Full review's at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.sg/2015/10/candlenut-kitchen.html

Candlenut's Peranakan fare is exceptional. Familiar favourites and modern interpretations, given equal billing, are executed with both polish and flair. And, prices are wallet-friendly.
BUT, I find Candlenut's restaurant policies lacking in sense. For starters, there is just ONE multi-course set for dinner, with no exceptions for ala carte orders whatsoever. To compound matters, tap water is not served at all, only bottled water is available, so even though we had ourselves a glass of wine and lemongrass ginger juice, we still had to purchase a 500ml bottle of mineral water at the exorbitant price of $4. Honestly, it's a major turn-off that a restaurant is as rigid as this.
Dinner was a Set Tasting Menu ($50) of 12-courses, refreshed seasonally. Even if each course was considerably petite, 12 courses added up substantively to a most value-for-money dinner if I ever saw one.
We had:
1) Kueh Pie Tee: served DIY and scrumptious
2) Warm Minced Pork Relish, weaved with punchy banana chillis, black peppercorns, aromatic laksa leaf strips, and presented atop a lettuce bed.
3) Grain-Fed Australian Beef Flank Satay burnished in a stickily sweet peanut sauce: so meltingly tender and juicy, I wouldn't have known it was beef if I hadn't been informed otherwise.
4) Tumbuk Prawns, the last of the quartet of appetizers, was served chilled, speckled with laksa leaf, chives, and raw shallots: wonderfully clean and clear; its refreshing overtones enhanced by the starfruit slice.
5) Rawon Soup - fork-tender beef cheeks in a buah keluak-spiked soup spiked with chilli: robust and spicy
6) Chap Chye, a melange of cabbage, shitake, dried beancurd skin, and glass vermicelli softly braised in a delicate prawn stock: Excellent, one of the best renditions of this classic.
7) Blue Swimmer Crab Curry - impossibly sweet chunks of freshly shredded meat flash-cooked in a mild tumeric coconut milk curry, while kaffir lime leaves lent a piquant touch: So freaking good.
8) King Tiger Prawn, wok-fried with pungent petai beans:succulent, fiery and sweet
9) Ayam Bakar - chicken fillet grilled to a smoky perfection with kicap manis, shallots, and green chillis.
10) The contemporary desserts here were exemplary, like the Candlenut Signature Chendol Cream, a panna cotta-like pudding layered with pandan jelly and sweetened with gula melaka.
11) A lighter option was the zesty Mango Cream with Lime Sorbet, dotted with jackfruit, and sago pearls

Full review's at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.sg/2015/10/the-bark-cafe.html

The entirely alfresco restaurant serves coffeehouse-type fare, so you get a hodgepodge of local classics like nasi goreng and seafood hor fan, as well as western mainstays like beef stew and cheeseburgers. The food was ok, but if I had to take into account the 40-minute drive in heavy traffic from town, I wouldn't go to The Bark Cafe. That said, this would make a worthwhile visit IF you're already in the area and looking for sustenance in a chilled-out spot with lots of quiet and charm.
We had:
1) Tangy Calamari Rings ($9.90): thinly battered and deep-fried to a delectable crisp, but what impressed me was that the squid encased within was perfectly cooked.
2) Sweet Potato Sticks ($13.90): balanced out by the salty creaminess of the Parmesan mayo dip.
3) Bark Cafe Famous Chicken Wing ($15.90 for 6 pcs): they really shouldn't have slapped a superlative such as this, because it set expectations too lofty to meet. The prawn paste-accented wings were nice, but vapid, and so, failed to leave an impression. I've had better for less.
4) Smoky Black Pepper Duck Breast ($18.90): surprising refined. I wouldn't have expected a casual place like this to serve this typically highbrow dish, or to do it this well. Sparkling fresh meat, with nary a hint of game, was slow-roasted to luscious perfection. This was sided by wafu-dressed mesclun greens, and mashed potatoes.
5) Fish & Chips ($18.90): decent, but the deep-fried Pacific dory fillet was a dime a dozen.
6) Grilled Guinness Balsamic Chicken ($19.90) marinated in Cajun herbs, sided by steamed root vegetables, mashed potatoes, and slathered in a Guinness beer gravy: nice enough, but it reminded me of those hawker centre western food stall productions.
7) Chicago Roasted Tenderloin ($29.90): even though cheap, this was lackluster. The beef was gamey, so no amount of roasting finesse could save it.

Full review's at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.sg/2015/10/putien-kitchener-road.html

The mothership is purportedly the best of all the branches, and I agree. But taking into consideration the horrendous traffic and parking woes of this Kitchener Road original, I'd much rather head to the town-based branches.
The secret to loving Putien's brand of humble, peasant fare lies with their awesome chilli sauce, which goes with just about everything. It's really where the magic is, and no wonder Putien now bottles this for sale in the open market.
We had:
1) Steamed Live Seabass ($39.20 for 800 gm at $4.90 per 100gm): done perfectly, with soft flaky flesh complemented by the delicate soy sauce.
2) Homemade Beancurd ($9.90) with wobbly strips of silky beancurd, black mushrooms, sugar snap peas, and carrots, swimming in a sumptuous oyster sauce gravy: simple and comforting. A must-try here.
3) Stewed Spinach in Superior Stock ($12.90) flecked with century and salted egg: mild and creamy.
4) Seaweed with Beancurd and Crabmeat Thick Soup ($13.90): wonderfully nuanced and balanced.
5) Fried Heng Hwa Bee Hoon ($8.90): infused with a collagen-rich stock of pork bone and old hens' bones, and dappled with clams, prawns, pork belly, beancurd, mushrooms, cabbage, kailan, and seaweed. Scrumptious with oodles of that awesome chilli sauce. A must-try.
6) Mazu Mee Sua ($8.90) - done in the style of their lor mee, and simmered in a milky pork bone broth, with pork belly, clams and prawns, eggs, mushrooms, snow peas, seaweed, and peanuts: After growing up eating mee sua exclusively as 'sick-food', I much rather have the lor mee instead

Full review's at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.sg/2015/11/invited-tasting-revisit-sugarhall.html

Sugarhall's fare is fantastic, with every dish a slamdunk, and service is upbeat, knowledgeable, and gregarious. So it's quite shocking to find the restaurant far from a full-house on a weekend night.
I have a supposition: the fact that the restaurant is 2 (or 4) or shades too dim may cause diners to think of Sugarhall as a watering hole that serves yummy nibbles, instead of a restaurant that serves superb cocktails. I would, audaciously, suggest that the restaurant brighten up (a lot) during dinnertime, and only turn down the lights (and up the music) sometime during last orders. That may lend some credibility to Sugarhall being a restaurant first, and cocktail bar second.
We had:
1) Short Neck Clams ($18): fat and impossibly sweet clams, swimming in a broth spiked with birds eye chilli for a punchy heat. Delicious to the last drop.
2) Broken Pork Sausage ($14): wonderfully textured, complemented by the charred cabbage slicked with bonito butter. It would be awesome if the cabbage could be offered as a side dish.
3) Tasting of Beef ($76): extremely well-priced, which I agree. Incredibly juicy, and intense with flavour, every mouthful was heady with smoky singe. We ate these unadorned, without the accompanying chimichurri sauce which was laced with parsley.
4) Whole Spring Chicken ($32): best roast chicken we've had in a long while, even if the presentation of the head and feet might seem pretty gross to some. Brined in rosemary, this was luscious and succulent. So delicious, in fact, the cucumber yoghurt dip was rendered redundant.
5) Burnt Carrots ($12): beautifully sweet with an orange-ginger glaze and cranberry compote

Full review's at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.sg/2015/11/paddy-hills.html

Food-wise, it was a hit-and-miss averaging on decent, and occasionally bordering on so-so. Methinks Paddy Hills would make a pretty worthwhile option if you're in the area, but I don't think the food was excellent enough to warrant travelling from afar.
The bistro is run by a lean workforce, but, for a place that doesn't have any service charge, service was fantastic - smiley and efficient. Another perk, no GST either!
That said, my grouse was mainly regarding the menu, it tended towards unnecessary and wasted pretense. If a menu requires Dr Google's assistance to make an informed decision, that's far too much posturing. I mean, how many regular people know what bagna cauda is? Or even how to pronounce it?!

Also, a girlfriend took issue with the mispresentation on the menu. What was named 'Hash Hash' with a description of "sauteed beef, mushroom, chorizo, doughstick and sous vide egg" turned out to be a beef bak kut teh. Calling a dish "hash", she said, and I quite agree, implies that the whole jin-gang is sauteed, as you would a breakfast hash. A soupy bak kut teh IS NOT a hash. Strip away the pretense, I think, and re-direct the effort to the food. That's what draws in the crowds anyway.
We had:
1) Berry Ricotta Hotcake ($23) adorned with blueberry sugar, pinenuts, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, yuzu gel, and maple syrup: Very pretty, and it tasted as good as it looked. Thick, dense, but fluffy, these were the best pancakes I've had for as long as I can remember.
2) Quesadillas ($20) stuffed with pulled duck and pickles, served with charred baby capsicum and sweet corn, and sided by a garlic aioli and guacamole: The quesadillas, in addition to being laced with parsley, were mediocre. My parsley-loving friend, who had this, said to give this a hard pass.
3) Hash Hash ($24): Misleading description aside, this was a reasonably commendable and very comforting bowl of beef bak kut teh. Meltingly soft and wonderfully fatty, the luscious hunks of meat could have passed off as pork if I hadn't been informed otherwise. I particularly liked the western twist of the sous vide egg, arugula leaves, and chickpeas.
4) Kimchi Fried Rice ($20): much touted, but turned out middling, even with the perfectly wobbly sous vide egg, and medium-well tender steak. I've had better