Noodlestar

Last Saturday, I finally decided it's time for some Asian Cuisine in my system. So I brought both my mother & brother (poor daddy's working) down to bugis for a lunch before commencing our CNY shopping trip.

It didn't take me too long to decide where to go for lunch, since I wanted a place where we dont have to queue, and can enjoy our lunch in the air conditioned place. 'Noodlestar', which I had patronised for more than 3 times in year 2012.

Cramped Sitting Area

The only sofa booth seats available.

Please do not expect high end resturant setting, and be prepared to find yourself in a slightly cramped up sitting area.

There is a current on-going promotion for Lunch on Mondays-Saturdays (11.30am - 5pm) , which consists of  a main (la mian) + drink (ice lemon tea/ice green tea) + dim sum. Very worth it, I would say!

Lunch Promotion

Since I have been here before, I knew exactly what to order. And both my mummy and brother ordered almost immediately too.

The la mian before mixing

After mixing with the sauce given

Tender Chicken Cutlet

So we got ourselves 2 La Mian with Crispy-Fried Chicken Chop and 1 La Mian with Crispy-Fried Pork Chop. All the noodles are the same, but in my opinion, get the set with Chicken Chop as side. The Pork Chop is too dry and tough, becomes a chore to finish the tray of meat after afew pieces.

Dumplings with Hot & Sour Sauce

Steamed Pork & Cabbage Dumplings

Steamed Pork & Chive Dumplings

These dumplings are worth trying.The pork fillings in each dumpling is juicy and tender. Top it off with the usual vinegar and ginger slices, too good. However, you can try some of the better steamed dumplings over at Din Tai Feng & Lao Beijing.

We spent a total of $39.40 for 3 sets, due to the lunch promotion. Not expensive for a decent lunch at air conditioned place, but I have to admit the food disappoints. I remember the food quality was so much better in year 2012, which is the reason why I continued to patronise this store.

My advice? Hop over to Bugis+ (previously known as Iluma) for more variety of food.

Noodlestar

233 Victoria Street

Bugis Village

http://noodlestar.com.sg/

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

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

Ling Zhi - Food for the Vegetarian

Buffets, buffets, buffets. Buffets are common, but hey, vegetarian buffet is smth new to me.

Having tried Lao Beijing by Tung Lok w L and have a good dining experience, I obviously jumped at the chance of trying another new restaurant by Tung Lok - Lingzhi vegetarian, since both mummy and grandmother is on vegetarian diet that day.

I know, I know. You're being turned off by the thought of greens in trays waiting for you to eat them, no meat, no nothing, just vegetables and vegetables. This is where you are wrong. Because being a vegetarian doesn't mean there is nothing other than green leafy vegetables. There's delicious mock meat (which I suggest for people who are on a diet, to steer clear away from them since they are made up of flour), and desserts!

I believe a pleasant dining experience comprises of good food + good service. But unfortunately, this place doesn't provide any resemblance of reasonable service. Despite having made reservations, the waitress at the reception refused to let us in reason being that our seats are still currently occupied by the current customers. Why couldn't they let us have another table which is obviously unoccupied, and not reserved? As long as you explain it to us calmly, I'm sure we'll understand what is going on. After all, my family are very harmonious people.

Add in a small section of steamed dimsum and two pots of desserts, and basically you'll have the whole selection of food for the buffet itself. But of coruse, bearing in mind that this is just a hi-tea buffet, one can't expect much from it isn't it?

Fried beehoon and noodles are really tasty and not too oily. They went very well with the curry served as gravy. Lip-smacking combination, I went back for seconds.

Mock Shark Fin Soup

My all-time favourite dish. Perhaps I have held expectations that is too high for this dish, I was utterly disappointed. Not that it was bad of course, but it tasted a lot better with loads of pepper and vinegar.

Here are some of the steamed dimsum they provided. Not all impressed though.

The steamed mock char siew bun were fluffly, light, and tasty. Both my grandmother and daddy were full of praises for it.

These are bad. The skin is too thick for all our liking. For perfect steamed dimsum, the skin should be thin and light. When I sank my teeth into this little pouches of delicate looking dimsum, I thought I was eating into a slab of tough dough. Enough said.

This is so good. Lip-smacking, finger-licking good, and everything nice. But this may be a biased opinion because I've a soft spot for Lotus Paste. I had 3 trays of these, each tray consisting of 2. Everything with Lotus Paste tastes awesome. I can just survive on Lotus Paste alone daily. But okay, from an unbiased point of view, this isn't well done. The whole bun is hard and tough, the skin were (as usual) hard and thick too.

This is...interesting. For me, this doesn't taste right at all. Weird combination, or maybe I just dont fancy this.

Dessert time!

Walnut Cream

Not too sweet, perfect for the eldery or if you dont have a sweet tooth.

Chilled Mango Juice with Sago

This will make it up to people with sweet tooth. Chilled and sweet, the way I like my desserts to be. I had to go for seconds even though I was stuffed.

The food isn't lousy, but definitely not tasty enough to attract me back for another trip. And of course, the service was a huge turn-off. $113 for 6, which even out to be $18.80 for each person, I can't complain much about the variety of food, can I?

Lingzhi Vegetarian Restaurant by Tung Lok (Novena Square outlet)

238 Thomson Road

#03-09 Velocity @ Novena Square

Singapore 307683

Tel: +65 6538 2992

Opening Hours :
Mondays - Fridays
Lunch : 11:30am - 3:00pm
Dinner : 6:00pm - 10:00pm

Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays
Lunch : 11:00am - 3:00pm
Hi-Tea : 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Dinner : 6:00 - 10:00pm