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Brussels Sprouts

I've always wanted to try Brussels Sprout as the reviews have been good for their mussels. Till today, I crave for the beautiful mussels I had in Normandy and nothing I've eaten locally comes close. So for my best friend's birthday, we got a HUGE table with too many children and ordered like crazy! I'll shared what I know:

1) Brussel Sprouts Special - birthday girl had this and she said it's too much peppercorn thus too spicy in not that good a way. The broth was just too overpowered by the peppercorns. 

2) 4 Cheese Cream Sauce - hub ordered this and he said it's ok. Not bad. 

3) Ostendaise Sauce - I had this as it's really a fancy name for lobster bisque as sauce. I ordered this personally and found the sauce slightly salty but perhaps it was needed to boost the taste of the mussels. The mussels themselves were also very juicy so good job with the control of cooking time. Only gripe is that I still find the French ones sweeter and tastier. *sigh*

4) Pink Sauce Pasta (Kids Meal) - my girls had that and couldn't finish so mummy dearest happily ate the leftovers. I thought the sauce was very nice and though there was no ingredients in the pasta, it's tasty enough to eat it on its own. 

They have a children's corner at the side of the restaurant but very few toys to play with. So the kids didn't find the corner engaging at all. But on weekends, they get a balloon guy to go from table to table to create something your kid desires from scratch! He is amazing just to watch! He blows the skinny balloons up by his breath alone - no pump! OMG!!! What lungs!?! 

Anyway, it's a good place at night but lunch was a little too hot with the glass panels as roof, they have cloth banners that try to offer some shade but Singapore sun is not funny so late afternoons and nights are recommended. Plus the kids can go onto the paths of East Coast tracks to amuse themselves while the adults chat over food. 

The kids eat for free on weekends so total cost wasn't too bad. 

It was a weekday dinner but the place is pretty full! Yet we were shown to a table rather quickly so that was great! 

1) Phad Thai - not bad though I found it a tad sweet. Dunno if my tongue was going crazy. 

2) Fish Porridge - it's essentially flavourful soup poured over rice. The combination is not bad as my kid devoured it!

3) Tom Yam Fish Vermicelli in Red Soup - my favourite choice as the spicy red soup with fish chunks goes beautifully with the Tanghoon. It's a big bowl so be hungry!

4) Olive Rice - hubby's favourite option. It's nice. 

5) Tom Yam Seafood Horfun - my help's favourite choice and it'll be yours too if you fancy wok-Hei fried horfun and Tom yam anything. It's a good combo of both. 

Thai Express is a classy fast food restaurant which decent food and reasonable pricing. Only problem I have is the amount if MSG used and I often find myself downing much water after the meal. But it's after all fast food so can't really complain. 

Sister-in-law (SIL) had a craving for their fried rice so I went down to buy for her. For ourselves, we also ordered:
1) Ginger Fish Slice with rice - the sauce turned out to be a little too sweet for my liking and a little overpowering. It's not bad, just not great lah. 

2) Beef Fried Rice - SIL said their normal fried rice is better as the beef slices were a tad too tough. Darn...

3) San Lao Horfun - the wok-Hei of this dish is very evident and very flavourful indeed!! I love this most of all the items. It's really good, so good that I'll return to the shop JUST for this dish. 

Considering the Coffeeshop is in HV, I didn't give it much credit. I assume the main clientele would be tourists or Ang-mohs so food can't be that good. Well, I was wrong. In fact, on the day I bought the food, the clientele consisted of mainly locals! Interesting!

Appetizer Combo: The mushrooms were breaded & fried well. A tad salty though. The Aussie Cheese fries were thick-cut & lovely cheese on top. The wings were supposed to be spicy but not! Crispy but rather bland.

Seafood Pasta:
Good sauce that's not runny and good body flavor. Pasta cooked till al dente too. Generous amount of ingredients. Like!

Ribeye:
Hubby is slightly 'underwhelmed' by the cut. Other than the size of it, he is not very impressed. The mash is not bad but the vegetable side dish is forgettable.

Seems like the pasta is a better deal than the steak here. So if you are looking for a good cut, unlikely you will find it here. I gave only 'OK' as its meant to be a "steakhouse" so the nice pasta shouldn't offset the fact that their steak is only average.

I've heard rave reviews about the Peranakan cuisine served here and decided to bring some friends to check the place out together.

We ordered quite a few dishes and the taste is actually all good. The only problem for me is the price of things. The dishes tho tasty, it's serving is small. Thus, we had to order a lot of items. We ordered Daisy's Ngoh Hiang ($8), Babi Buah Keluak ($10), Black-Ink Sotong ($12) and Prawn Petai ($8) to list a few...

Another downer was the price of rice. It's at $1 a bowl and it's a pretty small bowl! Not the big mound of rice given in Zichar places at all. So the 7 adults and 2 kids paid $14 just for rice! In total, we paid about $30 for a meal that my husband and I were not exactly very full from.

The owners and staff are friendly and attentive but I don't think I'll return unless it's a treat. Not quite worth it's weight in gold for me.