Dimsum lunch In Peach Garden

For Mother's Day celebration a few months ago, my parents, my fiance and I tried dimsum lunch in Peach Garden at Thomson Plaza.

It was our first time there. Even though we made a reservation, we still had to wait around fifteen to twenty minutes. It was quite chaotic as groups of people were crowded outside the restaurant.

The good thing was we didn't have to wait long for the dimsum as the dimsum were already prepared and served by waitresses with trolleys. It was an interesting sight as I don't recall the last time I was served dimsum by a waitress with trolley. Most times, you order dimsum off the menu.

However, because the dimsum were already prepared, by the time they were served, they weren't piping hot. They were quite cold. I still prefer my dimsum steaming hot.

Dimsum spread.

The pineapple bo lo bun was yummy and unique. It was the first time I actually tasted a bo lo bun which had real pineapple bits inside!

The fried dumplings were average.

I didn't try this...I think they were fried prawn rolls.

The mini egg tarts were not too bad. I prefer bird's nest egg tarts! I haven't tried any bird's nest egg tart in Singapore yet, but I have tried them in Malaysia.

The chee chong fun had big, juicy prawns inside.

The noodles were fantastic. As you can see, there were many ingredients and the prawns were big, fresh and succulent.

I will rate the restaurant 3/5. I find dimsum here above average, but not fantastic enough for me to rate it as one of my favorite restaurants.

Peach Garden can be found at: 301 Upper Thomson Road, #01-88 Thomson Plaza, Singapore.

Brinj Restaurant

The other weekend, I had a nice Western dinner with my fiance and his family at a restaurant called Brinj. The food and ambience were pretty good. The chef-cum-owner was friendly too and kept joking with us. The funny thing was he was carrying his child in one hand and in the other, a bottle of beer.

The salmon was grilled on top, but inside, it tasted a little raw. It was amazing how he could grill the fish on the outside and leave the inside slightly uncooked. The salmon was fresh and the grilled calamari tasted great too. The fried rice was also very yummy.

I preferred the salmon to the chicken. But the chicken dish wasn't too bad either. The vegetables tasted sweet.

Although the food tasted great and the restaurant had a nice and quiet ambience, I'm not so much a grilled food lover. I will rate the restaurant 3.5/5.

Grilled food lovers can make your way down to Brinj Restaurant which can be found at: 15 Cheong Chin Nam Rd, Bukit Timah, SG 599739.

Lunch at USS & Malaysian Food Street Sentosa

This was our lunch at Universal Studios Singapore about two months ago.

This was what I had:

Sausages and mashed potatoes. I remember one was cheese sausage. The other one should be pork sausage.

This was what my fiance had:

Fried rice with teriyaki chicken. I found his dish nicer than mine. The teriyaki chicken tasted very sweet.

On another day at Sentosa sometime last month (I think), we had this for lunch at the Malaysian food street:

Kuala Lumpur Hokkien Mee. This is a signature dish in Kuala Lumpur. The dark sauce in the noodles is what makes the dish unique. I think the noodles were not too bad. However, we were disappointed as it did not have much ingredients and left us hungry by midday. I remember eating this in Malaysia before when I was much younger. I must say the standard of the hokkien mee in Malaysia was way better.
 
To find out more about the Malaysian food street at Sentosa, visit: http://www.rwsentosa.com/language/en-US/ShoppingDining/Dining/DiningMalaysianFoodStreet

A quiet afternoon tea in PS Cafe

I had a nice afternoon tea with my mom the other day in PS Cafe at Orchard.

This was our lemon ginger cheesecake. The base was too soft and crumbly. I would have preferred a crunchier base. I also found the ginger taste too strong.

The carrot cake was much yummier, but the cake was too large. We couldn't finish it!

We shared a person's share of chicken soup. The chicken soup was delicious! It was also soothing for the throat. I felt an unexplained sense of comfort after I slurped up the bowl of chicken soup.

For the nice ambience and not too bad desserts, I will rate the restaurant 3.5/5. Do try the chicken soup when you visit PS Cafe!

PS Cafe can be found at: 390 Orchard Road, #02-09A Palais Renaissance, Singapore.

Red House chilli crab!

My parents, my fiance and I had a nice seafood lunch the other day. It was our first visit to Red House Seafood Restaurant at Robertson Quay.

First up was the bamboo clam dish. I only took a bite. To be honest, I'm not a seafood lover. The bamboo clam dish was special though as it had vermicelli.

Close up of the bamboo clam.

The tofu dish was awesome. I helped myself to more than one tofu. The gravy was also delicious and I slurped quite a few mouthfuls.

Are you ready? This is going to make most of you drool...chilli crab! This is Red House's signature dish. Guess what? I didn't try it though. Told you I wasn't that much of a seafood lover. But I dipped the mantou in the crab gravy. We ordered steamed mantou because I was afraid my sorethroat would get worse if I ate fried mantou. However, I actually prefer my mantous fried!

The sauce was quite spicy. I'm not sure how the meat tasted though, since I didn't try it. But the rest said it was good. The crabs looked very big and succulent to me.

This was our lobster noodles dish. Very expensive dish...it costed around $120 for this bowl of lobster noodles! I must say there were alot of lobster meat, however it didn't taste very sweet. In fact, it tasted slightly bitter. We were rather disappointed.

This was our dessert: fried sweet potato skin on the outside with red bean paste inside. Not too bad for a crunchy sweet bite! It didn't taste too oily either.

See the red bean paste? Yummy.

Overall, I will rate the restaurant 4.5/5. This is definitely a restaurant worth revisiting! I think they serve dimsum too. I will go back for dimsum next time as I'm quite tempted by the crab bun I saw on the poster outside their restaurant. Save your money on the lobster noodles though as it is simply too expensive and the meat just wasn't sweet enough. However, I would say it is quite costly here as the meal costed us more than $300.

Red House can be found at: 60 Robertson Quay Singapore 238252.

Kotobuki Japanese Restaurant

The other weekend, my parents, my fiance and I had a nice lunch at Kotobuki Japanese Restaurant. I remember it being a Sunday. It was a treat for Fathers' Day.

It wasn't our first time there. We love the quiet restaurant and great food at reasonable prices.

First up was yellow tail sashimi! Not the best I've tasted, but definitely above average.

Yellow tail is one of my favorite fish.

Next up, there was an interesting "tatami" dish - ikan bilis connected to form a tatami shape. A tatami is a type of mat used as a flooring material. We dipped the ikan bilis in the mayonnaise for a crispy and tasty bite.

This photo was taken with flash.

This plate of fried rice was fried with garlic. It smelled and tasted very nice.

I don't know why the mackerel I ordered looked like this:

But it had an interesting saltwater taste! It was very salty, but nice. We all enjoyed it.

Next up was teriyaki chicken. This wasn't too bad, but I find the meat were sliced too thin.

The grilled squid tasted abit salty but nice. However, like the teriyaki chicken, I think the squid was sliced too thin.

Overall rating: 4.5/5. It's definitely one of my favorite restaurants. The location is abit secluded, but it is next to a supermarket Sheng Siong. So you can do your groceries shopping there after a nice meal at Kotobuki. The meal made four of us very full and it only costed between $110-120.

Kotobuki can be found at: 3 Yuan Ching Road, #01-02A Singapore.

Interesting Russian dinner

Dearie and I had an interesting russian dinner for the first time at Clarke Quay the other day. We were looking through the menu and wondering if we should go in. Within seconds, the waitress approached us and convinced us to go in.

The place looked very red.

Not much decorations...not crowded too despite it being a Friday night.

I wonder whether Rasputin means anything in Russian?

This is very unrelated haha. My fiance took a shot of my Cartier engagement diamond ring. This photo was without flash.

This photo was with flash.

Next up, our main courses!

This fried chicken and mashed potatoes dish was recommended by the waitress.

Check out the oil and ingredients that oozed out. The chicken had an interesting herbal and peppery taste. The scoop of mashed potatoes was okay, not fantastic.

Try this interesting fish dish! There was dory fish on the outside. Wrapped within was salmon. I preferred the dory fish as the salmon tasted slightly overcooked.

Close up of the grilled potatoes and vegetables. Even the grilled vegetables tasted very nice!

However, the wait for the food was very long. We had to wait more than half an hour for the food. Service was okay only, not spectacular. But the food was good, and reasonably priced too. One main course costed about $30.

I will rate the restaurant 3.5/5. It is definitely worth going back to try other interesting dishes! The restaurant serves wine and beer too.

Rasputin can be found at: 3B River Valley Road, #01-07 Clarke Quay, Singapore.

A nice meal in Covelli Italian Restaurant

My fiance and I had a nice lunch the other day in Covelli Italian Restaurant. The restaurant is found at the basement level of Orchard Central. I was attracted to the nice cakes on display outside its restaurant.

The restaurant had interesting fake bird cages hanging from the ceiling. The ambience was only so-so as the seats were placed too near to each other.

First up, bread and olive oil. Ahh, I demolished it pretty fast as I was hungry.

I like to dip my bread in olive oil, do you?

Next up was my yummy fish and mashed potatoes! The mashed potatoes was sweet and had a tangy taste. The fish was fresh too, tender and nice. My fiance loved the dish too and found it better than his steak.

Close up of the fish. Are you drooling already?

This was his steak done medium rare:

Let me introduce you to the highlight of the day: tiramisu dessert! It was awesome except it tasted slightly watery in certain bites. But I'm just being fussy. Overall, it is still the best tiramisu I've ever eaten.

I love this close up shot of the tiramisu cake. It makes me hungry already!

I'm rating Covelli Italian Restaurant a 4.5/5. I'm definitely revisiting the restaurant.

Covelli can be found at: 181 Orchard Road, #B2-13/22, Orchard Central, Singapore 238896.