Eat

Went to this place called eat at rail mall (upper bukit timah road, hear hillview area) for supper. i always get the fishball noodle, i fell that the fishballs are quite alright, has quite a nice bouncy texture to it.

The noodles are quite good too, generally it's better than the average fish ball noodles you get at hawker centres but the price is nearly double too!! If you stay around that area and looking for something to eat late night, you might wanna try this, they are open 24 hrs..



address: 436 Upper Bukit Timah Road, The Rail Mall
contact: 64623034
ambience: 6
taste: 7
service: 4
value for money: 5
overall rating: Quite expensive for coffeeshop food, but taste is acceptable

Five Star Chicken Rice

They have quite a number of branches, can google for the addresses of the other branch, i went to the one at river valley and 3 of us ordered half a chicken and 2 side dishes.. i find the food so so only... nothing fantastic

Half a chicken, i felt that it wasn't tender enough, the savory sasame and suy sauce they had over the chicken was nice and salty.. goes well with the cucumber.
Baby kailan.. not bad. but nothing special.
Deep fried tofu thai style. the tofu was soft and smooth, the thai style sauce is the same everywhere, nothing special.

This meal costs us around $30, the price was fine for a clean and comfortable dining environment, food was decent. maybe i need to try boon tong kee soon, so i can compare these 2.


address: 417 River Valley Rd
contact: 62356760
ambience: 6
taste: 6
service: 7
value for money: 7
overall rating: not very expensive, but food also not that great

Sze Hwa Ba Kut Teh

Was at kulai on a visit to my relative's place, had to go up early in the morning so that we won't be caught in the jam, and since we are there early, cousin brought us to this coffee shop kind of place for ba kut teh, yes for breakfast.

Salted vegetable is something you must get to eat with your ba kut teh, the one they have here is normal, nothing too special.
Ba kut teh.. fantastic, in singapore we usually get the very pepperish soup, and you can feel the spicy sensation after drinking the soup. over here at sze hwa, the soup is not pepperish at all, it has a nice herbal taste to it, i just love it!! the meat was really tender too, according to them, the meat taste good becasue it's fresh pork meat, not frozen one like we have in singapore, frozen meat can never achieve such standards.
You cha kuey is a must for me, i love to soak the you cha kuey in the soup before eating it, i myself can finish 2 bowl of this!!

But one thing i dun really like is their pig organs, they seemed to be a little overcooked, cos the kidney and liver were both quite tough. so if you happen to be there, just order the ba kut teh.. this meal for 7 person cost around rm$80. you decide for yourself if it's cheap of expensive.

address: Kulai, Johor, Malaysia (Do not know exact address)
contact:
ambience: 6
taste: 8
service: 7
value for money: 7
overall rating: very tasty, but not as cheap as expected

The French Stall

Have been hearing about this place, and i finally found a chance to try it, on a sat evening. tried to make reservation but they do not entertain that, so we just gotta try our luck walking in. we were there at around 7 in the evening and we had the last table, those behind us had to wait some while before they get their tables.

It's quite a small place and they have quite a number a tables, so you can expect that the next table is actually quite near. if you are thinking of a quiet private dinner, this is definitely not the place. we saw the food on our neighbouring tables and they all look very presentable.. the menu has got lots of items and it took us some time to decide on what to have. we took up the set dinner that comes with a starter or soup, a main and a dessert.

Chicken liver pate. this has to be the best choice for starters. other options were soup of the day and the french onion soup. and if you choose the more expensive item, you gotta top up a couple dollars. this liver tasted very nice esp with the baguette.
The escargot was a let down. i was expecting it to come in shells and we'll get the trill of digging for the meat.. unfortunately it came like that.. without the shell and the garlic butter didn't taste strong enough, it was quite tasteless...
French onion soup. quite good. interesting that they had pieces of soaked baguette in the soup topped with a bit of cheese.
For the mains... i had the dory fish. i'm glad i ordered this, the fish was nicely done, there was no fishy taste. the garlic butter was perfect for the fish.. maybe because i like garlic butter in the first place. the mash potatoes that came with it is wonderously smooth and buttery, just to my liking.
Chicken thigh. quite good too, just that the serving of the meat was a little small. the potato seems to be the main rather than the chicken. this rosti like potato block tasted very good too...
Pork chop. wrong order. the pork was way too tough and tasteless.. again, the potato is wonderful.. i think they are really good with their potatoes.
The default dessert in the set, creme caramel. nice and sweet, but not too thick.
Chocolate cake. didn't look good, seems hard and dry, but i was wrong.. it was soft and not dry at all. the texture of the cake is somewhat different from the usual chocolate cakes that we have tried.

Generally, the food is ok, although some items have disappointed us, but at least it's not that all the food dun taste good. might be going again. and the price came out to be about $33 a person, cos we ordered a glass of wine each (not worth it, cos a glass is really small) very very small..

address: 544 Serangoon Road
contact: 62993544
ambience: 6
taste: 7
service: 5
value for money: 6
overall rating: food is slightly above average, but this place is one of a kind, gotta go try it, experience high class food at not so high class environment and of course much lower price

Shun Kee Eating House

This is a place at gaeylang, right opposite the beef hor fun and dou jiang you tiao. they serve the usual zi char food. but the cooking style here is a little different from what you get at normal zi char places.
Kangkong with garlic. simple dish, nothing special.
Cereal prawn. usually the prawn is deep fried and then stir fried with cereal bits and butter etc. over here, the prawn is first coated with a thin layer of batter, making the prawn crispy with the shell intact. if you like to take the prawn together with the deep fried shell, you're going to love this
Herbal frog soup. very rich herbal taste, i loved the wolfberries taste, the frog is really tender, i can actually have this soup with rice alone.
Bbq stingray. this is not the best sting ray i've had. i think it loses out in the chilli.
Crab. i dunno what flavour you call this. but it's the same taste as the claypot frog without the dried chilli, the sause is a little sweet. very tasty, something out of the ordinary chilli or black pepper crab that we usually have in sinagpore.

They have seats by the main road and it's well ventilated, a very nice place for dinner if it's not raining. wonderful for supper too..

address: 208 Geylang Rd
contact: 67440966
ambience: 4
taste: 6
service: 8
value for money: 7
overall rating: cooking style slightly different

Taste of Thailand

Those staying in yishun sembawang and woodlands would most probably have heard of "a taste of thailand" situated in sembawang shopping centre. it used to be one of the stall at the basement food court before giant took over the basement level. then it took up a huge space on the 4th storey. now that sembawang shopping centre in under major renovation, they have shifted to a coffee shop in yishun. a few items that you must not miss if you happen to be there.

1. the famous fried fish with thai chili sauce the fish is so nicely fried that i can chew on it;s bones till everysingle bit of flesh is eaten up, leaving the plate with a set of clean bones, try not eo pour thw sauce on to the fish. dip the fish into the sauce just before eating
2. deep fried sotong. reminds me of calamari, this goes very well with the fish's chilli sauce.
3. pineapple rice. i love this esp with lots of pork floss, and you gotta mix them up real well before eating so that you have the pork floss all tossed up in the rice.
4. tom yam soup. i like their soup, but some of my friends doesn't. you gotta try this yourself. photo of the soup wasn't nice, so i'll update on the photo when i try it again next time.

some vege that we ordered. nothing special

address: 1001 Yishun Industrial Park A, Yishun Industrial Food Centre
contact: 67589121
ambience: 3
taste: 7
service: 7
value for money: 7
overall rating: cheap and good food

EsTeler 77

Had dinner at es teler 77 in cineleisure, never knew it existed here cos it's in a corner and you'll only see it if you walk to this part at the basement. quite a handful of indonesian customers here, i assumed so cos they are chinese who speak bahasa indonesia.


Was told that this chicken noodle is one of their speciality, but i wasn't impressed at all. the chicken cubes were really tough, totally over cooked, the noodle was fine, quite bouncy and chewey. but taste wise, hhmm quite tasteless, i gotta att sweet sauce myself to make it taste better

The fried chicken set is a much better choice, the chicken was tender, the skin was crispy and they had a but of sweet sauce on the chicken, the sauce is silimar to those you get at indonesian bbq food. this item is quite good. i should have overed this instead of the noodle




address: #B1-02 Cathay Cineleisure Orchard
contact: 67364439
ambience: 4
taste: 6
service: 5
value for money: 6
overall rating: feels like eating in a canteen, not all items are good

Basil Alcove

Found a wonderful place for dinner, the food is great, in fact i felt that the ambience is great too, although some might feel that it doesn't fit with the kind of food served. i think the last time i had food that was presented in such a way was when i had dinner at equinox.. to me, fine dining is an expensive experience, but with basil alcove, this has changed. it's fine dining without the hole in the pocket and you can dress as comfortable as you wish and you can talk and chat any way you want to (but being too loud might still attract too much attention from the other customers). now lets take a look into the food... lot's of food.. starting with the side orders and appetisers
fresh white button mushrooms, nice and fragrant, something you would love to start your dinner with.
forgotten the name for this, but it's pig's trotter on the inside, and it's somewhat in a jelly form, never tried something like that, quite refreshing, the meat doesn't have the usual pig stink. interesting
Ceasar salad with chicken, a little disappointing though, didn't had the usual ceasar salad taste, maybe i should try the plain one the next time, cos this one taste more of the grilled chicken. and this review might probably be biased cos i cannot stand rasins and there are lots of it in this salad..
Bruschetta with fresh tomatoes. something simple, seems normal, just that i seldom try having fresh tomatoes on toasted bread
Pasta with bratwurst in cream, i hope i didn't remember this wrongly. very tasty cream sauce, and the spaghetti was well done, not too soggy. totally worth it
Cod fish, served with mash potatoes and beetroot cream. fish is done very well, but the taste seems normal, cos fish always taste this way, this item seems a little more ex than the rest, maybe cod is expensive.
Vegetarian pasta, lots of shitake mushroom it it. this is a little spicy though, the aglio sauce taste very much of the mushroom.
The duck, there's only 1 duck item on the mains, i forgotten the actual name for this. this is really very good, the meat and the sauce blends in totally. the meat was tender and the sauce was apetizing.
Salmon, i felt that this is the item that was most elaborately presented, and it was the first mains to be served, i was so impressed by the presentation, doesn't lose out to the high class fine dining restaurant at all.

If some of you wonder why i said that the dining environment doesn't really match the food, it's because you dine right by the road side, it's outside fortune centre, you the tables are set along the pavement, you can see and hear the vehicles driving past along middle road, pedestrians walking along the pavement walk right beaise you as you dine. interesting? i find it a wonderful experience to dine this way, and i urge you all to try.

With all the above dishes, 2 of the duck item, a bottle of australian white wine, some beer, it comes out to only $169 for 6 person. less than $30 each.. without the liqour, it's below $100.. i dun think you can find this anywhere else. if you do, please let me know, cos i wanna go try it..

address: 190 Middle Road, #01-07, Fortune Centre
contact: 63361318
ambience: 5
taste: 8
service: 9
value for money: 9
overall rating: a place i would going again and again.. hopefully they will have new items in the menu

Other reviews:
ieat-ishoot-ipost

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

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

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