Hong Kong Cafe

It's not the first time i went to hong kong cafe, in fact this is the first hong kong style cafe that i've been to. the food and drinks there are generally good, we ordered a few stuffs and they all taste very good.
HK cafe special baked, comes in 2 different sauces, seafood in one of them and pork chop in the other, both sauces are very good.
French toast with fresh bananas, also worth trying, cut it up and eat it with the syrup provided, it's not as oily as the toast you get at some other similar cafes
HK panfried carrot cake, this item seems to be a little over fried, it will be nicer if it's not fried for that long a time, the skin of the carrot cake is a little charred.
Luncheon meat and egg instant noodles, the noodles are cooked just right, still very Q, not soggy at all.




"Si mud" tea, Must try, this tea really taste like you are having tea in hk, the flavour is thick and the milk is also thick, but if you do not like sweet stuffs, this might not be for you.





Purple rain, this is an ice blended drink, it's orh bee beh, or pulot hitam blended with ice and topped with a vanila ice cream, very interesting



Food is good, but it comes with a price, what you see above costs S$45.70, so go there if you feel like spending a little more than usual for supper.

Updates (14 Apr 2007)
The east coast branch crowded with customers at around 9pm on a friday evening.. at around 10pm, there seems to be no empty seats indoor, not too sure about outdoor seats though.

Spicy salt and pepper squid. i always though the one at crystal jade kitchen was good, oooh.. this one is better!



address: 378/380 East Coast Road , 275 Thomson Road
#01-08 Novena Ville
contact: 64403808(Eastcoast), 6256 5655(Novena)
ambience: 7
taste: 8
service: 7
overall rating: very good food, Must try

Cheng Long Fish Soup

Went to vivo city and decided to take a look at the food court, found this famous fish soup stall called cheng long fish soup. they have branches in plaza singapura and compasspoint, this is their third branch. I heard from a friend that the sliced fish soup or beehoon soup is not fantastic. i tried the fried fish beehoon soup, the fish was fabulous, the soup was tasty. it's the best fish beehoon i have tried so far. tried eating at all 3 branches and i think the one at plaza singapura is still the best.

address: Vivo City Kopitiam (Basement 2), Plaza Singapura Food Court (4th Storey), Compasspoint Kopitiam (4th Storey)

ambience: 4

taste: 9

service: 7

overall rating: Must try the fried fish beehoon soup with milk

Earle Swensen's

It was my first visit to vivo city and after walking past many food places, we decided to try Earle Swensen's. It's a new concept by the swensen's that we all know. menu is generally similar except that now it has a salad buffet bar. the buffet is available when you order a main from the menu. The place's decor is quite nice and spacious. beautiful looking menu, but the price is a little on the high side compared to the good old swensen's. salad buffet bar has quite a variety of items, i can actually be contented with food from the salad bar alone.
We ordered the chicken baked rice, but it only comes in a portion for 2 and it costs $24, with no buffet salad. so in the end we only got 1 salad buffet and we were reminded again and again bt the waiters that we are not allowed to share the salad, one of them even told us that if we were caught sharing, the waiter that's serving us will have to pay for the salad. hhmmmm .. interesting right? address: Vivo City #02-117, 1 Harbourfront Walk
contact: 67888128
ambience: 7
taste: 6
service: 5
overall rating: The old Swensen is still prefered

Tong Shui Cafe

An elaborately decorated cafe in liang seah street, you won't miss this cafe when you are walking down the street, it has many red chinese lanterns hung on the outside.

This place boast a menu of more than 300 items! but after trying it a few times, i felt that the food is not that worth it, price is a little high for a cafe like that. Here's a bowl of instant noodles with luncheon meat and egg ($3.88). the only thing that seems worth it is the gigantic bowl.

Their toast is supposed to be quite good, but maybe because we ordered the peanut better one, it was too sweet and thick for us to even finish the toast. i think i gotta try a different flavoured one one more before deciding that this cafe is not workth visiting anymore. They have quite a nicely done website but i wonder why this branch is not on the site at all, maybe this is a new branch and they have yet to update the website.

address: 1 Liang Seah Street #01-05/06
contact:
ambience: 6
taste: 3
service: 5
overall rating: Try it if you are around that area and you are sick of all the cafes around there

Ah Chew Dessert House

A small shop selling hk style dessert along liang seah street, quite a wide variety of hot and cold dessert. the shop is a little cramp though, seats and tables are very small, not a comfortable place to sit and chat for too long.

We tried the pulot hitam with ice cream and it was good.. the pulot hitam wasn't too sweet but with the sweetness from the vanila ice cream, it makes this dessert fantastic, the hot and cold combination make the dessert quite special too.
They hang their available dessert items on the wall and when when the items get sold out for the day, the flip the tag to show the orange side, i think this is quite an interesting way to present the menu to customers who are ordering at the counter

address: 1 Liang Seah Street #01-11
contact: 63398198
ambience: 6
taste: 6
service:4
overall rating: go try the dessert here if you happen to be having dinner at bugis area

Ji De Chi Dessert

A small dessert stall along liang seah street, near bugis junction, been there a few times, my favourite item is the mango with grapefruit juice, the chinese name for this item sounds so much nicer.
I think the other items on the menu are just so so, nothing very fantastic, but this place is crowded every night, but the same goes for the other dessert stalls along this street.

address: 8 Liang Seah Street #01-03
contact: 63399928
ambience: 4
taste: 5
service: 4
overall rating: only the mango with grapefruit juice is worth a trip to the stall

Himawari Japanese Restaurant

A small and cosy restaurant situated opposite the gym at safra mount faber, a la carte buffet is at $28.80++ for weekdays lunch, i forgotten to check out the weekend prices. the price they have on the website is outdated you gotta add a couple dollars to the published price.

Not all the items in the menu are good, but you gotta try the beef tenderloin, it was cooked just nicely, the meat was juicy and tender with sweet teriyaki sauce, some might think the sauce is a little too sweet, but i like it. they have the chicken version of this too, but the chicken was overcooked, very hard.
Sashimi was good too, the fish was fresh, look at the salmon (my favourite sashimi fish). i love to eat lots and lots of sashimi when i go for jap buffet, cos it's usually very expensive to order them a la carte.
The buffet here also includes shabu shabu, with a choice of beef or/and chicken, i suggest that you take the beef, cos the chicken is cut in such large pieces that they looked very unappetising after it's cooked. initially, i thought there will be more variety of food for the shabu shabu, quite dissappointing.

The place was quiet and it's a good place to go if you are not in a rush for time, can eat and chat at the same time, waitresses are friendly but some of them cannot really understand english well, hhmmm, maybe they are trained in japanese, haha. Generally we had an enjoyable lunch at himawari.

address: 2 Telok Blangah Way #01-10 Safra Mount Faber Singapore 098803
contact: 62787778 yoichi.nakaoka@himawari.com.sg
ambience: 7
taste: 7
service: 5
overall rating: a la carte buffet is worth a try, go there is you can afford long lunches

New York Dessert Cafe

Usually called NYDC, this place has got fantastic mudpies, other personal favourites includes the lemon shiver and that boney cake.
Ripple ordered a large hot chocolate and the presentation is really cool with colourful marshmallows as toppings
We went there for dessert after a wonderful dinner to celebrate for the 2 person above.

address: 30 Lorong Mamong
contact: 64692998
ambience: 6
taste: 7
service: 7
overall rating: gotta try if you like sweet stuffs

Pu Tien Restaurant

A restaurant serving chinese food originating from xinghua, it's right beside the main road, they have valet parking too.
The decor of this place is quite nice and it's always on full house, remember to make reservation before going down, there's always lots of people waiting outside the restaurant for seats. Waiter and watresses are well informed about their dishes, trying asking them about the various dishes, they will be able to tell you what the dishes are, what they contain and how it's cooked, i was very impressed. Here are some of the dishes they have.
Bitter gourd served in thin raw slices to be taken with honey.
Garlic clams.
Deep fried yam coated duck.
Vege fried with salted and century eggs.
Squid.
Pu tien white lor mee.
Fried mantou with shredded pork.
Stir fried yam cubes in sweet sauce.
Xing hua fried bee hoon.
Squirrel sweet & sour fish.
Mee sua.
Fried prawn roll with sweet sauce.




address: 127 Kitchener Road
contact: 62956358
price: $12-$20 per pax
ambience: 7
taste: 9
service: 8
overall rating: must try, not to be missed

Ambrosia - The Mediterranean Restaurant

Got to know about this cafe/restaurant from the web and the menu seems quite interesting. A group of us decided to go there to celebrate goldie's birthday. Ambience is very nice, very cosy place with low tables and we get to sit on the floor. dim lighting, quiet, very suitable for a quiet gathering. but when all customers have left, we started to become rowdy cos we assumed the whole place was ours, haha
Food was good, very tasty, quite spicy, just that it doesn't look that presentable, probably because of the colour of the spices and the yogurt, you'll like the food if you like strong taste.
But maybe the kitchen is small, the food was served very slowly, we waited for more than half an hour for the main. It will be fantastic if the service could improve.

They actally have 2 shopfront near each other, we proceeded to the other one for shisha, this on only serves drinks and shisha, no food here, also very cosily decorated, high ceiling, big windows looking at the commericial buildings at beach road and suntec area.
address: 19, Baghdad Street / 25A, Baghdad Street
price: $10-$20 per pax
ambience: 6
taste: 7
service: 4
overall rating: good place for chilling out, good food for strong stomachs

Sik Wai Sin Eating House

Had dinner at this small shop/restaurant at geylang called sik wai sin eating house. it's along the main geylang road between lor 15 and lor 17 not difficult to find, look for this signboard hanging above the main entrance Leonata reccommended this place to us so he ordered the food, we had fish, beef and prawn with tofu, this place had a very retro ambience, like an old style coffee shop, probably because the place had never been renovated, haha..
address: 287 Geylang Rd
price: ~$15 per pax
ambience: 3
taste: 7
service: 2
overall rating: worth a try if you happen to be nearby