Plaza Market Cafe

24th August, Monday

Apparently they just changed their buffet spread... along with their prices. The price was reduced, but the discount from the Feed at Raffles card was also reduced to 25% for 2 people. My guess is that too many people have the Feed at Raffles card, so they are now trying to balance and find a compromise between normal customers and AMEX customers.

The salmon sashimi was still okay. The other more commendable dishes were their laksa, sambal kang kong, durian pengat, and ice cream (especially yam). The following were average - stir fried pork, stir fried beef, crab meat soup, winter melon soup, and long beans with lemak.

And the remaining dishes sucked - fried hokkien mee and fish & meat ball soup. The latter was so bland that my first thought was, "did he give me the water used to cook the noodles as soup?" It's basically hot water! They had 2 hot desserts which were not hot at all, and were all stuck together.

Disappointed. Even with the 25% discount (around $51 for 2 pax) it was still totally not worth it. Heck, it's still not worth it even with 50% discount.

V's verdict: 5/10

Kovan Food Centre

23rd August, Sunday

Wanton noodles (Pontian Wanton Noodles)

I must give credit to their signboard. Out of all the stalls, their signboard was the most prominent and most attractive. Pontian is actually a district in southwest Johor, so this stalls claims to sell Pontian-style wanton noodles, with 60 years of experience blah blah. The bowl sthey used to serve the noodles adds to the authenticity. It looks more original and traditional (and arguably more delicious).

They offer a variety of sauces for the noodles - black sauce, chilli sauce, black sauce & chilli sauce, and tomato sauce. The standard sauce is the black sauce, and the hawker will ask if you want chilli sauce to go with it.

Ingredients were quite plentiful - char siew, deep fried wanton, boiled wanton (that goes with the soup), and vegetables. Let's begin with the noodles.

The noodles had a good texture; smooth and goes down easily. It was also well mixed with the sauce as the hawker will help you mix it before serving. The sauce had a slight sweet tinge to it. Which was all right, but I thought it could be a bit saltier.

The char siew was decent at most. A bit dry too. The boiled wanton was not bad, but the deep fried wanton was good! Crispy and succulent.

Overall, this was quite good and I wouldn't mind trying it again. The portion was a bit small, though. $2.80

V's verdict: 7.5/10

Okinawan Diner Nirai-Kanai

22nd August, Saturday

A Japanese restaurant which is quite well known for their pork belly. They shifted to Liang Court, from Tanglin Shopping Centre. Had a class gathering here, so we had a really huge group of 20+ people.

Raw squid

I must say the presentation of this dish sucks. If I had to give their presentation a score, it would probably get 3/10 at most. Look at the picture. Doesn't it look icky?

It looked raw and unappetizing, and the squid had a greenish tinge to it as well. But I still gave it a try. A consolation was that it didn't taste as bad as it looks. They seasoned it with some wasabi, so it was still okay. But I wouldn't order this again.

V's verdict: 5.5/10


Jumbo pork belly noodles

The pork belly was quite good. It was tender and fell apart once I prodded it with my chopsticks. Normally I don't eat the fats, but this time I just ate everything up. Other than the pork, the egg was done very well too. The egg yolk was still semi liquid, and the egg white was tasty too.

But this aside, nothing else was special. The soup was arguably decent. But the noodles weren't good; a bit hard and my first impression was "did they use the wrong noodles for this dish?" $13.80

V's verdict: 6.5/10

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

O'Briens Sandwich Irish Bar

21st August, Friday

Had a concert to watch at 730pm, so we grabbed a quick dinner at O'Briens (Citylink Mall outlet).

O'Briens Triple Decker

As shown in the picture, it comes with chips. Fillings include the usual tomatoes and lettuce, and chicken and bacon. This was quite good, actually. The proportions was done just nice, and the sauce was also added in the right amount, such that the sandwich wasn't too wet or too dry.

The only drawback was that the counter staff took forever to prepare this sandwich. $10.90

V's verdict: 7.5/10
K'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.

Lee Fun Nam Kee

17th August, Monday

Okay, I am not sure whether I got the name right. On their plastic bag it says "Lee Nam Kee", but below that it says LFNK and "李范“. And a search online yielded "Lee Fun Nam Kee". Oh well. It's located at Block 94 Toa Payoh Lorong 4, #01-04.

Soy chicken

Excellent soy chicken! One of the very few chicken dishes my mother truely enjoys and craves for once in a while. The chicken is tender and smooth. The thick sauce was a bit too sweet; I would prefer the normal juices that comes with the chicken. The sauce can be used with their noodles, however.

V's verdict: 8/10
K's verdict: 7/10

Serangoon Garden Market

17th August, Monday

Braised duck rice (Ah Seng Braised Duck Rice)

I haven't eaten here in years, and I regret not having visited this stall earlier. Their duck was so good! The duck breast was sliced thinly, and it was tender and succulent. Excellent!

V's verdict: 8.5/10

Princess Terrace Cafe

16th August, Sunday

Well known for their Penang hawker fare, this cafe is located at Copthorne King's Hotel, at Havelock Road.

I must say I haven't had such a great buffet in ages. People may think that "hawker fare" is cheap stuff and not worth the $38++, but I have to say that their food is really fantastic! The stuff that really caught my attention was their prawn mee (the soup was so strong and delicious; K said that this is the real Penang prawn mee), herbal duck thigh soup, deep fried crab, and fried kway teow. Other good dishes include their otak otak, braised pork, and pig stomach soup.

Penang laksa was something I have disliked for years. K tried their Penang laksa and said it was good, only a bit below Penang's standards. I tried a sip and actually found it quite... edible!

There was BBQ stingray too, which K liked but I found it a bit too sweet and not hot enough. For desserts, the only thing that caught my attention was ice kachang, since they don't serve ice cream. But ice kachang was a welcome change, so I was all right with it.

I thought that the days of stuffing myself with food beyond a certain level of comfort were over (around 7 years ago?). But I found myself trying to eat more even though I was full, because the food was simply too delicious. I forced myself to down one last bowl of prawn mee so that I won't regret it later. And I am glad I did.

V's verdict: 9/10
K's verdict: 8.5/10

Chomp Chomp

12th August, Wednesday

Fried hokkien mee (车间炒福建虾面)

Tried the fried hokkien mee from a different stall, since the famous Ah Hock was closed today. This turned out quite okay. $3/$4/$5

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 7/10


Century egg and pork porridge (Chong Chong Pork Porridge & Macaroni)

This used to be my favourite porridge, until I tried the porridge at Maxwell Market's Zhen Zhen Porridge. Still, it's a good bowl of porridge, thick and tasty but not as thick as Zhen Zhen's, which some people think is too heavy for them. Comes with pork, century egg, pig liver, and egg. The egg costs $0.50 (!!!) and takeaway another $0.20.

$3.50 + $0.50 + $0.20

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


BBQ chicken wings (Xin Shi Dai)

Located at the back, right side. It's a relatively newer stall compared to Daily Fresh, but I found this to be slightly better. $1 per wing

V's verdict: 6.5/10
K's verdict: 7.5/10


Wanton noodles (Swee Heng Wanton Noodle)

I ordered this several years ago and loved it since. I always order their green noodles; it seems to taste better than their yellow noodles. Just moist enough, with wanton and small dumplings. The ingredients were average, but the chilli and seasoning mixed with the noodles makes this a great dish. $3/$4

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

Mango Tau Huay (Dinghao Sugarcane Juice)

I have never tried mango flavoured tau huay before. This was mixed with normal tau huay. The mango tau huay wasn't strong enough on its own, so you have to eat it with the chopped mango. Unique and interesting. $2.50

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 9/10