Breko Cafe

Simple dinner at Breko's at Holland Village with the army friend James. As always, I choose a seat on the second floor because of the cosy sofas and air-conditioning - great set-up surely for catch-up conversations. Guys may fancy the frequent soccer matches shown on the tele here.

Burnt Chick: 3.5/5




I thought I would get a tanned blonde but I got a burger instead. As some of you may know by now, I stayed by my usual practice of doing away with the salad and coleslaw and getting a bit more fries instead. The fried chicken patty was really good and I liked the way it paired with the soft buns.

Chicken and Mushroom Baked Rice: 2.25/5


James couldn't eat half of this, let alone finish it altogether, much because it was really too creamy. An over-proportionate amount of sliced onions lies beneath that layer of cheese as well, which he tried to remove one by one after they proved a bit too overwhelming. Perhaps those who really like the creamiest of baked rice would like this a lot.

Service
Very good.

Price
$12.50 for each, subject to GST and service charge.

Place
38 Lorong Mambong, Holland Village.

Additional Comment
First picture source here.

Oh Carol! Cafe & Bistro

Mondays are usually "special lunch days" with the best friend as we try to find new places for lunch after our astronomy lecture. The latest lunch saw us at Oh Carol! Cafe & Bistro at Buona Vista Biopolis, a place we expected to find scientists in white lab coats but instead could only see ordinary-looking people. But hey, we're here more for the food of course.

Cheese Fries: 4.5/5


The cheese fries were delicious and really one of the best I've had. The fries came thick, hot and crispy just as I like them to be, and the cheese was not too sour nor pungent. People who prefer "soggy" fries could always head to Fromage at Cityvibe, which isn't too far away.

Seafood Cheese Baked Rice: 3.5/5


I really wanted to try their "homemade" beef burger but I just had a case of heartburn (too much fast food haha!) and decided to go a bit easy and get the baked rice instead. It turned out okay, simple indeed but with adequate portions of fish fillet, squids and a few prawns.

Salmone Pasta


The best friend's pasta, featuring smoked salmon in white wine cream suace. She said it was good, the taste of the smoked salmon managed to balance out the (slightly heavy) cream sauce. She also likes the addition of mushrooms as they give the dish a nice aroma, making it just a bit better than the one from Coffee Club.

Service
Very good.

Price
$4.90 for the cheese fries
$9.90 for the seafood baked rice
$12.90 for the salmone pasta

* Prices subject to the usual 7% GST and 10% service charge.

Place


20 Biopolis Way, Centros Block #01-02.
Next to MOE HQ, Buona Vista.

HK Kim Gary Restaurant II

There was a long queue outside Vivocity's HK Kim Gary Restaurant but nevertheless it did not take that long a while before the eight of us were finally ushered to our seats. Perhaps after waiting close to an hour at Astons Specialties, such "shorter" queues don't bother us that much anymore!

Supreme Cheese-Baked Beef Curry with Spaghetti: 4/5



I enjoyed this more than I expected, and it's got to be one of the better cheese-baked curries that I've eaten so far. You can choose from "supreme", "pineapple" and "coconut milk" curry, and from what they told me, "supreme" is the spiciest, "pineapple" the sweetest and "coconut milk" well, the milkiest of the lot. The "supreme" curry wasn't numbingly spicy of course, but it was fair enough. The only problem was that some of the beef slices were quite tough and rubbery and required some measure of jaw strength.

Cheese Baked Rice



A few of my friends ordered variations of the cheese baked rice, as we all did with our cheese baked pastas previously at Eighteen Chefs. I do know a couple of them had the fish fillet cheese baked rice while Xue Ting next to me had the chicken chop baked rice. While the latter thought hers was quite good (she especially liked the amount of cheese in it), the other two meanwhile felt it didn't meet their expectations. Yi Wang for one was mentioning how his came lukewarm (and this is not the first time!) and hypothesised that the "baked" rice was more of steamed than baked.

Curry Flavour Fries: 3.25/5


I prefer the "red pepper" flavour over the curry one. The curry flavour fries reminds me of curry flavoured chips, only that the fries were a bit too limp and not as crispy as I would prefer them to be. The other four of my friends who shared the "special mix" flavour fries found it to be uninspiring and a tad too bland.

Sweetened Condensed Milk and Peanut Butter Thick Toast


Qian Hui didn't like this very much because he found the bread to be too thick and dry, with too little peanut butter to go around.

Service
Good.

Price
$10.50 for the supreme cheese-baked beef curry spaghetti
$11.50 for the chicken chop baked rice set (includes soup and drink)
$11.90 for the fish fillet baked rice set (includes soup and drink)
$3.60 for the curry flavour fries
$2.50 for the peanut butter thick toast
$2.10 for a glass of cold "yuan-yang" (tea + coffee) [yummy!]
-- just add $0.30 to your baked rice set if you intend to have this

* Prices subject to the usual 7% GST and 10% service charge.

Place
Vivocity Harbourfront, #02-128.

Eighteen Chefs

Located in a small and quiet part of Simei's East Point lies a humble eatery that has a tale of its own. The following is their social vision and mission statement:

"We wish to spread Benny’s story of experience, strength and hope to inspire troubled youths and people with conviction backgrounds to find alternative positive ways to reintegrate back into society.

We would like to work with other social agencies both locally and regionally to help create this awareness and to provide a platform for these group of people to realize their talents in the Food & Beverage industry. We hope to expand out of Singapore and make Eighteen Chefs as part of the lifestyle to the youths globally.

By providing them with a safe and non-judgmental working environment, we believe that we are giving them a chance to also work on their recovery through this unity of bond which will eventually allow them to be of service to the community."

I hear that their creative director, Benny, is also the one and only Singaporean to have trained at Jamie Oliver’s world class restaurant, "Fifteen", in London. Good social responsibility, good credentials indeed. If we could add something else, it's good for students as well, given their all-day student meals. Click here for the menu.

Seafood, Prawns and Mushrooms - Aglio Olio Style: 4/5


I found this really delicious. A healthy serving of seafood to accompany nicely olive-oiled pasta. Good addition of garlic, and do add in a dash of chilli flakes to complete this dish. Simple yet most satisfying.

Prawns, Sausage and Scrambled Eggs - Tangy Tomato Flavour


There were six of us and we were all trying to come up with our favorite combination for our pastas. If you look at the menu closely, you'd realise that you get to choose one type of sauce (choose one from eight) and one main ingredient (choose one from twelve). And if you're a student, you get an additional ingredient top-up free. Sounds like a good deal don't you think?


I like the way the cheese is baked to a light brown.


A picture of the scrambled eggs in the pasta.

Pictures of the Rest


Many of the rest looked similar, so just enjoy the pictures. All of the pictures were taken in minimal lighting, so apologies for the photo quality!


The student meal comes with a cup of sweet and refreshing ice lemon tea at the start and a scoop of ice-cream at the end.


If you like your pasta really creamy, you could try something like this out. A couple of my peers did mention that the cream came out a little too salty for their liking, while the two who had the baked rice actually mentioned that it was quite bland. I think the ingredient combination is quite important so you might like to get some recommendation or advice from the staff if you're unsure. All-in-all, we thought it was a pleasant and very affordable dinner.

Service
Excellent. They even took the time to personally ask us for our feedback, which I felt was a nice and sincere gesture.

Price
Refer to the menu since there's just soooo many combinations. Do note that while there's no service charge, GST is not included in the menu. I did notice though that the basic price of $6.40 for the student meal was reduced to $6 in all of our receipts.

Place
Simei Eastpoint Mall, #01-36
Also: No. 1 Fusionopolis, Connexis, #B1-12.

Additional Comment
Certified Halal.

Hong Kong: Mido Cafe

I first learned about this Hong Kong cafe from a Lonely Planet travel guide, but it was only after I had returned from Hong Kong and gone through the Internet that I realised that this is a pretty popular place among locals and tourists alike.


The cafe is old, but it has that antique prettiness that is hard to come by in a place that has modernised so rapidly over the last half of a century. The furniture seems to be the same ones from fifty years ago, and some websites have mentioned that this cafe has been featured in the scenes of many Hong Kong movies.


We were initially stunned to see the "menu" pasted on the table because it was covered completely in Chinese characters. The boss (or so it seems) could speak and understand English very well though, and gave us (thankfully) menus with the all too familiar English words. The above is just one side of the English-version to the menu, but it looked really promising. There were fourteen of us, but we were sitting at separate tables and I didn't get to take pictures of all the food. Here's what I managed to take at my table.

French Toast


French Toast never looked this decadent. Deep fried toast with eggs and butter. It was freaking unhealthy and oily. But we loved it.

Beef Fried Rice


It was a pretty big portion, so it filled me up nicely. The rice is very soft and moist though, but it went well with the generous serving of minced beef.

Baked Seafood with Rice


In Singapore, anything "baked" means lots of cheese, but it doesn't seem to be so for this dish. Chetan said this wasn't too bad, and it's pretty worth it because you got fried rice instead of plain steamed white rice.

Baked Pork Chop Rice



Ce Zheng said this was "ok". Looks good, doesn't it?

Drinks



The drinks, as do the furniture, are so retro and old-school here!

Service
Very friendly and helpful.

Price
HK$18 for the french toast
HK$35 for the beef fried rice
HK$73 for the baked seafood with rice
HK$48 for the baked pork chop rice

Place
63, Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei
Yau Ma Tei MTR Station, Exit B2

Additional Comments
1. The first picture of this post is a collage from a collection of pictures from this website:
http://gregwee.blogspot.com/2008/05/retro-mido-cafe.html.
2. Opening hours: 8.30am-9.30pm; Tel: 852-2384-6402

Streets Cafe & Restaurant III

Daphne really really wanted her pumpkin fries, and since I never did want to order it when it was just the two of us together, the fact that we had friends for dinner meant that she could finally order them. Other than Ci Nai, Streets is the other favourite of ours when it comes to Hong Kong cafes in Singapore.

Pumpkin Fries: 8/10


Alright, so IMM's portion is at least twice this. The rating belongs to the Daphne, terribly high as it is. Daphne (and a couple of our friends) liked this nonetheless, with one continually commenting that if the girls didn't take the fries quickly enough, he would finish them all. They all agreed it's a unique taste, with the salted egg yolk giving it a different kind of oomph.

French Fries: 7.5/10


Yes yes, you can get this everywhere. But the portion's very healthy, the fries came hot and crisp, and they taste good.

Streets Special XO Seafood Noodle: 7.7/10


I would not have ordered this if not for a lady nearby who seemed to be enjoying her noodles a lot. I pointed to it, asked what it is, and told the waitress, "I want that." And it tasted great too, not too oily and pretty generous with ingredients. The only minus point is that the XO is almost nowhere to be tasted, I believe they added only half a teaspoon (if not less).

Macau Fried Rice with Chicken Chop: 7.4/10


Daphne decided to have this again, and still likes it.

Black Pepper Beef Baked Rice


Kimberly ordered this, and it did look yummy. Very cheesy with tender pieces of beef. She said it was good.

Dry Noodles with Garlic Pork Ribs


Quite obviously I did not try this, but Huixiang was eating the ribs with much relish.

Service
If you can't speak Chinese, oh don't get me started.

Price
$6.50 for the pumpkin fries
$3.90 for the french fries (served with mayo)
$7.80 for the seafood xo noodles
$7.80 for the macau fried rice
$8.90 for the black pepper beef baked rice
$6.80 for the noodles with pork ribs
$2.00 for a can of coke
$3.50 for iced honey lemon tea

All prices not inclusive of the usual 7% GST and 10% service charge

Place
Raffles City Shopping Centre #B1-44C
Also: IMM Building #01-126

Additional Comment
Free Lime Tea Cooler for September babies.

Swensen's Restaurant

Daphne's family was going to have a small celebration one week in advance of her sister's birthday, and they settled on Swensen's at Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre, much because it was nearby and therefore convenient. Naturally, I was invited. Of course, I wasn't taking pictures of everyone's food (I didn't want to scare her parents) but we did manage a few.

Soup of the Day: 3/10


The few of us who had the soup had little idea what this was, it tasted like a cross between corn and pumpkin. I don't think it was good at all, tasted very much like it was straight out of a can.

Calamari Rings: 6.7/10


The calamari rings were alright, but it would have been better if they were more crispy. These on the other hand were a tad soft.

Swensen's Fries: 8/10


Our usual order at Swensen's. Besides, you get this at a dollar off if you're ordering ice-cream, which we did. Very potatoey, served hot, and had the nice soft crunch fries are supposed to have. I simply loved dipping it into the tartar sauce.

Golden US Turkey: 7.7/10


I found this to be pretty good, tender turkey meat with a nice batter cooked to golden brown on the outside. The spicy fries were good stuff too. This is part of Swensen's August promotion (hurry 8 days left!) and you could check it out at this page.

Creamy Cheese US Chicken


Another one from the promotional menu. Daphne had this, and to me it looked quite good, only that she said it wasn't exactly so. Ovenbaked boneless chicken leg with cheese over it, but she felt it was just alright. She also commented that the mashed potato was lacking in taste.

BBQ US Chicken


Daphne's mum had this, and it's also from the August "poultry" promotion haha. She said it was quite good.

Chicken Baked Rice


Swensen's claims this to be one of their all-time favourite dishes. I'm not too sure myself. Her cousin Celene had this, and she insisted she prefers the ones served at NYDC. I told her that their standards can be pretty inconsistent, like the one here.

Banana Crumble


I only had a bite or two of this which the sisters were sharing, and I felt that while the vanilla ice-cream went very well with the yummy butterscotch sauce, the banana crumble though was awesomely filling. It was very rich.

Service
Good and friendly. Frequently filled our glasses with ice water, a dying trend nowadays.

Price
The main courses from the August promotion cost around $16.90, and comes with a soup and drink.

Place
Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre
Lorong 6, Level 2
Website: www.swensens.com.sg.

Additional Comment
For those who don't know by now, Swensen's is certified Halal.

NYDC

Me and Daphne were walking around the fountain area of Suntec City because that's where many of the restaurants are as well. We eventually decided to go to NYDC, though in retrospect, I really wished we didn't.

Roast Chicken and Grilled Pepper Baked Pasta: 3/10


Sure, I took the risk and did not order a dish that had a "Wow" label, NYDC's equivalent of a chef's recommendation. I never did expect to see my food served in an old looking dish with charred (and even small cracks) sides. I never did expect to have my fork touch the pasta like it was touching the ceramic dish, hard and certainly burnt. I never did expect smooth cheese to be hard and burnt too. I must say again, the pasta was dry, hard and burnt. The chicken was the only thing unburnt, miraculously. It must have been from a well-behaved chicken.

Mushroom Ham Baked Rice: 7.3/10


Daphne liked her rice, but was equally unprepared for the old-looking dish that it was served in. She also found much of the sides of the food too burnt for her liking.

Service
Fair. It was early, almost 6pm and eventhough it was a public holiday, it was still very quiet. The staff however didn't seem quite bothered to serve us. Come on, I know it's a public holiday, but SMILE please.

Price
$11.90++ each.

Place
Suntec City
#B1-012 Fountain Terrace
Website: http://www.nydc.com.sg/ (with menu and prices)

Additional Comments
1. For people who don't eat pork, the good thing about NYDC is that they indicate which dishes have pork, and thus, which don't.
2. To be fair, NYDC serves great desserts and cakes. Give them a try instead, like Cookie Monster.