Astons Express at Ghim Moh

On days where I do not feel like having a full meal during lunch or dinner, this is one of my favourite alternative choices.  For just $1.80, you get a soupbowl of mac n cheese.  The colour of the cheese looks too enticingly good, isn't it?  I have nothing to complain about for the price I pay, the portion I get, and the food quality. In fact, the portion is just nice.  Anything more might make you jerlat.

 

 

Website: www.astons.com.sg
Address: Blk 19 Ghim Moh Road #01-229, Kopitiam Coffeeshop Stall 7/8, Singapore 270019
Tel: 6467 9677

Operating Hours: Open Daily11am - 10pm     

 

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Chili's Restaurant (Tanglin Mall)

Chili's has been in Singapore for the longest time, at Tanglin Mall.  In the recent years, they opened a second restaurant at Resort World Sentosa.  For their years of existence in Singapore, I've never had the chance to try their food until last November.

It was a lunch set meal - Monterey Chicken with baked potato soup.  The chicken steak, which is a marinated and grilled chicken breast in BBQ sauce was tender and juicy.  It was served together with smoked bacon, cheese and tomato cubes.  The freshness of the tomato cubes took the "jer lat-ness" away from the fried stuff.

Had to say that the baked potato soup was totally unique and delicious.  The soup may be too thick for some but I love it perfectly.

 
Next is the tostada chips.  The warm and crispy chips is something that you should not miss.  The salsa sauce is heavenly.... infinitely better than those you can from supermarket.  Try it!

 

Chili's Restaurant
#02-23 Tanglin Mall, 163 Tanglin Road
Singapore 247933

Operating hours :
Sun - Thurs : 11:30 am - 10:00 pm
Fri - Sat : 11:30 am - 11:00 pm
Tel : +65 6733-3317

Website: http://chilis.sg/default.html

Nearest MRT: Orchard Station


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Swensen's @ Compass Point - Fish & Chips and Pasta

The queue outside Swensen's at Compass Point is ridiculusly long on weekends.  Nevertheless, it is all worth it when the all-time favourite Fish and Chips was served.  The waiting time for food was just about 10mins, which I consider relatively reasonable, since the queuing time to get a seat was easily 20 to 30mins.

The fish & chips was served slightly later than the pasta.  The 2 pieces of golden-brown deep-fried fish fillet were served with crispy thick U.S. fries and a small bowl of coleslaw.  The tartar sauce, although it was just a dip, brought out the tastiness of the fish.  As for the fries, what would it be without tomato ketchup?

Salmon and Mushroom Pasta - Recommended for those prefers not-so-creamy sauce.  The amount of sauce was also just enough for the pasta.  The dish was served with quite a fair amount of slightly-cooked salmon.  If you prefer cooked salmon, toss it with the warm pasta for a while.  However, since Swensen's is not an Italian restaurant, I did not have too high an expectation on the pasta dishes.  And, as such, I think the standard was better than what I would expect.

For a meal with just 2 dishes, without ice-creams and deserts, the damage was slightly less than $35.

Swensen's Singapore - Breaded Chicken Meuniere

With the 1-for-1 lunch treat promotion, it does make sense to lunch at Swensen's, provided there is an outlet near enough for the 1-hour lunch rush. Just by paying for a couple of bucks more, you get to enjoy quality western food, with a relatively reasonable serving portion and most importantly, there's aircon!!  The crazily hot weather recently is really driving me nuts.

I've also realised that Swensen's has expanded their menu quite a fair bit, adding more Asian variety such as nasi goreng, crayfish bee hoon etc.  The pictures on the menu almost tempted me to give them a try.  But... I managed to resist the temptation and decided to go for the good'ol Breaded Chicken Meuniere.  Besides the huge chicken fillet, there's also a generous portion of fries and a small bowl of coleslaw.

The breaded batter was deep-fried to golden brown, crispy but slightly oily.  Chicken meat (not breast meat) was quite juicy and tender. =)  Being a chunky fries lover, I only have compliments for Swensen's fries, which goes great with tomato ketchup.

Swensen's @ Bishan Junction 8

Swensen's @ Junction 8
9 Bishan Place #01-39
Tel : 62526229

Though I have been to Swensen's countless times, I have never tried the side dishes such as the Spice 'n' Chic chicken chucks and Rodeo BBQ wings.  They looked pretty ordinary but, they were tender and delicious.

Spice 'n' Chic - Golden fried chicken thigh strips in a hot and spicy batter.  The deep-fried pieces were cripsy and not too oily.  The chucks were tender and juicy.  There were about 4 or 5 pieces per serving.

Rodeo Wings - Fried-up chicken wings tossed with BBQ sauce and crushed black pepper.  Comes in 4 pieces per serving.

Comparing both chicken side dishes, the chicken chunks left a deeper impression.

Pineapple Seafood Baked Rice - A succulent mix of seafood and pineapple chunks in cream sauce baked over savory rice with cheese.  I've always like Swensen's baked rice but this particular dish doesn't quite suit to my liking.  The top layer of cheese was a little watery.  I had expected the rice beneath the cheesy layer to be pineapple rice but ... it turned out to be white rice?  Where is the pineapple?  Well, there were small chunks of pineapple mixed among the baked cheesy and seafood (mussles, prawn and fish).

I'd say - go for its curry chicken baked rice instead. You will not regret it.

Sunset Grill & Pub [Location Moved]

Located at the super ulu Seletar Airbase, not accessible by public transport.  I highly recommend that you get ready a GPS to help navigate your way within this huge ulu compound, in case you run into any restricted area in the airbase.

It took us almost an hour to travel from buona Vista to Seletar airbase and it was already pitched-dark by the time we reached Sunset Grill....no more sunset to view at all =(

I suppose these are old army barracks.  The carpark was already packed by the time we reached.  Despite the inaccessibility, the place is packed.

The restaurant has indoor and outdoor seatings.  There are more outdoor seatings and you get to enjoy the "scenery" and the rustic charm (read: with the company of mosquitoes and ants).

A simple menu with the restaurant's name, address and operating hours on the first page.  It surprises me a little place is packed on a weekday night.  So, it is always better to make reservation in advanced.

This huge serving of mushroom is almost enough to fill half than half of my tummy.  It is very thick, creamy and lotsa mushrooms bits! 

A huge plate of nachos to be shared by 5 of us.  It comes with 3 types of dips - warm cheese, beef sauce and another one which is slightly spicy and sour.  The food portions are quite hugein general.  So, do moderate what you're ordering if there aren't too many persons in the group.

The buffalo wings came in 10 different degrees of spiciness.  Fellow foodies had warned that level 4 is almost the ultimate (spicy) level for some of them.  We ordered level 2 and 4 wings.

Well, if you like it hot and spicy, you can attempt to challenge yourself but be ready to get "burnt" lips after that.  Besides spiciness, the wings are in fact quite sour, which I suspected that it is due to the tabasco sauce used.

Note: The restaurant has moved out from Seletar and it's new location is 259 Jalan Kayu Singapore 799488.  Tel: 6482 0244.

Bobby's @ CHIJMES

While planning for this year's gathering, this was one of the places which we were seriously considered using. But for practical reasons, we chose our alternative choice.

Was back at Bobby's Taproom.Grill.Ribs for a casual dinner with my friends and my, the food, especially the BBQ ribs and pizza are really delicious. We were told that a second outlet was scheduled to open @ Cuppage in September. A quick check from the website and realised that they had a 'soft opening' on 2 Sep.

There's also Happy Hours for drinks from Sunday to Friday, 5pm to 8pm. Beer and selected alcoholic drinks are at $10nett.

We shared the Buffalo Wings. Looks are deceiving... though it does not look extremely appetising, I do like it very much. It has cripsy skin and juice meat... of cos, best to eat it while hot. It was so delicious that I forgot to dip into the mayo sauce.

I ordered the Bobby's wood-fired pizza which was huge. I guess it was at least 12 inches in diameter. It came in 8 slices and I thought it would be achievement if I could finish 4 slices while I have the other 4 slices to my friends. Boy, and I did finish all 4 slices!!!

The pizza filling was quite simple - tomato, cheese and BBQ pork.
 

So some unpleasant reason, the restaurant gave us a slice of their brownie with ice-cream as their token. The warm chocolate brownie came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream covered with a THICK layer of fresh cream and chocolate mousse, sprinkled with crushed peanuts.

Overall, it was a very satisfying dinner! Can't wait for another dinner at Bobby's soon.

Botak Jones (AMK)

Botak Jones

Block 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10

Singapore 560529

Phone / Fax: 67551225

Everyday 11:30 am till 10:00 pm (last orders)

Apparently, the other outlet at Blk 608 @ AMK Ave 5 is closed. This is the new outlet in AMK. Yet, this is an outlet that isn't too centrally located in AMK itself. It would have been better if it is located within the AMK town central instead of making us take a feeder bus into the neighbourhood area.

This time round, I decided to try "the dogs" instead of the popular fish and chips. Had the Giant Pork Italian Sausage and ya... it tasted porky and spicy. Not to say that it is spicy hot, it is spicy because of the spice herbs used with the minced pork.

Like other sausages, it has to be eaten while hot, else the "skin" will harden and you will be focusing on mincing the skin instead of enjoying the pork and spice.

Swensen's (Holland V)

Call me boring but whenever i go Swensen's, it is either fish & chips or baked rice for me :P

I only managed to finish the spicy dices of curry chicken portion of the baked rice + the cripies. It looks small but it is filled with calories considering the amout of rice below the chicken curry toppings.

Next time i shd share with someone else.

Something to comment abt the service. We called in to make reservation and ordered our food as our past experience tells us that waiting time can sometimes be untolerable and we do have limited lunch hour. We told them that we will be there at 12.45pm and asked for the food to be ready. When half of us reach there at 12.45pm, they already placed our food on the table, even though the chairs were empty.

A little surprise, and I can't quite decide if I shd compliment them for their efficiency or to condemn them for being inconsiderate to leave the food to cool for themselves before the customers arrive.

Well, this is just something to take note of.

Hog's Breath

At Hog's Breath Cafe, this is one of the best value of money set lunch, I would say. For something like $12.90, you get a soup, main course (such as fish & chips) and a relatively huge mud cake + ice cream in chocolate fudge & whip cream. If only I 'ingest without inflat'.... how nice that would be :P

My colleagues look at me with surprise when I ordered a Chicken Ranch Salad but it was a good choice, otherwise I would either be feeling sinful (of overeating) or wasting food. The salad was so-so.... chicken pieces were slightly tough but I like the potatoes in the salad.

Since we were there to celebrate of our of colleagues' birthday, the cafe had also generously prepared 2 slices of baked apple crumble with candles on it. It was really nice of them to do so.

Satisfied customers are sure to return :)

Botak Jones (Clementi)

Have been hearing a fair bit about Botak Jones, amercian food @ kopitiam. Was curious and wanted to find out what's so interesting abou the place.

Finally checked it out on a late Thursday night. Heard that average waiting time for dinner is about 45 mins to an hour. I was lucky that my food came about 15 mins later. But take note, I was there at 9+pm.

There are several outlets in Singapore. Went to the Clementi outlet (Blk 325 Kopitiam) where it is walking distant from Clementi MRT station.

All in order... you need to Q to place your order. But you need not pay till your food is served. Main course comes in 2 size servings - regular or large.

Botak Jones merchandise is also on sale. You can browse it while Q-ing...

That's the kitchen area. The 'crew' are all in T-shirts and caps.

That's Fish & Chips ($6). 2 big slices of cripsy batter and LOTS of chips. This is their 招牌菜。

And, that's cajun chicken ($7). It has a thick layer of cheese on the chicken + cajun sauce.
Overall, food is not bad and they are definitely value for money :)

Other Botak Jones locations:

Hours and location for Botak Jones Tuas

32 Pioneer Sector 2, Sungei Kadut Eating House at the junction of Pioneer Sector 2 and Pioneer Sector 1

Phone / Fax: 689-89-225

Monday - Friday 10:00 am til 7:00 pm

Saturday 10:00 am til 5:00 pm

Sunday closed

Hours and location for Botak Jones Ang Mo Kio
Yue Hua Food Place

Block 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave. 5

Phone / Fax: 6755-1-225

Tuesday - Sunday 11:30 noon til 10:00 pm

Monday closed

Hours and location for Botak Jones Clementi
Block 325 Clementi Ave 5 (Kopitiam) #01- 129 Singapore 120325

Phone / Fax: 677-41-225

Tuesday - Sunday 11:30 noon til 10:00 pm

Monday closed

Hours and location for Botak Jones TOA PAYOH
970A TOA PAYOH NORTH

Phone / Fax: 6258-6-225

Monday - Saturday 11:00 noon til 10:00 pm

Brewski Jones 11:00 til 12:00 midnight

Sunday and public holidays closed

Hours and location for DEPOT ROAD
Blk 118 Depot Lane,#01-02 Stall 10,Singapore 109754

Phone / Fax: 6272-3-225

Tuesday - Sunday 11:00 am til 10:00 pm

Monday closed

Fish & Co. @ Novena Velocity

Went to Fish & Co. @ Novena Velocity (actually it is Novena Square) for lunch.

We were the 1st few customers there.

Today's experience was quite satisfying - not because of the food. Firstly, one of the families there came with a baby who was an attention-seeker and hyperactive. Kept yelling to his/her mom for attention. Secondly, the music they played made me think that I was in California Fitness and the CD player kept breaking down and the CD kept skipping [just imagining hearing 'da da da da da da da ' in a very fast tempo].

Waited abt half and hour for the food. Thank goodness it was not disappointing. Yes, it is the Classic Fish & Chip. You can't go wrong with that. The batter is just nice - not too thick and the fry to just the right degree. And I always love the sauce... I think it is butter? Tastes great!

This is the other dish we ordered - Grilled Salmon with Cajun Rice. The salmon skin was very crispy and the rice has raisins in it. Nice.

Attention to Citibank Card holders, you get a free drink (Passion Fruit, Ice Tea, Coke or Sprite) for each main course ordered :) We only knew about it when we were making the payment.

Rating :&&&&

Holland Market - Western Food

My colleagues love the western food from Holland Market, located in Holland Village.

Fish & Chips - $5.

Serving portion is quite big. Slightly crispy and not oily. The thing about F & C is that it should not be too cripsy, otherwise it would mean there is too much coating (too much flour) and little fish.

Fried Rice - $3.

I have not tried the fried rice but apparently it is quite good. My colleagues finished every bit of it. You can request for fries instead of egg.