Etna Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria

Another new post. Another new post on Italian cuisine.

2 Saturdays back, L decided to bring me to Enta Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria! We took quite awhile to find the location, and the rain didn't help at all.

Entrance (courtesy of google.com)

There wasn't any set menus for us to choose, so we had to make do with the ala-carte menu. It took both of us awhile to decide on what we want because all the items on the menu are so attractive!

Funny how neatly presented dining utensils can affect my mood for the meal.

The traditional fire place where the chefs will prepare our pizza.

Fire place

While the chefs were preparing our mains, the waitress politely serve us some warm bread.

Bread was warm, and fluffy. Not the kind of usual plain bread served in other restaurants though. L and I finished all 4 pieces up in a jiffy.

Another cute container for the olive oil and vinegar just like that one we saw at Pasta Inc.

Our mains!
L got the Chef's Special of the Day. Pizza with Burrata, Parma Ham & Rocket Salad

Pizza with Burrata, Parma Ham & Rocket Salad (S$29.00)

This didn't quite score with me, though the thing crust did impress me quite abit. The saltiness from the parma ham is delicious with the crust, but sadly, the rocket salad dressed on top was too bitter for our comfort. But I must say that the pizza is worth trying still!

I opt for pasta, as usual.

Linguine con Polpa di Granchio e Crema di Aragosta (S$25.00)

Liguine served with chunky crab meat in a lobster cream sauce.

And I really meant Chunky.

One word : Delish. Although it does annoys me to find some shell (probably due to crab meat) in my food...

Total bill came up to a total of S$57.78 for just 2 mains. Not cheap, but not expensive for a decent Italian meal too. Afterall, you get what you paid.

Promotion: There is a on-going 3/4 course set menu which is only valid on Weekdays Lunch.

ETNA Italian Restaurant & Pizzaeria

49/50 Duxton Road

Singapore 089513

Tel: 6220 5513

www.ETNAitalianrestaurant.com



The Square Restaurant - Food Outside The Box

Being an extremely lucky girl, I'm blessed to secure a part time job after A Levels, which lasted me all the way til I graduate from University. That's a whole good 3 years of part time, with 1-2 months annual breaks which allowed for me to study for examinations, and a 3 months break for me to go for internship at ease. With such flexible schedules, and of course, understanding supervisors, I really couldn't ask for more.

So after 4 months, I finally found time to meet up with both my NUS supervisors! Not without food, of course.

So here we are, The Square Restaurant at Novotel, Clarke Quay. Situated very near to Liang Court, please make sure you find the right entrance to Novotel. Or else, you will end up walking around in circles in Liang Court.

Get into the right building. Take the right lift up to 7th storey. Start feasting.

Perhaps we were too early. I couldn't think of any other reasons why the restaurant was so empty. (Until much later)

Almost empty restaurant

But I can't complain. Less crowd can make dining a more comfortable experience.

The spacious dining area with such contemporary furniture and deco makes this modern restaurant an ideal place for large gatherings or family dinners.

To start off, here's the Fresh Seafood Selection.

Fresh Seafood Section

Well, being not a fan of seafood, I didn't try any.

Sushi Platter is next on the list.

Sushi Platter

Oh, how my heart jumps with joy when I spot my favourite Jellyfish Sushi sitting quietly on the tray, waiting for me to pick it up gingerly and pop it into my mouth. But the disappointment sets in as soon I threw the whole sushi into my mouth.

The rice was wrong, the seaweed were damp, even my favourite jellyfish doesn't taste fresh.

Conveniently next to the sushi was a variety of well, pretty looking sandwiches.

Sandwiches for your pick!

Let's just stop at pretty looking. I took a bite of the tune sandwich, and I left the rest uneaten. The bread was such a chore to chew, and the tuna mix was too raw and fishy. I understood why the tray of sandwich was almost left untouched at the end of the buffet.

The Square Restaurant offers quite a few live-cooking stations, namely Roasted Meat section, Singapore's all-time favourite Fried Carrot Cake, Satay/Otah/Chicken Wings, and Noodles section.

Roasted Meat Section (blurred)

The Roasted Pork were not bad. In fact, it was good! The meat was tender, juicy and very tasty. And of course, they provides a reasonable selection of condiment sauces right in front of the counter for your pick.

The Carrot Cake didn't score with me though. My favourite CC will be located in one of the most humid and stuffy hawker centre, where I will request for the cook to add it more cai-po and make it 'more black'. Never had a fancy for white carrot cake.

If you ever dine here and you can only eat one item on the list, please go for the chicken satays. They were so good, I can't help but to go back for three more servings! First of all, the station had already won me over with the familiar smell of smoke. Satay is always one of Singapore's famous dishes, but to make the meat tender, tasty and not overly dry after grilling, that needs alot of skills. The Satays served here absolutely scored full marks with me! Not kidding. The meat were very well-marinated, and it was grilled to almost perfection. I believe no words can do this dish justice, you have to try them yourself!

Next on list was the Noodles Station, which I was already too full to try.

Noodles section

You just let the friendly cooks behind the stations know what noodles you want, and they will whip up the dish for you right there, on the spot.

Aha, not at all unfamiliar with this dish, I am sure.

Chilli Crab

The meat was fresh, the sauce was tasty. What's more to ask? Oh. One of the waitress even serve our table a bowl of lemon water for us to wash our hands with, without us asking for it.

Now that I'm quite stuffed, time to head to the desserts section!
I love how many buffets now allow us to create our very own ice kachang!

Ice Kachang Machine

I meant, just look at the number of jars we can get our condiments from! You'll be lost for choices, really.

Danish pastry

Chocolate Fondue

A buffet isn't complete without a chocolate fondue fountain. Lke many others, the chocolate here is so rich yet not too sweet to turn people off. And it's warm chocolate! Okay, I'm won over.

Fruit Tart

This particular Fruit Tart got my hopes up high, and then dropped me from heaven. The sweetness of this fruit tart is artificial. The base was well, lousy. I can't even describe it in words.

Before

After

By the way, the rest of the desserts were disappointing too. Seems like most of them were leftovers, because majority of them tasted stale.

There were many other stations of course!
Salad sections -  Chicken Sausage salad was lousy. The sausage tasted well, expired. Pasta salad didn't impress as well.
Ala-carte sections - Roti Prata wasn't crispy, nor tasty. I felt like I was chewing onto dough which wasn't mix well. Char Kway Teow wasn't too bad though, just stay away from it if you don't fancy oily stuff.
Ice cream section - The normal sort of ice cream you could get from anywhere, but they tasted good here because I dripped loads of the chocolate syrup over my icecream. And of course, nata de coco (from the Ice Kachang Station which is just beside the icecream one.)
Drinks section - Many drinks to choose from. You've the cold drinks namely Guava juice, Orange juice, Milk (for cereal), etc. Then you have a whole tray selection of tea, packed into little individual packaging, for you to choose from. When I was there, both coffee machines broke down, so we can't try any.

Did not have a good experience with the food, since most of them didn't impress. But the waiters/waitresses were nice and thoughtful to attend to our needs, with initiative. Although they do get a little rushed to clear our plates when we are not even done. But still, the service is out to impress, at least way better than the food served.

The Sqaure Restaurant

Novotel Clarke Quay Singapore Hotel

177A River Valley Road

Singapore 179031

Tel: 6433 8790

Opening hours:Buffet Breakfast - 6:00am to 10:30 am

Buffet Lunch - 12:00noon to 2:30pm

Buffet Dinner - 6:00pm to 10:00pm

Ala Carte Menu - All Day

Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant

Ever since I stepped into the working society, time passes by extremely quickly. I barely have enough time for myself, let alone say for my loved ones around me. So weekends are my most precious days where I truly get to sit back, relax, and spend time with important people in my life.

Last Saturday, I met up with L and his family for seafood feast at Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant.

Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant is a place where you can be assured to have fresh seafood. Why? Because you are serve only what you choose! You go to these tanks, observe these living sea creatures, and then you indicate which particular one you set your eyes upon.

Unqiue Seafood Market located just outide the restaurant

Tanks and tanks of living sea creatures.

Prices (by weight) stated clearly.

This is damn disgusting.

That's not all. The stall owner will then pick up the creatures you'd selected, put into a huge plastic bag, and then indicate for you to go over to the weighing scale.

Thats our crabs being weighted!

So that's it, no fear of them exchanging your goods for an inferior one. So you literally eat what you see/choose.

When you first step foot into the restaurant, wear a jacket. No, I am not kidding. Or maybe we arrived before the crowd, so the temperature were beyond comfort. But when one of the waiter saw me rubbing my arms to keep myself warm, he initiated to switch off the air-conditioner which we were sitting in front of. This thoughtful gesture scored 10 points for me.

Interior of the Restaurant

But if you are looking for a nice place to give a treat, skip this place. I will just be blunt, the decor is nowhere near the standards of a high end restaurant. There is a permanent, oily smell that lingered in the air the moment we stepped in. My whole jacket reeked of the smell after the whole dinner. Throughout the dinner, we were served by this grouchy waitress. And okay, enough said. Let's move on to food.

First dish of the night, Peking Duck!

Peking Duck

Always have a soft spot for this dish ever since I had the first ever bite at Szechuan Court, Fairmount Singapore. And that particular Peking Duck was the best ever, even better than the authentic Peking Duck I had in Beiing. In most restaurants, the duck will be sliced in front of the customers by the cook, the skin and little meat is to be eaten separately from the rest of the meat, For the latter, you get to choose what kind of dish you want them to cook the meat with, for example noodles, or you can choose to eat it plain.

Peking Duck

Nothing particular special about this dish. The skin was thin and crispy, though a bit too oily for my personal liking. Wrap it with thin pancake slices, dab a little of the sweet bean sauce and add in a slice of cucumber or two. Not bad at all. Just not special enough to create a long lasting impression. The meat, however, wasn't tender enough for me to want more than 2 slices.

Next on the list, Oysters.

Fresh Oysters

First, you have to squeeze lemon juice onto the oysters, to kill whatever bacteria left on it. Then if you fancy, add a small amount of Tabasco sauce for a little spice. Then you pick up the meat using a fork and throw the whole thing into your mouth. The conclusion is either you love it, or hate it.

It's the latter for me. I cannot accept the after taste that lingered in my mouth. Too fishy and raw for me to like it. Swallowing it was a struggle for me. But this is definitely personal, because I don't have a liking for raw stuff. Both L and his parents did comment that the oysters were fresh and sweet though. In fact, L's mum went on to order two more. So I guess, if you like oysters, you will like the ones here.

Cereal Prawns, one of the top listed food item on our list.

Cereal Prawns

It is difficult to cook this dish well. The cereal must not be dry, yet it can't be too oily. You have to fry the prawns well, but take note not too over-fry the prawns which will make the meat tough. Ensure that a right amount of cereal are mixed well with the prawns, and a dash of spice should be added to complete this dish.

If you are a fan of cereal prawns, I'm guessing you will be disappointed here at Ah Yat, because I've certainly tasted better ones elsewhere.

Abalone

People gasped at the sight of this expensive little palm-sized fortune. To be honest, I'm indifferent towards them. I have never taken a fancy for abalones before. They are good, but not awesome. One will be enough, next dish please.

Okay this is probably the main highlight of the whole meal.

Crab with Salted Egg Yolk

I can feel myself drooling now. This dish is good! Even though I was disappointed to see that the crab wasn't drenched in a golden-yellow gravy, which is still hot and runny. However, this suffices too, somehow. The half harden salted egg yolk was a terrible mess of heaven, I can't help but to lick them off the crab shells before cracking them open for the tender meat which lies beneath. At least this is better than any gravy which was too buttery, or lacking in salted egg yolk flavour.

Bill turns out to be over $300 for the 5 of us.
Not cheap at all, but for the fresh seafood that one can get, why not?

Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant (Turf City)

200 Turf Club Road #03-01/02

Main Grandstand Turf City

Singapore 287994

Tel: 6883 2112

Din Tai Fung

There's one famous question. What are birthdays without celebrations?
Then this will lead to another question. What are celebrations without food? Glorious Food!

L turned 25 a few days ago ,so we went to Din Tai Fung at Wisma.

Wisma Atria

Went over at lunch time, so we had to wait for a little while for a table. No reservations made (again) but since this was an impromptu trip, I can't grumble much! Thank goodness the waitress gave us the menu so we can decide on our order while waiting. Brilliant idea, in my opinion. (:

After a short wait, we were brought to our table by a waitress. Glad we got a table by the window, allowing us to see the busy streets of Orchard Road. Wouldn't want to be seated in the middle of the restaurant and feeling suffocated amongst the crowd. Then, we were served a cup of jasmine tea each, which was warm and good. Heh, now my stomach's all ready for the food!

After a long wait, the food was finally served! Oh joy oh joy. Picture the smile a kid will have on his face when you give him a lollipop, or a hungry man chancing upon his favorite dessert. Picture that yet? Okay cut that smile, paste that on my face. Yup, that's how happy I am to see food. What's more, GOOD FOOD! What's life without food, I'd say.

Fried Rice with Pork Chop 

Shared the main course of the day with L since we wanted to save stomach space for xlb. Got a shock when I sank my teeth into the meat, the pork was so tender that I mistook it for chicken! However, despite the incredibly tender pork chop, this dish didn't quite score for me. It's a little bland, and ... just incomplete, much to my disappointment. I definitely expected more. L commented that this dish used to taste much better, before the store was relocated to the 4th floor.

We had one of the best fried rice ever at a coffeeshop near my neighbourhood. Will give it a review as soon as I managed to snap pretty photos of it!

Ahhh. A meal at DTF wouldn't be complete if one doesn't order some xiao long baos. Mark my words.

Legendary Steamed Pork Dumplings

Definition of xlb: Sinful small pouches of meat. Put one into your mouth, and feel the goodness burst into your mouth. The tenderness of the meat, and the savoury soup which surrounds, filling your heart with joy. The happiness that linger even after you've swallowed the xlb. Swallowing one immediately begets another. 

The original ones, and probably the most famous. Definitely famous for a reason. One simply can never get sick of these. A must-order dish when you dine at DTF! The skin is so incredibly smooth and thin, yet strong enough so it will not break when it's still hot. Do you know? One single xlb will have a minimum of 18 folds, and are finished with a twist on the top. This isn't just food, this is an art piece.

Before you get too excited when your xlbs are being served, do remain calm. Note that one simply DO NOT put the whole thing into your mouth because you will probably end up scalding your tongue and wasting the whole meal with burnt tastebuds.

How L and I eat our xlbs.

First, you bite the top part of the dumpling skin. Take note that you should just nibble and not chomp off a huge part of the dumplings. If you must, take a small sip of the soup which is already oozing out from the little pouch. Then, you pour vinegar into the pouch, add some ginger if you fancy, before finally throwing the whole thing into your mouth and munch away! Yes, that's it. Savour the taste. That's the taste of happiness.

Steamed Chilli Crab Dumplings

Latest item on the menu! Mention Singapore to many foreigners, and one of the things that they will mention will definitely be Chilli Crab. So, being a true blue Singaporean, how can I give this a miss? Ahhh, And I'm sure glad we ordered this. A tinge of spiciness to complete the taste. I wouldn't dare say this is better than the original one, but I would go as far to say everyone who likes crab should give this a try. (:

Steamed Pork Dumplings with Shrimp

Compared to the rest of the dumplings, this one scored the least. The skin was a little too heavy and thick for our liking. Finishing it was quite a struggle given that the xlbs had already caught our hearts. Would exchange this for more xlb, anytime!

Good food aren't always expensive!
Currently, there's a promotion for the Steamed Chilli Crab Dumplings.

If you're up for it, go try them! Oh, and while you're there, please don't forget to order the Steamed Pork Dumplings too! (: You will not regret it, trust me.

L enjoyed his birthday meal very much, and so did I. This trip to DTF would have been alot better if the restaurant wasn't so busy, and we had to remind the waiter to refill our cups of tea a couple of times. But well, at least the food made up the slow service!

Din Tai Fung

Wisma Atria

435 Orchard Road Level 4

Singapore 238877

Tel : 6732 1383