Kowloon HK Cafe

22nd July, Wednesday

Not a pleasant experience here today during lunchtime. For one thing, my dumpling noodles took 20 minutes to arrive. And my friend's fried XO noodles took 35 minutes to come. Totally unacceptable!

Dumpling noodles (soup)

I ordered soup this time, as I had been eating rather unhealthily recently. This was actually not bad. The soup was quite good and the dumplings were quite fresh and tasty too. $6.80

V's verdict: 7/10

Kyo-Nichi

23rd July, Thursday

A ramen shop at China Square Central.

Kyo-Nichi ramen (thick soup)

Their soup had collagen added, or so they claim. It was not bad. The egg was quite good, with the yolk still slightly runny, but it couldn't compare to the ramen I had at Men-Tei Japanese Noodles. $11

V's verdict: 7/10

Hooters

22nd July, Wednesday

Hooters, a place probably more well known for their girls in tight tank tops and tight and short shorts. And their shorts were really short; maybe a quarter of their ass could be seen? Of course, such clothing tends to magnify everything, so some girls with supposedly decent figures also seem... fat. But I digress. Let's look at their food.

Fried pickles


The menu claimed that their fried pickles are addictive. Although pickles don't really sound appetizing, we decided to give it a try (also because it was fried). My friend seemed a bit horrified at their appearance, because at first glance they look like... hum.

It was better than I thought. A bit sour, and deep frying stuff tends to mask some of the other flavours so that they are easy to consume. $8.50

V's verdict: 6.5/10


Curly fries with cheese

These were only average. The potato flavour didn't really come out. $5.50

V's verdict: 6/10


Calamari rings

This was not bad; the calamari was still quite chewy. Overall this was one of the better dishes we had here. $10.90

V's verdict: 7/10


Chicken wings

We ordered 20 chicken wings, but when it came we felt cheated. Because they cut a chicken wing into 2 and count it as 2. Tsk! So the picture above actually shows 5 chicken wings instead of 2½. Bah!

They had 5 sauces to choose from, ranging from Samurai (sweet, not hot) to 9M (the hottest), if I recall correctly. Well, if that's their hottest chicken wings, then I was sorely let down. Because this doesn't even come close to the Level 5 buffalo wings at Sunset Grill & Bar (Seletar Airbase). I think it's only Level 3 at most!

Taste-wise, it was average. $18.90

V's verdict: 6.5/10


Grilled cheese sandwiches

Bigger than how your mother made them, they claimed. And my friend told the waitress, "My mother's sandwiches are this big..." and stretched his hands almost a metre apart. -.-

So this was just normal white bread with cheese, and toasted. That's all. Dry and unappetizing. $7.90

V's verdict: 5.5/10

Pastamania

21st July, Tuesday

I haven't visited Pastamania for ages. Came with 2 of my colleagues today, and all 3 of us ordered the same dish, Al Funghi. A simple cream pasta with mushrooms. Quite all right, though Modesto's is a bit better. Of course, this was much cheaper. $7.90, inclusive of GST

V's verdict: 6.5/10

Equinox

20th July, Monday

Semi buffet style; one main course and buffet.

Char grilled beef onglet

I dunno what an "onglet" is. When I asked the waiter, he said it's a kind of beef cut. Yeah, like that helps. Dictionary.com referred me to hanger steak, and the definition is:

"a cut of beef similar to flank or skirt steak in texture and rib-eye in flavor and from the diaphragm that hangs between the last rib and the loin; also called hanging tender, butcher's steak, [butcher's tenderloin], onglet"

The beef lacked a bit of the natural flavour, so it was only average. It was done just nice; not too cooked and not too raw, so that managed to save it some marks. I didn't mind it being a bit more rare, though.

As for the buffet, they shifted the foie gras into the kitchen, so you have to order from the waiter instead of queuing and asking the chef to fry it. They said it was because of the smell. True enough, the smell of pan fried foie gras is very strong and fills up the whole place.

The foie gras wasn't too good today. It wasn't juicy enough; perhaps it was a tad overdone? But the oysters and crab were excellent! I seldom see such fat and fresh oysters in Singapore. Their parsnip soup was not bad.

Salmon sashimi wasn't as good as before, but still decent. For dessert I mainly had ice cream, so I was pretty contented. $59

V's verdict:
6.5/10 (beef)
7/10 (buffet)

Kovan Food Centre

18th July, Saturday

Fishball noodles (Teochew Fishball Mee)

This stall seems to be quite popular; it's one of the only stalls with a longer queue when I went this morning. The noodles were a bit sticky and clumped together. My mother said it doesn't seem to be the normal kind of noodles; she suspected that it was hand made? I am not sure, but I do know that their noodles will not go well with everyone. I was okay with it, though I would still prefer the normal kind.

Taste-wise it was quite good, and their fishballs were delicious!

V's verdict: 7/10

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

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

Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

14th July, Tuesday

Lor mee (Soon Heng Food Delights)

This was supposedly quite well known, so I decided to give it a try.

I was quite disappointed. The gravy wasn't tasty; it tasted a bit like tasteless goo. And there were lots of ingredients, but they weren't very good either. Give me Golden Shoe's Lor Mee (Wei Nan Wang Hock Kian Lor Mee) anytime over this!

K doesn't like lor mee, so a lousy lor mee only managed to earn 3 marks from her. $3

V's verdict: 5.5/10
K's verdict: 3/10


Fried kway teow (Tanjong Pagar Fried Kway Teow)

The unique thing about this is that they use thinner kway teow. It also tastes a bit sweeter than other fried kway teow, but it suited my taste buds! I tend to prefer thinner noodles (e.g. mee kia compared to mee poh) as I feel that the taste can be spread more uniformly.

They were quite generous with their ingredients too; I think there were 5 prawns in this plate. Or maybe they gave me more because I told them I didn't want hum... $3

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


Yong Tau Foo (Rong Xing Cooked Food)

They actually have clothes pegs to use as queue numbers, but none were in use when I was there. I found it okay, not as good as what the reviews say. Their ingredients didn't really taste that special; I think I prefer the ones my mother cook (which she usually buys from Serangoon Garden Market). And their soup was not bad, but once again it can't beat my mother's soup. Maybe I should have ordered their noodles to eat with their sauce? K likes it though! This bowl cost me $2.40 (soup only)

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 8/10

Pow Sing Chicken Rice

11th July, Saturday

A restaurant at Serangoon Garden which I have been patronizing since I was a small kid.

Steamed chicken

Ah, the steamed chicken that I grew up eating! Today's chicken was a bit tough, but I shall still rate them as per normal since I have eaten here countless times. Usually the flesh is very smooth, and coupled with their delicious gravy, it makes this a wonderful dish.

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


Fried beansprouts with salted fish

I ordered a medium portion, and it was really quite huge. (Anyway, beansprouts are dirt cheap!) This was not bad; the salted fish was crispy and good, but I found the whole dish too oily. And the taste of the salted fish didn't seem to have seeped into the beansprouts.

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