Platypus Kitchen (Bugis) offers this extensive range of pastas, including their signature squid ink pasta, and an extensive selection of pastas with truffle. A group of us decided to give this place a try. Located at the corner of the third floor many of you will find that you have trouble looking for this place.

They offer set meals ranging from $16.90, $17.80 to $19.90, depending on the pasta choice. This comes with a choice of pumpkin/mushroom soup or a salad, and a wide range of drinks. Their drinks include lychee peach tea, mojito tea, pomegrenate tea -SUPER INTERESTING! Drinks are also upgradeable to their Sol beer and their fruit based alcohol beers.The interior is really big, but its a huge pity they are terribly understaffed. The staff also took ages to take our order, serve them, refill our water glasses and generally attend to any orders. I wouldn't blame them, they had to serve this entire space with only 3-4 staff, including the service staff behind the counter... dreadful.I ordered a Sundried Pesto Chicken pasta, which was honestly quite good comparing to the other pasta dishes I tried. My set cost $16.90, with no additional addons. The pasta, in my opinion, was a bit too salty, but other than that, it was really full of flavour. I could taste the sundried tomatoes, and the chicken was cooked til it was tender. One of the better pastas of the lot, we recommend you choose this! (Unless you like truffles, because then you'd want to try their truffle tagiatelle and their other pastas with truffle)(sorry for the blur picture). This is the Angry Chicken -amused at the name, my friend ordered this hoping to be pleasantly surprised. When it was served though, the pasta had grown all sticky and clumped together in a starchy mass. The chicken was spicy (I guess that's why it's called Angry? haha) and other than the general saltiness, there wasn't much to speak about this dish.The wild mushroom risotto had a grain that tasted more like chinese rice than anything. Unlike most risottos, the texture of this one seemed more like gluey porridge. The grain hadn't really 'come together' to form a mushy risotto, the grain can still be separated from the gluey sauce it was in that held the grains together. Other than the texture, the risotto had a nice flavour -very, very strong on mushrooms. I was glad they didnt use truffle oil in this -it would have been too strong. That's how aromatic the mushrooms were.The side salad -assorted greens in a presumably Italian dressing. We suspected that the oil to balsamic vinegar ratio had been reversed because it seemed to have more oil than flavour, which didn't seem quite right. The vegetables, as a result, just tasted raw and oily. No real flavour except for the bitter leaves.Also trying their squid ink pasta ($17.80), I was honestly a bit surprised. The pasta wasn't cooked in squid ink -instead, the ink had been incorporated into the pasta ITSELF. The pasta was tossed, aglio olio style, with something I couldn't quite put my finger on. It had a slightly earthy flavour that was strangely sour/tangy(?). A bit odd because we were used to squid ink sauces. I suppose the tangy flavour was appetising, but my friend didn't really like it. To her, it felt more like a pasta salad.The mushroom soup was lumpy and worse, lukewarm. Way too salty -you're better off having the salad!

Waiting time was ridiculously long though, the mains took up to 1 hour to 1.5 hours to be served. The sides took on the average 30-40minutes. The adjacent tables also went uncleared for a good 45minutes before the staff hurriedly came over and brought in the glasses that had been left sitting.

Try platypus kitchen only if you're in a pair, or a maximum of 3-4 pax! The service is much, much faster. Although we were slightly disappointed by the quality of the pasta (especially after hearing so much about this place), it could have been because they were severely shorthanded, and they had to churn out 10 plates of pasta to be served at one shot. (Oh yes, they serve the orders for the table all at one go so no one has to wait for others' dishes to arrive before digging in!! )

We recommend the Sundried Pesto Chicken, and if you aren't very picky with your risotto, the Wild Mushroom Risotto is decent. If you're completely picky with textures and preparation techniques, don't bother with their "dry" tossed pastas without sauces, and steer clear of the risotto -I wouldn't exactly call it the most authentic of the lot. If you like your food salty, you'll probably enjoy the dishes much more than I did

Price wise, it's a good deal, but that depends on your experience here.

Singapore has its fair share of the 'dimsum morning crowd', people who get up early to savour some good old Cantonese delights to start their day. We were going to try Ju Chun Yuan for their dim sum buffet but decided on somewhere 'flipflop friendly' for a lazy Sunday morning. Ho Kee was our first instinct -and there's one conveniently located at Maxwell. I guess one of the reasons why we chose Maxwell is because we knew the CBD area would be quiet on Sundays = more dim sum for us The stall spans over 3 units, and sells congee, chee cheong fun (but they ran out by the time we'd arrived ) and the usual works like pau, har gow, siew mai, feng zhao (chicken feet) and other dumplings.We bought 4 hargow and 4 siewmai for $5.60, an egg tart ($1.20), vegetable dumpling ($1.20) and my dining companion got the chicken feet as well as a char siew soh. We were so hungry we forgot to take a photo of the second plate :/

Hargow is one of the most delicate dumplings in the dim sum family, this one really disappointed us though. The skin was too thick, and it wasn't smooth at all. It had a coarse, rice texture to it and none of the hargows had intact skins. Ugh. Nevertheless, it was served hot and the filling was ample. The siewmai was slightly better, it was of a good size and the meat tasted juicier than I'd expected. The sides were slightly sticky though. Could have been better.

The egg tart wasn't too sweet and had a slightly flaky crust. Other than that, it wasn't exceptional and you'll definitely find better egg tarts elsewhere. The vegetable dumpling was stuffed with chives or ku chye, which gave the dumplings a very distinct aroma -if you don't like chives you'd better steer clear of this dumpling! Not exactly juicy, the dumpling was mediocre at best.

My dining companion who had the chicken feet said that the flavour wasn't really there and that the skin and meat had gone all mushy. Yikes. The chicken porridge was perhaps the best dish we had eaten. It was silky smooth and really thick! For $3.80, it was a good portion and the chicken used was also fresh. The porridge is salty enough on its own and does not require an additional dash of soy sauce. We recommend that you share the porridge though, it can be quite filling to have just that one bowl by yourself. Besides, there's other dim sum to try!

Overall, the prices are great -hawker centre prices with a flip flop friendly dress code. However, we wouldn't recommend this to anyone because 1. There's nothing extraordinary to speak about the dim sum here, most of the items were mediocre at best, or barely making the cut. 2. If you really have a dim sum craving, GO TO A DIM DUM TEA HOUSE!! We're definitely going to other places like Ju Chun Yuan and Peach Garden.
If you do come here though, we say that the chicken porridge and the siew mai are our top picks!

I am and always will be in search of my ideal prata: fluffy on the inside, crisp on the outside, and most importantly? FRIED ON THE SPOT. It gets to me when cold, flourry prata is doled out, along with watery curry. *shudders. A friend told me about The Roti Prata House (which is 24hours btw, fantastic for a supper haunt!) and we tried it.The coffeeshop is quite a large place that houses a good number of large round tables for group gatherings.The menu is on a plastic sheet/board and from here it is evident that they offer a huge variety of food, ranging from prata/ thosai to mee goreng and nasi goreng. The portions for the rice and noodles are also huge for the prices that my seem expensive initially....Well, wait until the see the size!!The prata is called 'crispy prata' here and its dubbed the original crispy prata by most locals. Honestly, I must say the prata isn't really my thing. It's more crispy than fluffy and it just seems like it lacks substance after awhile. The plain prata is 90c per piece and its quite a small prata. Hmm, I would very much rather the original prata though. (Still on my quest for the perfect prata!!) The curry is definitely something to go back for. It's thick enough and packs enough flavour. Not too spicy so it can be eaten on its own -its a perfect complement to the prata. Wonderful!

Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this place to my friends but to each his own. For supper its a great place, but I don't feel that the prata is something to shout out. Im pretty sure it's just me because I like my prata the original style. Would definitely try the mee goreng, nasi goreng and maggie goreng though. Looks super!

Ginza Bairin isn't the most famous place for ramen or even noodles, for that matter. Lunchtime ensures that there is always a queue line for Ginza Bairin. The must-tries here would include their katsu sets, be it with or without curry. Be warned though, for a casual establishment with a self-service ordering counter (You order + pay, get a order chit and the food gets served to your table) the prices are pretty steep. A decent rice set with pork katsu + miso soup can be just a few dollars shy of powerhouse katsu chains like Tonkichi, bringing it to a cool $18-19.

Decided to try the ramen as I did afterall come to ION for ramen but the queues elsewhere were too disgustingly long T-T. The standard ramen is $12.90, and they have other varieties such as kurobuta black pig (? did I spell this correctly, oops) ramen.The soup stock is rich and salty, with a milky tonkotsu taste with a savouriness akin to sea salt/shoyu. There is an egg in this, with vegetables, charsiew and wood-ear. I found it slightly strange that they used bok choi in the ramen though, didn't seem very Japanese and more Chinese instead! Haha, but no matter. The noodles were springy and delicious, and it went superbly with the other contrasting textures. The egg was a bit soft for me, but the yolk was perfect - a delicious golden, orange tinge. What I found the oddest about this was the the charsiew and the egg was braised in a gravy that tasted so sweet, it tasted like dessert. It tasted like someone had accidentally knocked over a bottle of honey into the gravy. Didn't sit so well with me.

Service is mediocre, the ramen is mediocre (I admit this wouldn't be an accurate representation of Ginza Bairin as ramen isn't their forte at all.), the price is quite expensive (especially for the ambience + food). Not exactly worth it but Ill return to try the katsu sets one day!

Tip: They accept credit cards here, Amex, Master & Visa!

Far East Plaza is a stone's throw away from my workplace and I often frequent it for lunch. I've never got to try the famous 'Hainanese Delicacy' chicken rice, though. That is, until yesterday.

It's really super crowded at lunchtime but I was lucky to get a seat quickly -the service staff are actually quite friendly. Never really expected them to have good service because it's so crowded and they have so many customers to attend to. But honestly, I was quite surprised I was ushered to a corner seat, and to be honest, I felt super claustrophobia, squeezed in that tight corner. But for a quick lunch, I guess it was alright. I ordered a Roasted Chicken rice (breast meat) with a plate of beansprouts to share, for $6 in total per person.The chicken rice was surprisingly not as fragrant nor oily as I'd expected...mediocre at best. The breast meat was slightly dry, but the sauce made it quite delicious, especially when doused with their chilli, ginger and dark sauce combo. I'm very picky when I order breast meat I don't want any bone or any part of the chicken apart from the breast. They fulfilled this request quite well so no complaints here! The chilli sauce was slightly less watery than the usual chicken rice chilli, and really packed a punch. I liked the chilli The beansprouts were nothing special, in soy sauce and oil, garnished with fried shallots and spring onion. It provides contrast to the otherwise meaty dish and its crunch is very much welcome. The beansprouts weren't overcooked too. Fantastic! A quick tip though: you may want to mix it thoroughly before eating if not the top beansprouts are relatively tasteless while those at the bottom are too salty. That was my observation though.

In all, the environment isn't fantastic -generally stuffy and cramped. Food is above average but I wouldn't say it's anything particularly special. Price-wise, it's probably one of the better places to get good chicken rice without having to pay exorbitant prices ..Especially in Orchard area!