Petit Provence

Cinnamon Roll (10/10)



Cream Wassant (10/10)

Ramen Santouka

Shoyu Ramen - Soya Sauce (6/10)



The meat was tender and flavourful. The noodles was on the thicker side, but that's ok. The soup base was really saltish... I like! :P



The whole Ramen tasted just like instant noodles topped with ingredients. Some people compare ramen to instant noodles when they find the dish 'substandard' or 'not-worth-the-price', but when I compare ramen with instant noodles (with myojo instant noodles -chicken flavour in mind), I meant it to be a compliment. :P

However, came a stage when the ramen became too excessively saltish. So an original 8 rating averages to a mere 6.

The number of people seated in this small restaurant is probably just as many as those queuing outside. :P I only took the pics of the interior (above) and not at the long queue in case I infuriate the hungry (aka angry) people. :P

Price

$28+ for the two bowls above

Place
The Central
#02-76

Grains 稻香馆

This restaurant is reputated to serve healthy and nutritious food without compromising on the quality. I thought it would be a good idea to bring my mother to this restaurant, since she is getting more health conscious now. Indeed, it is.

This restaurant is divided into the two parts by a public walkway. When we arrived, many seats were still available so we managed to get one whole corner to ourselves, without exposing ourselves (and our food) to the people who walked by. :P

Home-made Barley (6/10)



Nutritional ABC Soup - consists of huaishan, carrot, corn and spare ribs (8/10)

This soup was pretty light, yet addictive. Throughout the meal, we kept helping ourselves to the soup, one bowl after another!



Spinach Tofu with Shimeiji Mushroom and scallops (9/10)



I love the mushrooms that were briefly fried (me thinks) before it was drenched in this savoury sauce. The soft, smooth tofu was nice too.

Grains fried rice (9/10)

This is their signature dish, I suppose. What's special about this fried rice is, instead of the usual white rice, they are using the more nutritional brown rice counterparts. I usually frown at the thought of brown rice because the ones I had before were coarse and rather hard to chew on. However, I am glad that I gave this dish a chance. The brown rice was nothing like I have imagined it to be. It was soft and not oily. Together with the scallops, wolfberries and other ingredients, it made a very tasty and filling staple for our meal. Tasty as it is, I still prefer my fried rice at Thai Lemongrass. :P



Spinach in chicken stock and wolfberries (8/10)



Light but nice!

Service

The waitresses were very friendly, attentive and prompt, but my mother and I were interrupted quite a few times because the waitress came over to check what else we need and to clear the plates. That, imo, was rather irritating.

Before we left, they passed us a 'feedback' form which had no fields like 'ways to improve'. Besides asking you to choose among an unhappy, neutral and happy face, all other things were to their favour. Like, who has the best service, what we like about their service, words of encouragement. I wanted to comment that they shouldn't check on the customers so often, but found absolutely no place to write.

To top things off, the waitress said this as she passed the form to me. "If you write well, you will get vouchers from us" Sounds so conditional. :P

Price
$53+ after 10% OCBC discount

Place
The Central
#02-72

Billy Bombers

All star (Beef) - their signature



Grilled Cajun Fish Meal (5/10)



The fish wasn't fresh. The sauce on it was so terrible, I had to scrape it off. My only consolation came from the side dishes - salad and the salad potato. This meal includes Chicken Soup (7/10), drinks and a brownie dessert (7/10)

I only managed to take a photo of the main course as I was too engaged in a conversation with my hub's friend. :P Learnt so much on design stuff from him. :)
I didn't know that Hip Diner USA was linked to Billy Bombers, not until I received the vouchers from them.

Price

$18.90 (before ++) for the whole course

Place

The Central
#02-78

Petit Provence 2

Thanks to Ice (I don't have his/her link), I got to know that they actually have another outlet at The Central.

It wasn't a deliberate trip down to The Central, but I am glad that I was there. I wasn't expecting to see any wassants as it was already evening when I reached. Still, I decided to drop by to see what other goodies I can spot.



I saw chocolate wassants. Not the usual raved cream wassants, but yea, chocholate ones. Still a wassant! So I have decided to buy 2 to try.

Chocolate Wassants (10/10)



hmmmm.... It was sooooo good. Soft and fluffy, sweet and tasty, as described in its website. It's not drying at all. I can actually do without water after consuming it without getting an irritated throat. This is usually not the case when I take bread/pastry.

Immediately after I have popped one into my mouth, I had a craving for another! If we weren't heading for a group dinner, I could have bought 2 more to have for dinner! :P

I am going to get more of it this week and on every subsequent visit to The Central. hehz!

Service
Unfriendly and impatient girl at the counter.

Price
Only 50 cents for 1 tasty wassant! Grab liao lor. ^_^

Place
The Central
#B1-29

Wakashachiya Curry Udon

There are so many places with similar names (either in spelling or pronunciation) in this small island of ours. There are

1) Holiday Inn Park View (Orchard) vs Holiday Inn Atrium (Outram),
2) Grand Plaza Park Hotel (Coleman) vs Grand Plaza Park Royal (Kitchener/Beach Road)
3) Loyang (East) vs Lokyang (West)
4) Meritus Mandarin (Orchard) vs Mandarin Marina (Marina)
5) The Central vs Central Mall (both in Clarke Quay Area)

Us : Uncle, The Central
Taxi Uncle : Central Mall?
Us (thinking mall is just a word that Uncle added to show that he knows it is a shopping centre) : Hmm.. ya.
Us (just to make sure) : Clarke Quay there

We ended up in some ulu building. We were rather doubtful of being dropped at the correct place, but alighted because Uncle was very firm that it is the Central Mall. Indeed, it is. Coincidentally, it is somewhere near Clarke Quay, as what we have told Uncle.

So near, and yet so far, that is. We had a 15 minutes walk before reaching 'The Central'. By then, we were already famished. The restaurant that my hub wanted to bring me to was full and it was going to be a half an hour wait. Our growling stomach told us that we have to come back for that restaurant some other days.

There were queues everywhere and only Wakashachiya Curry Udon was without one. We were hesitant about going in because no queue means food quality is not as good? But I was pleasantly surprised.

Type
Japanese

Quality

Prawn Tempura Curry Udon



Pork Cutlet Curry Udon (8/10)
It was so delicious, I wonder why there aren't any queues forming. The curry is mild and not too thick. It was a big bowl, but I managed to gobble down everything in it. :9



Ambience
It was one long stretch of seatings across the longish-shaped restaurant, allowing very little space for privacy. Overall, the lighting and the deco are simple but pleasant. What's worth mentioning is that they are showing Japanese variety shows on the TV. This is something new and interesting for a change.

Service
üüüüü
Smiley and attentive staff

Price
$$$$$
Pretty reasonable

Place
The Central
Eu Tong Sen Street #03-92