Dinner gathering w 4 other frenz recently. Parking outside e restaurant was worrisome, cos' it seemed like e whole stretch of vehicles were parked illegally. Waiter said it was ok, I doubt! Try ur luck! 

We were received by a local waitress in a Korean dress (she doesnt looked like she welcomed us at all), & were seated quickly. The empty tables ard us were filled subsequently - real popular!

We were given 5 re-fillable appetisers, of which, i enjoyed the spinach best (no shout to all actually, juz cold bland veg). 

We ordered the following dishes to share among us:

Bibimbap
Average. Kim Chi Fried Rice made this dish unwanted.

Spring Onion & Seafd Pancake
Real tasty!  It's like eating fried carrot cake, onli u're eatin more flour w spring onion. As for seafd, i dunno where it was in e pancake...

Zha Jiang Mian
Ordinary. Rather bland actually.  The serving can b for 2-3 pax. B sure u really like dis dish b4 u order!

Kim Chi Fried Rice
Best of all dat we've ordered! V tasty! The egg served on top has runny egg-yolk!  I wld order dis dish again (if i hav to visit again).

Ginseng Chix Soup
No shout. Bland. Tasted like there's shoju inside. 

Pork Belly
I din eat dis, bt my fren commented dat e serving is little. 

In addition, we werent pleased w e earlier waitress. We had asked for a re-fill for 1 of e appetisers, she came by & retorted if we had asked earlier, which we didnt of course. When she returned w e fd, she prob tried to made amendments by sayin dat she tot she missed out serving e dish.  Poor liar! 

Total Cost: ~ $30/ pax. 
2 of us felt it was too expensive. I wldnt initiate a re-visit (i wonder y it is so popular), w consideration of e "unforgettable" service as well.

Weather's so hot! A nearby A/C place was necessary for lunch - Vista Point.

This used to be the Western Food stall, but now it sells Japanese food. Prices range between $4-$6. What came as a pleasant surprise to me was that the serving was surprisingly huge - for a foodcourt! Even so for their bento boxes!

There was a steady queue of customers, but I didn't wait long for my turn. Ordered the Teriyaki Chicken Omelette Rice - there are salmon and fish fillet choices as well. What you see was what I got! HUGE serving! Can be shared by 2!

The omelette was fluffy. It reminded me of the Chix Rice in AJC Canteen (how I miss the food! ). The chix pieces were deep fried till its exterior was very crispy! Heck the calories! I ate all the crispy skin!!!

I will surely be returning to try the other dishes. The bento boxes were popular, and I saw that the meat side dishes were of decent servings!

Until then!

Total Cost: Teriyaki Chicken Omelette Rice - $4.80

When it comes to having Dim Sum in Chinatown, I always frequent the following:

a. Tak Po
b. Red Star
c. Da Dong

And now, I found the 4th - Yan Palace Restaurant!!

One weekday afternoon, I felt adventurous and wanted to explore a new eating place. I recalled walking past a Chinese restaurant at Hong Lim Complex, so I went ahead with my instincts and located this place (I lied, I did it with the help of a colleague...haha! ).

At its entrance, Yan Palace Restaurant gave the impression that it serves "nothing below expensive". But the price turned out to be decent - $18+ per pax! And it's not entirely unheard of, as there were quite a few tables occupied with large groups of people. Even my colleague knew of the place , and boosted my morale when he said that the food was good, before we made our order! The decor within was quaint. It looked like those kind of Chinese restaurants where KTV is available, and typical for Chinese wedding banquets.

We ordered the following dishes:

Fried Mee SuaTasty! The restaurant took the initiative to ask if we would want it to be served individually (not all restaurants retain such good customer service)

Fried Glutinous Balls w Pumpkin FillingAverage. I am not a fan of the glutinous coating. The shape of the ball was somewhat dome-shaped and looked cute. What made it better was that the balls were cut into halves. So, a table of 4 pax would be able to distribute a serving of 3 glutinous balls for everyone to have a taste of this dish. This went the same for some other dim sum dishes.

Fried Prawn and Banana RollThis was a special dish, where the prawn and banana were consistently separated in the roll. The ones I've eaten thus far had both ingredients all mixed together.

Crab Roe Siew MaiAverage. I can see the crab roe, but can't taste it.

Har GowDecent. Prawns were big.

Paper Wrapped ChickenNot really nice. It got bones in it and the meat was stuck to the paper.

Steamed Pork RibsThis was a slab of meat literally! You get more meat than what you pay for! Good! Wished there were more black beans in this dish though!

Fried Cheese BallsBest of all dishes!!! I love the filling within, though I can't make out what it was. They really ought to sell these balls like KFC's Popcorn Chix!!!

Plum and Grass JellySour. A good end to the heavy lunch though! Great for digestion!

The chilli sauce provided had beans in it! If only they could make the chilli skin less visible (fine grinding etc.) and include more beans in it!!! My 3 other colleagues also ordered a dessert each and the bill amounted to this:

Total Cost: $18+ per pax (for 4 pax)

Will I visit again? U bet!

I wanted to order a Deli Potato as a quick takeaway lunch, but I ended up waiting for a long time before I was served, and I was only 2nd in the queue!

I had pleasant memories of Delifrance when it used to be located at Lvl 1. My all-time favourite order was the Deli Potato, which I ordered frequently as a snack after school. Staff at that outlet then were friendly and service was prompt. That good image was all ruined with a lousy experience this afternoon!

There were 3 staff who manned this outlet this afternoon: 1 was the cashier and prepared drinks, 1 prepared the food order and 1 served ready-made food such as puffs, quiches etc. As the customer in front of me had endless questions about a simple order for 4 pax (from bread to drink to receipt), I could forgive the cashier if she can't attend to me. But I was flabbergusted with the remaining staff who treated me as if I didn't exist in the queue! The staff who prepared the food order, after preparing the "oh-so-curious" woman's order, could have politely attended to me and take/ prepare my food order. She didn't. Instead, she had prioritised refilling the toppings over me - a physical customer. What made it worse was the remaining staff had no customers at his counter, but he chose to take on the role of an "observer" - no initiative to assist any of them.

I watched on, and saw that the cashier appeared to be somewhat a klutz in processing the order before me - made mistakes in the receipt and took a long time to prepare 3 drinks - ice water, tea w tea bag (no milk) and coffee/ latte. I was finally served when all of them recomposed themselves - I had waited impatiently for a $6 potato!

If it weren't for the darn potato, which was the best I've tasted so far - baked to the best texture with generous topping, I would have walked off! My only regret was I chose the Chicken Mayo topping, which wasn't exactly very tasty to me. I would opt for Seafood Mayo the next round, but from other outlets. I do not have that much patience to spare!

Total Cost: Deli Potato - $6

Read about this restaurant at OpenRice.com. Decided to give it a shot as I've always been fond of Thai Tze Char.

Turned out it was a restaurant. Not the posh kind, and you probably won't even know it's open till you walk through their doors. No "OPEN" sign displayed and windows were mostly covered with some posters pasted over it.

There was no one else around at 12pm on a Sunday, and by the time I left, there were 2 other groups of customers. But I'd keep it this way, for the occasional treat I'd give myself to get away from the masses. The ambience within was pretty much like a family restaurant and there was a constant scent of lemongrass in the air.

No worries if you do not speak Thai, as the polite waitresses do speak English. The 3 of us ordered the following dishes:



Pineapple Fried Rice
The menu reflected a portion for 1 pax at $7. But the restaurant was flexible to whip up a sufficient portion for the 3 of us at $10+. The serving was unique - pyramid shaped. The rice was so tasty and addictive. Heck the carbs while you're here! I suspect what enhanced the flavour could be the lap cheong, curry powder, pepper and spices (definitely) within. This is a must-try dish!



Pork Leg
There was another dish - Pork Knuckle which cost $40. Since we already ordered crab, we thought we'd go easy on the calories (yes, balancing calorie intake is a conscious effort!). So, we ordered this "down-scaled" dish. It was interesting as aside from Pork Leg, it was accompanied with 2 other vegs and sliced egg! Looks a little like Kway Chap side dishes to me, only that KC is better! Haha! No shout about this dish, the Pork Leg wasn't exceedingly flavourful.



Salted Egg Crab
This dish is a SHOUT!!!!!! This is the 1st time I've eaten Salted Egg Crab, with Sliced Pumpkin!!! The pumpkin slices covered with Salted Egg sauce was absolutely delicious!!! We could choose between Sea Crab and Flower Crab - we picked the former, since there is more meat in it! The crab was big and fresh. Its meat could be picked out effortlessly. Real good!! And it cost a flat price of $40.

We ordered another dish - Lala, but I don't eat this, so can't comment much. I've tasted the gravy though, and it was good! A tad salty, and a little like Curry + Tom Yum. Whatever it was, I liked it! Haha!

Am I making a 2nd visit? You bet!

Total Cost: $96 for 3 pax.