irmanyazid's Profile

I was invited by the wonderful folks from OpenRice to attend a scrumptious food tasting event held by Charisma D'Venue located within the Joo Chiat vacinity. Charisma D'Venue is both a semi-fine dining restaurant as well as an events venue that caters to one's special event. Be it a Birthday celebration, a Corporate lunch or even a Wedding ceremony, Charisma D'Venue is able to provide a wonderful experience together with great food!After a short intoduction by Ms. Zafikah (aka 'Zee') about the place, its operations and business model, we were served with the drinks and dishes that were to be tested which were the 'reccommended' items from the menu.Drinks:1. Charisma Lemon Tea: This in-housed brewed drink uses tea leafs that are directly supplied from their suppliers. It has a unique taste that infuses both the tea and lemon nicely. (3.0/5)2. Nojito: This drink is made fresh and is a version of the 'Mojito' without the alcohol. There is a lime-lemon kick to it and makes a good summer drink to enjoy! It is also a good drink to 'flush' down all the spices from the food! (4.0/5) -Winner-3. Iced Thai Milk Tea: Like the lemon tea, it is made in house. The tea has a robust sweet yet aromatic flavour and you can taste the bitterness of the tea mixture. This milky condensed-flavoured drink is great for kids with sweet-tooth (3.0/5)Starters:4. Portebello Crispy Mushroom: This crispy-battered mushroom dish is a must-try for all mushroom lovers (like myself)! It comes with a spicy soya sauce condiment which adds a spicy 'kick' to it! Each mushroom slice is dipped with batter and fried to its crispy golden texture whilst retaining the portebello mushroom taste! Perfect for sharing! This dish also comes with a side-salad with strawberry infused vinaigrette splased on it. (4.0/5)5. Fried Calamari: Squid rings were served fresh and fried with batter (like the mushrooms) and tasted good, not rubbery. It comes with a 'Arrabiata sauce' (tasted like tangy tomato sauce that has a mild spicyness kick to it) and mayonaise. You can eat it plain or dip it with both sauce. Also comes with side-salad. Good sharing snack! (3.0/5)6. Flaming Wings: Comes with 4 wings on a platter with a side salad. Crispy mouth-watering wings covered with spicy sauce (aka Charisma secret sauce). It is a 'Must-Use-Hands' kind of dish so please prepare to get your hands dirty! The spicyness of the sauce is just nice for me considering I love spicy food but its NOT for the 'faint hearted'! (4.3/5) -Winner-After the Starters, then came in the Main Dishes:7. Bandung Pasta: An 'Indonesian-inspired' dish consisting of linguine pasta with a spicy tomato sauce mixture of prawns and beef. In addition, there is a poached egg sitting perfectly on the top of the dish. The sauce tasted quite familiar to me as it reminded me of bolognese beef sauce. Delicious nontheless! (3.0/5)8. Ong Bak Pasta: This is a Thai-inspired dish (the 'Ong Bak' is a giveaway!) consisting of linguine pasta covered with creamy seafood tom-yum sauce. To me it was mildly spicy (you can see the chilli flakes) and made me full easily since it was a cream-based pasta. Good for tom-yum lovers! (3.5/5)9. Ocean D'Venue: Some sort of fish and chips with garlic rice dish. The cod fish was fried nicely but felt soft and not flaky. I preferred the garlic rice than the chips (the chips that were sprinkled with red cayenne pepper tasted normal to me) because the flavour of the rice mixture complements the cod fish taste nicely. Additionally there is a strawberry-infused mayonaise sauce that was really good! (3.0/5)10. Lamb Shank Briyani: The STAR of the show! The Showstopper! The Heart-Stealer Dish! This plate is big enough for 2 to share but I can eat 1 plate by myself. You can cut the tender braised lamb-shank easily with your utensils. The spices used to cook the lamb is VERY flavourful and is cooked to (nearly) perfection. The Basmati rice was slightly dry but the lamb shank made up for it. Comes with a side of Mango Chutney and bowl of Dalcha. (4.5/5) -Winner-Last but not least were the desserts!:11. Charisma Fondue: The fondue consisted of sliced fruits like pineapple, rock-melon, strawberries and marshmellow. In-house dark chocolate is used as the fondue-dipping sauce. Nothing fantastic to me but it should be a good sharing dish with the kids! (3.0/5)12. Waffle with Ice-Cream: This dish was beautifully plated. Vanilla Belgian waffles had an 'eggy' taste but was made crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and drizzled with both Chocolate and Caramel sauce topped with ice-cream. Although the ice-cream was not made in-house, it mixes well with the waffles once the ice-cream melts and 'absorbs' into the waffles! The accompanying strawberries and sliced bananas just make this dish look prettier! (3.5/5)13. Chocolate Overload Milk Shake: This milksake is suitable for ALL chocolate lovers. The shake isn't that thick but is topped with whipped cream, chocolate waffle sticks and chocolate-covered biscuit! Once you mix the whipped cream and milkshake together, it'll taste good. The presentation is not over-the-top unlike other milkshakes (like Cake Spade or Benjamin Browns) but taste YummY otherwise! (3.5/5)Verdict: Although this restaurant does not serve many dishes, what I can say is that the dishes are ,IMO (In-My-Opinion), no-doubt value-for-money unlike your regular western restaurants (like Swensens, Fish & Co, MFMS and etc). Service by the friendly staff was tip-top and the atmosphere was nice too. A good place to bring your family and friends and have a wonderful time eating great food! Thank You Charisma D'Venue for hosting a delicious food-tasting event and to OpenRice for the invitation! (Final Verdict: 4.0/5)…Read More

I had finally made time to visit Riverwalk Tandoor Restaurant (Ferrer Park outlet) with my dear friend to try out their Dinner Buffet. As it was our 1st time and after reading quite a number of (+ve and -ve) reviews, I did not have high expectations. Hence this is my honest and straight-forward review.Upon reaching outside the restaurant, a staff (standing outside) opened the doors for us and was greeted by the well-groomed restaurant manager. I informed him that I had made a prior reservation and was using the GROUPON voucher to redeem my dinner buffet. He checked my print-out letter and thanked me for visiting the restaurant for dinner. Was shown to our table located directly beside the buffet spread by another staff and sat down promptly. I ordered 1 Masala Tea for myself and my friend ordered warm water with a side of tumeric powder. We were informed by the manager that we could already start eating.The Buffet spread consisted of Steamed White Rice, Yellow Briyani Rice, Pappadam, A tray of raw vegetables, 5 types of Vegetarian Dishes, 3 types of Non-Vegetarian Dishes and 1 Dessert. Condiments such as Mint sauce, mixed Raita and picked vegetables were present too!Dishes that I tried:Non-Vegetarian dishes:1) Chicken Curry: Chicken was soft and tender and it was easy to remove the meat from the bones, Curry was fragrant, mildly spicy and slightly sweet. Very nice! (3.5/5)2) Sambal Eggs: I have no idea why this dish was placed at the non-veg side. I assumed eggs were boiled fully and mixed with sambal. Not that spicy but more on the sweet side but the eggs were soft. No 'WoW' factor. (2.8/5)3) Tandoori Chicken: The BEST of the 3 dishes! Chicken meat consisting of different chicken parts were slightly dry but tender and delicious. The STAR of the buffet! (4.0/5)Vegetarian dishes:1) Pumpkin Masala Curry?: I think that was what this dish was called. A good mixture of  pumpkin and spices. Can taste the freshness of the pumpkin! (3.5/5)2) Dhal Curry: Had a small bowl of this. Acts as a good sauce for the yellow rice. (2.5/5)3) Masala Mushroom: I'm a BIG fan of mushrooms! This dish had exceeded my expectations. The spicyness level was just nice and the mushrooms were soft! (3.5/5)4) Pappadam: Crispy and hot and less oily! Best eaten alone or with the dhal curry. (4/5)There were other vegetarian dishes but I did not try as I was more into:GARLIC NAAN!: Fresh from the oven! Good size, warm and tentalizing! The staff came with a basket of Naan. i was excited as I love eating naans together with the curry, tandoori chicken and mint sauce! (4.0/5)Mutton Aloo Curry: Soft and tender mutton with no mutton smell complementing with the thick gravy. Best eaten with the fresh naan! (3.5/5)Do note that the mutton and naan comes seperatly. Both dishes are not found on the buffet spread but were given seperatly by the staff. Both dishes are FREE FLOW! I had 3 baskets of delicious warm naan!Dessert consisted of 'Mixed-fruit Semiya Kheer' (2.5/5). This dessert dish has a unique taste which is made up of vermicelli, milk, sugar, cardamom pods and etc. Not my kind of dessert.After happily eating and almost reaching to my capacity, I saw the staff served other guests fresh fruits and the dessert and requested. The fruit platter consisted of pappaya, honeydew and another fruit. The desset was 'Gulab Jamun'(3.5), it is a soft-ball sweet kind of dessert that is bathed in glorious sweet (I assume honey) sauce that explodes in your mouth activating your sweet tastebuds! Overall: Worth the visit and delicious Indian food. Although the spread wasn't that much, this is a value-for-money Dinner Deal! (Especially if you're buying the voucher from Groupon) Staff was friendly, professional and courteous! …Read More