At 7 plus in marina square, manhattan had one of the shorter queues around so we decided to eat there. There was a promotion going for their platters – 2 for the price of 1. The choices were either small flame or small grill, so we had both.

Small flame is fish, rice and prawns that were cooked infront of u using a small fire. Small grill is almost the same: fish, rice, prawns (but the prawns weren’t cooked infront of us) and squid. I preferred the small grill because the squids had a nice smokey flavor to it, though there was a white sauce on top of the fish that did not taste too good. The small flame was more exciting than it was tasty because the prawns weren’t very fresh. But for 10+ for both platters, it was very worth it.

Yoshinoya at 313 was rather quiet when we visited it during dinner time on a weekday. There was no queue and the food was served almost instantly (i was impressed). I ordered a student meal: Beef with vegetables bowl. The vegetables were a little undercooked thus they tasted raw and blend, and i was disappointed with the miserable amount of sauce in the beef bowl compared to the previous time i patronised yoshinoya. The meal came with a bowl of miso soup as well.

I recently bought a birthday cake from secret recipe at Henry Park apartments. Because it was a last minute thing, we had to buy cakes off the shelf and there weren't many choices in that outlet because its a rather small and quiet place.

We settled on the Cheeze Choc ($52) cake in the end. Its made up of 3 layers: chocolate cream followed by creamy cheese layer and supported by a generous layer of digestive biscuit base. The entire cake was covered in a thin layer of chocolate. Taste wise is was very nice if you eat small portions because Secret recipe was very generous in the amount of chocolate and cheese used. However, being so dense, it cannot be consumed in larger slices because it gets too much after a while. That said, we managed to keep the cake for 6 days in the fridge without spoiling.

My only complaint was that they had only 1 size of cake and it was much too big for us to finish in the end. Perhaps Secret Recipe can consider having more sizes instead.

We were invited to a chinese new year lunch by the company at Grand Park City Hall's chinese restaurant, Park Palace. Driving is expensive, and i recommend taking the mrt instead because the hotel is just a street down from one of city hall mrt's exits. The restaurant is located near the entrance facing penisular plaza.
The first thing i noticed was the utensils. They were not cleaned and even after replacing the tea-cup twice I can still find stains on it. Decided not to use it after that. The food was average and serving time was slightly slow. Perhaps due to the fact that I was at a "free" lunch, the dishes were of lower quality and taste. the soup tasted un-spectacular and felt as if it was cornstarch and water. The prawn was not bad but a little too salty for my palate. The fish was good though and quite large.

On the whole, the restaurant was of average quality but the service standards needs beefing up.

Ah Chew desserts is located at Liang street near bugis mrt station. Despite residing opposite another similar dessert store, ji de chi, both outlets still enjoy good business, regardless of whether it's a weekday or weekend. Nevertheless, customer turnover is high and most of the time you wouldn't have to wait too long for a seat.

This time I tried the Beancurd with ginger which comes in a bamboo pot, eaten with a wooden spoon. I liked the ginger flavoured Beancurd, however, my companions found it to be an acquired taste. Other dishes we sampled were the mango ice - refreshing but a little too sweet, and the sesame paste - too watery for my liking.