Gyu Kaku

Gyu Kaku is located in Chijmes, if you go in from the main entrance where the driveway is, it's on the left side. This restaurant serves japanese bbq food. initially i thought that most of the food are cooked bbq style, like yakitori and grilled meat etc.. later i realised that every table has a charcoal grill and you get to bbq the food yourself.
Horenso salad, with spinach and mushroom, drizzled with japanese sesame sauce. very simple dish, but the taste is wonderful. a must have before the meat dishes..

Pork, i'm not sure if there's a special name for this pork. this pork is sliced very thinly and thus it cooks quite fast and won't get too tough.

Wagyu tongue, this item is something i have never had in my life, i tried a piece, the texture of it is a little chewy a little bouncy, a little like pigs liver, i dun really like that texture, but the rest of the guys loved this ...

Wagyu special plate, with meat from different parts of the cow. initially it looks scary, cos it quite bloody, but after cooking, it's really very good, esp with the dipping sauce provided.

Foil items, like prawns, scallops, butter potatoes and squids. the scallop tastes a little funny, like not very fresh, but the rest were just fabulous, esp the squid, the garlic and the squid tasted very well together, the prawns were large and fresh. the potatoes turned out a liitle charred, and the charred portion tasted very good with the butter. Because the items are all wrapped in the foil, and we are not good in cooking at all, we didn't know how long to leave the items on the grill, there was a staff attached to our table and he took note of all the timings of the items on the grill and removed them at the right time, thus all the food were cooked for just the right amount of time.

Beef fillet sizzling on the charcoal grill, the fire was strong, the meat cooks really fast, you just need to flip it over after a while and wait a while before you can have nicely barbequed beef in your mouth.. just pick it up with your chopsticks, dip it in the sauce and eat it!! this way of eating is really shoik.
As you bbq, there wil be bits of the meat stuck to the grill, a good service they provide is to change the metal grill regularly, so you always have clean non stick grill to bbq your meat.

Generally, the experience dining here was veryvery good, the food was near perfect. service is very good, i like the way they attach a staff to serve a few neibouring table, that staff knows very clearly what was ordered, how were the items cooked, and made sure things are cook just nicely. ambience was very cozy, one thing is that because everyone is doing barbeque, you leave the place with some smell on your clothes, not very strong though, cos they did install ventilation fans around the grills to prevent the smoke from filling up the place.

I think this is the best review i have given on this blog so far. i really feel that this is a wonderful place for a nice dinner with a group of friends, in fact it's a nice place for a dinner for 2 too.. check out their website..

address: 30 Victoria Street, #01-01/03 Chijmes
contact: 63334001
ambience: 8
taste: 9
service: 9
value for money: 8
overall rating: Very good food, Very friendly staffs, Cosy environment, it all comes with a price. approx $80 - $100 per pax. Must visit if it's within your budget

Va Va Voom Cafe

A small but cosy cafe serving vietnamese food along seah street right opposite raffles hotel. the place is suitable for a gathering of small groups cos the place is not very big, they have sofa low seating areas too.

I didn't really look at the menu cos i always order beef soup noodle when i'm having viet food, here are the food we ordered

Morning glory salad with chicken. i'm not sure if the green stuff is raw kangkong, the dressing is quite sour and taste a little like plum sauce, a very interesting salad and it taste very good.

Stirfried beef noodles, it's a dry noodle that comes with this sour sauce, that i suspect is similar to the one they have on the salad, you decided for yourself how much of the sauce you wanna put in or maybe you'll prefer it without the sauce. interesting item, i have never tried something like that.

Beef soup noodle. the usual pho that you get at viet restaurants. the beef here is really nice and tender, gotta be the best pho i had as long as i can remember. love the mint leaves together with the soup and the noodle. wonderful..
Lemongrass chicken rice. the chicken is fried with with crushed lemongrass, again it's a taste that i never tried before, the taste was good, but i felt that the chicken is a little dry and tough.

It's a nice place with good food, definitely worth going down for a meal.. do check it out.

address: 36 Seah Street
contact: 63361248
ambience: 7
taste: 7
service: 6
value for money: 7
overall rating: quite good food, nice cosy cafe

The Sweet Stone

A friend told me about this place, and after 2 previous failed attempts to try the chocolate at the sweet stone (first time, i went at around 8pm, and it happen to be the day it closes early. second time i went during a weekday lunchtime, and it was closed, it was his sister's wedding day), i finally got to try it out and i must say that this is a place that all of you reading must go try!!
They sell waffles, and you can have it with their special belgian chocolate dip. the chocolate taste is really rich and the interesting thing is that it doesn't solidify!! usually when we have chocolate fondue at other places, they serve it with a tea light to keep the chocolate warm, but after a while, you see the chocolate dip turning hard on the bowl. this one they have here is not served with any heating element but it remainds liquid even till the last drop.. totally impressed.

We got the royal claypot fondue set which comes with waffles, fruits, marshmellow, and 2 scoops of ice cream. Having these with the chocolate dip was really heavenly.. they have a few flavours of home made ice cream, and you must try to super lemon flavour, very sour, very shoik!!! although it doesn't go well with the chocolate, but you can eat it separately right?


You'll get a loyalty card to collect points, and when you get 20 points, you get a fre waffle, and by registering the card online, you get extra 20 points!!! it's time to go collect my free waffle!! check out their website here..

address: Blk 505 Beach Road (Golden Mile Food Centre) #01-67/76
contact:
ambience: 5 (Hawker Centre)
taste: 8
service: 9
value for money: 7
overall rating: Something you won't expect in a hawker centre, much better than expectations. Impressive

Wong Kok Char Chan Teng

You might have noticed a new hong kong style cafe at bugis junction called wong kok char chan teng. so one of the evenings, we decided to go check it out, the place was quite pack on a weekday evening at around 7pm. environment is roughly the same as most of the hk cafes in singapore, decor is generally the same too. they do have some special items on their menu though.

Baked rice with portugus sauce (i thin it's portuguese sauce, i wonder why they spell it that way) it taste a little like curry sauce but not that spicy. the sauce is quite nice. baked rice and the cheese not that good though. we tried the tomato sauce too, not a good choice, stick to portugus..

Chinese pan cake with sausage, dun order this, it's not good at all, very plain and tasteless pancake.

Cannot remember the name, it's some xo roll thing, this is a must try, it;s really good, it has pork floss and omelette in it, the egg is fragrant, the roll is a little savory with some sweetness from the pork floss.

Some tea, i cannot remember, i didn't try this

Instant noodle with luncheon meat and egg.

Snow cat, it's a drink with yougurt in it, if you like yougurt drinks, you might like this.

Things worth trying out is the xo roll and the bake rice with portugus sauce, the rest of the items are generally the same as other hk cafe.







address: Bugis Junction #02-50
contact:
ambience: 6
taste: 6
service: 5
value for money: 6
overall rating: Gotta order the right items, they have good and bad items on the menu

Barracks @ House

You might have seen this old building which has been painted green at dempsey hill with a huge "house" printed on the wall. house is actually consist of a spa on the second level and a cafe/restaurant and bar on the ground floor, quite a different concept to mix spa and eatery. check out their website, it's quite nicely done up.

They called the cafe barracks, and it's made to look like an army camp, and the staff wears something that looks like uniform. look at the menu, they used the figurines that we used to play when we were kids, so cool..

They have very interesting teas in their menu, so since there were 5 of us, we decided to have 5 pots of tea.

Ordered this one called the jungle julip, supposed to taste of spearmint, when i took the first sip, i recalled the spearmint chewing gum that i used to like, and without sugar it taste like gum after you chew it for hours. and when sugar is added to the tea, it taste like fresh gum again. buddha blend taste like oolong tea. spa esprit smells like some aroma oil but taste like plain warm water.. not impressed with the tea at all.

Carrot cake, quite nice except for the rasins, i happen to not like rasins, but other than the rasins, it's a nice cake.

Strawberry shortcake, this one is good, rich taste and it has different textures in the cake, there's something crispy in it and the strawberry taste really good. must try.

The place is set up wonderfully, very good place for a chat, if you want privacy, they have a few private rooms which you can book, as long as you spend $300, there's no extra cost for the rooms (if i did not hear wrongly), the best room in my opinion should be the green house, it seems that you are dining in a green house with all the glas walls and ceiling and the green plants that put in the room. thumbs up for the decor!!

Some of the staffs are wearing uniform and a few were wearing own clothes, i would presume those are the owners or the managers.. but generally, it's the uniform ones who smiled more and were more polite, the better dressed ones were very stucked up.. maybe we don't have the rich men look, so they didn't bother about us, except this one called desmond, he was really patient with us when we asked him about the things in the menu, and he could even joke with us. The reason why we might go back to this place is definitely because of him, plus the ambience..

address: 8D Dempsey Road
contact: 6479 0070
ambience: 8
taste: 6
service: 5 (general) 8 (this person called desmond)
value for money: 7
overall rating: This place is more for ambience. food so so.. service not that good

Adam Road Food Centre

A place that i have been visiting quite often recently is the adam road hawker centre. the stalls are devided into 2 sectiom the muslim section and the non muslim ones. quite a few food that i like from there.
Adam road prawn noodle. quite famous, and their prawns are quite large. not cheap though i think it's $5 for a bowl.
Fried carrot cake. please never order this. might look good, but the taste sucks.. please do not waste your money, there are many other nicer stuffs in the hawker centre. do not try their char kuey tiow too, waste your empty stomach only,
From the same stall, here's the pork rib noodle, with the same soup base as the prawn noodle. also very nice. they actually serve crabs too, with the same soup base.. again, i didn't find out about the cost for the crabs.
My favourite item from the place.. bbq sting ray, the chili sauce is fantastic, i find it really nice, comparable to another good one i tried at chomp chomp. go try this if you are there.

Another item that i like is the cheng tng from the dessert stall, their tau suan is not bad too... will try ti post more photos if i have more of them..

address: 2 Adam Road, Junction of Adam Road an Dunearn Road
contact: nil
ambience: 6
taste: 6 (general rating)
service: 6 (general rating)
value for money: 7 (general rating)
overall rating: can find quite a number of good food here.

Outback Steakhouse

Had lunch at the outback steakhouse, was my first time dining there, but i gotta say that i was quite disappointed with the standard of the food. ambience was quite good, staffs were friendly. oh and if you have a friend celebrating birthday, there's something interesting, the staffs will bring the cake out from the kitchen, and at the same time, all the staffs will be singing the happy birthday song, very loudly and they are very in tune, birthday person will get a really pleasant surprise... ok, lets take a look at the food.

Outback sirloin. i felt that the meat wasn't tender enough although i already order medium rare. the garlic potatoes that it comes with was quite tasteless. i suggest that you order the grilled onions as the sides instead of the potatoes.

Spring chicken, didn't try this.

Mixed grill, the beef looks quite dry right? i didn't taste this either.

Ribs, the ribs was quite alright. a better choice as compared to the steak.

You might wanna check out thier website for the menu or promotions..

address: 9 raffles Boulevard, Time2 @ Millenia Walk
contact: 68373242
ambience: 7
taste: 5
service: 7
value for money: 5
overall rating: Pricey for the standard of food served. Not worth it.

Oosh

Have been really busy with work, and time passes really fast, i realised that the last post was more than a month ago, i now have lots of photos in my harddisk waiting to be posted, but i have forgoten some of the dishes i ordered. Give me some time, i'll get them posted.

Went for dinner at oosh, it's quite a prominent place, you'll see it as you are driving up dempsey road, from the outside, this place looks really posh and really attractive. we finally found a chance to visit it and try the food.

Firstly, we had some appetisers.

Deep fried calamari

Potato wedges

Barbequed bacon

Barbequed shitake mushrooms

Salmon wrapped in bacon

Escargot with white button mushroom

The appetisers are quite good, not too sure about the shitake though cos i dun like shitake. my favourite gotta be the escargot. something different, served on a mushroom. now for the mains, the mains are quite disappointing though.

Seafood aglio olio

Tenderloin beef pasta

Pan fried dory

Out of all the mains we had, only the dory is worth trying, the pasta were quite bad. beef pasta seems like black pepper hor fun you get at normal tze char stalls. so we decided not to order dessert after being disappointed by the mains.

Ambience is really good, al fresco dining, very suitable for a cooling evening. dim lights, with just the right amount of trees and plants placed around the tables. would be perfet if the food is good..

address: 22 Dempsey Road
contact: 64750002
ambience: 8
taste: 5
service: 7
value for money: 4
overall rating: Expensive, low standard of food. the oly good thing is ambience