My colleagues and I used to affectionately call this our favourite malay rice stall when deciding lunch options. This place is rather well known with the working crowd in the area for serving good Malay food.

During lunch times, there's always a queue, but fret not because the queue moves rather quickly. There are usually 2-3 people working the stall, so before the person at the front of the queue goes off, the next helper would have already scooped the next plate of rice asking the person next in queue for his/her chosen dishes.

I can assure you that when you look at the array of dishes they provide, you'll be very tempted to choose most of it and pile it all on your rice plate! I often have to tell myself "Ok my plate is too full today so I'll come back tomorrow!"Paid about $3+ for this

They are generous with the ingredients. I have ever chosen squid, prawns, potato and curry vege before (4 types of ingredients, 2 being seafood) and the cost came up to about $5+, which is reasonable given that they actually give quite a few prawns, a row of squid, a whole potato, and a ladle full of the curry vege.

If you are worried about spiciness, their dishes are actually not very spicy so it's suitable for everybody at various tolerance levels. But if you want your food to be extra spicy, feel free to help yourselves to their delicious sambal chilli and lime chilli. I usually add alot of it to mix in with my rice despite the spiciness because it's too good to miss.

I have even placed orders from them before, to cater food for a function for 20-30 people, and their food turned out more popular than food from an actual catering company - all their containers were cleaned of food, not even a drop of curry was spared.

Also, you'll be surprised that during lunch times, most of their customers are not even malays who are there for the halal food, but are mostly chinese who chose to queue and eat their food because it is delicious.

For full review, please visit http://www.makeyourcaloriescount.com/2014/03/sg-hanare-unparalleled-japanese-sashimi.html

While writing this post, I could not resist referring to my calendar and realised that my reservation at Teppei Restaurant is not till June 2014, with my reservation placed on 2 January 2014. Yes, the queue is at least six months long.
While the wait for my omakase at Teppei continues, we read about the opening of their sister restaurant, Hanare. We jumped with joy when we learnt that this new offering is located conveniently in the vicinity of Tanjong Pagar, a short five minute walk from the MRT station. Unlike Teppei Restaurant, Hanare do not accept reservations and have a walk-in policy only for both their lunch and dinner seatings, at the same price.At present, there are only two options with no ala carte menu. All prices are nett and inclusive of GST and service charge. Do note that you are expected to make payment upon arrival.We opted for the buffet on this occasion and with more than 20 different types of side dishes ranging from curry beef to chicken cutlet. As part of the buffet offering was the daily special and on this instance, there were three slices of salmon and two slices of scallop sashimi.

The bara chirashi, which essentially refers to a bowl lunch special is somewhat like a bento set with a fair share of sashimi offering. One would however be limited to four different kinds of side dishes, such as tamago ("egg") or seasoned vegetables.The sashimi slices were thick and fresh. The salmon slices were highly palatable with three slices to each portion served alongside fresh salmon roe. What I particularly enjoyed was the punch of freshness from the protein and with the wasabi, it surely heightened our senses.

The generous serving of salmon roe added a layer of glutinosity in texture with its gluey-ness while the salmon roe were firm and burst with goodiness with each bite. If you are a lover of salmon roe, this will not disappoint.After finishing our sashimi, it was time to check out what the buffet has to offer! Do not expect to be wow-ed with sashimi platter or the likes as the buffet features mainly cooked food such as chicken cutlet, spring rolls, seasoned and stir-fry vegetables and more importantly their signature curry dishes!The chicken and beef pieces were located beside the rice and curry pots though there were clear signage to indicate so. For those with a heavier appetite, load up on the fragrant rice, the tender chicken and beef and shower it with some curry love for a satisfying main on its own!
Unlike the usual sweet Japanese curry that we are more used to, this was largely adjusted to the palate of local Singaporeans as it spotted a slightly spicier touch. We loved the viscosity of the curry and the heat was cleverly balanced with the appropriate level of sweetness.Quite frankly, the buffet offering was not particularly impressive, with the usual chicken karaage, edamame, udon, etc filling the trays but this spring roll caught our attention as it had a layer of ham and cheese on the inside of the fluff pastry.The interior was simply decorated with a touch of minimalism to it. We liked that everything was pretty much self-service, including free-flow of iced and hot Japanese roasted rice tea. Do not set your expectations too high prior to trying and you will leave the meal satisfied. If you are looking for free-flow sashimi sort of Japanese buffet, then this might not suit you well either.
Overall, we enjoyed the lunch though it was a quick lunch affair before rushing back to Raffles Place! I liked that it was a no-frills dining experience, reasonable prices (considering that it was nett pricing) and the lady manning the counter was friendly and approachable. Would certainly return soon to try their bara chirashi set! While they are open for lunch till 1430hrs, do note that they are also open for dinner at the same prices with the same offering till 2200hrs.Hanare is located on the first floor, therefore look out for this signage to enter the flight of stairs.

If you are staying in the West and love Vietnamese food, you can rejoice because So Pho, a humble-looking eatery serving Vietnamese food is located conveniently at the basement of JEM which is just beside Jurong East Mrt Station.

It is not common to see Vietnamese eateries around so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try out So Pho.Banh Xeo $9.80
vietnamese pancake with minced meat and seafood
I really love the Banh Xeo that I had eaten at the World Street Food Congress but So Pho's version paled in comparison. The edges were crisp and the pancake was filled with minced meat, shrimps and beansprouts. However, the batter was not as fragrant as the one I tried and it lacked that something which I can't put a word to. It was quite a disappointment.Curry Chicken Set $9.90
The curry chicken set comes with a bowl of curry chicken, rice and a sunny-side up. The curry chicken was not spicy. I would honestly prefer my chinese curry to this. The chicken meat had a consistency of slight redness and one could also tell there was discolouration around the joints. It was quite unsightly and it did not make us want to have more of it. The sunny side up was perfectly displayed. When I poked my fork into the yolk, it burst beautifully. The salad at the side was nothing worth mentioning.Pho Ga $8.80
It comes with some raw beansprouts served separately which added a crunchy texture to the bowl of noodles. I got the chicken noodle soup instead of the beef because I do not like the heavy taste of cooked beef. The soup broth was sweet and delightfully tasty. It was clear and not oily too. There were plenty of chicken meat in it too. The amount of rice noodles in it was just right, not too much nor little. This is worth a try!Rice paper rolls wrapped with prawns and lemongrass chicken $4.50
As much as I would love to, I could not appreciate the taste of it. It was really dry and bland and hard to take a second bite because the taste was not enticing at all.

I've come to a conclusion that my tastebuds are not a fan of vietnamese food, except the delicious but really oily Banh Xeo I had some time ago. If you do not like Vietnamese food, you can give this a miss.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://rachelays.blogspot.com

A burger & bar joint concept with tantalising burgers that are in the perfect serving size!
Some of you might have heard of the first outlet at Orchid Hotel, now there's a 2nd outlet which is located conveniently near Raffles Place MRT station at 64 Boat Quay! Able to cater for bigger group gatherings
We had Truffle fries, Pulled Pork burger, Prime Beef with Portobello, Prime Beef with streaky bacon, the Lamb burger, and some of the special mocktails

The Prime Beef with Portobello: The huge portobello definitely helps to make the burger really juicy! Most importantly, the beef was tender and nicely done, not tough at all! YUMS!!

Pulled Pork Burger: The combination of Marinated pork, Gruyere Cheese & Honey Mustard was simply superb~ Every mouthful was filled with so much goodness *slurps*

Prime Beef with Streaky Bacon: The sinful combination; Prime Beef, Streaky bacon & Truffle mayonnaise! Yes, it's not just normal mayonnaise~ It's infused with truffle too! Just check out the generous filling in the burger when we sliced it into half

Our votes goes to the Pulled Pork Burger and Prime Beef with streaky bacon! Absolutely satisfying and worth the calories hehe.. Happiness with cheese oozing in your mouth with every mouthful Very generous helping of the meat patty too! Definitely worth a try!!

In addition, the serving size was just right! Everyone managed to finish every single bit of their burger~ YUMS!

Check out my blog at chloewl.blogspot.com for more pictures and food reviews <3

Please go early if you want to eat this, if not you have to queue up! and the people inside eating can just take their own sweet time to finish up their food.
This is a set for 2! Which consists of meats, prawns, crab meat, fishball, vegetables, noodles........ !And you can start to BBQ it, it is different from normal steamboat as you can see from how the steamboat thing looks like. The bbq part is in the middle and by the side is the soup area. At the very start, we are given Pork Oil Meat to make the soup tasty by placing it in the middle. And you can start to BBQ your food! (:This is the Thai Teh they have, such unique colours compared to Indian Teh! Yummy, as their ices aren't those big cube but small one (:ENJOY BBQ-ING!

A thing that i doesn't like is inside the area is totally filled with the BBQ smoke. Afterawhile with the fan kept blowing plus the smoke in the air, my eyes got irritated! ):