Ikea Restaurant

This is a hidden gem.

Vegeterian Rice (9/10)

And I really mean it when I say it is 'hidden' because unlike all other main courses, you can't even see the staff preparing it when you order. The staff had to go all the way to the 'back' of the kitchen to get it.

Rice is fragrant and well-executed. A very simple but satisfying meal! :)

Don't remind me of the queue and waiting time, though. >_<'

Place

317 Alexandra Road

Singapore 159965

Claypot Rice

When we were about to reach the hawker centre, my hub asked, 'What if the stall is closed for the day? What if the hawker centre is under renovation?' We both shudder at the thought of it because we came a long way to this place just to savour this delicious claypot rice again.

Much to our relief, the stall was still opened. We 'think too much'. :P

Claypot Rice (8/10)



We both felt that the claypot rice was better the last time we came.

Chye Sim Soup (9/10)



Price
$8

Place
Alexandra Village Hawker Centre
#01-31

Mr Avocado

I am a very visual person. But no, I am not a guy. lol! ;)

Anything that goes into my mouth must go through the intial stage of strict screening and filtering by my eyes. In general, I don't like to try food that doesn't look good or comes in 'weird' colours (IMO). The following is a very good example.

Avocado Shake (9/10)



That's why I frowned when my hub bought 2 glasses. I thought I merely wanted a sip!

After I took my first sip, I was soooo glad he bought 2 glasses. Never mind the green, 'ugly' liquid I see, this Avocado shake that I drank was really good stuff. Rich, milky and fragrant.

Price
$2

Place
Alexandra Village Hawker Centre
#01-19

The first thing the lady said when she brought the drinks to us was, 'Do make sure you get the correct stall the next time. We lost many customers to them'. Apparently, my hub almost went to the 'imitation' stall when they called out to him, but returned to the original one after seeing so many write ups and photos from the media at the stall.

So peeps, don't go to the wrong stall, ya?

Zhou's Kitchen 2

Due to our previous good experience, I decided to hold our early reunion dinner with my family at this restaurant. Knowing that it is going to be very crowded on a Sunday, especially when CNY is round the corner, I reserved a table 1 week in advance...

... only to get the table at the entrance, with a lot of traffic flow. We were pretty displeased with our table location because we thought that such tables should be allocated to those walk-in customers, instead of us, who actually made the effort to call, yes? We tried to change the table to a window seat, but they said that a customer has specified that they want that particular seat. Ok, fair enough. But how about the many tables at the other end? I don't think the rest who called to book has indicated that they wanted to sit at the 3rd-table-from-the-window?

Nevertheless, we decided to let the matter rest. The food coming up better be good. :P

Luckily for them, the food did appease us (or at least, me).

Yusheng (9/10)



Yusheng usually tastes the same to me. I don't know what they have added (or what they have not), but it just tasted so much better. The best (and most helpings) I have taken, really!



Oh, please pardon my blurry photos. I accidentally switched my camera into a different mode without realising it, until much later.

While waiting for the dishes to be served, we chatted. My brother told me he just came back from a company trip. There was a delay on the flight.

First, The pilot announced over the PA system that there were some cracks on the wing of the plane.

As if that's not bad enough, an Engineer took over to announce that 'the cracks are more serious than they've thought'. I can already imagine the stunned and worried looks on the passengers' face back then.

The best part is, when they finally announced that it's safe to board the plane, they actually reported how they fixed the crack. With a musking tape, that is! Seriously, I would have backed out if I were in such a situation. Then again, I don't think I would want to take a budget airplane after hearing this!

Back to the food...

Peking Duck - Skin Wrap (9/10)



I think the magic is in the sweet sauce, though the duck skin is not bad too -evenly roasted to a crisp. It would be better though, if I didn't see the fats underlying the duck skin. :P

While I was taking photographs of him cutting the duck, the waiter commented half-jokingly, "You are making me stressed by taking photos because I didn't slice the skin nicely" to which I replied, half-jokingly too, "I take photos of you because you have done a good job in slicing ah!"



I think the stress I induced caused him to forget about adding the whole plate of vegatables. :P



So I had to open the wrap up and DIY for everyone. That's when I saw the fats. The one below is still not that fatt-iest.



The waiter recommended that the duck be cooked with ee-fu noodles, but we asked for the duck to be just chopped and served because my family must have rice for dinner. >.<

Duck Meat (7/10)



On its own, it just doesn't taste as nice. Dipped into the sweet sauce, and it is a completely different delicacy altogether. :)

Fruity Pork Ribs (8/10)
We just had to share this tasty dish with my family.



Prawns with wasabi-mayo sauce (9/10)



Nicee... Even my mother and I (who are not so wasabi-pro) were full of praises for this dish.

Braised beancurd with vegetables and mushrooms (8/10)

There were 5 of us and there are only four pieces of it. My hub and I decided to share. At the same time, my brother also took half a piece only. I was eyeing his 'other-half' for a very long time. I finally decided to declare that I am eating it after everyone had their chopsticks down. There were no violent objections. Hehz...



I still feel that there are room for more food in my tummy, so I decided to influence everyone into having a dessert. All of us had very different preferences, so it was an interesting variety across the table.

Herbal Jelly served with Honey



As usual, my father replied 'Anything' when we asked him what he would like to have. I have a phobia for this word because I always feel very lost when I ask my hub what he wants to have for dinner and this is the response I get. :P So I 'taiji' this responsibility to my brother who chose this herbal jelly thing for my father because 'thats-what-older-generation-like'... hmmm... says who?

Mango Pudding (7/10)



He ordered this for himself. The pudding was nice, but I didn't like the sago that came with it.

Chilled Mango Cream with Sago and Pomelo (9/10)



Chilled Lime sherbet with Ice Jelly (9/10)

There were no Almond Jelly on the list. I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try something different. When this dessert arrived, my brother was pretty doubtful that it will turn out nice. I mean, judging from the looks, I can understand why. :P



But we were taught not to judge a book by its cover, and we probably shouldn't. The lime sherbet was nice. I almost brain-freezed myself when I took a slightly bigger mouthful of it. >.<

Service

I guess all the good service comes from the same chap, who will do small talk (while his hands are still working) and ensure that we have everything that we wanted. Some of the rest were either rigid or blur.

Price
$176 for all the above dishes plus 2 cokes

Place
Anchorpoint (oppsite Ikea Alexandra)
Copperdome


Just the same logo (overexposed) taken from the other direction. :P

Bao Zai

It was always sold out by the time I reached there. If not for my hub who was there with his friends on a Saturday afternoon, I probably wouldn't have the chance to taste the much raved-about made-on-the-spot Bao...

Char Siew Bao (8/10) Dou Sha Bao (7/10)






Not too bad, but it's either over-rated or reheated bao just don't taste that fantastic. I will probably give it second chance and eat it fresh on the spot. Someday. :P

Place
ABC Brickworks Food Centre
#01-135

Disney Naturally!

First visit
I wanted to dine in this restaurant almost immediately after I spotted the Disney theme. There were not many customers then but my hub refused to enter as it was too 'kiddish' and it was for family 'with kids'. I am an old adult with no children to bring in as excuse, so too bad for me lor. :P

Second visit
Maybe my hub dotes on me too much. Maybe he just doesn't want me to keep pestering him like an over-aged kid. :P He finally succumbed to dining at Disney Naturally with me. But it's not like you-want-you-get. The restaurant was full when we reached there. So my hub quickly put his name down to reserve a place for the next day

Third visit
Finally, we managed to get a seat on our third visit. Ironically, there were only two other groups at that time. No need for reservations at all. :P

Before we get to our table, we were shown to the cashier. I was feeling so sheepish when the waitress introduced their system to us.

"Ok, because this is catered mostly to kids..." - Alright, I am not a kid. And thanks. :P

"We want to encourage kids to order food for their parents. So what you have to do is to pay upfront for a card with a $2 deposit (we recommend $30 for a start) and place your order with this menu and the card."



"Go and order", urged my hub, after we have ticked on the menu. "You are supposed to be the kid."

"..." What can I say? I was indeed the 'kid' who wanted to dine in a Disney environment. So I obediently bring the card and menu to the counter to order. We wanted Fairy God Mother's drink, but because they ran out of this 'most popular' drink, we have to settle for the second 'most popular'. This.

Price Charming's Kiss! - fruit blends of strawberry and mango (5/10)



It looks 'strawberry' enough but I thought I was only slurping ice. Unevenly crushed and tasteless ice, that is. :P Is that how Prince Charming's kiss is supposed to be? Poor Snow White. hee! So moral of the story is, 'we should settle for nothing but the best?'

Snow White's Pot - Daily Special: Beef Goulash



Ratatouille's Recipe - Daily Special : Clam Chowder (9/10)



Clam's chowder has always been a no-no for me. Never liked clam. But I made it an exception to order this as I have read good recommendations on the soup online. It was indeed good and so was the bread that came along with it! Yums! The taste of the clam became so overwhelming towards the end though, so I didn't really finish it. I can imagine how tasty their chicken or mushroom soup would be (if they had one!) :)~~

Mickey's Classic Pizza - Tomatoa and Mozzarella Cheese (7/10)



I wanted to order the pizza with cajun chicken. Somehow, we ended up with this - only tomato and mozarella cheese. My hub kept telling me that it's good that we keep the pizza plain as it is, instead of having too much meat. He's right too.

Oppps. I didn't wash my hands. Mickey's not around to catch me, is he? :P

We get to watch disney cartoons when enjoying the meal. Kids get to surf internet at one corner too (forgot to take photographs of it). I saw one Daddy seated on the mini stool to surf net. LOL.

Kids and child-like adults will like this place!

Price
$36.60 (we had to top up another minimum of $10 because we only had $30 in the card. Very troublesome lor, if you ask me. After the whole meal, we still have to do a refund at the counter to get the change of $3.40 and $2 deposit back). Why can't they do the direct and straightforward way? Oh yea, the kids. Dang. :P

Place
Anchor Point
#01-04

Zhou's Kitchen

We were supposed to be in Disney Naturally today. IF only we have hasten our pace. Yeah, the last empty table was taken by someone before us just because we were 30 seconds behind them. :P We looked through the list of restaurants in Anchorpoint and decided to go to either Jack's Place or Zhou's Kitchen.

When we were at Jack's Place, the place was already full. We were shown the 'New Year's Eve' Menu which was obviously overpriced to ka-tuk people who just want a good dinner on New Year's Eve.

I decided that we are not going to be their carrot. So we went to search for Zhou's Kitchen. We have no idea where this 'Copperdome' in Anchorpoint is. Just when we were about to try our luck outside, we spotted Zhou's Kitchen, outside the shopping centre and next to the bus stop. :P



It's another restaurant under Tung Lok Group. Zhou is the surname of the founder of TLG. Don't you think the logo is kinda creative, combining both the words, 'Zhou' and 'Zhuang' together? :)



I included this photo to record down the fact that we were already full after eating this. :P



Lime with Aloe Vera (7/10)

We wanted Pineapple with Apple which is supposed to 'aid disgestion', something we needed very much! LOL. The waiter came back to us and said that they ran out of those fruits and recommended this (for beautiful skin) instead. :P



My first few sips was good. Thereafter, it became to sourish for me to finish it up. :P

Vegetarian Roll (7/10)



Sauteed Beancurd with Mushroom, Shredded Pork and Leek in Spicy Sauce (8/10)



Nice sauce we have here. :)

Fried Pork Ribs in Fruity Sauce (9/10)



When it was served to us, we were rather skeptical of whether the correct dish was presented to us. I mean this is pork ribs, right? We casually remarked, 'Why are there no bones in this pork ribs dish?'. The waitress replied, 'Oh. maybe it's inside'. She must have thought that we wanted the bones, but we were actually happier that there were none. :P

That was so yummy delicious. The sauce was tangy yet not so sweet. The meat was so tender, it tasted more like chicken. Everything on this was wiped out in a jiffy. :D

Service
The young bespectacled waiter was super friendly. On top of that, he did everything from making recommendations, taking down the orders, serving the food to the billing. Everything with a smile. Every boss's dream employee. :P

Price
$50.80 (We consider this quite reasonably priced, considering the good food and the classy environment). However, the other table with 4 pax only spent a few dollars more than ours (the bills for the two tables were unintentionally swopped). I wonder what they have eaten. :P

Place
Anchorpoint (oppsite Ikea Alexandra)
Copperdome (Although it's considered part of the shopping centre, you have to get out of the building to reach this place). The restaurant is in a building by itself.

Master Chef

Anchorpoint reveals its new looks! I wanted so much to have a meal at the 'Disney Naturally', but my hub was too embarrassed to enter that restaurant full of parents and kids. :P So we went to the food court instead.

We ordered the Shredded Pork rice set, which comes with vegetables, soup and rice (of course).

Shredded Pork (8/10)



Vegetables (8/10)



The two dishes were generally not bad. But the rice, a very basic requirement in this set, was such a huge disappointment. The rice was so hard, we have difficulty chewing and swallowing. We are fine with overnight food, but at least they should try to steam it up or something to make it edible?

Price
$6.50 per set

Place
Anchor point
370 Alexandra Road
Basement

Claypot Rice @ Alexandra Food Centre

My hub wanted to have dinner at Ikea, but changed his mind when we got down the cab at the Entrance of Ikea. He suggested having Claypot Laksa at Alexandra, which he claimed was very popular and good.

However, when we went there, the stall was closed for the day. It's already 8 plus when we reached there, so I wasn't surprised. The hawker was still very crowded as many other stores were still opened. We saw many taking Hokkien Prawn Mee, so we presumed it is good. I didn't really want to settle for that, even though it's my favourite, as it is too common.

We both agreed to have claypot rice. Still a claypot dish that we came here for. ;)

Type
Chinese

Taste

Claypot Rice (9/10)


Boy, aren't we glad that opted for that! It was thumbs up and feet up for this claypot dish. The rice were well covered with savoury sauce, the chicken was tender and most importantly, boneless! I mean, what could be better than spending more time enjoying the meal than to separate the bone from the meat or spitting it out if you had accidentally taken it with the meat? Some part of the rice was burnt, which I heard is the favourite part for some people. Not for me, but it's not that important, because I enjoy it all the same. I am certainly coming back for this!

Chye Sim Soup (9/10)


The man asked if we wanted soup or vegetables to go along. I thought a Chye Sim Soup would make the meal more balanced somehow, as the claypot rice might seem too dry and 'heaty'. It was a good addition for the soup was really very tasty. The only grouse is that it is too small a size and we glurped down the soup right to the last few drops within minutes. :P

Whatever! (9/10)

I usually don't do review on beverages. But this beverage is kinda cool. You never know what you are going to get, except for the fact that you can get to choose whether it is a carbonated or non-carbonated drink. And this name couldn't be any more apt. Just refer to the advertisements on TV/Radio and you would know what I mean.

'Whatever' is the non-carbonated drink, which may contain either Ice Lemon Tea, Peach Tea, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape Tea, Apple Tea and Chrysanthemum Tea.

'Anything' is the carbonated drink, which may contain either cola, cola with lemon, Apple, Fizz up, Cloudy Lemon or Root Beer.

I don't know if this is just another fad, but I am pretty sure the founders of this company and busy counting notes and coins this very moment. Not physically counting of course, but you know wat I mean! ;)

I ordered 'Whatever'. My hub wasn't too impressed, but I was. It's not too sweet and has got the fragrance of the tea. The thing is, I am not too sure what I have gotten. I know it is certainly not Apple Tea and White Grape, but was it Ice Lemon Tea, Peach Tea, Jasmine Tea or Chrysanthemum that I drank? I couldn't really tell. :P

Maybe they should improve by indicating the name of the drink at the bottom of the can or something? I know it's supposed to be 'Whatever' (with that heck-care-what's-inside attitude), but I am sure there will still be some curious cats like me out there? And oh ya, they should also improve on the supply chain and logistics aspect. I couldn't find it in most places, not even NTUC.

Other than that, Kudos to the founders of this drink!

Ambience
Normal Hawker Centre environment, but it was well ventilated and windy.

Service
üüüüü
Normal

Price
$$$$$
Definitely value for money. $5 for shared clapot rice for 2, $3 for soup.

Place
Alexandra Village Hawker Centre
Claypot - #01-31

It was one of the best meals I ever had. It was so satisfying that my spirits went uphill after my first few mouths of rice and soup and it was kept high throughout the night. I am definitely coming back for more. Wait for me, Alexandra! ;)