Fish & Co.

Want a dish that comes with unlimited salad? Try this place...

The poster is good enough to grab your attention :P

Apparently this restaurant didn't get good reviews in general but this the the restaurant by far that had the best service. We ate at the Tampines branch where we were well greeted with a waitress who tells us that our table is being prepared and that she also told us today's specials, new meals, change of menu every month and the dessert section.

She also mentions that we've come at a late time where the salad has almost sold out but to specifically  request for more if we want to and that the chef will make it and bring it to us. Wow, talk about great service. As well as we had unlimited amount of water...

Salad buffet here consists not just salad but it's got salmon, seafood, crab sticks, apples, white fish and even mini tortellini's!!

And they are 'fresh'. When I mean fresh, the sweet corn does not come in a can...

The salad buffet has a standard price of SGD12.80 I think but for an extra SGD2, it comes with a whole dish so we went for that instead.

One of the 6 plates of salad I had haha. It's got baby spinach, squid, prawns, corn, chickpeas, green leaves, etc all hidden underneath 

I had white fish coated with bread crumbs, pepper, herbs and it comes with roast potatoes and tomatoes. I like my fish steamed ;)

D had deep fried fish batter, I think it's the restaurant' s specialty...

Verdict? Well, it averaged out about SGD15 after including the taxes and I find it kinda the average price but it's still a good value for your money since it comes with unlimited fresh overseas salad, what a healthy way of eating. I'd definitely come here again and would after a decent workout for a really good recover meal.

More information

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4 Tampines Central 5 #B1-02 Tampines Mall Singapore
Tel: +65 6787 3437
Opening Hours are Mon–Sun: 11.30am–9.30pm
www.fish-co.com

Ji De Chi

I've been walking pass this place (since it lies in a mall) ever since and have been meaning to try it out. Located in the Basement of Plaza Singapura, I've never come across the way the dessert was made...

The signboard that caught my eye

This dessert shop has it's ideas originated from Hong Kong, and uses a method whereby one places order on a piece of paper and off it goes to the waiter. The stall doesn't only do desserts but also savoury snacks such as 'bak kuah' or sticky rice with mince pork wrapped in a a pyramid shape and chee cheong fun.

Just like ice kacang, the way ice was shaven was more so smooth and it had a creamy texture like ice cream. But it's made out of ice!!!

Mango and Strawberry dessert with glutinous riceballs, sago, strawberries and mangoes

Smoothly shaved ice

Right, I do sound abit surprise and overly excited but this is something new that I have not come across before. The desserts are a tad more expensive than normal but the quality is there. Click here for more reviews and pictures posted by Jyoan in her positively nice blog :)

Heh, this dude is also doing the same thing :P

We couldn't really see how the machine had shaven the ice because it wasn't out in the open or the machine was so quiet that we couldn't hear a thing.

Our hot dessert, black sesame 'tau fu fa' or sweet toufu at the bottom.

Desserts on average costs about $5 but one thing that strikes out quite well is how healthy they actually are (well if you don't pick the deep fried and the durian ones that is). Our desserts had fresh fruits and we couldn't taste much coconut milk in our hot dessert.

I'd say this will be the next place to go to if I were to bring someone out to catch up for 'coffee'. The system is quite efficient in a way that you pay immediately after getting your dish and waiters don't rush you off too. Unfortunately this place was in the middle of the people footpath so unless you want a quieter area, you may either have to go further in or look for an alternative branch.

More information

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Plaza Singapura #B2-53, 68 Orchard Road, (S)238839
Tel: 63379828
Operating hours are 10am -10pm Daily
www.jidechi.com.sg

Dian Xiao Er

Righty ho!

Time for restaurant reviews and my oh my there are alot to review over here! So much that I am getting rather lazy but I must make the efforts so that I know where to go too when I feel like craving for something hehe.

In general, Singapore's seafood is kinda over rated. I tend to base good seafood on where a country lie and although Singapore is sort of an island, most of the beaches are used as ports. So no luck with good seafood and they are expensive in certain ways.

Anyway, I was told that the chilli crabs and snail porridge are the best as well as you can find restaurants which are close enough to it's best. And one of them is this restaurant, in which the duck is as yummy as the one in the UK and close enough to the origins of it's country: China

Dian Xiao Er

The duck dish comes in 3 flavours, as it's based on the herbs that they stuff each duck with. You can literally see it getting cooked / baked and cut and the whole meat is utilised right up to the oil that oozes out of it, which is used as the sauce. What makes this dish extra lovely is the herbs they put in. One of them has up to 10 different ingredients! As well as it has nutritional values too.

Not only the duck dish is delicious, the quality of the restaurant's other dishes are just as good. We had our 'kangkung belacan' (spicy water spinach), deep fried prawns with cereal and one of the restaurant's other specialty dish: wheat tofu with seafood. This is very very healthy as nutrition is one of the restaurant's specialty.

The restaurant takes no bookings and it's on a first come first serve basis. With unlimited chinese tea, customers are allowed to sit and relax while waiting for the food to go down or chat and catch up after a hearty meal. So far, there are only 2 locations that you can find this restaurant and fortunately, one lies very close to a tourist spot, Harbour Front linking to Sentosa Island :) . Price range is reasonable too, one can spend between $20-$30 per person to feel full. Click here for more reviews and pictures.

So if you're here for a short visit, pop by! This is my restaurant that I'll bring any of my guests / relatives over to try without a doubt!

More information

#02-137/8, 1 HarbourFront Centre Walk S(098585), VivoCity
Tel: 6376 9786
Opening Hours: Mon to Sun: 11:30am - 2:30pm, 5:30pm - 9:30pm
www.dianxiaoer.net


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1 Lombard Street Restaurant

 1 Lombard Street

 It really sounds as if that they have no clue on how to name their restaurant LoL. Anyway, we were invited by the contractors again to go for breakfast at this restaurant and it started off with the confusion of finding this restaurant to begin with. It was tucked away somewhere on the cross junction and was not on Lombard Street itself.

Anyway, as we went in, I was brought into a very much spacious area with comfortable chairs and excellent lighting. I had tea served, along with toasts, 3 different types of jam and butter and was asked to order salmon and scrambeled eggs. Boy, was it a great dish to a great start of the work day.

I was sitting off to the left side of this picture

But apparently the main courses during lunch and dinner time are quite reasonable, i.e.3 course for £25 for dinner including drinks. And it's even cheaper over the weekends, i.e. 2 course lunch for £15! Interesting. Click here to find out more.

As well as this restaurant has recently earn itself a Michelin title this year, so it's worth checking it out! Here's a snippet about the cook:

"His cooking ranges from European classics to traditional fare, gastronomic cuisine as well as the modern flavours of today. The quality of his cooking justifies Herberts reputations as one of the best and most creative chefs in London."

Stay tuned for more as I will be back here to check out the Lunch and Dinner menus.

More information:

1 Lombard Street, London
EC3V 9AA
Telephone: 020 7929 6611
Fax: 020 7929 6622
www.1lombardstreet.com
Email: reception@1lombardstreet.com

Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday
Breakfast: 7.30am to 11.00am
Lunch and Dinner: 11.00am to 11.00pm
(last orders 10.00pm)
Saturday; 11.30am until 10.00pm

We are also available for exclusive events.
Bar: 11.00am to 12:00am
Tapas menu from 5.00pm

Restaurant:
Lunch: 12:00pm to 2.30pm
Dinner: 6.00pm to 10.00pm


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Le Cordon Bleu

There was an open house event at Le Cordon Bleu, one of the prestigious Parisian School who teaches fine cuisine and patisserie courses, ranging from short one day courses to a full year diploma programmes.

And I signed up to their newsletter, in which sometimes I receive nice recipes :). As well as this invite!

So I went to check out the place and the demonstrations of the introduction to cuisine cooking and patisserie of course.

To my lovely expectation, I was greeted by a dish full of canapes and drinks ranging from sparkling water to wine. And we were lead into a room with desks and bags of courses pamphlets.

Yuuuuummmyyy

It first started off with the patisserie dish: Dacquoise aux poires epicees et sauce chocolat au vin aka Spiced Pear Dacquoise with Chocolate and Red Wine Sauce (what a loooonnngg name). The demonstration was very interesting as there were some hints as the chefs cooked and explain (but I forgot a pen, DOH). Glad I got my phone to type the hints as well as there was a break in between, in which we could try the food demonstrated (NicE~)

There was also a raffle to win 2 lovely books and the person who got it sat beside me! Talk about so close yet so far.

The next dish was another long name one: St Jacques Marinees aux graines de vanille, bettrave en deux facons, 'espuma' au raifort aka Vanilla Marinated Scallops, Beetroot Two Ways with Horseradish 'Espuma' (far out, by the time I finish saying that, the whole dish would be finished. 

If you wish to grab the recipes, let me know :)

Overall, I find that the session was not as impressive as I thought (maybe it was because the building was slightly run down), in the sense that cooking was brought to a more serious stage, whereby I felt like I was in university all over again but this time it was slightly different as the kitchen is the lab / lecture hall. So yeah...I did have this vibe telling me not to take down this route as a career, and further conclude that this will be my all time hobby passion.

But hey, it doesn't stop me from taking the short courses ;). Tempted tempted...

Fancy a little Turkish?

Last weekend, we tried turkish for a change. So we checked this place out in Covent Garden called Sofra and apparently it lives by the motto 'if it's not good, I will take it back and re-cook it' or somewhere around that lines.

The head chef is Huseyin Ozer, and he's got like an online website too and I found that the prices of the dishes were quite reasonable as it not only has the usual specials and standard dishes but also set meals and offers over season.

So I tried the Healthy set menu. Oh, we were accompanied by bread and a dish of humus, olive oil and pickles to start off with as complimentary I think.

Anyhoo, I wasn't sure what I was in for as the menu listed a lot of things, like 12 different things to try from Fallafel to duck roll. But this was what it looks like when it came:

I quite liked it because it's pretty much a spoonful of different things to try.

The dish further came with 3 different meat and boy it was very tender and moist. That was the highlight. I quite liked the baby broadbeans and it wasn't really spicy at all. All for the price of £12.95 which is quite reasonable =). They do have Autumn meal deals in which £9.95 can get you a starte and mains. Not bad at all.

Dessert was Apple tea, and it tasted really good although it took awhile for the waiter to bring it (think he forgot).

So far, I recommend it! For the price to try and for the set meals =)

More information

36 Tavistock Street
Covent Garden/, London WC2E 7PB
020 7240 3773
www.sofra.co.uk

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Delima Malaysian Restaurant

Right, it all started when one of our friends found a 2-for-1 voucher deal to any 20 Malaysian restaurants on the Metro, and with the voucher, it randomly selects 3 restaurant information. And I guess Delima restaurant was one of the ones he saw that was a walkable distance from the hall.

These vouchers will still be on the Metro til the 17th of March :)

And it's base on a voucher basis, not one voucher per table basis. So you know what happened....we brought 10 for 10 people! And so each of us ordered 2 dishes, either mains or a proper dish.

I must admit the ambient of the restaurant is really nice to begin with and we were the earliest group since we all headed after a 3 hour badminton workout..

In comparison to other Malaysian restaurants in general, I found this place standard, more variety in dishes but less in drinks and desserts and prices are drawn towards standard than reasonable. So it was good to try the dishes with those vouchers :P.

Service was excellent, although I am not really sure how new this restaurant is. Waiters were definitely Malaysians and we picked about 8 different dishes to try.

I had Nasi Briyani Udang (Briyani rice with prawns)

This was served in a rectangular dish, with sides in which I poured everything into the plate. They were very generous with the prawns.

...and shared Ikan Asam Pedas (spicy skate fish with lemon grass, lime leaves and hot sour sauce) and Ayam Goreng Bawang Putih (deep fried chicken with garlic and cut chillies). The fish was excellent, superbly spicy and wonderful, but the chicken was a disappointment as it tastes like any other fried chicken.

There was nasi lemak and mee goreng ordered too in which I took a spoonful to try the noodles, and it wasn't salty enough to me (although this could be because my dish had more 'taste')

Other than that, I tried abit of the lamb curry (which was decent) and kangkung belacan (Water convolvulus fry in fresh chilli and shrimp paste) that was most disappointing as it came out watery and not spicy at all (even those who can't take spicy food can cope).

We didn't order any starters and we had standard slightly over sweatened and strong bandung drinks (rose flavour) and teh tarik, all at £2 and £2.50 each respectively.

As a whole, place is worth going to try their seafood base dishes, and to celebrate an occasion for it's great service and ambiance, but not a place for a fulfilling feed. So I recommend you to try it out while the voucher is still valid =)

More information:

36 Southwick St London, England W2 1JQ
020 7262 0050
Open Daily 12pm-3pm, 6pm-11pm
www.delimarestaurant.co.uk


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Cafe East

Yes I'm back! Holiday was ammmaaazziinnnggg but I must say I miss my baking a whole lot. But I gotta get the laundry and photos out of the way as soon as I can!

Anyway, the day before we left, we headed out to our favourite restaurant Cafe East. We were actually at the O2 Arena watching the ATP Tour, and if not for that we wouldn't be heading all the way there. Talk about convenience, heh.

This restaurant is by far the most reasonable Vietnamese restaurant I have been to, but alas their menu hasn't gotten enough variety as Song Que.

Instead of the normal summer or deep fried springrolls, we opted for a different dish. It's still a spring roll dish, which consist of mushrooms wrapped with rice flour, topped up with a type of luncheon meat, fried onions and raw bean sprouts. Of course, served with yummy fish oil. There were about 8 pieces at least enough as an appetiser for 2.

My main course for a change was spicy prawn rice noodle soup with the usual sides of lemon, raw mint, and bean sprouts to add. This dish really clears up your nose if you have a cold!

D's dish was a bit of a let down as he was expecting a bigger portion. He had rice and pork lemon grass, in which he couldn't really taste the lemon grass.

So in conclusion (sounding like some crazy scientist) we think that their soup is their specialty on top of the rest of the other dishes, and it's worth heading to if you crave for their yummy dessert drinks and wanting a nice warm meal for the winter at a really reasonable price :)

More information:

Surrey Quays Leisure Centre, 
100 Redriff Row, London, 
SE16 7LH, UK.
Tel: 020 7252 1212‎

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Cay Tre

Say what? Jokes...went out last night with a friend (Thanks Mel for introducing me to this place!) to this lovely Vietnamese place near Old Street (which is about a 40 min walk from my house if I'm adventurous, but a couple of tube stops away). And I really like this restaurant because it's the closest Vietnamese restaurant right now to our place. Haha. Talk about convenience.

Taken from my phone camera...

One thing I found uncomfortable was the layout of the menu as I couldn't really skim read as well as the restaurant had a dimmer ambience. Perhaps, I was more in a hurfishry to order so that I could chat more.

Food prices are really reasonable but they are not actually famous for their 'pho' soup dishes but I saw alot of people ordered the La Vong Grilled Fish that really look tasty and I think it's the specialty from this restaurant.

We had the yummy Banh Xeo (egg pancake dish stuff with bean sprouts, chicken and prawns wrapped with fresh green lettuce and dipped in fish sauce) and the classic Bun Sa (non soup beef on vermicelli) to try. When it arrived, we were super glad we didn't get any starters because the portion was huge!

The egg dish was excellent as the egg was thoroughly cooked to crisp, with a fair share portion of meat, accompanied by bay leaves, fish sauce and lettuce to be shared for two.

I wasn't happy with the beef vermicille dish as normally I would have my fish sauce and cut chilli served separately rather than already prepared with the dish. And alas, I couldnt really taste the lemongrass too.

I would definitely come here again of course and try their specialty dishes, seeing that this is different from the usual Vietnamese restaurants I have been. Quite a unique one too.

More information:

301 Old St
London, EC1V 9LA
020 7729 8662
http://www.vietnamesekitchen.co.uk

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La Tasca

A friend of mine came all the way from the East side of town (world) to visit me and so I brought up an excuse to myself to try a new restaurant. Wouldn't you know and being 'asian' to value my money as much as I can, I went to check up on any nice decent UK vouchers for a restaurant deal.

And I found one great deal for La Tasca. 50% off the entire bill until the 1st of Dec (get it while you can!) as well as I haven't tried Spanish Tapas food as yet.

Booking can be done online the day before but they can only hold it for 15 minutes before they have to give it away.

I was half an hour late =(.

But the highlight of the night was that the guy at the counter was so kind enough to slot me to the top of the waiting list (after looking at my droopy face perhaps). We were so appreciative!

I love it these days when the restaurants are offering great deals to try their food. It is a blessing in disguise perhaps when the economy is slowly recovering.

Anyway, seeing that most of us didn't know how to order, there was a great menu deal for 2 where you have a set of dishes that you can try. Tapas, is almost the equivalent to the chinese 'Yum Char' but the dishes are slightly bigger. We picked the Chef's Selection of Tapas which consist of 8 dishes and they were extremly lovely! My favourite was Patatas Bravas, which is fried potato with spicy tomato sauce as it tastes like wedges dipped in tomato dressing LOL.

Didn't manage to take any photos as the restaurant was quite dimmed. Service was excellent as food came out 10 minutes after we ordered. And we could order even more while we were eating.

At the end, we paid £9 each (4 of us) for 11 dishes, 2 pints of beer and 3 full cups of fresh orange juice.

I'd recommend this place if you've got the voucher with you and of course that you have not tried Spanish food for the first time. It gives you a great start and a decent choice of variety dishes to pick from.

More information:

63-66 St Martin's Ln
London, WC2N 4JS, United Kingdom
020 7240 2011
www.latasca.co.uk
latasca.regentst@bayrestaurantgroup.com

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York & Albany

Name: York and Albany (website)

Location: 127-129 Parkway, NW1 7PS (Tube: Camden)

Course type: Sunday menu, 3 course for £25

It was one of those days where one of us ladies found that the high class restaurants are offering much more reasonable deals on their food these days so one of them came up suggesting to try out one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant at Camden and I put my hands up straight away since I haven't been to his before.

While killing time, walking on the street to the restaurant somehow turned Camden into a posh place, where celebreties actually roamed about. Very interesting and suprising. I checked out an organic shop that really sold proper organic vegetables and food for a reasonable price.(Called 'Fresh and Wild'). The chocolates are cheaper than Sainsbury's!

Curious? Click here for more...

Close to home

For those who are missing out on Malaysian food, check out Bonda Cafe on 190 Sussex Garden (closest tube station: Paddington)

 We headed to check out that place after playing a badminton league game nearby (trashed the visitors 9-0, woopwoop!). The cafe is situated at a corner of a building down stairs, just like the Malaysian Food Hall. This is perhaps a tinge better and more representable as it does have a menu displayed at the entrance and a signboard. The menu are listed in Malays with english subtitles and prices are quite reasonable! The dishes caters more to the Malay side of dish and is spicy enough to feel like you're having something from Malaysia. A nice dish of white rice and 2 dishes plus vege is 5.50 pounds and will definitely fill you up no doubt (portion size for 2 Malaysians). But be warned as it would be much better to have lunch if you are to pick out that dish as they won't top it up during dinner.

I had yummy fried rice and was impress with the herbs and spices that they put together. It wasn't just eggs and rice but it had soy sauce, cooked proper over a hot kuali (I could hear them cooking in the kitchen) topped with parsley, spring onions and even dried onion and garlic too! We ordered sides as well and had kangkung belacan (really spicy, I couldn't handle it), Fish Sambal, and lovely pandan and tapioca desserts. I had cincau drink for 1.50 which is quite good as it wasn't off the can but in a proper glass where they actually make it for you. Our Hong Kong friends love the teh tarik which was serve hot including the froth in the good old classic coffee cup and their teh bandung was also lovely.

I would go back there again if you're wanting a reasonable place with top quality Malaysian food and would also recommend others to try out the food.

More information:

190 Sussex Gardens
London, W2 1TU, United Kingdom
020 7402 5111
http://www.bondacafelondon.com/

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Pearl Restaurant by Jun Tanaka

It was a friend's birthday do and after passing it so many times, this is the occassion that I could go in and try out Jun Tanaka's dishes at the Pearl. We had a 3 course meal and cocktail set for 37 pounds which is quite a nice deal. The bill came out to be abit more because water was charge at 7.90 each..so be warned! Then again we were given samples before our starters, pre-desserts and after dessert dessert that didn't come with the cost. I was quite full after the whole 2-hour session.

It was a great experience in the sense that it was my first time having fine cuisine food, therefore eating it was rather different (as in trying to piece all the different flavours through a stab of a fork)...and I am inspired to head to a farmer's market to expand my knowledge and taste buds on herbs, spices, sauces and vegetables!

I must say though that we were warmly welcomed and greeted, to the point that they asked about whether I want my cake to be brought out towards the end of the dinner session with no extra cost. I was brought to the waiting lounge which was very comfortable and ordered my cocktail.

Curious? Click here for more...

Gaucho

Yes, I shall attempt to keep this alive. Perhaps it's good to have 2 different blogs after all. Makes me feel organised :)

Anyhoo, I was invited to a Client lunch at this Argentine restaurant somewhere near Liverpool station and it was my first time having Argentinian food.

Apparently they were famous for their steak. I couldn't find the place to begin with, and when I did, it looked more like a pit stop for posh drinks for posh people as I saw people wearing headsets.

To my suprise, we were brought downstairs and found ourselves a proper restaurant, full of people! We had a 'private room' to ourselves.



Dinner was a set 3 course meal with white wine, red wine, sparkling or still water and personal service. Amazing.

We had the signature menu, and I picked the scallops as my starter, which was suprisingly a cold dish and I was abit disappointed with it. It was perhaps one scallop sliced finely and coated with cheese, topped with chopped mango, onions and parsley.

Mains were shared and consisted of very well cooked 3 different pieces of beef with chips, tomato salad and sweet corn wrap in cooked corn leave (my favourite). The beef was so tender that it can be cut with a normal knife. But the best dish for me so far was the ice cream, as it was rich with high class chocolate, vanilla and dulcha de leche. Never had wonderful rich ice cream for some time now.

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10 since I'm not really a steak person, and the dishes got better towards the end =)

More information:

5 Finsbury Av
London, EC2M 2PJ, United Kingdom
020 7256 6877
gauchorestaurants.co.uk

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