See my full review & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/05/10/good-s13-80nett-teochew-muay-buffet-gimtim-on-9ay2016/
friend bought 3pax lunch at gimtim at amk ave 4 on 9.5.2016. ^^
this was a follow-up of our last makan at toa payoh lor 8 food centre on 30.4.2016.
i have been to 2 other gimtim group restaurants & they were pretty good-
imperial court @ grassroots club suckling pig set
tim palace @ SAFRA toa payoh ala carte semi-buffet lunch
they have a S$13.80 nett teochew muay weekdays buffet lunch.
buffet turned out better than i expected.:-)
setting & dishes were humble, but the taste was quite good.
chicken was good, tender & sauce tasty.
duck wings so so, can skip.
mui choy 梅菜 was good, not salty, nice flavour.
kiam chai咸菜 also good, not salty, & sweet.
egg plant boleh da…
chicken feet was good. friend went to get a second helping.
ter kar (pig trotters) nice gummy tecture & tasty. people took most of it i managed to get some odds & ends.
tau kee average competent.
pork & cauliflower simple, ok.
egg tofu quite well done. with wood fungus & chinese cabbage, sweet.
strange they did not have kong bak. friend only picked up pig head meat, tofu & egg. they were good.:-)
there was a refill, but only pig ears. good too.:
the i think ikan selar? was good. people took the tails so only eft heads.
i will try to cook this dish myself.
i enjoyed all these little sides – fermented beancurd, peanut ikan bilis, olive vegetable, haebeehiam & radish pickles.
all memory foods from childhood la….
had some fruit (papaya) + pulut hitam.
i don’t mind this place. can come back some time again with my sis.

see my full review & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/05/08/fabulous-mothers-day-lunch-majestic-restaurant-on-8may2016/
bought wife & family a fab 5pax mother’s day lunch at majestic today on 8.5.2016. ^^
look at the crab roe sharksfin soup (top photo), a perennial favourite of ours at majestic. it was still so good! one of the very best soup i had, so sweet & tasty.
majestic does a mother’s day ala carte buffet lunch at S$68pax++ with 15% citibank discounts.
a new item on the ala carte buffet menu was chilli lobster (used to be a NOT great chilli crab). for me, still not great la…
we came early at about 12pm. restaurant was full by 1230pm.
i did not find a recent post on majestic on my blog. perhaps i did not record.
the one i had was 3 years ago, a world gourmet summit dinner in apr2013.
for today, there was a self service station. the roasts were excellent!
roast duck was especially good. we had a few individual helpings. char siew was good. siew yoke ok not as good as the usual cube roast pork servings in these kind of good restaurants.
the lotus bun was good. we shared one among 5 of us. i took the braised duck wing. the pumpkin with 肉松was non descript for me. wife liked it though.
i wanted to try the porridge. took a tiny bit. it was good!
the braised belly pork was very flavourful. texture was tender though it didn’t look it in the large serving claypot.
from the ala carte menu, har gao was average. many dimsum places like crystal jade, imperial treasure better
the crab roe sharksfin soup was limited to one serving each. top draw stuff!
the chilli lobster was so so for me.
chilli gravy was good especially with the bun which was excellent.
lobster meat was not bouncy. did not feel like live or fresh lobster.
the thai lemongrass chilli lobster i had recently at red house was far, far better.
wasabi prawns were very good. tops!
did not look it though with too much of the green mayo. but the batter was very good, not like most places where they were thick, hard, tough. prawns were very fresh, water melon a great balance, counterpoint.
i love chilean seabass, & majestic served very good steamed ones in their regular menu.
here it was non descript.
the galbi style beef ribs were ok.
somehow it works better when served in individual small portion courses.
the sharksfin soup was limited to one order. there were like 3 or 4 other soups unlimited orders. we ordered 2 lobster crab roe broth to share.
a pretty good soup, though no comparison with the crab roe sharksfin soup.
the spinach wolfberry was good.
wife love the oyster mee sua.
it was very tasty with nice oyster flavour.
the salted egg custard buns流沙包 was very good here.
the best!
& the deepfried durian ice cream, another perennial favourite here.
i ended up eating 1.5 portion.
really enjoyable lunch & family time on mother’s day.

See my dinner review at = https://chefquak.com/2016/05/06/wonderful-7pax-birthday-dinner-red-house-at-prinsep-on-4may2016/
had a wonderful dinner for a very good friend at red house @ prinsep street on 4.5.2016. ^^
i ordered 7 dishes.:-)
there was a promo thai lemongrass chilli lobster at S$88. the chilli was excellent. everyone loved the taste. it was quite a large serving too, 2 lobsters.:-)
we ordered cereal prawns 400g at S$7/100g. this was really good too.
crabs were priced at S$72/kg. we ordered a small sri-lankan pepper crab, 800g for S$58.this was a red house signature dish, and it was very good!
the 苏格兰面包螃蟹 (similar to dungeness crabs at pier 39 san francisco, also a common crab dish in hong kong & china seafood restaurants) was priced at the same S$72/kg. it’s 1.2kg so S$86, quite a bit more expensive. this also red house signature dish. the crab meat was quite solid & more firm than sri-lankan crab.
i felt sri-lankan crab was tastier & had a better texture.
also the chilli sauce was quite poor really, quite sweet but not intense with meat sweetness, instead gluey, sweet not spicy, more like a tourist version. this crab had a lot of roes & tomalleys.
we ordered a medium spinach tofu, 9 pieces S$21.i liked this dish. it was very good.:-)
the 3-egg spinach also very good. but really this 3-egg spinach dish the best i had was at uncle leong jurong east.
we ordered a medium seafood hor fun. it was pretty good. several friends commented good wok hae! the broad kuay teow was especially flavourful. & the serving had quite a bit of prawns & sotong. it was a good round-up dish for the dinner.
dinner came to S$409. it was less than S$60pax nett. i think pretty good for this quality of food & actually cheaper than the recent 5pax lunch (which was S$311 for 5pax).
the service here was excellent, very friendly, very attentive, keep changing plates & gave a lot (continuous supply) of wet tissues etc. very good service indeed!

See my full review & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/04/30/good-scissor-cut-curry-rice-at-toa-payok-lor-8-food-centre-on-30apr2016/
after the scissor cut curry rice lunch, my friend went to get the chendol, the stall that former PM mr Goh Chok Tong likes.
this the really authentic version. very nice kidney beans, quite a lot of palm fruits (atap chee) & very flavourful gula melaka & coconut milk.
one of the best chendol i had, very nice, really enjoyed it!

See my full reviews & photos at = https://chefquak.com/2016/04/29/nice-dinner-paradise-dynasty-ion-orchard-on-28apr2016/
went with friends to watch captain america – civil war at shaw lido yesterday. after the movie we adjourned to paradise dynasty at level 4 ion orchard for dinner on 28.4.2016. ^^.
we asked the price of the peanut & chestnut starter. it was just S$2.50 so we took it. it was really good, there were lots of chestnuts.
the place was well patronised but not yet full at 8pm.
paradise dynasty was having 30% discounts on 5 dishes.
the service by the chinese server was very good. it was difficult for us to identify the 5 dishes as they appear in totally different parts of the ordering chit. she took us through, explained the dishes & ordered for us.
we started with 2trays x 6 xiaolongbao 小笼包. so 3 pieces each for 4pax.
xiaolongbao 小笼包 was good. the soup inside was very tasty. however dough skin at top slightly thicker, also the meat filling not as tasty.
overall not as good as crystal jade lamian xiaolongbao.
later we greedy lot added another 2 trays, so in total each of us took 6 pieces. haha!
drunken chicken was good too.
chicken was tender. presentation was good. the 绍兴酒fragrance very good.
(for comparison see the photo for peach garden miramar, tasted good looked odd).
the minced pork soup 狮子头 quite a ok soup.
soup below S$7 after discount so ok.
but really pales in comparison with a good lie tong 例汤say at tunglok signature orchard parade.
the omelette 赛螃蟹 quite a meaningless dish for me, forgettable & it’s not cheap for egg whites with supposedly conpoy in it.
the romaine lettuce油麦菜 was quite misleading. it looked like a very tiny serving so i thought it was expensive at S$10 (this dish no discounts).
actually it was quite a decent helping, so not really more ex say c/w kok sen, a zi char stall.
the fried rice was pretty good too. reasonably tasty & a good helping for 4pax.
not the best of course.
no comparison with crystal jade lamian xiaolongbao’s spicy seafood fried rice.
we ordered a fried ramen. i guess we could eat a lot if we want too.
it was ok, but really no different from any breakfast fried noodles or the hong kong style street sweet soy sauce noodles.
dinner came to S$108nett for 4pax.
a friend has his birthday next week so we bought him dinner. ^^
very enjoyable movie & a great dinner chat & time together with good friends.
price wise, if we kept to the 5 items with discount which was quite enough for 4pax, price would be S$70nett, so very reasonabe for the food.
we added of course the veg, the noodles & 2 more xiaolongbao.