See my full reviews & photos at = http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/babette-restaurant-bar-jalan-besar-lavender/review/submit/
daughter bought dinner @ babette on 18.9.2015 to celebrate an important occasion for her. ^^
ambience was quite cool i guess, though a much lower level of decor c/w say foc. the table & chairs were like canteen sitting.
service was really poor because of shortage of staff. we waited very long to be served even after signalling to the servers several times.
octopus tempura was poor. octopus was tough, batter was not tempura standard.
but perhaps that is to be expected. octopus are usually sous vide (eg our favourite tako kakiage at mikuni) or slow braised & grilled. octopus done by this preparation will almost certainly be tough.
cauliflower was ok i guess but non-descript.
passable i guess.
this barachirashi don must go down as the worst ever!
yes!! the worst barachirashi don in Singapore! they have pickled carrots & radish mixed in the barachirashi don??? made the don overly sour unlike a sweet vinegared don. never had such preparation before.
even the photos may look quite pretty, but in terms of taste, this would be 1 if sumiya’s is 7 & sun with moon@wheelock’s is 8.
the chilli crab linguine was also the worst i ever had.
chilli crab sauce was overly sweet. crabmeat had not much taste probably the very cheap frozen stuff.
it’s the standard of any fast food or cheap pasta joints.
the duck confit was very good though. may not be better than saveur or concettobut it had good crispy skin & the meat was very flavourful & not very sinewy.the don was not much taste also, but at least the duck confit was a saving grace. it was very expansive though at S$28 c/w saveur & concetto!
afterall, duck confit at saveur & concetto were just S$13.90! ie 1/2 the price!
the steak & foie gras don was the best of the lot!
the steak was very good.
think the steak was an average cut so the preparation was really quite good to give it nice bbq flavours & not tough texture.
chicken wings was surprisingly good. better than what my helper makes, which is a very good chicken wing. we added the order at the end & it took forever (like another 20mins) to arrive.
we had a bad experience though.
restuarant did not honour the chope’s black & white offer of a complimentary macha cake for every S$50 spent!
we spent S$257 & got only 1 complimentary macha lava cake! :-(
i asked for just a second macha lava cake (afterall we spent 5x the every S$50) but the restuarant refused. i guess the management & staff are not properly schooled in service recovery.
i did not like the macha lava cake either. macha was very sweet & very strange combination of flavours unlike the macha parfait kind of flavours which i like (say) at sun with moon. one good thing though was that my youngest daughter liked it. just as well we only had 1 complimentary cake.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/08/14/below-par-toa-payoh-lor-7-teochew-fishball-noodles-food-republic-at-lido-on-12aug2015/
went with friends to watch fantastic 4 at lido at 12.30pm on 12.8.2015. ^^

after the show went down to food republic in the basement for a bite. the last time i had the beef noodles at brisket king 牛腩大王 here.

this time i decided to try the fishball noodles stall, toa payoh lor 7 teochew fishball noodles. i

took the S$5 meepok tar. it came with 5 fishballs. fishballs were bouncy, sweet, easy to the bite. fishballs were as good as xin lu (新路) teochew fish ball noodles (formerly from margaret drive) at mei chin road food centre.

the noodles though were a let down. they were not QQ! there were a bit more sauce & colour c/w the one at xin lu (新路) teochew fish ball noodles. the look & colour was more like the one at food opera at ion orchard, which i also thought was poor.

and of course it was S$5, c/w with S$3 at xin lu.

anyway it a very average stall and not one i will pick.

ee my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/04/10/hong-wen-mutton-soup/
drop by at hong wen mutton soup at bukit timah food centre on the way to meet a friend on 10.4.2015.

apparently the stall previously from beauty world centre has been around for decades. closing time was 2.30pm & i was there nearer 3pm, anyway the owner served me the last bowl before shuttering the stall.

it should be good, unfortunately it was the worst mutton soup i had tried. will never come back again!

the soup was tasteless except for slight unnatural sweetness of herbs. usually this is balanced by the savoury & robust flavours of the mutton so the soup should be smooth, herbal & very tasty & intense, everything that this was not.

i asked for mutton & stomach. the mutton was soft. there were few for S$5, and basically tasteless even with the chilli.

currently for the chinese mutton soup i have tried, chai chuan tou chinese mutton soup 柴船头羊肉汤 is head & shoulders above the rest.

the 2 stalls at whampoa, yu ji (宇记) chinese herbal mutton soup (羊肉汤) & Herbal Mutton Soup @ Stall #01-75 Whampoa Drive Food Centre were both good.

the stall hougang jing jia mutton soup at old airport road was until today the poorest of the lot. but still better than this one!

I went with sis & b-i-l to lim joo hin teochew porridge at bukit ho swee for lunch on 16.1.2015. :-)

I had not been here like forever, maybe 10 years? reason is I always feel that teochew porridge is ultra expensive for nothing food.

Well, today was no exception, just a confirmation, so in a sense i was not overly disappointed since already expecting it to be so! strange psychology!
The place was bright & clean. not crowded yet at 12pm. The servers were rude in terms of mannerisms & unhelpful as I felt they were ignoring me.

The mullet 乌鱼 was still moist so soft. this not the usual teochew style, her bun 鱼饭 or teochew chilled cooked fish should be cold & dry. meat was sweet & nice dipped in taojeo (bean paste), overall just average. unlike cold crab, we can do this easily at home ourselves.

The braised duck was ok average. my own braised duck though is a lot better, more “pang” i.e. tasty.

The “kor” her -this method of braising fish is rarely seen nowadays. the fish tasted like sardine (likely was) which was very different fish from the ones my grandma made 50yrs ago. the dish was just slight sour due to the sour dried veg, i think, which made it very appetising.

The vegetables were nice, especially the leek & “chiu kuay”, a gourd (my sis added 2 veg dishes later – “heng chye” spinach & “chiu kuay”). 3pax lunch cost S$47.40 for eating almost nothing. I am never coming back – well, maybe another 10yrs! ^^

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/01/17/expensive-mediocre-teochew-porridge-lim-joo-hin-eating-house-on-16jan2015/

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2014/11/20/mediocre-bakchormee-seng-kee-胜记-serangoon-garden-food-centre-on-19nov2014/
we went to serangoon gardens food centre on 19.11.2014.

there were 3 bakchomee stalls, but i managed to confirm with my friends on whatsapp that it was seng kee (胜记) bakchormee. this the stall that moved here from changi road (as mentioned by previous reviewers) where the guy used to clank his wares (no longer since he moved here).
actually the many whatsapp messages & feedback were quite negative, especially regards the S$9 fish maw soup (very watery & diluted), but since we had not tried before, we decided to go for bakchormee rather than other food. 

there was no queue at 12pm on a wednesday & i was able to pick up my 2 bowls of S$4 bakchormee immediately (i was not going to take the S$9 fish maw soup after those feedback). after me though there was a queue of about 4 to 5, and the only one of the 3 stalls to have a queue.

that should have been promising, however the results were very disappointing. i would say the bakchormee was totally mediocre, can probably get same or better from any coffeeshop or hawker centre.

for us, the main failure was the chilli. i went to ask for more chilli. chilli looked potent but it had no taste no kick. my wife’s mee kia (thin noodles) was still qq, my meepok was becoming soggy.

the ingredients were quite good, with teepor (dried flatfish/sole) & her kilo (fish dumplings), mushroom sauce, liver, lean meat etc.

the soup also looked promising, but the taste was again disappointing, whereas the soup at 6th avenue jalan tua kong meepok tar was so tasty.

anyway, the whole experience was just “no shiok”. no comparison with 6th avenue jalan tua kong meepok tar or for that matter sunny fishball noodles also at 6th avenue, jalan tua kong lau lim meepok tar in bedok, tai hwa bakchormee at crawford lane, ming fa upper thomson etc.

my friends told me on whatsapp later that the duck rice & 猪杂汤 is good here. will try them next time.