For full review and photos, please visit http://thumbsforfood.blogspot.sg/2012/12/carousel.html

Carousel is a popular Halal buffet in Singapore. It is one of the few Halal buffets in Singapore. Moreover, it is also widely raved about for its variety and quality. As such, I was excited to try it out. I had the High Tea Buffet at $33++ on a weekday.

The Seafood Selection consists of prawns, mussels and some scallops. Being a Seafood Lover, I was pleased. Even though it was High Tea, they do offer some seafood. The prawns were succulent and yummy! I had almost 5-8 of them. The mussels are really fresh too. Mussels and prawns are a must have! They have an Indian Station where you can make your own wraps. What caught my eye was the kebab roasting. The heat is a bit too overwhelming though. Makes it hard to stay there for long to make my wrap. But really, you must try making your own wrap. Take a slice of wrap, put some orange sauce, add chicken and whatever ingredients you want and pop it in your mouth. Really good! And yes, they have fondue! Not one, but 2! They even have a strawberry fondue which is not very common. And look, they have a wide range of dips and fruits that can go with it. The strawberry fondue is not too bad, taste like the pocky strawberry. Goes well with biscuits. I prefer chocolate with marshmallows and fruits.I missed a photo of the Warm chocolate cake and Bread pudding section. But well, these 2 are a must try! I have a photo of my own chocolate cake though! It looks really good right? Best eaten when just after they refill the tray, when the chocolate is sill molten and flowy. Not too sweet and totally awesome! You can add two scoops of vanilla ice-cream. Yes, they have ice-cream counter too!Overall, I feel that it's a really good Halal high tea buffet with wide variety of choices. For $33++, it's quite reasonable. Though I would think that their main courses and cooked food could have more surprises and better taste.

For full review and photos, please visit http://thumbsforfood.blogspot.sg/2012/09/sin-kee-famous-chicken-rice.html

Personally, I am very particular about the rice as I feel that not every chicken rice store can achieve the nice and fragrant rice taste. However, the standard of the chicken rice at the store is not really the best you can taste in Singapore. The rice is more on the plain side, without the fragrance that will make you want to eat the rice all by itself.

This is it! They sell porridge as well, not bad if you want something different to go with your chicken. Raw fish slices. $6.00 I was quite apprehensive towards eating raw fish slices with my chicken rice at first. But, since this is heavily recommended by people, I reckon it would not hurt to try this. Of course, I'm glad I tried it. This is really yummy. There is absolutely no fishy taste and it is marinated to the right extent, with lime, chili, parsley, spring onion. A must try if you dare to eat the raw fish slices!Half a chicken $ 12.00. Of course, the main dish is the chicken. I like the sauce, but it may be a little on the salty side. The chicken is tender however, I find the skin not that well done and the chicken is on the fatty side. Personally, I like to savour the skin of the Hainanese Chicken Rice so nice skin is important to me! Overall, I think this is worth eating if you are near the vicinity! Definitely worth the price.

For full review and photos, please visit http://thumbsforfood.blogspot.sg/2013/05/tsukada-nojo-plaza-singapura.html

Having heard much about this restaurant, we decided to give it a try!

Be warned that it is not easy to get a table in the restaurant as it has limited seating capacity per night. Once its quota is met, sorry, you'll have to visit the place another time. The good thing is if you're there early to queue (before 7pm), they would put you on a waiting list with different timings to expect. So, you can go off shopping and be back when your timeslot is ready.

When you enter the shop, you can see that it is open kitchen concept, where you can see the preparation process of your food.

The highlight is this Collagen Hotpot. It is made from the bones of Organic Chicken, called "Jitokko" which is a precious chicken in Japan. The solidified collagen is made by boiling the bones for 8hours and then into the shape seen below. So, they will add the solidified collagen into pot and bring it to boil. The solid will slowly turn into liquid which is a thick chicken broth-like soup base.When you order the collagen hotpot, it is actually in the amount seen above. But, you can feel free to request refill of collagen when your soup is depleting.

Ingredients wise, it is $28++ per pax with minimum of 2 pax orders. The good thing is if you have 4 people and do not like all the ingredients on the set, you can order 2 standard sets and other ala carte items that are of your own preference. The ingredients are shown below.

The ingredients are fresh and from what I understand, all the ingredients serve a certain healthy and beauty purpose.If you're still feeling hungry and want more carbo, you can order the "porridge" where they will serve a plate of rice. Add it in and eat it with the soup. Really awesome how the porridge tastes like.

I guess Tsukada Nojo was really quite a unique experience on its own. If you would like to try it, remember to go early to avoid disappointments!

For full review and photos, please visit http://thumbsforfood.blogspot.sg/2012/12/pho-hoa-holland-village.html

Pho Hoa has been around for quite sometime and recently it opened a new branch at Suntec. So how did the food fare?

I did not take not of the exact price. For appetizers/starters, it's about $4-$8. For noodles, it ranged from $12-$20plus depending on the choice of your beef (they have loin, flank and other different parts).

We ordered 3 types of starters. Fried Roll, Sugarcane Prawn and Scallop Roll. It's an alternative to the traditional type of Vietnamese Spring Roll if you don't really fancy Basil leaf. I felt that the dishes were pretty average. If you would ask me to pick one, I would probably choose scallop roll as I prefer the kind of crust it has. The highlight of the restaurant would be pho, as suggested by the name. Pho is actually stick noodles in soup and depending on your preference, you can choose beef (of different parts of the beef) or chicken. I would think the beef pho would be a better choice since it's renowned for it.For those not craving for noodles, you can try their rice plates. The rice plate comes with your choice of meat and a side, which is the fried Vietnamese roll. The grilled chicken is quite nice and tender. Other than that, the dish is quite average as well.Overall, I think Pho Hoa serves comfort Vietnamese Pho, but there is nothing too extraordinary about it. The price is a bit steep compared to other Vietnamese places, probably also due to its location.

For full review and photos, please visit http://thumbsforfood.blogspot.sg/2012/12/tonkatsu-by-ma-maison.html

Tonkatsu, pork cutlet in Japanese has been an uprising trend in Singapore. One of the famous ones include Tonkatsu by Ma Maison at Mandarin Gallery.

For starters, with each set you order, it comes with grinded radish. It's something like an appetizer where you mix their shoyu sauce with the radish and eat it. It is quite refreshing and serves as a good opening to the meal.

The highlight would of course be it's Tonkatsu. Having tried Tonkichi's Tonkatsu and really love it, I was really curious how the one at Ma Maison would be like. Prices here are pretty much the same as other Tonkatsu restaurants, ranging from $23-$35, depending on the type of pork you choose. Each set comes with free flow rice and cabbage.

I prefer the pork cutlet meat to be juicy and that comes with the price of fats in the meat. My choice would be pork loin meat or Rosu Katsu Set. The one here is cooked nicely, rendering the meat not too tough to chew. However, I find that it lacks the juiciness that I was looking for.For those who like a mixture of pork loin and pork cutlet (which is less fatty), you can go for the mixed set. The pork cutlet is similarly cooked well, the batter is not too thick. Like I mention earlier, I still prefer pork loin. And yes, the cabbage with the Japanese salad dressing is awesome. It sort of balances the fried Tonkatsu, leaving you feeling that you have not sinned as much after eating a slab of heaty pork.Overall, I think Tonkatsu for Ma Maison did not really surprise and amaze me with it's Tonkatsu. I was really looking for the juiciness in the meat which was lacking. All in all, I feel that it was still a good meal and for those who love to eat Tonkatsu, you should have a meal here. One thing to note is the queue! After 7pm, the queue is quite long. So, make your way there early to avoid having to wait for a long time.