See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/06/13/still-good-but-far-too-pricey-valentino-on-11jun2015/
had an early father’s day family dinner at valentino on 11.6.2015. i had not been to valentino for many years. my impression had been that food is good here, but just too pricey & not justifying the quality of food. this evening was no exception, nothing to change my mind.
we had a complimentary focaccia. it was warm, & good!
we had a bottle of amarone. we were told S$145, but when the bill came it was S$168. anyway it was father’s day dinner & wine was good. we just paid up.
i remembered the burrata was a very good dish here. & it was! ^^very light & went well with the palate. i thought there was prosciutto accompanying the dish, but there wasn’t. later i found on my earlier post that senso indeed served it with parma ham, however my memory had been that valentino’s was still better! we added a beef carpaccio. it was good too. sweet, tasty cut.& just great with the parmesan cheese & rockets. & i always love the crab squid-ink linguine in pink sauce.it was still very good, and i guess i still liked it. it was very creamy, a lot of crab meat, and linguine was done well, al dente!
but for me it has lost a bit, or maybe most of the wow factor. my daughter, who is rather discerning with food & has a better palate than i, though liked this quite a lot. goes to show taste is a very individual preference.
that it was a very good pasta & the price was quite ok is not disputed. the carbonara – my first taste was that it was good. but then immediately, i agreed with my youngest daugher that it did not taste like the usual carbonara.yes, valentino’s was a good pasta, the dry creamy kind & tasty maybe from the cheese. but i think i like the alfresco gusto version of carbonara with an egg much better. i liked the parma ham porcini cheese pizza – good! nothing so special but just a good pizza. what was a very pleasant surprise was the pan-fried veal with parma ham, about S$37. it w2as the best dish of the evening, and we ordered a second.^^ for me, the pistachio penna cotta was a complete flop. we all said it tasted like a poor chinese almond jelly. & it cost S$15.50. i was not expecting lake como’s pizzeria balognett standard, but this was just plain poor dessert. overall we paid like S$528nett for 5pax. the wine alone cost like S$195, so about S$325nett for the food for 5pax.
we asked the price of every dish that was the special not on the menu. the prices of specials though like S$258 for 1kg T-bone steak & S$168 bisteca florentine steak were just not on for me leh! ….al borgo used to serve the florentine steak at S$60, maybe it is S$80 now?? there was no lobster pasta this evening & the special was king prawns at S$58. i guess i woud order it if i have faith in the restaurant where transparent pricing & mathcing the food is concerned. well, i didn’t. i guess i will call it just my personal lack of faith.

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/06/01/satisfaction-guaranteed-mikuni-on-1jun2015/
we were celebrating an occasion. went back to our favourite restaurant mikuni on 1.6.2015.^^

looked at the S$220pax grand tour tasting menu (after 50% feed at raffles it would be S$110pax). no particular interest, so did our usual ala carte.

feed at raffles also gave 2 wine or cake vouchers. so we used one for a 2013 chilean white wine. just nice, not so sweet & not tannic, very easy to drink for non connoisseur like me.

we ordered the chirashi don to share. for me this the best chirashi don in town for the price (S$90 so S$45 after 50% feed at raffles discounts).

you get 1 botanebi, a very good helping of uni, 2 chutoro, 3 salmon, 2 hamachi, 3 aburi kajiki (swordfish), 2 hirame (flat fish), 2 hotate, 2 other white fish & ikura. ^^ & this was dinner. to me mikuni’s chirashi don is way superior to aoki’s S$40 mazechirashi don lunch.

and tastu’s S$40 chirashi don is not even in the running. just look at the difference in quality & luxury.

we ordered additional botanebi sashimi. it’s S$45 (before 50% discounts) for 3 large prawns. botanebi deep-fried prawn head & we ate up the deep-fried prawn heads (2heads each), even the legs were incredibly tasty, really well executed here.

they had lobster uniyaki special this evening. it’s a menu item, however we noticed that when they had it as a special, either it was a better lobster or bigger lobster. however like 20mins after we ordered, they came to say they were out, no more serving.

we decided to order the teppanyaki lobster the server claims that it was the same quality lobster. & it was very nice! lobster was quite small i think maybe 400g+ it was down the golden prawns way, with mayonnaise & tobiko (flying fish roe). lobster was very flavourful & the golden sauce too, though we avoided having too much of the fattening stuff.

& our perennial favourite, the kagoshima wagyu sukiyaki konabe. i noticed immediately that there were 4 pieces of beef but they were smaller & thinner than what they used to serve, and did not have the same marbling. it was nice still but really didn’t feel much of wagyu intense flavours.

they have this complimentary drawer dessert. i made suer i asked lest they did not volunteer. we picked the few we like,they were all very nice.

the dinner came to S$115++, i.e. about S$58pax, for such quality food & nice ambience. very enjoyable & perfect for the occasion.

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.

I just had salts egg prawns & roast pork烧肉 at a 13pax RI friends G20 dinner at peach garden @ metropolis the evening before, and that was good too.

We can see from the photos that the presentation & colours of the 2 dishes at tunglok were better. taste-wise they were close – the roast pork烧肉 about same, the salted egg prawns maybe tunglok a tad better.

We had the deep-fried cod fillet that seemed to be salted egg flavoured also. it was a well executed dish, somewhat oily. not really a preferred preparation for me.

the same dentist friend & mei mei had a birthday dinner for me in 2013 here at this same tunglok outlet. we had star garoupa fillet with broccoli & lily bulbs & that was very good. of course for me, steamed fish is the best. haha!^^

We had the elegant 三层楼, which is a tunglok long standing dish of fried bean curd on spinach & shimeji mushrooms. there was a newer dish of charcoal tofu with lily bulbs 百合.

Both tofu dishes were very nice!

Next was a string beans with egg plant. just mildly spicy (if any at all) & quite nicely done.

Another dish was a bit unusual combination, some squash with japanese edamame & slightly sweet sauce. can’t figure out this dish.

As it was a birthday, the restaurant provided complimentary longevity buns 流沙寿桃. they were presented together with our own birthday cake, and handwritten “calligraphy” by a talented restaurant manager. haha!

少年壮志当十一
英俊潇洒二十一
状元高中三十一
年龄岁岁四十一
成就显赫五十一
儿孙满堂六十一
回想当年七十一
福禄寿全八十一
享受人生九十一
要找北京101？？？

The message changes according to occasions, so the guy must have a whole bookcase of them. haha!^

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/05/28/a-relaxing-birthday-dinner-at-tunglok-signature-central-on-27may2015/
last evening, we had a birthday dinner for another close friend at tunglok signature @ central on 27.5.2015. ^^

See my full reviews & photos at = http://chefquak.com/2015/05/28/ri-friends-g20-13pax-dinner-at-peach-gardens-metropolis-on-26may2015/

had a fun dinner get together among RI friends at peach garden @ metropolis on 26.5.2015. ^^
many of us had not been to metropolis. 1 who had been associated it with MOE as he is a professor at NUS. for another in a brokerage firm, it was CDP that came to mind.
i parked at the openair carpark before metropolis building, very well located next to the bus stop & MRT. there was a lift that took me to level 2 right by peach garden. :-)
place was new so looked somewhat better than previously at novena & also at miramar. the ala carte buffet menu with 1 free for 3 paying is for steamboat, so we decided to take the ala carte menu instead.
we ordered the roast pork烧肉, a recommended dish. it was good, same standard as the usual places like crystal jade, imperial treasure, tunglok & canton paradise.
we were deciding between peking duck & roast duck. they were same price , i think S$56 for 1 duck. more went for roast duck, which was also my preference.
roast duck was good too, very flavourful & tender, & skin was crisp. it was no better than canton paradise. i think the latter still more fragrant & tasty, my gold standard. haha!^^
soon hock was S$9/100g. we had 12pax (+ one who came a bit later on), so we ordered a 1kg fish.
i always preferred steam for a very fresh live fish to deep-fried, which is like second best. soon hock was excellently done, very tender, smooth, tasty.
i was quite wary i.e. distrustful (& weary) of peach garden’s wasabi prawns. it once came with a ton of green wasabi mayo. but looking back at the 2013 photos actually it was not bad. anyhow we ordered the salted egg prawn, which was very good too, though not quite my favourite. 
a friend ordered the claypot tofu with naibai 奶白. a simple dish but really quite well executed!^^
& we had the chinese cabbage (jinbai 津白i think) with enoki mushrooms. again a very simple dish & very tastefully (both sight & taste) done indeed! 
egg white dried scallops fried rice is quite a standard dish in many good chinese restaurants. i used to love it a lot at imperial treasure nanbei, especially with the xo chilli sauce.
somehow this one didn’t wow, quite average to me, not much wok hae. i think i can do better than that myself. my favourite now is the spicy seafood fried rice at crystal jade la mian xiaolongbao.^^
a friend managed to reach when we were down to the second last dish, so he ordered a fried kuay teow. looked ok i guess, like the usual fare.
the sesame red bean pancake was another standard dish. it was done pretty nicely – look & certainly taste also.
the last item was the custard bun流沙包. pretty good but i kind of tired of them (like i was tired of the crispy charsiew bao at timhowan).
a very enjoyable dinner & evening with friends.
the price came to S$414 nett for 13pax after a 15% credit card discount=S$32nett. of course we did not order much food too. we did not order expensive ingredients so these were average dishes but very well executed. price was ok, about there i guess.