Han's Cafe

29th December, Tuesday

The outlet at Great Eastern Centre.


Chicken chop with mushroom sauce

Chicken is usually a safe dish, especially so for Han's. This was still edible, although the chicken had almost no chicken flavour at all. The fries were average at best, and the dessert that came with it (bread and butter pudding) tasted so artificial that I discarded it after a bite.

V's verdict: 5.5/10

ifreshco

28th December, Monday

A tiny Japanese cafe located at the basement of OUB Centre, Raffles Place. I ordered this bento set last week for a business lunch, and all their food turned out pretty good!


Grilled Salmon Belly with Herbs

This was delicious. The salmon belly was fresh and not too oily, and the sides were rather decent too. The only gripe was that the portion was a bit small. $9.80

V's verdict: 8/10


Salmon miso soup

This was good too! It tasted homemade and had lots of ingredients inside --- salmon cubes especially. It costs $2.50 a bowl but only $1.50 if you order it with a set lunch.

V's verdict: 8/10

Fish & Co (West Coast Plaza)

25th December, Friday

The outlet at the newly opened West Coast Plaza.

Seafood Platter for Two

As the name implies, this is a huge platter of seafood meant for 2 persons, and it comes with rice, grilled dory fillet, prawns, mussels, french fries, and grilled squid. Let's go through these one by one.

The rice was dry and not too fragrant. It had more sauce at other outlets, so maybe this is just an isolated incident? But my cousin and I didn't finish the rice in the end; it wasn't worth it.

The grilled dory fillet was all right. The prawns were another matter though. It was dry, tough, and not fresh, and the flesh was stuck to the shell, which made deshelling very difficult. Disappointing.

The mussels weren't too good as well; they weren't juicy and sweet enough.

The grilled squid and french fries probably saved the dish. The squid was so tender and delicious, and the fries were also not too thick and crunchy. $37.90

V's verdict: 6/10

Hip Diner USA

24th December, Thursday

Hip Diner USA is a diner by Billy Bombers, so the kind of food served is pretty similar. It's located at the basement of Bugis Junction.

Mushroom Burger
A beef burger with sauteed mushrooms, lettuce, and mayo. The bread was nicely toasted, and the beef was done medium rare - just as I asked for, so it was still juicy and not too cooked.

The fries were not bad, but I would prefer them not to be so thickly sliced. Overall, quite good. $14.90

V's verdict: 7/10

Serangoon Garden Market

20th December, Sunday

BBQ Stingray (Ah Liang BBQ Seafood)

The only seafood stall at Serangoon Garden Market. The sting ray itself wasn't too good; the flesh was a bit tough. The most important thing is the sambal chilli - and it wasn't good either.

V's verdict: 5.5/10

The Asian Kitchen

17th December, Thursday

Braised duck noodles with mushroom

I have came to this restaurant several times, and was never really impressed by their food. This dish was all right, but not outstanding. Everything was average.

V's verdict: 6/10

Kopi Tiam

16th December, Wednesday

Prawn Noodle Soup

The noodles and ingredients were all okay, especially the prawns, which were cut, deshelled and cleaned nicely (it's a hotel restaurant after all). But the prawns weren't really sweet, and the soup wasn't really tasty. It didn't have the thick taste of prawn heads, but tasted as if it needed some help from MSG.

V's verdict: 6/10

Chatterbox

15th December, Tuesday

Chatterbox is definitely most well known for its award winning chicken rice. But... the review for the chicken rice shall be on another day, because me and K didn't order it today. I suppose I should state that I only came here because I had the eat @ Meritus card, which entitles me to 50% discount for 2 pax. If not for the card, I would definitely not have come to eat overpriced food.

Nasi lemak

K ordered this. I took a few bites and thought it was a bit disappointing. The chicken rendang was average, but the otak tasted a bit... stale and spoilt? And the rice was a tad too sticky for my liking. The ikan bilis wasn't crispy too. $21

V's verdict: 5.5/10
K's verdict: 6/10


Lobster laksa

Initially, I wanted to order the fried hokkien mee, which cost $21. But their lobster laksa cost only $28, just around $3.50 difference after the 50% discount, so I ordered this instead.

The gravy was thick and probably chock full of coconut milk. I could still stomach the thickness (I was very hungry actually) but K thought that there was too much coconut milk. Tastewise, the soup was quite all right. The fishcake and taupok were okay too. The lobster was sweet; a pity it was rather tough.

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 7.5/10

Coffee Club

15th December, Tuesday

Roast Beef Sandwich

The fries were not bad. The sandwich was decent only. The roast beef wasn't tasty and juicy enough. $11.70

V's verdict: 6/10

Serangoon Garden Market

12th December, Saturday

Mee Goreng (Back 2 Ponggol)

A newly opened stall. It looked rather lonely (no customers) so I decided to give it a try.

This was average only. They were quite generous with the ingredients, but the cost justified it ($6 for small, $10 for large). The portion was quite big, but for $6 it wasn't really a lot actually. The squid was a bit too tough. Other than that, nothing special.

V's verdict: 6/10


BBQ Chicken Wings (Xin Zhong Bang 新忠邦)

This was not bad. It's not dry, but it could be it a bit juicier. I actually prefer this to Chomp Chomp's.

$1.10 per wing

V's verdict: 7/10


Fried Oyster Omelette (Fried Prawn Noodle.Fried Kway Teow.Fried Oyster.Carrot Cake)

Currently this is my favourite stall for oyster omelette. The dough was fried to a crisp and yet not too burned. My cousin said it was "total ownage".

V's verdict: 8/10

Kowloon HK Cafe

11th December, Friday

Fried rice with scallops and egg

I found this to be quite good! The portion was generous, with pieces of scallop, egg, and salted fish. And it wasn't too oily too.

V's verdict: 7.5/10

Ministry of Steak

8th December, Tuesday

A newly opened steak restaurant at Serangoon Garden. It came as a direct competitor to Aston's with its cheap and affordable steaks.

French Onion Soup

This was average. Nothing special, but still acceptable.

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 7.5/10


Wagyu Beef

(I didn't get a picture of this because the waiter asked me to check its done-ness. And without thinking, I sliced the beef... and the picture couldn't be taken anymore. -.-)

MOS was having a promotion on their Wagyu beef, so it cost only $29 instead of the usual $39. And it was Australian Wagyu ribeye! The beef was a bit thin, but it was still totally worth it. I ordered it medium rare, and it actually came a bit closer to rare. But nevertheless it was delicious and juicy.

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

To top things up, there was no service charge or GST. And their service was excellent. Definitely a recommended place!

Borsche Steakhouse

8th December, Tuesday

An extremely old Russian restaurant at Serangoon Garden. And evidently not much renovation was done, since the place looked exactly the same 10 years ago.

Hard boiled egg with caviar

I think I could count how many eggs there were on the egg! The caviar was okay (actually too little to really taste it). The hard boiled egg was hard and seemed to have been cooked too early and left in the fridge.

V's verdict: 5/10


Shrimp cocktail

Urgh, the shrimp they used was those small and stale ones! One bite and I refused to eat anymore of it.

V's verdict: 3/10
K's verdict: 5/10

Cream of mushroom soup

I think a more appropriate name for this would be 'Water of mushroom soup'. It was so diluted and tasted horrible!

V's verdict: 3.5/10
K's verdict: 3/10


Borsch soup

After tasting the real Borsch soup at Russia, this one doesn't come close. But still, if you ignore the fact that this isn't original, it still tasted decent.

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 5/10


Sirloin steak
K ordered this. It came on a sizzling hot plate. The seasoning and taste was quite good, but I found the beef a bit lacking in natural flavour. The beef was no doubt from New Zealand. But K found it quite good.

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


Mixed grill

This was my main course. Mixed grill = Beef, pork, lamb, chicken. The beef was a small piece only, but it was a tenderloin so relatively it was better. The pork was a bit dry but still decent, and the lamb was ultra tough. I felt as if I was chewing a piece of rubber. The chicken was not bad though.

V's verdict: 6/10

Despite its ratings, the price was very affordable. K's set (sirloin steak) that comes with the starter, soup and a drink cost only $13.80, while my dinner set (mixed grill) costs $20.80, and it also comes with the same stuff. It's actually quite all right, if you don't mind the quality a bit.

Chomp Chomp

7th December, Monday

Lor mee (AMK 711 Penang Prawn Mee . Lor Mee)

A new stall. There were totally no customers, so I decided to give them a try.

I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite good! The garlic seemed to have been mixed in with the gravy, and it was just all right too --- not overwhelming. Will definitely give it a second try.

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

Brazil Churrascaria

2nd December, Wednesday

The ultimate meat eater's paradise. If I am correct, this restaurant (at 6th Avenue) was the first Brazillian restaurant to open in Singapore, and one of my favourite restaurants too! But I always end up too full and bloated after eating here, so I can't visit here so frequently.

Anyway it's a buffet, but you don't have to get food or order - their waiters will always walk around with chunks and slabs of meat for you. The main dishes are: beef tenderloin (a treasure - they won't serve this so often!), garlic beef, beef ribs, beef topside, chicken thigh, chicken breast wrapped with bacon, roasted pineapple (delicious!), roasted ham, chicken liver (my favourite), chicken hearts (not for the chicken-hearted), pork sausages, roasted lamb. It's all quite oily and sinful, but really delicious! For the quality and amount of food that you can get, $42 is definitely worth it.

V's verdict: 9/10

Suki Sushi

30th November, Monday

The outlet at Hougang Plaza, some ulu and run-down place near Hougang MRT. This was the only outlet that serves buffet during dinner, and since my cousins wanted buffet, we came here.

Well, the food is pretty horrible. Everything was of such low quality that I was a bit concerned whether I would get food poisoning after eating or not. The sashimi were all not fresh, and nothing really caught my attention.

Never coming here again. Never.

V's verdict: 4/10
K's verdict: 6.5/10

Kovan Food Centre

28th November, Saturday

Bak chor mee (发记)

There's perpetually a looooong queue at this stall. So when I passed by and there were less than 10 people, I quickly joined the queue.

Well, I didn't think it was that fantastic. The noodles were a bit too sticky. The ingredients were okay, but it definitely didn't justify the queue. $3

V's verdict: 6.5/10

Mei Xuan Food Court

16th November, Monday

Sliced fish bee hoon

Set up by the same owner of the handmade noodles stall (Xin Heng). Well this was not bad; the soup was quite tasty. Everything else was decent.

V's verdict: 6.5/10

Cookbook Asia

16th November, Monday

Located at the basement of OUB Centre, beside Spinelli.

Century egg porridge

Tasteless. That's it. I had to add light soya sauce (and quite a fair bit) for it to be edible.

V's verdict: 4/10