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

Tonkichi

19th October, Monday

The outlet at Shaw House. Most famous for their deep fried pork cutlets. I ordered their ramen set, which consists of a ramen, a katsu, and one more side dish. Everything costs $23. Very filling, I couldn't even finish the ramen.


Tonkotsu ramen

The soup was thick and yet not filling. A marvelous balance! I thought it could be a tad saltier, but my mother found it just nice. The ramen was quite okay, but the char siew had the stale and refridgerator taste.

Finally, it's a pity they gave normal hard boiled eggs. If the eggs were those 'phoenix eggs' where the egg white is cooked but the yolk is still runny, it would be better.

V's verdict: 7/10


Tori karaage

3 pieces of fried chicken. For their skill in deep frying the pork fillet, I am surprised by how poor their chicken is. It's not hot enough, and it's dry.

V's verdict: 5/10


Hire katsu

Ah, what Tonkichi is well known for. Indeed, the pork loin was deep fried just nice - not too oily and yet not too dry. The outer layer was also nice and crisp and didn't ooze oil. And it's a huge portion!

V's verdict: 8/10

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

7th October, Wednesday

The outlet at Paragon. Before I even comment on the food, I must say I was very disappointed with this outlet. Was led here by a big sign that says "Breakfast served daily". But when I tried to order something, practically everything was sold out. They had around 6 kinds of bread, and all but one was sold out. I tried to order Eggs Ben, but guess what? They are out of sauce. As an outlet in the middle of Orchard Road, how could they allow such things to happen? I don't believe that all their bread ran out at the same time, and that they had no time to order more?

Egg Club Sandwich Set

This was a let-down. The eggs were overdone and the yolk was rock-hard. Fortunately the rest of the sandwich was still okay, but the eggs have done enough damage. $7.80

V's verdict: 5.5/10

Modesto's

17th July, Friday

Got a 1-for-1 voucher for their classic pasta or regular sized pizza, so I came here with K and my cousins.

Linguine Alle Vongole

Linguine with fresh clams, dried chilli and garlic in olive oil and white wine sauce. Well this dish strangely dried up in a short while, and the clams were stale. So basically it tasted horrible. K ordered this. After I took one bite, I told her to change the order. They were nice enough to change this dish for a Carbonara and waive the charges for 2 of our desserts! Excellent service, even though this dish sucked.

V's verdict: 3.5/10
K's verdict: 5/10


Calzone

Pronounced as cal-zo-nee. It's actually a "half-moon" shaped pizza filled with cheese, pork ham, mushrooms and antichokes, topped with fresh tomato sauce. But if you ask me, it looks like an oversized curry puff!

I tried this but found it decent only. It's like a pizza folded into half.

V's verdict: 5.5/10


Stravaganza al Cioccolato con Gelato alla Vaniglia

Home-made Italian chocolate brownie topped with vanilla ice cream. It was average, nothing special.

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

Akashi

28th June, Sunday

A Japanese restaurant at the basement of Paragon Shopping Centre, right beside Din Tai Fung.

Oyako Don


This is still the best Oyako Don I have ever tasted. I tried the Oyako Don at their Tanglin outlet, but didn't find it as good. This was delicious! The rice had just enough gravy and egg, and the chicken was tender and fresh. No hint of the "defrosted" taste at all. The chicken skin is full of fat though, so don't eat it if you are health conscious.

It comes with some pickles, soup, and 2 slices of watermelon. $13

V's verdict: 9/10
K's verdict: 8/10


Kitsune Soba

Nothing special about this at all, just some soba in plain soup, and with some kitsune floating around. Too bland for me, but K found it okay as she wasn't feeling very hungry. $12

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

Modesto's

21st June, Sunday

Treated my family and some relatives here (Elizabeth Hotel outlet) for Father's Day, and they allowed me to use a 30% coupon I cut out from TODAY newspaper. The menu can be found here.

Pane Al Burro D'Aglio

Garlic bread. Simple and delicious! They added black olives too, and the bread was charcoal grilled. It tasted so much better than normal garlic bread! My mother loved it. $7.50

V's verdict: 8/10

Potato Wedges

I don't know what kind of potato they used, but this was fantastic. Thick, slightly crispy, and the potato flavour was still intact. Again, my mother was very impressed with this and claims that she has never eaten such delicious potato wedges before. $8.50

V's verdict: 8/10


Capricciosa pizza

Ingredients were tomato, cheese, cooked pork ham, mushrooms, and artichokes. I thought there wasn't anything special with this, though most of the rest seemed to like it. $22.50

V's verdict: 6.5/10


Spaghetti alla Carbonara

One look and you can tell how creamy it is. My cousin took one bite and said that "it feels like the cream is solidifying inside my stomach!"

This dish is for the cream lovers. It's a must-avoid if you don't like creamy stuff, because this is ridiculously creamy. It's guaranteed to fill your stomach even if you are a big eater! Overall I thought it was okay, though I would still prefer Prego's. $20

V's verdict: 6.5/10


Penne Alfredo con Funghi

Penne is the short tube pasta. A cream based pasta too with shiitake and button mushrooms. The mushrooms were very good! This was creamy too but not as creamy as the Carbonara. $21

V's verdict: 7/10


Cannelloni agli Spinaci

Pasta filled with spinach and cheese, and oven-baked with a tomato and cream sauce. This was good too, especially if you like spinach. And this wasn't as heavy as the previous cream pastas. $21

V's verdict: 7.5/10


Crepes alle Fragole

Strawberry ice cream wrapped in crepes, served with fresh strawberries and light orange sauce. Strawberries and ice cream together = best combi. Nice! $13

V's verdict: 7.5/10


Tiramisu Modesto's


This wasn't as strong as I liked, but it was still okay. $12

V's verdict: 6.5/10


Cassata di Ciliege con salsa Cioccolato

Translation: Home-made Italian cherry cassata served with chocolate sauce. If you were to take away the cream, cherry, and chocolate sauce, I think it wouldn't even look like a dessert. Nothing special about this, if you ask me. $11

V's verdict: 6/10

Straits Kitchen

17th June, Wednesday

A buffet restaurant at Grand Hyatt Hotel. From how it is always fully booked, even on weekdays, you can see how popular it is. And one more thing --- it costs more than $50 per person, after GST and service charge. For just local food! No sashimi or other expensive stuff.

But their food was excellent. Of special mention is the fried rice, fried kway teow, and fried carrot cake. All were great and were much better than the hawker centres I have tried. And their Indian food was good too --- their tandoori chicken, curry mutton, and another chicken. Prawn noodles and roasted duck were also quite good too. But their laksa was disappointing; the gravy was too thin.

Other stuff were decent, like their satay and grilled chicken wings. Nothing special. The otak wasn't good though. Desserts were also not very good; I tried one innocent mango-pudding-like dessert and always spat it out. Upon enquiry, I realised that is Indian Rice Pudding Soup. It tasted icky!

But buffets serve such a huge variety of food, and Straits Kitchen serves an even larger variety compared to other buffet restaurants. So it wouldn't be reasonable to rate all their food. In fact, it is sufficient just to have a few good dishes. Not everything has to taste excellent.

V's verdict: 8/10

Crystal Jade Kitchen

1st May, Friday

Had dinner at the Ngee Ann City outlet. We didn't really order anything fanciful today. Things to note are, they charge plain water at $0.30 a glass, and also charge you if you eat their pickles/peanuts etc. I don't really approve of such practices --- putting the snacks under your nose and charging you if you eat them, without informing you beforehand.


明火白粥



My favourite plain porridge. Although it's plain, it's very thick and tasty --- I think it was cooked using scallops? I never fail to order this whenever I visit Crystal Jade Kitchen. Today's was a bit less tasty, but it was still good nevertheless. K loved it! $1.80

V's verdict: 7.5/10
K's verdict: 8.5/10


Pig liver noodle (dry)



One very important thing about cooking pig liver --- it cannot be overcooked, or it is ruined. For this dish, the texture and the doneness seemed to be contradicting, because it wasn't overcooked, and yet it was a bit tough.

The noodles were decent, though their chilli was fantastic. In fact, I ordered this mainly to eat it with their chilli. One thing Crystal Jade definitely wins over Din Tai Fung is this chilli --- Din Tai Fung doesn't come close. Not even a little bit. $7

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


Roast duck noodle (dry)



Crystal Jade's roast duck is usually quite good, but I found today's to be a bit disappointing, mainly because it was dry. $7.80

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

Orchard Cafe

25th April, Saturday

Located at Orchard Hotel, ground floor. The food has been pretty good consistently, but the last time I went with my parents, it was very disappointing. Tried it again with K today.



(Sorry for the lousy picture!)

Sashimi didn't taste as fresh as before. Their pork with mushrooms and sea cucumber was lousy, but their braised pork (in black gravy) was excellent, much better than the one we had at 一家村. Prawn mee was average only, laksa was all right. Their bbq meat corner was much better than last time, especially the chicken and beef. The lamb was too tough though.

They served pig innards too, and it tasted quite good, surprisingly! The drunken prawns were fresh, but the herbal soup tasted diluted compared to last time. Their ice cream, as usual, was half melted and tasted more like fudge.

I was using a discount card, so the buffet cost us $54 in total. Without the discount card, I wouldn't have come.

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