Stirling Highway

C says:

We read about Stirling Highway, a new cafe at Ridgewood Condo, a few weeks ago in the papers. The article/review made it sound very promising, and since it was quite close to home, we decided to try it for brunch one Saturday.

Well, either no one else read the article, or the place only fills up after noon, because when we were there between 11 and 12, we were the only table for more than half that time.

They were also severely overstaffed, with 5 people (including, presumably, the owner who was doing paperwork at one table) there to serve our single table of 2. I can only hope that most of them are there on a voluntary basis, to help/hang out with friends; otherwise it would make no sense at all.

We tried the 2 recommended dishes - the Pulled Pork Pancakes, and the Eggs Ben. Having had Strictly Pancakes fairly recently, I thought these fell short. The pancakes sandwiched with pulled pork just made for a rather monotonous eating experience, and I got quite bored halfway through. The Jack Daniels maply syrup packed quite a boozy punch, but was also a little too liquid for my liking.

The Eggs Ben, which comes with both smoked salmon and spinach on top of brioche, fared only marginally better. The eggs were well poached, but they used too much vinegar in the poaching liquid so it just overwhelmed all other flavours.

I was too full for their salt caramel tart, but A went for their chocolate mousse torte. This really looked a lot better than it tasted. Far from being light layers of mousse and cake, it was hard and dry, and almost impossible to cut through with a fork.

The only saving grace is that we chanced upon Poulet Vous a few doors down, which looks like it could have way more potential.

A says:

Given all the great coffee joints, cafes and bistros in Singapore, this place turned out to be a big disappointment. It's perfectly passable, but I'd only recommend it for residents in the area. Certainly not a worth a trip out.

Stirling Highway
5 Ridgewood Close
Unit #G1, Ridgewood Condominium
Tel: 6464-9607

Madam Kwan's

C says:

Madam Kwan's, a popular Malaysian nasi lemak chain, has opened its first overseas outlet in Vivocity. We ended up there because the queue outside Jamie's Italian was too long, even on a Monday night. We had read a number of reviews of Madam Kwan's, mainly in respect of how overpriced the Singapore outpost is compared to its equivalent in Malaysia, but we decided to see for ourselves.

The restaurant is pretty huge, and acoustics are terrible. Forget about trying to conduct any sort of conversation with your dining companion - you have to yell to hear and be heard over the incredible din. Despite many waiters running around, they are far from a well-oiled machine. I think it took us over 5 minutes just to catch someone's attention to take our order.

The nasi lemak was passable, though the rice wasn't coconutty enough for A. The otak was very good though, and the additional chicken curry that we ordered had a very tasty gravy; pity that the chicken itself was really dry and overcooked.

I decided to try the fried fish noodle soup. This was ok, but at twice the price of the one at Central and not nearly as good, definitely not something I'll order again.

Unfortunately all the reviews are spot-on. The food here is way overpriced given the quality. Service is almost non-existent, and they have the gall to charge $1 for water. Given the plethora of dining options available in Vivo, I'll be surprised if they last more than 2 years (I'd say a year but I assume most leases are for 2 years...).

A says:

Blah. Totally overrated.

Madam Kwan's
1 Harbourfront Walk
#01-152/154, Vivocity
Tel: 6271-9989
Open daily: 10 am - 10 pm

Brill

C says:

Brill took over the space at TripleOne Somerset that was previously occupied by Black coffee house. It usually looks forlornly empty, but something on their chalkboard menu - Pig Parts Don, made me mildly curious enough to try it one day.

As luck would have it, the pulled pork and pig intestine don wasn't available that day. I ended up ordering the Roast Beef Don instead. Strangely enough, they also had Gado Gado on the menu, and A, having had a satay gravy craving for a while, got that.

The beef don completely underwhelming. Slices of bland roast beef were placed on top of regular (I.e. not short grain Japanese) rice, with a strange onion gravy/puree. There were a few slices of pickled daikon and carrot, and some Chinese spinach that tasted like it was on the verge of going off.

The Gado Gado was deconstructed, and at best very ordinary. Just tasteless boiled vegetables for dipping into a bowl of satay gravy.

The only thing that was worth eating was their version of soft boiled eggs on toast, which they termed Onsen Tamago Toast. It was served in a soy dashi broth with a few drops of spicy sesame oil. The eggs were cooked well and the Japanese twist was quite pleasant.

Overall though, I simply don't know what they're trying to be. Japanese-named foods but with basic local element, and some Indonesian thrown into the mix. The menu and concept are confused, and it shows in the end result.

A says:

Meh. It's okay. A bit pricey. And there and many other places around the area I'd rather eat at.

Nene Chicken

C says:

I've concluded that Korean fried chicken really isn't for me; or if that's too much of a generalisation, then to be specific, I really don't like Nene Chicken's version. It's everything that I don't like in my fried chicken - a thick layer of batter, and slathered in sauce.

They do their fried chicken two ways at Nene - chicken wings, and chicken tenders, which are bite-sized pieces of both white and dark meat. You can then opt for one of a number of sauces, including Freaking Hot, Cheese, Sesame and Green Onion.

We got the chicken tenders with Sesame, and the wings with the Freaking Hot sauce. I didn't like the tenders at all - the sesame sauce was abnormally sweet, and the chicken was far from tender, especially the white meat pieces.

It was a cute touch that they gave us plastic gloves for the wings, but after a couple of wings, diminishing returns kicked in fast. The wings were overly battered and the sauce was thick, sticky and overpowering. For those who can't take heat, the Freaking Hot packs a bit of a punch, though it only kicks in after a while.

Maybe the other flavours are better, but I really don't think I can even bring myself to try any of them.

A says:

Eh, I might go back to try a few other flavour combos just to confirm my "Not recommended" opinion. But even for a person who likes food drenched in sauce, this was really too much. In fact, the only good thing I can say is that you get a lot of meat on the drumlets.

Nene Chicken
1 Vista Exchange Green
#01-24, Star Vista
Open daily: 11 am - 10 pm

Morganfield's

C says:

Morganfield's is a Malaysian diner chain with its first Singapore outlet at Star Vista. They specialise in "Sticky Bones" - hickory-smoked pork spare ribs that are slow roasted till so tender that they're falling off the bone. I'm not a big fan of diner food, but A's folks wanted to try it out so we came for dinner on a Sunday evening.

We initially considered sharing one of their festive platters for 4, till we did the math and realised that it was actually cheaper to order each component of the platter separately. Given the number of platters that were flying out of the kitchen, it appears that their marketing strategy worked.

A and I shared a Ribs on Ribs combo - 2 half-racks of ribs plus 2 sides. You can choose between Hickory BBQ, Smoked Peppercorn and Tuscan Baked Spicy Tomato. We went with the first two, with sides of corn on the cob and red skin mashed potatoes.

The Hickory BBQ was predictably good, but I actually preferred the Smoked Peppercorn. It had a deeper flavour and some nice heat, which made each bite less monotonous.

There's no denying that the ribs were really tender - the meat pretty much just fell off the bone. Strangely enough, that's also my main criticism - it was more like pulled pork than bbq ribs. I like my ribs to be nicely grilled, and still firm enough for me to pick up and gnaw at. Here you don't even need to use your fingers; your knife and fork will more than suffice.

The apple pie was a letdown. The shortcrust pastry was soggy; the filling nothing to shout about. It was saved by the scoop of pretty decent vanilla ice cream.

Even though we got there early, we still waited ages for our food to arrive. I guess the kitchen couldn't cope with the multiple orders of festive platters. I can't deny that the portion sizes are very generous, but we left feeling full but unsatisfied.

A says:

The ribs were tender but still generic. Everything else was just generic. Blah. Oh, and the dessert was awful. At least the portions are generous. And the service was very good, all things considered. But all in all, not recommended.

Morganfield's
1 Vista Exchange Green
#02-23 The Star Vista
Tel: 6694-3635
Sun to Thurs: 11 am - 10.30 pm
Fri & Sat: 11 am - midnight

Hippopotamus: An update

C says:

We finally went back to Hippopotamus to try their steaks, this time with A’s folks. We thought we’d do a taste test, so we ordered the Prime Rib for 2-3 persons from the “Premium Meat” section, and the Ribsteak on the bone, from the regular section of the menu.



OMG, it was SOO bad that I’ve now concluded that probably the only thing worth having here is actually the Tartare Grill that I had the last time. Both steaks were full of sinew and fat, and were tough, tasteless, underseasoned and poorly cooked.


We ordered the dessert sampler, which came with tasting portions of a Floating Island, chocolate crepe, crème brulee, fruit salad and a mango sorbet. The Floating Island and chocolate crepe were passable, I didn’t try the crème brulee, and the fruit salad and mango sorbet were both afterthoughts.

To say this was disappointing is a huge understatement; I can’t remember when I’ve been this angry at such poor food.

A says:

Good service. Bad food. The only thing I can recommend here is the seared steak tartare.

Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill
6 Raffles Boulevard
#01-204/205
Marina Square
Tel: 6338-5352
Open daily: 11 am to 10 pm

Kraze Burgers

C says:

We moseyed over to Marina Bay Sands after work on Friday, but weren’t really in the mood to try one of the fancier restaurants. We ended up in the basement, and the choice was either the Rasapura Masters food court, and a standalone burger joint called Kraze. We saw our friends D and L at Kraze and decided to join them.

Kraze is apparently a Korean burger chain, and solely based on the menu, it looked pretty enticing. Unfortunately, it turned out pretty disappointing, and I don’t think it was worth it for the prices.



At least the low-carb burger was passable. This consisted of two burger patties and a sunny side up egg, with a sweet Korean bbq sauce. The actual burger, on the other hand, was pretty bad. The bun was cold, dry and hard, and the rest of the burger was just ordinary and forgettable. There’s apparently an option of normal and wholemeal bun, but we were all given the wholemeal one without any choice.

At an average of $20 per person, this definitely doesn’t warrant a return visit. I think the food court would’ve been a better bet.

A says:

It’s not bad. But it’s not very good either. More like “Yeah, well, whatever.”

Kraze Burgers
#B2-54 Marina Bay Sands
Tel: 6688-7844

Swensen’s

C says:

Another blast from the past. Presented with limited choices at IMM when we had dinner with A’s folks, he decided on… Swensen’s. He was probably trying to recapture his youth as he advances in age (happy birthday, A). Unfortunately, either the standard has deteriorated, or our palates have gotten more honed, but this really didn’t do very much for us.


A’s folks ordered a set, which came with a soup of the day. No effort was made to tell us what the soup was, so we were left guessing and even after tasting it, I still can’t figure out what the flavour was supposed to be. Maybe carrot? Possibly pumpkin? Oh well.



Between the 4 of us, we had the lasagne, fish and chips, a hamburger pizza, and beef stroganoff baked rice. The latter two were the only things that were noteworthy, mainly because they were fairly interesting. The pizza was a deconstructed hamburger on a pizza base – minced beef, cheese, onions and pickles.

The beef stroganoff rice was actually pretty decent, but quite Asian-inspired. The beef tasted like Chinese-style stewed beef brisket, so I wasn’t complaining.


The chocolate milkshake was the main reason that A chose Swensen’s, but I think he was slightly disappointed. The milkshake wasn’t properly blended, so there was a whole chunk of ice cream that still hadn’t melted.

Service was terrible. We had a very surly restaurant manager that looked and behaved like he’d rather be anywhere else. Trust me, dude, the feeling was mutual.

A says:

Old school blast from the past. The service (except for the cashier who went out of her way to help us) was horrible. The food came out quickly though. The standard’s passable if you stick to those labelled “All-time favourite”. And if you keep your expectations low. The biggest disappointment of the night was the chocolate milkshake. Sigh.

Not recommended unless you’re trying to be ironic.

Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh

C says:

I’m extremely confused... This place is consistently voted as Singapore’s best bak kut teh, trumping both Ya Hua and Founder, but after finally trying it today, I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out why. In my opinion, this doesn’t even come close to Ya Hua, let alone Founder which tops my list.

We ended up here for an early lunch on Saturday quite by accident; we were actually trying to find a furniture store in Macpherson, got lost and decided to try looking for the “famous Rangoon Road bak kut teh”.


We ordered our usual – the ‘long’ pork ribs, the giam chye and you tiao, as well as bowl of pig’s liver. When the ribs arrived, they looked promising in a dark broth. I took a sip – it was slightly peppery and quite thick, but at the same time it lacked, I dunno, depth and body. Never mind, I thought. Maybe, like at Ya Hua, the ribs are the highlight.


To my surprise, the ribs were really tough and chewy. This is surprising, because one of the reasons we order the pork ribs rather than the chopped up spare ribs, is that they come a premium because of their tenderness. You usually can’t go wrong when you order the long pork ribs, but here they were dry and didn’t even fall off the bone.

Needless to say, I was puzzled. “Am I missing something?”, I thought. I even ordered a bowl of the spare ribs, thinking that maybe those are the ones that are famous, not the pork ribs. Wrong; they were even drier and harder.

The liver didn’t fare much better. The slices were so thin that they were overcooked by the time they arrived, and ended up being chewy and tasteless.

Someone help me out. I’m really not being biased; I came here with an open mind, expecting this to blow me away if it was rated above Ya Hua and Founder. After tasting it, I really can’t see how, in any sort of taste test, anyone could put this above those two joints. To me, based on what I had today, it’s not even in the running.

A says:

Service is super efficient. But bak kut teh wise, I much prefer Founder.

Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh
208 Rangoon Road
Hong Building
Tel: 6291-4537
7 am to 3 pm (Closed Mondays)

MOB (Most Original Burgers)

C says:

We really have no dining karma with VivoCity lately. First it was the horrendous King Louis Grill a few weeks ago, and now MOB. I saw an ad for this in a magazine and with a name like Most Original Burgers, it looked interesting so we headed there on Saturday after catching a movie. We’d loaded up on nachos during the show so we only shared one main and a side between us.

The concept is interesting. They have a dish called Goodfellas, which consists of 3 sliders which you can custom make. The bun is joined up so you can only choose the one bread, but you can choose 3 different fillings. We had the original beef burger, a sloppy joe and the Korean beef bulgogi.


This was so disappointing it’s not even funny. The bun was hard, dry and crumbly. The beef patties were dry and had almost no taste, and the sliced beef bulgogi was chewy and sinewy.

A ordered a chocolate milkshake, which was just a tasteless chocolate milk slushie. I think we were deliberating whether this should be a “Not recommended”, but this pseudo-milkshake made up our minds.

A says:

Decent service but the food was yuck yuck yuck. The milkshake was massive fail!

MOB (Most Original Burgers)
1 Harbourfront Walk
#01-52 VivoCity
Tel: 6376-9681
Open daily: 10 am to 11 pm

King Louis Grill

C says:

Let me just start out by saying that this place was not our choice. We met A’s parents at Vivocity for dinner, and since they got there first, we asked them to pick the place. A’s dad was enticed by the “one dines free with every two paying diners” promo, but turns out that it’s limited to weekdays. Anyway since we were already there we decided to give it a go.

King Louis Grill is a cheesy theme restaurant that isn’t even very Arthurian. Perfunctory suits of armour in the corner, tiaras on the waitresses and calling the dishes “Queen Elizabeth’s Feast” or “King Arthur’s Platter” do not a medieval theme make. The restaurant took over Hog’s Breath Cafe on the 3rd floor, next to Daiso and Imperial Herbal, and they’ve retained most of the decor, just adding a few cheesy elements in a lame attempt to make it themed.

But enough about first impressions. If the food had been good, I’d be more than willing to overlook the peripheral details. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. We ordered one of the Queen’s Platters for 2 to 3 persons, comprising lamb chops, rib eye steak, BBQ pork ribs and roast chicken. The platter was definitely substantial enough for more than 3 persons; 4 of us were struggling to finish it.


The food itself was very lacklustre. The lamb was overcooked and chewy. The steak, when we asked for medium rare, was a combination of medium and well done. The ribs were tender but smelt kinda funny, like it was on the brink of going off. The only thing that was half decent was the chicken, because honestly, how far wrong can you go with roast chicken? There was a mound of potato wedges, and boiled (read: overcooked) vegetables.

Yes, at $71.90 for a platter large enough for 4, it seems pretty value for money. But when you think about it, the quality is on par with most hawker centre Western food stalls, so on that basis, $18 per person for that kind of quality is kind of a rip-off.

Needless to say, we’re definitely not coming back. Not voluntarily, anyway.

A says:

C’s being a bit harsh but yeah. It’s not really great for restaurant standards. The best thing I can say about it is that the portions are huge.

And given that only one server gave us good service, I’m forced to add this to the not recommended list.

King Louis Grill & Bar
1 Harbourfront Walk
#03-07A Vivocity
Tel: 6276-0862
Open daily: 12 noon to 10 pm

Wendy’s

C says:

Since Wendy’s opened at Lau Pa Sat this was my first visit, but actually A’s second. After his horrific first time where he waited an hour for his food, we’ve been giving it a wide berth but it was a late night at work for both of us, so we figured it was late enough to give Wendy’s a try.

Even at 9.45 pm there were still a few people in the queue, but we didn't have to wait more than a few minutes. We each had a single ¼ pounder with cheese, shared the fries, and I had a chilli while A had a frosty shake.


The burger was decent; I like that it had a considerably larger patty compared to the bun. But it looked like it was assembled rather haphazardly, and the cheese was cold and not melted into the patty. What saved it was the combination of mayo and ketchup. All in all, it’s decent for what you pay, but if you don’t mind paying slightly more, Carl’s Jr is way better.

I have a big issue with their service though, or rather, lack thereof. This is definitely the reason for the snaking queues at lunchtime – complete inefficiency. When we were there, 2 counters were open, one manned by the store manager and one by an extremely blur-looking staff. There were another 8 to 10 people milling around the kitchen, most of whom were doing nothing besides distract the people who were working.

I placed my order with the blur guy, and since their burgers are “made fresh”, I appreciate that I have to wait for my burger to be made to order. I stood to one side while the blur guy served another customer. My burger materialised from the kitchen shortly after and was placed on a tray in front of the blur guy. I waited a few moments for him to pass it to me. Nothing happened. Waited a bit more while he clowned around with another guy. Still nothing. Finally I had to ask him “Is that my order?” “Yes.” Pause… “Can I have it?!” “Yes”; at which point I had to reach over for the tray myself.

We were still eating at closing time (10 pm), and saw one of them hose down the outside of the glass doors. He clearly wasn’t paying any attention to what he was doing, because he sprayed water onto an innocent passer-by. She took it extremely well, only asking for napkins to wipe herself down, but I was livid on her behalf after already experiencing their nonexistent service.

They really need to get their act together. Their food isn’t so outstanding that I’ll put up with insane queues and shoddy service. In fact, if they keep this up, I really doubt that they’ll have enough repeat customers to support the 35 branches that they are committed to opening in the next decade.

A says:

Given I used to live on the Wendy’s $1 menu as a poor college student in America, I was super psyched when Wendy’s re-opened here.

Sad to say, I’m sorely disappointed.

The ¼ pounder is much better than the ½ pounder I had when they first opened. But still, it’s not that good.

I also had the chocolate milkshake which sucked.

In fact, the only redeeming thing here is the Frosty ice cream. But that will in no way have me coming back.

Especially with the horrible, horrible, horrible service. You can see the manager is trying his best, but everyone is simply incompetent.

I probably won’t be back unless I walk past and it’s totally empty and I’m craving an ice cream.

Kuishin Bo

C says:

What is it with atetoomuch and bad buffets this weekend?!

A’s friend KH suggested Kuishin Bo at Great World City for dinner tonight. We were told that it’s a member of the En chain, so we assumed that it would be similar to En’s fabulous shabu shabu buffet. Little did we know that (a) it’s part of the Kuriya group, not the En group, and (b) it was a generic Japanese buffet, with a wide range of offerings but lacklustre versions thereof.

On weekends the price is an astounding $43.90++ for dinner, which came up to about $50 per person! This was a huge rip off – there’s no way what we ate was remotely worth $50.

I need to go to En soon – I need to have a good quality yet good value buffet to restore my faith that you can have buffets without skimping on the quality of your offerings.

A says:

The sushi and sashimi aren’t bad by mass production standards. And there’s soft serve ice cream and a decent chocolate mousse for dessert. Having said that, this is in no way worth $50 unless you really, really eat like a kilo of sashimi. Not recommended.

Colbar

C says:

Instead of brunch at Relish, we opted for something simpler and went to Colbar instead. Colbar (short for colonial bar) has such a devoted following that when they were evicted from their previous location just down the road due to construction of new roads, loyal customers (a large number of whom are expats) rallied round and raised funds to help them reconstruct the entire building about 200 metres down the road.

I must say the place is quite quaint and charming, and you don’t quite feel like you’re in Singapore. It serves very old-school Hainanese-style Asian and Western dishes, from chicken curry and fried mee hoon to mixed grills and all manner of combinations of sausages/bacon/eggs/chips/beans/mushrooms/peas.


A, expecting the sausages to be cheapo frankfurters, ordered the sausage, eggs, chips and mushrooms. Unfortunately they’re not as low-end as you think, because it turned out to be fat link sausages, the kind A doesn’t like. Having said that, their button mushrooms are of the *shudder* canned Narcissus variety.


I had the dry fried mamee, again expecting the noodles to be like instant noodles, but they turned out to be thick fat noodles instead. Still, their Asian food seems to be better than their Western. This was on the salty and oily side, but still much better than A’s fry up, where the standard was hawker centre Western food at best.

Frankly, apart from the old-fashioned charm, I think this place is way overrated. The novelty of the ambience wears off pretty quickly, especially when you’re sitting in the heat and having to swat away numerous flies. I guess price-wise it may initially seem a lot cheaper than going to a chi-chi brunch place, but bear in mind you have to factor in the quality of what you’re getting for the price as well.

A says:

I can see why expats (and some locals) might like the old school al fresco ambience, but really, it’s not for me. Plus these flies kept disturbing our meal.

Plus the food is really around hawker centre standard so I really can’t see myself paying the higher prices for it.

Colbar
9A Whitchurch Road
Wessex Estate
Tel: 6779-4859
Tues – Sun: 11 am to 10 pm
Closed Monday

La Noce

C says:

La Noce is opened by the ex-chef of Papi so it was with considerable anticipation that we made our way to the slightly ulu Chu Lin Road in Bukit Batok on Saturday night to celebrate B’s birthday (Happy Birthday, B!).

I can’t say that I totally wouldn’t recommend this place, but the general consensus was that it had its fair share of hits and misses. Some of the dishes were objectively very good, but then there were some that were so bad that, coupled with the erratic and downright bizarre (I’ll explain in a bit) service, I don’t think the place as a whole could be redeemed.


The evening started out well enough, with a complimentary amuse bouche of crab meat and caviar tartlets. The pastry for the tartlets was a bit soggy, but otherwise this was alright. Because the chef was from Papi, the pizza place that we loved for too fleeting a moment, we wanted to try the pizza here so we all shared a Siciliana – eggplant, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, anchovies, garlic and black olives. Some of the gang thought this was a little on the salty side, probably because of the anchovies and olives, but I was very impressed with the pizza.



The other starters that we shared had more mixed reactions (which proved to be the prevailing theme for the rest of the night). The spicy sauce that came with the calamari was quite good, but the squid itself was overcooked and rubbery. The vitello tonnato (thinly sliced veal with tuna sauce), on the other hand, was very good and as S said, one of the better ones that she’s tried. The veal was sliced just thin enough to still have some substance, and the tuna sauce had a good balance of flavours; not too overpoweringly tuna.

M had a pumpkin soup and W had the minestrone, both of which fell completely flat, in their opinion. In fact, it seemed that a lack of salt/taste was the general opinion throughout dinner, and we had to keep the salt shaker with us the entire night. When starters were ordered, we got our first taste of the strange waitress who seemed to be living in a parallel twilight zone dimension. Y asked if there was any mushroom soup, and the waitress told her, with a straight face, that mushroom soup hadn’t been on the menu for two years. Wtf??!!! The restaurant itself has been open for only about 6 months…



We had read/heard differing views about the main courses too. B read that the lamb rack was good, and W was told to stick to the pastas. With that in mind, I ordered the lamb and A ordered a pasta – the cappellini with crab meat and cherry tomatoes – to share. The lamb arrived first, and while mine was a tad overdone (I’d requested medium), S’s and B’s looked a bit better, but taste-wise there was no complaint. The meat was well-seasoned, not too fatty, and generally quite tasty.

Then the pastas arrived, and all the pastas just couldn’t make it. Again, everything just lacked salt and taste. The crab meat cappellini was flat, and according to M and W, their vongole and seafood pastas didn’t fare much better.

Strangely enough, only half of the pastas arrived. After waiting ages for 3 more pastas, we finally asked the waitress (the same twilight zone one) to check on them, and based on the flurry going and her frantically checking the order chit, we knew she’d simply forgotten them. She claimed to have them ready in 3 minutes – well, maybe in her time zone. After a good 10 or 15 minutes, a second cappellini and 2 rigatonis arrived. This cappellini was only marginally better than the first, but the rigatoni with creamy duck ragout was actually pretty decent.



Finally, it was time for dessert. We ordered 2 portions of profiteroles, and a slice of torta del nonna (grandmother cake) to sing a birthday song for B, but the kitchen gave her a complimentary plate of 2 profiteroles with a candle in one of them. Quite a nice gesture, and the profiteroles themselves didn’t look very good but actually tasted quite delicious. The choux pastry was very light, as was the whipped cream filling, and it was coated in a light chocolate sauce. The cake was a bit on the heavy side though, and a tad dry.

Well, there you have it. Quite a spectrum of standards, such that it felt as though the dishes were cooked by completely different persons. I’m sure the rest of the gang have some words of their own to share about the place, so I’ll leave them to add a bit more colour.

A says:

The other tables had the antipasti which looked really good. I guess you should stick to that and the pizza, although I think Peperoni does a better thin and crispy pizza. Best dish was surprisingly the profiteroles. Nice.

La Noce
3 Chu Lin Road
Tel: 6877-1986
Closed Mondays

Aston’s in Jurong – Update

C says:

Clearly I spoke too soon when I said that the new Aston’s in Jurong East had no teething problems – they simply took a while to show up. We were there for dinner again with A’s parents, and it was an appalling experience.

Firstly, we waited more than half an hour for our food, only to be told that only 2 of the 4 chicken wings that we ordered were available. Fine, we accepted a refund for the other 2. Then, food arrived in bits and pieces. The Porterhouse that A’s parents ordered was too rare; they were probably rushing so took it off the grill too soon.

Then only one of the 3 soups arrived, and it tasted bland and watery. After waiting for the other 2, we were told that they’d run out of soups. Fine. So we asked for two corn on the cobs instead. THEN the garlic bread for the soup had ALSO run out, and by then I swear my patience was running dangerously thin, so we simply asked for extra corn to cover it.

The corn arrived and it was stone cold and undercooked. So off we had to go to get them to heat it up for us. All in all, what should have been a quick and simple dinner at a neighbourhood coffee shop turned out to be a long drawn and unnecessarily stressful affair.

Looks like we’re back to square one for places to eat when we visit A’s folks. Dang.

A says:

I pity the poor waitstaff who have to deal with angry customers. But seriously, if it’s going to take so long and you’re in danger of running out of food, at least tell the customers first. At least then they know what to expect and can’t complain. Botak Jones used to do it.

I seriously hope our corn wasn’t spat into. I know one waiter who told me all sorts of shit about what they’d do to the stuff sent back.

Aji Tei

C says:

I’ve come to realise that even amongst mid-range Japanese restaurant chains, there are some good ones, and some really not so good ones. Akashi at VivoCity was a pleasant surprise, but Aji Tei at the basement of Takashimaya was a downright disappointment. We were there on Saturday, and were deliberating between trying Al Forno’s makeshift stall that was set up there for a 2-week Italian Fair, and the Aji Tei restaurant nearby. Had I known that it was part of the Ajisen Ramen chain, I might have had second thoughts, but based on the photos in the menu, we decided to go with Aji Tei.



Deceived! The food was nothing like how it was represented in the photos. Almost everything was disappointing; the best dish for me was the chicken wings with a sesame and barbeque sauce. The scallop sushi, which was supposed to be part of the Hokkaido promotion, was tasteless and the scallop was watery, a sure sign that it had been frozen and thawed.


The black pepper grilled pork was by far the most misrepresented. The photo made it look succulent and luscious; in stark contrast, the pathetically few slices were tough and tasted like poorly-cooked poolside BBQ. The mini salmon don was just that – mini, with some of the thinnest slivers of salmon I’ve ever seen. The salmon sushi sampler that A ordered was just ordinary.


As you can see, I’m in a grilled fish head mood, after my experience with the yellowtail collar at Akashi. Unfortunately, the salmon head here fell far, far short. The salmon was under-salted and didn’t really have any flavour at all, and the bowl of rice that I ordered was nothing like the one at Akashi either – it was soft, slightly mushy, and tasteless.

Give this place a very wide berth, given all the other dining options in the vicinity. And don’t be conned by the photos in the menu, either.

A says:

Except for my salmon which was passable, everything else was disappointing. Don't be fooled by the low prices; portions are incredibly small.

Aji Tei
Takashimaya Department Store
B2-02
Tel: 6333-8110

Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee

C says:

I thought this place would bring back fond memories, because way before it became Rendezvous Hotel, this restaurant occupied the ground floor and I used to come here for Sunday lunch with my family almost every week. That was ages ago, but I remember that it had swinging wooden doors, like a Wild West saloon, and it serve one of the best chicken curries ever.

When M told me recently that the restaurant was still around and it had just moved to the second floor, I was pretty excited but alas, it was quite a disappointment when we were here on Saturday. The saloon door was gone, and although they tried to retain some old school tables and chairs, the food itself was a pale replica of its former self.


We ordered the sayur lodeh, chicken curry, beef rendang, curried chicken liver and some fried beans and tau kwa that was ambiguously called sambal goreng. Among these, only the rendang was good – it was tender and the rempah was quite flavourful. Everything else was lacklustre at best. The sayur lodeh was tasteless (the colour should’ve given me a clue), the sambal goreng was bland, and while the liver was quite creamy, the curry itself was quite flat.

I had high expectations for the chicken, but it was a letdown as well. I don’t know if the years have raised my standards, or whether time has dulled my memory, but I’m almost certain this can’t have been the curry that kept us going back week after week. The gravy was half-hearted, and the chicken hadn't absorbed much of the curry flavour. It almost tasted like plain boiled chicken with curry poured over it as an afterthought. I’ll take the chicken curry at River Valley Nasi Padang any day.

Actually, insipid is the word that springs to mind when I think about the food in general. It wasn’t bad, it was just…blah. The curries weren’t spicy, weren’t rich, weren’t anything really. It felt franchised, like the chef was just going through the motions and following a recipe, but there somehow wasn’t any soul or personality to the food.

Prices are far from reasonable as well – we paid a hefty $34 for lunch. I guess this place caters to tourists who want an “authentic” nasi padang, or families who want to dine in air-conditioned comfort. For me, I’m definitely not going back. In fact, now I need to go to River Valley soon to remind myself how good nasi padang can be.

A says:

Beef rendang was good, but everything else was very blah. So not worth it.

Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee
#02-02/03 Hotel Rendezvous Gourmet Gallery
9 Bras Basah Road
Tel: 6339-7508

Tiong Bee Bak Kut Teh

C says:

S told us to try this bak kut teh place at Jalan Datoh, off Balestier Road, and let her know how we compare it to Founder. It’s located in a little corner coffee shop, and when we came here on Wednesday, the other famous stall in the coffee shop, a bak chor mee stall, was closed for the New Year, so all we had was the bak kut teh.


I think we’ve definitely been spoilt by Founder, because it’s become our benchmark and unfortunately this place didn’t come close. We ordered the long pork ribs as well, and they weren’t anywhere near the juiciness and tenderness of the Founder ones. The soup wasn’t bad but it was more sweet than peppery, and I much prefer the peppery heat of the Founder soup; gives it so much more kick. The giam chye also fell short, and the kuay chap we ordered wasn’t spectacular either.

Given that it costs more than Founder, I think the decision is quite clear – Founder is definitely our pick for really good bak kut teh.

Random comment – dang Chinese New Year… everything in the area was closed. The bak chor mee stall, and ALL the tau sar piah shops along Balestier as well. Bummer.

A says:

It’s the same price as Founder but there’s very little meat on the bak kut teh and there’s no character. This place is really not worth it.

Tiong Bee Bak Kut Teh
Jalan Datoh
Teck Seng Coffee Shop

Café Galilee

C says:

Dinner on Saturday was pretty surreal. We went to Jurong to meet A’s folks, thinking that we’d probably just have a light Kolo mee dinner. Instead, we ended up at Café Galilee, the in-house café in the Jurong Regional library (indeed, the in-house café at almost all the national libraries), because A’s folks had some coffee vouchers there.

Whenever we come to the library, the smell from the café is always pretty enticing because it smells like fried chicken wings all the time. Because we had such a late and heavy lunch, I just had a side order of chicken wings which, while passable, were a tad disappointing because they only used the mini drumlet, which is my least favourite part of the wing.

A had the Galilee Special, which is karaage chicken pieces with pasta. The chicken was tender and crispy on the outside, but the spaghetti was really quite bad. I guess one cannot expect al dente pasta in a place like this – the spaghetti was overcooked, but what made it worse was the sauce. It was a really synthetic-tasting tomato sauce, which made the whole thing taste like tinned spaghetti.

However, the coffee here kinda redeemed the place. A had the latte and I had the cappuccino, both of which were a lot better than I expected – sufficiently strong and not dishwater.

It was an interesting experience, but it’s just too weird to hang out for no reason in the library café amidst groups of students, so unless we have a particular purpose I doubt we’ll be Café Galilee regulars.

A says:

The chicken wasn’t bad but the spaghetti was very blah. The service was decent but the main course items really aren’t that worth it. The big surprise was the very decent latte for just $2.80. I might actually pick one up the next time we’re at the library. But like C says, actually having a meal there is pretty weird.