Wednesday 23 May 2007

Botak Jones

Had dinner at Botak Jones a few times since some time last year when i was told the food there was good. They boast to have damn good food at damn good price.... hhhmmmmmm... But the place is quite cool, at a coffee shop, seems like a make shift restaurant in a kopi tiam. I've always been to the amk branch, never been to the others, i heard there's a new one in a coffee shop opposite cmpb.

It's called Yue Hua Coffee Shop.. most of the customers there are patrons of botak jones, you can see it from the menus on their tables or the food items they are eating.

Fish is very good, Sausage very salty and beef patty of the burger have a smoky taste and the beef pieces falls off easily. fries not bad.

address: Yue Hua Food Place, Blk 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5
contact: 67551225
ambience: 3
taste: 7
service: 5
value for money: 7
overall rating: Selected items are really good.

Tuesday 22 May 2007

Shin Kushiya

Have read about this place, and had wanted to try but never had the chance. finally i got to step into the restaurant to see if the food taste as good as it looks on the menu. it;s a japanese charcoal grill restaurent, so i presume their grilled stuffs should be nice.

Interesting salt we see on every table, flavoured salt for the bbw food to enhance the flavour. i tried the salt even before the food arrives. they all taste the same, very salty, only the green tea flavoured one had a light bitter taste of tea in it. but i was thinking when you eat it with the food, it wil just taste salty.
This place had a really nice ambience, although the tables are quite near one another, you really feel that you are in a different place when you walk into the dining area, warm lights, transclucent curtains to divide the place in to many sections. sea view by the window. loved it. now it's time for the food
Complimentary salad, it comes with a sauce that taste a little like the chinese bean paste. not bad.
Ton katsu curry don. the curry has a slightly different texture, it seems as if there's small bits of potato or isit mashed raddish in the curry. the chicken was a littel tough too.
Miso soup with yellowtail. not bad, the fish didn't have a fishy smell.
Grilled salmon steak. quite an expensive item, but it wasn't that fantastic, neither the fish not the sauce.
Forgotten the name for this. the on on top is called something like isobeyaki the one at the bottom was suggested by the waitress, so i didn't even see the name. the yakitori was again not a good as i have expected, since it's a charcoal grill restaurant. the flavoured salt didn't help much too.

i had dinner before going, so i didn't order any main course, only snacked on the yakitori and a few bites of the other items. but the bill for 2 still came out to be $50 plus, eyes' opened when we saw the bill.

address: #02-120, Vivo City
contact: 62758766
ambience: 8
taste: 6
service: 6
value for money: 4
overall rating: Quite expensive, don't feel that the taste is worth that much

The Coffee Connoisseur

Commonly known as tcc, come out a couple years back and it is becoming very popular. i have never tried their food there and this is the first time, and i'm quite pleased with it.

We went to the branch at bugis junction, the decor was wonderful. the service was exceptionally good, it has been quite some time since i last went to a place with such good service, you actually feel as if you are not in singapore. firstly the waiter knows the menu pretty well, he was able to tell me what ingredients was used in the items. very very polite, all of them carry a smile on their faces as they walk past your table.


I only took photo of this, cos i was late and everyone else had finished theirs, this is the japanese mozza tofu (somehow, i think i didn't remember the name exactly). it;s tofu with sukiyaki sauce and baked with a layer of cheese.. it was great, he sauce was slightly sweet and with the warm melted cheese, i didn't regret ordering this.

Added (4 July 2007)
Went to the branch at millenia walk on a sunday. the place was quite quiet very suitable for lazing there, enjoying the peaceful environment. i ordered earl grey tea as usual and also pizza baugette, it was not bad. but i'm rather satisfied with the ambience and the atmosphere there. very suitable if you are looking for a quiet place for a lazy sunday afternoon.
address: #01-92-96 Bugis Junction (Click here for other branches)
contact: 68372027
ambience: 8
taste: 7 (only tried 1 item)
service: 8
value for money: 7
overall rating: very impressed by the service, food is good too.

Sunday 20 May 2007

126 Dim Sum

Found at a corner of geylang along sims ave, somewhere near lor 15, was told by a friend that this stall is famous for their dim sum, but because it was late and i had a filling dinner, i didn't eat much.

Upon arrival, i was quite surprised to see that it's really packed! at midnight on a weekday, and also realised that the name of the shop in cantonese sounds like 126 in english. quite interesting.
Siew mai, doesn't look good, cos the colour was dull. taste wise, it was alright. slightly better than usual.
Ha gao, prawn dumplings, the prawn was good but i think the skin could have been better.
Chee cheong fun with prawns, this is fabulous, it's this item that made me wanna come back to try the other dishes..

address: 126 Sims Avenue
contact:
ambience: 4
taste: 7
service: 6
value for money: 7
overall rating: didn't try much, but it's enough to make me wanna go back to try other dishes

Saturday 19 May 2007

Por Kee Eating House

Por kee eating house is situated in a carpark at tiong bahru, and in my impression, this plase have very good food and unforgetable yam paste for dessert.So we decide there for dinner once more.
Cereal prawn, didn;t see much oat in this dish, it seems more like butter prawn, but i remember having must nicer cereal prawn here, this one was very bland and it's not worth it at all.
Soon hock steamed hk style. very fresh fish, nice bouncy texture. very good.
Yam basket, not impressive, seems like the yam has been fried some time ago and the other items in this dish is not tasty.
Braised tofu, the tofu is really very very silky soft, wonderful texture, the gravy was very nice too. wonderful dish yto have with rice.
Champange pork ribs. i felt that this was good, but some others feels that it was even better in the past
Nai bai. very normal, nothing special.
Yam paste. very good. i dun mind coming here just to have this dessert. and i think you can come here to buy the yam paste for take away.

address: Blk 69 Seng Poh Lane #01-02
contact: 62210582
ambience: 6
taste: 7
service: 6
value for money: 7
overall rating: grnerally, food is not bad, some items are really good

Tuesday 15 May 2007

Azabu Sabo

Second time here for a meal, i have heard good and bad reviews from this restaurant, but there are a few items i like, so i won't mind going for those items.Check out their website. you get to see the menu there before going down to try it out.
Seafood salad, very nice jap style salad with the usual jap tasting salad dressing, the prawn is quite fresh, but the scallop seems a little tasteless.

This is my favourite, it's the cold ramen with seafood in sesame mayonnaise. something different, very refreshing, lot's of chopped lettuce and almond flakes, making it slightly crunchy. you must try this.

Chicken teriyaki bento. i didn't try this but i think it's not bad too.

Hot bowl with ice cream. this is a very special dessert too, cos it has hot and cold items in the same bowl. very nice love the red bean paste. the vanila ice cream is very good too.

Dumplings with fruits and kanten jelly. very disappointing, dumplings are just normal, just like that one my mum cook during the winter solstice festival, fruits are just fruits, a strawberry and 2 small pieces of rock melon, kanten jelly seems like normal agar agar jelly with no colouring and no sugar.

You gotta try the cold ramen, and as for desserts, i advise that you can skip those with soft ice cream, kanten jelly and fruits, cos they are not worth it, you should try the more innovative items.

address: #02-170/171 Marina Square
contact: 6338 1244
ambience: 8
taste: 7
service: 7
value for money: 6 (some dessert are totally not worth it)
overall rating: interesting dishes, some very nice food but some dissappointing

Sunday 13 May 2007

The Soup Spoon

Went to the soup spoon for take away
Tokyo chicken and mushroom stew. maybe because it's a clear soup, it seems a little not worth $5. but it was really tasty, only a little salty. dun really like the bread though, maybe because it's not fresh from the oven.

address: Raffles City Shopping Centre, B1 #75/76
contact:
ambience: 6
taste: 6
service: 5
value for money: 5
overall rating: cannot comment much, didn't try much.

Chippy British Take Away

Many of you might have seen this, it's right opposite the very much talked about donut factory. and it has been around for some time. something all the way from uk..
Deep fried mars, very special, the flour batter made the super sweet snack less sweet actually, and the cold ice cream with the warm mars bars fits very well. but beware, having too much of it it really heaty
Fried chicken with cheese sauce. maybe the one i had was a little over fried, there were too many small chunks of really hard pieces. not as good as it looks, maybe it'll taste better if you eat it right after you buy it.
cheese saussage with mash potato. i was quite dissappointed when i saw that the mash potato is the one you get at seven eleven. although the one at 7-11 is quite good actually, but now i'm paying quite a lot more, so expectation is higher. but the saussage is big and juicy, very nice..

we were standing near their drinks fridge while waiting for the food and their staff actually banged on to the glass wall very rudely from the inside to get us to not block the fridge and gave us a frustrated look... what kind of service is this?

address: #B1-58 Raffles City Shopping Centre
ambience: 3
taste: 5
service: 3
value for money: 5
overall rating: something special (deep fried mars), but not suitable for frequent consumption

Curry Favor

This place has nice japanese curry, it's slightly different from the other jap curries you try out there, it has a bit of indian spice taste, like a fusion of jap and indian curry.
Beef and mushroom curry set. very good, must try, the mushrooms have a fragrant butter taste it them.
Pork katsu set. the pork seems a little too tough for me. but it;s a really large piece of meat here.
Dun really remember this, i think it;s the fried cuttlefish roll with cheese. not very fantastic
Beef yaki... or isit yaki beef.. very tasty, will be even better if the beef is not that well done.
Fried mushroom. this one is really very food. very crispy on the outside with a whole big fresh mushroom inside, perfect with the sauce it comes with.. must order

And the portion for the mains is really huge. if you have a big appetite, this will satisfy you, if not 2 person can share a main. 5 of us went, and we ordered 2 mains 3 sides and 4 small bottles of beer ... it cost $98

Any maybe we were unlucky, the waitress was a little rude. after we ordered our food, we were still looking through the menu for drinks, so she waited for us to flip the menu and look for something we wanted. after that we decided to order later so we told her that. and she replied "oh, and you made stand here to wait for you." before she walk back to the kitchen.. so for that i will have to deduct some score from the service.

address: 39 Stamford Road, #01-09 Stamford House
contact: 68831087
ambience: 7
taste: 7 (for some of the items)
service: 3
value for money: 6
overall rating: A little expensive but the food's not bad.

Bedok Chuew Kuey

This is undeniably my favourite chuew kuey. first tried it many many years ago at the bedok interchange food centre and since then, i realised that many branches have appeared in all other parts of singapore. and i have tried them when i see them and the good thing is every branch still maintains the same good standard. i hope it will stay this way.
If you have not tried this, please go try it when you come across it. it's just a dollar for 4 pieces.

address: too many to list
ambience: 3
taste: 8
service: 4
value for money: 9
overall rating: cheap and good

Saturday 5 May 2007

Sumo House

A amall jap restaurant at clementi, not a posh place, but we cannot expect much if the food is really cheap right?

their cheapest set is the chicken katsu don set going at $2.90 only. it's situated inside a departmental store, i forgotten the name, but it's the building where kfc is in, opposite the old empress cinema.

Chicken teriyaki, very worth it, because it comes in a hughe portion, big enough for 4 person to share, if i didn;t remember wrongly this is $4.90
5 pcs of gyoza at only $1.90
California maki cold soba set. $6.90, very filling, 4 pcs of cali maki, 1 inari sushi, cold noodle, 2 pcs orange and miso soup..
Salmon teriyaki set. $4.90. and green tea is free flow for all customers.

address: Clementi Central
contact:
ambience: 3
taste: 7
service: 6
value for money: 8
overall rating: food is not bad, definitely worth the money, good a budget but nice meal