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.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/08/13/great-sg50-5-course-dinner-oso-on-11aug2015/
organised a belated birthday for a close friend at oso on 11.8.2015. ^^

we took the SG50 5-course dinner menu. we had 7pax.

we were served some rye bread & focaccia with olive oil & balsamic. quite ok.

first was a cured salmon with caviar & some shaved fennel. it was nice. not exceptional but a great starter.

we had cream of cauliflower soup. soup was smooth, quite tasty, a bit thick. pretty ok but no better than my own cream of cauliflower.

pasta was also average. good pasta certainly, but quite ordinary, no stand out.

we had 4 orders of veal cheeks & 3 orders of fish. dory not my choice fish. i tried some from my friend. it was pretty ok. i guess good for a dory fillet.

the braised veal cheek with beetroot – stracotto was excellent though. tender, totally consistent & not very beefy, quite gentle & quite excellent bite, not the sinewy stewed meat type. i would say one of the best braised meat.

& the crotata – choc lava tart was marvellous.croatata – choc lava tart it’s like any good choc lava cake, with the tart giving it very good combination of texture.

the restaurant was told that it was a birthday celebration, so they provided a tiramisu cake for the birthday, a good gesture practiced by most good restaurants.

however, when i called to reconfirm the reservation on the day, the person who answered told me he reserved a nice quiet corner for us. but in fact we had 7pax seated on a table 6 with 1 chair at the end & next to the kitchen with a lot of traffic. that would have been quite fine if the restaurant was full but it was just 50% occupied, so i think that was not quite the level of service for a good restaurant.

anyway we had a great evening. food was good, especially the braised veal cheeks & the choc lava tart. the cured salmon was pretty good as well. dinner was S$50pax for 5-course. we were all quite happy with the meal & ambience.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/08/11/authentic-thai-meal-quite-shiok-nakhon-kitchen-hollandv-on-9aug2015/

family decided to try out lunch at nakhon kitchen at hollandv on 9.8.2015.^^
(friend brought me to nakhon kitchen @ AMK recently. i enjoyed the authentic thai food very much).

place opened at 12pm & don’t take reservations. restaurant was also quite empty at 12pm but filled up soon enough.
no frills decor, no frills prices.

we ordered the mango salad. not to be compared with relish burger’s prawn turnip salad which was >2x the price, but it was ok.
the chicken wings were surprising very good. and it’s comparable (almost i guess) to patara’s, which are >2x the price. that’s how good it was. 
tomyam talay (seafood) soup was competent, maybe nothing to comment i guess for S$6. my daughter prefers the tomyam noodles (S$6 student price) at le wu. only 1 prawn so maybe so do tomyam gung next time instead of talay. but i would rather have the S$10 one at thai gold food which we had recently.
we all loved the red curry beef. it was really good! ^^ for me the red curry was patara’s standard.
the green curry chicken was much less good. it was ok, but strangely it seemed much thicker & from the photos looked completely different from vibrant, yummy one at nakhon kitchen AMK. that one i finished up all the curries.
my son wanted the deepfried garoupa. i had some doubts it would turn up like the really excellent dish at patara. the server said it was a favourite dish here. it was quite small. but it was quite good actually, so i didn’t mind it. but i thought i could do this easily at home, only have to conjure up the right sauce. 
the one at patara cost S$39++but is like 2x the size & sauce much better, so i think patara more worthwhile. 
pad thai was just S$5. it’s not my favourite dish, but it’s quite authentic here, not too sweet. overall quite good.

son ordered the basil minced beef rice. taste was ok. cannot c/w with le wu’s fried basil beef but i guess not really a like for like comparison.
we also had a S$5 mango sticky rice to share. did not take photo. anyway sticky rice not fragrant, a dish i could do without.
lunch for 4pax came to S$80, or S$20nett, no service, no GST.
must say it was a very authentic thai meal, quite shiok!

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/08/10/great-burgers-relish-burger-cluny-court-on-4aug2015/
wife had a groupon that was expiring. son was in town & he loved burgers. so we arranged to have 3pax lunch at relish burgers by wild rockets at cluny court on 4.8.2015.^^

i don’t mind burgers. they are not ranked anywhere in my priority though. the last time i had relish burger was with wife at serangoon gardens in dec2014, also by way of groupons. haha!

place was bright & pleasant. quite well patronised maybe because of groupon discounts?

wife ordered a prawn turnip salad. it was very good. prawns were very fresh. salad was refreshing & tangy, very appetising.

wife & i shared a wild rocket burger. it is true that the burger is excellent. charred outside, medium rare & moist inside, very nice flavours with peppers & mustard & onions.

son ordered the popular blue cheese & william pear burger. it was very good too. the blue cheese left a very nice lingering after taste.

the last time we liked the deconstructed strawberry cheese cake. i even tried making one myself, which was quite good really but maybe not yet up for comparison.

that’s part of the fun for me eating out, tasting different food & making an assessment if i can reproduce w/o much hassle.

the lunch was S$77. somehow we could not locate the groupon so we paid the full amount & the restaurant (angie the lady we spoke to) agreed to let us used it the week after even though it would have expired. part of good service i guess.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/08/05/shiok-as-before-2pax-dinner-tunglok-signature-on-4aug2015/
had not been to tunglok at orchard parade for a while. last was in sep2014. was deciding where to eat out for dinner. we had japanese recently at kuriya dining, and tomorrow i am cooking 12pax dinner at home which is mostly western/italian.

so we went to tunglok signature at orchard parade hotel for dinner this evening on 4.8.2015.

for me, the food never dissappoint, just as shiok as ever. don’t think other diners share my views though. the place had just few tables, quite empty.

we ordered the garlic pork 蒜泥白肉. it was good. i liked it & would order it again, but honestly it was not better than my own garlic pork 蒜泥白肉 though the style was quite different. i like mine more in terms of the flavours & tenderness of my belly pork but this here was good & looked very nice too.

we had the lie tong 例汤. it was really good! ^^ my helper made very good lie tong 例汤 at home quite often, so this had to be really good to impress us. they had old cucumber & dried cuttlefish & softbones soup base. it was really tasty!

we ate up the 3 large pieces of pork softbones before remembering to take photo.

the steamed razor clams with tanhoon was really good too. this was as good as the ones we often had previously at ah yat grandstand & very less frequently at jumbo at dempsey.

top restaurant standards & very much better than the ones we had at the daipaidongs 大排档 in hong kong.

we ordered the garoupa fillet with brocoli & lily bulbs 百合. this was excellent too. wok hae was very good. the garoupa fillet & vegetables – brocoli & lily bulbs 百合- were very well done. i can definitely do this dish at home, maybe i will start with a vegetarian one for my niece’s coming brthday.

i was looking forward to the lobster noodles. it was still good, but a far cry from the lobster noodles we had here previously, or at any good restaurants eg xin restaurant. just look at the old photos of the “real” loster noodles. that’s how it should look like!

& i always like the dessert 雪中情怀. it did not dissappoint. really excellent, the combination of fresh coconut, mango, grapefruit, vanilla & coconut ice cream was super! i take this everytime!^^

with 50% for 2pax amex palate discounts the food came to S$100nett for 2pax & we got free parking as well.