Full review - http://midas400.blogspot.sg/2015/06/dinner-at-chop-house-vivocity.html

Second birthday celebration of the month with the hubby. The venue of choice was The Chop House, a spin off from the hugely successful Wooloomooloo Steakhouse, an established HK steakhouse chain. The restaurant was pretty quiet on a Monday evening at 6pm.Sleek and modern interiors with touches of rustic wooden accents at one side, and a more edgy and vibrant colored settings on the other side. Full length glass windows provides an unobstructed view of the harbor-front and promenade.The bar area and tables with inbuilt beer taps.After exploring the menus, we each ordered a drink and a main course, and two sides for sharing.Aussie Punch $8++, soda mixed with passion fruit and mango puree, and Cool Mint $8++, soda with lychee juice and ginger ale. Both drinks were fruity and refreshing.Tater Tots $7++ and Sweet Potato Fries $7++, served piping hot with crisp exteriors and soft mushy centers, very delish. Great choices to go with beers.My Berkshire Pork Chop $33++, coated with Mongolian glaze consisting of Hoisin sauce and black bean chili sauce, served on a bed of sautéed red cabbage. The pork chop was well cooked, meat was tender and easy to cut. However, the thick dark sauce was extremely salty.

Feedback was given to the staffs on the saltiness, they offered to cook another one but I rejected as my stomach could not accommodate another slab of pork chop.Hubby's NZ Grass Fed Sirloin 200g $28++, served with Chips, baked Mushrooms & Tomato and béarnaise sauce. The beef doneness and taste was not too bad.We weren't planning to order desserts but the restaurant staffs offered to serve them on the house, due to the earlier unsatisfactory pork chop dish. So we each picked a scoop of ice cream from the menu.

Dark Chocolate $9++ and Peach Sorbet $9++, both were surprisingly good with dense flavors and smooth texture.Dining experience here was generally enjoyable. The restaurant has got nice ambiance and friendly service staffs, but the food here was lacking the wow factor. I personally prefer the Jamie's just a few steps away from this place. They produce more impressive pork chops at similar price tags, which I feel is worthy of repeated visits.

Full review - http://midas400.blogspot.sg/2015/06/dolce-tokyo-313-somerset.html

First birthday gathering on my birthday month! I chose this place for two reasons, one is I haven't try this restaurant before, the other is that we, MOF Citizens, get to enjoy free birthday dessert during our birthday month.

We arrived early, the restaurant was practically empty before 7pm, on a weekday.After checking out the menu, we realized that this place is more a coffee and dessert eatery instead of a dinner venue. Main courses selection is rather limited. We ordered one mains and one dessert each and an appetizers platter for sharing.Mixed Crostini $18++, consists of 6 toasted bread with tomato concasse and 6 types of toppings (mushroom, unagi, tamagoyaki, shrimp, kani mayo & smoked salmon). This platter turns out to be the best dish of the day. The combination of the crispy toast, diced tomato and the variety of toppings were nicely done and really tasty.My Unagi Bento $19++, was pretty good albeit simple looking. The grilled eel was soft and flavorful, the tamagoyaki and pickled seaweed was palatable too.My friend's orders, Unagi Omu Curry Rice $18++ and Mushroom Egg Ben $15++. Both dishes were well received in terms of taste, however my friend complained that her unagi portion was too little for her liking.The desserts were perhaps the most disappointing items we had to pay for this meal. Despite having an extensive selection, we somehow managed to picked out 3 that were all not nice! We should have gone somewhere else for dessert, sigh.Please don't be fooled by their appearances, these desserts were either overly sweet, or hard and chewy, or not very fresh. Plus they are pricey too. And, my member birthday dessert cannot be redeemed here, felt cheated

Well, that sums up our dining experience at Dolce Tokyo. I have mixed feelings with this place and properly wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is looking for good food.

Full review - http://midas400.blogspot.sg/2015/05/harrys-bar-clarke-quay-openrice-food.html

I was invited by Reka from Openrice to a food tasting session at Harry's newest outlet at Clarke Quay. We will be sampling their newly revamped food menu that was introduced about a month ago. Brought a friend along (cos I don't drink) to also sample their alcoholic beverage.

The Bar has both indoor and outdoor sitting, same as every bar found in the area.The indoor dining area has a British pub style decor, the dark wood furnishing and fixtures exudes a warm and cozy vibe. Great place for friends to catch up over a game of football with beers.Our table, set with a simple bucket of cutlery, paper napkins and plates for sharing food. Everyone at the food tasting gets an Openrice 'door gift' set containing the tasting menu, stationary and a Openrice fan. Our tasting menu for the night...First up, we had a trio of 'Small Plates' appetizer dishes paired with Harry's Premium Lager beer $13++, Harry's signature brew. The crispy Fish Cracklings $13++ served with aioli dip was addictive to eat. While the Harry's Signature Wings ($13++ for 6pcs, $19++ for 10pcs), coated with secret recipe spices and served with homemade chili jam, was fingers licking good. The star of the 'Small plates' had to be the Crab & Potato cakes ($16++ for 6pcs). Packed with generous amount of shredded Blue swimmer crab meat and mashed potato served with Sriracha tomato dip, it was moist and oozing with crabby sweetness...thumbs up.

Next up, we had one dish from the 'Platters' menu, Jalapeno Steak Sliders $13++ for 3. The Mini burgers with tender beef strips and charred bell peppers, served with Jalapeno cheese sauce, were a crowd's favorite.All of the above were best washed down with a pint of Harry's Premium Lager, which was well received by fellow food tasters. Many would have seconds but, we're being served with another Harry's signature, Dirty Harry $16++, to go with the 'Big Plates' a.k.a. Main courses.

A concoction of Vodka, brown sugar and lychee liqueur with a dash of zing from freshly cut lime wedges, served with a sweet canned lychee. As I don't drink liquor, my friend downed both glasses of cocktail and still wanted more...so I guess it was delish!For main courses, we had Chicken Masala $23++ and Crabmeat Spaghettini $23++. The pasta tasted pretty standard though, the crab meat flavor didn't really come through nicely. However, the Chicken Masala dish was surprisingly good. The excellent mix of Indian spices and tender chicken chunks, well infused with spice aroma, had us craving for more. We totally enjoyed dunking the fluffy charcoal bread into the aromatic thick gravy...immensely satisfying.

Lastly, dessert was served. Toffee Apple Crisp Tart $14++, with thinly sliced apple on crust pastry, drizzled with salted caramel sauce and topped with vanilla ice cream. I didn't like this dish as much, the pastry was not crispy and rather chewy to bite. The apple slices and vanilla ice cream was kinda ordinary.Dessert was paired with a sparkling Cinzano Prosecco $13.50++ wine to end the dinner on a sweet note. This Italian bubbly, with enticing aromas of apple and peach, taste refreshing, dry and harmonious, with crisp fruity flavors and a clean finish.

Harry's Bar had wanted to change the perception of it being just a regular bar, a place to go for drinks only. They have put together an interesting menu with good potential. With some slight adjustments to its food recipe, it does possess a formula for success in the F&B industry.

We enjoyed the dinner tremendously. Thank you Openrice and Harry's Bar for hosting us!

Full review - http://midas400.blogspot.sg/2015/05/chabuton-at-tampines-one.html

Chabuton is a successful Ramen restaurant chain from Japan. This casual dining eatery had caused a stir in SG when it first arrived on shore, a perpetual queue is always seen at the first outlet located in Orchard. Now that the initial hype has died down, I finally got to try it at the branch in Tampines One.Check out the realistic wax food replicas on display at the entrance. The restaurant is dressed in simple and no frills decor, with a huge jug of ice water for diner's disposal at every table.The menu here is simple, only ramen and limited choice of appetizers to compliment the ramen dish. Their main selling point is that diners can customize their ramen's done-ness and soup's oil and salt level. For the signature Tonkatsu ramen, there is also a choice of normal size serving or a smaller size junior bowl at lower price.I ordered a bowl of the Junior Tonkatsu ramen $8.30++ and topped up $3.50++ for the Soft boiled egg & Buta kakuni (braised pork belly).The egg was nicely done with runny yolk, and the pork belly was well flavored but not too soft with a little bit of bite retained. As for the noodles, I've asked for less oil, less salt and noodle to be al dente...which was executed to my liking. The soup was thick and flavorful too.

My other side order of Kaki Fry $6++ (oyster fritters) was fresh and juicy, no complains.Food variety here is rather limited though I like that the prices are pretty affordable for its quality. Service level is efficiently quick and no frills. That sums up my dining experience at Chabuton. I would say that this is a great place to drop by for a quick meal before shopping or a movie.

Full review - http://midas400.blogspot.sg/2015/05/mothers-day-afternoon-tea-at-landing.html

We are back again at The Landing Point for afternoon tea, one of our fave places for tea. This time happens to be Mother's Day eve and the restaurant is offering a different menu just for the weekend. Instead of the usual 8 sweets and 8 savories, they are having 12 sweets and 7 savories tea set...we're gonna get a sugar rush! We made advanced reservation via Chope and got instant confirmation. There was a baby shower event going on when we arrived slightly earlier than 3pm, the waiting staffs gave us a sofa seat near the corner.We enjoyed a quieter ambiance there, however, it became a nightmare to get attention of the waiting staffs when we wanna replenish our food and drinks. Whats worst is that we are situated between two bigger groups of diners, and were being overlooked by the staffs constantly! The drinks that we ordered shortly after being seated came only after 30mins and multiple reminders...duh!Selections of TWG teas and Coffee (hot/cold)

The food came before the drinks arrived, served on a 3-tier tray, containing two tiers of sweets and one tier savories. The scones were served separately by another staff.Top tier - Carrot Cake & Lemon Cheese Frosting, Mother’s Love Chocolates, Mini Cupcake & Chocolate Cream, Double Flavored Macaron and Crème Brulee tartlet.Middle tier - Mini Salmon Quiche, Herb Brie Cheese on Hazelnut Cracker, Smoked Duck Mango Salsa on Semi-Dried Roll, Purple Potato with Ricotta on Saffron Roll, Smoked Salmon Sandwich, Truffle Egg Sandwich and Semi-Dried Tomato with Mayo and Cucumber Sandwich.Bottom tier - Coconut & Mango Cake, Kueh Lapis Cake, Lime Tart topped with Fresh Blueberries, Chocolate Opera Cake, Pistachio Financier and Rose Chocolate Mousse Cake.For the savories, we only fancied the Smoked Duck sandwich, Truffle egg sandwich and the Smoked Salmon sandwich, which we ordered replenishment several times. We were less impressed with the sweets though. I quite like the tangy Lime tart and the Crème Brulee tartlet but didn't order extras due to slow service from staffs.

My order for 2nd round of drinks, Cafe Mocha with latte art. It was pretty good.Near to the end of the tea session, we noticed that a special item was being served to the table beside us, we wanted to ask about it but the staff walked past us again and vanished quickly into the abyss! After some waiting, we managed to grab attention of another staff and voiced our displeasure to him. He managed to seized a few of the special items (not stated in the menu) for us and it turned out to be the best tasting savory item of the day!The Mini Lobster Tartlet, a different rendition of their all time favorite Lobster Cornet was simply delicious! We think that it should be included in all special occasion menu for afternoon tea.

Our Mother's Day afternoon tea, ended much better than when it began. But we couldn't help but feel that their special occasion menu was lack luster overall in terms of taste and quality, and the slow service didn't justify for the price hike. We much prefer to come on a regular weekday afternoon and enjoy the original menu with Lobster cornet, Chocolate caramel tart and Lemon tart.