The appetizers chosen were Texas Cheese poppers, chicken crispers and southwestern egg rolls. The cheese poppers are full of flavour, but that's the thing, it's just flavour, not flavours, which makes it rather unsophisticated. It's basically just a mix of different cheese (cheddar and mozzarella) fried into a ball. For cheese lovers like myself, it's great, but taken critically as a foodie, it's mostly just cheese done right.

The egg rolls on the other hand had a mixture of ingredients, capsicums, onions, beans and the like. It was pretty good but could have been better controlled. The deep-fry paired with the dominance of black beans resulted in a mostly salty flavour. This is compensated though by its semi-thick and tasteful skin which packs a greasy-sweet and chewy flavour.

The chicken crispers were not so good. It's very reliant on the concept of tasting the original flavour as with most U.S-styled cooking, but the frozen chicken that's most probably used is unsuccessful in providing that. Instead you get a bland, mostly oil-tasting dish.

For my main dish, I ordered a classic fajita combo. That was the first time I was eating fajitas so I didn't really know what to expect. What I experienced was pretty good, but nothing too great. The dish came with chicken and beef strips that had been grilled and placed on the serving hot-plate. They are accompanied by capsicums, onions and a dash of pepper for seasoning. There was a side plate with sour-cream, guacamole dip, cheese gratings and the like to add to the mix. These are then placed by your own choice of ratio onto a flour tortilla (they provided 4).


For full review and more photos, please visit http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/09/chilis-grill-and-barthe-central-not-as.html

My first sip of the broth, as always, brought me into a different place altogether, its taste being as rich as ever. From one mouthful alone, it's pretty hard for the first-timer to ascertain the individual components of the soup (pork base, Bario's special soy sauce, garlic, pepper, and the incredible bits of fat). But there's no need for in-depth analysis here; Bario's soup just blows you away completely and is unlike anything I've ever had, leaving you utterly speechless while your tongue scrambles to comprehend the sheer awesomeness of it all. To say it's merely intense would do it no justice at all. That first sip of Bario's soup has a good case to be one of the highlights of my, and anybody else's, life.

Go to http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/08/bario-ramen-muscle-car-of-ramen-world.html for full review with pictures on Bario, and http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/08/ramen-champion-ramen-lovers-paradise.html for a review on Ramen Champion as a whole!

The French beans used in this dish were evidently of good quality. They had a good crunch to them and tasted especially fresh. Sadly, they were put to a waste as they were a little undercooked and began to taste raw after some time in my mouth, resulting in a salad like feeling which could have been masked with more sauce and minced meat. In the end, the stingy use of minced meat made the dish feel a little cheap.Portion is not very good, making it's $9.90 price tag a little inappropriate.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/08/shin-yeh-bistro-taiwanese-by-word-not.html

When the ramen first arrived, I was prematurely disappointed. It was topped with the standard array of wood ear fungus, finely chopped spring onions and strands of pickled ginger, but what caused my disappointment was the broth which appeared bland and diluted. My rash judgement was quickly dispelled when I took in my first spoonful of the broth. It had a creamy flavour that was much heavier than it looked, carrying a strong and promising taste. This was unfortunate because it only took a few slurps before the abundant use of ginger became apparent.

The dense flavour of ginger tries to add a fresh, stimulating spice to each scoop and was particularly effective at masking the strong smell-the uninitiated might call stench-which is common with pork based Ramen stock. However, the feeling of freshness quickly wears off and it became too overwhelming for the broth’s basic flavour to be properly enjoyed. The broth also came with a dessertspoon-sized serving of their ‘special sauce’ which added a nice zing to the broth but was again quickly overwhelmed by the taste of ginger which proved more a distraction than a complementary item. Overall though, the broth was definitely above average and worth a try.

The noodles were nothing to be excited about. Whether they were over-boiled in water or prepared with too little strength is unknown, but it was clear that they lacked the tension and resilience which defined a good serving of Tonkotsu Ramen noodles. They were brittle and weak, giving in to bites easily and doing little to complement the broth. The noodles were nowhere near what can be described as Al-dente and overall not very appetising. These were paired with a considerably overcooked half-boiled egg and unimpressive chashu.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/08/ramen-bar-suzuki-more-bar-than-ramen_17.html