Tag Archive for Restaurant

Paradise Dynasty at ION Orchard

To enjoy a cheapish (sorry I mean ‘cost effective’) pre-Christmas meal with my mum and girlfriend, I decided to take them to ION Orchard and to the Paradise Dynasty restaurant there. We intended to enjoy the fusion xiao long bao that they serve specifically at this restaurant. Paradise’s xiao long bao are quite different – as they serve a mixed plate of 8 xiao long bao of different types: original, szechuan, ginseng, crab roe, cheese, garlic, and the kings-among-kings – foie gras and black truffle. Delicious and very tasty!

We ordered a few dishes and enjoyed the fine and relaxing company – and it was a great meal and experience overall. It wasn’t too expensive and we were able to enjoy it with a nice discount – as I had some vouchers to use up. I think I managed to use $40 of the $50 I had, and provided the difference in cash – something like S$7 – not bad, hey?

Paradise Dynasty at ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
#04-12A ION Orchard
Singapore 238801

Walking Around Novena – Funny Times

When you walk around Novena, it is sometimes funny what you find.  There is not much around the mainly shopping and medical district, but if you search deeper, you do sometimes find a nice shop or two in the area.

I went with the girlfriend for a nice meal at Da Luca Italian Restaurant (at #01-19/21 Goldhill Plaza, 309012) for their lovely Burrata (this is one of the nice restaurants you find in the area), there was even a new spa (called Pine Spa – at 199 Thomson Road, 307636) that had opened up that month – and we were almost tempted to do this after our food – but we were so tired, I think we probably wouldn’t have woken up even if they forced us too – so we decided to pass the massage for another time.  BUT, it is a great treat, and now I know where it is – and it is 24 hours – what more can you ask for 🙂

We did find one particular restaurant / bar (forgot the name) near to Goldhill Plaza and Thomson road, which had a great window display – a big cuddly bear watching the world go by and relaxing with a beer (shame it wasn’t a Guinness!).  We then went to the Udders Ice Cream (155 Thomson Rd, 307608), an interesting place, and a nice variety of ice cream on offer – with no other that Oktobeer Ice Cream – that’s Edhinger Dunkel & Guinness Stout – yummy.

So as I said, there are a few nice places in and around Novena – you just have to spend time to walk around and find them… 🙂

Wing Seong Fatty’s Restaurant Lunch with Mum (8 Nov 2014)

My mum told me of this place that a friend of her (an air steward / cabin crew) had suggested, it was called Fatty’s near Sim Lim Square. It is actually a non-discrete place, but it is the quality of the food that matters.

We ordered a few dishes, and tucked it. The food was simple but very delicious, and we certainly enjoyed our lunch It wasn’t that busy when we went (it was just after opening for lunch), but we did enjoy the ambiance of the place.

I certainly would recommend this place, especially for the simplicity, price (very reasonable) and quality of the food.

Wing Seong Fatty’s Restaurant
175 Bencoolen Street
Singapore 189649
Tel: +65 6338 1087

My Birthday Celebration at Equinox

Well we had decided to schedule a family birthday dinner (with my mum and dad) at a nice restaurant in Singapore – so we decided to do a brunch at Equinox within the Swissôtel The Stamford (City Hall) – which also allows me to utilise my Far Card discount card – which results in 20% of food (as we had 5-10 adults), and 25% of drinks. My aunt and cousin also decided to come across, and I invited my girlfriend too – so there was 6 of us in total.

The Sunday Brunch at the Equinox was pretty good – a great location at the 74th floor of the Swissôtel The Stamford, and we did certainly enjoy the Singapore views from up above.

As it was the last Sunday of the month, there was a Pink theme to the brunch – so the usual Brunch price of $158++ per person was increased to $178++ per person – but with unlimited Moët & Chandon Rosé Impérial, house red or white wines, specialty cocktails and a selection of beers (instead of the classic Moët & Chandon Impérial). Anyway, I tried to get the normal price, as I wasn’t really keen to go pink for my birthday, but they said there was no choice as it was a special pink theme. Anyway, at least I would get a discount about 1/5 off (with the Far Card), so it wasn’t all bad.

The food was pretty good – however, the selection was as good as a couple of hour brunch places (St Regis and Mandarin Oriental seemed to be better), but it was still very tasty and very enjoyable!

What was a dampener was the Roast Beef, a couple of us got a couple of slices and we tucked in, however, there was this really funny taste too – as if it the meat was rotten or gone off. I am not sure why, but never smelt or tasted beef as bad as this. Anyway, I went to speak to the chef servicing the hot meat table, and he summounded the head chef, whilst we waited, we enjoyed the rest of the meal. After a few minutes, we noticed that head chef came, tasted the meet, and then took the whole slab of meet away back to the kitchen, whilst they replaced it with another (which tasted far better). The Equinox restaurant manager then came to speak with us, and apologised for this and stated it must have been the supplier etc. I explained that unfortunately it doesn’t matter, as it is the Swissôtel was the one cooking and serving it to the public. Anyway, we relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the meal and then we requested the bill.

After a few minutes, the bill arrived, but there was nothing provided as a gesture due to the off meat. I asked to speak to the restaurant manager and asked him that they should offer something as a way of apologising, he asked me what I wanted, and I told him that it was for him to determine. He agreed and I left for them to consider the offer. After a while the he came back and returned my Amex credit card and stated that the meal was on him – wow! That was not what I was expecting, but I felt it was a great gesture, albeit too much to accept. He apologised again for the issues with the meat, and the F&B also turned up to offer an explanation and also apologised – I did state that all it required was for one customer to complain to the NEA, and they would come and shut down the place – so I sense they realised the severity of it. I just hope no one gets ill because of this – as I know there was other tables eating the meat.

I accepted the offer, but did give about $200 tip for the servicing staff, as I know it wasn’t there fault and they would not receive any service tip from our table otherwise. He accepted it, and said he will make sure the staff received it.

It was a bit of a weird birthday meal – but unfortunately, these things do happen. At least they did the honourable thing and accepted the issue – at the same time, we made quite a saving off the whole meal – wow! What a birthday meal that was!

Swissôtel The Stamford
Equinox Restaurant
2 Stamford Road
Singapore 178882
Tel: +65 6338 8585
Reservations: +65 6837 3322
URL: http://www.equinoxrestaurant.com.sg

Cucina Italian Restaurant GroupOn (11th Oct)

I always keep an eye on GroupOn to see what types of offer are available, and I stumbled upon one offer for a place called Cucina, an Italian Restaurant, and it was situated in the heart of Holland Village, and so I hope it was going to be a good local place to try out.

The offer was a S$40 voucher for S$19.90 – so just over 50% saving… I wonder for this price, how the restaurant could afford it. I also sometimes wonder it looks too good to be true, maybe the food quality sucks? – I just hope it doesn’t! Alas, I am willing to give it a try. I have to use it by 7 Feb 2015 – so gonna wait to find a nice and relaxing evening to give it a go.

Cucina Restaurant
275 Holland Avenue
Tel: +65 92486662
URL: http://www.cucina.com.sg

Jumbo Restaurant – Chilli Crab (27th Aug)

I was taken to a dinner at Jumbo Restaurant in Riverwalk, near to Clarke Quay – and the main thing to eat here is the infamous Chilli Crab and Black Pepper Crab – yom yom, so we ordered both.  I always like coming to Jumbo, but not too often to get fed up with the food … haha!

It was a great delight (as always), and great when its with several people, then you can order more, and ergh eat more.

Jumbo Seafood
20 Upper Circular Road, #B1-48
The Riverwalk
Singapore 058416
Tel +65 6534 3435
URL: http://www.jumboseafood.com.sg/outlet-riverwalk.html

Bali Holiday – What a Fab Break! (August 2014)

My girlfriend and I intended to go for a nice holiday break away from Singapore for a few days, and we decided to spend a long weekend in Bali.  I haven’t been to Bali for ages – in fact almost 10 years (if not more), so I jumped at the chance to spend it with her in the fabulous place.

The flight was pretty reasonable (generally, it’s not too expensive to go to Bali), and we decided to go to Seminyak – a place I’ve heard about, but had never been before (well I don’t recall I’ve been there) – and we decided to stay at Vasanti Resort – which is a luxury resort within a short walk to the beach (well that’s what they said on their website – haha!).

The hotel was pretty nice – very new and modern – only opened since November 2013 – and it met our needs perfectly.  I’ve compiled a separate review specifically for the hotel here and on tripadvisor…I would recommend it, but only if you like the quietness of the location, as it is a short walk to the ‘action’ of Seminyak – but it is great for a relaxing and refreshing stay 🙂

On the first day, we went for a stroll to look for a place to eat, and we went down the road from the hotel along Jalan Cendrawasih , we turned right at the junction down Jalan Petitenget, and then saw an interesting place, relatively small in size on the road-side.  The place was called Warung Eny’s (at Jalan Petitenget No. 97, Seminyak) – so we had a quick look at the menu, and decided to give it a go – it did look like a local place, run by a family, so we hoped it would be nice.  The experience was absolutely amazing, the service was fabulous, the open kitchen allowed us to enjoy the view of the staff cooking along – it looks very interesting.  Service was very fast and attentive, and the food was absolutely amazing – the food was delicious and looked fab – as the open BBQ on the road-side was a nice treat.  Definitely recommend this place, if you are keen on enjoy local home-cooked food and ingredients, served in a great setting!  and it was sooo reasonable.

The next day, we decided to go for a stroll along the beach, we ventured along the road and eventually found our way to the beach (it is down the road from the hotel, but the path it is a bit of windy and hidden, but we managed to get our bearings in the end – haha).  We reached the beach, with the nice classic black sand of Seminyak beach.  We went by the ‘W’ hotel, and went by the infamous “Potato Head“, we decided against the hustle and bustle of Potato Head and found a nice location in the “W-Bali“, which was actually pleasantly enjoyable – very relaxing, and although it was quiet in the early morning – it was perfect for our needs, as we enjoyed each other’s company.  

After a few drinks (okay they were a bit pricey here), we went on for a late afternoon snack / meal, in the town.  We found a place called “The Deck“, which seemed quite nice – with a bit more of a life to it…it looked like a local ‘Western’ bar, but we a nice soup and Beef Radang pizza – a nice twist to the classic Indonesian dish.  We then went inside and enjoyed a couple of games of pool, followed by more Bintang beers – had to be done 🙂  and yeah, unfortunately, I did win both games – whoops!

It was getting dark, so we went back to our hotel, and relaxed a bit before venturing out for dinner.  We were after “Naughty Nuri” infamous ribs – having been recommended this by a few people.  We passed a “Crab Bar” as went down the road towards Naughty Nuri, the menu looked delightful, so we decided to maybe come back again to try it out – but we had ribs in our mind for dinner 🙂  so we continued on by to find Naughty Nuri.  When we arrived, we saw people were waiting already, so we asked how long the wait was.  The waitress said we were lucky as there was a table of two available, – perfect, so we went straight in to the shared team in the middle section.  It was one of the best ribs I have ever tasted – fantastic marinade, and we enjoyed it with a nice salad and chips.  We then saw another couple eat a dessert – which looked intriguing, looked like deep-friend bananas with ice cream (Goreng Pisang) – so we decided to order one too – and it was DELICIOUS!  Haha!  Certainly would recommend a visit here!  A MUST DO!

The next day, we decided to enjoy the relaxing setting of the hotel resort, and relaxed at the pool after breakfast.  We then took the resort’s shuttle bus to “Ku De Ta” – we actually enjoyed this setting more than Potato Head – it was far more relaxing, even though there was still lots of people around.  We found our spot and enjoyed a pizza and a few drinks, as we continued to enjoy the fun company of each other – and the people watching excitement of the crowd…haha.  

After a couple of hours, we decided to go for a stroll, and found an interesting wine store, bar and lounge – called VIN+ – the placed looked very modern, but the nice part was the fact that the entrance area was made of Bamboo – which gave it character.  We found a place for dinner and then rested for the night.

The next day, we decided to try out Potato Head, so took a stroll back to the beach.  We managed to find a place at the bar (although it was still a mass of people).  We had a couple of cocktails and chose the crab cakes – which was really tasty.  

After lunch, we took a stroll through the town, and went back to the resort for an evening drink at the roof-top bar, although it wasn’t that busy, it was a nice setting and we enjoyed the live music that was playing.  

After a happy hour drink, we decided to try out the other ‘rib’ place – and took a taxi from the resort to “Wahaha” down Jalan Sunset Road.  This was an okay place, not as good as Naughty Nuri – but the ribs were still very enjoyable!  

We managed to get a taxi back to the hotel – although the area is a main-road, so this place is a bit of a weird setting – probably why it wasn’t that busy (seemed to be a place with lots of industrial shops etc).  When we went back, we went along the main shopping road – and we noticed a lot of hotels/resorts, restaurants and Western-branded shops – next time we come to Seminyak, we suggested that we book along this road, as this seemed to the road with all of the night life in Seminyak. We had booked a massage at the hotel, but when we returned back, we had then realised that we had missed our 9pm booking slot – we had totally mis-judged the time-zone…Bali was the same time as Singapore, whilst Jakarta was one-hour earlier, so when we arrived, we were actually a whole hour late.  Luckily, our honest faces were accepted, and they didn’t charge us the missed appointment fee – phew.  This also made us realised that the one we cancelled earlier in the day (at an outside location) at 11am was actually the time of the appointment, we thought we had phoned at 10am – whoops!  Now we know why the hotel receptionist who called reacted a little weird to our cancellation request…maybe the spa was a bit annoyed that we cancelled at the last minute 🙁  whoops!

The next day, we had booked a lunch at “Merah Putih” – we had tried to come here the previous evening – but it was fully booked – but in a way, I am glad we came at lunch.  It wasn’t that busy, so it was quite relaxing, and we still were able to enjoy the great atmosphere in the bar and restaurant.  We went for the Babi Guling (Balinese Suckling Pig) as a set lunch – it was certainly delicious dish, and we had a really enjoyable lunch.

We then booked for a nice massage the following morning, just before we had to leave to go back to Singapore – it was a nice spa and massage treatment, and we really felt so relaxed.  It cost us 250k rp each – but it sure was worth every penny.  After the relaxing massage, we went back to the hotel, chceked-out, and took a taxi back to the Denpasar airport – ready for a return back to Singapore, and back to work tomorrow – eek!

All in all, a delightful holiday, and I certainly got to like Seminyak a lot!


 

Restaurant Ember – Rozelle’s Leaving Lunch (11 August)

Well a good ol’ colleague decided to leave and return to her Australia to spend time with her family and start the next chapter of her life, and we thought it would be great to have a leaving lunch at a nice restaurant, somewhere nice in town – with the team.

The restaurant chosen was Restaurant Ember, within Hotel 1929 – it was a nice setting in Keong Saik Road – easy to get too, and an very pleasant meal chatting away and chilling with the team. The food was delicious and I am glad we had a great opportunity to send her off with a fond farewell.

I wish her well on her future endeavors and hopefully our paths cross again in the future…the world is a very small place as you know 🙂 haha…

Restaurant Ember
Hotel 1929
50 Keong Saik Road
Singapore 089154
Tel: +65 6347 1928
URL: http://www.hotel1929.com/dining/ 
URL: http://restaurantember.com.sg/
E-mail: info@restaurantember.com.sg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/restaurantember

Enoteco L’Operetta Boat Quay Dinner

The May Day Bank Holiday was on Thursday, and this coincidently was the day I returned from my Phuket holiday, so I decided that I should ‘try’ to go back to work on the Friday…yes it did feel weird, and of course was ‘tough going’ – haha! But at least I could catch-up with my colleagues, and clear through my email box…

Relaxing at Enoteco L'Operetta

Relaxing at Enoteco L’Operetta

Friday afternoon came very quickly, and I had arranged a nice drinks and dinner gathering with a few work colleagues and a friend. We ventured down Boat Quay (the tourist trap), and got to the end, where we found an intriguing but very interesting place called Enoteco L’Operetta – it looked very formal and up-market, but seemed very a delightful Italian restaurant, so we decided to give it a go. It had a nice ambience, and we sure got to relax and chill…and for me reminisce the nice holiday break away. It also gave me an opportunity to start thinking where to go for the next one 🙂 hehe!

Anyway, the food was good, service was superb, and it wasn’t too pricey, for this type of upmarket place this turned out to be.  I certainly would suggest venturing towards the end of Boat Quay and give this place a go – you will be pleasantly surprised how good it is!  5 stars indeed!

Enoteca L’Operetta
78-79 Boat Quay
Singapore 049866
Telephone: +65 6438 2482
URL: http://www.operetta.sg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Enoteca.LOperetta

Zsofi Tapas Bar – Fun Dinner

After a hard day at work, it’s always good fun to get a group of us out for drinks and dinner.  We decided to give a Tapas Bar a try, having received a review from a work colleague – the key to the recommendation was free Tapas for every drink purchased during the evening – nice 🙂  Yup that got my attention too!!  Haha!

It’s towards the Little India district, just off Serangoon Road.  We went there around 8pm, and it wasn’t that busy, they seemed to have 2 parts of the restaurant, one a sit-down area, but this excluded the free Tapas offer, all the ‘bar’ side which offered a lounge type area and outdoor roof-top area, and of course the free Tapas.

It turned out to be a fun night, and was truly delicious – I would definitely recommend to give it a go, although I wouldn’t say the Sangria was the best, however, the Tapas were yummy!!

Zsofi Tapas Bar
68 Dunlop Street
Singapore, 209396
Telephone: +65 6297 5875
Mobile: +65 842 842 84
Email: info@tapasbar.com.sg
URL: http://www.tapasbar.com.sg

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