Swensen's

28th October, Wednesday

Swensen's had the 30% discount promotion, so I went to their Bugis Junction outlet with a few of my colleagues.

BBQ half chicken
My first impression when I saw this was: the presentation sucks. They can't even bother to put the chicken in the centre of the plate, or at least spread out the side dishes such that the plate didn't look so empty on one side!

Taste-wise, it was average only. The bbq sauce was decent; the breast meat was quite dry. $14.90

V's verdict: 5.5/10

Choon Seng Seafood (Jalan Riang)

25th October, Sunday

This outlet was located at some obscure place called Jalan Riang. It's actually right smack in the middle of residential landed property, so it's pretty much inaccessible to those without a car, and also pretty much unknown. My parents had eaten at their Bukit Timah outlet and said it was quite good. But the truth is that this outlet seemed to be totally unrelated to the Bukit Timah outlet, because the food were all not up to standard.


Fried sambal kang kong

It's quite easy for this dish to be quite tasty, but this tasted average only. The only good thing was that it wasn't too oily.

V's verdict: 6/10


Beancurd on hot plate (铁板豆腐）

This was average too. Nothing special.

V's verdict: 6/10


Mee Goreng

This was a big disappointment. It had too much gravy and tasted a bit sweet, so the "wok taste" of the mee goreng was gone. The ingredients weren't fresh too and were quite tasteless.

V's verdict: 5/10


Roasted chicken (not in picture)

Instead of saying that the chicken was roasted, I would say that it was deep-fried. Some places were so crispy that the bone could actually be consumed. But the chicken was quite tasteless and didn't have the natural chicken flavour.

V's verdict: 6.5/10


Conclusion? It ain't worth it.

Beng Thin Hoon Kee (茗珍奋记)

18th August, Tuesday

A traditional Hokkien restaurant, Beng Thin has been around for many years. I even recall visiting it several times when I was small (>20 years ago).

No pictures taken as I was having a business lunch with some of my clients.


Beng Thin Duck Salad (鸭丝冷盘)

This was a good opening dish, which was very appetizing. A nice mixture of cucumber slices, chilli, roast duck, and rock melon topped with gravy. Unique and excellent!

V's verdict: 8/10


Crabmeat fishmaw soup (蟹肉鱼鳔羹)

This was also good. Thick soup with fish maw and crab meat. Add a bit of pepper and vinegar, and the dish is perfect.

V's verdict: 8/10


Crispy roast chicken (脆皮烧鸡）

The skin was crispy, the meat was slightly juicy. The breast meat wasn't too dry too. Nice!

V's verdict: 8/10


Venison with mushrooms

The venison was decent; nothing special. I must say the attractive part of this dish was the mushrooms. They were sliced thinly; me and my colleague even mistook them for ginger slices or onion slices. The mushrooms were slightly juicy and sweet.

V's verdict: 7/10


Fujian style ngo hiang

There were 3 types of ngo hiang served here - the traditional one, spring roll, and another oddly shaped one which I don't know how to describe. The traditional one tasted good, but the rest were average only.

V's verdict: 6/10


Fried hokkien mee (福建炒面)

Beng Thin is famous for their fried hokkien mee. It's the dark kind, with thick and rich gravy. This was quite fantastic!

V's verdict: 8/10


Sweet yam with pumpkin slices and gingko nuts (金瓜芋泥)

Well I am not really into orr nee, but this was still quite good. Not too heavy and not too light. Smooth and the sweet flavour of the pumpkin blended in quite well with the whole dish.

V's verdict: 7/10

Overall, I found this place to be quite good. They may not have any dishes that scored more than 8.5 from me, but they had a lot of dishes which were already very good (score 8). Will bring my parents here one day.

Posin Hainanese Chicken Rice

11th August, Tuesday

Bought this as takeaway from Serangoon Garden. Despite having a different 'english' name as Pow Sing, their chinese equivalent is the same - 报喜. Pow Sing serves steamed chicken whereas Posin serves roast chicken. And they are owned by the same boss.

I have been eating their roast chicken since I was young. The skin is delicious, and their chilli is especially good! The breast meat can be a bit dry sometimes, but that can be cured with chilli.

$11 for half-chicken

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

Golden Shoe Food Centre

28th July, Tuesday

Roasted chicken rice (民记）

Ordered this as takeaway, as this was one of the few stalls without a queue at all. during lunch time Well, Singaporeans love to queue and associate queues with good food, but before declaring that this stall is hopeless, I would like to say that the chicken rice was actually quite decent. The rice was all right, the chicken meat (all breast meat) was quite tender and okay. I wouldn't mind getting this again if every other stall had a long queue.

V's verdict: 6.5/10

Golden Shoe Food Centre

26th May, Tuesday

Roast chicken (Lim's Chicken & Roasted Delights)

Didn't get a chance to take this picture. Anyway, after tasting the delicious roast pork from this stall, I decided to try their roast chicken.

I was disappointed! The chicken was quite poorly done. The skin didn't taste good. The texture of the meat wasn't that tender and natural. The meat itself wasn't tasty too. And I ordered drumstick too, the supposedly best part of the chicken.

Sigh! I had high expectations... $3

V's verdict: 5/10