sapphire

After a day outing at Sentosa beach, we had our dinner at Barcelos at Vivo City. Since there are five of us, we ordered the family pack – full chicken with the choice of 3 medium side orders. The combo meal actually comes with free flow drinks.

Just like Nandos, you can choose the spice level – tangy lemon, mild peri, veri peri and supa peri (spiciness in increasing order). As two of my friends didn’t take too spicy food, we chose the mild peri. The grilled, flame chicken was nice. Although we chose the mild peri, the four type of sauce were served as well in bottle, hence I managed to try all of them. To me, it tasted very similar to Nandos.

For our side orders, we chose the fries, spicy rice and coleslaw. Although it is named as spicy rice, it was not spicy at all. The fries were good.

We left for home tired and with fulfiling stomach.

Ok, it’s my first visit to Sakura last month. I have been hearing quite a number of good and bad reviews of Sakura and finally, I’m there with colleagues to try it myself.

Since it is the cheapest, affordable buffet in Singapore, overall the food served there was acceptable to me although the variety is not that wide compared to other buffet. The oysters served here were big and juicy (personally, I think the oysters here were bigger than the ones served in Pariss International Seafood Buffet). There were lots of dim sum being served and tasted nice initially, but when consumed too much, you will feel sick of it.

Coincidentally, it’s Durian and Peranakan Fair (from 01 Oct to 31 Dec 2010) when I’m there. Being a durian lover, I indulged myself in the durian puffs (which were very “duriany” and tasted nice to me but my colleagues beg to differ, maybe they don’t really like durian), durian tempura and durian spring rolls (these were too oily for me), sambal durian sticky rice (which was actually quite nice but you actually can’t taste the durian except very faint durian smell.) and many more. As for the peranakan food, the sambal petai squid were good but spicy. I'm happy that there was bobo cha cha being served here because it’s been years since I last had bobo cha cha.

We patronized Nihon Mura (at The Cathay branch) again as the sushi there were cheap. Being one of the Suki Group restaurants, the sushi there were only $1.19 - much cheaper than those at Ichiban Sushi or Sakae Sushi.

The environment there was nice and serene with dim lighting and wooden table and chair.

For ordering of drinks, desserts and others such as handroll, shabu shabu, etc, just grab the ice-cream sticks which stated with your desired choice and passed to the staff there. And we can even see the chef in action from the open kitchen.

As you can see from the picture above, the 2 of us finished up quite a number of plates of sushi. And we went home with bloated stomach, gaining a few more kilograms. Haha.

This is one of my favourite stalls (besides the economic rice stall) in the coffee shop below my block . Being a flour lover, I very much prefer eating noodle over rice.

So far, I have tried every noodle that they sell and my favourite is the dumpling noodle. The dumpling served here were generous and with fresh and pretty big prawns inside. The noodle was nicely cooked and “springy”. Most importantly, it was served with black soy sauce, just like Malaysia style. (I noticed the wantan mee and dumpling noodle sold in some of the stalls in Singapore are served in red sauce.)

However, the dumpling noodle or wantan mee sold here still can’t beat the one sold in NUS Science canteen, which are cheap and nice. The uncle there was friendly and always gave me bigger serving. How I miss those good old days in NUS, eating wantan mee, dumpling noodle and lor mee. 

SGD 3(Lunch)

We were there for a friend’s birthday. The ambience and the décor were nice, especially the lights. However, the service there was poor although the boss and lady boss were nice and friendly. The waiting time for the food to be served was far too long. We waited for more than an hour and a half for our food to be served. When the food arrived, the serving of our pasta looked pathetically small. And the presentation didn’t look appealing at all. (Refer to the pictures above. A picture says a thousand words.)
Needless to say, the taste was so-so only.

As mentioned earlier, the boss and lady boss there were nice since they kept apologizing to us and gave us complimentary starter, dessert – tiramisu and red wine as well! (although the wine was not strong but diluted. What can we ask since it’s free?)

Since I was pretty hungry last Monday, I ordered the BBQ Chicken Set from the stall named Food Korea which cost $5.50. As you can see from the picture above, it was served with rice, bbq chicken, fried ikan bilis, kimchi and soup.

Overall, the serving was pretty big. The chicken was served in hot plate and it taste pretty ok. The meat was quite tender and neither too salty nor spicy. However, the fried ikan bilis were not crunchy, in fact a bit soft and the kimchi served tasted a bit weird to me, unlike kimchi served in other Korean stalls. (Anyway, what should be the taste of an authentic kimchi? I have no idea…)

On the other hand, the environment was quite noisy since it was dinner time and the place was packed with people. Worse, there were flies flying around the table and kept circling my bbq chicken. And I have to keep swatting the flies, preventing them landing on my food. Sigh…

Friend said that he's okay with eating ramen as my treat for his birthday, hence, we decided to try out Yoshimaru Ramen Bar - the outlet at ECP, Playground @ Big Splash.

Since we can't decide what toppings we want and also wished to try everything, both of us ordered their Moridakusan Ramen (All-in) and hot ocha. Once we had placed our order, we were given a pestle and mortar with some sesame seeds inside. We were supposed to crush the sesame before garnishing them into our ramen soup.

Overall, the ramen tasted ok. However, the soup was a bit salty for us. The mentaiko (one of the toppings) was salty too. Although the egg looked a bit like salted egg from its appearance, they were actually normal chicken eggs. The char siew were quite nice.

As we were too busy taking photos of ourselves, we had forgotten to take the picture of the food itself. As such, the ramen photo posted above was a result of cut and paste from our photos. Pardon for the low quality of photo. You can see part of our hands or fingers there too!

After slurping down the ramen, we were full and hence, we did not try out their mini burgers. However, whenever the waiter walked passed us with the mini burgers, I'm so tempted to order them since they looked so cute. Hmm, maybe I shall try them next time.

P/S: To me, ajisen ramen still tastes better.

SGD 20(Dinner)

After a tiring day of outings, the four of us went to Ajisen Ramen at Jurong Point for our dinner. As there was a promotion, all of us ordered the set meal where our choice of ramen came with an ala carte and a drink. We chosed ice lemon tea as our drinks since the weather was hot. You can choose green tea as well, if you don't like ice lemon tea.

As for the ala carte, all of us ordered different ones (namely, tempura, fried chicken, silver fish and white fish) and shared among ourselves.

When the food arrived, after snapping some pictures of the food, we started to savour the food without any delay. See the pictures attached above. Aren't you salivating now?

For me, what makes a good ramen is the soup. (Of course, I'm not a food gourmet or food connoisseur and this is just my opinion.) The soup base of ramen at Ajisen is nice and not too salty. And i finished every single drop of it!

The environment was a bit noisy as it was crowded, particularly with students since JP is the favourite hang out place for NTU students. Ooh...how i missed those carefree student days.

P/S: With the sprouting of so many ramen shops in Singapore, I still prefer Ajisen Ramen. You may say I'm old skool or maybe even sentimental. Or maybe the price is ok and not that expensive when compared to other high-end ramen shops. (I think this is the main reason. Haha.)

SGD 12(Dinner)

It's been a long time since I last patronized New York New York. I think my last visit was sometime last year and it was at the City Link Mall branch.

Since Wendy's at JP was a bit small and too crowded, we headed over to New York New York for our brunch. Their menu had changed quite a lot and there were quite a number of new addition.

Once we placed our order, we started to chat and updating each other of our lives. As we were too engrossed in our conversation, we did not even realized that our food had not been served despite 45 minutes had passed until one of my friend said she's hungry (since it's 2.30pm). We checked with the waiter and after some checking at the order counter (where the order was keyed in) and with the kitchen, they realized they have not processed our order! However, the supervisor came to our table immediately with a complimentary plate of potato wedges and apologized to us, ensuring that our food will be served in 10 minutes time.

Since we were not in any hurry and the crowd had thinned down, we continued with our conversation. Indeed, less than 10 minutes, all of our oder were served. And without any delay, we started to savour them. I had their Tropical Cheesy Dory in Foil since it was one of their new item. It was rather tasteless, not "cheesy" enough and it's bland.

My friends' orders (refer to pictures above) was much, much better than mine, particularly the Mushroom Chicken Chop. The chicken was juicy and yummy and most importantly, the portion was so huge! Yup, i'm a sucker for value for $.

Of course, all in all, the brunch was a delightful one due to great company that I had.

SGD 15

Was in rather bad mood that day, thus, went to Orchard alone.

Initially, going to have my dinner at Ngee Ann City since i was window shopping there but the food court and the fast food there were too crowded. Instead, I walked over to Wisma Atria and went to Food Republic.

After going one round of the food court and see what's available, I chosed this stall and ordered their Ayam Penyet (or the smashed chicken) since:
a) I was pretty hungry and the serving looked big
b) there were more seat available at this side of stalls, hence no need to walk too far searching for a seat, carrying a tray of food
c) there was a corner with more seats near this stall and it's isolated with only 3 groups of diners (including me) since i need some quiet, personal time.

The service is rather bad. As the menu said it came with ayam, rice and soup, however, no soup was given until i asked for it to another staff (not the one who served me since right after she passed me my rice, she turned her head away). The staff that I posed the question to said, "yes" and asked her colleague (the one who served me). Know what is her colleague's reply?
"No more small bowl."
The staff was a bit embarrassed and quickly took a big bowl and scoop the soup for me.

The appearance (or presentation) of the food was still passable until I started to savour it. The soup was cold (don't they heat up the soup continuosly?). The chicken skin was crispy but there was still some blood that can be seen on the chicken inside. (forgot to take picture of the blood)
It also served with two pieces of fried tofu and they were okay. The chilli was okay too but may be a tad too spicy for those who don't eat spicy stuffs. The rice given was generous but as I mentioned, the chicken was not that well-cooked, hence, I didn't finish them off.

SGD 7(Dinner)

My friend's boyfriend gave her a $20 voucher swensen's for our girls outing. Hence, after dinner, we headed over to Swensen's to indulge ourselves.

Friend ordered the Banana Crumble (Sizzling Pan) which was pretty nice initially. But the more you eat, you will actually feel pretty sick about it. Maybe it's a bit too sweet for us (since it's with caramel) and too much butterscotch.

I had the Sticky Chewy Chocolate which was rated as one of their All Time Favourite. Needless to say, it's yummilicous! It's definitely thumb up from both of us. And that night, i went to bed being a happy gal but with wider waist.

SGD 12(Other)

This was my second visit to Pariss International Seafood Buffet.

First visit was in Sep 2009 and my friends and i left with satisfying stomach and good impression. The staffs were friendly and it was their x? (sorry, i don't really remember) anniversary and we were given free life-time membership which entitle us with 10% discount.

We visited again early this month (why not, since we have 10% discount, right?). However, we are left with disappointment unlike the first visit. Overall, there are lesser variety compared to last year and the portion shrink as well! Especially those oysters and crab!

My favourite corner - dessert were definitely shrink in variety! Gone were thoose nice, appealing cakes that scream "Eat me!". Left were some pathethic cakes that looked dull and not appeatizing at all.

The floor near the dessert section was oily and slippery. Overall, it gave me the feeling that i was walking towards the restroom of some old coffeeshop or worse, market!

Albeit all the disgruntlement above, there was at least an improvement compared to year 2009. Yeay, the plastic that wrapped around the sushi roll are gone! I didn't notice there were plastic around the sushi when i first there (in 2009) until my friend ask, "How come no plastic on your plate? I thought you ate a lot of sushi?" Right at that moment, i felt like vomiting since i had at least 5 sushi which meant 5 non-biodegradable plastic lurking somewhere in my stomach and intestine. Oh, gosh! Although there was a notice informing diners to remove the plastic before eating, how many of us will actually go and read since we were too busy to choose which colourful and nice sushi should we eat? How about those small kids and illiterate uncles and aunties? Do they deserve to eat in all those plastic? Is the plastic used food grade in the first place? Anyway, all these are finally solved with the stop usage or removal of plastic before placing the sushi at the counters for diners. An improvement at least...

SGD 39