Golfer's Terrace

Golfer's terrace is situated on the second floor of the main clubhouse at warren golf & country club in choa chu kang. it's a cafe that overlooks the green, the view is awesome, perfect for a lazy weekend, where you want to relax at a place and have some nice food while you chat and relaxThis place is run by hoshigaoka singapore pte ltd,which started their buisness in singapore with japanese restaurants. so i guess the jap food on the menu should be quite good.The beef teriyaki set came in quite a big portion, there was lots of beef. it was quite tasty but the beef seemed a little tough. The chicken katsu don, the chicken tasted fine. this place doesn't serve fantastic food, but i like the feeling of dining here with the greens in view, it gives you a very peaceful and serene feeling while eating. do not expect a posh restaurant here, go there in casual clothes, like berms and t shirt, but this place might be a little warm on a hot day.

address: 81 Choa Chu Kang Way
contact: 65861296
ambience: 7
taste: 6
service: 6
value for money: 7
overall rating: Wonderful place to relax and eat on a weekend afternoon

Kenny Rogers Roasters

This restaurant have been around for sometime, has been quite a popular place for gatherings of old classmates, cos you can eat and chat and make lots of noises and you won't feel out of place.

This is the branch at suntec city, and it's quite empty on a weekday at 5pm.. i usually order the chicken but this time, we had more people to share, so we ordered the ribs and wings.
The bourbon ribs was quite good, although it will be better if the meat could be a little more tender. the bbq sauce on it was sweet and nice. chicken wings are just normal.
As for the sides, the cheese macaroni is a must have, the corn bits are warm and buttery, potato salad is just normal.. and not forgetting the corn muffin, this is the item that makes me wanna go kenny rogers again, it's delicious, expecially when it's warm. a little crunchy on the crust and soft and warm on the inside..

address: 3 Temasek Boulevard #B1-64 Suntec City Mall
contact: 63372815
ambience: 6
taste: 6
service: 6
value for money: 7
overall rating: nice place for a casual dinner, quite large portions, good to share food

Malan Gourmet

Had a simple family dinner at malan gourmet at esplanade mall. we were looking for chinese food at esplanade and humble abode seems out of our budget, the one other choice we had was this. so there was no choice even though there was only 1 table of customers at around 7:30pm whereas thai express right beside was almost full house
Xiao long bao (shanghia soup dumpling), the soup in the dumpling wasn't really tasty, i wasn't impressed by it.
Seafood claypot with beancurd, this one is quite salty, but when taken with plain rice, it taste quite well. beancurd is soft and nice.
Xo fried rice, i felt that the rice was too soggy, i prefer fried rice where the rice is dryer.
Braised soft tofu, which is not soft at all, it taste like the tau kwa you get at normal kuey chap stalls
Mango prawn fritters, the mango seems a little too cooked cos it was slimy, prawn was so small i had to dig for it.

address: 8, Raffles Avenue #01-13C, Esplanade Mall
contact: 68357988
ambience: 7
taste: 4
service: 7
value for money: 4
overall rating: the food is not worth trying, you can easily get this standard at hawker centres

Eatzi Steakhouse & Bistro

Since a few months ago, i realised that the cafe at safra yishun undergone renovation and the place is taken over by eatzi steakhouse & bistro. if i'm not wrong, they belong to the same company as jack's place. finally got a chance to have a lunch session there.

Went through their menu and realised that the price is a little steep for a neighbourhood pool side cafe, until i saw the set lunches. these set meals looked more suitable for me as a casual weekday lunch.
Fried calamari, quite a small serving. presentation is not very good, not too bad on the taste, really crispy on the outside.
Deep fried dory fillet. $10.50 for the meal which includes tea, soup and a small cake. the frying was done quite well but i think the fish wasn't very fresh, the fish meat kept breaking up in to small chunks when i tried to pick it up with my fork.
Half spring chicken with sambal sauce, this is quite worth it at $8. chicken is fried till it's crispy on the skin but it's meat is still tender, sambal sauce is a failure, even the ketchup goes better with the chicken.

There weren't many people at the restsurant when we were there at 12 plus in the afternoon. the food wouldn't make me wanna go back or wanna recommend to others. but i like the ambience, quite shoik and different to be able to have lunch by the pool. maybe next time i try the other items on the menu, hoping to find better food here.


address: 60 Yishun Ave 4, Safra Yishun
contact: 68528270/67562118
ambience: 7
taste: 5
service: 7
value for money: 7 (more for the ambience than the food)
overall rating: if you happen to be near yishun, can got there for lunch.

Xiang Ji

Went to bedok corner food centre again, tried something new this time. heard that xiang ji wanton noodles is good, so i got a plate to try.

Verdict, not worth the trouble to go all the way there for the noodles. the noodles was fine, at least it's not soggy, but the sauce was so so, the char siew was not good. the wanton was above average though.
At $3, i think i would rather go east coast for hwa kee.. anywhy, here are the other stuffs you can try at this food centre.

address: 1 Bedok Road, Bedok Corner Food Centre (Stall 30)
ambience: 3
taste: 5
service: 5
value for money: 7
overall rating: average only, char siew is not very good.

New York New York

If you take mrt often, you would have seen this when you are walking along citilink, a restaurant that always has a long queue of people waiting for a place in it. is the food that good? ambience is not bad though, a suitable place for group gatherings (group shouldn't be too big, 5 to 6 will be a nice size). it's my second time there and the first time i was quite disappointed with the food, only the fish and chips could make it.
This time round i ordered the caesar salad, nothing fantastic, chicken strips you can get from anywhere, bacon bits you get of the rack at supermarkets.The mushroom soup cappuccino, something different, gotta applaud them for the innovation, but foamy mushroom soup tasty a little finny, texture is similar to melted low class icecream.

So i guess the food as disappointed me once again. if you happen to be there for a gathering, just order the fish and chips! Now i'm wondering, how come there are so many people waiting to eat here!! willing to wait in the queue for that long for mediocre food!!?

address: 1 Raffles Link, Citylink Mall #B1-47A
contact: 6341 9695
ambience: 7
taste: 4
service: 6
value for money: 3
overall rating: 4

Yong Chye Chicken Rice

Have been eating the chicken rice and zi char at this place since secondary school, it's been 17 years since the frist time there. the food here isn't fantastic but the place brings back memories.This plate of chicken rice with veg and char shao cost $3.50, and you get lots of rice, i could only finish half the rice. for those who has huge appetite, and need lots of rice, you musn't miss this.

address: King's Arcade, Coronation Road, opposite Coronation Plaza Shell Station
ambience: 2
taste: 5
service: 7
value for money: 7
overall rating: 6

Cafe Cartel

You get to see cafe cartel all over singapore. one of the things i like about it is the free flow of bread, i love to eat bread with frozen butter.. and here it's free!! you can take some of the grated cheese as toppings too, i missed the times in the past where their cheese contain herbs. if i was not wrong, the first branch that i've been to was the one at siglap..

I heard and seen many bad reviews about this place that their food is not good etc etc.. but one thing i feel that they are a cut above the rest is their death by chocolate milkshake, i wonder which brand of ice cream the use for this milkshake, cos it just has this special taste that i can't find in any other milkshakes. i could just walk in and order a glass of this milkshake, and sit there for a chat with a friend.

Anyway, i didn't order food this time round, these are the items my friends ordered
Some burger .. didn't get to taste it
St. louis ribs. i tried this before and i felt that it was not bad, the meat wan tender and sauce was sweet and nice.
Carbonara pasta. somewhat special with an uncooked egg yolk in the middle. taste wise, so so only.

Not recommending the food here, but if you heppen to be there some how, please order the milkshake, the chocolate one, i'm not too sure about the other flavours.

Updates (12 May 2007)
Went cartel for breakfast and realised that it's quite good, feels like those american continental buffet breakfast you get at nice hotels.
Bacon and sausage set

Ultimate set

French toast set

scrambled egg was good, sausage is nice and juicy, bacon is normal, french toast not bad, but the muffin sucks

address: see official website
contact: see link above
ambience: 6
taste: 5 (8 for chocolate milkshake)(6 for breakfast)
service: 6
value for money: 5 (8 for chocolate milkshake)
overall rating: 5

Lana Cake Shop

Many would have heard about lana's famous chocolate cake. there was once i stumbled upon this cake shop to get a cake, not knowing that it's the famous lana cake shop and i asked for thier selection of cakes. they told me to get the chocolate cake, but i told them no, not chocolate, then everyone who's queueing up for payment turned and glared at me.. Anyway, this is one of my favourite chocolate cake, the other is awfully chocolate, one day i gotta buy both and try them one after the other to really know which one i prefer more.I got a cake for a friend's birthday, wordings are nicely written and the cake is always wrapped in this violet ribbon and violet plastic bag, probably cos the boss is mrs violet kwan. if you want to see how the cake itself look like, you can check it out here... or here.. for this, you must go get a cake for yourself and try it, they only sell whole cakes, smallest is 3/4 kg @ $26. try to place an order before hand to avoid disappointment. oh and it's cash only.

address: 36 Greenwood Avenue
contact: 64665315, 64668940
ambience: 3
taste: 9
service: 8
value for money: 8
overall rating: 8

Pepper Lunch

I have never tried the food at pepper lunch, so decided to try it for dinner, and i went to the branch at novena square. they have quite a few other branches around the island. the waiting time for the food is slightly longer than other fast food joints, but for steaks, i can say this timing is quite fast. pricing is also more expensive than other fastfood around.

Hamburger steak, my friend tried this so i;m not too sure of the taste. Hitokuchi cut steak, i spent too much time taking it's photo that one side of the meat got cooked too well, and became a little tough, the other side was nice though.

Generally, it;s a nice place, you can play with you food a little before eatting, tossing the meat and the veg around, decide doe yourself how well done you want your beef to be. add just the right amount of sauce for yourself. a nice idea. and food is quite tasty, will go back, and this time, i'll make sure i'll flip my meat early to get it cooked just the way i want it to be.

Updates(2 May 2007)
"Yaki Shabu" Pepper Lamb, very good, there's that bit of the lamb taste that i like, but not so strong that you cannot haldle it. and it cooks very fast, just gotta give it a few stirs, and you can leave them on the bean sprouts..
Salmon and chicken combo. not a good idea to order chicken, because even till the time the heat wears off from the hot plate, the chicken is still not fully cooked. go for items that cooks easily.

An advise, do not stay in the restaurant for too long, unless you don't mind smelling like your lunch for the rest of the day.

address: check out their website
contact: click on the link above
ambience: 6
taste: 6
service: 7
value for money: 7
overall rating: A fun place for meal, food will be good if you can do it well.

Hwa Kee Barbeque Pork Noodles

I have always loved the wanton noodles at east coast.. oh.. over here, it's called the bbq pork noodles, not wanton, i guess becuase their wantons aren't fantastic but the bbq pork is just fabulous... the sauce they use for the noodles is really shoik too!! i was so into eating the noodles that i forgotten to take a photo of the stall. but luckily i found others who blog about this and photos are available there. Whenever i'm at east coast food centre (before renovation) i must eat this noodle, the sauce is really sweet, i like it that way.. and the bbq pork is juicy with come 'chao ta' crispy parts .. but after renovation, i thought this stall has shifted away cos i couldn't find it... until now!! and this plate that you see is only $3, i'd gladly pay that amount for such nice food.
Fried wanton, not bad too, the small bite size wantons are good to go with the noodles.

Updates (14 Apr 2007)

Went there again to take a photo of the shop since i missed it the first time round, but this time the queue seems to move slower, it took us about 20mins to get to the front of the queue, you might wanna see the queue here. and the auntie asking for orders at the shop seems very friendly for such a famous stall (usually the attitude of the staff is inversely proportional to the polularity of the stall).

address: 1220 East Coast Parkway, East Coast Food Centre, Stall No. 45
ambience: 5
taste: 8
service: 4
value for money: 9
overall rating: 8

The Wine Company

Went to the wine company at evans road to chill out after dinner. i have always liked to drink at this place because of the wonderful ambience. we were too full to order anything to eat, so no photos of food.
We just had a bottle of white wine and i guessed we really didn't know what was good and what was not .. cos we had a bottle that didn't taste nice .. haha.. gotta learn from the pros. i remembered having something really nice at this place, but i just cannot remember the name, and the menu that has like more than 50 different wines didn't help. i remembered it was sweet, and slightly sparkling.
Something interesting, they serve char kuay teow here and it's under the the pasta section on the menu. i've never tried it but i heard it was good, i guess that should be the reason why this item which seems so out of place on this menu is there in the first place...

A very nice place to hang out after dinner, after work, to chat or just for a drink. you gotta go to feel it for yourself.

address: 26 Evans Road #01-05, Evans Lodge
contact: 67321229
ambience: 9
taste: 6
service: 6
overall rating: 8

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee Thomson

Somewhere near the junction of upper thomson road and sin ming road, you can see the bright red signboard from the main road. heard from a friend that the food here is quite good, so we decided to give it a try while looking for a place to eat at this stretch along upper thomson road. was told that the "san lou" keuy tiao is good, but my dinner pal this evening doesn't fancy kuey tiao or bee hoon.. so we got this...Yi mee. quite a normal dish, tasty, but not fantastic.Fried chicken with prawn paste. again tasty but not fantastic. taste similar to the one i had at xo fish head bee hoon at holland village.Cereal prawn. This dish taste a little special, it isn't as oily as what we usually have and i think milk powder was added to give it the special taste, it's just an assumption, go try it and let me know if you think they added milk powder.

Not a very posh restaurant, it's a place where you can go for a nice chinese dinner without having to worry about poor dressing.

address: 222/224 Upper Thomson Rd
contact: 6454 2988
ambience: 4
taste: 5
service: 6
overall rating: 5

Buckaroo BBQ & Grill

Buckaroo is a nice restaurant, not very posh but located at a very serene place near sembawang park.
Wasn't very hungry so we order a side and a main, cheesie fries sounds nice so we took that.. and i was shocked to see the size of it!! the amount of fried they give is enough to be a main man!

The main we ordered is this buckaroo bullrider steak. when ordering, we were expecting a big piece of meat. but when the food was served ... we stared at it for a while, asked the waiter and realised that the "steak" is actually a beef patty, so we ended up eating a burger without the bread.. not that fantastic though.I asked the cashier as i was leaving and she recommended their prime ribs.. supposed to be their best seller but only available on fri and sat. after that she gave me a $10 voucher (min spending $100).. ok.. i'll definitely be going to try the ribs (need a few people to spend up to $100, anyone interested?), cos the place is really quite nice, it will be a waste if they dun not have good food.

address: 12B Andrews Avenue
contact: 67542621
ambience: 7
taste: 6
service: 4
overall rating: 6

Pat's Oven

An interesting shop at vivocity selling snacks.
the thing that caught my eyes immediately was the macadamia nuts, flavoured with honey or wasabi or garlic or chilli. So i asked to sample the different flavours, and those nuts really taste good esp when it's still warm and crispy on the outside.. personal favourite is the garlic flavour. they also have dried fruits like mangoes, dates, figs etc which i dun fancy, so couldn't comment on that. but the macadamias are good!

address: Vivocity #02-133
ambience: 7
taste: 7
service: 6
overall rating: 6