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

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

Lao Beijing

Another weekend, another good excuse to indulge in food.
Okay, who am I kidding? Why do anyone even need an excuse to eat good food?

Craving for some Asian Cuisine, L and I came to Lao Beijing for their xlbs, to see if they are comparable to the ones at Din Tai Fung.

Panorama Shot of the (Empty) Restaurant

Round table in the corner- Best for gatherings!

Located on the 7th storey of Orchard Central, the restaurant had a nice feel to it however because of the actual location on the 7th story, mirrors instead of windows are used. The lights were dim, making the whole dining experience a cosy one. That is if you're not claustrophobic.

Utensils in Pretty Arrangement

Personally, I like how the staff arrange the individual sets of utensils neatly on the table. It is like giving the customers a head start to a pleasant dining experience. See that particular dish of crackers in the above photo. It's crispy, tasty and not too salty, unlike the ones served by many other restaurants. In fact, it was so good L and I nearly cleared 2 plates of it on our own while waiting for the food.

Maybe because we were the first customers they had on a Sunday afternoon (since they just ended their break and open the restaurant for business again at 530pm), the waitress stood by our table and advised us what to order, what their signature dishes are, etc. She even suggested getting some vegetables as we had ordered far too many meat dishes. And oh boy, totally glad we listened to her and exchanged one meat dish for some greens.

Some of the dishes we had are:

Pan Fried Guo Tie. There are 2 choices to pick, we got the ones with Pork and Chives filling. If you don't fancy the smell or taste of chives, skip this dish. The taste of chives was overwhelming for this dish, I literally washed the dish down with vinegar.

Assorted Mushrooms with Broccoli. Since this is a rather safe dish to order, obviously we will not expect something fanciful. And we were right. Plain plate of broccoli with the assorted mushrooms. Great for mushroom lovers though, because the chefs are certainly not stingy with the amount of mushrooms.

Fish and Bean curd Clay-pot. My personal favourite dish of the whole meal. Tried it once when I brought my family over to dine at Lao Beijing previously, and I couldn't get the lip-smacking fish slices and bean curd out of my mind ever since. The slices of fish meat were fresh and soft, you really have to order this when you're dining here. My only complaint is that this particular dish is rather bland, would prefer it to be a little bit more salty!

Yangzhou Fried Rice. Another safe dish on the menu for us to order. But comparing this to the fried rice we had previously at DTF, this won our hearts (and mouths and stomachs) more.

Meat Bun. Disappointing dish considering that what attracted our attention to it was the picture on the menu. The skin made of flour was too tough and thick for satisfaction, but perhaps we were both too full to enjoy this dish. L dug out the meat filling, and left the skin untouched. L felt that the meat buns available at markets all around Singapore are better than the meat buns by them. Kind of self-explanatory i guess.

And finally,

Steamed Juicy Meat Buns. If you're one of the customers who'd come to Lao Beijing just for their xlbs, you will be disappointed. How could they named this dish 'Juicy' when there is a pathetic amount of soup in each pouch of xlb? The skin are thick, the meat is paltry.

If you want really good ones, head over to Din Tai Fung. Enough said.

Bill came up to $71.35 for the both of us. I wouldn't say it's very expensive, given the amount of food we ordered. The fish and bean curd clay-pot impressed, and the fried rice was tasty. But one thing for sure, I will not patronise them for their xlbs.

Lao Beijing

Orchard Central

#07-14/15 181 Orchard Road

Singapore 238896

Tel: 6509 1878

Swirl Art

Talk about Frozen Yoghurt places, you can name a dozen.
Talk about which Frozen Yoghurt places which allow you to DIY your own yoghurt. Aha! Can't think of any right now isn't it?

Swirl Art entrance. /courtesy of google.com

Swirl Art, like many other yoghurt places, is a great gathering place for people from all walks of life regardless of age. Well, even if they do not fancy frozen yoghurt, you can't reject the cool air-conditioned place in this sunny island!

Comfortable sitting area

Cosy corner, great for girlfriends meetup!

Unlike many other stores whose pricing go by the cup size, this store offers frozen yoghurt by weight. Which in other words, you are on your own (literally). But before you move on to filling your bowl with delightful yoghurt, you can always ask for samples. The friendly girls in the swirlart shirts standing around will gladly feed you with samples.

So when you're done with the samples and have decided what flavours to choose. There are over 10 flavours, but this depends on the outlet you go to. I only come across blackberry, original, peach, strawberry, etc.

Stations containing your frozen yoghurt.

You grab the bowl size of your liking. March to the station with your desired flavour, and Twist & Swirl it away! And when you think you are finally done, well, not quite yet. Move on forward and you will see yourself coming face to face with at least 20 different toppings/sauces/fruits/etc. Just to name afew, there are nata de coco, fruity pebbles (oh heavenly), honey balls, various fruit slices, etc.

Sauces. /courtesy of google.com

SOME of the toppings you can find. /courtesy of google.com

No, just in case you're wondering, the toppings are not limited. So you can go on to pour the whole tub of toppings into your bowl. But do be reminded that there is a weighing scale right at the counter, so you have to pay accordingly to the weight of your bowl of frozen yoghurt. 

L and I decided to go simple - we agreed on no toppings but I cannot resist adding afew pieces of nata de coco.

Peach + Blackberry + Original combi.

I love how this frozen yoghurt is light and not over-creamy, so you will not get sick of eating this. With a tinge of sour yet sweet enough for the sweet tooths out there. And oh, it doesn't melt as fast as icecream too! A plus point, if you're thinking of grabbing a takeaway.

However, at $3 per 100g, it is definitely easy and totally possible go overboard especially with the spread of flavours and toppings awaiting you. Ours came up to a whooping $10+ for that bowl of blackberry+peach+original yoghurt with pathetuc pieces of nata de coco. So, please contain your excitement while you're Twisting and Swirling the yoghurt into your bowl!

SWIRL ART

417 River Valley Road

Singapore 248316

Opening Hours: Sun-Thurs: 12pm – 12am; Fri-Sat 12pm – 2am

Tel: 6836 6846