Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Visiting 川王府火锅

I've been there maybe 4-5 times already, and I like their service, smiley and sincere. The lady boss also quite nice and remembers us (I think and it seems like it! haha). However, the food served isnt as good as Fatfish. But this place is cheaper than Fatfish. Oh well. 一分钱一分货!
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Shall be doing a proper review for this next Tue when I visit! :D

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Fatfish Thai Steamboat @ Admiral Hill Country Club

Address: 351 Old Nelson Road, #01-19 S758698
Tel No: 68529161
Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri:11:30 till Midnight
Sat, Sun & PH: 3pm till Midnight
Type of Place: Steamboat Restaurant
Recommended Attire: No restrictions
Type of Cuisine: Thai Style
Average price spent per pax:
Adult Weekday Ala-Carte Buffet (Mon-Thurs exclude Eve & PH)  - $21.80+
Child Weekday Ala-Carte Buffet (Mon-Thurs exclude Eve & PH) - $11.80+
Adult Weekend Ala-Carte Buffet (Friday-Sunday, Eve & PH) - $23.80+
Child Weekend Ala-Carte Buffet (Friday-Sunday, Eve & PH) - $11.80+
*Child height below 1 meter Free of charge!!!
Beverage not included in Ala-Carte Buffet
*A charge of of $5.00 for each set of stove.
*Wastage will be charge at $10.00 for every 500grams $ 11.80+

Who went with me: Mum, Hubby, my girl and myself

Rating (out of 5) –
Food quality: 5
Service quality: 4
Ambience: 4

1  = Poor
2 = Below Average
3 = Average
4 = Good
5 = Excellent

Fatfish started at Admiral Hill Country Club not too long ago, probably have been there for less than 1 year.
They have both alfresco and air-conditioned dining.

And there's a ship right beside the restaurant, part of the country club's exterior design.

Pardon the shaky image; my girl was giggling. :D

Ok i took over.

Each stove costs $5. Traditional type; but powerful. In the middle of dinner, the gas was used up and the lady helped us change it quickly. As she took out the gas can, my girl peered at it curiously and commented 'She changed batteries ah?'...
We went stunned for a moment and all burst out in laughter, even the waitress.

This plate of huge tiger prawns and clams is served only once. The prawns are super SWEET can.

The lovely restaurant manager asked us if we would like her to choose the 1st round for us, since it was our first visit. Understand that she does this to everyone who visits for the first time!

My favourite tau kee!!! So huge and crispy some more!  very professional looking hor?

Her selection for us! The food come in clean and compact bowls.

This beef fillet is super TENDER and tasty! marinated very well :)

Pork Belly in thin slices. Yummy! They also have shabu shabu style beef fillet too. We had 2 plates of that :)

Their homemade chilli sauce. Not very spicy, but it adds alot of flavour to the food! Very tangy and refreshing.

They only have 2 types of soup: chicken and tom yam. Both are very nice (even my mum said so!). the tom yam soup is not very spicy, which is cool. Spicy soups will make you drink more --> spend more!

The beige coloured huge salmon cheese sticks are nice :) the cheese squirts out when you cut it up hehe.
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The downside is that there is no free flow of drinks. Mineral water is $1.50 per bottle while soft drinks are $2.50 per can. I think the mineral water price is pretty ok!
The food that was served were all fresh and they all look very good! I mean, other restaurants' food looked like they were frozen over night, u know? Some even worse; the food is sometimes served FROZEN. The food at Fatfish don't! I am very pleased with their food quality and service as well. They were super busy, but no hint of impatience at all when we asked them for assistance. Ambience is very typical, with Mandarin pop songs in the background, ok for me :)
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People, shall we make this our next Chomping Session???? Hahaha.

Melaka Trip 15-16 Nov 2010 : Various Makan Places!

1) Chung Wah Chicken Rice Balls
Google Maps - Key in Chung Wah Chicken Rice Ball
Price - per pax 9.50RM
This is how it looks like, you can't miss it! See the narrow entrance on the left? That's where we queue up and enter the stall.
Inside the stall. The whole stall sells only this.

Here's the ping pong sized chicken rice balls.

They have ran out of chicken thigh, hence we only could try the breast meat. =_=

Maybe they added a wing to compensate us..hehe. The chicken was tasty and we finished the whole plate (we ordered only 1 pax's portion). Although it was breast meat, it wasn't tough at all. They also chopped up the chicken into very small slices, and they probably used the chopper to press the meat down in order to soften it.

The chilli sauce, which I loved. Spicy, but addictive!

Close up!

Half-eaten rice ball. yes i ate only 1 ball. The rice wasn't clumpy at all, it was rather loose and the rice bits were soft yet kind grainy. Personally, I hate clumpy soft rice, but this one was different! Amazing.
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Hubby felt that it was not very value for money. 9.50rm per pax is around 4sgd. although they gave quite a big plate of chicken.
I think it's a must try when one goes to Melaka! Haha. But follow us, jus order for 1. Coz there are plenty of food to try down Jonker Walk!
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2) Jonker 88
Google Maps - Key in Jonker 88
Price of Durian Chendol - 3rm
Price of Assam Nonya Laksa - 4rm

This place is good for its chendol and assam laksa, according to Angela, so here we are! The queue on the left sells the desserts, while the right queue sells the savoury stuff. Hubby went in to get seats while i started to queue for the assam laksa.

My review will be biased here, coz I am a lover for assam laksa, no matter where haha. I've tried assam laksa at Cuppage Plaza's Angel Kitchen and when I tried this, there was indeed some difference. This one was obviously better lar (it better be!).
The soup was of the right level of spicyness and it's filled with plenty of little treasures like raw onions, bits of sardines, tau poks, fried wantons. Very fufilling!

Onions free one. But I like :)

I have to take a pic of this. This thick bee hoon bits are short in length, their texture is soft and chewy. Hubby loved it. First time he took assam laksa and enjoyed it!

Fried wanton. Tasty!

Durian Chendol. Not much of durian though.

This chendol is not too sweet, they added jus the right amount of gula melaka. It doesnt make u feel really sinful. heh.

Interior of Jonker 88.
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3) Restoran Ole Sayang
Google Maps - Key in Ole Sayang Restaurant
Price - 42rm for 4 dishes and 2 drinks (no rice)

Here's their address on the menu! prices are not cheap, but for a restaurant, it's ok. They are probably only slightly cheaper than Ivins in Singapore.

Pics of ancestors. They are either real owners of this restaurant, or just part of a marketing gimmick.

Entrance of a typical peranakan restaurant. very mysterious.

Two pics of the most recent ancestors right above me. I tried to google his name, nothing came out.

Appetizers. Normal keropok!

Ahhh this has to be the best. This was so fragrant and tender! Only restaurants and zhi char stalls have the right stoves for this kind of results!
Shrimps in sambal gravy. Haha, hay bee more like it. This is quite spicy, but i still managed to finish all the shrimps!!

Huge piece of otak. Not spicy, good standard! But there is no fish flesh though.

Ayam Rendang. This is another thumbs-up dish! The chicken is tender and flavourful, at jus the right amount of spicyness. We were glad we did not order rice. If not we wun be able to finish!

My grass jelly drink. The grass jelly is minced. There was a fly that nearly flew into my drink. After that I was wondering if it really went in. Won't be able to tell, u know..

Got crowded after a while with businessmen and a large group of local workers.

From the outside.

Above the entrance. The street where this restaurant is, is dead quiet at night. I am amazed at their good business!
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4) Hotel Equatorial Breakfast
It's the first time i'm seeing such an egg, that has more yolk than white!! And it's such an exclamation mark for me, coz I LOVE YOLKS hahha.

This too!! How did they do it!!! Chickens are chickens mah.. why so different de? And the saltiness level is POWER. My type haha. SG salted eggs' standard dropped so much! There is barely any salty taste!

a very nicely done omelette with cheese, onion, bacon bits. very runny and cheeeesy.
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5) Etc.. Cafe at Hotel Equatorial (Lobby level)
Price for doufu cheesecake - 7.50rm.

It looked so yummy and i passed by this cafe at least 5 times!! Decided to try it out while waiting for our coach.
But, it's such a disappointment lehh :( coz the chef added lemon flavour! Personally I never liked cheesecakes with lemon flavour... I prefer the full blast cheesy taste. I ended up eating up all the crispy cereal bits below the cheese. lol.
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Yes if you have noticed, I missed the satay celup and bak kut teh!! I totally forgot abt them leh! argh. Well, that gives me a reason to go back again! I would like to give a thumbs up for Hotel Equatorial too! The standard room we lived in, was clean, comfortable and cosy. And it came with SIX fluffy pillows!! How generous! For once I did not suffer from stiff neck after sleeping in a hotel room!
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Jus wondering ; who might be interested in a short trip to Malacca (either a day trip or a 2D1N trip)?? If day trip, we can book a coach, reach malacca by 9am, and stay there until after dinner. What do you think??

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Brilliant Garden @ The Chevrons

Address: 48, Boon Lay Way, (The Chevrons, Warrant officers & Specialists Club), #03-06 Singapore 609961
Tel No: 6795 9339
Email: enquiry@gimtim.com.sg
Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday:
11.00am - 2.30pm
6.00pm - 10.30pm
Saturday, Sunday, Public Holiday:
11.00am - 2.30pm
5.30pm - 10.30pm
Type of Place: Restaurant
Recommended Attire: No restrictions
Type of Cuisine: Chinese
Average price spent per pax: $24.80++ per person (weekday dinner ala-carte buffet)
Who went with me: In order, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, hubby, myself

Rating (out of 5) –
Food quality: 3.5
Service quality: 3
Ambience: 1

1  = Poor
2 = Below Average
3 = Average
4 = Good
5 = Excellent
The entrance didn't look very appealing.

The interior looked very empty and bare.

The chilli sauce is nice, 够味!enough oomph, that is :)

We were able to choose the kind of tea we wanted. 4 choices in all. I chose 香片。

here's the 1st page of the menu.

2nd page. Quite standard.

Here's their old-fashioned piece of order paper. After our 1st round of ticks, we used back this same piece for our 2nd round. In order to be clear, we used crosses for the dishes we wanted. 3rd round - we used circles. Save the forests campaign!

You tiao with floss. Not bad! Tasted just right. Crispy, and enuff floss to go around!

This should be the best dish in my opinion. deep fried tofu and chai bor (those you see in Chwee Kueys). The chai bor is fresh and chunky, not the same as those burnt mini bits in chwee kueys.

Vegetables, something light and homely. Good dish after the deep fried stuff!

Jellyfish with smoked duck. I've tried something similar at Zhou's Kitchen (I've posted the review earlier), and I must say that the jellyfish at Zhou's Kitchen is far tastier than the one here. Zhou's jellyfish is spicy and refreshing, which placed a nice contrast to the smoked duck.

Wasabi Prawns. Zhou's Kitchen also had this dish and I do prefer Zhou's Kitchen's prawns!

Shark's fin soup. Quite a good standard, i could see the solid fins, although not big. Ok, i think i sound cruel now. :S

Crisp chicken in HK style. The tiny bits are garlic. We were getting a bit full, hence oily deep fried food was getting on our nerves. The chicken tasted a bit dry, only the garlic was nice. :P

Scallops with white lotus and celery. Yes, I was eating more of this! very lightly stir fried.

Soft shell crab with chicken floss. ANOTHER item with floss. Man.

Steamed red snapper. Too little flesh, in my opinion.

Black pepper venison. TOO SALTY!! I almost died.

by the time we reached this dish, we were stufffffed. I took the veg though. It was fresh and crunchy :)

Yam ring. I did not take the yam (i suspect i have an allergy towards yam) so I just took what was inside. What was inside - a repeat of what we had earlier!! smoked duck, mushrooms etc!!
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We also had the noodles, but I did not eat that, hence can't review. Overall, I would give the food quality a 3.5 out of 5. The word is 'comfortable'. I'm comfortable with the food and its taste.
Ambience - 1. Barely any ambience. I don't remember that there was music.
Service - 3 out of 5. There were only 2 staff on the floor that night - manager and waitress. Their bar/ kitchen entrance/ cashier was right at the other end, hence we couldnt get much prompt attention. My MIL had to call out for assistance on 1 occasion.
For its price, I think it's pretty value-for-money. But it will be better if more people can eat together, then can share the load and try more dishes!