), there wasn't anyone else in the cafe so service was quite fast. We are allowed to order 3 waffles at one time and the service staff were friendly and helpful to recommend us the best flavors to try.
For $8.80, this is actually quite a worthwhile buffet if you really like waffles although you could get quite sick of waffles after this treat. We stayed off waffles for quite some time. :-)
For more info, check out: http://www.passportchop.com/asia/singapore/waffle-factory-buffet/
Located at the heart of Mongkok, it served as a good pitstop from hours of shopping at nearby Tung Choi Street Market (Ladies Street). There are lots of cafes and even a cinema (showing just 2 Cantonese movies) around the hotel.
While there is limited walking space in a Standard Double Room at Stanford Hong Kong Hotel, the cool view of Hong Kong’s environment and the spacious writing table more than makes up for it. However do take note that the small bottle of water on the writing table is booby-trapped! It will cost you HKG40 (almost S$8) to drink it!
The beds are really comfortable and the LCD TV offers a number of cable channels ranging from HBO for the latest movies to ESPN for the latest sports update. The hotel package we bought also included free Wi-Fi – just bring your laptop, get the network password from the hotel reception and you are good to go!
The shower and toilet facilities are pretty much what you would expect from a 3-star hotel. What’s unique is that instead of providing you with bottles of shampoo and bodywash, Stanford Hong Kong hotel had combined hair soap shampoo shower gel conditioner into one solution available from a dispenser in the toilet!
For more pictures and reviews, check out: http://www.passportchop.com/reviews/accommodation-reviews/hong-kong-standford-hotel-review/
This was my first visit to Aston after hearing so much about it. No doubt I did not have steak which was what they are famous for, but I'm writing this review based on what I have. I still feel that as a restaurant you should take care of your other dishes as well.
This outlet feels like a family place and packed with families and students on a Saturday evening. I was seated next to a group of 10 students on an outing so was rather noisy.
Minestrone ($3.50) - didn't have this but heard it was diluted and not good.
Clam chowder ($3.50) - thick creamy but bland. I found chicken instead of clam. Hmmm. Both soups came really lukewarm and we asked to heat it up. The staff said he needed to check with the manager (???). When they returned the 2nd time, it was still lukewarm. We gave up.
Spinach salad ($6.90) - Really just spinach leaves anda few sundried tomatos on top (we had asked to replace bacon bits with it), nothing else. The balsamic vinegrette was okay but too tart for my liking.
Chicken provanacle ($10.90) - I forgot to take pics of this but no loss. A cut of chicken laced with mushroom sauce, accompanied by wedges and buttered mushrooms (you could choose any 2 side dishes from a list). The chicken came with too much, and wedges served cold. The mushrooms were not too bad though.
It may be forgivable to neglect your non-famous dishes a little but I think serving hot soup should be a basic. Not going back there, even though prices are really attractive.
1=SGD 0.0587
Can be more authentic
This is a good althernative to the noisy seafood places at East Coast. The Big Splash itself is a much better dinner option if you ask me, with better parking options too.
730pm on a Sunday night was crowded. They do not take reservations so we had to get write down our names and contact numbers and the staff will call you when your table's ready. The system seems to be a bit messy though, with people going off to 'take a walk' after leaving their details and not answering their phones when called. Under-staffing also seems to be an issue here.
Claypot rice with mushrooms and chicken ($16.80) - the menu says its for 2pax but it is sufficient for 3 smaller eaters actually. I'm not sure if they actually cook the rice from scratch in the claypot itself as it didnt quite have the fragrance that it was supposed to have. Topped off with a handful of half mushrooms with thick chicken strips. It doesnt come with the dark sauce but instead light soya sauce. When asked, the staff just said their version is like that. The taste was really only so so, nothing too spectacular.
Spinach in soup ($6.00) - Generous serving of spinach claypot in what seemed like very bland stock (not tasteless but something very watered down). Healthy but can be more tasty I guess.
Lotus root and pork rib soup ($5.80) - Disappointing as it tasted watered down too.
Prawn gyoza ($6.00) - we odered this from the neighbouring Yoshimaru Ramen Bar which is helmed by the same management, while waiting for our proper food to arrive, which took almost 45 mins. 6 small sized gyozas nicely browned the prawn bits could have been bigger.
Food wise, I feel it is nothing fantastic. But the place itself is a refreshing change from the usual noisy packed seafood crowd.
Rating given:
Leisure place to chill~
Wanted a nice quiet lunch / brunch place after the holiday craze and a friend recommended this. The place was strangely quiet at about 1230pm on the 2nd day of the New Year but just as well.
I like the decor of the place, furnished in wooden tables and chairs with some comfy sofa seats as an alternative. Menu was quite comprehensive with additional brunch options. We had:
Bubbles & Squeak ($14.80) - I have no idea why its called what its called. It was onions, mushrooms, and potato cakes, and 3 patties of it. The description says its 'pancakes' and technically its not wrong but still I found it a little misleading. Not too bad for the taste with the cakes nicely browned outside and the insides still hot and fresh, but can be less oily as the otoil gets to you after 3 patties of the same thing. Served with a side of salad.
Blueberry Pancakes ($13.80) - Nice! 2 pieces of fluffy pancakes with real blueberries, so you get the natural sweetness of the berries on top of the aroma of the pancakes. Served with 2 short sausages which was quite bland actually.
Americano ($4.50) - They didnt have this on the menu, only the ready brewed coffee which I didnt want. It took some effort before the clueless staff understood what I wanted: Expresso with hot water.
Pomegranate tea ($4.50) - Light and very fragrant, a very good alternative to coffee!
The place started to fill up about 1pm onwards but generally still a getaway from the usual Taka crowd. Good place to catch up with friends but beware of clueless staff. Worth a place to revisit as the cupcakes on the shleves looked very very tempting~
Rating given:
I admit, I’m spoil. And I blame everything on Yanting. If I have not had better dim sum before, the ones at Wen Dao Shi might be consider pretty decent, but the truth is – they are not.
They need not be anyway, people come here for the nostaglic feeling of sitting by the roadside in the red district area. People come all the way here because there’s not much options when you suddenly have a craving for dim sum in the middle of the night. And people like it here because it’s unpretentious and affordable.
This is not a food review, it’s a night where old friends come together and have fun. I will tell you absolutely nothing about the food here, because on this night the food becomes secondary. But I can’t do that can I? You are after all here to find out more about the place, so here’s a few snippets about the dim sum:
For around ten dollars per person, we had quite a lot of food. There was the usual Siew mai & Har gau, the former was pretty decent while the latter did not impress. The skin of the shrimp dumpling cracked even before we picked it up.
You probably want to go with the fried stuff instead. The fried prawn dumpling that came with the mayo dip was pretty competent and the xiaolongbao was fairly average.
We had the steamed pork-ribs, and also the cheong fun. The rice roll came with a different type of sauce that I couldn’t make out, and there’s too little fillings inside.
If you are there, don’t bother to get the Char siew sou, the taste was completely flat – the puff lacked the crispy buttery flakes, and the char siew did not have the attributes to earn the rights to be inside the char siew sou. But I was surprised by the char siew bao, the buns were fluffy and soft, and it came pipping hot.
Since most places do not serve dim sum at night, and even for places that have dim sum for dinner, they close early and Wen Dao Shi is probably one of the few places that can satisfy your dim sum cravings in the middle of the night. While there are others who felt that the dim sum here is over-priced, on the contrary I thought that the pricing is pretty reasonable.
But the next time I have a dim sum craving? I will sulk, go to bed with an empty stomach, dream about it and wait till the next day for my favorite dim sum.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
It was down to Chinese cuisine and at Changi airport, choices were far and few. I was generally sick of Crystal Jade Shanghai Kitchen so Imperial Treasure it was. It definitely helped that I had a positive experience at Imperial Treasure Teochew Cuisine before.
Located in the main lobby of Crowne Plaza Hotel at Changi Airport, the restaurant utilizes a dark wooden paneled facade to portray an air of exclusivity and class. Plush cushion seats amidst a carpeted flooring complete the picture.
Roasted Goose - Geese are a scarce commodity nowadays, especially after the banning of birds from China and Taiwan during the bird flu outbreak a couple of months back. And I baulked at paying $30 for probably just a quarter of a goose. But I did so nonetheless and am glad that it turned out splendid. A thin layer of fat sandwiched between crackling crisp skin and succulent meat, lying in a shallow pool of oily fluid. If you are the sort to squirm in the presence of excessive oil, it would be in your best interests to steer clear of this dish.
Sauteed Scallops with Truffle Oil - I loved this dish, especially with the aroma of truffle oil. The four scallops were huge, juicy and came served on a bed of lip smacking egg white. There is actually an option of having this dish without the truffle oil (its quite a fair bit cheaper too) but my advice would be to stick to truffle oil.
Broccoli with Mushroom - I personally thought that the broccoli was a little undercooked, rendering it a tad too hard for my liking. However the plentiful mushrooms more then made up for it and overall a very decent dish.
A most gratifying dinner for 2 didn't make it past the century mark, standing at a shade over $90, which was still reasonable in my context. I did think that $3 for a bowl of rice was a little over the top though. Service was good and I can't really find any reason not to return.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?
We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.
How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.
Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.
The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.
This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.
I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?
It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.
* * *
This is part of a series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
It started with another email thread again, this time Camemberu suggested to check out the famous Founder Bak Ku Teh and a date was set. I don’t usually write posts about hawker food. It’s not like I don’t eat hawker food, but the problem is I have too many backlogs of the nice places that I went recently.
Founder is one of the few popular choices that most people will think of them when you mention Bak Kut Teh. You know a place is famous when we actually queued up twenty minutes for a table by the road side of Balastier road, watching the others slurping down their warm peppery soup.
The fact that the walls are filled with the numerous photographs of famous celebrities, and there’s hardly any empty space for new photographs that they probably paste it over some of the fallen-stars. Or the fact that even when we left the place, there’s still a snake-like queue waiting outing for their turn to get in – just for a bowl of bak ku teh.
While the highlight of the show should be the pork ribs, but the pork trotters was even better. Surprisingly, the proportion of lean meat to fats was just right; there wasn’t much fats like the usual pork trotters. The meat was so tender that it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth splendidly.
We also had an pig organ soup that consisted of kidney, liver and small intestines. I like how the medium-rare liver retained it’s tinge of pink, and the robust flavour of the kidney, but the soup lacked the wow factor.
The Bak kut teh was quite a let-down – we were expecting a lot for the fact that we queued twenty minutes for this. Or for the fact that we ordered wrongly and had the normal tough pork ribs instead of the supposedly superior loin ribs. There was the usual side-dishes like youtiao, beancurd skin, salted vegetable, and braised taupok (beancurd).
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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One of the reasons why I hardly blog about Japanese food is because I always have difficulty in remembering all the mind-boggling names. I heard of Standing Sushi Bar a while back when it just opened, and the first question on my mind: “are there seats inside?”
The catchy name certainly helps to pique the curiosity of most people, and I found out that the theory of stand, order sushi and eat only applies to lunch where there are no seats. For dinner you can sit down comfortably (although it’s kind of cramp) and enjoy your sushi.
There was six pieces of the California roll ($6) each; since the others were saving up their stomach for the other courses to come, I had the lion’s share of it. There’s just something about California roll that attracts me; this is the kind of thing I could keep eating and still never get enough. Okay fine, that’s just an excuse – I’m a glutton.
SSB’s owner Howard made the selections, and he chose a platter of five nigiri sushi for us; Maguro ($2), Sake Toro ($2), Hamachi ($4), Aburi Hotate ($4), Shime Saba ($3). I particularly enjoyed the scallop which had a tangy sauce to further enhance the sweetness of it.
And how can we do without Sashimi? The Chef’s special ($25) will definitely delight all the sashimi fans out there; I bet you are already salivating at the prospect of putting the thickly sliced, fresh sashimi with a pinch of wasabi into your mouth.
I was particularly intrigued by the Anago nigiri ($6) when it arrived on our table. The long and slimy salt-water sea eel looks so tantalizing with a coat of sauce, and there was the challenge of gobbling it up with one bite.
I have mentioned it before, but girls seem to love their Salmon a lot. And the Salmon Yuzu Yama-mayo yaki ($15) will be the perfect choice; the fish crumbled at the lightest touch and it was tasty with the appetizing sauce, but I would prefer it to be slightly more charred on the surface.
Besides all the raw nigiri sushi and sashimi, there was also some cooked food available and we had the Mix Kinoko Foil Yaki ($10) which by all accounts, wasn’t cheap for just mushrooms, but I have to say it was delicious. There was the special-sauce-which-the-chef-absolutely-refused-to-divulge that is supposedly the success behind the three mushrooms.
And we also had the Tori Karaage ($6) which was quintessentially fried chicken wrapped with seaweed. After having so much raw food, it was nice to have some sinful, deep-fried food for a change.
Standing Sushi Bar has a pretty value for money set lunch, so if you are working in the area, check them out, but you have been warned – there’s no seats during lunch.
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This is the first part of a series that I will be doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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This small eatery was featured in a Singaporean food variety shows as well as a number of local newspaper lifestyle reports for its unique variety of waffles e.g. oreo, durian, honey.
From 10am to 10pm daily, you can experience an all-you-can-eat buffet of waffles of many different flavours. You can also pick from a (One-time) selection of ice-creams and drinks to complement your waffles. All these for just $8.80! If somehow you are still hungry, you can top-up $3 for a main course e.g. spaghetti.
However, you should also take note of some house rules e.g. the standard buffet wastage charges. As the Durian flavor waffles is the most requested flavor at Waffle Factory, each buffet diner is entitled to only 1 Durian flavor waffle. You just have to try the waffle to understand why - instead of a durian-flavored paste, this is a real fresh durian filling!
We tried a total of 12 waffles - each waffle is about the size of a palm and there are many flavours to choose from. Some must-try flavors include Oreo and Sweet Corn.
We ordered a chocolate float and ice-cream waffle cone (included in the buffet price). They complemented the hot waffles perfectly.
Perhaps because its still early (11am+), there wasn't anyone else in the cafe so service was quite fast. We are allowed to order 3 waffles at one time and the service staff were friendly and helpful to recommend us the best flavors to try.
For $8.80, this is actually quite a worthwhile buffet if you really like waffles although you could get quite sick of waffles after this treat. We stayed off waffles for quite some time. :-)
For more info, check out: http://www.passportchop.com/asia/singapore/waffle-factory-buffet/
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Located at the heart of Mongkok, it served as a good pitstop from hours of shopping at nearby Tung Choi Street Market (Ladies Street). There are lots of cafes and even a cinema (showing just 2 Cantonese movies) around the hotel.
While there is limited walking space in a Standard Double Room at Stanford Hong Kong Hotel, the cool view of Hong Kong’s environment and the spacious writing table more than makes up for it. However do take note that the small bottle of water on the writing table is booby-trapped! It will cost you HKG40 (almost S$8) to drink it!
The beds are really comfortable and the LCD TV offers a number of cable channels ranging from HBO for the latest movies to ESPN for the latest sports update. The hotel package we bought also included free Wi-Fi – just bring your laptop, get the network password from the hotel reception and you are good to go!
The shower and toilet facilities are pretty much what you would expect from a 3-star hotel. What’s unique is that instead of providing you with bottles of shampoo and bodywash, Stanford Hong Kong hotel had combined hair soap shampoo shower gel conditioner into one solution available from a dispenser in the toilet!
For more pictures and reviews, check out: http://www.passportchop.com/reviews/accommodation-reviews/hong-kong-standford-hotel-review/
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Not coming back.
This was my first visit to Aston after hearing so much about it. No doubt I did not have steak which was what they are famous for, but I'm writing this review based on what I have. I still feel that as a restaurant you should take care of your other dishes as well.
This outlet feels like a family place and packed with families and students on a Saturday evening. I was seated next to a group of 10 students on an outing so was rather noisy.
Minestrone ($3.50) - didn't have this but heard it was diluted and not good.
Clam chowder ($3.50) - thick creamy but bland. I found chicken instead of clam. Hmmm. Both soups came really lukewarm and we asked to heat it up. The staff said he needed to check with the manager (???). When they returned the 2nd time, it was still lukewarm. We gave up.
Spinach salad ($6.90) - Really just spinach leaves anda few sundried tomatos on top (we had asked to replace bacon bits with it), nothing else. The balsamic vinegrette was okay but too tart for my liking.
Chicken provanacle ($10.90) - I forgot to take pics of this but no loss. A cut of chicken laced with mushroom sauce, accompanied by wedges and buttered mushrooms (you could choose any 2 side dishes from a list). The chicken came with too much, and wedges served cold. The mushrooms were not too bad though.
It may be forgivable to neglect your non-famous dishes a little but I think serving hot soup should be a basic. Not going back there, even though prices are really attractive.
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