Ricciotti is celebrating their 10th year anniversary this year, and I hear their menu is better than ever!

*Excited~*

I was there a couple of days back, to enjoy a lovely dinner, on invitation for a food tasting session.

The 10 year restaurant was opened along the lovely Riverwalk in October 2004 and they have since expanded. They provide authentic and affordable Italian gourmet food in 3 locations, namely their main branch in Riverwalk, and 2 other branches in China Square Central and The Star Vista.

I love the huge deco painting here, which was done by an Italian artist!FYI - they also have a private room available - sits up to 10! First up!

Cioppino soup, $25

One of my top recommendations in this place. The soup, stewed with mixed seafood and garlic crostini, is one seafood flavour burst in your mouth.This soup is usually cooked in homes across the south of Italy and served with bread as how they eat it in their homeland. Seafood tastes fresh and this homely dish does bring comfort to hungry tummies and is the making factor of the start of a great meal. Serves 2-3 people!

Carpaccio Di Polpo, $18

The main ingredient, octopus, is flown in from Spain! Be sure to squeeze some lemon juice on it before indulging!The citrusy taste with the octopus goes well together and stands for an interesting touch to the octopus meat. Made with sliced octopus, lemon and fennel, with little cherry tomatoes

Eggplant Parmigiana, $15

Who loves eggplant! A.K.A. Brinjal, my friends. I know I do!! Made in lasagna style, this baked delicacy is a must-try. It's a layer after layer goodness with melted cheese and served with focaccia bread. Eat them together for best results. Nizzarda Salad, $19

The concoction consists of Mesclun, fresh tuna loin, quail eggs, green beans, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, anchovies and sherry dressing. This makes for a great sharing starter, to whip up your appetite! I also loved how the quail eggs are made to perfection.

Risotto Ai Frutti Di Mare, $28

This restaurant is a seafood paradise. Its seafood ingredients all taste so good. And what more, with the Arborio rice, which gives all risottos its creamy consistency! Orecchiette Brocolli E Acciughe, $20

This dish, famous among all vegetarians, earns its stripes from the well flavoured, substantial pasta servings. Its brocolli is also very tasty, and I couldn't help but kept snacking on this easy to eat, vegan favourite!Porcini E Scamorza Pizza (9'' - $16 , 12'' - $24)

Anybody up for some cow's milk cheese pizza? Cheese lovers will like this pizza as it's topped with Porcini mushrooms, further enhancing the taste of the cheese used in this pizza delight. The crust is not very thick, and focus goes to the ingredients, which they have also added favourites like sausages and thin chicken slices. The combination of the toppings make this a fulfilling dish to have.

Al Tartufo Pizza (9'' - $20 , 12'' - $28)

Whiffs of black truffle are evident from a distance. We knew this was coming up. Made with black truffles, quail eggs (broken within the pizza) and mushrooms, this sinful but incredibly tasty pizza made it as the talk of the night.The combination of the black truffles, melted cheese and various ingredients made it very hard to resist taking 2 slices. Definitely one of my top choices here!

Grilled Seabass, $28

Here, you have your meat, your carbs and your veggies. A good way to end your night, for the healthier eaters. How do you make potatoes tasty? I have no idea how they did it. It was very addictive! The fish, topped with some interesting creation of tomato delight, provided nice touches to the already tender flesh of the seabass! The well made baby spinach salad didn't lose to its companions too. It kept the dish from being too oily and gave a nice clean finish to the meal. Pollo Alla Milanese, $22

Chicken lovers, healthy eaters, this is a dish for you. The main point of this dish is the breaded chicken, which does not taste oily, and certainly used lean parts of the chicken to create. With their lovely potatoes and tomato salad, this dish marries the tomatoes and the chicken very well when eaten together. Don't forget to squeeze the lemon juice on the chicken for the extra citrus burst!Nutella sweet pizza, $14

Listen up, Nutella lovers. No more licking your finger from the bottle. They've made it such that you can enjoy it as a pizza! Smeared with chockful of Nutella and topped with chopped hazelnuts, it's really a chocolately, lovely dessert. Look how thin the crust is! SKILL!Panna cotta, $6

If I could, I would order a second helping of this light, delectable dessert. For people who don't want their desserts too sweet, this is a great choice. The silky vanilla cream pudding wriggles as I scoop it up on a spoon and topped it with their seasonal fruit sauce! The sauce was not that sweet, but I felt it was just nice. *PLAIN DELIGHT* Tiramisu, $10

A classic italian recipe. Made with mascarpone cream, a type of Italian cheese and espresso, it provided a nice finish to the night. I loved all the food, thanks to Executive Chef Gero Dimaria, who was in charge of all the lovely delicious dishes! ... and finally, Chef Akram, the man behind the lovely tasteful pizzas. Just look at him slice up the pizza, ready for enjoyment! #happytummyWe loved our food and the pizzas! Also, thanks to OpenRice Singapore for the fun food tasting invitation!

Today, we are here at the Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant (百龄麦旋转酒楼). It has been a super long time since I've been back here.

I remember clearly how much I liked the food here when I was much younger - I think it must have been about slightly over 10 years since I've come here again.Signs to turn into the restaurant's carpark, for cars driving towards Vivocity.Valet parking for all cars upon entry. Take the lift to the 9th floor.Poster in the lift! They are the only revolving restaurant in the world, situated on top of wheat silos.Once the lift doors open, you'll see framed medals of their Manager and Executive Chef, Mr Chan Sung Og.

Escalator brings to you up to the restaurant.

As I go up the escalator, this is the sight I saw outside the window.

Go right up this stairs to reach the restaurant.We were seated here, where we saw vivocity! But in a bit, that'll change as the restaurant practically keeps turning.

I ate alot today! Let's see... first up: appetisers + century egg porridge with fried crackers!I felt the pickled vegetables had a strong taste and the peanuts were too dry.

Porridge was so-so and the crackers were already going soft (lao-hong). What I liked about the porridge was that it contained alot of shredded meat.Here's the char-siew sou, aka the Barbequed pork puffs. They added pork floss on top of the puffs so it had added flavor to it. This dish was well done and if you come here, I will recommend you to try this.Here's the inside of the puff. I would order it again when I'm back.

Marinated chicken feet or Feng Zhao. I love this dish, but not here. This dish was done quite dry and I'm not used to eating Feng zhao so dry. The sauce, however, was very good, but I still felt it was too little.Xiao long bao aka soup dumplings. Well, I don't recommend you try this as there's super little soup in it. By the time it was served to us, it wasn't piping hot already and I felt it's wrong to serve xiao long baos when they start turning cold. The skin of the dumpling I ate already became dry and hard. Steamed spareribs with yam cake. This was a palatable dish as they were generous with the meat and the steamed flavour of the yam infused quite well with the meat. Definitely recommended.Another of my favourites - Deep fried prawn fritters, or Ming Xia Jiao. Very nicely done in this restaurant, and the prawns tasted fresh.Another one I tried is the fried banana prawn fritter. I loved it as they were generous with their fillings. Prawn was fresh as well.And how can we forget to order the usuals - Char Siew Pau (Barbequed pork bun), pan fried carrot cake (lor bak ko) and Prawn Siew Mai?

While the char siew pau and the prawn siew mai were good, I didn't enjoy the carrot cake as much, it was too hard and also served when it was turning cold.Char Siew Pau (Barbequed pork bun)Prawn Siew MaiPan fried carrot cake

We also shared this noodle, sorry I wasn't able to get the name but it was good! Very well done.For the grand finale, we had their authentic peking duck! ($65).Thin egg crepe, sweet sauce, cucumber and spring onionsThe peking duck skin - VERY CRIPSY AND NICE.

How to eat:1. Lay the thin egg crepe open.2. Drip about 1 teaspoon or slightly more only the egg crepe.3. Spread evenly.4. Put in the cucumber.5. Put in the lovely skin.6. Set it nicely.7. Fold it.8. Ready to eat!

This dish is a must order as it is their signature dishes. The rest of the duck meat is served to you, fresh! The meat is tender and a joy to eat.To lighten our palates, we ended off with a nice Osmanthus cake dessert (Gui Hua Gao). A jelly like, cake shaped Osmanthus cake with wolfberries. Directions (as on their website)Map taken from PFS website.

Business Hours

Lunch:11.00am – 2.30pm (Mon – Sat)10.30am – 2.30pm (Sun & PH)

Dinner:6.30pm – 10.30pm (Mon – Sun & PH)

Location

201 Keppel Road Singapore 099419Tel: (65) 6272 8822/ 8988

My Ratings (the higher the score, the better it is!)

Food: 3.2 / 5

Ambience: 4 / 5

Bang for your buck (Value): 3 / 5

Service: 4 / 5

Average scoring via my F.A.B.S rating: 3.55 / 5 (Check it out!)

I went to Paradise Dynasty (Legend of the Xiao Long Bao) with my friends earlier sometime last week to try out the restaurant's signature 8 flavoured soup dumplings!

The restaurant is part of the Paradise Dynasty Group. I am a fan of their food! So here I am at the Vivocity Branch!The restaurant is HUGE. You don't have to worry about the space here. I came here during lunch early, and it almost seemed like we had the whole place to ourselves. So we chose the seat which is nearest to the glass tall window, which offers us the view of the opposite Sentosa.

There is only Pu-er tea here, so that's what we had.

The lady waitress handed us the menu, and we ordered the signature 8 flavor dumplings ($14.80) at once!8 flavoured soup dumplings

The soup dumplings were served in multi-colours, namely: White, Green, Light Brown, Black, Yellow, Orange, Grey and Pink. (WHAT?!, you ask.)

Take note, what's interesting is, there's an order to eating these things!

Remember the colours I mentioned above? I have already put them in its eating order.

The flavours:

White: Original Soup Dumpling flavour (Start with this one)

Green: Ginseng

Light Brown: Foie Gras

Black: Black Truffle

Yellow: Cheesy

Orange: Crab Roe

Grey: Garlic

Pink: Szechuan (End with this!)

Apparently, eating it in order enhances the overall taste and will best bring out each of the 8 distinct flavours! To me, the ones which stood out to me the most were the original flavour, the foie gras and the black truffle. The rest had a good taste overall (I totally wasted the Ginseng one because mine broke!!!!!) but did not stand out like the 3 flavours I just mentioned.

The 3 flavours were rich in its soupy formula and nice to taste. If I had to pick my favourite, it would be the Black truffle Xiao Long Bao. My least favourite, however, was the Szechuan (pink) one. I would have appreciated it further if it was more flavourful, rather, it was very mild and not exciting enough.

We also ordered other dishes:La Mian with Pork Slices and Signature Pork Bone Soup

The La Mian with Sliced Pork in Signature Pork Bone soup ($9.80) was very good in totality. The noodles were of the right consistency, the pork tasted just right (with the right amount of fat), the egg was slightly wobbly in texture but firm.Ta-dah! Ready to enjoy!

The soup base - OH LA LA - I must say. It was delicious yet did not feel overpowering, like some bone soups can be. It did not taste like it was made up of MSG. I understand from the menu that the this soup has been simmered under slow fire for 12 hours (SERIOUSLY!). I would rate this dish 4 golden stars. hahaha. It fits my requirements for a good lunch, you know. The portion is good for 2 people to enjoy, if you're also ordering the soup dumplings - which is a must-have since you're in a restaurant which specialises in soup dumplings right!Crisp-Fried Whitebait with Salt and Pepper

Crisp-Fried Whitebait with Salt and Pepper ($9.80) was well done. I loved the slight taste of salt as I munch down these crispy things. No taste of pepper, but this makes for a very good snack. Unfortunately, I felt that it was quite expensive for such a small plate. The size is not exactly worth its price.Shanghai Fried Rice

The Shanghai fried rice ($10.80) is nice, it is not too oily and not too dry. Ingredients also tasted fresh and succulent (prawn bits).Cold tofu with Century Egg

What do you get when you put cold tofu and century egg together? One of my favourite dishes! This dish was appetizing and a tad salty. But the good kind, if you know what I mean. Century egg is something you enjoy if you love it, and if you don't love it, you'll probably never enjoy it no matter how they make it. Thank goodness, I love it! Such a boring name and a literal translation at that - Cold tofu with Century Egg ($6.80), pretty much explains it all.

Dessert Time! How can we miss this out?Souffle Egg White Balls Stuffed with Red Bean and BananaPan fried Pastry Red Bean Pancake

We shared the Souffle Egg White Balls Stuffed with Red Bean and Banana (3 pcs for $4.80) and the Pan fried Pastry Red Bean Pancake ($6.50).

I can't say I love the dessert, because I'm not exactly a red bean and banana person. But I have to say that they have made this traditional dessert very well and I enjoyed eating it regardless. I also like that for the red bean pancake, the outer skin tastes like puff pastry. It was interesting to eat and it's something I would recommend to my friends to check out.

In summary, I feel that the food here is still a tad expensive, but really worth a try! But for the budget conscious, I would really just order the noodle soup and the 8 coloured soup dumplings, because these 2 dishes have left the most impact on me during this visit.

Location: 1 Harbourfront Walk, #03-08A, Singapore 098585

Rating: 4 / 5

ARGH! I have not been blogging lately as my computer had died on me. Found out that it was due to a RAM problem. It's settled now! WHEEE! Praise the Lord!

So here I am, at Pu Tien Restaurant (莆田菜馆) as a form of celebration. Hurhur.Such a dark photo of me taken by Melissa.Melissa was already unhappy, waiting for Doreen's arrival for so long. haha.

While waiting, we were served with side dishes - Fried seaweed slices with peanuts, some sour radish appetizer.The fried seaweed slices and peanuts were very shiok ! (Very nice!) And without trying the sliced white pickled radish, we told them to change it to the seaweed and peanuts for us because we just couldn't get enough of it.Less than 10 minutes of ordering our food, it all got served up pretty quickly! AT ONCE! And yet we were thinking that we could wait for Doreen first. But anyway, it looked too good to be waiting for her, so we started munching away first. LOL.Melissa said the Putien Lor Mee ($8.90) here was good, so we ordered the small version of it. It tasted alright, but I felt it could have been a little more flavourful. I did like how there were tons of ingredients inside, like mushrooms, vegetables, fried fish, etc.

It's also good to have it with their signature Putien chilli sauce!100% Natural and Fresh! NAISE.It really tasted good! So please go ahead and try this if you do patronise the restaurant.My super favourite vegetable dish - Spinach with Eggs ($12.90 for small). The gravy is of a good consistency and has a tinted flavour of the salted eggs. The vegetables were cooked just nice. Everything about it made it a dish with flying colours.Here's one of my favourite dishes - Sweet and Sour Pork with Lychee ($12.50 for small). This has to be one of my favourite dishes in Putien. We also had stir-fried yam ($11.90 for small). It was good, but it tasted like a calorie buster as it tasted like it was coated with a fresh film of caramel.

Lastly, we ordered the shredded meat with bun ($11.70 for 3 pax portion), also another signature of the restaurant. We were served with this triangular plastic bags, and upon opening them...They were gloves! So considerate, they even provided gloves so you won't dirty your hands eating the dish.So... take some of this shredded meat...Put it into the centre portion of the golden deep fried sesame topping bun...TA-DAH! Ready to eat!

I would also like to add that I like the service of the wait staff. They were professional and friendly, despite having a full house of customers.

Location:

Putien Restaurant

4 Tampines Central 5, #B1-27, Singapore 529510 (Tampines Mall)

Tel: (+65) 6781 2162

My Ratings (the higher the score, the better it is!)

Food: 3.8 / 5

Ambience: 3.8 / 5

Bang for your buck (Value): 3.8 / 5

Service: 4.2 / 5

Average scoring via my F.A.B.S rating: 3.9 / 5 (Check it out!)

Today, we are at Strictly Pancakes. We went about 10am in the morning, and there were already many people at the joint. Shophouse-styled, the joint has 2 levels. We went upstairs and because all the normal height-ed tables were already taken up, we were left with no choice but to take the sofa chair ones. The table was lower than usual but I guess we could all make do.We are at Strictly Pancakes!

The decor of the place was nice, with some natural sunlight shining in from the top where I sat.Nicely decorated wall.The clocks on the wall told the difference between Prinsep and Siglap. Apparently there's a minute difference.Nicely lighted area.

We were given the menu and was super excited as we saw that there were sweet and savory items in the menu. One of the savory items was garlic prawns and pancakes. My friend was looking forward to ordering that but when we were ready to order, the waitress said they do not sell anything else than the breakfast items (Say what??). We chose the breakfast items and wanted to order drinks. My friend had the milkshakes before and said it was very good. So we wanted to order vanilla milkshake and they shared that they don't sell any vanilla based items, only chocolate based ones (HUH?!). We also asked for more butter, but it was chargeable at $0.50 a cube, extra maple syrup also costed $1 extra (SERIOUSLY?). But anyway, I ended up ordering just Earl Grey. =__=Order only from here, please!

That put us off slightly. Well, I'm not sure if it's just the location, but as I know it, this is the main store! So why the lack of items, I cannot comprehend. And the cost of the available menu is so costly, you might think that the condiments should already be accounted for. Even the additional ones. Anyway, as long as they have the pancakes, we're staying to try it!Only this page is order-friendly in the entire menu.

Apparently, each order of pancake only comes with strictly 1 cube of butter and a small tube of maple syrup. (Now I know why they're called Strictly pancakes!)

We ordered all their 4 types of butter - Salted, unsalted, Rum + Raisin, Garlic + Herb. My favourite was the salted butter and Garlic + Herb.The butter and maple syrup servings.Rum + Raisin butter.

But apart from the hullabaloo of the huge lack of items and the costly butter , the breakfast served was good. Pancakes, their signature item, was done to almost perfection. Pancakes were fluffy and not flat, it was soft it almost melted in my mouth.The All American Breakfast

On the sides, they had quail egg with tomato, bacon and a chipolata. It was a really nice combi, but for me, I have such a huge appetite for breakfast, so I added scrambled eggs. Look at how liquid-y those scrambled eggs are. It's my style. Also because the quail egg is so small. (What's breakfast without the real taste of eggs?)

My friends had the simpler version though, just scrambled eggs and bacon.My verdict: Worth a try, but don't expect much other than the breakfast items alone.

Location: 44A Prinsep Street, Singapore 188674 (They have another branch at Upper East Coast)Tel: 6333 4202

Rating: 3.5 / 5 (They would have received a higher rating from me if there were more choices to choose from!)