Showing 21 to 25 of 26 Reviews in Singapore | |
For the full review and more photos, head over to http://toroamtheworld.blogspot.com/2016/01/food-review-benjamins.html The Benjamins, formerly known as Benjamin Browns, is a cafe in Forum the Shopping Mall. A few months ago they shot to fame with their Over-The-Top (OTT) milkshakes, which are milkshakes with many ingredients and snacks piled on top such that it's nearly overflowing. Nutella Banana Milkshake($16++): One of their bestsellers, this milkshake has Khong Guan-like biscuits layered with banana slices, cream, Tim Tam inside, a wedge of chocolate cake, and Nutella smeared on the rim to hold the pretzels there. The milkshake was rich, decadent and definitely a chocolate lover's dream. However, as you can see from the picture, it was hard to drink and start eating the ingredients! Strawberry Cheesecake Milkshake ($16++): This milkshake was also milky and creamy, but I couldn't taste any sort of cheesecake flavour in the drink. So I guess the 'cheesecake' comes from the wedge of cheesecake on top, together with the Khong Guan biscuits, cream, strawberry, Tim Tams and wafer sticks. Crabmeat Arriabiata Linguine ($23++): Unfortunately this dish failed to impress. There was little crabmeat, and because of that, it made the dish seem like an ordinary plate of Spaghetti Bolognese... Fish and Chips ($23++): It was such a small and skinny serving of fish. And it came with a scant portion of salad, some fries, and sour cream. I didn't manage to try this from my friend, but even if it was really delicious, I'd rather order something else that's more worth my penny. 300g Sizzling Beef Chunks ($25++): It comes with roasted baby potatoes and melted cheese on tomato. The beef chunks were really juicy and flavourful! They were chewy yet had a nice bite too. Very tasty, and this is what I call value for money. The Benjamin burger with bacon, eggs, cheese and mushroom ($25++): The beef patty was shaped in a ball, not the flat kind that's about the same circumference as the burger bun. As a whole it was quite tasty, the beef well cooked. But it wasn't very outstanding either. Overall, for the milkshakes, I think they taste ordinary. It's definitely the presentation that creates the wow factor. And actually, $16++ for a cup of this is very expensive! Food wise it was disappointing. For the prices that you pay, you'd expect a certain quality and portion of the food, but it certainly fell short.
Food menu
Drinks menu
Supplementary Information: Used the Entertainer App so it was less costly. Food needs to be improved while milkshakes can be tried once. Table Wait Time: 0 minute(s)
Date of Visit: Sep 09, 2015 Spending per head: Approximately $25 Other Ratings:Taste 3 | Environment 3 | Service 3 | Clean 3 | Price 2Recommend 0 |
Play area
Amazonia is an indoor children's playground where there are giant slides, mosh pits filled with balls, mini golf course etc to cater for the little ones to play and enjoy. In its premises there is also a bistro, which serves a mix of Western and local food. This is where parents can sit and have their meal while their kids.
Play area
I went for their food tasting and here's what we tried: Apple Juice ($5): Very ordinary, and quite expensive for this glass. Caesar Avocado Salad ($13.80): A lot of ingredients here, including grilled juicy chicken breast, sliced avocado, hard boiled egg, cherry tomato and bacon bits. It was not bad overall, and tasted fresh. Chef's Nasi Goreng ($12.70): The plate that we were served was for doubled up in portion for tasting purposes. This came with a lot of ingredients too, such as a drumstick, fried egg, two sticks of Chicken satay, keropok and some achar. The drumstick was delicious with tender meat, while the satay was marinated and cooked very well! Sweet and Spicy Garlic Tiger Prawn ($15.20): Two prawns were served with steamed rice and cooked vegetables. Unfortunately I felt the prawns didn't taste that fresh. The meat was quite soft and mushy... Chocolate Fondant Cake ($7.50): As a dessert lover, I enjoyed this. It's like a lava cake because the slightly molten chocolate filling flowed out (though quite slowly) upon cutting the cake. The chocolate was rich, but the scoop of ice cream melted really fast. Overall, decent food here, though I wouldn't choose to dine here given the other food options within Great World City.
Dining area
Recommended Dish(es):
Chef's Nasi Goreng,Chocolate Fondant Cake Table Wait Time: 0 minute(s)
Date of Visit: Feb 19, 2016 Spending per head: Approximately $15 Dining Offers: 試食活動 Other Ratings:Taste 3 | Environment 4 | Service 3 | Clean 3 | Price 3Recommend 0 |
For the full review and more photos, head over to http://toroamtheworld.blogspot.com/2016/01/food-review-bao-today-dim-sum-high-tea.html Their high tea buffet is done 'tapas style' and has no menu because the dishes served rotates on a regular basis. There are more than 40 varieties and it's served ala carte where the friendly service crew will bring out the food for you. This high tea buffet is only available at their branch in Rendezous Hotel. There is ample space and there are some booth seats too decorated in Oriental style. For non-buffet patrons, you may order from their normal ala carte menu at the counter, with the following menu above the cashier counter. Free flow Iced Peach Tea and Ice Lemon Tea is included for the buffet. Recommended dishes: Siew Mai: Plump with sufficient meat Pork Chop: Tasty and flavourful Nyonya Style Steamed Fish: Very fresh Chives and Prawn Dumpling: Sufficient fillings Char Siew Bao: Meaty and flavourful. Buns are fluffy Zha Jiang Mian: Tasty, even with the noodles alone Mushroom Dumpling: Love the mushrooms inside. But skin a bit thick Scallop Dumpling: Fresh prawns and scallop! Liushabao: BEST DISH. Salted egg yolk custard was flowy, not too sweet or buttery. Buns were light and had a tinge of pandan Average dishes: Wanton in Spicy Chilli Sauce Har Gow Yu Piao/Jellyfish thingy Chee Cheong Fun Pork and Prawn Dumpling Red Bean and Banana Pancake All in all I enjoyed the food here, as most of them hit the mark for me. Some dishes may be replaced every now and then based on customer feedback and the demand for them. Of course, new ones will be added. There were actually a few more dishes that was available that day but we were too full to try them! The service crew were friendly and patient with us too, and gave us recommendations for strategic eating haha! What I like about this buffet is that you don't need to order in quantities of a basket, but down to a single piece! For example if you want to try more Siew Mai, you need not order a basket that has 3 or 4 in it, but can simply request for one if you're too full. And another great thing about this buffet is its wallet-friendly prices! Going on a weekday afternoon will not cost you more than $20 (after taxes), and the most expensive period on weekend nights is less than $27! Quality dim sum at affordable prices - what's not to love?
Ala carte menu
Supplementary Information: Dim sum was generally tasty and yummy. Great place to come for a casual celebration with family or friends Recommended Dish(es):
Siew Mai,Char Siew Bao,Liushabao,Pork Chop,Steamed Fish,Dumplings Table Wait Time: 0 minute(s)
Date of Visit: Jan 14, 2016 Spending per head: Approximately $20 Dining Offers: 試食活動 Other Ratings:Taste 4 | Environment 4 | Service 4 | Clean 4 | Price 5Recommend 0 |
For the full review and more photos, head over to http://toroamtheworld.blogspot.com/food-review-yum-cha-restaurant.html Yum Cha Restaurant has launched their CNY menu, and it doubles up as a takeaway/delivery menu too! I was privileged to try their takeaway menu items last week, where the food was delivered to a condominium function room. Here's what we had! BBQ Suckling Pig: This was the centrepiece of the table. A huge suckling pig was layed out, all sliced and cut out into many even pieces. The meat was really, really tender and fragrant, while the skin was crispy. It was a little cold by the time we ate it but I guess it's because it's been left out for a while and we were busy snapping pictures. But considering that it's takeaway, this dish was pretty good! Braised Pig's Trotter with Fatt Choy: The meat was also very tender and it fell off the bone easily. The Fatt Choy (black moss) was yummy. The gravy was a little salty though. Roasted Crispy Chicken: I enjoyed this dish because the chicken meat was flavourful, tender and succulent. Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage in Lotus Leaf: The fried rice was not bad, though lacking in wok hei possibly because it's takeaway. The Chinese sausage, also known as lap chiong, gave the dish more flavour, though it could have been cut in bigger pieces. Salmon Yu Sheng: If you're worried about consuming salmon sashimi, rest assured as the fish is sourced from Norway and it's definitely AVA-approved. The Yu Sheng was quite nice, and one noteworthy thing perhaps, is that they make their own sourplum sauce. I think a lot of thought has been put into making sure that the takeaway food stays warm, presentable and tasty. They use this huge bag (below) where there's some warmer inside that keeps the food warm. This technology is called 'cook tek', and makes the food stay warm for 2 hours.
'Cook tek' delivery bag
Other dishes (both takeaway and dine-in) include Braised Abalone with Dried Oysters and Fatt Choy, Roasted Crispy Pork Belly and more. Their CNY menus and takeaway menus will be available from tomorrow, 15 January to 22 February 2016. And here's a promotion! A 20% early bird discount for takeaway Yu Sheng if you order before 7 February. For in-house dining promotions, receive a limited edition Yum Cha red packet with a minimum spending of $100, while stocks last. Recommended Dish(es):
BBQ Suckling Pig,Roasted Crispy Chicken,Braised Pig's Trotter with Fatt Choy Takeaway Wait Time: 0 minute(s)
Date of Visit: Jan 08, 2016 Celebration: 團年飯 Dining Offers: 試食活動 Other Ratings:Taste 4 | Environment 3 | Service 4 | Clean 4 | Price 3Recommend 0 |
For the full review and more photos, head over to http://toroamtheworld.blogspot.com/2016/01/food-review-eight-treasures-vegetarian.html Last week I had my first vegetarian dining experience, with an 8-course meal to boot! Eight Treasures Vegetarian Restaurant is a family business that sells purely vegetarian food, and they've been running for 9 years now at a three-storey shophouse in Chinatown.
3rd storey of the shophouse
As part of the OpenRice tasting, we were treated to their Chinese New Year 8-course set menu for 8-10pax, which cost $368+. Sharks' Fin with White Fungus and Wolfberries: First up was this soup, which was a good take on the actual sharks' fin soup, and much much more eco-friendly! The sharks' fin is the white strands in the above picture, and is made of konnyaku jelly, which withstands heat better than agar. The white fungus has a QQ texture and there were enoki mushrooms inside. Fruit Salad Veg. Chicken: The chicken is made of potato while the skin is actually beancurd skin. To cater to the vegans, the mayonnaise is made without using eggs. Thai Style Veg. Cod Fish: The fish is served looking like a cod fish. It is made of wheat and soybean, and the texture is made to feel like you're chewing on fish meat! The Thai sauce is also made in house, and it was just nice to give you a little kick of the spiciness. Veg. Abalone Mushroom and Tou Pau with Seasonal Greens: The presentation was quite nice, with the broccoli at the outer rim and abalone slices layering on top of the mushrooms. Once again the abalone is made of konnyaku, and the mushrooms were really juicy and had that earthiness taste. Cereal Veg. Prawn: This is my favourite dish out of the many good ones! The prawns are also made of konnyaku, and the texture was ON POINT! If I was blindfolded and unaware that this is vegetarian, I'd have thought I was eating the real prawns. The batter wasn't too greasy, but I'd have preferred it a bit thinner. Fragrant Yam Ring: It was a good dish overall. There were mock chicken meat in it and it was very tasty too! Braised Yee Fu Noodles: A common dish served at wedding dinners, I like this dish because it was delicious, with the noodles having the wok hei and stir-fried with lots of veggies! Honey Sauce Veg. Pork: Zenna, the boss's daughter who was hosting us, very generously let us try this signature dish even though it's not part of the CNY set menu. Firstly, the appearance of the dish can already win you over. It looks just like the actual pork belly, and you can see the distinct layers! Secondly, the taste was equally good too! The konnyaku jelly used to make the 'meat' was soft, yet retaining some bite to mimick the actual pork meat. Highly recommended! Rainbow Yu Sheng Veg.: This was supposed to be the first dish but we decided to leave it till the end. This was pretty much the same as the normal ones you can find out there, just that the 'salmon' is also made of konnyaku jelly! It looks just like salmon sashimi (though it's cut more rectangularly) and tastes as slimy and chewy too! Now you don't have to worry about whether the fish is fit for consumption, given the recent spate of freshwater fish incidents. Fruity Mango Pudding: I thought this mango pudding was a bit sweet. Other than that it's an appropriate dessert - something light and refreshing after so many dishes. (: Overall, Eight Treasures Vegetarian Restaurant is the place to try tasty vegetarian dishes that will impress even the non-vegetarians! It changed my impression of vegetarian food. They use a lot of soy beans, konnyaku jelly in their food which are healthier too, and don't use egg, onions or garlic. For those of you who are interested to visit them during the upcoming CNY period, they are open every day and reservations are strongly encouraged! Thank you Zenna for being a wonderful and friendly host and OpenRice for the tasting! Supplementary Information: Good place to go for vegetarian food, for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Recommended Dish(es):
Cereal Veg. Prawn,Honey Sauce Veg. Pork,Braised Yee Fu Noodles Table Wait Time: 0 minute(s)
Date of Visit: Jan 06, 2016 Celebration: 團年飯 Spending per head: Approximately $38 Dining Offers: 試食活動 Other Ratings:Taste 4 | Environment 4 | Service 4 | Clean 4 | Price 4Recommend |
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