Veni Vidi Vici

The Manhattan Fish Market its like my fourth time there if i am not wrong. like its rival Fish & Co, it offers seafood at affordable price.

We had their promotion package dinner for 4.
-Seafood Platter
-Dory Fillet and chips
-2 x Icecream
-Drinks

Their seafood platter is huge, consisting of prawns, fish, calamari, garlic rice, fried oyster and chips. The last time i went, i had difficulty finish it with two person. They used a blow torch to burn the cooked prawns, leaving some charred patches on the sauce, real cool. I like the garlic rice, its so fragrant, but they are also very oily. The seafood are fresh. But i find the calamari abit overcooked, very hard to chew on. Actually we picked the dory fish fillet instead of the mahi-mahi. But they served the mahimahi, which was supposed to be more expensive. I dont really like the texture of the fish.

Service is generally quite good with attentive staffs. DBS/POSB cardholders get a 10% discount off.  

Went to Ikea at Tampines to do some window shopping. If you do come to Ikea, you shouldn't missed out on their restaurant. First, the fried chicken wings serve there are one of the best i had in Singapore. It is crispy, juicy with tender meat. Then comes the tasty swedish meatball with boiled potato, sauce and jam.  We also ordered some side dishes like the fries which was not bad, at least it wasn't soggy or too greasy. The food here is so reasonably priced, no wonder it is always so crowded. Be prepared to wait for quite sometime during peak hours and weekends, because it is so difficult to get seats.

The only thing i hate is irresponsible diners who fail to clear their plates and leftovers. then the next bunch of diners at the same table have to deal with the leftovers. It is not uncommon, is it so difficult to bring the plates and leftovers to the designated place which is just a few metres away?

Dined at Shokudo at Hereen, before catching the movie "Perfect Getaway". Shokudo is something like a Marche theme Japanese Restaurant. Diners are first given a card which are use for ordering food and the bill will be charge according the amount incurred on each card.

The place is quite small and the variety is very limited too. But the ambience is pretty good, with the nice lighting and the comfortable round cushion seat we were sitting on. Also there was Japanese pop songs playing in the background.

I decided on having the Beef Fried Rice in Omelette. It was not bad in terms of taste, but was abit dissapointed with the small portion and it cost around $12++.

My friend recommended me to this Claypot Rice in Clementi. I was suprised when i was told that we have to call first and make a reservation. We took the four person portion consisting of Chinese Sausage, salted fish and chicken which cost us $20.

The coffeeshop location is quite convinient as it just across the road from Clementi Central. When we reach, i was so glad that we make the booking in advance. Looking at the signboard, it states that waiting time for peak hours is 45 to 90 minutes. Gasp!

After waiting for sometime, the steaming hot claypot finally came. When the auntie opened the claypot cover, the aroma from the inside of the claypot gushes out, smells so nice! And unlike other claypot rice, where the rice tends to stick together, the claypot rice here are seperated grains by grains. Also the chicken is so tender and juicy. I really enjoyed the the crispy rice crust on the bottom of the claypot, it has a nice slight burnt/charred smell.

Aftersometime, around 7pm, the coffee shop was fully packed. I felt pretty sorry for the rest of the stalls, because almost everybody there were having the claypot rice.

I will never forget the first Renaldo's Apple Strudel i had,  it was like love at first taste. Thats like quite sometime ago and they have expanded with outlets now at even Orchard ION. I personally rate the apple strudel there the best in town.

What sets their Apple Strudel apart from other ones that i had tried is their generous filings of the baked apples filling, custard and cream. The crust outside is so flaky and crispy too. Although standards may not be consistent at time, i am still a big fan of theirs!

Thanks to my dearest hamburger for gettting me this Apple Strudel. It's so sweet.

Some brief Company background:
"Founded in 1999, Renaldo's Apple Strudel & Pastries is named after Chef Renaldo who perfect the unique recipe for its founder. (Read more...)"

Decided to visit our neighbour in the North for the weekends. We boarded a bus from Kranji to the Custom, clearing the custom was a breeze, the queues are short even at the Malaysia side. After exiting the Malaysia's new custom, we were greeted by the huge megamall City Square. It has so many stores infact you can find most of the stores in Singapore here.

We wasted no time and headed to Kim Gary Hong Kong Cafe at Basement. You can't shop with an empty stomach right. In order to order, we have to tick/write the orders on the pieces of paper/menu provided. It is so troublesome, we were having difficulties trying to find our food in the paper as there are lots of different papers. I ordered a bowl of Hot and spicy noodles with pork chop. My order was the last to come, i guess they save the best for the last. The bowl was huge! On the top of my noodles was a layer of red hot chili oil. It came with two deep fried dumplings with some vegetables (turnips) fillings. After a few mouths, my lips swelled and i gave up eating it.

Then we went onto shop, exploring every stores in the shopping mall. The girls decided to do their nails as it is so cheap here. While the girls were doing their nails, me and Jack roamed around the Shopping Centre again. I got my Hamburger the Seed bag from Padini which i promised, which cost SGD 49. I then went on a shopping spree and bought two top from F.O.S and a Lee sandals. I actually saw the Lee sandals quite sometime back in a mass order, but it doesnt have my size that time.

The girls took like 2 plus hours to finish their nails. My legs were like breaking after going round and roud in the shopping mall. We went to the Japanese restaurant for our dinner. A huge Pikachu greeted us outside the restaurant. The food was pretty average, but the price are jaw dropping. It cost only SGD 10 per person, so cheap for the amount and type of food we ordered!

Wow, spent a total of SGD150 unknowingly. Heart pain. We left Malaysia around 9pm and straightaway we continued with Saturday's Part II, L4D 2...

Headed to Watami at ION Orchard for a Belated Birthday Celebration for TTS. I first came across this restaurant in Central at Clarke Quay recently. Watami is more of a casual Japanese restaurant. Among all the restaurants in ION, it has the longest queue and is always packed. Can't be that bad right?
Anyway attendence are getting dissapointing with only five people attending today. My friends and i were struggling to decide what to order due to the lack of variety of food. Looking at the menu, all the prices are pretty reasonable costing around $10 for every dish. I had the Chicken cutlet which was being served on a sizzling hotplate over the stove. I must say it is pretty good. The chicken cutlet isn't greasy and the sauce isn't salty. However heard from my friend that his Ramen isn't really good. Next came our Salmon Sashimi, pretty firm and has a good texture to it, nice.

Came to a Conclusion: Watami has decent food, decent pricing, good service and good ambience. What more can a typical Singaporean like me ask for.

After our dinner at Watami, we rush our way to Butter Factory at One Fullerton to begin Part 2 of the celebration.

After a day of hunting for presents, we decided to head to Far East Shopping Centre for dinner. Initially planning to have our fix at Wasabei Tei, but it was closed on sunday. Heard many negative reviews about them after the change of management. Then roamed around and decided on Nana Thai. There is quite a wide variety of dishes, something like a "Zi Char" stall. We went on and picked the 4 pax set priced at $58.80 consisting of 5 dishes of your choice with 4 plain rice. Thats pretty cheap.

The five dishes we had were Tom Yam soup, Stir fried kai lan, Chicken wrapped in leaves, Thai fish cakes, Butter prawns with additional order of the Shark Fin Soup. The Tom Yam soup was good, a subtle blend of spicy and sour. However the rest of the five dishes were pretty average.

Went to the Crystal Jade Korean Ginseng Chicken and BBQ in Centrepoint. My first impression of the place was pretty good. The waitress were dressed in “hanboks” and greeted us warmly with "Welcome" in Korean. Looking at the menu, there are a lots of dishes to choose from makes me ponder which dishes to order because i am not really into Korean food. Eventually decided on having the set dinner for two person.

First came the appetiser consisting of a few cold vegetables mini dishes including the Kimchi. The rice dish is one of the best rice dishes i have ever tried, although i have forgotten the name of it. I am guessing it to be Kimchi fried rice, because its abit reddish and there are bits of kimchi inside. The rice is sticky and it is abit similar to claypot rice with crispy charred bits inside. So tasty!

Next we had their "Samgyetang", the Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup which is the specialty of the place. Afterall this place named itself after this dish, but was left abit dissapointed. It is'nt bad, nor was it very good. The Samgyetang taste the best when it is hot, however we were too busy with the other dishes. When we tried it, it was already cold and it wasnt really that nice. The soup has an entire chicken inside and it seems that they stewed it for quite sometime because the meat is so tender.

Dining here is not really cheap, cost us around $40 per person. We had a difficult time trying to finish the food, because the portion for the two person dinner was too big for us.

I am back at Carousel @ Royal Plaza, it is my second visit here. I like the ambience here alot, however it tend to sound like a fish market at time due to the large amount of diner. The price over here at Carousel is very reasonable compared to buffet in other hotels.

Sadly, the quality of some of the food here isn't really up to standard. First, the Sushi bar is dissapointing, with pathetic variety and poorly cut sashimi. Then going on to the cakes section, most of the cakes were quite dry like they weren't fresh. The Otah from the Nasi Lemak is so salty, wonder if it is made from salted fish.

But not all is bad here. The Popiah here is very good, so do the Kueh Pie Tee. I love eating Kueh Pie Tee. It is a Nonya delicacy where you fill a crisp shell with turnip, egg, peanut and parsley. It is just the perfect combination.

Lastly, the service here is good. They have enough waiter around, thus unwanted plates are cleared quickly.

Went for my colleague wedding last night over at Grand Shanghai in King's Centre. Co-incidentally i had another wedding dinner (distant relative) over at Traders Hotel, but decided on going to this one, because the other wedding was attended by the rest of my family. Stepping into Grand Shanghai is indeed like stepping into old Shanghai, Shanghai Tan. The ambience is really great over here with red decorations and dim lightings enhancing the experience. Coupled with the Cheongsam singer who was singing at the Grandstage with an old school retro band. Perfect.

Going on to the food. It was generally the typical wedding dinner dishes, starting with coldplate, sharkfin to the desserts. The dishes was divided into portions first before being served to the guests. We were lucky that our table is half filled, with everyone ending up with two portions for every dishes served.

I must say the standard of the dinner was not really good. I am not a sharkfin person, but you could only find bits of sharkfin and the soup itself is basically made up of starch. Then came the scallop in yam, the Yam smells so funny, it smells like hair dye. The smell is so strong that most of all did not ate it. Bleah.

The only dish that was good was the Cold plate with their specialty crispy eels. Sadly, their other specialty, the Sauteed river shrimp with salted egg yoke is pretty average.

But anyway,
Congratulations on getting Hitched, Dean!

Its a friday night and we decided to head to our usual Prawning hide-out. But suprised to see so many cars outside the prawn farm and much more people compared to the last time. The prawning hide-out is at Pasir Ris Farmway 2/3, with small signboard with neon lights outside.

Rates:
15 - 1 hour
25 - 2 hours
30 - 3 hours
35 - 4 hours

Initially the catch rate was pretty good, with the prawns keep coming to our hook. But after sometime, they don't seem to be any of them anymore. Guess the prawns like human are sleeping at this hour. Most of the prawns we caught were abit small compared to the last time.

In the end, we caught close to around 20 prawns. 70$ for 20 prawns, haha, i can buy close to more than 200 prawns i guess with that amount. Hey its the about the number of prawns caught, but the excitment of catching the prawn. Eventhough i fell asleep halfway through.

Yay, been along time since i went for a family dinner. This time it was with my Granny, Father, Mother, Sister, Uncle, Auntie, Cousin, Cousin-in-law. Off we go to The Line at Shangri La.

When i first stepped in, was greeted by the Orange and White chic decor. Either i am too hungry but the color of the decoration really whets my appetite.

Heard there is 16 stations and it is one of the biggest buffet in town. Indeed, with stations range from Mediterranean food to Indian and Italian, there is even a station with local hawker foodfare like Laksa.

Started off with the Salad and Tapas section.
-Parma ham and rockmelon. (recommended)
Pretty nice combination, the contrast of the two different type of food.
-Apricot Salmon.
Salmon baked nicely, not overcooked, but my tounge doesn't seem to be able to pick up the apricot taste.

I must say the Japanese section is pretty small. Tried their sushis and sashimi (tuna), pretty average, nothing much to shout about.


Then came the Crustacean section. This is pretty much the highlight of the buffet, many people raves about the fresh crustacean serves here. But was left disappointed again, no Lobsters!
-Oysters. So fresh and sweet. Slurp! So Succulent (recommended)
-Mussels. Fresh, not pungent.
(No photos? Because when the plate of Crustaceans landed on the table, it is gone within a few seconds!)


Indian Section. Come across another gem here.
-Tandooris (Chicken: recommended)
The chicken tandoori It is really good, flavorful and juicy. Definitely one of the better one i've tried. However the lamb falls short of expectation, pretty dry and dont really like the taste of it, maybe its just me.
-Naan
The naan serve here are unlike those you find from Indian resturant. it is very thin and quite dry, dont really like them too.
-Satays
Satays are a tad too dry, had to chew on them real hard to get them off the stick.


Chinese section. They serve alot of things, from char siew, wanton mee to laksa and mee siam.
-Roasted duck (recommended)
Its not fat, yet it is juicy and goes so well with the plum sauce. The skin is very nice too!
-Laksa (recommended)
Requested for half the portion. The soup/gravy is really rich and savoury.
-Black peper stir fry beef
Beef is tender. Thats all.


Skipped the Dim Sum section. Because they doesnt look appetizing at all. haha.

Deserts
-Crepes (recommended)
Freshly prepared. Served hot with lots of Nutella, there are other toppings too. Ohh great, maybe too much nutella though :(
-Creme brulee
Pretty average. Nothing much to shout about
-Tiramisu
Sweet. Simple. Nothing much to shout about.
-Bread Pudding (recommended)
Great texture and it is not too sweet.
-Icecream
Din't try, mostly sorbet. bleah.

Conclusion
The Line isn't really that bad. Hmm but paying $84 for it? not really worth the money, unless you spend the entire session at the Crustacean section. Then again, maybe my expectations might be too high.

Wish that i have two stomachs, i skipped many dishes. But hey, buffet is not about rushing to gobble down all the food you see, but more about the company. Taking your time slowly eat, chat with each other and enjoy the company. Its really a nice enviroment to dine in. Nothing sophisticated with the decoration with friendly customer service.


Next buffet session? Probably The Dining Room at Sheraton towers. I've heard the food there is pretty good and most of all the ambience and scenary is really nice.