We were extremely disappointed with our visit to The Dunearn, both in terms of the food quality and especially so for their unacceptable service level.

Upon entering, we were quickly ushered to our seats by a grumpy looking waitress who was rather impatient with us when we queried on some of the food items. Her answers were mostly a repetition of the information shown on the menu and provided little or no value-addedness to us.

The starters were served pretty shortly but where's the bread?! This is one item which should have been served almost immediately upon seated at any reputable fine dining restaurant. We found this rather strange and requested if we could have some bread to go along with the soup we ordered. And guess what, to our horror, the waitress actually replied, "NO BREAD" when we saw her serving a basket of bread to a Caucasian couple just moments ago. This is simply atrocious and we demanded to see the manager regarding this. The manager took some time to attend to us (with a cold basket of bread in hand) and came up with some lame excuse that the bread was not ready previously to pacify us, like seriously?!

Here's a snap shot of our orders that day. Don't be fooled by the visually appealing presentation as we found the quality to be befitting of the ambience and price we're paying for. Looks can be deceiving.

Iberico Ham, Cantaloupe Jello and Petite Salad
One of the better dishes served that meal. I found the salad and fruits jello to be pretty refreshing and complemented the ham well.

Chicken Gumbo
A disaster. The soup was quite salty with tiny bits of chicken skin (where's the meat this time round?!) floating in it. We were expecting something more hearty and were quite disappointed with what was served.

Baked Spatchcock with Red Wine Jus
A decent dish but nothing impressive about it. It somehow seemed slightly overcooked as the meat was tougher than usual.

Mullet Confit with Light Lemongrass Emulsion
The fish was well cooked but I could hardly taste any hint of lemongrass (one of my personal favourite scents) at all! This dish should have been more aptly named "Mullet Confit with Cream Sauce"...

Mango Mille Crepe with Chocolate Sorbet
Another disaster, period. The Mille Crepe was frozen and had this weird refrigerator taste which was a major turn off. The Sorbet was no much better as it was totally icy and hard. In retrospect, this dessert might just jolly well have been in cold storage for as long as we could image!

Overall, this will be our first and very last visit. Disappointing food plus frustrating service – couldn't image what more could go wrong!

Ivy is craving for crabs cos her friends "areoplane" her, so she asked if Angela & myself can help her satisfy her craving. We decided to check out the newly opened Momma Kong's Crab Shack at Mosque Street. Simple yet cozy environment. Great for friends gathering!

Menu were limited, so gotta wait for other diners to finish ordering before you get your hands on it. They should consider printing more copies to cater for bigger crowd. "Tools & bins" were also provided on all tables

We were there few minutes before the Happy Hour ends, so we got our ciders at 25% off! I have Pear while Ivy & Angle goes for Elderflower & lime.Our meal started off with Spicy Tangy Top Shell $15 - A little bit of sourness, sweetness & spiciness. Pretty good but I find it too watery. Spicy Ikan Bilis $6 is superb! Tiny yet crunchy. The girls asked for the belachan to put put aside in case it's too spicy. After the first few mouthful of it, the girls decided to dump the rest of the belechan into the remaining Ikan Bilis but soon regretted their decision cos it turn out to be really spicy, but it was terribly good! I asked if they sell the belechan on its own; sadly it is not available for sale now but they will consider selling it soon! Tofu Chips $6 is surprisingly soft inside & crunchy outsideThe crabs are $38 each or $110 for a set of 3 crabs. We decided to opt for the set of 3. We were deciding between Steam or Black Pepper Crab & finally decided on Steam Crab to check out the quality since I read somewhere that the crabs here are frozen. Thus, first on the list will be Steam Crab as this has got the mildest taste. Surprisingly, this is nicely done & couldn't taste that it's frozen. Next on the list - Crab in Bee Hoon Soup. The soup is however a little fishy but it gets better after adding the Hua Diao which is provided at the side. The Pretty Fried Man Tou $1.50 (min 2pc) is surprisingly sweet to eat on it's own. However, it was quite huge I couldn't even finish 2! Luckily we didn't order 2pc each Lastly, Chili Crab. The chili is not like the usual sweet & spicy type which you get in most hawker center. The chili crab here is a little spicy it musk the taste of the crab. The sauce is a little dry & I wish it was served with more sauce.

Service here were friendly & attentive; superb! I won't mind going back again to try the Black Pepper Crab & other new variants if available!

One of the reason beside that this place is super cheap is they have very good homemade thai chilli sauces which many places don’t have.All in all they have 3 types of chilli sauces which is suppose to go well with either seafood,meat or another type which is the so called similar to MK steamboat one.Personally I like the seafood one the most as it’s a bit more on the spicy side with a tangling citrus after taste.
Other than that,they have no set menu,everything is by ala cart order. However,most of the basic food for mookata are all listed in the menu like prawn,chicken,pork,beef..etc
I spent $24.40 for 2 pax which I think it was very cheap as usually I spent more than $25 per pax at other mookata place.
For more details you can read at my blog http://hannahchia.tumblr.com/post/59693306007/siam-square-mookata-the-hawker-centre-mookata

Despite being a Singaporean since birth, I have never ventured into Farrer Park. It doesn't look ulu on the map (being two stops away from Dhoby Ghaut). But somehow there is nothing there for me to venture. Recently I saw an Openrice article on nice cafes to hangout, and one of them is L'etoile cafe hidden in Farrer Park along Owen Road. The small but cosy-looking picture of it was tempting enough for me to travel to Farrer Park. It's a two-storey indie cafe along a stretch of shophouses. L'etoile means "star" in French, and it's also the symbol of this cafe.

I was quite pleased when I stepped into L'etoile. The cafe was very bright and made use of full length windows. The use of different types of mismatched furniture made the place very colourful and homely. The designer of L'etoile should deserve some award for making it look so pretty and inviting! There are several corners which you can just laze in with your group of friends or with your significant other. Some of my favorite corners:

#1 - By the window on second floor. I love how the curtains blocked out the harsh sun rays and gave the place a soft focus look. #2 - Cosy corner on first floor. #3 - Cosy corner on second floor. If you look carefully below, this table is actually a sewing machine table. Quite creative to use as a dining table and it gives the place a nostalgic vibe too. One bird kills two stones!Sad to say, the food was quite forgettable for me. The Matcha Azuki Chiffon Cake ($5.90) was coarse and too dry for my liking. The Chicken Wings ($8) were a bit bland and not flavorful enough, and the portion was quite small for the price. As for the Big Breakfast ($14.90) which was served with toast, potato wedges, mushroom, bacon, sausages, eggs and greens, unfortunately it was more variety than quality. The Strawberry Soda and Ribena Soda ($4.90 each) were nothing to shout about too. In addition, I don't know why but it can be very noisy when everyone speaks at the same time. I suspect it has got to do with the material used for the ceiling or walls which amplifies the sounds made.

To conclude, I guess the main draw of L'etoile would be its chill vibe, vintage and whimsical decor, instead of the food. There were a lot of couples and groups of friends there. L'etoile also has free wifi and some power plug points (not a lot though.. two hidden behind the big sofa on second floor and two near the window). They also have a collection of travel books and magazines which you can read. It's worth a first visit for a lazy weekend although I don't think I will be going back anytime soon.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://weekendeatwhatsg.blogspot.sg/2013/08/l-cafe.html

As it was my good friend, Serene’s birthday celebration,we have decided to try Momma Kong’s and how glad we are to have made such a wise choice.

My first impression of Momma Kong’s is it’s quite different in the deco as compare to other crab restaurant. I love the fact that it’s simple and chic with a very relaxed and laid back setting and for the service crews, if I am not wrong is the 2 bosses themselves. One thing about their service is, it’s really very attentive and give you very comfortable and cosy feel.



As for the menu, it is quite interesting as it looks like a compilation of several Facebook pages. However the menu isn’t very extensive, just crabs cooking in 4 different varieties, some small bites , 2 types of vegetables and a variety of beverages. Something that I like about the Momma Kong’s is that they have Asahi on the tap and before 7pm is happy hours so 25% off. But I didn’t order Asahi that day cos I was introduced to another type of beer. Hehe!





Anyway ,we ordered black pepper crab, crab with bee hoon soup,chicken chucks with belachan chilli, 3 mantous. Thank God we didn’t ordered more. Although on the menu,it is written that the crab weight about 650g but 3 of us were quite sure,it was more than that when we saw another table’s crab been served.





Just like all fried food,the chicken chucks are very succulent and yummy. But I must seriously rave about this belacha chilli. It is really flavorful and spicy.Can you imagine 3 of us kept raving over it once we had our first taste of the yummy chilli.

The crab bee hoon soup is simply mind blowing.Can you imagine the rich milky broth with chinese wine and the combination of the fresh sweet crab meat? Simply spot on!We girls finished up the soup in no time. Hiaks.

The black pepper sauce is really finger licking good and goes very well with their beautifully weaved mantous(come in steamed or fried,but we choose the fried ones).

Overall,it was a lovely food hunting experience as we really didn't expect such a 5 stars service from Momma Kong's.On top of that,I am personally very impressed with their food servicing timing.Simply marvelous.Beside that, we didn't paid a lot for such great food and wonderful service,just $144.65,easy on the pocket. On top of that, Momma Kong is also tied up with Perx, an app that can give you digital chops whenever you spend at their merchandisers. Accumulate 5 chops for a free crab on the next visit.Haha I foresee us getting the free crabs very soon as we are going back next month =D