Ipuddo @ Mandarin Gallery

One of the best ramen we have had so far - check out Ippudo @ Mandrin Gallery:


With a nice combination of modern and authentic decor, the ambience was great... a 30min wait on weekend nights are no surprise.. u always find a long long queue outside this yummy spot during meal times.. once you enter, you will go around this big wooden table where you get to look through the menu while wiaitng for a seat.. if u r there for the first time, check out the chefs... think they are all japanese!

The ramen? it's 2 thumbs up! The soup is so rich and delicious that both of us finished all of it.


Psss!!!! I ate besides Prof Mark Saeys!!!! :PPPP



The gyoza is typical.. nth great about it:



But the ramen is unbeatable. We will definitely visit this place again!

A dessert bowl

Looking for yummies is one of our favourite activites...

This time round, we like to share about one of our fav dessert spot: A desert bowl, located in serangoon garden...

It's pretty easy to find among the shop houses because of its read sofas beside the full glass window facing the road as show below:


That's Mark, happy as can be, waiting for his yummy:


The highlight of our evening came shortly. Here we have:

1) Mango with black glutinous rice - my personal favourite! the combi is surprisingly yummy! Somehow, the mango, glutinous rice and coconut came together as a perfect match. The black glutinous rice added an extra texture, giving it an adiditonal kick:




2) This is not new.. traditional warm dessert, cooked with chinese pear, almond and gou ji zi

Ritz Carlton Buffet Dinner

Ok. We mentioned in one of our earlier post we'll visit Ritz Carlton again. And yes! There comes that special occasion which gives u that good reason to splurge at RC again! We were having our early V-day dinner.

This time round, we will zoom into some of the changes and bring u closer to that dessert bar.

Black chicken soup was offered this time round. The restaurant was somewhat full considering CNY was round the corner, so we speculate this could be an impromptu solution to fill up partial of our stomachs should the buffet dishes do not suffice to satisfy. It was good but quite salty.

I went back to the barbeque bar and ordered some prawns but well.. no prawns for the day but they had... LOBSTERS! Very meaty and filling. Taste wise was ok. The rest of the dishes were pretty much what we have tried on our first visit.

Take a good look at the dessert bar. The cakes all look pretty and they certainly match the 'good looks' with their 'good taste'

This is a zoom in for the sorbets we would always order to wrap up the dinner 'sweetly'. The berry and lime flavours were really good but mango was ok.

A shot outside the restaurant.

Crystal jade HK Cafe @ Orchard Central

Honestly speaking, HK Cafe has become an overwhelming phenomenon in Singapore. Just like bubble tea, some restaurants eagerly take off in the HK Cafe direction after seeing decent successes in the pioneering batches. Crystal Jade was the latest finding for us. Hmm.. deco wise seemed abit off - a combi of Tong Shi Cafe + Cafe Cartel. They were playing Taiwanese CNY songs with MTVs which probably even our parents wouldn't enjoy too much more than us!

Foodwise.. let's take a closer look.

A weak tummy day for me meant I wasn't so looking forward to the food until...

The 'Yuan Yang' came in a COOL conical flask that has a concaved portion containing dry ice. Well, taste wise was ok, but the presentation was innovative for sure with all the smoke surging out from the centre. It actually also helps to keep the flask cool too. It impressed Shirley more than me, but the next on the list that came certainly raised my eyebrows!!

Mixed Grill!! It looked fantastic! With a decent sized portion of lamb-chop, chicken, sausage egg, it reminded Shirley of her mixed grill meal in HK. It cost only around $13. Worth every penny if you are looking to fill up your tummy in Orchard area.

Ok. Got to admit, this green tea snow ice was disappointing. I know this sounds weird but it was suppose to be my staple food for a bad tummy day haha, but at the end it was the mixed grill (okok.. generously shared by Shirley) that help make up for the snow ice. The snow ice was more of green tea syrup than real green tea powder taste, mixed with red been and jelly. Can't really taste real green tea honestly.

A place you can visit when u are really hungry and do not want to suffer the long queues else where. Foodwise - stick to mixed grill.

Ci Nai HK Cafe @ ECP

Wa work has been keeping me super busy! And I lost the USB cable to my HP. so sad! This is also why we haven't been posting since Dec.. hahaha... This post is for our date on 17 Jan 10. We went to one of our favourite eating place - Ci Nai HK Cafe @ ECP:


Though the decoration is far from the traditional HK cafe I've been to in HK itself, this place never failed to satisfy our hungry tummy! If I am not wrong, they open until 3am!


Here's our orderfor today: Curry fishball, Mango king (not sure of the actual name but it has icecream, jelly, mango puree, mango slices etc), yang zi gan lu with ice cream


and how can we forget their signature dish - XO sauce fried carrot cake:


Besides the fantastic menu with a wide variety of delicaies to choose from, there are live bands performing everyday. Most of the singers can sing quite well. Music varies across different languages - chinese, hokkien, cantonese... I think I haven't heard any English songs here before. Ci Nai HK Cafe is an ideal place for supper hunters like Mark and I but don't sin too much!

Mark's birthday dinner @ Ritz Carlton

This was certainly one of the best restaurants I've been to for my birthday. Nice ambience and a wide choice of food for buffet. We almost missed this meal as we went for a wild goose chase and went to Carlton Hotel first before moving on to the correct 'Carlton' (with a 'Ritz' in front) Hotel. After walking some distance and arriving at the wrong hotel, we decided to ease some of the frustration by taking cab. Haha.. it was certainly worth all the effort and money after all..

The lighting was comfortable. While the buffet area was very brightly lit, the dinning area was cosy and easy on your eyes with rather dim lights.

We started the course with raw food, comprising fresh oysters, salmon sashimi and cold crab. Sashimi was decent, but oyster and crab was better. The former was really quite fresh for what you can get in Singapore while the latter was sweet.

We moved on to cooked food. Big barbecue prawns and cod fish were some of the better dishes. The prawns were prepared on order and takes around 5-10 minutes to cook.

The dessert, in terms of variety, taste and looks made us question if Fullerton's Chocolate buffet was worth your money. Well.. of course at Fullerton, the desserts were chocolate-themed. But throw in the ice cream (the sorbet ice creams taste really really REALLY GOOD!), and the winner for dessert is clear. Your can literally taste happiness when it comes to Ritz Carlton's ice creams. TRY IT!!

Look at our blissful faces, and you know you can't go too wrong with RC. Its $178 but with UOB card it costs around $160 for 2. Pamper yourself on those special occasions! A place we'll definitely visit again.

A splendid dinner @ Grill-Out

Take 2 flights of escalator up, in front of Orchard Central all the way to The Verandah and you will find this promising logo inviting you to unit 07-01 for a good meal.



Grill-out has both indoor and alfresco dining. If you would like to enjoy the air-condition and take a peek at the fresh meat and sausages you are going to order, go for the indoors side. Mark and I chose to go for alfresco coz there was a duet playing outdoors.



We chose to sit beside the glass walls where we could have a feel of the bustling night life along Orchard road. The traffic was really bad. Even at bad economies like this, Orchard road was still flooded by shopping addicts like me :P





A wide spread of vareities was shown in the menu and the price is quite reasonable. We chose a combo set dinner for 2 which costs about $40 after extra charges. One of the best bargains the restaurant offered was wine at $6 for any main course order. Unfortunately, we were not in the mood for booze since I havent had my shopping done. :P

Here's our spread:





FOOD ALERT!! Our combo meal has pork and steak. I am not too sure what are the sauces though. One of them has rasins and it's just super yummy~!

A Visit to EIGHTEEN CHEFS

After much deliberation we decided to visit somewhere beyond the usual makan places. 18 Chefs was the name Shirley suggested. Previously she had shared with me the story behind this set up.

The restaurant was started by Mr Benny Se Teo who had gone in and out of prison due to drug addiction in his younger years. Fortunately he was offered a second chance in a restaurant specially set up to hire ex-offenders. He held the position of executive chef. Being given a second chance in the society again, he is helping juvenile delinquents to re-integrate into society by equipping them with culinary skills and jobs in his humble restaurant whenever possible.

Se Teo eventually learnt about Fifteen, a restaurant set up by Jamie Oliver to help bring young peeps led astray back on track by teaching them culinary skills. Se Teo saw something he could identify with: making an purposeful effort in helping delinquents via a common set up in Singapore. So there he went, a one month stint with Fifteen. Culinary skills he learnt, but more importantly, it was how to successfully create an environment that encourages and enlighten young misled minds that they could be identify as chefs than gangsters.

The place is a cosy simple restaurant with an affordable menu. We arrived early evening with the restaurant half filled. Half an hour later the place was packed, we saw that there was good crowd of mainly students in their 15s to early 20s. Well.. since we were still not that far away from school, we opted for the student menu. Interestingly you get to mix and match your meal. 1. Pick a sauce 2. Pick the ingredients 3. Pick the additional toppings. Ta da! $6.50! But an additional topping will cost $1.5 to $3 (it comes with another free topping) So.. hehe we gave in to temptation plus in addition I ordered a soup so all in all a meal cost around $10. Well I chose 'red and white' as the sauce and scrambled egg, mushroom and fish as the ingredients. Shirley picked tangy tomatoe for sauce but what were the ingredients again?? Oops.. The lemon tea was good the soup? Its alright..

Not known as a refined eating place with extra fine dishes, I thought its still value for money and a refreshing concept. 4 thumbs up out of 5 I would say.

Exact address:
3 Simei Street 6,
Eastpoint Mall, #01-36,
Singapore 528833
(Located beside POSB)
Tel: 6782 1298