Canopy

21st September, Monday

Canopy Beef Burger

This seems to be a different version from the Canopy Beef Burger I tried last time. Appearances wise, this one looks better - it's presented nicely on a rectangular plate. But the food itself wasn't as good as before.

The salad and fries were quite all right. But the burger patty was dry, not at all like the delicious juicy version I had several months ago. I must say I was quite disappointed.

V's verdict: 6/10

Wan Chai (湾仔)

20th September, Sunday

Had breakfast at a small HK cafe located at Junction 8, opposite Swensen's and Din Tai Fung. My mother and I were the only customers at 830am. I don't rate drinks in this blog, but their coffee was so horrible that I almost wanted to scold them for serving me "black hot water". It was practically tasteless; I have never tasted such thin and bland coffee before in my whole life!

Century egg porridge with pork

This was the only decent dish. Their porridge is the HK kind, so it was brewed thick and tasty. The century egg was average. The pork, however, wasn't that good. It was quite tasteless.

V's verdict: 6.5/10


Half-boiled eggs

Not good; the egg yolk was a bit overcooked and the egg white was sticky and translucent.

V's verdict: 5/10

Soup Spoon

17th September, Thursday

The outlet at Raffles Xchange.


Tangy Tomato with Basil

One of my favourites from Soup Spoon. But today's didn't seem to taste as good. The soup was a bit too spicy, and the tomato flavour wasn't as strong as before.

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 8/10


Boston Clam Chowder

Chock full of potatoes, and quite filling (though not as filling as their mushroom soup!) .But it wasn't really as good as their other soups. For one thing, I don't really taste the clam.

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 7.5/10

Ichiban Sushi

16th September, Wednesday

The outlet at Plaza Singapura.

Curry chicken udon

This was a half-bowl, so it costs only $6.90. Well I am glad I ordered a half-bowl to share - it wasn't very good. The curry was arguably decent, but their chicken couldn't make it. Firstly, there were only a few measly pieces inside. Secondly, each piece was tough and tasteless.

V's verdict: 5.5/10


Tempura soft shelled crab

This was another disappointing dish. One, it wasn't hot enough. Two, it wasn't juicy. Three, I seem to taste more flour than crab. $5.50

V's verdict: 4.5/10


Unagi Tamago Toji

Finally, a dish that I found satisfying. The only thing I was disappointed about was its size - it sure looked a lot bigger in the menu. -.-

Well, this tasted quite good. But then again, to me, eel usually tastes around the same. The combination of scrambled egg with the eel, and their gravy was good. Worth a try.

V's verdict: 7/10


Claypot soup with salmon

Ack, I can't remember the exact name for this dish. And Ichiban Suhi apparently doesn't post their menu online. Anyway, it's some claypot soup (hot and delicious!) with beancurd and chunks of salmon. The salmon was average, but the soup made up for it.

V's verdict: 7/10

Authentic Hock Lam Street Popular Beef Kway Teow

16th September, Wednesday

Not sure whether it's the same outlet as Hock Lam Beef Noodles, but I suspect that it's different. This is located near Boat Quay. Ventilation is quite horrible inside, and one of the aunties who was serving customers practically had sweat streaming down her face. I hope none of it dropped into the noodles she was serving.


Beef tendon noodles (dry)

I ordered this instead of the usual mixed beef noodles. Well, the thick gravy on the noodles was good, and the noodles had salted vegetables and minced peanuts. The tendons however, were quite tasteless - I should have stuck to sliced beef or beef balls.

The soup was also excellent. I think I will order soup instead of dry next time. My only concern is that I will be even hotter than I was today. $4.50/$5.50/$6.50

V's verdict: 7/10

Hyang-to-Gol Korean Restaurant

15th September, Tuesday

A Korean restaurant located at the 2nd floor of Amara Hotel.

Yang-Gooi

The good thing about Korean food is that they serve you those appetizers by default. Today's had vegetable soup, mushrooms, kimchi, and potato. The mushrooms and kimchi were excellent!

This dish is actually marinated BBQ lamb slices. It was quite all right; the meat was rather tender and was seasoned just nice. $11

V's verdict: 7/10

tcc

15th September, Tuesday

Had breakfast at the tcc outlet at Raffles Place MRT (Raffles Xchange). I hate their normal seats. The table is so low then I can't even sit properly - I need to stretch my legs out or else they will bump the table. It's such an idiotic design that I wonder why they even used it in the first place. I mean, I know my legs are long, but they are not overly long - I am sure many other tall people will suffer the same problem.

But enough complaining about their tables and seats.

American Breakfast Sunny Side Up

This was nice! The bread was toasted just right, not too dry and just crispy enough. The sausages were quite okay too, but the ham was average. Of special mention is their tomatoes - 3 lightly baked tomatoes (linked to each other by the same stalk) which tasted sweet and juicy. It was as pleasant to the eyes as to the mouth.

V's verdict: 8/10

Amara Shopping Centre Food Court

14th September, Monday

The food court at the 4th floor of Amara Shopping Centre. All the food we tried were from the fishball noodles stall, 新雄记.

Bak chor mee

This turned out quite well. Just moist enough, and the pig liver was fresh too. But cabbage is ugly and I think it ruins the appearance of this dish.

V's verdict: 7/10


Fishball soup

Because they put cabbage into the soup, the taste of cabbage permeated throughout the whole bowl and I didn't like it. Fortunately their fishballs were still quite all right.

V's verdict: 6/10


Mini wok noodles (小碗面)

Again, the soup tasted too strongly of cabbage. It was overpowering! But the noodles were all right; roughly the same as their bak chor mee. Other than that, an average dish.

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 6 /10

Coffee Club

11th September, Friday

Had to decide on a venue for a birthday dinner at the last minute, so I suggested the Coffee Club at Raffles Place. Most other places should already be fully packed on a Friday evening, so Raffles Place was a good choice - there's definitely empty seats. Besides, it was just 10 steps away from my office.

Smoked salmon garlic cream linguini

I ordered this because I was very hungry. This is another ultra creamy dish which guarantees that you are full, because it's just so thick. Comes with 3 generous chunks of smoked salmon arranged in the shape of roses, and the cream was garlic flavoured.

V's verdict: 7/10


Muddy mudpie

Coffee Club's most well known dish! Everytime I come here, I will order this to share. Fantastic! 9 of us shared 3 mudpies.

V's verdict: 8/10

Fountain Terrace

10th September, Thursday

Came to Suntec during lunchtime for Comex, so me and my colleagues grabbed a hasty lunch at Fountain Terrace.

Claypot curry chicken with rice (合利)

This was quite all right. The fact that it was extremely hot (heat, not spicy) helped to make it taste better. And it didn't have a thick layer of oil on top, unlike many other curry chicken dishes elsewhere.

V's verdict: 6.5/10

Mei Xuan Food Centre

9th September, Wednesday

Roast duck noodles

Although I have worked around this area for 4 years, I haven't tried this stall before despite loving roast duck and roast pork. K ordered this today. Well, looks like I didn't miss much over these 4 years. The roast duck was decent, nothing special.

K likes the noodles, but I found it average.

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 7/10


Roast pork

Their roast pork was so-so only too. The skin wasn't crispy. But at least the meat was quite all right.

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 7/10

Urban Fav Cafe

9th September, Wednesday

Urban Fav Cafe again, my second visit in 3 days. Oh well, I have some stuff to collect at China Square Central anyway.


Special Nasi Goreng

So in what way was it special? Well, their menu had Nasi Goreng, Nasi Goreng with egg, and Nasi Goreng with chicken wings. So Special Nasi Goreng is simply Nasi Goreng with egg and chicken wing. -.-

But this was quite good too! It was a bit spicy. Quite okay for me (in fact I wouldn't mind if it was spicier) but some of my colleagues were already panting. The chicken wings were freshly fried and juicy. And the rice was topped with an egg, a piece of prawn cracker, and some deliciously crunchy ikan bilis. $6

V's verdict: 7.5/10

Urban Fav Cafe

7th September, Monday

A small cafe in China Court, quite well known for mixing up and forgetting orders. The common understanding is: If your food hasn't arrived in 5 to 10 minutes, you had better check with them.


Mee Goreng with egg

This was good! Not too oily too. $4.50

V's verdict: 7.5/10

Serangoon Garden Market

3rd September, Thursday

Bak chor mee (老松发)

I remember ordering this years ago and thinking it sucks. Today was the last day of the ghost festival and all my favourite stalls were closed, so I decided to give this stall a try again.

Well, I am still disappointed. Apparently the only thing attractive about this stall is their signboard, which looks quite attention-grabbing. The noodles were sticky and clumped together. The taste itself was wrong. The fishcake was dry and hard. The dor zai was tough and tasteless.

Next time I won't make the mistake of ordering from this stall again. Ever.

V's verdict: 4/10

Canopy

2nd September, Wednesday

Beef Tenderloin

I must have been dreaming when I was ordering this, because I missed the description that says "blue cheese on top of the beef". So when I ate a bit of the blue cheese, I thought it tasted funny. Unlike most people, I didn't think that it stinks, but the taste was very strong and personally, I thought that it didn't go well with the beef. But many other places do pair beef with blue cheese, so it's just my taste.

So I scraped the blue cheese off the beef. The potatoes were pan-fried and were absolutely delicious! The sauce used was also quite good - thick and tasty. The beef itself was not bad, though I expected tenderloin to be a bit more tender. The natural beef flavour was there, but a pity it wasn't stronger.

V's verdict: 7/10


Seafood chowder soup

Their soup of the day for today. I thought that this was not bad.

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 8/10

Prego

1st September, Tuesday

Prego was surprisingly crowded during lunchtime today. Normally I don't have to make reservations and the restaurant will still be less than half-filled, but today it was totally full and I had to wait almost half an hour for a table.

Spaghetti ala Carbonara

So far this is still the best carbonara pasta I have ever tasted. Some may find it too creamy and filling, but which carbonara isn't creamy and filling? The cream was tasty but not overall thick, the bacon was great, and overall this dish rocks. $24

V's verdict: 8/10