Seafood Aglio Olio @ Secret Recipe

Secret Recipe @ Henry Park Apartment

42, Holland Grove Road

Singapore 278810

Phone: +65 68751233

Operating Hours: 10am - 9pm (Daily)
[Closed]

 

I'm quite glad that I discovered this dish.  It is awesome.  I love the springy spaghetti texture and the slightly burnt taste.  Though it was kinda oily, I guess it should be alright since olive oil was used in the cooking... or perhaps it was my own assumption.

The fried noodle was soaked in the fragrant garlic taste.  *Just make sure you do not burp straight into someone's face after that.*

I love the freshness of their seafood - prawn, crayfish and squid.  For $14.90 (ala carte + ice tea meal set), I can't really complain that the crayfish is too small.  Though I did wish that the portion could be double.  However, the proportion of ingredients and noodle was just nice for me.

FYI, Secret Recipe Diners card holders are eligible for 1-for-1 meat set.... So, it works out to be about $8.75 for each person (for the seafood aglio olio meals).

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.

Ichiban Sushi Japanese Restaurant @ Plaza Singapura

Ichiban Sushi Japanese Restaurant

Plaza Singapura #06-05 /06

68 Orchard Road

Tel: 6837 0113

Sun to Fri: 11.30am -10.00pm

Sat & PH Eve: 11.00am -10.30pm

This Japanese casual dining restaurant is one such popular place that if you're there for dinner at 7pm, be prepared to queue for 30-45mins to get seats.  If you're there with a big group of people, be sure to join the queue early if you can.

This time, I tried the Half Curry Udon.  This is good if you aren't feeling very hungry to gobble down a full-meal.  The curry standard is acceptable.  It comes with chicken chunks and the usual japanese curry ingredients mainly, potatoes and carrots.

Price is equally reasonable at $6.90. 

Unfortunately, it is the only half-portion item on the food menu.  If you arent a fan of curry and not feeling very hungry, you can select other ala carte dishes such as gyoza or sushi. Would be great if they had a greater variety for the half-portion dishes.  Alternatively, check out Curry Favour located at Stamford House.

Saizeriya @ Liang Court

Saizeriya

Liang Court #02-22

Originating from Japan, this family restaurat serves pasta, pizza and grilled dishes.  The dishes are reasonably priced with pasta starting from $7+.  BUT, food quality is just very average. 

The cabonara (above) comes in a relatively big portion BUT there's no egg.  It was just a plain pasta with cream sauce and a few pieces of fatty bacon.

For the drink, it is quite worthwhile, if you opt for drinks set.  You get free flow drinks for $2+.  Selection of drinks include soft drinks, flavoured tea and coffee (espresso, mocha, cappucino). 

Overall, you can get a decent meal with $10 but do not expect any fantastic food standard.

Osaka Town

Osaka Town

252 North Bridge Road

#B1-72/73/74 Raffles City Shopping Centre

Singapore 179103

Tel: 63365363

Discovered a new Japanese Gourmet Town at Raffles City.  I guess due to limited shop space, it is only enough for Osaka Town.  The okonomiya looks yummy.  Okonomiyakis are japanese pan-cakes filled with shredded cabbage and pork or other ingredients. The pancake is covered with savoury brown sauce and mayo.

I watched the chefs through the window panels who were pan-frying the okonomiya and the pancakes just look irresistable.

This is the Sakura Ebi Okos.

The pan-cakes are about 15cm in diameter and served on a hotplate.  They can be cut into quarters (similar to pizzaz) so that you do not need to lift up the entire pancake when eating it.

The okos looks better than it taste.  Pan-cake floor, cabbage, ginger and a few shrimps are about all the ingredients that make up the okos.  After a while, it gets a little boring, and it might be a better idea to share it with another person.  The brown sauce wasn't quite enough to savour the entire pancake, so is the mayo.  If you're some who prefers stronger taste, then you'd probably need to ask for extra brown sauce.

There is a promotion going on and the okos costs $9.80 (usual price is $12.80, I think).  Even for this promo price, I would prefer that they serve a small prices and make it less pricey.

Xin Wang Taiwan Cafe [Closed]

Many people are probably familiar with Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe... has anyone tried Xin Wang Taiwan Cafe located at City Link?  I haven't and am very interested to check it out one of these days.

This cafe serves street food such as salted crispy chicken bites, fish paste sticks, curry chicken chop rice, braised minced pork rice, mee sua etc....sounds yummy, eh?

Here's the menu....

Will be back with review, hopefully soon.

Pu Tien @ Tampines Mall

Pu Tien @ Tampines Mall

4 Tampines Central 5

#B1-19/27 Tampines Mall

Singapore 529510

Tel : 6781 2161

I was initially attracted by the restaurant's 1st anniversary promotion of 100% rebate, round down to the nearest $10.  The promo is currently on-going until 30 Sep 09.  Citibank credit card holders are entitled to a lucky draw for min. $50 spent.

The restaurant was still 50% packed half an hour before its last order at 2.30pm.

We decided to just go for the 2-pax lunch set meal at $38++ for 1 staple main course, 3 dishes and dessert.  Check out the menu here.

It's Homemade Beancurd is firm and so silky smooth.  The sticky brown sweet gravy sauce brought out the tofu's fragrance.

Bamboo Herbal Prawn is another signature dish of Pu Tien.  The clear soup is filled with nice slightly bitte herbal taste.  Each portion comes with 3 extremely fresh prawns.

I had requested to replace the fried fish dish with this Lychee Sweet & Sour Pork with an additional $2.  The chunky and crispy pork pieces were tender and delicious.

Lor Mee is usually black but Pu Tien is famous for its white lor mee.  The noodle texture actually feels like handmade noodles.  The broth is thick and starchy.  The ingredients include prawns, clams, towpok, vegetable and pork.  The dish is excellent after adding in Pu Tien's spicy and sour chilli sauce.

I had requested for the dessert to be changed to lotus paste (Orr Nee).  Oh well, nothing fantastic for this dish.  But the other main dishes were all excellent.

Just a side note that warm water is chargeable at 30 cents each.

Overall, it is a very satisfying home-cook meal and would certainly be back again, maybe for its high-tea buffet which starts at 3pm at $10.80++ per pax.

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.

Paradise Inn @ West Coast Plaza

Paradise Inn (乐天客栈)
B1-48 West Coast Plaza
Tel: 67779950

A casual dining restaurant under the Paradise Inn Group has an outlet at the West Coast Plaza. The menu is somewhat similar to local zi-char dishes such as hotplate tofu and seafood stew vermicelli (bee hoon). But there are also some not so common dishes such as steamed codfish in soy sauce. The restaurant is also famous for its double-boil soup.

The hotplate tofu dish is served with a big piece of silly smooth tofu that has been pan-fried. Loved the pan-fried tofu skin. The dish comes with generous servings of oriental mushroom cubes and preserved turnip cubes (caixin). Beneath the tofu is a thin layer of yummy egg.

Love this simple, sinful-less and simply delicious steamed codfish in soy sauce. This is a relatively big slab of fresh codfish.

Fried vermicelli is common but not stew vermicelli. Besides Seafood Stew Vermicelli, Paradise Inn also serves Pig Trotters Stew Vermicelli. Since I am not a fan of pig trotters, seafood was the preferred choice for me. Fish slices, squid and prawns were the main seafood ingrdients used in this well-stewed dish.

Overall, these 3 dishes were above average. Total damage was $40 include a pot of tea for 2 pax. OCBC credit card users will be entitled to a 10% discount for ala carte dishes.

The Pasta Shop

The Pasta Shop

Changi Airport T3 Departure/Check in Hall North

Mezzanine Level, #03-43/44, Singapore 819663

Tel : 6242 6378

Another Japanese food chain under Sakae Sushi.  As the name suggests, The Pasta Shop serves pasta cooked in Japanese style aka Wafu style.

What do you do when it is dinner time (6pm) but you had lunch at 1pm, toast bread at 3pm and tao sar bia at 4pm?  The food looks too tempting to resist... and so I ordered a main course + salad for sharing.

Salad and asparagus pasta looks interesting enough.  It came with some thin seaweed pieces sprinkled on the pasta.  At first, the pasta tasted rather ordinary... but somehow, it got more delicious as we started eating.  The salmon was fresh and serving portion was quite generous.

I am normally not a salad lover, but I would strongly recommend this Tofu salad.  It is so delicious... 

Excluding drinks, total damage for the 2 dishes (incl taxes) was abt $28.

There is citibank credit card promotion where you can get 100% rebate (round down to nearest $10).

Mad Jack (Paradiz Centre)

Mad Jack Cafe

1 Selegie Road

Paradiz Centre #01 – 04

Tel: 6338 9771 / 6257 5951

11.30am – 12 midnight daily

A cafe offering rather affordable western food, attracting mostly teenagers and young adults. The menu has a wide range of selection from fish & chips, steak, burger, pasta, pizza, asian food, finger food, cakes, desserts etc.

Placing order is simple and hassle free, simply write down the item number on the order forms placed on each table, and make payment at the counter. However, the food did take quite a while to be served - at least 20 mins?

Here's what I had - Grilled Fish in Honey Lemon Sauce served with mashed potato and apple & peach salad. The fish was quite fresh and portion size is reasonable for the price of $8.90. My only complain is that the fish was a little too thinly slice that the texture became a little dry & tough. The apple & peach salad is a refreshing combination with the grilled fish.


My drink - Complexion Enhancer ($4)- from the range of Doctor Juices made from fresh fruits with no sugar added. The drink contains guava, orange and cucumber. Well, how did it taste? Hmm... what would you expect from such a combination?? It has a "freshy" taste in its natural sweetness, prob from the orange.


With such a great selection, I would be interested to be back to try different food from the menu.

Haato (Ridgewood Close)

Am once again back at Haato for lunch after a long while... ordered the Chicken Katsu Don and it was really really delicious. Love the round, fat Japanese rice cooked with soy sauce, topped with a thick piece of deep fried cutlet and covered with a layer of egg. It was just too good for a $7.50 meal. I had a very satisfying lunch.

Check out our earlier postings on Haato here, here and here.

Pin Si (Hong Kong Style Cafe) [Closed]

This is an excellent discovery. Simply love the food from this Hong Kong style cafe located at the AMK Hub basement 1, diagonally oppposite New York, New York.

AMK Hub

53, Ang Mo Kio Ave 3

#B1-22

Singapore 569933

Tel: 6481 2271

11am to 10.30pm

My favourite is the Sweet & Sour Fish - $7.90.

The fish fillets are very fresh. The outer layer is crispy (and not too oily) and the meat is smooth and springy. The standard is probably even better than what you get from some expensive restaurants.

Next recommendation is the Hotplate Beancurd ($7.90). What I like about the dish if the beanpaste gravy used to cook the tofu and minced pork & prawn.

One of the best places to go for a simple home-cook meal. Wash it down with a cup of HK style milk tea and that might make your day.

Two thumbs and two big toes up for this cafe!

Waraku Casual Dining Restaurant [Closed]

Waraku - Heeren Branch

260 Orchard Road

#05-04 The Heeren

Singapore 238855

Tel: 6834-1123

(http://www.waraku.com.sg/index-sin.html)

Was quite surprised to find that business at the restaurant level was rather quiet on a weekday night. We were given a choice to choose our seats, despite reservation made...

The cosy restaurant is a suitable place for small gatherings. They also offers a while selection of Japanese food. I ordered the Gindara Kaminabe (Codfish Hotpot), $12.80. There are 3 choice of soup base to choose from (Miso, Wafu and Chige) and I opted for miso soup base.

Besides the codfish, the other main ingredients include mushroom and cabbage.

If you prefer something hot and soupy, hotpots are always a good choice.

Sushi Tei @ Holland V

Spicy Kimchi Miso Ramen was on the October promotion menu at Sushi Tei.

The ramen had lots of kimchi and seaweed, and I suspected there were lots of garlic in the kimchi. Sushi Tei managed to maintan the ramen quality and quite refreshing to have korean & Japanese fusion food.

Su Korean Cuisine [Closed]

Su Korean Cuisine

14 Scotts Road, Far East Plaza, #01.21

Telephone: (65) 6235-0420

Was there for a late dinner since most of the makan places at Far East Plaza were already closed by 9pm.

Frankly, the side dishes looked ordinary and tasted ordinary as well. Nothing worth special mention...

That's my main dish - Ginseng Chicken soup..... It was supposed to be the main-course of the day and had some discount. Again, the soup was ordinary as well, except that, there were a few more red-dates compared to other Ginseng Chicken Soup that you can find in other restaurants.

The portion is good enough for 2 persons.

Will I go back again?? Will prob do so if I have no other makan choices.

Nihon Mura - YCK Stadium

Nihon Mura is another Japanese family restaurant under the Suki Group. Not too long ago, the outlet took over a seafood (round) restaurant next to YCK Sports Complex. Why round? Go take a look for yourself and you will know. In fact, Suki Group has been expanding quite rapidly as far as I can see in which they also took over another restaurant just less than 200m away from Nihon Mura, and opened the Sakura International Buffet Restaurant.

Went there on a Friday evening and had no problem getting seats since the restaurant is tucked away in a quiet corner of AMK. What had attracted me when I stepped into the restaurant was the 4 layer sushi conveyor belt, that blurred my eyes, with sushi moving left and right. The reflection on the side of the conveyor did not help at all. While I do not think that 8pm was considered late, the sushi selection was already very limited and they had stopped making fresh ones.

Since I was there for the 1st time, the waitress explained how we should go about ordering our food as no menu was provided. WHat we had to do was to bring our "pen holder", exit the restaurant from a side door and there a array of menu was on display. There were ice cream sticks beside each menu and we just had to pick up the corresponding ice cream sticks and place them in the "pen holder". Something quite innovative, ya?

After we have made our selection, just pass to a counter and return to our seats. One down side to this is that either someone needs to stay back and watch our barang barang or leave the barangs on the table and run the risk of losing our valuables.

Food quality wise - not for fussy diners. Expectations had to be adjust for $0.99 sushi, $4 agedashi tofu (4 pieces) and $6.90 soft shell crab.

Frankly, the dipping sauces were pretty good but the hot aren't quite piping hot. Perhaps the air-con was too strong? But ya, the rice dishes are served in hot stone bowl, I will probably give it a try next time.

Seoul Yummy

For supporters of Meridian Hotel Food Court Korean Food, you'd be happy to know that Seoul Yummy, located at Square 2, is an expansion of Kim Dae Mun.
 

Seoul Yummy

10 Sinaran Drive

#03-68, Square 2 (next to Novena Square)

Singapore 307506

Tel: (65) 6397 6939
 

However, you might be disappointed with the food quality as many who has tried still prefer the meridien's food. But there is a reason to dine at Seoul Yummy - the dessert - PatBingSu, yogurt ice cream with shaved ice and fruits.
 

For a group of 2 and more, the set meal will save you a couple of bucks. It includes the side dishes (which aren't served if you order ala carte), main dish Bibimbap, fried glass noodles or fried udon, fried potato pancake or kimchi mandu (dumpling).
 

Side dishes - 5 in total. My fav is the cold tofu.
 

Fried Udon with seafood.

Fried Glass Noodles.


Bibimbap.

Fried Potato Pancake.

Kimchi Mandu (dumplings)

For the set meal, it comes with a drink and a mini bingsu.

The bingsu below is regular size. It is garnished with strawberry, kiwi, watermelon and red bean. The bingsu dessert is a must-try!

There is a promotion with HSBC currently but does not apply if you order the set meal.