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

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

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

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

Tai Dong Teochew Braised DUck Rice

10th November, Tuesday

Braised duck

Introduced to this by a colleague. Well I must say that this was really quite good. The duck was tender and not too dry, and the seasoning was good too. It must have been braised for quite some time, as the seasoning had really seeped into the meat. Nice!

V's verdict: 8/10

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

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

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

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

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

Beng Thin Hoon Kee

21st August, Friday

My second trip to Beng Thin within a week, as one of our business partners insisted on treating our clients (different ones from Tuesday) to this place again. Once again, no pictures.

Fried oyster omelette

This was different from the usual oyster omelette we eat at hawker centres. For one thing, it had much more flour. I prefer more egg actually, but at least it was crispy and delicious. The oysters were also big, fresh and sweet. But quite filling because it's oily.

V's verdict: 8/10


Kong Ba Pau

Beng Thin is supposedly well known for this as well. I found it not bad but not as good as I expected. Their pork tasted a bit sweet, which didn't really agree with my taste buds. But when I brought some back to my colleagues, they LOVED it.

V's verdict: 7/10


Fried vegetables (豆苗)

Simple but delicious. It's just fried with garlic, I think.

V's verdict: 8/10

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.

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

tcc (Samsung Hub)

16th July, Thursday

The outlet at Samsung Hub. Taste and presentation-wise I feel that generally they are better than Coffee Club, but they are more expensive and the portions are smaller.

They were having a 1-for-1 main course/pasta promotion for tcc members, which was a pretty good deal.

Edenic Salmon


A new dish on the menu. A slab of salmon on some pumpkin mash. The salmon was quite fresh and the pumpkin was quite sweet, so this was overall not bad. $22

V's verdict: 7/10


Chicken & Turkey Bacon Lasagne

Another new dish. The cheese biscuit used as a wrapper for the vegetables was excellent! But I couldn't really taste the bacon inside. Not sure whether is it because turkey bacon doesn't taste as strong as pork bacon? But I do know that turkey bacon is much more expensive. $16.50

V's verdict: 6.5/10

Thye Hong Cafe, Gourmet Corner

13th July, Monday

Wanted to have the sliced fish bee hoon at Thye Hong Cafe, but at 12pm the whole frigging place was full. And there were around 20 people queueing for the sliced fish bee hoon already. -.-

So my colleagues and I decided to da bao instead. Bought sliced fish bee hoon and some roasted meats from the well known stall beside the cafe (Gourmet Corner).


Sliced fish bee hoon (旺盛)

This was not bad, but not as good as the tom yam sliced fish bee hoon I had last time. I am definitely eating the tom yam next time instead. $3.50 + $0.20

V's verdict: 7/10


Roasted meats (Gourmet Corner)

There's also always a long queue at this stall, but they are very efficient (there's 8 people manning the stall!). But it's damn expensive! I told the person "roast duck and roast pork for 3 people" and the cost came up to $25. Goodness!

Interestingly, they only served breast meat for the duck. I think if you want the drumstick, you need to order it specifically. I am sure it will cost a bomb.

The roast duck breast was excellent, I must admit. It was tender; probably the most tender I have ever eaten before. The roast pork was not bad, but not as good as the roast duck.

V's verdict:
8/10 (roast duck)
7/10 (roast pork)

The Marmalade Pantry

10th July, Friday

The Marmalade Pantry has 3 outlets in Singapore; at Raffles Place (Hitachi Tower), Orchard Road (Palais Renaissance), and Robinson Road (Capital Tower). My boss treated our department to the outlet at Hitachi Tower.

The restaurant used to stink, and every time after a meal our clothes will all smell of smoke (like Arcade). It's also a problem of poor ventilation, and they even had to leave their main door open to let out some of the smell. But ever since they stopped serving french fries, the smell seemed to be mostly gone.

Their menu can be found here.

Ribeye steak sandwich with grilled onions avocado and wasabi & mayonnaise

FYI, the burger is actually bigger than it looks. It looks deceptively small because my hands are too big. -.-

The dish comes with salad and tapioca/sweet potato/yam chips. Personally, I would prefer their fries, but the price to pay for that is stinky clothes, so....

This was quite good. The ribeye steak was not bad, although I ordered medium rare and it came out nearer to medium well. The wasabi mayonnaise was nice too, but I would prefer more wasabi; it wasn't hot enough. Overall, it's worth a try. $24

V's verdict: 7/10

Town Restaurant

3rd July, Friday

Had a business lunch here, so I didn't have to pay a single cent. It serves buffet, but as it was a business lunch, I didn't get to eat as much as I wanted. So everytime we left the table, I made sure my plate was full.

For one thing, they didn't serve soup and sashimi. I was surprised; which buffet restaurants don't serve these now? But their oysters and mussels were fresh, and their salads were quite good. The roast beef and lamb were decent.

For desserts, I tried their oreo chocolate cake, cheese cake, mango pudding, and some other weird dessert in a small glass. All were decent; nothing special.

V's verdict: 6/10

Kowloon HK Cafe

25th June, Thursday

A small cafe at China Square selling HK food.

Stir fried beef hor fun


This was quite okay. The beef tasted a bit too tender too, probably due to tenderizers. Other than beef, all the other ingredients used were vegetables. $7.80

V's verdict: 6.5/10

Nam Seng Noodles & Fried Rice

25th June, Wednesday

This stall is actually more famous for their wantan mee. They used to be at the food court at Far East Square, but have since relocated when the food court was renovated. The location they are at now is not as accessible as before, so their business isn't as good anymore. It's at 25 China Street, #01-01 Far East Square.

Venision Hor Fun

They used to serve beef hor fun, but ever since they shifted here they switched to venision. I have no idea why though. Beneath the gravy, the hor fun was dry and stuck together, which was one of the sore points. The venision was tender but I suspect it was due to the usage of tenderizers. At least the gravy was not bad. $4/$5

V's verdict: 6.5/10