See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/07/04/good-thai-food-good-value-nakhon-amk-on-3jul2015/
a friend arranged lunch at nakhon @ AMK on 3.7.2015.^^

it’s nice & airy at corner of blk 529 AMK ave 10. there were tables orderly set at a cover extended area w/o encroaching on the walkway. my friend was there 10mins early to get a table. i was there at 11.55am.

nakhon starts lunch at 12pm. a queue started to build up almost immediately. by the time we finished lunch, queue was 10+ long.

my friend ordered 4 dishes. we ordered a red ruby to share afterwards. the pandan chicken was not bad for S$6. lots of sauces, i only used the sweet thai chilli for the pandan chicken.

my friend love the clear tom yam talay (seafood). his whole family like this dish. for me, i prefer the red tom yam. the prawn was ok, so maybe next time i will order tom yam gung. cannot really compare this S$6 soup with patara’s which cost nearly 5x more. for S$6, more than ok i think.

i just loved the green curry. beef was fine, not tough, not the tenderised artificial texture, quite ok. i drank most of the curry.^^

red ruby was S$3. ordinary, which is good i guess. i think this is really good authentic thai food. may not be the restaurant or fine thai kind of food, but it is s authentic as any thai street, comfort food or small restaurant/shop food.

and the price is very reasonable, which accounts for the constant queue. well above average food at very good value prices. will be back soon!

See my full review & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/07/01/great-food-ambience-kith-cafe-park-mall-on-30jun2015/
we had a 15pax dinner at kith cafe @ park mall on 30.6.2015. kith does all day breakfast (till 5pm) and seems like a good coffee place too.

i didn’t know if kith meant anything in particular, but after googling i found out that kith was like kin or kindred or – acquaintances, friends, neighbors, or the like; persons living in thesame general locality and forming a more or less cohesive group.

a cafe for friends – good name!

we ordered some calamari & 2 pizza to share, and each ordered our own pasta dish. calamari was good. squid was very slightly tough, batter was good.

gong bao chicken pizza was better than i expected. we all liked the thin crust pizza. no sticky sauce, taste was not too sweet & combined quite well with the pizza.

parma ham pizza was competent also. pretty ok.

pizza not particularly my favourite but it is an excellent dish for communal dining & i do enjoy a slice of good pizza (i shared 1/2 gong bao chicken & 1/2 parma ham pizza with a friend) to start the dinner.

the spaghetti alio olio was good! good helping, very flavourful, good garlic flavours & lots of shiitake mushrooms. I shared 1/2 of it with a friend who shared 1/2 of my squid ink pasta. not a usual dish i would order as i like meat or seafood.

the linguine gamberini (garlic prawn) looked good. i will order that next time.

carbonara. looked ok. somehow looked a bit like hokkien mee. egg was mixed in the pasta. i think it would taste good as most pasta here were good. though i am more used to the look/colour of carbonara at alfresco gusto.

i had a try of the bolognese, and the tomato sauce was good. meat sauce/ragout preparation not my favourite but this was good.

did not try the vongole. it looked fine. they said vongole is a test of italian chef. the lala (littleneck) clams have a distinctive shellfish taste & if the linguine is done al dente the combination is quite excellent. my own vongole linguine here.

the veal spinach tortellini looked interesting. & looked yummy! i must try that next time.

my friend the proprietor ordered the day’s special, a squid ink spaghetti with seafood alio olio. i tasted. it was good.

i liked my own squid ink sauce pasta better though. it was more intense & flavourful, though my immediate reaction was it was a bit salty. my own squid ink seafood spaghetti here.

the friend who shared 1/2 my squid ink thought it was very salty, and that the alio olio was also salty. i was good with the alio olio, & salt does bring out the flavours (though too much would kill it).

my friend the proprietor ordered 2 more pizza – a duck & mushroom ragout & a special – with sausage. duck ragout was good & had some meat pieces.

i liked the sausage special pizza a bit more, sausage very flavourful.

it was really enjoyable evening. company was super fun, outdoor ambience was cool & nice open space, & food was great. i will probably come back with my family.

See my full reviews 7 photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/06/22/excellent-italian-food-follia-on-20jun2015/.

daughter arranged a father’s day dinner at follia on 20.6.2015.^^

this the 3rd father’s day. wife arranged a 2pax father’s day lunch at kuriya diningearlier, and then a family father’s day dinner at valentino, as wife & youngest daughter were away during father’s day.

we started with pane pizza all’ aglio, just S$4.80. it was good as any pizza minus the toppings.

the lobster bisque was good, flavourful, and came with mussels, clams, prawn & flower crab. most important the bisque tasted great!

flower crab had no meat, the ingredients looked good, but not really important. i was curious that 2 reviewers – one said dislike the mussels the other said they had a bad taste. the mussels were ok for me though.

the special crayfish squid ink risotto was very good. really like the flavours of the risotto with good shellfish stock, smooth & creamy. the proprietor told us later though it was butter & no cream. it was especially good with the tomato sauce for the crayfish mixed into the risotto. there were 2 halves crayfish & 2 large prawns.

S$35 not really overly expensive for the dish. however i don’t really need to pay for crayfish. i can do my own very well bought from chinatown, at times just S$12/kg. the squidink pasta dish on their menu is good enough for me.^^

i liked the frutti di mare a lot too. it was really an excellent flavoured tomato sauce. the ingredients were also very good. i will definitely take this again.

we arrived at 7pm & the place was empty. but by 8pm, it was full left 1 table. a simple but pleasant place & a very friendly proprietor who took photos with us later.

i ordered the osso bucco alla milanese as it was the only dish featured on their homepage. & i was not disappointed. it was the same saffron osso bucco dish i had at a riverside restaurant along milan’s navigli district, just as good!

the osso bucco was very well done, fork tender, tasty & not sinewy. braised meats are never my favourites though, nothing to do with the dish itself. & the saffron risotto was excellent, and very nice garlic toast too.

i do very good pastas (like squid-ink spaghetti and lobster angel hair pasta) & also an excellent seafood risotto myself, but the pastas & risottos here were really good i will come back for more.

See my full reviews & photos here=http://chefquak.com/2015/05/31/6-course-wagyu-or-seafood-set-en-grill-bar-on-28may2015/
saw on groupon a S$38 6-course wagyu set at en grill & bar & decided to go with some friends. i made sure i made the reservations before i bought the groupon deal. 3 of us picked the wagyu set (okinawan wagyu) & 1 the seafood set.

6-course wagyu set
we started with the standard japanese salad with ponzu dressing which i always like. there were like 3 thin slices of wagyu, quite marbled & sweet i guess, not much impact. very tiny helpings. they supposed to add up i guess.

wagyu meatball was ok. the crouton went pretty ok with the tomato sauce too.wagyu tataki was excellent, marbled & flavourful. the misoyaki? quite odd..didn’t taste anything, like any roast beef.

this was quite excellent! liked the roasted sweet potatoes. the wagyu was well marbled & tasty. not everyone agreed though. 1 friend thought it tasted like satay beef. i didn’t feel that though, & the beef was great for my taste. and the grilled onions infused much of the taste, very good. didn’t feel much of the foie gras, maybe we were busy talking.

the wagyu mini burger was excellent!^^i can have this again. good that it’s so small, i finished all the carbs. haha!

a slightly thicker slice!don’t know about the orange sauce. the wagyu was well marbled & flavourful. i felt the orange sauce diminished it. not that the sauce was not nice, but i rather have the grilled, intense wagyu taste.

it’s more braised beef than ragout tagliatelle. i guess it was ragout sauce + braised beef. well, as good as a braised wagyu could be. very nice pasta really.

6-course seafood set
1 friend had the 6-course seafood set. didn’t ask but it looked like the same salad with cube-cut sashimi maguro, salmon & maybe kajiki (swordfish). looked good.

this looked very appetising. the sliced scallop with plum jelly on cucumber quite interesting.

the friend was very impressed with the chicken mini burger she mentioned several times during dinner & afterwards on FB that it was one of the best burgers she had.^^the gindara like some of the wagyu servings was really thin to feel much impact.

looked like grilled with mentaiko then plated on the shells. if so they should be quite tasty & flavourful.

the uni & ikura capellini was excellent. ^^this the only one from my friend’s set i tasted. very flavourful, matching gordon grill’s and other places. i would be quite happy overall to take this seafood set.

both sets came with cheese cake & yuzu sorbet. the yuzu sorbet was superb, just love it!^^ cheese cake was the usual soft textured japanese cheese cake, which i like also.

overall, it was very good value set for S$38nett. as a great set meal i will certainly do this again.

for the purpose of having a good steak fix, the wagyu set did not really deliver a steak experience, not like what we had at- arossa (closed), or me@oue or at prime society i guess that’s not comparing apple for apple.

See my full reviews & photos at =
http://chefquak.com/2015/04/23/excellent-modern-vegetarian-for-13pax-ri-g20-dinner-sufood-on-30mar2015/
we had an interesting italian-inspired modern vegetarian dinner for 13pax RI G20 get-together at Sufood on 30.3.2015. a very good choice by the organiser. ^^ founded in 2010, sufood is the first meat-free concept restaurant under WOWPRIME GROUP, the largest F&B operator in taiwan. this raffles city restaurant opened in May2014 is it’s first in singapore. one of the friends used the phone apps to make a mosaic food picture (top photo). very nice! we had the italian bread sticks with mustard & berries dip. both were ok. i liked the mustard better.
a refreshing start.^^ the healthy ones went for the fruit salad. a few of us, myself included, took the mushroom salad, a popular dish. it was good. another took the summer salad. & the classic garden salad with a choice of sesame sauce or caesar dressing.for the soup, cream of pumpkin was a popular choice. i had the pea soup with oyster mushroom cubes at the bottom. maybe this was the healthy version so it was not an intense cream of pea soup, texture combination was great, with the crunchy mushrooms. it was the same also with the pumpkin soup, not intense & flavourful. a friend & i both thought we could do a better tasting soup than these 2.
some had the root soup, and the most healthy among us went for the cabbage & sweet potato stew.
the calzone came highly recommended. calzone looked like a huge curry puff. the dough was more akin to pizza dough. i must say after trying a few, i was in total agreement that calzone was the best dish/main course. i picked the pita pocket though. many of the main courses came with plastic gloves, if you wanted to share your food.^^ the mock meatballs were pretty ok but it was not as tasty & satisfying as the calzone. don’t really know how the porcini pasta tasted like, but generally the food quality was competent, pretty ok for vegetarian dishes though not spectacular. i would rate the squid ink as the second best after the calzone. the mushrooms were shaped to look like squid rings. but of course we are not really comparing these vegetarian dishes say with the creamy squid ink pasta at valentino or la braceria.certainly my own squid ink dish is much more intense & flavourful.
i tried the star pizza. didn’t think much of it. i had the black sesame penn a cotta. smooth, quite good. i had the penn a cotta with a healthy ashitaba drink. not sure what to make of it. at least it not bitter like wheatgrass. it wasn’t too sweet so it was ok. the company & dinner were very enjoyable. these gatherings came about quite naturally, a desire to spend time with friends & share views & experiences.^^ & wine was marvellous of course. :-) the food was good especially for the new experience, and it was good quality at a good price – 8 “courses” for S$29.80++. doesn’t blow me away for sure, but equally it is a place i am happy to come back a few times.