See my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/04/27/excellent-5pax-birthday-lunch-red-house-on-26apr2016/
a friend bought lunch at red house princep street on 26.4.2016.
i have never been to red house for the longest time.
they are having a 40% off dimsum promotion till 31.12.2016!
food was surprisingly good leh! ^^
the spinach mushroom dumpling looked alluring & tasted really good. very nice mushroom flavours, and so refine.:-)
the simple har gao虾饺 also looked so refine, and tasted wonderful too.:-)
fu pei quin 腐皮卷 not overly oily, very crispy & good fresh prawn fillings, a very well done dish.:-)
friend ordered the steamed bamboo clams 圣子. dish was ok. this a bit small c/w say ah yat or jumbo or long beach, quite similar size to the recent ones we had at tunglok signature orchard parade, but tunglok’s minced garlic oil & tanhoon a lot tastier than this.
the lemongrass chilli lobster 香茅辣椒龙虾 was excellent! ^^
usually it is a waste to add chilli to a fresh & expensive lobster.
this one though was done very well. the chilli was very tasty, i thought a bit thai style.
lobster very good, the chilli did not overwhelm the sweetness of the lobster meat. enhanced it la…:-)
friend also ordered 1/2 fragrant crispy duck 香酥鸭.
this was deep-fried & could taste the fragrance of the spices. they usually served it with some crepe so the server proceeded to destroy (tear up) the duck. we didn’t want the crepe. friend’s wife commented the presentation was not good. in shanghai/jiangsu they would cut the duck in slices & nicer presentation.
also the duck was a bit dry inside, not such a good preparation.
the spinach tofu was excellent, very tasty very well done.
i first had this 三层楼 at tunglok group maybe >20years ago. this one though tasted better than tunglok.
sambal kang kong was good, more than competent.
the seafood hor fun 杂锦河粉 was very good too. very nice wok hae (wok fragrance!)
the dimsum dishes were quite refine & the main courses were also top draw.
overall it was an excellent lunch, much better than i expected from a seafood restaurant like red house (there are so many similar places like jumbo, long beach, no sign board etc).
the dessert were ok but did not really stand out.
i enjoyed my lemongrass jelly with sorbet.
the 杨枝甘露 looked average.the orh nee 芋泥 didn’t looked right. maybe taste was ok?
lunch came to S$311 for 5pax, about S$62pax.
quite high for lunch. still i think a great place for a great lunch or dinner with good friends. must look a bit at the dishes to order, but i surely coming back again la!:-)

See my full review & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/04/26/nice-coffee-pastry-breakfast-place-tiong-bahru-bakery-on-22mar2016/
a RI friend organised a & coffee at tiong bahru bakery on 22.3.2016. ^^
i say – this tiong bahru bakery really crowded!
must say that the plain croissant is one of the best i had.
flaky outside soft inside & nice buttery flavour.
not so hot on the almond croissant.
there were some promotion …i think its about S$2.50 each.
and the coffee is good here!
pastry stuff not top of my list, but i quite happy to have a nice cuppa & chat with good friends. ambience wise it is no better than any of the good coffee places.

See my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/04/26/enjoyable-curry-rice-loos-hainanese-curry-rice-on-22mar2016/
went for early lunch at loo’s hainanese curry rice on 22.3.2016. we had 8pax.
the loo’s curry rice was quite simple food, dishes a bit limited, but still quite enjoyable.
the curry was especially shiok!
not that it was better than the fish head curry or lemak chicken curry. it’s slightly powdery, but overall just very shiok combine with the rice & pork chop.
pork chop was good.
not a particularly interesting dish for me. still thinking whether i want to try cooking this. deep-fry is always a bit troublesome & i try to avoid.
curry sotong was good. large sotong, nice think ones. nothing special i guess.
meat balls were ok.
the egg plant was good. nice colour & great taste.
chap chai was quite standard.
5dishes S$55 for 8pax.
simple food, limited selection, no really special dishes except curry.
but they all combined to give a really enjoyable meal.

See my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/04/24/interesting-jap-vegetarian-teng-bespoke-on-21apr2016/

niece bought dinner this evening on 21.4.2016. ^^
the radish salad was a great start. it was refreshing & good for 7pax. the goma (sesame) sauce was light & quite perfect. radish was crunchy.
didn’t think much of the black sesame yu tofu.
king mushrooms was one of the recommended dish. it was pretty good.
nice mushroom taste, good texture & great condiments.
niece ordered a nabe dish. there were like 5 or maybe 6 dumplings. pretty ok too.
soup was plain, good taste.
wife ordered a tomato spring roll. i like this wonderful dish, crispy skin, very tasty spring roll, simply excellent!
niece ordered a mushroom tempura. it was very good too, not like the usual tempura at all, more like a korokke (croquette).
it was nice…i loved the cheese!
the avogado maki was ok, pretty good actually. still i like the usual maki a whole lot better, so in the sense just like mock sashimi, i would rather have the real thing la…:-)
it was a very enjoyable get together.
dinner was S$110 for 7pax.

See my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/04/18/great-3pax-family-dinner-xin-cuisine-on-17apr2016/
had an excellent 3pax family dinner with wife & daughter at xin cuisine yesterday on 17.3.2016. ^^
restaurant is as usual quiet (7pm on a sunday).
there were actually more customers/tables this evening.
we were here last in oct2015. as you can see all the food item prices had gone up!
we had 1 order of lie tong 例汤.
at S$12 it’s a very small serving & expensive for a lie tong 例汤.
c/w 1/2 pot (3 to 4 bowls) at tunglok signature orchard parade for S$16.
the lie tong 例汤 was very good, very savoury & tasty with pork & vegetable stock, but of course, so is tunglok’s lie tong 例汤, just as tasty.
the tea smoked duck is very good here. price has gone up i guess recently from S$28 to S$32 for 1/2 duck.
it is different because of the excellent lingering tea flavour, say c/w the very good duck at canton paradise.
the roast london duck at tunglok though is very good, basically a different more fatty Irish duck.
i like both can’t decide which is better!
and the steamed vegetable 蒸梅菜，茄子，娃娃菜 is very good here, love it! absolutely! the sweet mei cai’s flavours very shoik la!
the lobster noodles (S$25 instead of S$22 previously) looked a bit mushy. it was, but just a bit. taste was good. lobster was just lobster, competent.
the big prawn crispy noodles likewise. crispy part still crispy, other part just a bit soft.
taste wise it was great!
the few times we took dessert.
the guilinggao 龟苓膏 was excellent here.
such nice, strong flavours…don’t get it in HK even sometimes…
the aloe vera jelly was more ordinary. nice dessert not great.
for 3pax, we had 35% discounts using the amex palate card, all-in S$101, pretty ok la.:-)
if it were 2pax would have been like S$80.
really quite good for these food at a good restaurant!