Canopy

28th July, Tuesday

Ah, Canopy again. But this time my uncle promised that we can order some food which is off the menu, so I was quite looking forward to it.

Disclaimer: As my uncle was there, he ordered the head chef to personally cook for us, so the food was fantastic!

Prawn cocktail

The cold prawns are on the left side, while the deep fried prawns are on the right. The cold prawns were fresh, so they were not bad. But the deep fried prawns were excellent! Reminds me of the wasabi prawns in chinese restaurants, but even better.

V's verdict: 8.5/10


Braised veal cheek


2 pieces of veal, with some thick gravy and on top of mashed potatoes. Excellent! The veal was tender and tasty, and the gravy was delicious!

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


Pan-fried seabass

My mother ordered this. This was also great; the fish skin was slightly crispy and the taste of lime blended quite well with everything.

V's verdict: 7.5/10


Lemon sherbet

Damn, my phone went flat so I couldn't take a photo of this! This was superbly done, presented in half a baby pineapple. The natural pineapple flavour was so strong! A must-try!

V's verdict: 9/10


Profiterole

A profiterole is some kind of cream puff. According to Wikipedia:

"A profiterole or cream puff is a popular choux pastry. Choux paste is baked into small round puffs that are served cold with a sweet filling and sometimes a topping. The term profiterole refers to a filling of ice cream."

This was quite good too, with thick chocolate sauce on top of the pastry. Should try this as well!

V's verdict: 8/10


Strawberry panna cotta

Compared to the strong tasting profiterole, this turned out rather bland. Tasted strongly of pandan leaves. I think this should turn out decent if not for the contrast with the profiterole.

V's verdict: 6.5/10

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

Mosque Street Food Court

27th July, Monday

A tiny food court at Mosque Street.

Fried oyster omelette (Thye Hong Fried Hokkien Noodle)

At first bite, this was delicious and crispy! But as we got to the bottom, we could taste the oil oozing out and it was a bit of a turn-off. K ate an especially oily piece and stopped eating immediately. But overall, it was still quite good. $4/$6

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 5/10


Fried hokkien mee (Thye Hong Fried Hokkien Noodle)

I told the hawker that I didn't want any prawns, so he gave me extra noodles. And he really gave me a lot of noodles! It's really a huge plate and I almost couldn't finish it. And I ordered a small plate. -.-

Taste-wise it was quite good, though I would have preferred more ingredients like pork and sotong. There was sotong, but very little. K said that this was "very very nice". $3.50/$5

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

Chen Fu Ji Noodle House

25th July, Saturday

Most well known for their fried rice, though I have never tried it before. RBS was having a 1-for-1 promotion for its noodles, so we took up this offer.

Pork rib noodles

The soup was not bad and had a herbal tinge to it. But the pork ribs had the frozen taste and tasted horrible. $9.80, inclusive of GST

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


Beef noodles

The soup was quite okay, though there's no trace of the herbal taste inside. The beef was so-so, but at least it didn't have the frozen taste like the pork ribs. $9.80, inclusive of GST

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

Xin Wang HK Cafe

26th July, Sunday

Ham & Eggs

The HK version of the Western breakfast? 2 fried eggs topped with some sweet tasting gravy, baked beans, toast, and boiled ham. I prefer the Western style though --- basically, without the sweet sauce and normal ham (instead of boiled). K likes it, though.

V's verdict: 6/10
K's verdict: 7.5/10


Pork chop mee in papaya milk soup

This is a more unique dish due to the soup. The first time I encountered papaya milk was in Taiwan 3 years ago at a steamboat restaurant. Honestly, I would never order papaya milk as the soup base for a steamboat, but I was with a Taiwanese friend and she recommended it. And it turned out surprisingly delicious.

Back in Singapore, when I saw this dish offered in this restaurant I ordered it immediately. It's not as nice as the one I tried in Taiwan, but still it was quite all right and unique.

The pork chop was decent only; nothing special.

V's verdict: 7/10

Stock Pot

24th July, Friday

Had a quick dinner here before the concert at Esplanade. It's probably a rip-off of Soup Spoon, but the soups here were not bad.

Creamy Lobster & Crab Bisque


This was quite good for the price. The taste was quite strong, though not as good as Canopy's. But for $7.90, I am not complaining.

V's verdict: 7.5/10
K's verdict: 7/10


Mushroom Ragout

This wasn't as strong as Soup Spoon's. You could say that it's a lighter version, but I still prefer Soup Spoon's. K thinks that Soup Spoon's is too heavy and filling though and prefers this.

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

Hong Lim Food Centre

24th July, Friday

Bak chor mee (Tai Wah Pork Noodle)

There were only 5 people in front of me, but I waited almost 15 minutes for my food. It's not that the hawker was slow in cooking; it seemed that he had a lot of things to do. Cook this, add that, etc etc. But this bowl turned out quite good. The taste was unique, very different from the usual bak chor mee, probably due to the vinegar. The ingredients were good too. Worth a try! $3/$4/$5

V's verdict: 8/10

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