i m finally in the line!

Almost every food blogger knows this place, and probably have been here before. Some have raving comments, some don't think they deserve the price they charge. Well, finally got a chance to try it after jumping on a 38% promo they r having (but you have to book at least 38 days in adv), so here's my take on it....

Ambience is quite nice, as its next to the swimming pool, and half covered with full-length glass walls, but i think it should be nicer to sit in the al fresco area as u r surrounded by lush greenery and laughter from the pool, as compared to inside where it could get a little bit noisy with the chatters in the enclosed area.

Some random snapshots of the buffet area...

My 1st plate was a small selection of the hot food section, clockwise from extreme left, sauteed chicken with mushroom, seabass in salsa, roast potatoes, steam fish in ginger sauce, stir-fried beef with capsicums, spinach and cheese ravioli in bechamel and the 1 in the middle would be lamp in kung po sauce. Pardon me for not uploading the individual pics of the dishes for a closer look, had to ration the no of pics coz there are really too many!

Anyway, this plate nothing to rave about, beef and lamb were both tender and the fish in ginger sauce is soft, but the seabass is too firm and dry for my liking, even with the salsa. But i was quite surprised to see blue potatoes together with normal ones in the roast potatoes though, they are really nicer!

2nd plate i had was the cold platter, clockwise from bottom left, squid(ika) sashimi, salmon sashimi, tuna(maguro) sashimi, smoked duck, smoked salmon and proscuitto(air-dried beef) with honey melon. Was quite disappointed with the sashimi as i was banking to eat loads of it to recoup my money (haha!), but sadly, they were not sweet at all! Not that fishy to repel me, but not that fresh either. Didnt go for a 2nd helping. Same for the smoked duck and salmon, nothing special. But the best dish was the proscuitto, goes damn well with honey melon, no wonder its a classic pairing with the slight saltiness of the thinly shaved meat and the sweetness and juicyness of the honey melon. yum!

Next up, the seafood platter. Thats all they have for the cold seafood, oysters, mussels, prawns and crabs (which i didnt take). Another disappointment as although fresh, prawns and mussels are not sweet, forcing me to eat them with the thousand island instead. Oysters not overly fishy, but not as plump as i like it to be.

Some sushis that my friend tried but i didnt.

And the pizza too. No comments about those.

Then i had the dim sum plate consisting of assorted dim sum like siew mai, har gor, dumplings and some prawn on mushroom thing. This is probably the worst plate of the day. Small, oily and tastes pre-packed. Regretted trying.

For the Indian selection, I had the (clockwise from bottom left) tandoori chicken, tandoori lamb,tandoori potatoes, aloo gobhi (potatoes and cauliflower with Indian spices like tumeric and curry leaves), beef satay, meethi fish and mango chutney in the middle. Generally its ok, nothing much to comment about it, very Indian-y. But the tandoori chicken was quite flavourful, but the lamb abit tough.

Some tomato soup which sucks.

Watercress soup with chicken. Not too bad, but still cannot beat those double-boiled soups.

Some fruit rojak which i didnt try.

My dessert platter, clockwise from left, tiramisu, mango panna cotta, raspberry mousse, dome almond cake and creme brulee.

The dome almond cake, which isnt nice at all coz the almond cake and jelly are both hard!

the raspberry mousse, soft but not too heavy, with a slight sourness.

the mango panna cotta, soft and nice!

The creme brulee is nice too, soft, sweet and crusty on top! but the tiramisu sucks. the lousiest 1 i've tasted.

My last dish, mango and orange sorbets with dried apricots, cranberries and raisins toppings. Mango taste pretty strong, orange pretty sour, good palate cleanser.

Some pics of the other desserts which we didn't try coz were too stuffed by then...

Total bill came up to ard $35 per pax, after taxes and 38% discount. But I won't come here again i guess, just didnt wow me. Considering to try their direct competitor, Melt the World Cafe though. 2.5/5

The Line

Shangri-La Hotel, B1

Reservations necessary, must be made online for this 38% promo.

Food tour 1: the day we ran ard for food

Finally, my new blog is up! this time, the focus is just going to be food food food! Went for my very 1st self-planned food tour after thinking and talking about it for years....so heres introducing my 2 other VIPs:

K aka Camera man aka Chef @ The Garden, Sentosa Resort & Spa

and J aka my "driver"!

Had about close to 10 different dishes planned out, but sadly, some of them had sold out for the day when we reached...so heres the 1st stop: Tai Hwa Bak Chor Mee at Blk 466 Crawford Lane

Heard alot about their minced pork noodle, and alot of fellow floggers said they are the best in town, so how can i give them a miss??

Had 1 bowl of mee pok dry ($4) after queuing for 45mins (yeah i know abit wasted, but we had a consensus to only order 1 portion from each stall to share so we won't be too stuffed!). As you can see, they added the almighty 扁鱼 which is supposed to add a different dimension of flavour to the noodles and the soup, but sadly, i don't taste that in the soup and found it quite bland for my liking.

The noodles, however, are pretty different from other bak chor mee stalls we get outside, as they are very soft and springy, although a little bit floury that day. The various ingredients like the minced pork, pork slices and liver slices are not overcooked, so thats a plus point. The seasonings are more towards the vinegar-ish side, which is fine by me because i like vinegar, but if u don't really like the taste of vinegar, just ask the boss to omit it, no problem. Not quite worth me queuing for 45mins coz I am an impatient person, so i would suggest you try it during non-lunch hours. 3.5/5

K was pretty hungry when we reached there, so he couldnt wait for my 45min queue, so he tried something from this stall while waiting:

He ordered the Stuffed pork loin ($6), which i think looks like the pork version of Chicken Cordon Bleu (chicken stuffed with ham and cheese and deep-fried), which i think was 1 of the stall-owner's recommendations (she recommended nearly half of whateva she had on her menu, is THAT considered recommendations??)

I can't comment much coz i only tried 2 mouths of it, which they considerately left for me to try after i emerged from my 45min queue, but K said he will not come back to eat this again. I totally agree. No ratings because its not fair.

After that, travelled to 97 Rangoon Road for this: Dai Dong Prawn Noodles

Had the soup one with choices of either $4/5/6, I thought I ordered the $4 bowl, but apparently the old ah-ma who delivered my bowl to me said it was $5. So people, please check next time. Thankfully, the noodles were pretty good, the soup is quite tasty, but i like mine thicker with more prawn taste. Didn't feel thirsty after that, so MSG is probably kept to a minimum.

The prawns are fresh and spongey, and the pork ribs are soft enough, although a little salty. K said there would normally be a herb called 甘草 which will be added to cook the prawn noodles to give it a slightly sweetness, but we couldnt tell if this stall adds it. Overall, not too bad, just that the portions are too small for the price. 4/5

Went to have dessert at this french bistro at 27 Seah Street which specialises in crepes:

Had a dessert crepe with bananas and chocolate sauce and homemade chocolate ice-cream ($14.90). The crepe is made from organic buckwheat flour, and is very thin, but not exactly crispy/chewy as it should be. Actually, is was too chewy at the bottom, and a little crispy-bordering-on-hard on the top.

As you can see, the banana slices are pretty thin, and I would definitely appreciate much more of it. However, we all felt the chocolate ice cream was pretty good, not too sweet, but chocolatey enough. However, as a whole, too expensive for the portion and quality. 2.5/5

Sidenote: the plates have very weak bases and keeps rotating around when force is applied to it, which makes it bad for sharing between friends. For a more economical meal, they have a teatime buffet from 3-6pm, with prices at $21/28 for sweet crepes and $35/42 for sweet & savoury crepes. Strictly no sharing.

Next up, was Western food at Blk 95 Toa Payoh Lor 4, which is owned by yesteryears rock star John Molina's uncle:

Since they are famous for their Fish & Chips ($5.80), that was wat we had. Coupled with their die-die-must-have malt vinegar

The batter is quite light, not too oily, and the fish is very soft with no fishy smell, but sadly, its not sweet. Prob didnt marinate long enough.

Chips were nice and thick, not too oily too. Goes best with their tomato sauce which has a tinge of sourness in it which tastes of sour plum? Good complement, nevertheless. 3/5

Still in Toa Payoh, we travelled down to Blk 22 Toa Payoh Lor 7, expecting to conquer 3 dishes at 1 go, but when we reached, the wanton mee and beef noodles stall were already closed, so we had to settle for this:

Had a small plate of Or-Jian (oyster omelette-$3) coz we all didnt like too oily food. And when i said small, I mean really small. This must be the smallest portion of oyster omelette i'd seen.

With only 3 medium-sized oysters and a substantial amount of oil, the only thing i liked about this dish is the chilli, which is a little sweet and not too spicy. Won't come back again. 2/5

Finished off with a bowl of refreshing chin chow longan, before proceeding to J's dad's stall at Blk 20 Ghim Moh Rd:

If you are wondering, yes, 李老三 is J's dad, and the chwee kueh he sells is made, painstakingly, by him every morning. Kueh is soft and smooth, and the chye poh is the salty kind with portions just enough to complement the kuehs. They do catering, functions and office-orders too, so if you are interested to do a chwee kueh party, feel free to let me know in advance!

Since we are there, she recommended this stall:

Said their duck rice is not bad, so we had their braised duck rice set ($3) with an additonal drumstick ($4). Funny how the drumstick costs more than the rice set.

The duck meat is pretty tender, and the sauce is flavourful enough, with a slight tinge of saltiness which would make it good to go with rice. The yam rice is a little hard, but fully flavoured with the braised duck sauce.

 

Lastly, the soup is not your "braised duck sauce plus water" type, and is full of herbal duck flavour which i like. A must-drink. 3.5/5

We wanted to end the tour with curries and chicken rice at Dover road, but when we got there ard 7pm, the food centre was more or less closed already, so guess we had to leave that for another time.

Cant wait for the next food tour! :)

Note: pardon the messy alignment of photos, am still figuring this thing out. :)