Modesto's - Traditional Italian Wood-Fired Pizza and Home-Made Pasta

Italian Cuisine for dinner again! Can't stop smiling from ear to ear when I managed to persuade my colleagues to go for Italian Cuisine for dinner instead of a BBQ buffet. I love food, and one cuisine I will never ever get sick of, is Italian Cuisine. Because my love for pasta is insurmountable. Let's just say, if you know me personally, you will definitely that I can have pasta every single day without feeling sick of it. Alas, but I am not a particular fan of pizza though.

And so, here we are, at Modesto's @ Vivocity where Traditional Italian Wood-Fired Pizza and Home-Made Pasta are served.

Panorama shot of the restaurant.

The restaurant is dimmed so all the diners can have their meals in a cosy environment, which might be a little too uncomfortable for some who prefer well lit places. So pardon me if some of the shots are below your expectations, I don't want to disturb the other diners with the constant flashes from the camera. Hence, some shots turn out rather dark and blur without flash.

While waiting for our orders, there's this complimentary platter of bread served, together with condiments like olive oil, etc.

Fluffy, soft and warm bread which is fresh from oven. I don't see what's there not to like. But remember not to stuff yourself silly with these, because the main course served are in quite a huge portion.

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara (S$ 22)

Linguine with pork bacon, egg yolk and parmesan cheese in cream sauce.

Linguine Alle Vongole (S$ 23)

Linguine with fresh clams, dried chili and garlic in an extra Virgin olive oil and white wine sauce.

Rigatoni Alla Puttanesca (S$ 23)

Large tube pasta with anchovies, capers, black kalamata olives, dried chili and basil in fresh tomato sauce

Bistecca Di Manzo Alla Bismark Con Crema Tartufata (S$ 40)

Grilled ribeye steak with asparagus, parmesan cheese and fried egg, served with creamy white truffle sauce.

Prosciutto Crudo (S$ 56)

Blur shot of a portion of the pizza. It fills up almost the whole plate! Evidence of how huge the pizza is.

Tomato, cheese and Italian pork Parma ham. Can you imagine the devastated look on my face when the waiter served us our pizza before I could take a shot of the whole completed pizza. Le sigh. So the only thing I can do is to take photo of my pizza on my plate, to show you how huge the whole pizza is.

The pastas are all done al dente which is perfect for us. If you, however, prefer your pasta to be well cooked, simply let the chefs/waiters know, and they will whip it up for you the way you want your dishes to be. All the pastas are perfect, not just because I am a pasta lover, but because everyone else who ordered pasta love it. Whether is it white wine based, cream based or tomato based, you can be sure that you will be satisfied and definitely come back for more.

Like I have mentioned, I am not a fan of pizza. In fact, in order for me to fancy pizza, the pizza must be of a top quality grade. And I can find them here at Modesto's. Thin crispy crust which will not fill up 3/4 of your tummy before you get to enjoy the other dishes, and they are definitely generous with the ingredients too. We ordered the huge family size pizza since there are 6 of us, and boy, when I say huge, I really mean HUGE.

But of course you can opt for a smaller size pizza. There are 3 sizes available, Mini (approx 8"), Regular (approx 12") and Family (approx 20").

Since this is an Italian restaurant, the waiters work in an 'Italian way'. Don't adjust your plates personally while they are serving your food, because the waiters will prefer you to sit back and relax, and enjoy your dinner while they serve you.

For me, Modesto's has the perfect service, ambiance and food. What more can I ask for?

Total bill came up for S$ 210 for 7 of us - 7 mains + 1 Family pizza. Not very cheap, but I would go as far as to say this dining experience is worth every penny that you spent.

For pasta lovers, another place where you can make sure you get delicious pasta will be at Michelangelo's. (:

Modesto's

1 HarbourFront Walk #01-166/167

VivoCity Singapore 098585               

Tel: +65 6376 9808

Two Chefs Eating Place

If you have yet to have tze char for at least a meal in your life, don't call yourself a Singaporean. Or maybe, it's time to change your diet plans and have tze char for the next meal.

In my opinion, tze char are ideal for gatherings or family meals. In fact, tze char will be one of the better options if you have to cater for large groups. This way, you get to order more dishes, without overstuffing your poor tummies or overspilling your poor wallets.

On one of the precious weekends ('Precious', since most of us are working already), we met up for lunch - Tze Char Lunch. As weird as it may sound, since tze char is always a choice for dinners. But if we can go for lunch/dinner at an all-day breakfast restaurants, it should be fine to have tze char for lunch too. And so here we are, at Two Chefs.

Paranoma shot of the almost empty place.

Typical Tze Char at neighbourhood coffee shops. Just come down in simple shirt and shorts to beat the heat.

For 7 of us, here's what we ordered

Fried Rice

Nothing to complain, nothing to praise either. Rice was fairly well cooked, fragrant and yummy. It was okay since we ate it with the dishes, but I am not sure if this will be satisfactory when you eat this alone.

Cockles

Not a fan of shell-food, but according to my friends, these don't make the cut. Considering that there are newspaper articles written about this.

Sambal Kang Kong

If you order this dish because you fancy the spice and taste of sambal rushing down your throat and even out of your nose, then trust me, you will be disappointed with this. The sambal/spiciness level of this dish is so mild, I wouldn't even call this Sambal Kang Kong.

Enoki Mushrooms Hotplate Toufu

Finally a dish which impresses my tastebuds. I am a huge fan of Enoki Mushroom, and I love dishes soaked in gravy. Only complain is that the toufu are in too huge chunks, so it gets a little too bland, unless you eat them with a spoonful of gravy.

Herbal Chicken Soup

Nothing fancy, just typical herbal chicken soup, with a limp tinge of herbal aroma. Half a chicken in each portion though.

Spinach

I see reviews about how tasty this dish is, but honestly, this is one of the worst spinach dish I had ever order/eaten. The whole dish is just bland, and yeah, obviously overly watered down. Maybe the chef left his seasonings at home.

Fu Yong Egg

This is one of the safest dish which will not go wrong. Unless, yours has egg shells in it. Afterall, what can go wrong with eggs right? Yummy dish, neither too salty nor bland.

Butter Pork Ribs with Milk Powder

This is the main highlight of the whole meal - Butter Pork Ribs with loads of Milk Powder. If you're lactose intolerant or you dont fancy the smell/taste of milk, I am sorry you will miss out one good thing in life. This is heavenly. The pork ribs are so well marinated, and the meat so soft and tender. The milk powder seems to complement the taste of the butter pork ribs so well, I can jolly well finish this whole dish on my own. Perfect. And not to mention, this is the only dish that nobody seemed to have any trouble finishing.

Here's our lunch for 7 pax, which comes up to a total bill of S$98, since we had the largest serving size for most of the dishes. If you're going in smaller groups and cannot afford to order so many dishes without having to risk exploding your stomaches, here are some of our reccomendations which you have to try : Butter Pork Ribs and Enoki Mushroom Hotplate Toufu. They will not go wrong.

Two Chefs Eating Place

116 Commonwealth Crescent

#01-129

Tel: 6472 5361

51 Tauhuay

Yet another post on Tauhuay after my prior Ama Soy experience. This time round, it's 51 Tauhuay!

Pudding-like tauhuay isn't on my favourite list, as mentioned in the previous post. But hey, 51 Tuahuay is similar, yet so different.

The bean curd is so smooth, it glides down your throat without you having to sink your teeth in them. No powdery feeling stuck at the back of your throat after consuming this, just sweetness of the bean curd. And not to worry if you don't fancy sweet stuff, because the sweetness level is just right.

This might just change my view towards 51 Tuahuay.

Just look at my fridge.

51 Tauhuay

Blk 442, Clementi Avenue 3

Fried Rice - Best in our Opinion.

As mentioned in the previous Lao Beijing post regarding the best fried rice in town. Here it is!

This. Is. Really. Good. Stuff.

There are many fried rice on the menu, L's favourite is fried rice with salted fish and chicken (S$3.50). Mine is sambal chilli fried rice (S$3.50). Ask them for a small plate of sambal chilli as well. Their sambal chilli goes superbly well with the fried rice, it's totally awesome!

Fried rice is an asian dish which is common and easy to find. You can easily find it anywhere you go, any hawker centres, food courts, or even asian restaurants. But having the perfect fried rice, thats a different story.

The fried rice here is a classic Chinese dish. I wouldn't say unrealistic things like you can find a slice of abalone here and there in this plate of goodness, neither would I say you will float up to heaven after a spoonful of this. But I would go as far out to say that this is a simple yet delicious dish. Not too oily, yet not dry enough to make you want to run for water.

This will make you come back for more.

Wah Chee

Blk 5 Dover Crescent

#01-02 Singapore 130005

Tel: 6778 3567

Canton Paradise - Time for some Dim Sum in our Systems

As you all should know, there is a new mall next to Bouna Vista mrt station - Star Vista. And I happen to live just 5-10 mins walk away from it, so this is where we landed up during one of our impromtu dinner dates.

Our Destination for Dinner

Being a dimsum lover, I had my eyes set on this restaurant the very first time we set foot in this newly furnished mall. So there wasn't much hestitation. We marched straight up to the reception and asked for a number, since the dinner crowd had already been formed.

Very very busy restaurant

Dining Utensils for the night

Cripsy BBQ Pork Bun (3 for S$4.80)

 

Quite a disappointment to both of us. We initally choose the steamed version of this, but change our minds to the cripsy one right before we pass the order slip to the waiter. I guess we were expecting the bo luo bun's cripsiness but this turns out to be not cripsy at all. But the BBQ pork filling is delicious though!

Mini Egg Tarts (3 for S$4.20)

They are not kidding when they name these mini egg tarts.

Disappointment sinks in yet again. Serving portions weren't satisfying. The taste of these mini tarts weren't satisfying too. In fact, I regretted ordering it.

Custard Bun (3 for S$5.20)

If you have noticed, there are tons of foodie photo on custard buns lately, either on facebook or twitter or even instagram! So how can we not order this?

Oozing custard filling

Just look at the photo. Makes you drool and want to try it, isn't it? I know it's hard to find a place where custard buns are served in this state, the piping hot custard filling all in liquid state and flowing. We had our virgin custard buns at Old Hong Kong restaurant, and it was a huge disappointment as the custard were in simi-solid state.But I have to add on, looks isn't everything. Though the filling appears impressive, the skin of flour were moist and heavy, it doesn't feel flufy at all. Just thick, and makes swallowing them a chore. Not a bad dish, but definitely doesn't create a long lasting impression.

Fried Prawn and Mango Fritters (3 for S$5.20)

Yet another disappointment. Far too oily for our liking. It's really too oily. Other than 'oily', I cannot think of anything else. Well, it's oily.

Xiao Long Bao (4 for S$4.80)

We nearly skipped this dish while ordering, and boy, I am so glad we didn't! This is the ONLY dish in the whole dinner which we really felt was worth the money. In fact, it's comparable to the ones at Din Tai Fung, and in my humble opinion, much better than the ones at Crystal Jade.

Fried Rice with Salted Fish and Chicken (S$10.80)

Not impressive. It tastes much better with vinegar in my opinion.

Mango Puree with Sago & Pomelo (S$4.50)

Last dish of the day! Mango is L's favourite fruit. In fact, he loves it so much that I often tease him that if one day, his basket of mangoes and I are in danger, he will rush to save the mangoes first before thinking about me. ):

Okay, back to the mango sago. There are mango pieces, sago and pomelo inside this little container, as the name has obviously suggested. Since it isn't the pomelo season, the ones we had have a bitter aftertaste. But the mango were very  sweet though. I like how they chilled the whole dessert - together with the container. Basically, I like my desserts chilled.

Total bill for 2 of us came up to a total of S$49.55. Given that most of the dishes are rather 'minature', the price we paid was steep. If you are giving this place a thought, do order the xlb, you will definitely not be disappointed!

Canton Paradise Tea House

1 Vista Exchange Green #B1-45/46

Star Vista

Singapore 138617

Tel: 6694 2915

Rocku - Japanese Charcoal Grill

Bugis+ (previously known as Iluma) is where all the hype is going on. If you have yet to step into this mall, please do! There are tons of shops where you can do your fair share of shopping, cafes for you to rest your feet and restaurants/eateries for you to have your meals. And oh, the number of eateries? Too many to count, that's for sure.

So L and I were at Bugis+ deciding on a place to eat, and we decided on Japanese Charcoal Grill - RockU!

Empty dining area since we were the first few customers for dinner.

I guess they were trying to pull off a construction site/underground cave look. Especially when we see some waiters putting on the yellow helmets where they were taking our orders and serving us the food. I wouldn't say the whole dining area is a cosy one, although it was rather dark. There were music blasting in the restaurant, with some videos playing on one side of the wall.
Great place for casual meetups I would say.



Dining Utensils for the night

Attractive menu

Here's the menu. We decided to go for the 2-person set meal, which comes with a pork platter, 2 fried rice, and 2 miso soup. Since the rest of the dishes were rather costly, we only order an additional kimchi and a plate of chicken meat.

When the food is finally served, I personally got a shock, because the serving size are really small!

Kimchi

Like we paid S$3.90 for this small bowl of kimchi which I wouldn't advise anyone to order. There are too many better tasting kimchis out there.

Chicken

And this plate of countable pieces of chicken meat costs us S$7 .90. However, I must admit this is really tasty and probably the only dish which I truly enjoyed for the night.

Here's the Pork Platter.

Pork Platter/Combo

Which doesn't seems impressive either, because the meat:fat ratio is 1:4. And most of the vegetable in the middle of the plate are for display since neither of us fancy them.

We also had some fried rice that came along with the pork platter, which tasted rather bland, but at least decent. Or probably it was because we were hungry.

As usual, full of MSG.

The three items above costs us $34.90 - Pork Platter + Fried Rice x2 + Miso Soup x2.

The bill for the night came up to a total of S$54.95. Satisfying meal because the chicken meat went well with the fried rice. But will I come back again? Probably not. I would rather go for a korean bbq buffet with the amount of money paid.

ROCKU

201 Victoria Street

Bugis+ #04-06

Singpore 188067

Tel: 6634 3313