Buddy Hoagies is a restaurant cafe specialising in western cuisine. I did not call it a restaurant became it has a friendly and relaxed ambience which is child friendly too. Moreover, the photo frames of English oldies singers and environment gave a unique warm comfort country feel. I visited Buddy Hoagies on a weekday evening for dinner at Yishun. They have two other outlets at Bukit Timah and Downtown East.During my visit, I noticed that there were quite a number of children in the cafe. After walking around, I knew the reasons. Buddy Hoagies was a children friendly cafe! They had plastic utensils (spoon, forks, plates) for kids (not those disposable ones) and a corner filled toys for children to play. Some children even brought the toys to their tables where they could play while waiting for the food to be served. Not bad, I did not notice any children playing with ipad or any mobile devices! There was an option to upgrade the main course to a Buddy's Set Meal for $4.50 which would include soup & garlic toast, coffee/tea/ ice tea and ice cream.

We ordered a Fish and Chips and upgraded it to a Set Meal ($13.40), followed by a Western BBQ Chicken ($8.90) and Cheese Fries ($3.50). TeaCream of Mushroom & Garlic Toast

The Cream of Mushroom was average. It was too thick for my liking while the Garlic Toast was a tad too hard. Cheese Fries $3.50

The Cheese Fries $3.50 tasted quite good when it was still warm. When it cooled down, the cheese became hard and the fries at the bottom were soggy. Fish and Chips

The Fish and Chips $8.90 served with fries fared better. Though they could be more generous with their servings, both items were not overly oily. In addition, the fish was slight moist in the interior (not hard and dry). In fact, I like this fries better compared to the cheese fries. Western BBQ Chicken $8.90

The Western BBQ Chicken $8.90 was essentially grilled chicken in barbecue sauce with vegetables and baked potato. Initially, I thought that the portion was very little. But come to think of it, for the ambience and price, I really should not fault it too much as the operating cost of the F&B industry have gone up.

The chicken was nicely grilled and the interior was juicy and tender. There was a slight hint of smoky flavour. If the smoky flavour could be intensified, this would have been wonderful. There was a big chunk of butter in the baked potato. Needless to say, I took out most of the butter before they had the opportunity to melt. This main course was not bad and quite value for money. Ice Cream

The vanilla ice cream was well, simple and ordinary.

There were hits and misses at Buddy Hoagies. But generally, their main course seemed to fared better. They did quite well in creating a warm cozy ambience with a children friendly environment.

Lian He Ben Ji Claypot Rice 联合本记砂煲饭 located at a corner of Chinatown Complex Food Centre has been in operation for a long time specialising in Claypot rice. Further testimonial to the famous claypot rice. Lian He Ben Ji Claypot Rice specialises in Sausage Claypot Rice, Chicken Claypot Rice or a combination of both; Mixed Claypot Rice ranging from $5 to $20. Besides claypot rice, soup such as Watercress Pork Rib Soup, Chicken Leg Peanut Soup and Black Chicken Herbal Soup are sold. After ordering the wait game begins. If there is no queue, the minimum waiting time is 25 minutes as the rice is only cooked upon order. The claypot rice is first steamed over a gas stove at the initial cooking stage to speed up the cooking process. After that the claypot rice is transferred over to a charcoal stove. During peak hours, the waiting time can stretch to 1 hour. Regulars would normally call in advance and order so that they need not wait too long.Mixed Claypot Rice $5

I waited for my claypot rice for slightly more than an hour on a Friday evening. Customers can adjust the amount of black sauce according to their preference. The Mixed Claypot Rice $5 was served with chicken, sausages, salted fish vegetables and rice. Mixed Claypot Rice $5Mixed Claypot Rice $5

I felt that the claypot rice did not really manage to absorb the flavours from the other ingredients such as the salted fish, sausages or chicken. What I like was the fact that the chicken meat were so tender and flavourful. Overall, it was good, but not fantastic. Its not worth the wait of more than 1 hour for this.

Lian He Ben Ji Claypot Rice 联合本记砂煲饭 (Chinatown)

Blk 335 Smith Street

#02-198/199 Chinatown Complex Food Centre

Tel: 6227 2470

Opening Hours: Fri to Wed 430pm to 1030pm

Closed on Thur

View FoodieFC's Singapore Food Map in a larger map

Leong Yeow Famous Waterloo St Hainanese Chicken Rice 亮耀馳名四馬路海南鶏飯 is a famous chicken rice stall tucked away at a corner of Waterloo centre in a coffee shop. The nearest MRT station is Bras Basah (Circle Line).

During meal times, this stall nearly always garner the longest queue in the coffee shop. Steamed and Roasted Chicken Rice $5.70

As I could not decided whether to order steamed or roasted chicken, I decided to order both. Hence, my chicken rice cost $5.70.

The chicken rice was fragrant and not too oily. However, some parts of the rice were a little too dry.Steam and Roasted Chicken

Once the chicken meat are cut onto the plate, they are drizzled with soy sauce and I suspect sesame oil was added too. Steam and Roasted Chicken

The Steamed Chicken with its succulent meat was decently executed. As for the Roasted Chicken, I thought it was even better executed. The exterior of the Roasted Chicken was yummilicious. Slightly crisp yet chewy skin, it was immense with aromatic blend of seasoning and flavour. Very addictive. The fragrant and flavour penetrated into the meat. If certain part of the meat was less tough, this would have been perfect!

As with every chicken rice, the chilli sauce is a must! The chilli sauce at Leong Yeow was addictive. Very tangy and spicy. It complemented well with the chicken meat. Not for the fainted hearted, especially if you are one who can't take spicy food.

I have heard about a noodle stall in a coffeeshop at Circular road which specialises in Dry Mee Sua. This is unique to me as Fishball Noodles and Bak Chor Mee (mee pok or mee kia) nearly always take the limelight in any noodle stall, not mee sua.The stall is called Yan Kee Noodle House at BK Eating House located at the junction of South Bridge Road and Circular Road. Another factor which makes it so unique is that the stall is open 24 hours and is only closed on Sundays.When I visited on a weekday noon, the eating house was surprisingly empty. There were only a handful customers. There was also no queue at Yan Kee Noodle House.Needless to say, I ordered their Speciality Dry Mee Sua, made payment and waited for the food to be served to my table.Speciality Dry Mee Sua $3.50

The Speciality Dry Mee Sua cost $3.50.Speciality Dry Mee Sua $3.50Speciality Dry Mee Sua $3.50

The Speciality Dry Mee Sua was served with fishballs, meatballs, minced meat, lean meat, a whole mushroom, ikan bilis and pork lard. What stood out was that the mee sua which was amazingly springy, not soggy. In addition, each strand of mee sua when well mixed was well coated with the chilli and vingear sauce which is bounded to entice your taste buds. The two handmade fishballs, bigger than what you get else where also deserved a mention. They were bouncy and firm with no fishy taste. The smaller things to note which made this such a wonderful dish was the crunchy ikan bilis and pork lard which gave an additional dimension to the texture and oomph of the dish.

For just $3.50, they were so generous with the ingredients. Value for money and yummy!

http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2014/02/yan-kee-noodle-house-at-bk-eating-house.html

At 85 Fengshan Food Centre at Blk 85 Bedok North, there are so many stalls that you would likely to to ponder over what to order. This was what happened to us when we travelled to Bedok for Supper. We have heard that the Porridge was quite good, but were wondering if we should waste our calories on porridge for supper. Anyway who eats porridge for supper?! Well, I have to eat my words.. in the end, we ordered 1 bowl of porridge to share. Chai Chee Pork Porridge 菜市猪肉粥 is apparently quite a famous and popular porridge stall in the food centre. When we were there, there was a short queue, after ordering, we had to wait for around 10 minutes before our order was served to our table. They serve a variety of porridge, ranging from pork, century egg, fish to chicken porridge. Pork Porridge (猪肉粥) with Egg $3.50

This Pork Porridge (猪肉粥) cost $3. We added an egg for $0.50. The raw egg was placed at the bottom of the bowl before pipping hot porridge was poured over it. The porridge was served with minced pork and lean pork meat, and topped with you tiao and spring onions. Pork Porridge (猪肉粥) with Egg $3.50Pork Porridge (猪肉粥) with Egg $3.50

The porridge was surprisingly good. The texture of the porridge was thick and smooth. It was not grainy or watery. Moreover, kudos to the stall owners it was not salty! The decision to add an egg was the icing on the cake as it made the porridge creamier. Wonderful, comforting bowl of porridge. It was simple yet delicious! Though I wish that they were more generous with the pork meat.

http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2014/02/chai-chee-pork-porridge-85-fengshan.html