Beard Papa Sweets

Me and Daphne were walking around after dinner when we went past this quiet Beard Papa Sweets outlet (compared to Donut Factory and J.Co Donuts). I suppose I took a few seconds longer than usual to linger and stare at the mochi flavours, though we've always been wondering what this mochi ice-cream thing is, especially after seeing it so often at Plaza Singapura. Daphne immediately wanted to buy it for me, probably feeling she needed to buy something after my treat an hour ago at Shokudo.

Mochi Creamery Ice-Cream: 6/10


We had the Azuri Red Bean and Mango mochis, as you can roughly tell from the colour. The lady told us to eat our little frozen goodies after seven minutes, but after twelve it was still pretty hard. In fact, the mochis turned out pretty ordinary, especially the ice-cream, but of course the outer layering was quite sweet. A bit rubbery too, if you ask me. A 6 because it isn't much value for money.

Service
Alright.

Price
$2 each, which for that size and taste, isn't worth the money at all.

Place
Raffles City Basement
B1-60
Website: http://www.beardpapa.com.sg

Additional Comments
If you want something better from Beard Papa, just get their cream puffs, it's awesome. I particularly like the Cookie Cream Puff thing, which is crispier than the original one and oh so yummy!

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar

Work has been piling up recently, and I had to cancel clubbing for tonight because I couldn't fathom the thought of waking up half a day later and rushing through an essay all tired and blur. Since Daphne already had clubbing scheduled and subsequently had to push quite a number of plans away, I felt it was only right of me to treat her to dinner. Judging from the rather interesting reviews on Shokudo from various food blogs, I decided that we too should have our first taste of the new food bazaar in town.


The very first thing you find yourself doing is comparing this place to Marche, because the first thing the girl at the entry does is to explain to you the concept of cashless buying and using the card as a means to go about with your self-service orders. And then she would (try to) end quite firmly (if not threateningly), that a loss of the card would result in a $100 fine. I always wondered how it would be if we consolidated all our orders in one card, spend much more than $100 in that card, and then lose it, leaving us with the empty ones. Haha.


As you can see, even the stalls bear the semblances of Marche. In a recent interview with the general manager of Marche however, he expressed that he did not see Shokudo as a "copycat" and added:

"The Marche concept is not defined by swipe cards and cooking stations. For the past 25 years, we have built our reputation on our total commitment to freshness and quality" [Stomp Foodies Club]

Well, with that remaining outlet in Vivovity and pretty disappointing food now, I hope that commitment could be relooked into!

Well, let's not ramble any further shall we. Here's the food.

Shokudo Mushroom Cheese Burger: 6/10


By far one of the hot sellers at this food bazaar, this burger bears high expectations for anyone who reads about it (like me) or simply those who walk around the restaurant and see it almost on one in every four tables. I'm not kidding, it's that popular.

However, and hopefully not because of the prior high expectations, this burger was not warm enough to my liking and felt pretty ordinary actually. The beef patty admittedly was good, very rich and well flavoured, and the buns well-toasted. Went well with the sunny side up. However, I've had better ones, and to say the least, even Botak Jones is better than this. I would return to Globetrotters at United Square sometime soon, because their burgers are actually a hidden specialty.

They were pretty much stingy on the fries too, don't you think?

Iwate Mushroom Soup: 4.5/10


I had my reservations when Daphne suggested having mushroom soup. Not only was this meant to be a Japanese restaurant, I somehow had this sense that it wouldn't be good. And it wasn't, instead quite like its name "iwate"... watery (geddit? haha); very diluted and lacked the thickness and richness necessary for good mushroom soups. Even pepper couldn't save it.

Sausage Omu Rice: 7.3/10


Omelette on tomato flavoured rice with a yummy looking pork sausage. Too bad I can't touch that, but then again, it looks quite pale compared to the beef ones. Still, Daphne liked it, though her complaint was that it was not hot enough. Funny though, since I saw the guy put it straight from the grill. They really should do more about reheating.

Homemade Cheesecake: 9/10


Ha! The winner of the day. This small wonder (yes, it's smaller than my palm) eased my slight disappointment really, and Daphne too went high on this. Very smooth and soft texture, nicely mixed with the crisp of the biscuit base. Sweet, and goes down your throat delicately. Ooh la la.

The bill wrote that it is "Shokudo Tofu Cheese Cake", as compared to the display as merely "Homemade Cheesecake". Maybe that's why it's as soft as beancurd.

Service
The usual Japanese greeting, but I realised the staff appears to have a majority of Chinese nationals! *Gasp* Chinese manning a Japanese restaurant, interesting.

Price
Shokudo Mushroom Cheese Burger: $7.80
Sausage Omu Rice: $7.80
Iwate Mushroom Soup: $3.80
Homemade Cheesecake: $3.80
* A can of Sprite: $2.50

Place
Raffles City Basement
#B1-44E

Additional Comments


1. Yeap I mentioned self-service, but the usual 10% service charge still applies.
2. Long queues from 7.15pm onwards, so be sure to be early. No reservations allowed!

The Pizza Place

Daphne introduced me to this place some time ago, and this is actually our second visit to this little outlet at Raffles City. No guesses why we went back, I literally had a craving for more after the first because this is really one of the yummiest pizzas I had so far - the common fare of Canadian or PizzaHut pale in comparison to this fresh out of the pan experience. And oh, they actually make their pizzas right there rather than oven bake the refrigerated... stuff.

Hawaiian Pizza: 8/10


Ooooh, I can still feel the warm cheese in my mouth. This is really good pizza and you can feel the freshness of the ingredients.


Look at the crispy crust, not thin but just nice and a pleasant golden brown. On taste, it's not too hard like biscuits nor too rubbery like some others.

Service
Friendly.

Price
Below $20 for a regular sized pizza, ideal for two.

Place
Raffles City
Basement B1-16

Additional Comments
1. No pork, no lard.
2. No service charge, no gst.
3. I preferred the Mediterranean pizza (beefy goodness) that I had during the first visit. I would give that 8.5!

Ben & Jerry's

Tucked at a seemingly quiet place, the Ben & Jerry's at Dempsey's was quite packed and has this cheery feeling when you step in. Whether it was the sweet B&J girls or the homely country decor, you just feel comfortable and ready to soak in some ice-cream delight.

Daphne has never been to Dempsey's before, and I thought a little car-ride there would be nice. It was good that she was excited, especially when half the time she was chanting "Dempsey" and cooing after the all girls' current fav of Patrick Dempsey, the lead actor of the Grey's Anatomy series. The drive up there was challenging, because the lighting was so bad, and I even drove into the lane of an oncoming car haha. Still, we reached there alright.

Mix and Match Sundae: 9.3/10


Come on, Ben & Jerry's always make me a happy boy, and for Daphne, a delighted lil girl. The sweetness, the sugar rush, and the colourful decor would never fail to make us smile and lighten our hearts. The girl serving too was equally sweet, scooping like there was no tomorrow and had such a wide smile on her face.

We had:
His fav ~ Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Her fav ~ Strawberry Cheesecake
We also tried ~ Chunky Monkey

Toppings: Hot Fudge and M&Ms

Service
Purrrrrfect. Shan't say too much of the B&J girls *weak shy smile* They were pleasant!

Price
$13.80 for every outlet. But this outlet particularly charges a 10% service charge.

Place
Block 8, Dempsey Road #01-14
Website: http://www.benjerry.com.sg/

Additional Comments
There's a also a bar and a restaurant, CA California, under the same roof.

Kobayashi Hangul

Kobayashi is very much like a Japanese-Korean fastfood outlet that's pretty much popular with the younger generation. Usually if you're thinking of going budget, here's a place to go. Of course, even if you aren't, there's a wide variety of food here to go on a spree.

Japanese Curry Chicken: 7/10


Very ordinary, to be honest the curry tasted like it was out of a can (but in fact, scooped out and poured over the chicken from a small pot) and was very sweet. It wasn't entirely filling too.

Ramen with Tempura: 7.3/10


The ramen looked very much like maggi noodles! Haha. Daphne liked the soup base, found it very sweet. She liked the tempura too, though in the end she pushed half of the stuff at me because she thought it would be fattening. Haha.

Service
Well, language barrier, since the place is staffed by Chinese nationals. When I asked what was the tempura looking thing on their bento sets, she said (very amusingly to me I would say) va-gee-ter-ble, and probably thought repeating it over and over again in the same pronunciation would help. Heh.

Price
Less than $10 for each, inclusive of a regular drink. Around $6 for the food each.

Place
Basement, Orchard Cineleisure.

Superdog

I have been meaning to eat this for quite some time now, it's been quite a long way back since I had Superdog's hotdog haha. This is your "atas" sort of sausage buns so they tend to be a tad more pricey, well, comparable to Carl's.


Oh look, their Dos and Don'ts for hotdog etiquette! Haha, "sacred food" indeed. Ever saw that lttle Japanese guy stuffing hotdogs in his mouth in that eating competition? Think he was the defending champion for quite a while. But I digress haha.

Hot Dog Ripper: 7.5/10


I ordered this plain and added an egg, so it's really quite difficult to give a rating on this. Fried eggs and hotdog buns all taste the same. Still, the hotdog was nicely warm and didn't have that "plastic" sort of feel when you bite into it. It's tasty.

American Classic Beef Cheeseburger: 7.8/10


Daphne's favourite at Superdog, I don't remember her eating anything else than this all the time. She liked the juicy tender beef patty in the burger, and felt it was yummy as a whole. Good enough for a 8.5 according to her.

Beef Cheese Chilli Fries: 7.5/10


Even before we ordered this, from past experiences we knew this couldn't match up to the one served at Carl's Junior, and indeed things haven't changed despite the hiatus. Still, it beats the plain fries. The portions of beef were too little for our liking, and it was more gravy based, somewhat tasted a bit like beef stew too if you ask me. Some people think it's worth more praise because of the special chilli recipe but we differ on this.

Service
Fast food concept, but very friendly and polite staff.

Price
$4.00 ala carte for my hotdog (inclusive of $0.80 for an egg)
$4.80 for the burger.
$2.90 to make it a set meal.
[For more, see menu with prices online]

Place
VivoCity #B2-40/41
Website: http://www.superdog.com.sg/

Additional Comments
I'm tempted to try the Superburger and Fish and Chips soon ;)

Al-Ameen Eating House

One of the most popular place for Westies to satisfy their supper hunger pangs would definitely be along Cheong Chin Nam Road, and for many of us Al-Ameen needs little introduction.

Indian Mee Goreng: 3.25/5


I found this really good, although some may rightfully comment that it may be a little soggy. I like the mutton cubes and eggs fried so nicely together with the noodles.

Fried "Thai" Beef Kway Teow: 3.25/5


I put "Thai" in inverted commas because this is what Al-Ameen calls it to be but I have my reservations about thinking this dish is anywhere ethnically Thai. That aside, this is one of my usual orders here because I like the sweet dark sauce used to cook the noodles.

Do take note that although Fried and Goreng mean the same thing, essentially if you order, "Goreng" would get you something akin to the Indian style of noodles - orange and slightly more spicy. "Fried" on the other hand here would give you their style of "Thai" noodles, not really your Char Kway Teow or Phad Thai mind you, but more like Malay style fried noodles.

Mutton Murtabak: 3/5


The low point of this was that the portion should have been bigger, considering I got the $6 murtabak and here it looked more like a $4 portion. Tastes alright, though it would have been better if they could have been more generous with the mutton fillings.

Nasi Goreng Pattaya: 3/5


Pretty much okay, nothing to shout about. The fried rice was pretty sweet because of the tomato sauce used to cook it.

Service
Very brisk. Sometimes it could be frustrating trying to get their attention, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

Price
Around $5 for each dish.

Place
Cheong Chin Nam Road, Bukit Timah.

Additional Comments
Open 24 hours =)

Ajisen Ramen

Believe me or not this is the first time I've set foot in Ajisen, and I would have to say what I had, and with the satisfaction of Daphne over what she ordered as well, has gotten me ready to come back some time soon.

Chicken Teriyaki: 7.7/10


The noodles was very sweet and didn't have that thick quality that might probably make you feel like reversing the digestive process (as in some cases you might actually do) like in other ramen. Rather, the softness of the chicken cubes and the sweet tangy sauce made my day really and even now when I'm typing this three days later, I'm drooling already haha.

Spicy Ramen: 8.3/10


Daphne was cooing with delight at the spiciness of this dish. She loved the soup base which was a mix of sweetness, spice and sour tanginess. While she's aware that 9 is a bit on the high side, she feels justified in giving such a high score on the good soup.

Side - Chicken Cutlet: 6.5/10


Ordinary.

Side - Fried Tofu: 7/10


Smooth texture and very very soft.

Service
Good, very quick yet still polite service is maintained.

Price
There's this set meal thing that goes like $14.80 for ramen + one side + soft drink, which was what we had.

Place
Lot One Choa Chu Kang
Also: Plaza Singapura, Changi Airport Termainal One, Bugis Junction, Bishan Junction 8
Wesbite: http://www.ajisen.com.sg/menu.htm

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe

Xin Wang Hong Kong cafe is probably one of the most popular HK-themed cafes with the youths in Singapore. The one me and Daphne visited this time round is the one located at Orchard Cineleisure, and even at an odd time like 2.30pm the place was packed with people.

Chicken Curry with Rice: 8.3/10


Perhaps I haven't been trying that many a range of chinese curries, but this one is one of the better ones really, and I almost always stick to this when I visit XinWang for a meal. The gravy is nicely aromatic and thick, and the chicken slices are very tender. I normally leave the gravy till the end to just lap it up with my spoon! Yummy.

Ham and Egg Mee Sua: 7/10


I couldn't taste this because of the ham in it, but Daphne felt the dish was pretty much ordinary. The ham, or luncheon meat rather, was too deep-fried for her liking and she found it quite salty.

Fried Radish Cake: 8/10


This really turned out better than expected because of the crispy exterior and yet very soft and smooth inside. Also has a pretty sweet taste that we couldn't actually point to, but really is worth the try.

Peach Tea Cooler


Daphne's usual. Real peach slices in it.

Service
Satisfactory. While the cooking of the food was pretty quick, ordering could have been made quicker with more attentive staff, half of whom spent their time chatting at a corner and the rest were left to scurry around the lil restaurant.

Price
Around $12 per person.

Place
Orchard Cineleisure.
Also: Marina Square
Website: http://xinwang.com.sg/index.htm

Additional Comment
Operating Hours:
Monday to Wednesday – 11am to 2am
Thursday and Sunday – 11am to 3am
Friday, Saturday and Eve of PH – 24hrs

Just Acia

Tucked quietly in Dhoby Exchange, Just Acia seems like the final solution to deal with Dhoby Exchange's problems of not securing enough tenants (and customers for that matter). Occupying almost a third of the floor space, Just Acia looks almost too good to be true when it has free flow of drinks, hot beverages and ice-cream for its set meals. In other cases, you could add (or top-up as the youths like to call it) a nominal fee of around $3 for the free flow privileges. And oh, don't ask me why it's Acia not Asia.

Chicken Teriyaki Set: 8/10


This is really good stuff. The portion of the chicken is commendable, and the teriyaki sauce is sweet and very... It's lip smacking really. Some parts of the chicken are a little bit over-fried, but it gives the chicken an overall crispy exterior and yet still soft on the meat, which goes well with me.

Deep Fried Chicken Set: 7/10


On first bite this tasted like popcorn chicken, but if you add this with the Thai (whoops, three food cultures now?) sweet chilli, you've got yourself something really tasty. Very crispy, which got the thumbs up from Daphne.

Softshell Crab with Chawamushi Set: 7.5/10


This rating came from our friend because neither of us tasted his dish, though he seemed very pleased with it. He liked the chawamushi, and found the crab to be one of the better cooked ones he has eaten, as compared to some which have pretty weird after tastes.

Service
Very attentive staff. There's not many of them, but they can see you even if you wander off to the various points of Just Acia's open concept restaurant (open in that you don't have a single confined space, but not open as in outdoors, since this is underground). Wonderfully polite too, the manager actually came over to apologise when one of our orders strayed a bit later than the others.

Price
Around $10 per set, though this could go up to $14 for some others. Pretty good deal if you ask me, since you;ve got the free flow fun.

Place
Dhoby Ghaut MRT: Dhoby Exchange
#B1-45
http://www.justnoodles.com/index.html

Additional Comments
Free flow of ice-cream is on the ordinary Magnolia standard flavours of chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate chip. And then you have coffee and mango flavours too. So if you think about it, it isn't that bad, you could do a mini Swensens topless 5 if you want.

This place is perfect for students or groups who just wanna sit and chat all day long. Will definitely return here yummy.

Riverside Indonesian Restaurant

Note: This restaurant has closed.

It's been a long time since me and Daphne had came here, more than a year already actually, so when Weijie and WanHua suggested this for dinner we were immediately agreeable. There's no pork or lard here, but there isn't much chance of this place going halal because they serve liquor to cater to the drinking preferences of the tourists.

There's many different "combo" sets for order, but we decided to go for the "super value menu 6 course meal" for the reason that we could add vegetables and tahu telor to the usual bbq combinations. For more info on the menu, do check out their website.

Sambal Stingray in Hotplate: 7.5/10


I found this quite good actually, the chilli had the correct amount of spicy in it, and the fish was fresh. To be honest, I prefer chomping down on the crispy cartilege heh. Thing is, we all agreed there seemed to be something particularly missing, some x-factor, which we then placed on the hawker sort of wok char-grill taste that is more identifiable with hawker stalls. This is still good to me.

Charcoal Grilled Cuttlefish: 7/10


This was ordinary, nothing to scream about, but the dark sweet sauce went well with the chewy cuttlefish.

Charcoal Grilled Chicken: 8.5/10


Same sauce as the cuttlefish, but the chicken was fresh and tender, and you could tell it was grilled well. The closest competitor I thought of while enjoying this chicken would be the Indonesian barbecue stall at the Plaza Singapura foodcourt. I wouldn't be surprised if it's like a branch of this restaurant.

Kangkong Belacan: 8.5/10


One of Singapore's favourite vegetable dish, the kangkong was well cooked with the equally well done chilli. Daphne particularly enjoyed this, and kept asking me to help her with seconds.

Satay Chicken/Mutton: 6/10


Ordinary, probably even a bit too tough and cold. Since you could choose the alternative in the bbq otah, I recommend that you go for the latter instead.

Tahu Telor: 6.5/10


Personally I prefer the one at Tambuah Mas because there you could taste the egg batter better and it's a good mix of crispy outside, soft inside. This one was quite soft on all ends, and even had a sourish aftertaste, which was identified by Daphne as assam. Probably this was added to the dark sauce, and I felt it would have been better without it.

Service
Brisk, but still attentive. This place was packed (and always is) at dinner time and there was quite a number of staff on hand to watch the tables.

Price
Excellent value for money. The one we had cost $10 per person, but there's a weekend (Friday included) surcharge of $2. Then the 17% additional, and you would be somewhere $14. This is awesome considering how full you would be at the end of the meal, and the food is great too.

Place
30 Merchant Road, Riverside Point, #01-04
Opposite Clarke Quay
http://www.riverside.com.sg/index.htm

Additional Comments
1. Free flow of rice haha.
2. Please remember to make a reservation because this place is very very popular and almost impossible to walk-in on many occasions.

Bukit Timah Market and Food Centre

On many late school days me and Daphne usually consider the Bukit Timah Market as one of the options for dinner since it's pretty near campus. There's a pretty good variety of stalls here, some of which boast credible media recommendations. In this particular dinner, we tried two, both of which bore Channel U honours.

Soyako Beancurd with Tang Yuan: 8/10


Ooh yummy! Very smooth texture, and this isn't too sweet because they use soya bean milk rather than pure sugar water.


There's four tang yuans (or ah boling as some like to call it) of which two are filled with sesame paste, the other two with peanut paste. Our personal favourite will always be the peanut ones, but they're nice all the same.

Price
$1.80 per bowl
Place
#02-166 Soyako

He Le Carrot Cake: 8/10


Daphne may have gotten this stall's name wrong, lost in translation, but that aside, this has always been our favourite stall for carrot cake. It assures us it uses only vegetable oil (even pointing to their oil tins everytime I ask) and so it removes the worry of them using lard. This carrot cake is crispy and you could taste the egg mixed with it, something you couldn't if they either use too little or is too salty in some other places. It is also a tad bit spicy, and Daphne guessed that they use chilli similar to that of the sambal seafood stalls use for their bbq stingrays. It gives this dish the overall (and "completing") flavour.

Price
$2-$5. This plate in the picture costs $2.
Place
#02-185 He Le Carrot Cake

Overall
Place
Bukit Timah Market and Food Centre
Next to Shell petrol station, near to Bukit Timah Plaza and Beauty World Shopping Centre.

Additional Comments
The katong laksa here is not too bad, and the bbq chicken wings is good, especially the chilli. No reviews on these for the time being because we only had room for a light dinner! =) Till next time then.