Xiao Xuan Feng

Kungfu Chilli Chicken (1/10)



I don't think I have given such a low review before, but I think this dish deserves just this. I don't really know what that 1 point is for, actually. We can hardly find any chicken on this dish. It was full of chilli (very strange ones because it is as hard as the shell of a crab!)

And it's supposed to be their signature dish! Very disappointing indeed.

Durian Puff (8/10)



Not too bad. It's their signature dessert. Crispy (but a little oily) crust with smooth and sweet durian fillings. I've never eaten anything like this before, so it was considered quite a good experience.

Price

$26.95 (after a 10% discount for NTUC Link) - also includes Stir-Fried long beans, 2 rice and Jasmine tea for two too.

Other details here

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

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

Fig & Olive

We were going round Vivocity in circles in search for a place to have lunch.

I wanted so much to have a Ripper from Superdog. What could be better than to start the day (or rather, the year) with my favourite food?

'No. We are not going to have that. It's not good to take processed meat', said Hub. Now, that sounded so familiar... Oh. I said that to him pretty often. :P

So we decided to have it in Fig & Olive. I have always wanted to try the food there, but my hub always said no, without taking a second look at the restaurant. This time, I tried to convince him with the 'Singapore's top 100 signature dish award' title that they have placed outside and it worked! :P



Both of us was eyeing this dish. Although it is rather 'risky' to have the same dish (in case it didn't turn out nice), neither of us are willing to budge by choosing another. :P

Figo Marinara Oglio (9/10)



Thanks to our refusal to budge, we both get to enjoy a very tasty meal! I love the fried dory fish. It was the best fried fish I have ever tasted. It has a light crunch with a smooth and tender fish meat beneath the crust. Ai yoh, I still yearn to have a bite of it now. :P

The salad tasted ordinarily good, but the sphagetti was too 'fat'. I guess it was overcooked.

The broccoli and carrot was pretty hard and raw, not to my liking as I belong to the '吃软不吃硬' group. My hub love it though.

'Can you cook like this next time?'

Ok lor... less work for me ah. :P

Service
The waiters were not exactly friendly - no smiles at all. (Maybe it doesn't feel good to work on a New Year's day. :P ) But that's ok, our food were served rather promptly.

Price
$36.64 (including 2 cups of green tea)
(after OCBC credit card 10% discount)

Place
Vivocity
#02-116

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.

Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodle Restaurant

I have warned him that since he is such a fussy eater, he won't like the food in this restaurant. He still insisted on giving it a chance. Ok lor. :P

Chicken Sukiyaki (6/10)



Pork Hot Pot (6/10)




Potato Cake (8/10)



Tofu (8/10)



Chocolate Furtado (10/10)!




The chocolate coating was superb! Yums!

After we are done with our meal, he said, 'We can only come back for the dessert!'

Told you. :P

Service
Poor. Impatient supervisor (I think) who used so much force while clearing the plates that the liquid splashed onto the table that we are going to be seated at. Another waitress was better.

Price

$31.30

Place

Tiong Bahru Plaza

#02-16/17

Pepper Lunch 2

Pepper Chicken Rice... This time with cheese. Tastes just as good. :)

Oasis Taiwan Porridge Restaurant

My mum used to tell me how I enjoyed having my meals in this restaurant and how I ate many bowls of porridge even though I was still very young then. It makes me really curious if the dishes are really THAT delicious.

It was until I read that the Taiwan porridge Restaurant is going to close down for developments in Kallang that I thought, 'You mean it's still there?' :P

So I decided to jio my family there to relive the times we had in this restaurant when I was very young (though I can remember nothing more than pink bowls and a dim environment) and the tasty Taiwan porridge we had in Taiwan few weeks back.

Look at how thoughtful they are in the design of the the cup... Thoughtful, but obiang. :P



Taiwan Porridge cooked with sweet potato (8/10)

We were given free flow porridge in one small bucket.



Chye Poh Omelette (8/10)



I ate a lot of the omelette even though I am not a fan of chye poh. :P See how good it is?

Promfet in Black Bean Sauce (8/10)



Frankly speaking, fish was the last thing on my mind to go with a porridge. I think the combi just doesn't go well together. Well, I've changed my opinion. This does go very well with porridge. My mum and I love it.

Braised Beancurd (9/10)

Ahh.. the favourite dish for me and my brother. Surprisingly, this is not the 'signature dish'.



Salted chicken (6/10)



Too saltish for my liking.

Snow balls (forgot the full name) (7/10)

It looked so much better on the menu. :P



Almond Jelly with Longan (9/10)



This is the type of Almond Jelly I like most! When I asked my mother whether she prefer the one I did or this, she actually paused for a good 5 seconds before replying that mine is better because of the stronger almond aroma. LOL. How sweet of her! I would say I prefer this to mine! :P

Ambience

Surrounded by waters...



The interior. Pretty empty for it's a weekday night.



The view from inside.



We were seated near the windows. See that few rims of lights across the sky? Was pretty amazed to see that on the preview screen after taking the picture because I ain't no professional photographer and I did practically nothing but a point-and-shoot. Kinda cool how the photo turns out yeah? It's as if there were some treasure where the rims of lights meet. hehz!

On a side note, I used my bro's camera (only 5M) for the photos above. Not very used to it.

Service
Ooook lah.

Price
$61.50 for the above. $16+ for just the fish! $4.50 for the bucket of porridge (it's probably $1.50 per pax), $6.50 for the snow ball dessert and $5 for the Almond Jelly. $2 for the salted vegetables (appetiser) and $3 for tea/towel/peanuts.

Place
50 Stadium Boulevard
- a $7 taxi ride from Kallang MRT station during peak hours on a wednesday evening.

Christmas Dinner 2007

I couldn't decide whether to put this in home-cooked-food (since quite a fair-bit of preparation work is required) or here in goodfood-goodmood (since I 'bought' the ready-made food from NTUC).

To save myself from all the thinking, I have decided that to include this post in both. :P Here's the link to my Christmas Dinner.

Merry Christmas, Everyone! :)