New York New York

C says:

Ginza Plaza at West Coast has recently undergone a massive overhaul and rebranding exercise. It’s been spruced up quite nicely, and is now known by the more generic, but also less heartland-sounding, West Coast Plaza. There’s a rather strange selection of stores there now, with a seemingly disproportionate number of restaurants; one of which is New York New York, a branch of that pseudo-American diner with the perpetual massive queues at Citilink Mall.

The place has a fairly extensive menu, with a wide selection of burgers, sandwiches and standard main courses like ribs, roast chicken and fish and chips. We weren’t particularly hungry, so A had a burger, and I had a soup and a mushroom sandwich.


Their burgers are supposed to be one of their specialities, so I was actually quite underwhelmed by this. The patty was alright, and at least their medium rare was accurately done, but everything else was pretty ordinary.


In contrast, because I didn’t expect anything out of my rather healthy mushroom foccacia sandwich, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this. It was still nothing spectacular – just sautéed button, shitake and enoki mushrooms, with tomatoes and cheese – but somehow the simple flavours went together very well. Still, having said that, the only reason I ordered this was because I wasn’t hungry. You can bet that on a proper atetoomuch day, I’ll be having something way more sinful. Something like the massive meat platter for two that we saw quite a number of couples sharing.

Well the food here isn’t mindblowing by any stretch; just basic, localised diner food. A repeat visit at some point is on the cards, but at the same time I’m certainly not clamouring to come back any time soon.

Incidentally, the guys behind New York New York are also the same ones behind Thai Express, Xin Wang Hong Kong Café and the Shokudo dining concept.

A says:

The service was good and prompt, especially considering how packed the place was. It’s lucky we got there early because the queue for a table was very long by the time we finished.

I really don’t see why people like it so much though. The food’s alright, but nothing fantastic. And the ventilation in this place is horrible. I felt like passing out.

Overall, I’d consider this as an option only if I’m in the area and there wasn’t a queue.

New York New York
154 West Coast Road
#B1-04 West Coast Plaza
Tel: 6779-1526
Open daily: 11.30 am to 11 pm
http://www.newyorknewyork.com.sg/

Novus

C says:

So today is my cousin’s wedding, and as part of the celebrations, his sister L (yes, the one of Eve boutique) and mom organised a post-church ceremony lunch for close friends and family at Novus at the National Museum.

Because everyone was on a tight wedding schedule, the meal consisted of just a main and a dessert, but portions were sizeable, and perfect to ensure that we didn’t feel too bloated and unable to fit into our clothes for the evening.


The main course was pan fried sea bream with potato brandade (mashed potatoes, in commonspeak), artichokes and sugar peas. I think A liked the mash, oops, the brandade, best, but the fish was excellent as well. Very fresh, crisp on the outside and perfectly cooked and moist inside.


Dessert was also a winner – blueberry crème brulee with Tahitian vanilla ice cream. There were blueberries inside the crème brulee, and it was also served with a summer berry compote of raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. Usually these berry compotes are way too tart but the one here was a pleasant surprise. It was sweet and only very slightly tart; even A could eat it, and he doesn’t normally eat berries of any sort.

Given how good lunch was, we’re now inspired to come back again to try stuff from their main menu. Prices are a little on the steep side though, especially from the meat section where mains are between $45 and $60 (exclusing a whopping $108 for their signature wagyu beef dish). Maybe we’ll come for one of their set lunches one day, or perhaps their degustation dinner at $108 would be a more worthwhile bet.

A says:

The atmosphere is a bit too chi-chi but the food is good enough for me to want to come back. Only for lunch though. The set lunch is much more in our range and I don’t think I could handle too fancy a dinner.

Novus Restaurant & Bar
#01-02 National Museum
93 Stamford Road
Tel: 6336-8770
Lunch: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm
Dinner: 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm
www.novus.sg

Ember

C says:

Yes it’s that time of the year again. Our anniversary is actually tomorrow but because of a cousin’s wedding, we had to have our traditional Ember dinner one day early. I know it seems a bit silly to keep going back to the same place year after year, when there are so many restaurants that are still unchartered territory for atetoomuch. It’s just that particularly when it’s a special occasion, I don’t want to be let down by either the food or the service, and at Ember we’re assured that both will be good. And call me superstitious or sentimental, but if this tradition has kept us going for 5 happy (?!) years, I’m not about to rock the boat.


The menu seems unchanged from when we went in June, so call us boring but we had the cold angel hair pasta with abalone and the deep fried tofu again. At least we tried to be different with the tofu, and ordered the version with the zucchini flower this time. To be honest, I expected more of a variation than simply a deep fried zucchini flower on the side, but the dish still rocked. I still prefer the cold pasta because it’s just so light and refreshing, and the flavours are distinctive yet subtle.


One of their appetiser specials for the night was Lobster – Three Ways, comprising of the claw poached in butter, half the body deep fried, and a lobster bisque served on the side. This was superb, particularly the lobster bisque. Hands down one of the best lobster bisques we’ve had. It was just essence of lobster, without being too rich or creamy, and with generous chunks of lobster meat inside.


As always I had to have the Chilean seabass. For some reason A wasn’t in the mood for meat, but I still can’t believe that of all things on the menu, he ordered the mushroom lasagne – a vegetarian dish! It was interesting, but I certainly don’t think it’s one of their signature dishes.

We finished off a very enjoyable meal with the apple tarte tatin for me, and the coconut panna cotta with red rubies for A. I like the fact that they served the vanilla ice cream on a separate dish from the tart, so that it didn’t melt into a pool of vanilla sauce before the steaming hot tart was cool enough to be eaten.

It’s heartening to note that even with so many new restaurants opening all the time, and an equal number closing down, Ember still seems to be going strong. The restaurant was almost full on Friday night, and they’ve done well enough to branch out into Bangkok as well. I completely forgot about that until after our trip, otherwise I definitely would’ve tried it out. Well, here’s hoping that Ember sticks around for a good long time – to Ember, and also to us! ;)

A says:

Always awesome service and food. RAWK!

Restaurant Ember
50 Keong Saik Road
Tel: 6347-1928
Monday to Friday:
Lunch 11.30 am – 2 pm, Dinner 6.30 pm – 10 pm
Saturday: Dinner only
Closed Sunday

Smok’inn Frogz Kitchen

C says:

Coming here on Wednesday night was a last minute decision, and we almost didn’t make it. While we vaguely knew that it was off Old Holland Road, we somehow assumed that it was in the same area as Forture Seafood, near the Brewerkz along Bukit Timah Road. We drove around aimlessly with no other food joint in sight, till A had the bright idea to turn down a little lane, and we found it nestled in the corner. For the record, it’s off Cherry Avenue, within the Maple residential area.

This used to be a simple corner coffee shop, but it now houses four stalls – a bar called Bar Bar Black Sheep, Emerald Garden thai food, an Indian joint selling curries and naan, and Smok’inn Frogz Kitchen (can they spell it any weirder?). We ordered from Smok’inn Frogz tonight cos we’d heard pretty good things about their burgers. We shared a beef burger, and a fish and chips.


The fish and chips ($12) were surprisingly good. The fish was fresh and very moist and tender inside, and the batter was crisp and not too heavy, and stayed crisp throughout the meal. My only criticism would be that the batter was a tad salty.


On the other hand, the beef burger was somewhat of a letdown; I guess it’s because it’d been praised sky high in some reviews we’d read. The patty was rather ordinary, though at least it wasn’t dry. The only accompaniments were a slice of cheese, some caramelised onions, mayo and bits of lettuce. Actually everything else was alright; the main thing I didn't like was the bun. It may have been toasted but it was still quite chewy, and even with a serrated knife it just refused to be cut, folding instead under the pressure of the knife. Plus it was after being drenched with the sauce from the caramelised onions.

All in all I just expected a bit more out of a $12 burger. Relish and One Ninety’s burgers may be in the $20+ range, but at least you know you’re getting pretty good quality.

A says:

This place is seriously hard to find and the setup here is a bit strange and bears describing.

Smok’inn Frogz is really just one of the three stalls that service the Bar Bar Black Sheep bar in front. Most people come here for a laid back drink and the food is really secondary.

Having said that, the fish & chips is probably worth it, and because of the amount of chips they give, you definitely won’t leave hungry. I don’t think the burger is worth $12 though.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ll do a full review of the place until I’ve tried the other two stalls as well.

Smok’inn Frogz Kitchen
879 Bukit Timah Road
Mon to Fri: 4 pm to 11 pm
Sat: noon to 11 pm
Sun: 9 am to 11 pm

Sakuraya Fish Market

C says:

When A used to live right around the corner, Sakuraya Fish Market at The Village Center at Pasir Panjang was just a tiny little unit on the ground floor. Back then it was primarily a fish market/Japanese minimart and we didn't patronise it all that much. Recently S recommended it to me, raving about how cheap it was for relatively good quality sashimi. You can imagine our surprise on Saturday night when we went there, to discover that they’d moved to the second floor, and expanded exponentially. It was also packed, and they don’t take reservations, so you just have to go there and try your luck.

It’s primarily still a fish market, but they’ve cleverly added some sushi, maki and grilled items to the menu as well. For the sashimi, you basically head to the counter, pick out the pieces of fish that you want, tell them your table number, and they slice it up for you.


We went there with W and M, and had an assortment of salmon, tuna, sea bream, swordfish and squid. We had it with vinegared rice to make our own chirashi sushi, and ordered a few other things to share, like the mentai maki and grilled sanma.



The sashimi was great. I’m not the most discerning of fish eaters so this suited me just fine. Everything was fresh, and in particular I loved the swordfish. S is right – prices are really reasonable. We had so much sashimi, the maki, the grilled fish, a handroll, a fish soup and rice, and it only came up to $45 per couple!

The maki wasn’t outstanding, but I’m definitely coming back (and soon) for more sashimi. We got there lateish so there was a limited variety of fish left. I can imagine that when you go early on fish delivery days, you can pretty much go wild on a very decent budget.

Service is a tad erratic – there was a rather grumpy lady who took our order, but some of the younger waiters were very attentive, and one of them even overheard W mentioning that we needed spare bowls, and before she could ask for them, he said “Yes I heard you” and promptly brought them to us. I’m definitely planning my next visit really soon.

A says:

I wouldn’t call this the top sushi/sashimi place in Singapore but it probably does offer the best value for money.

What really surprised me though was the service. One waiter in particular was really good.

Parking is a bit of a problem but I think we’ll definitely be back soon.

Sakuraya Fish Market
3 South Buona Vista Road
#02-01/08 The Village Centre
Tel: 6773-6973
Open daily: 11 am to 9 pm
http://www.sakuraya.com.sg/

Dinner at Casa Verde

C says:

Casa Verde in the evenings is quite different from how it is at breakfast/lunch. The shutters come down at the open counter so there’s a cosier look and feel, and soft lighting rather than harsh daylight also make it look a lot more like a legitimate restaurant rather than the almost fast food joint appearance during the day.

As we mentioned previously, Casa Verde is a collaboration with Buko Nero’s Chef Oscar. However, let’s just get one thing straight – this is not Buko Nero. Chef Oscar roped in a childhood friend to be the chef here, and he apparently consults on the dinner menu that changes either fortnightly or monthly. But apart from the selection of crostinis that are inspired by the ones served at Buko Nero, that’s the extent of the similarity. If you just bear that mind, then you’ll keep your expectations in check and won’t be disappointed.

There are two separate crostini platters – one hot and one cold. Each platter costs $16 for 6 crostinis – 2 of each kind. The hot crostinis are:

- Braised pork belly and rosemary
- Seared sea scallops and crispy parma ham
- Porcini mushrooms and fontina cheese with truffle oil


And the cold ones are:

- Gorgonzola cheese and strawberry with balsamico glaze
- Beef and hardboiled egg salad
- Crab meat, basil and caramelised red onion


We tried both platters. Among the cold ones, I actually like the gorgonzola and strawberry one best. The crab meat one was a bit generic, and you couldn’t taste much meat in the beef one. The beef was minced rather than a whole slice of meat.

The porcini one ROCKED. Best amongst the hot ones, and also the best crostini of the night. The scallop and parma ham wasn’t too bad either. The pork belly paled in comparison because it was tomato based and just tasted like a bolognaise/ragu.

The menu proper is a tad confusing, so bear with us. There are 4 sections – Antipasti (A), Primi (P), Secondi (S) and Dolci (D). Each section has 3 choices, and you can mix and match depending on how hungry you are. The full A, P, S & D costs $58. My A, P & D was $38 and A’s A & S was $37. You can order each item as a la carte as well, in case for some reason the combi that you want isn’t available (e.g. 2 A & 1 S).



My A was a pumpkin soup with crab meat, and A’s was the Insalata Caprese – tomato and mozzarella salad. After the pretty decent crostinis, these were both somewhat of a letdown. The soup was a bit too sweet, without very much depth of flavour, and A’s Caprese was a very ordinary version of the dish.


My choice for the P was home-made tagliatelle with prawns and cherry tomatoes, forgetting that I also had the tagliatelle when we were here for lunch, albeit as a bolognaise. Again, the pasta wasn’t too bad, it just wasn’t outstanding. It tasted faintly of local fried prawn noodles, probably because of the prawn stock and cut chillis. A didn't really like it cos he said it tasted “too Asian”.


A chose the osso bucco with mashed potatoes as his S, forgetting that he generally doesn’t like the taste or texture of osso bucco… Still, the meat was nice and tender, and I like that they gave a section of the bone with some bone marrow for you to dig out and indulge.


I’m not a huge dessert fan, but dessert actually turned out to be the best part of the meal. We shared the ricotta cheese and white chocolate cake. It sounds a bit dubious but turned out much better than expected. The cake was light, and not overpoweringly cheesey or too sweet. I’m glad we ended the meal on a high note.

The ambience is really casual, and I guess I wouldn’t mind coming back every so often to try a new menu, but a repeat visit certainly isn’t at the top of my list. Note to self (and all other lizard-phobes out there): Make sure you go #1, #2 etc before coming here. The restaurant doesn't have an on-site restroom. You have to use the Botanic Gardens one, which is partially open-air, and at night there are fat lizards in practically every single toilet stall. Needless to say I held it till we got home…

A says:

It’s okay but nothing fantastic. I don’t think it’s really worth it though. I’ll wait till I try the pizza made by the Italian chef before I make my final call.

Casa Verde
1 Cluny Road
Singapore Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre
Tel: 6467-7326

Amoy Street muffin showdown – Missy Muffins vs Bake_Of

C says:

I met Y for lunch at Amoy Street Food Centre today, and after a satisfying (and healthy) meal of fish soup, we decided to undo all that by getting muffins.

There are two muffin stalls on the 2nd floor. A bit of history on them – apparently, Bake_Of was always the more popular of the two. Missy Muffins was forlorn until they got themselves featured on a Channel U show called “Buzzing Cashiers”, in which Quan Yifeng and Kym Ng try to revive flagging food stalls by calling in professional chefs to find out what the stallholders are doing wrong, then teaching them how to improve their recipe.

After the episode aired, customers swarmed to Missy Muffins (“MM”) instead of Bake_Of (“BO”). However, when we were there, it was once again all quiet on the MM front, and in contrast BO was doing fairly good business. We bought a few similar flavours from both BO and MM, so that we could do a taste test to determine which really is better. (We brought some of them home, and Y’s comments are the collective comments of Y, J, Y’s sister, their mother and grandmother.)


Firstly, visually speaking BO looks much more impressive. There’s a big muffin top, compared to MM’s rather small dome. With BO’s muffins a flat $1 each, and MM’s ranging from $1 to even $1.20 or more, BO wins on the economical front.

Now down to the taste test proper.

Blueberry

C – Even though MM’s muffins are smaller, they’re actually denser and more filling. MM’s is also quite bland and features only a few tiny specks of blueberry on top, and none in the middle. BO’s on the other hand, is filled with blueberry jam, making it more interesting as well as tastier.

Y – BO is YUMS. MM only has tiny dots of blueberry, like Betty Crocker. BO’s is done in a jam donut way, with the center filled with jam that oozes out when you bite into it.

Banana walnut

Y – MM tastes as if it uses banana essence, like the kind you can buy pre-packed in supermarkets. BO is YUMS, like fresh banana cake with little black dots.

Double chocolate chip

Y – MM tastes plastic-y and has a strange, smelly, stale ghee smell. BO is YUMS.


I also tried the Cheese, Orange Chocolate Chip and Granny Smith Muffins from BO but didn’t get the same ones from MM to compare. They were good – the Granny Smith one even has a filling of diced cinnamon apples. Oddly enough my favourite was the slightly sweet-savoury Cheese Muffin. It was simple but really fragrant.

So there you go. BO wins this challenge hands down. But outside the Amoy Street battleground, I think the muffins from Chocolat N’ Spice are still the overall victor. I have to get this off my chest though – what’s up with the name Bake_Of?! What the heck is it supposed to mean? It's not even Bake Off, as in challenge. Bake Of what? And what’s that underscore about? Clearly it’s annoying me no end…

A says:

I can only judge like-for-like so I’ll only compare the Blueberry. And since I don’t really like Blueberry, I actually prefer the one from Miss Muffin because it has less blueberries. The Bake_Of one is so full of blueberry that it turned me off.

But overall, I agree with C in that Chocolat N’ Spice is better.

Creperie Entre-Nous

C says:

Still ever-so-enamoured with the crepes at Kensington Creperie, A and I are now constantly on the lookout for a place here that sells authentic French crepes. A’s friend told him about this place in Seah Street that was opened by a French couple; immediately we thought “Authentic!!” and set out to try it for lunch today.

The place is opposite Raffles Hotel, and right next to the Mint Toy Museum. It’s fairly new – they’ve only been open a month, and based on the names of some of the crepes, I assume the owners are Stephane and Geraldine. He cooks and she tends to customers, and she definitely sounds French.

The interesting thing about their crepes here is that for their savoury crepes, they come in the form of galettes, which are only cooked on one side, and are made with buckwheat flour. Their sweet crepes, on the other hand, are the regular wheat flour ones that we’re more used to.


I ordered the ham, cheese, egg and mushroom galette, and while I can’t honestly say that I love the taste and texture of the buckwheat flour crepes, I found them quite interesting in a nutty, moreish sort of way. It helps that the crepes were made incredibly thin, so you barely taste the crepe amongst the savoury ingredients. Compared to the in-your-face flavours of the Kensington crepes, the one here was more subtle and refined.


Galettes aren’t really A’s thing though. He ordered the smoked salmon crepe (of course…), and while he liked the smoked salmon itself because it was really potent and flavourful, he was less keen on the actual galette; he couldn’t really get used to the flavour of the buckwheat crepe.


We had room for dessert, and how could I not order the Entre-Nous crepe, which was topped with home-made salty caramel? This was divine – the crepe, the regular wheat flour sort this time, was incredibly light and fluffy, and absolutely fabulous with the salty caramel drizzled on top.


A went with the plain crepe with coconut sorbet. This turned out to be a rather strange pairing and while it worked to some extent, I think each was better on its own. The crepe was certainly good enough to be eaten without any accompaniments.

I asked Geraldine (I’m assuming that’s her name) whether in future, we could order the savoury fillings, but in the wheat flour crepe instead. She said “Of course!” Excellent, next time we’ll do just that and see how they taste.

While the crepes aren’t the cheapest around (gourmet ones range from $15 to $19, regular savoury ones are between $10 and 15, and the sweet ones start from around $8), they’re good quality and very well made. They have some pretty decent sets as well, ranging from $20 to $28 for one or two crepes, salad/soup and a drink, as well as a tea-time set with just a sweet crepe and a drink. Do give this place a try. We were the only customers there for the entire duration of our meal, and I’d hate to see them suffer the A&C curse.

A says:

I really am not a fan of galettes. Next time, I’ll definitely ask to change to a crepe. And their crepes are really good.

Given their prices, I don’t think I’d recommend this place as a regular dinner place (although the $28 set is pretty good value with soup/salad, 1 savoury galette, 1 dessert crepe, and 1 beverage). But if you’re just looking for a good dessert, this place is probably close to tops in Singapore.

Entre-nous
27, Seah Street, #01-01
Tel: 6333-4671
www.entrenous.sg

Hotshots Flame-Grilled Burgers

C says:

This stall in Lau Pa Sat, which is a franchise of a Filipino burger chain, has been in the press of late, thanks to a number of articles featuring ‘belt-tightening’ options of favourite dishes. A was working late one night so we decided to drop by for a quick dinner before heading home.

Turned out to be not so quick, because depending on what you order, the burgers are prepared fresh so you may have to wait almost ten minutes, which we did for the Lamburghini. Yes, that’s the name of their lamb burger…


Because of the extremely misleading description (“2/3 pound lamb patty”), we initially ordered just one to share, cos we figured at $8 and for a 2/3 pound patty, it may well end up quite huge. The real thing was nothing like we imagined, and no way was it a 2/3 pound patty either. It ended up no bigger than a Mac’s Double Cheeseburger; definitely not worth $8, but I must say it was quite tasty. The patty was juicy, quite salty and very fragrant. It would have been a bit overpowering if not for the cool mint yogurt that topped the patty.


Clearly one burger wasn’t enough for the both of us, so we ordered the Crispy Burger Melt, which was a “quarter pound patty” (again I have my doubts), bacon bits, cheese sauce and mayo. At $5, this was slightly more worthwhile, but after a few bites you notice where they cut corners. Sure, the patty is probably of decent quality, but the bacon is in the form of bacon bits, not real strips of bacon, and the cheese isn’t slices of cheese but rather cheese sauce (a bit like Cheez-Whiz). While a combination of synthetic cheese, mayonnaise and bacon bits can hardly go wrong, I can’t help but feel a bit shortchanged at the many shortcuts that are taken.

Still, with opening hours up to 11 pm on weekdays, this is a pretty decent choice if you’re in the area and working late. Just bear in mind that it certainly isn’t the healthiest option, and contrary to how it’s being portrayed in the press, it’s not all that cheap either for what you get.

A says:

The Lamburghini is not worth $8 (although some might argue Relish’s burgers are not worth $18+ too). Maybe it’s just cause it’s a food court stall and there are plenty of cheaper alternatives around.

Anyway, the staff are friendly and the burgers taste good so I’d be happy to come back for the $5+ ones.

Hotshots Flame-Grilled Burgers
18 Raffles Quay
Stall 76, Lau Pa Sat
Mon to Sat: 11 am – 11 pm
Sun: Noon to 9 pm
http://www.hotshotsburger.com/

Sweet Salty Spicy

C says:

Sweet Salty Spicy has been around for ages, and yet we choose to try it barely a week after our trip to Bangkok… It’s located at Rail Mall, and possibly occupies the 2 units that used to be Rocky’s Pizza. Because it’s part restaurant, part deli/grocery store, I figured it would be quite casual, but while it’s definitely not a dress-up-for place, it was a lot more chic than I expected.

The place is a collaboration of sorts, between Chef Christopher Millar of Poppi restaurant, and Victor Chia, who owns and runs the famous vegetable stall at Tekka Market, and who supplies all the fresh herbs and vegetables to the deli.


We passed on the pad thai for today, and instead ordered plain rice with a couple of dishes. The beef curry was similar to a rendang, but they use Angus beef so it was meltingly tender. It was also labelled one of the spicy dishes but it totally wasn’t spicy at all, not even for A. The only thing I didn't like about this was that the rempah (spice paste) wasn’t ground finely enough, so the gravy still had bits of herbs and spices in it, which made for a slightly unpleasant experience with the bits getting caught between your teeth or grazing your throat as you swallow.


We ordered a grilled squid from the grill section of the menu, and this was excellent. The squid was tender, it had a wonderfully charred and smoky flavour, and went perfectly with the slightly tart dipping sauce. I’m definitely ordering more items from the grill menu if this is any indication of their standard.



There are some local desserts here as well as a wide array of cakes. We were tempted by the giant Double Chocolate cake, but decided to be more traditional, and tried the Coconut Custard tart, and the steamed banana pudding. The banana pudding was a bit odd, and given that it took ages to arrive, I don't think it was worth the wait. I quite liked the tart, which tasted like a high-end version of a Bengawan Solo kueh, but given a choice I’ll probably forego desserts in future, in favour of other items from the main menu.

Service is a tad erratic, though. There are quite a lot of staff running around, but they all seemed to have very specific designated duties, because when we tried to get the attention of one of them, who seemed to be just chilling out talking to another waitress who was in charge of desserts, he simply gesticulated to another waiter then carried right on talking. Also, trying to find parking around Rail Mall is still a bit of a bitch, but this place is worth checking out. I just can’t believe that it’s taken us almost a year to finally try it out.

A says:

The food is pretty good but you don’t get a very large selection and the portions are smaller than I expected for the price.

I was impressed by the service when we arrived but things went downhill after we were served. Other than the woman who first served us and the guy I assume was the head waiter, the rest of the wait staff seemed more like bus boys pressed into service rather than anything. It’s a pity about the service because I like the ambience. I’d describe it as upscale casual without being chi-chi.

Overall, I’d only come back here since it’s the best “thai” place I’ve found in the area. It’s worth checking out if you live nearby but by no means does it warrant a special trip out. If I wanted cheap Thai, I’d head for Thai Express and if I wanted really good Thai, I’d head to A-roy Thai.

Sweet Salty Spicy
392/394 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Rail Mall
Tel: 6877-2544
Mon – Fri: 11 am – 2 pm; 6 pm – 11 pm
Sat, Sun and PH: 11 am – 4 pm; 6 pm – 11 pm