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

Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle

A friends was telling me there's a very famous bak chor mee at crawford lane, and there's always a queue for it, so since we are going somewhere near town, we might as well drop by to try it out.While queueing, i was reading at some of the posters they had on the wall. this hill street tai hwa pork noodle, has been around for very long, as the name suggest, it was initially at hill street, and there was a time they were at marina square food court, there was even quite a large newspaper article where they posted on their relocation to the current place at crawford lane. btw, i realised that thei have a website here.

The noodle is not cheap though, it;s $4, $5 or $6. compared to the usual bak chor mee at coffee shops or hawker centres, it's slightly more expensive.. but definitely worth it. if you are going to try, i suggest the $5, because it comes with more ingredients like the wanton.

The mee pok is cooked just nicely and there are so much ingredients in a bowl of noodle.
This is the mee kia. they put vinegar just to the right amount that makes it taste really great, some places put too much that it smells pungent. i'm not a fan of chilli, so didn't had chilli on mine, but my friend's comment was that the chilli is really good, and since it;s not very spicy, you should actually add more of it.

address: Blk 466 Crawford Lane #01-12
ambience: 3
taste: 8
service: 7
value for money: 7
overall rating: wonderful.. must try

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.

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.

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

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