Now, if you think Orange Clove's tagline "Delivering a World of Good Taste" is just another fancy marketing tagline, you're in for a surprise. Orange Clove delivers more than just a good tagline, they deliver a good selection of taste on top of great service, all of that for an affordable price of $20 per pax. You see, whenever I attend seminars, I don't really expect much from the food but I have to say the catering done by Orange Clove is better than I expected.

The Buttered Rice with Nuts and Raisins was unique and tasty enough to be eaten on its own as the healthy raisins gave a sweet fragrance to the rice. Moms and Dads, if you have children in the house and want them to eat their rice, offer them this.

If you spotted a dish you like, be sure to go at it quick, and not be like me, who didn't get to try much of the Yakitori Chicken Skewers and Wasabi Prawns with Fruit Salad, both of which are hot favorites amongst the guests and readily whipped up in only a matter of seconds.

The Sauteed Vegetables came with mushrooms and carrots, and although it doesn't seem to be a hot favorite amongst the other guests of that night (or was it possible than they were stuffed from the other food like the Yakitori I mentioned and neglected this dish?), i enjoyed it because it was so crisp and fresh. They separated the stems and leaves which I appreciate because I don't eat stems and it was always tough just trying to tear them apart.

Also served as part of the $20 per pax is the Pan-fried Fish Fillet with Lemon Butter Emulsion, Prawn Cocktail which came nicely chilled seated on a bed of fruit salad, lots of appetizers and deserts which includes the macaroons, tarts, brownies, cream puffs and my favorite which I keep going back for more: The Mini Peppermint Shooter which was covered with Oreo Crunch.

The catering experience was made better by the provision of well-trained service staff who make sure everyone's needs were met and questions about the food were answered, as well as the silk flower arrangement and candles which gave the whole setting a more aesthetic touch.

Followers of mine would know by now that i like fuss-free quick-fix but quality solutions, so it comes as no surprise that I Love Taimei, a street stall located at the back of Bugis Street, a mere 5 mins walk from where I lived, is my choice of fast food for lazy weekend afternoons where a hungry me ventures out of the house in search for comfort without having to fuss about make-up and messy hair.

Ambiance and Service
Okay, so the stall looks dirty and polluted because it is located right next to a congested small road with cars and motorists emitting nauseating black fumes and floors laden with litter, but yet there is no shortage of people patronizing them at all. I guess that is the beauty of street stalls, they get away with lack of hygiene (at least it seems so from the outside) and compensate with the authenticity of food and affordable prices that cannot be matched anywhere else.

Staff was unfriendly but what do you expect from a street stall that has no air-con and probably pays minimum wage?

Concept was interesting in the sense that every meal was named after a Taiwanese Celebrity. There were street signs that displayed the different dishes and there's also a rewards card where you'll be entitled to a free drink after collecting certain no. of stamps. Not bad for a street stall at all. At least they understand the concept of branding.

Food
I was advised by the cashier that the BBQ Crispy Chicken is their hot item, so I decided to get that meal which comes with a side order and a drink of my choice and range from $6 to $7. I chose the tofu fries and caramel milk tea (super caramel milk is out of order for months now and i've been dying to try it and so is their chicken salad).

Let me tell you, the super caramel tea is comparable, if not better, than KOI's bubble tea (which is inconsistent in it's quality). I like how they take normal items and added a twist to it. For the crispy chicken, they added the BBQ flavor and was served in paper bags, which was a nice attempt and tasted great, but the skin was too thick and chewy, which made it difficult to eat it. In the end, I left the skin alone. For the fries, they added a tofu version, which was awesome. Crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. The seaweed flavor complements the tofu fries extremely well. For the classic bubble milk tea they gave an option of caramel flavor. Quality of milk tea is smooth, though not very thick, Pearls were well done (not too soft like how KOI's pearls can be) and generous in quantity. The whole meal was very savory (they used a lot of salt, pepper and powdery spices) but might be a tad too oily (didn't finish the chicken) and you get sick after a while.

Let's just say, it is eating at I Love Taimei is like eating at the Taiwanese version of KFC.

Now this should wake me up. Having the freaking expensive Iced Milk Tea in a typical plastic jug fashion for $3 at an open-concept Cantonese cafe called Streets located in middle of the first floor of IMM on a Monday.

That’s about the only decent item at this restaurant with dirty yellow cushion sofas, black pillars with chinese words and antique Chinese lights out of all the other dishes we had.

For starters we had the Hong Kong Fried Carrot Cake With XO Sauce (which was a chef recommendation and yet we had to take it upon ourselves to request for more XO sauce because there was barely any, and tofu was way too dry) and for the main course we had the Sliced Beef Stone Rice (a wannabe Bibimbap that destroyed the Korean dish's signature taste with the addition of green peppers and black fungus) and Chicken Salted Fish with Chinese Sausage Claypot Rice ($6.80).

Service was bearable with staff was not very well-versed with the food. You order by writing the items on a form in typical Hong Kong cafe style. Actually, now that I've come to think of it, I didn't need that Ice Milk Tea to wake me up (which I normally require for digestion because I tend to have a heavy lunch) because I didn’t finish anything (well if you don’t count the drinks). If it wasn't because of the lack of queue during office lunch hours compared to other places like Swensen's and Pepper Lunch located very near it (and now I know the reason behind why this is so), I wouldn't have checked out this place in the first. Now that I did, I'll rather go to Coffee Club which was constructed to seem like an extension of this place, but boy, does the food taste a ton better. And nope, they don't have a crazy lunch queue either.

Goodness gracious me. Just look at the insane line at KOI Cafe Bubble Tea at iluma on a Saturday at 4 p.m if you will please! I don’t know if I should say this, but the rather harmless looking stall has got to be the busiest part of Iluma! You gotta confess that the shopping mall we so speak of hasn’t exactly been bringing in the crowds despite all its arty farty publicity attempts with never-seen-before galleries, concept restaurants and stand-alone fashion boutiques.

Pictured above is their signature Bubble Green Milk Tea! I tried to figure out what the difference between their “Bubble Green Milk Tea” and “Green Milk Tea” was, but I couldn’t decipher, for the life of me, what the counter girl from China was saying.

Singaporeans have little patience, so if a brand can make their customers wait this long in the stuffy weather with no seats to ease the discomfort, it has gotta be better than good. Especially when their tea prices are above the likes of Sweet Talk and others and their staff are unfriendly, prone to mistakes and very monolingual (only Chinese please!).

Besides, that’s not all. The picture displays only half the story where people are in line for payment and ordering. Wait till you see the other part where people are standing around for another 15 mins to collect their order. Let’s do the math here shall we? 15 min + 15 mins = 30 mins! God bless my patient soul! Waiting time differs from time to time and is dependent on the efficiency and number of staff they have at any given moment.

Is this merely another craze that will soon die down? Or one that will continue for some time to come? Let me know what you think! For me, the milk tea is definitely of better quality, but I can’ say so for the pearls and I’m a pearls kinda girl. All in all, I say, it is NOT worth the wait.

I ordered the set lunch of Mushroom Cheese Chicken with mashed potato and daily veggies which comes with the mushroom soup, garlic bread, a desert and free flow of drinks all for only $7.90!

Indeed, the price was quite a steal for a restaurant (Yoshinoya, a fast food restaurant can charge $8.80 for a decent value meal!), but disappointingly, food was "blah" to say the least. Chicken was too tough, skin too oily and cheese, well, too cheesy. Mashed potatoes made me sick. I could normally finish up a portion like that, but this time I couldn't eat more than half. It was almost as if the food was bought off the supermarket and then microwaved. Or is it?

The drinks and desert were also served in cheap plastic containers. Didn't go with the image of the place at all.

Love the ambience with the large comfy chairs and red pillows, black and white tiles and large Tabasco sauce bottle, plastic trees and wooden horses as decorative pieces. There’s also a cartoon looking margarita bar for all you margarita lovers out there! Great place to chill out for families with kids.

The title sums up how I feel towards this place: Cute Ambiance but Food was "Blah".