Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice needs no introduction. Rated as one of the best chicken rice in Singapore, its original shop in Maxwell market drew the crowd like no others. During meal time, expect the queue to stretch around to shop to the open air car park. And that's not all, most of the tourist guide, blogs or other food reference, recommend Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice ('Tian Tian) as a must try in Singapore.

In 2013, when Singtel Invited Michelin Stars Chef Gordon Ramsay for Hawker's Challenge. Representing Singapore National dish, Madam Foo, the owner of Tian Tian, won hands down and send Godron back to UK licking his chops. Prior to that, Anthony Bourdain and other celebrity food host have given their seal of approval to this establishment.Since Madam Foo has come to a ripe age, the second generation has come in to continue the business. With that the expansion of Tian Tian begun and this time around we visited the shop in Joo Chiat.

The set up is an upgraded version comparing to Maxwell Market Food Centre. It is air-conditioned with simple and minimalistic furniture. Today we have 3 hungry guys for lunch, we ordered 1/2 steam chicken ($14), 1 portion of giblets and heart ($4), Hainanese Pork Chop ($8) and small baby kailan ($6). Oh not forgetting the Rice ($0.80) per plate.The rice is fragrant, flavourful, plump and fluffy. It does not stick to each other. The chicken is plump, silky and succulent. There is skin and meat does not stick to each other and the breast meat us as succulent as the thigh meat. The same can be said about my favourite part of the chicken as well, the bishop. It is springy and full of flavour. Although it is a bit oily, it's just irresistible. The best part, they remove the smelly part from it.The giblets and kidney tasted clean, no gamey smell. I like giblets because of its crisp and chewyness, while the kidney has a velvety texture.Hainanese Pork Chop is thick yet tender. However, the meat is not as tasty but it is well fried, coated with panko and not too oily. The traditional tomato sauce, provide the sweet and sour flavour to the dish. The vegetables are fresh, crunchy and tasty, stir fry with garlic.Service is average. As we are seated near the entrance, it is very difficult to get their attention. There is at one point, you can't even see them. Although the set up is minimum, at least it is air-conditioned so you won't sweat too much if you had too much of the chilli.

Overall, it is a good place to have Tian Tian Chicken Rice if you don't want to line up in Maxwell Market. However, I must admit their standard is not as equivalent as their main store. The chicken is missing the X-Factor compare to the one I had in Maxwell. Kind of lost in transition. Cheers!!

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I got to know this place from the recent Facebook Posting from Singapore Makan Guru KF Seetoh. Looking at the yummylicious chicken feet, I just can't say no.Decided to drop by for brunch on one nice Saturday morning. Here is the ordering process, you approach the stall, place your order, get yourself a number, find a table and wait for the food. I decided to go for Wanton Mee ($4) and Chicken Feet ($2).The serving of the noodle is quite generous for my order. The noodle is springy, very qq. Wanton is crispy and the char siew is pretty tender. Although I ask for my noodle without chilli, they forgot about it. At the end, I scrape most of it off; those that remain gave a good heat to the noodle.For the soup base, it is very robust from the long boiling process. However, the star attraction of this place is the braised chicken feet. It is flavourful, tasty and absorb the braising liquid and mushrooms flavour nicely. The skin has the right texture, not soggy. Al dente will be the right terms. The mushrooms are quite huge in size. YumYum!Service is minimum, but the auntie that delivers my food is very friendly. She did give me a curious look when I took out my camera in the first place. Overall, it is a good place for wanton mee. My suggestion is that you order a wanton mee and a serving of chicken feet on the side. When crowded, expect to wait between 20 to 30 minutes. Ciao!

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Known as one of the top buffet restaurant in Singapore, Carousel is a place to try for foodies in Singapore. So when LD suggested this place, I agreed in a heartbeat.

Carousel is only a handful of high end International Buffet Restaurant with Halal certification. They served food ranging from Mediterranean, Asian, Japanese fare, a lavish seafood spread, French Rotisserie, and three dazzling dessert stations.As it was a Friday night, the restaurant is basically pack full of people. If you are trying your luck to dine without reservation, well your chances are very low. We went through lots of 'channels' to get our reservations.We started our degustation buffet from the seafood selection; which offer lobsters, crayfishes, Alaskan crab legs, spanner crabs, mud crabs, oysters, mussels and prawns. All the seafood are chilled and fresh, especially the lobster and prawns. This is my second encounter with spanner crabs, and I can confirm my dislike for it as the meat is rougher compare to mud crabs or Sri Lakan Crabs. The oyster is good, but not fantastic.Sashimi and Sushi section. The variety of sushi and sushi roll is very extensive and creative with more 10 different types, while the sashimi selection is so limited with salmon, swordfish and yellow tail and the cuts for the sashimi is very small, which is abnormal for a 5-star international buffet restaurant.Moving to the rotisserie and cooked food selection, the roast beef is quite ordinary and the Yorkshire pudding is just flat. The beef ribs is chewy, while the rest of the international cooked food is so uninspiring. If I ever return, I will just skip the cooked food section and go for the Indian food. They are authentic and so much better compare to the rest. The Briyani rice is fluffy while the tandoori meat is tender and well seasoned.For the live station of Teppanyaki and Pasta, I only manage to try the Lobster Risotto from the pasta section. To save time, the risotto are pre-cooked to half done. Upon order, they will re-cook and add the lobster and the rest of the ingredients. Unfortunately, for my serving the risotto is under cook. Way below the al-dente level and lacks of punch.For desserts, they have three type of fondue to indulge you. Chocolate, Strawberry and Green Tea. Although it is nice to the eyes, stick with the chocolate. The taste of the strawberry and green tea are very artificial. While I tried other bite sized of the cakes, nothing really catch my eyes except for the bread & butter pudding and chocolate cake which are delicious with the custard sauce.I decided to skip the bread station, salad bar, HK roast station and dim sum station. When our friends told us the HK roast station and dim sum station is very ordinary, I decided not to waste my stomach space.Service on Friday night definitely need to improve. It is very difficult to get the attention of the service staff, either to top up our drinks or clear the dirty plates. The one that horrified me the most is when I ask one of the Chef, where does your roast beef come from, he replied “Fresh from the Market”. OMG, I'm just floored by the answer. I can confirm, guarantee and chop that no restaurant in Singapore will use beef fresh from the market for their roast.

Atmosphere is very good. The decoration is very simple and modern. There are good spaces between tables for you to walk around without accidentally bumping to other diners. For those celebrating your birthday, you will get birthday cupcakes and entertained with the performance of the chefs and service staff.Overall, I cannot understand what the rave is all about for Carousel. For the price that I am paying, I have to say I expect more. Although the varieties are extensive, the quality and the overall standard of the food and services are really not worth paying for. Hopefully they can improve on their quality and consistency, and who knows, Chubby Botak Koala might drop by again. Cheers!!!

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To name a restaurant WOLF is just a catchy genius. Opened by The Privé group, WOLF is a pork centric restaurant and focus on the nose to tail dining experience.

While you might be familiar with Kurobuta and Iberico pork, you will soon be intimate with Mangalica, Nagano and Duroc-Landrace type of porks as well. These are the Five Little Piggies that made up the Pork Chop selections for WOLF. For those non Moo Moo eater, WOLF is a definitely a new dining destination for you.The restaurant is decorated to pay homage to the adult version of Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. There is an engraved picture of the Wolf, along with the three little pigs are well-decorated on the walls the restaurants. For night dining, the restaurant is dimly lit and the setting is very comfortable. Looking for a place for romantic dinner, this is it. The music playing on the background is funky R&B genre. Great environment, but a real challenge for a blogger like me to take natural shot in this environment.While waiting for QC to arrive, we decided to place the order for starters to share. Pan Roasted Duck Liver ($32), Grilled Ox Tongue ($38) and one of our daring dish to try Grilled Beef Hearts ($22). Duck Liver is supposed to be the cheaper 'cousin' compare to goose liver. However, cooked it properly and combined it with port wine poached figs and aged balsamic vinegar, you can't tell the difference. It tasted velvety and melts in your mouth. Yum Yum.The grill ox tongue is just tender and lightly seasoned. There is no fat in the tongue and it works well with the lentils. The most challenging dish is the Grilled Beef Hearts. The texture is springy texture and gamey as well. Yes, gamey is a nice word for strong foul smell, We do not recommend this dish for the weak stomach and sensitive palates. We definitely won't order it next time as well. The greens, walnuts, grapes and dressing actually work well as warm salad without the beef heart.Our Mains basically Pork Centric, we had Nagano Pork Chop ($40), Mangalica Pork Chop ($42) and Grilled Duroc Pork Collar ($30). As recommended by our service staff, we have ordered our pork chop medium rare because it is direct comparison on how we take our steak. This is the way to taste the tenderness and juicyness of the pork.

Nagano Pork Chop originated from Japan but breed in Canada. The texture of the meat are superior marbling, pinker meat, and the taste comparable to aged wagyu beef.Mangalica Pork has the highest percentage of fats among the pork, resulting the meat that just melts in your mouth. It is flavourful, tender and succulent. For the Duroc Pork Collar, the meat is so tender comparable to any of the pork chops. Pork collar has a lower fat content and the combination with chimichurri tomatoes is just amazing. All the meats are well seasoned, the sauces seems to be well suited for decoration only. Amazingly delicious.For desserts, we decided to order Eton Mess ($13) and Chocolate Stout Cake ($14). The later has a dense texture with a rich chocolate flavour. The berry reduction helps to balance richness, but it is just too heavy to end the night. Eton Mess on the other hand is just perfect. Everything are thrown in together to create different texture with tantalising taste. The balsamic syrup works well to bind and balance all the ingredients for perfect ending to erase the overwhelming sensation from the pork.Service is impeccable. They know everything about the menu and patiently explain to us about the different taste of the pork chop. We were actually quite surprise that with the quality of the food, no other customer was there. Almost looks like we booked the whole restaurant.

If you ever dine in Privé group outlets, they always give something for the diners to bring back with them. For Wolf, you get pork crackling to bring home. Unfortunately it was just too tempting, it did not even pass the front door before it goes Poof!!Overall, I did not know that Pork Chop can be so good. After this experience, I will have think twice on what to order next time I choose between Pork Chop and Steak. For a truly wonderful dining experience, Wolf got two thumbs up by Chubby Botak Koala. Cheers!!

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The first thing that come to your mind when you hear Black Angus is Steak. One of the finest steakhouse in the states, they first open their door in Singapore in 1997 and won lots of awards in early 2000s. Although they have been in Singapore for almost 17 years, this is the first time Little Devil and I ever been there.The first thing that catch my eyes when we go to Black Angus Steakhouse ('BAS') is their logo. A cowboy squatting and cooking on campfire. The BAS @ Orchard Parade Hotel a choice of indoor and outdoor seating. As the weather was pretty war, we decided on the indoor seating, where it is decorated base on traditional Cowboy / Country Western theme in the States. Let just say, if you walk in with jeans, cowboy boots and hats, you will feel right at home.Since we were not that hungry, we decided to skip the appetizer and get straight to the main menu. I ordered their signature Prime Rib Three Quarter Pound Cut ($59.90) and LD decided on their Rib-Eye Steak, 10oz cut ($44.90).As part of the meal, we can choose an entrée to complement it. LD choose Garden Salad, while I decided on Steak Soup. The garden salad is a simple salad of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, croutons and with simple salad dressing. For those who never tried the steak soup like me, it is almost the same as stew. Thick and intense in flavour. How I wish if they serve a corn bread to go with the soup.My 3/4 pound (about 340 grams) prime ribs came medium rare as per order. Generous cut with well spread marbling. Presentation is very simple, mash potatoes on the side, boiled vegetables and the au jus from the ribs. It is tender, juicy and deliciously yummy!!LD's choose the smaller rib-eye, its about 280 gram. However, we feel that it might be bigger than 280 grams. Cooked to medium rare, served with baked potato, onion rings and boil vegetables. The Rib-eye is tender and juicy, goes well with the crispy onion rings. They sure know how to do their steak properly and their serving is definitely the big US size.Service was good. As we were seated on the main walkway, we have no problem getting their attention.

Overall, we enjoy our meal here. BAS served a very good quality for steak, with no fuzz and reasonable price. It is definitely not your Kobe or Wagyu beef, but it sure is better than your average steak. Cheers!!!

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