Casa Verde

1st November, Sunday

At first I was confused over the name of the restaurant, because although the signboard says "Casa Verde", there were signs of "Lazy Gourmet" all over the place. But the receipt says "Casa Verde", so there.

Casa Verde is located at the Botanic Gardens, and business was pretty good. We reached there at around 820am and got a table. In less than half an hour, the whole place was already full. The ambience was quite good, but Canopy's was still better, partially because there weren't so many people at Canopy.

Western Set

Comes with 2 eggs (fried or scrambled), 2 sausages, 3 slices of bacon, some vegetables, and a baked tomato. A separate basket of 2 slices of toasted bread and a mini croissant was also given. There's also a choice of fruits or orange juice, and then coffee or tea. As you can see, this set really comes with everything and is a pretty good value for money. But if I were to compare it to Canopy's, Canopy's coffee, sausages and bacon were of better quality. Cost is a different matter though; this set costs $13.50 (inclusive of service charge and GST), but would have cost $17 at Canopy (and without orange juice/fruits).

V's verdict: 7/10

Palm's Asian Brasserie

25th September, Friday

Located at Copthorne Orchid Hotel (214 Dunearn Road). Decided to give their buffet breakfast a try; anyway my mother had the a la carte card which gives 50% discount for 2 pax.

One word - disappointing. Practically nothing was good, and they don't even serve normal fried eggs - only scrambled eggs (which wasn't really good either). Only the ham and sausages were still arguably acceptable. Their prata was soggy, and I didn't like the gravy they gave, so that was a thumbs down as well.

V's verdict: 4/10

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

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

Serangoon Garden Market

10th August, Monday

Half boiled eggs (Hwa Kee Cafe)

Ack, from the picture you can tell that their half boiled eggs are not good. The egg yolk is intact and not overcooked, but the egg white was still too liquid and transparent.

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


Kaya toast (Hwa Kee Cafe)

Simple kaya toast on normal bread. K sacrificed one slice to the dirty table, though. -.-

K's verdict: 7/10

Xin Wang HK Cafe

9th August, Sunday

Luncheon meat & egg sandwich

Well in the picture this sandwich looked exactly the same as the cheese & ham sandwich. I thought that the bread was a bit too thick and dry, and it was difficult to cut properly. There was a sweet taste to it too, which K claimed to be from condensed milk.

V's verdict: 6/10


Cheese & ham sandwich

K ordered this. Basically it's the same as mine, except that it had cheese and ham instead of luncheon meat and egg. K loved this, though I found it decent only (just like my sandwich).

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 9/10


Half boiled eggs

Not as good as Ya Kun's, but then again, I haven't tasted any half-boiled eggs that can surpass Ya Kun's. The egg white was a bit too watery, and one of the egg yolks burst when I cracked the egg open. Their dark sauce was a bit too sweet and not salty enough.

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

Carrot cake

This was the best dish I had here today, in my opinion. The carrot cake is those HK dim sum types, not the usual fried carrot cake in hawker centres. It was not oily, and the taste was light and yet succulent.

V's verdict: 7.5/10
K's verdict: 8/10

Xin Wang HK Cafe

26th July, Sunday

Ham & Eggs

The HK version of the Western breakfast? 2 fried eggs topped with some sweet tasting gravy, baked beans, toast, and boiled ham. I prefer the Western style though --- basically, without the sweet sauce and normal ham (instead of boiled). K likes it, though.

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


Pork chop mee in papaya milk soup

This is a more unique dish due to the soup. The first time I encountered papaya milk was in Taiwan 3 years ago at a steamboat restaurant. Honestly, I would never order papaya milk as the soup base for a steamboat, but I was with a Taiwanese friend and she recommended it. And it turned out surprisingly delicious.

Back in Singapore, when I saw this dish offered in this restaurant I ordered it immediately. It's not as nice as the one I tried in Taiwan, but still it was quite all right and unique.

The pork chop was decent only; nothing special.

V's verdict: 7/10

Ya Kun Kaya Toast

5th June, Friday

Half boiled eggs

As usual, Ya Kun has the best half boiled eggs around. I have tried half boiled eggs from several places --- Ah Mei, Wang Jiao, normal coffeeshops --- and none can compare to theirs. Their half boiled eggs are just nice and taste good not only to the stomach but to the eye. Just look at how beautifully it is prepared! And their standards are quite consistent too.

V's verdict: 8/10


Kaya toast

Some other factors would determine whether kaya toast suits a person's taste --- thickness of the toast, and amount of butter? I know I like my toast to be thin, but my parents prefer thicker toasts. And obviously some people just love a lot of butter on their toast, but I prefer just a moderate amount (for health reasons as well).

The kaya toast here is the thin kind. The kaya tastes all right, though I think I wouldn't mind them to spread a bit more. The butter is one big chunk, but you can inform them beforehand not to put so much butter.

V's verdict: 7/10

Canopy

18th May, Monday

Canopy again. I think we have tried almost everything on their breakfast menu. -.-

Eggs Royale



This is quite similar to their Eggs Benedict, except that the bacon is replaced with smoked salmon. But this time, we told the chef not to add too much vinegar when poaching the eggs. And it turned out great! Other than not tasting too sour, the eggs were also poached well --- the egg yolk was still runny but the egg white was cooked. Not sure if the hollandaise sauce is self-prepared or purchased; I still prefer Coffee Bean's Eggs Ben's hollandaise sauce.

Okay, maybe I can try their Eggs Ben again if it doesn't have so much vinegar. $13

V's verdict: 7.5/10


Eggs Florentine



Basically the same dish as Eggs Ben and Eggs Royale, except that the filling is spinach. Wilted spinach, to be precise. It means that the spinach is cooked until the spinach leaves have wilted. $12

V's verdict: 7/10

Canopy

9th May, Saturday

Eggs Benedict



This tasted a bit different from the other Eggs Ben I have tried at Coffee Bean and also in Australia. The eggs are poached, so vinegar may be added to the water in order to prevent the egg white from dispersing. But I also read that if the egg is fresh enough, the egg white will stay clinging to the egg yolk.

So Canopy also added vinegar when poaching the eggs for this dish. But I think they added too much; the taste was a bit overpowering. The hollandaise sauce was also not thick enough, but the bacon was good. Overall, not really my kind of Eggs Ben. The price was a bit steep too. $12

V's verdict: 5.5/10

Update: This dish will taste better if you ask the chef not to use so much vinegar when poaching the egg! Will update the score the next time I visit.


Eggs with bacon and sausages



The bacon and sausages came as a side order, just like last time. Along with the sunny-side eggs and toast, this dish was fantastic. It's quite easy to make though, as the most important thing is to get good quality bacon and sausages. Sunny-side up eggs are easy to prepare, assuming your eggs are fresh enough. A bit on the expensive side though. $7 + $3 + $3

Note: Don't order your eggs to be fried on both sides unless the chef Desmond is around! I ordered it before and it came out as a disaster.

V's verdict: 7.5/10

Aroma's Cafe, Mei Xuan Food Centre

7th May, Thursday

Aroma's Cafe:

Omelette with sausages



This wasn't the exact name, but it's quite long and I forgot to take it down. -.-

Located on the 5th floor of OUB Centre. We ordered this at 845am today. We were the only customers in the cafe, but this dish took twenty minutes to come! I was thinking, "it had better be good."

It wasn't.

The dish wasn't hot enough. The sausages were dry. The eggs were bland and tasted a bit stale. The tomatoes were also dry. Thumbs down for both the food and the service! $5.80

V's verdict: 4.5/10
K's verdict: 5/10


Mei Xuan Food Centre:

伊面 (Xin Heng Hand-Made Noodle)



I ordered this as takeaway after my gym workout today. This stall always has a long queue, but they are quite efficient and the queue moves along quite fast. This tasted okay, although I think the egg inside doesn't seem to fit the dish. The soup was not bad. $3.30 + $0.20

V's verdict: 6.5/10

Canopy

3rd May, Sunday

Omelette with ham and cheese


The omelette was not bad, without excessive ingredients inside. The cheese was added in the right proportions too, so the omelette wasn't too thick and filling. The ham wasn't really salty though, so I had to add some salt. $13

V's verdict: 7/10


Bacon and chipolata sausages


A side order; the bacon and sausages cost $3 each. The sausages were quite juicy and tasted strongly of herbs. I thought the bacon would be streaky bacon, but it was back bacon, which was supposedly more expensive and of better quality. True enough, it was juicy and not too salty. $3 + $3

V's verdict: 7.5/10