Pasta Mania gives me a very familiar taste of comfort. I love pastas, and have never met anybody who doesn't yet! So one of the very commonly-agreed dining venue with my friends is none other than Pasta Mania!Turkey Bacon Cheesy Crumble, $8.10
Creamy Chicken, $9.10
+ Combo Set A (soup, garlic bread & drink), $5.50

I'd have to say that while I do love the food from pasta mania very much, my experience so far has been that prices increase and portions decrease with each visit.

My order of Turkey Bacon Cheesy Crumble pasta sounds complicated, but it's really just a small portion of turkey bacon in cheese sauce topped with parmesan crumble. My friend's order of Creamy Chicken is also really just a small portion of Chicken in cream sauce. I've tried to opt for the upsize choice to make my meals more filling, but really, paying an additional $2.50 for a handful more plain pasta (I don't feel there's any increase in amount of ingredients or sauces because my food is often rather dry) is really quite expensive! Ingredients and sauces are generally also lacking even for normal sized portions.

For having to pay about $20 per pax per visit for a decent meal now, I'm afraid the Pasta Mania I've been all along so acquainted with, is fast becoming a luxury that I can only afford to visit once in a long time.

In my humble opinion, KOI seems to be very much still the market leader for bubble tea!

There are several bubble tea shops around in Toa Payoh, but it's not difficult to observe which one has the longest queue.Hazelnut Milk Tea with Pearl

Frankly, I find their menu similar to lots of other bubble tea shops, and while they offer very decent drinks, I feel many other bubble tea shops have also since caught up with their standards.

I do enjoy their drinks but I don't think I'd be willing to queue 30 minutes out of my 1 hour lunch duration for a cup of bubble tea again, which I can purchase cheaper and faster at other shops for the same standards.

I bought breakfast from them, and went with the beehoon option because their array of ingredients I could choose from, had been tempting me for the longest time.White beehoon with a potato dish

I paid between $2.50-$3 for it and was a little surprised that beehoon + 1 vege dish could turn up so expensive. The aunty told me that it's because white beehoon costs more than the normal brown beehoon or the yellow noodles. Had I known earlier, I wouldn't have gotten the white beehoon because I feel that it lacked taste and was also slightly stiff and chewy.

Although I didn't enjoy the food this time round, I think their Nasi Lemak is still pretty decent and the $2.50 sets looked like it would be more delicious and value for money than the white beehoon.

Generally I love Korean food, but I regret that this stall didn't seem to appeal much to me.

For some reason my appetite was screaming for some warm and spicy korean kimchi soup (was raining and the aircon in the office was cold) so I thought since there's no queue I'd just do a quick takeaway.Korean Kimchi Ramyun

Korean food usually comes with some kimchi and ikan bilis served on the side, and yes I had mine too. I thought the kimchi tasted way too sour for my liking, and there was a tad of bitterness in the ikan bilis.

Sad to say, the ramyum was pretty much of a disappointment. Noodles were very much like maggie mee, soup was rather plain with not much taste, and I felt shortchanged on the ingredients too.

It filled my tummy alright, but not too satisfying for my foodie soul.

I used to like their Nasi Bryani alot so I patronized their stall quite often. Both mutton and chicken bryani tasted equally good, and the ingredients were generous.

I'm guessing they have different cooks manning the store, because of late, I've eaten bryani that looked and tasted quite different. Some days, it was well-balanced and tasty, but most of the time now, it's either too salty or suddenly much spicier than normal. Once, it gave me a really bad shock because I've never tasted their bryani so spicy before, I ate a whole mouthful of it only to choke on the spiciness.I'm patronizing their stall much lesser now, because I'm a little afraid of taking chances, in case I buy the version from the cook that makes his food extra spicy and salty. I miss the nice tasty version I used to eat.