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.

Full review - http://midas400.blogspot.sg/2015/02/louhei-dinner-at-shin-yeh.html

Shin Yeh is a famous Taiwanese restaurant group specializing in fine Taiwanese cuisine. Tung Lok brought in this well known brand name in a joint venture with Shin Yeh, together with an experienced team of Taiwanese managers and head chefs, to bring the authentic taste of Taiwan to SG.

It has been a while since I patronize Shin Yeh, I love their food but they are quite pricey and the F&B scene in SG is constantly offering new dining options distracting me from going back to them. Finally, in a discussion with my fellow sistas for a venue to have our louhei dinner in the year of the Goat, we finally settled on the reasonably priced CNY set dinner at Shin Yeh.Dressed with oriental-contemporary furnishings with views of Clarke Quay and Singapore river by the full length windows, we managed to get a table with river view (upon request during reservation, subject to availability).

Table settings are kept simple but classy.A useful guide for the guests to enjoy their Yusheng the auspicious way!A bowl of shredded Bak Kwa Appetizer was served upon our arrival. It was quite tasty, however it's rather pricey at $5++ per bowl!We placed order for a Set Dinner for 4pax that comes with a Yusheng dish and 6 other dishes at $158++. We also ordered two Ala carte dishes, one which is my all time fave dishes from Shin Yeh.

But first up, we shall do our Louhei before everything else!挪威三文鱼生 Prosperity Salmon YuSheng

The waiting staff helped us with the proper steps of louhei, saying auspicious words while adding the sauces and seasoning to the plate. Once done, we helped ourselves with the tossing of the yusheng for a prosperous year ahead....huat arh!The salmon yusheng was very delish, I liked the combination of sauces which is a myriad of flavors from sweet, sour to savory, and the crushed walnuts added a nice crunch to the dish too. Thumbs up.

Next, we had our two Ala carte dishes Salted Egg Yolk Fish Skin $8++ and my fave Taiwanese-style Pan-fried Pork liver $16++.The crispy fish skin coated with creamy egg yolk was pretty addictive to eat. And the pork liver dish was a crowd pleaser as well. The liver slices were cooked just right with an irresistible juicy and tender texture, perfectly complemented by its special sauce. Recommended!

Back to the set meal, we had the ‘Tan Jia’-style Braised Fish Maw & Shredded Sea Cucumber 黄焖海蔘鱼鳔羹, which was a flavorful soup.Followed by a Taiwan-style Pan-fried Seabass w/ Soya Sauce 酱油鲜鱼煎. The fish was fresh and we liked the fragrant ginger & onion sauce.Poached Savoury Kampung Chicken w/ Spring Onion Oil 葱油咸水鸡. A quarter chicken serving size, lightly flavored with spring onion oil. We find this dish a tad bland though.Poached Seasonal Vegetables w/ Bamboo Fungus & Conpoy 干贝竹笙灼时蔬, an unassuming veggie dish that was loaded with flavors, all thanks to the generous serving of savory dried scallop bits.The star dish of the day, Fried Beehoon w/ Pumpkin 金瓜炒米粉. Quality Taiwan Hsinchu beehoon was used for this dish, the natural sweetness of the pumpkin puree was fully infused into the beehoon during cooking process which resulted in a surprisingly fabulous carbo dish. It was so tasty that we still cleaned our bowls despite already feeling quite full at this stage.And ending the meal on a sweet note, the dessert Glutinous Rice Dumplings in Walnut Cream 核桃露汤圆. Smooth, creamy and not too sweet walnut cream and two morsels of Black Sesame rice balls. It was pretty good.We had a great dinner at Shin Yeh, food quality has been maintained at high standards even after 7yrs in operation. Service is still good but waiting staffs doesn't speak Taiwanese accent mandarin anymore. Price wise I would recommend taking the set meals which are more worthwhile, or you may visit their sister restaurant Shin Yeh Bistro at Square2 (Novena) which has a casual dining concept. They serve a subset of the same menu with a more pocket friendly price tag. Shin Yeh will be a good choice for an occasional splurge on those special occasions.

Full review - http://midas400.blogspot.sg/2015/02/dinner-at-shin-yeh-bistro.html

After visiting my in law at TTSH, hubby and I decided to settle our dinner at Novena Sq/Square 2 area. We walked around a little to look see and spotted this new casual dining version of the famous brand name from Taiwan.

We loved Shin Yeh's food and after confirming that the menu is a subset of the original menu with more affordable prices, we gladly asked for a table for two.Pickles are served upon sitting down. This was sweet, tangy and refreshingly crunchy but we couldn't quite make out what vegetable or fruit this is.We ordered 4 dishes to go with Taiwanese sweet potato porridge. They were delicious, especially our fave Pan fried pork liver...it's still the best!In order of appearance, Pan fried pork liver $12.90++, Preserved turnip omelette (Chye por egg) $10++, Hiratake mushroom in claypot (三杯杏鲍菇) $12.90++ and Sauteed HK kailan $9.90++.As we didn't refill our porridge, we still have some space left for sharing one dessert, so we had the Coconut shaved ice w/ Yam & Red bean toppings (small $4.50++, large $8.90++). It was yummy!After we're done with our meal, the waiting staff serves up a complimentary herbal drink and muah chee. The muah chee was nice, but the drink which is supposedly good for blood circulation tasted really yucky. I only had a sip and gave the rest to hubby.That sums up our enjoyable meal at Shin Yeh Bistro. The food is still as good as what we had at the main restaurant but are priced a lot more friendlier to the wallet. Service was good, more casually done unlike its higher end counterpart. I would highly recommend this place to everyone who loves Taiwanese food!