song fish head 

good food good price poor service @ eat first (i guess service last) 食之为鲜 3pax dinner this evening on 3.7.2019. ..

food vs price alone i guess 4 to 4.5 stars

tea S$1pax rice S$1pax towel S$0.50pax all reasonable..

fish head was big, fresh, very good standard.

so 2 stars for me this evening only because the young lady was untrained, uninitiated or just not in jolly mood..

eat first 食之为鲜

i booked 6pm and arrived 6.55pm..traffic delays, picking up other diners, parking etc..place was 20% by time we left 40% occupied.

We were asked to take a smaller table but we think more comfortable so moved to a bigger round table with the consent of server..

the young lady at counter saw it fit to come over and give us a lecture about calling up if we are late as they kept booking only for 15mins (sure they should)..

i always make it a point to call to cancel before time if i not going..this time we are coming just late because delays and i know very well the restaurant is empty..been there before..

& we could also be just walk-in no need to say we booked..and if itwas full just too bad lor, other makan places all around..since it is empty no need give customer a lecture la..

anyway we came for food to enjoy the food that part satisfied ok la..just putting on record lol!

tofu prawns

tofu prawns 

bittergourd pork ribs

bittergourd pork ribs 

prawn tofu and bittergourd very good standard despite this elder brother being from the steamed department..great taste, texture and good wokhae so food and price wise i think really quite good.

3 dishes

S$67.50 for 3pax

song fish head 

we had a great time ourselves, unperturbed by the poor service attitude, purposely giving customers a smaller table when so many empty tables throughout dinner, and when customer moved to bigger table, couldn’t take it must come to give lecture…just immature and bad attitude.

did not bother us but still need to put on record la! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

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Eat First 食之為鮮

Address:

babi pongteh set

had very good 6pax family dinner this evening at tingkat preMakan at owen road on 30.6.2019. ^^

the babi ponteh, sambal sotong, curry chicken, pork ribs set all good 👍

set came with 2 sides, drink and dessert..

chendol this evening was excellent as good as four seasons tpy lor 8!

alacarte dishes were all good. rendang best! ikan tenggiri, fried seafood laksa and otah all good. 6pax, 5 set + 4 ala carte dishes = S$103 nett.

tingkat permakan

quite a nice cosy place.

sayur curry

tofu

the 2 sides we liked best were the sayur curry and tofu.

babi pongteh

babi pongteh was good.

but more preferred the pork ribs pongteh.

sotong sambal set

daughter ordered the sotong sambal set, and JH the curry chicken set.

sotong sambal was good, curry chicken ok too.

otah

otak also very good.

ikan tenggiri

ikan tenggiri

as was the ikan tenggiri. firm, sweet fish, nice curry and vegetables.

fried seafood laksa

fried seafood laksa

the fried seafood laksa didn’t look that great but taste was quite good actually!

beef rendang

rendang was the best dish.

chendol

chendol

and chendol this evening exceptional standard, as good as four seasons at TPY lor 8.

pork rib set

we had a great time.

i think i will try out babi pongteh and pork ribs first and later do a full fledged nonya dinner for family and friends.

c.h.e.f andy

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Tingkat PeraMakan

Address:

truffle mushrooms S$10

met up with QTC and sis esther..

NCL & KWL had to go off….QTC, LCM and i decided to go xin cusine 新故乡for 3pax dinner..

had a really good chat including LCM’s project and also kluang.

truffle mushrooms S$10

xin cuisine reopened after like 3 months for kitchen renovation and reopened like 7.6.2019.

food just as fabulous as before.

i ordered the truffle mushroosm to share.

tea smoked roast duck S$32

and the signature tea smoked roast duck.

it was really good. crispy skin , great texture and wonderful flavour.

sliced garoupa S$28

the sliced garoupa dish excellent wokhae.

garoupa meat was ok. nice combination of leek, onions and chilli.

sweet mustard vegetables kailan S$20

sweet mustard vegetables kailan S$20

the sweet mustard vegetables 梅菜 kailan also very good. one of my favourite.

S$82 for 3pax

after amex 35% discounts for 3pax, dinner came to S$82nett, inclusive of 2 desserts. quite ok for the excellent dishes we had.

tea smoked roast duck S$32

and the best was none other thn the tea smoked roast duck.

c.h.e.f andy

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8pax RI + til german guy

raj, an old RI school friend visiting singapore,

NCL arranged for 8pax early lunch @ habib’s ayer rajah food centre today on 28.6.2019. ^^

followed by durians – we had msw and golden phoenix…

i just came from delivering my weekly friday breakfast dish to teban gardens. WM my

OPS bro messaged and we decided to have kopi at clementi blk 325 next to carpark adjacent to clementi mrt, where i picked up NCL, angie and raj. raj brought a young german trauma/ortho doctor friend visiting singapore, and we proceeded to habib’s.

habib’s indian rojak

habib’s indian rojak

habib’s indian rojak 

we ordered quite a bit, rojak came in 2 plates S$31 for 9pax…quite enough actually but we were greedy and ordered another S$10… really nice especially taken with the chilli dip..we had cuttlefish as well as squid, crispy batter prawn, coconut piece, and of course fish cake and tau kua..

really shiok..must come back agsain!

rajs birthday cake

angie brought the rainbow cake.

msw and golden phoenix

msw and golden phoenix

after rojak, we decided to walk over to the fruit stall for durians.

we ordered 6 durians in total = 2 golden phoenix 2xS$10, 2 small msw 2xS$10 (these 4 S$10 each) and 3 large msw 3 8kg @ S$18/kg for D$65 = total 6 durians S$105 …

the joke is that the S$10 msw is better than the S$30 msw..the smaller ones so intense and flavourful..HAB almost wanted to buy back some S$10 msw.

habib’s indian rojak

son’s kimchi fried rice

wife decided to have family cook out on 27.6.2019. ^^

we had 4pax family dinner, everyone cooked.

1. wife did pangrilled ribeye
2. son did a sous vide flamed ribeye
3.  and a kimchi fried rice
4. i did a pan roasted “halia” chicken with red wine reduction leek & onion
5. and aunty bes did pan charred brussels sprouts

son’s kimchi fried rice

son’s kimchi fried rice good standard, tasty.

wife’s pangrilled ribeye

wife’s pangrilled ribeye

wife’s pangrilled ribeye was good, done well.

son’s sous vide flamed ribeye

son’s sous vide flamed ribeye better still. he said 2hrs 50degC, sounded a bit rare.

but after flaming, and it was not a thick cut, it came out very well, nicely medium rare, very consistemt and great flavours.

aunty bes pan charred brussels sprouts

aunty bes pan charred brussels sprouts we all like.

my pan roasted “halia” chicken with red wine reduction leek & onions

i did a panroasted 1/2 kampung chicken

halia’s excellent grilled chicken breast

to model after the excellent tender, moist, tasty chicken we recently had at halia (above photo).

my pan roasted “halia” chicken with red wine reduction leek & onions

my pan roasted “halia” chicken

came up with my own recipe, and it was pretty good la..

i seasoned with sea salt and pepper and pangrilled deboned 1/2 kampung chicken breast and thigh pieces about 4 mins, high heat, just a little butter (chicken lots of oil rendering out), till crispy skin, turned over and off fire. then 20mins in 130degC oven.

chicken was very tender, moist and consistent, quite close to halia’s.

red wine reduction leek & onions

halia’s leek side with the grilled chicken was very good too.

i decided to do mine as red wine reduction. it was really tender and tasty. PT commented it was very nice and chatted with me about how it was done.

son’s sous vide flamed ribeye

chao shan cuisine

wife bought 7pax dinner with WM, Jessie, WT & GY and HC @ chao shan cuisine 潮汕林 on 26.6.2019. ^^

first time i ate here.

food was generally good, tasty, and great teochew dishes. 🙂

pig trotter jelly and nogh hiang

pig trotter jelly and nogh hiang were very good.

pig trotter jelly

this trotter jelly very tasty, much better than that at fragrant gardens recently.

braised goose

in the bill they said braised goose.

i thought no goose in singapore? except like frozen goose from 7 countries european, latin america etc.

anyhow it was very good, much better than the braised duck at fragrant gardens.

goose liver

and goose liver.

the 2 dishes S$60, goose was ok…don’t think i want to spend money on braised goose liver. 🙂

egg omelette

egg omelette also good. at S$20, quite standard price..better than fragrant gardens, about same as huat kee.

sotong with chives

sotong with chives S$26 was ok, a good dish.

the proprietress brandied some names, anyway looked like sotong, tasted like sotong, it was sotong to me.

teochew fried kuay teow

teochew fried kuay teow also very good here. better than both fragrant gardens and huat kee.

S$220 for 7pax

dinner was S$220 for 7pax, quite ok, but then we did not have the expensive dishes like halibut and pomfret which were both excellent at fragrant gardens.

i can expect them to be equally good and expensive here though. lol!

when i read the blogs, apparently their cold crab, teochew steamed treadfin also very gooda and the steamed sharks cartilage..not sure that is a teochew dish…

will try next time.

pig trotter jelly and nogh hiang

had a really nice dinner thanks to arrangements by WM and Jessie, and a good get together before GY flew back to shanghai.

c.h.e.f andy

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thai dishes

5 of us OPS buddies arranged to have lunch, but WM was held up by some singtel installation, so 4pax lunch at patara on 25.6.2019. ^^

i booked the eatigo 50% discounts at 12pm. 🙂

thai seafood tanhoon salad S$23

i ordered thai seafood tanhoon salad. i think the prawn pomelo salad is better. WT doesn’t take prawns. 🙂

tomyam talay S$12

tomyam talay S$12

i ordered just one tomyam soup for my friends to try.

quite enough. i wasn’t taking still nursing a cough though 90% recovered…HC doesn’t take sotong and WT doesn’t take prawns. haha!

Grilled 300 days grain-fed Australian beef tenderloin S$38

and the grilled 300 days grain-fed Australian beef tenderloin. this really good quality, tender and tasty.

red curry chicken S$24

and red curry chicken.

i think red curry is the most tasty curry here. today maybe my tastebuds not fully restored so i didn’t feel it was as flavourful, lemak and intense as i thought.

my friends liked it anyway.

WHOLE SEABASS In lime, garlic and chilli broth S$42

first time i ordered this steamed whole seabass.

this a very popular dish in thailand and in the distant past i had taken this many times in bangkok with thai business partners and it was very good.

i had cooked this myself, just seabass with fish sauce and lots of aromatics. today i didn’t expect much and it wasn’t much. good enough i guess. seabass with tasty sauce. should have come as a candle heated dish though.

pineapple rice with seafood S$22

i never order thai pineapple rice as it is sweet and my family always order the very flavourful olive rice.

still i expected better but this was not much tasty, i think much below par for a restaurant like patara…

WT’s haebeehiam fried rice and msw fried rice which we took recently, much better than this.

dessert platter S$22

i ordered a dessert platter for my friends to try.

i wasn’t taking and it was quite enough for 3pax. – coconut and vanilla ice cream, 2 thai chendol, durian cakes and fruits.

S$108 for 4pax lunch

Grilled 300 days grain-fed Australian beef tenderloin S$38

we had a great lunch, and price was great too with eatigo 50% discounts.

4pax lunch for good quality food at S$108 nett.

after lunch we went to visit M’s new place and picked up some ang hae (red prawn) durians at SKC. red prawn durians so so for me…i liked the xo durians i also bought better. we had that at won lee’s place later in the evening.

c.h.e.f andy

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Patara Fine Cuisine @ Tanglin Mall

wagyu beef carpaccio

had a halia chope S$100 8.30pm offpeak voucher expiring today 24.6.2019. bought for S$50.

made reservation on chope 8.30pm and went early with wife and walked to the visitor’s centre and back, contributed to 10,000 steps. lol! 🙂

they didn’t have my favourite blackmore wagyu spare rib on the menu ay more, so didn’t order more vouchers and chope doesn’t allow once reservation time so sticked with the S$100.

food was quite excellent for the price. we had-

• 2 servings of wagyu beef carpaccio (excellent)
• Tuna tartar (good)
• Sauteed portobello (good)
• Cauliflower Soup (ok)
• Chicken breast (excellent)

all in S$53nett for 2pax with chope 50% vouchers.

cauliflower soup with roll S$5

we ordered soup of the day..a cauliflower soup..good standard not special, and it came with a roll, not bad la for i think S$5 and got 50% off soem more. 🙂

sauteed portobello S$6

ordered the sauteed portobello.

had mixed mushrooms a few times always good, as was this too…

tuna tartar S$18

competent, natural sweetness, overall mediocre not great…

wagyu beef carpaccio S$16

the wagyu carpaccio was very good, much better w/o the previous like bearnaise sauce??

wagyu beef carpaccio

natural sweetness, and nicely marbled wagyu, very tasty. we ordered a second plate.

yam crisp

complementary yam crisp.

chicken breast S$28

we ordered the grilled chicken breast. it was excellent, very tender, moist and tasty.

i told the server it was like 1/2 the size of what i had previously, which was breast plus wingstick portion, now only breast. she replied that some customers suggest to have a side, so they had the leek confit and cheeseball. i liked both. 🙂

chicken breast

in fact i went back and made the dish myself, not as good obviously but quite ok. 🙂

so 2pax dinner very good standard dishes for S$53 nett. boleh la!

c.h.e.f andy

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Halia @ Botanical Gardens

4pax dinner at huat kee RELC

wife bought 4pax dinner at uat kee this evening on 20.6.2019. ^^

i had arranged 6pax dinner including WT and GY at tasty loong @ ortho. but WT had some urgent matters to attend to, so we decided just 4 of us all around town don’t go so far. can go tasty loong another time.

wife loves the food at huat kee, so we decided to go there, quite convenient at RELC.

we ordered 3 claypot sharksfin S$30. it was very good. i didn’t take.

garlic pork 蒜泥白肉

garlic pork 蒜泥白肉 was good.

fish maw with kailan

fish maw with kailan

surprisingly the fish maw was much below par?? not tasty, not right…

chopped spinach

the claypot chopped spinach was good. i think maybe i can replicate that.

oyster omelette

oyster omelette

oyster omelette was good standard, better than fragrant gardens.

teochew fried kauy teow

teochew fried kauy teow

the teochew fried kauy teow was good but still not enough wokhae, not the best, can be better.

cheng tng

orh nee

the dessert orh nee and cheng tng were good.

dinner came to about $240 for 4pax, not that cheap though the individual dishes on the menu didn’t look too expensive. of course there was 3 sharksfin and the other dishes would add up to about S$135. i guess ok.

the whole suckling pig was S$169 on the menu. however the expensive looking )as in the cost of making printing) menu not updated so the menu price for sharesfin was S$28 but the cost was S$30.

i will consider coming here with my sis and brother to try the suckling pig and other dishes.

c.h.e.f andy

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Huat Kee @ RELC

Address: