Saturday, October 9, 2010

Bel Mondo - South Italian Cuisine


address: 9,Raffles Boulevard
#01-09, Millenia Walk
tel: 6336 3348

We were Strolling along the stretch of restaurants from Millenia Walk leading to Paulaner.
Our meeting with Bel Mondo was not planned nor expected. It was a casual bump in.
I ordered number 17 listed on the Menu that reads "Linguine with Crabmeat Flambe with Brandy in tomato cream sauce"
Every single word reads Irresistible to me and I just HAD to order it!
The dish came out exactly like I had pictured it to be.
The was generous mass of crabmeat, the sauce was nice with mix of herbs, tomato and cream all mixed in one.
I'm truly satisfied with this order :)
Linguine Al Granchino - $19.00


Mushroom Pizza was ordered to be placed on the table.
It gets a average/fair grading from me.
I like thin crust pizza but the base of this pizza poses a slight difficulty in slicing through.
The portion of Mushroom was inadequate.
Taste wise is ok in a edible term but I would not recommend you to order the pizza here as you can get better ones elsewhere.
Fungi Pizza - $16.00

Tagliatelle Gamberi - $20.00

Calamari Fritti - $12.00


Bel Mondo do not spot the best ambience nor setting, but if you happen to be at Millenia walk for a casual dining with your friends and wanting to opt out of having Japanese Cuisine, you can hop in for a feel good pasta to warm your heart and tummy. But other dishes may be a risk that yoiu are willing to bear

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Everything about Everything With Fries

Everything with Fries

Address: 40 Lorong Mambong, Holland Village

Tel: 6463 3741

Lamb Burger
- along with Garlic and herbs fries
+ Coleslaw

The Lamb turned out pretty good as compared to my previous experience at their Joo Chiat Branch (refer to below posting). The fries here are also very well and generously flavored.

Pork Cutlet
- along with Curry Flavored Fries
+ Coleslaw

The pork cutlet although thin, packs in a pretty well flavored package. From the look of the very crispy batter and thin dimension, I was worried that the meat would be dry but surprisingly, the pork cutlet was not dry.
Fries is dosed with gracious amounts of curry powder and curry leaves making it very fragrant and authentic.

One Egg Soup
Their one egg soup here is a Major disappointment unlike the one at their Joo Chiat branch. We wanted to reminisce on the delectable taste of the one egg soup from EWF as we recalled from Joo Chiat branch. So, we ordered one bowl each. Guess what? Really sad. The egg is over fried that u can't even break it apart with a spoon. I had to use a knife. Furthermore, it is too creamy and lacks the layers of taste that the other branch has.

Nutella Tart

It's good. But I would say that there is definitely room for this dish to be twigged and brought to greater heights.
Nutella sauce is drizzled and coating over the chocolate body.
Personally, I was thinking that the taste would be even better if they emulsified nutella into the chocolate body rather than just drizzling it over.
This dish on an overall is ok, but there is lots of room for improvement and creativity to give the taste more depth.
note of caution. Please make sure u order this as a item to be shared by 3-4 people. if you were to eat this yourself, its hard to finish it as it gets Gelad.


overall of this branch:
The setting is pretty pleasant, gives you a casual and relax mood.
The mains here meet up to cafe expectation and can be ordered as lunch or dinner. Love the fries here because it packs a punch and makes sense of its brand name "everything with fries" as indeed, fries becomes a Must Order item here.
Desserts are ok for ordering a portion for an experience sharing but not for traveling all the way down just for it.



Everything with Fries

Address: 458 Joo Chiat Road

Tel: 6345 5034


Hi, we are open daily, take a seat...



I love the white washed walls, black imprints and the crew in faded pink tops which blends well with the interior colors.
I love the simplistic and neat decor.
The ideal setting I would enjoy hanging out with my friends over a light dinner.


My friend strongly recommended the 1 egg soup.
So here it is...

The name of it is simple and direct.
But the complexity and perplexity of it bewildered us.
All of us took time and sip after sip of the soup to try and figure out the ingredients. However, none of us, including myself, managed to decipher the recipe behind it.
We decided to leave it a mystery so that it would continue to excite us if we were to return some other day and order it again.

The egg batter was nicely mixed and fried.
Gives the soup a different texture and adding some fun to the tasting experience.
Oh man, my taste buds and tongue were pretty pleased and had fun with this dish.
My stomach is calling to join in the fun with the growls and pangs.

Our main dishes were served..
Creamy Salmon in a cup
- along with Salt& Vinegar flavored fries

I didn't try out this dish because my friends that tried it commented that It was salty and really creamy. In a negative tint. I decided to give it a pass as neither of the comments were inviting and nor was the look of it.
The portion was small and was really like soup with a few chunks of salmon in it. Full stop.
I felt bad for my friend knowing that this would not fill the stomach. It was also a heartache thinking of the price tagged to the taste and portion of it.

I was keeping my fingers crossed for my dish...
Lamb Burger
- along with sour cream and onion flavored fries

was served before me.
Even though the colors of this dish look pretty decent,
the burger patty was a tad dry. The lamb's smell was evident.
The sauce was tomato and cheese. Not mastery/thought put in it. Even a kid can piece this dish together.
Ok.. I was dissapointed. Although the food can be swallowed down, but I did not savor it.
There is no depth and no effort placed in the dishes.

Ham and cheese Sandwich.
This dish came out Safe.
Decent tasting.
But again, how wrong can ham and cheese go?

I wanted to try out the Nutella tart which many had raved about, but missed it out in the end.

overall of this branch:
I love the decor, I would love to have a cuppa coffee on a weekend afternoon and relaxing here chatting with my friends.
The food was below expectation. Even though they had the concept of flavored fries, they did not master it or bring out the essence of it.
The fries were ordinary. If I was to chose, I would actually chose MacDonald's fries over this.
In all due fairness, the reviews I had read about everything with fries is mainly on their cakes and tarts.
I MAY come back again to try out their tarts and Definitely the 1 Egg soup. But not the mains.

disclaimer: food is very subjective to individual preferences. My reviews are my thoughts on my personal experience. Not meant to deliberately credit or discredit any entity.

================================
Yyn's overall conclusion on both the EWF:
- Holland Village Branch
Mains is good and worth ordering.
Soup is very different and way below the standard.
Fries is tasty

- Joo Chiat branch
Mains are not worth the price, would rather east at a nearby eatery and skip ordering the main here
Soup is FABULOUS!
Fries is not flavored enough and thus tastes very plain Jane.

The difference in food tastes and standards between both branches are not maintained to be same. No Quality Check. Over-rated. Patrons of EWF should not have high expectations but maintain it as being a Cafe and serving Cafe standard food.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge

Address: 391 Orchard Road 2F Ngee Ann City Singapore

Tel: +65 6735 6833


the name Royal Copenhagen, will link people's thoughts to blue drawings imprinted on white porcelain chinaware..
China ware of such good grade, history and establishment to be put as Royalty grade.
Now now, how about having this Royalty experience over high-tea?
There can't be a better combination than this!
I invited myself together with my Tai-Tai grade colleague to have a taste of high-tea on fine tea set and evaluate if the food deserves the same ratings as its tableware.




a parallel glass fridge displaying the selection of cakes lines your pathway to the waiting area...



High-tea set of 2 is priced at a relatively high tag of $29.90, but we decided to go ahead with the order since we came down mentally prepared on an splurging high-tea extravagance.

the set includes the below for 2 people sharing:

- 1 cup of tea each (non-refillable)



- 2 pieces of "open face" Shrimp and Tuna sandwiches.
*option to make any adjustments to this arrangement such as not wanting to have Tuna, is not permitted.
I made a inquiry if I could have other option over Tuna (since my colleague is on a avoid tuna diet). Even though the response was polite, it showed how inflexible and inattentive they are to the dinner's dietary restrictions.
Having a F&B background, I was not impressed with the operations. Nevertheless, I still kept an open mind about the taste of the food.

The taste was pleasing. The mini shrimp is crunchy and clear. Both the Shrimp and Tuna swims in your mouth without bringing along any hints of fishiness.
The tuna was lightly seasoned with pepper, cucumber and tomato cubes . The way I like food to be; simple, light and yet tasty.




- 1 slice of Quiche

baked with flaked salmon, spinach and potato
This is pretty satisfactory too with the right baking time and moisture density.
It carries the same preparation style as the Sandwiches. Tasty but light.




- 1 slice of cake (selection of any cake from the fridge)

we were kindda undecided and randomly picked the Green Tea cake as our option.

I didn't enjoy this cake the least bit.
Too dense. A tad too sweet for my liking. Did not bring out the flavors well.
It tasted like a sugared green mash to me



- 2 plain scones
served with a platter of whipped cream, blueberry jam and butter.

They are famous for their scones.
Verdict = Passed the expectation. But not SURpassing the expectation.
was I wow-ed by it? I will describe my expression to answer on this question.
When take a bite of the scone with the spreads, I gave a light smile with my eyes shrinking to 3/4 of its original. It did not gave a reaction where my eyelids were lifted up to its highest point.





Royal Copenhagen was previously located at Shaw Centre. It has shifted its business to Takashimaya and occupying a hidden space in the departmental store next to Burberry.
Pry your eyes wide as this place is easily missed.

There is constantly a Queue there and blooming business with full house on weekends. Do come prepared to join the Queue for a seating space.
Waiting time for a table is averaging 15-20mins for weekends.
Waiting time for the food to be served is averaging 10-15mins.

If you have extra cash to throw away on a food expense splurging or if the average denomination of notes you have in your wallet is $100 and a mini bites food tasting expenditure of $20 is nothing to you. Than yes, why not just enjoy a Tai-Tai high-tea without worries for the word "value for money" and than continue shopping and pop by a fine restaurant for dinner shortly after.

You may think that my sentiments of the costing seems on the exaggerated side seeming as though i'm implying that one have to be a millionaire to dine here.

But what I mean to express is the "not worth it" feeling of a high-tea here. yes, if I am really rich, I may pop by here rather frequently and casually.

Well, currently, I am at a status of comfortable and ok to splurge hundreds on dining, but I will opt adding on another $10++ and having high-tea buffet at 5-star hotels or spending 20% lower costs to have better quantity and refillable tea.

overall verdict:
Satisfactory, Good tasting. Have quality over food. Quantity is petite. Nice for picture and 1 time experience. Don't feel tempted to return unless I'm a frequent shopper at Takashimaya Departmental Store and generous to spend the bucks to rest my feet over a small cup of tea which is finished over few mouthfuls.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Seah Street Deli- Raffles Hotel








Address

Tel: +65 6412 1110











































Caesar Salad
My friends like the Caesar Salad here as it is very light on the dressing. 
However, my preference slants towards stronger flavors. If your preference is on salads with light dressing, you will enjoy this alot. I still enjoyed this as the bacon bits was really crispy and tasty.







Grilled Salmon Steak drizzled with Lemon Sauce
we ordered it to be done Medium.The dish came out nicely done. With the skin of the salmon pan fried to a nice crispy crust, and the salmon meat pink and Juicy. The flavors for the juice is full bodied while The lemon sauce gives it refreshing tinge and clears it away. Making you want to return for more

Lamb Shank
My Likes about this dish:
- The Mash potato is Smooth and Buttery
- The Radish is well simmered, tasty and soft
- The sauce is bold yet not overwhelming
texture wise, it is not the best Lamb shank I have had, but satisfactory. 




Overall, a satisfactory dining experience. it is a Fabulous place for friends and family to hang-out and bond with laughter over a casual, comfortable dining.
I Love the decor of American Deli with Rock and Rolling tunes playing from the Jukebox, neon signage, metallic ceiling. it transports me out of Singapore and into Old New York.
Price is on the high side of averaging $27 for the mains, and $9 for the drinks. 
But with the AMEX Platinum card promo, the bill came out to be easy to the pocket.
our total bill after discount and GST+svc charge came up to $57. Me and my friends will definitely be back for more while the promotion is still in place.
Totally Worth IT!!! =D






Sunday, March 28, 2010

Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro



Greenwood Fish Market and Bistro
34, Greenwood Avenue
Singapore 289236
Tel: 6467 4950






Black Cod Fish



Hot Seafood Platter for 2 (serves2-3 person)
consists of 7 dishes



1) Rocket Salad with Barbecued Squid


2) Scallop stir fried in Garlic, tomato and kelp


3) Seafood assortment of Clams,Prawns, Mussels
I Dig this dish. To bring out the optimum freshness of seafood is to cook in in sea salt. With seafood so fresh, using the simple way of preparation by cooking it in sea salt, garlic and kelp, brings out the flavours of Ocean into our mouth. Burstful of Ocean freshness. Wild!


4) Baked Oysters
Did I mention that I have a phobia towards Oysters?
Now, let me tell you that the Oysters here is so fresh that it wiped out my skeptical attitude and made me consume a couple of it.


5) Twin Kebab Skewers- 1 stick of chicken, 1 stick of salmon
The Salmon Kebab is worth mentioning.
the salmon is still pink in the middle while the sides are nicely charred. It takes skill and control to master the art of Salmon to be nicely done. For skewers, the fire have to be really strong so that the exterior gets quickly charred, leaving the middle of salmon still nice and pink, not forgetting the constant rotating of the skewer for the heat to be distributed evenly on all sides and not burning it.


6) Baked Lobster
The Lobster is still firm and springy, removes easily from the shell. Perfectly done.
Chefs and foodies out there, Need I say more?


7) Deep fried Calamari

the costs:
Black cod fish: $26.95
Hot seafood platter $89
a bottle of house wine Angove Chardonnay $39


the food is worth every penny.
It joyful, satisfied experience of having tummy full of nicely done fresh seafood, defeats the impact on the wallet.

I'll definately be back again when I have the cash to indulge ;)