Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Sailors

Have you heard of The Sailors before?

This is the second time that X and I were here. We knew about this place because one of X's friend told him that you can get $1 oysters here on Monday nights.

We thought it was too good to be true but we were impressed the first time round. The $1 oysters were actually not bad! That being a year ago haha. And this time round, we brought along 3 other friends to see if this awesome promotion was still on. We've already had our dinner and we were at Robertson Quay in search of desserts when we remembered about the $1 oysters!

Located at Robertson Quay. The Sailors is within walking distance from Bella Pizza. Parking is readily available in the underground carparks. 

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$1 oysters but still pretty quiet..

Photobucket And we know why it was so quiet.

So much for FRESH oysters. The oysters didn't taste fresh and they had quite a strong "stench" (the weird taste) After finishing about 3 oysters each, everyone was complaining about the aftertaste and queasiness in their stomachs.

You may say that it's $1 and we shouldn't expect too much. Well, we'd certainly pay more to get better oysters. Everyone knows that oysters that aren't fresh will probably give you the runs. We weren't here to grab a cheap deal and end up feeling sick.

To purchase these oysters at $1 each, you'll have to order an item from their menu. It can be either food or beverage. The previous time we were here, I ordered seafood marinara and the portion was insanely huge but it tasted just alright.

The best part of this visit was probably the friendly manager who chatted with us.

If you're a fan of oysters and are interested to have an oyster night, you can head down to The Sailors on Mondays. Maybe their oysters will be fresher then.

By the way, speaking of oysters.
If you're heading to Lawry's, you've to try their oysters. TOO GOOD.

15 Merbau Road, Robertson Quay
Mon–Thu: 5.30pm – 1am
Fri–Sat: 5.30pm – 2am
Sun: 5.30pm – 12am

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Love, K

K's rating of Sailors : 5/10

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Brunetti

It's been a long time since we've gone dessert hunting. It was a Sunday night and I was supposed to decide where to have dinner. I decided on Brunetti because I thought we could have dinner and desserts there.

When we got there, we took a long hard look at their menu for dinner. There were only a few choices and there was nothing really attractive so we ate at the food court before coming back here for desserts.

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Outdoor seats

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Sandwiches and pizzas

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Chocolates

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Pastries and "mini" desserts.
All the cakes/tarts shown here are miniature versions. The original sized ones are available too!
If you wanna try a number of desserts or do not want such a big piece of cake/tart, these will be ideal for you

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Cookies, cakes and tarts.
Here are the tarts and cakes in their original sizes

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Macarons and cakes

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Gelato. Too many flavours to choose from

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Flourless Chocolate souffle-$8

This was rich and just about the right level of sweetness. I'd recommend this for sharing as one might get a little sick of it after awhile

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Lemon Tart Mignon- $2.75

The lemon curd had a pretty tough and rubbery exterior and wasn't exactly what we expected. Also the curd tasted artificial and strange. I had wanted the original sized one actually. Luckily, X convinced me otherwise

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Seasalt caramel macaron and Chocolate macaron - $2.25

The macarons were definitely the highlight. The seasalt caramel one was awesome! It's a little chewy and everything was just oh-so-good! X didn't like it as much as the chocolate one because he said it was too chewy. Haha. The chocolate macaron was pretty damn good too! The ganache was smooth and delicious. I'll definitely return for their macarons!

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Photobucket Pear and cheese crumble- $10

We didn't think that this was very good. Firstly, there were too few pieces of pear. Secondly, the cheese and pear were too distinctly separated. The top layer consists of pieces of pear and blackberry jam while what lies underneath is a cheesecake with no presence of pear at all. Thirdly, the crust was neither crunchy or hard enough, nor was it soft. It felt more like it was soggy. Apart from all that, X liked the hint of blackberry which spiced up the taste of the pear. Also, the cheese was light and melted in our mouths.

A self-service system is employed in Brunetti. You order what you want, pay on the spot and carry them back to your table. For water, you've gotta ask for them at the counter too.

Brunetti was not as good as we had expected. Perhaps we should have tried their hot chocolate which is highly raved about. We've taken a look at their brunch menu and I guess we'll be back to try their truffle scrambled eggs. We'll try their hot chocolate then I guess!

#01-35, Tanglin Mall
Sun–Wed: 8am – 9pm
Thu–Sat: 8am – 10pm

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Love, K

K's rating of Brunetti : 6.5/10

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Coca Restaurant (Taka)

Mothers' day dinner

My parents are not very adventurous people. So when it comes to food, they often prefer traditional or at least chinese-esque cuisine. Steamboat is the perfect solution. A good hearty meal round a hot pot is exactly what my mum would like.
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I like it that the chicken stock doesn't start out too salty. As the dinner progresses, the meat and vegetables introduced flavours that made the soup just about perfect.

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I have to say the menu list is not very extensive but at least the items available are all fresh and tasty. Some of the favourites would be their special wanton, fish glue and sliced beef. For those who do not take beef, they have sliced pork which is just as tasty.

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Meat-wise, I think Coca provides enough to satisfy your craving. But for a seafood lover like me, i feel they do not offer enough choices in this category. Crabs, prawn, fish, cockles are what you have to be contented with. I was expecting better prawns and crabs but only to be disappointed with crabs that weren't fleshy and prawns that are a tad too small for my liking. I think my demands are reasonable considering the price per pax for the steamboat buffet.  

We ate the pork sukiyaki style, dipping them in egg after lifting them out of the hot pot.
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Despite the lack of seafood, I still had quite a hearty meal. No complains about the freshness of the food. Service was pretty efficient. They served the items quite quickly after receiving the order forms. I would say Mothers' day dinner was a success.

391 Orchard Road 
#04-22 Ngee Ann CitySingapore 238874 
11am to 10pm

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Love, X

X's rating of Coca : 6.5/10

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Maison Ikkoku

X brought me here for brunch on our first anniversary. Very unromantic... Hahaha but well, it doesn't matter where we spend it, as long as we spend it together! Hehe I'm so sweet.

Okay so anyway we parked at the public carpark a distance away and walked to Kandahar Street. It was a Sunday so the whole area was pretty crowded. Maison Ikkoku was packed. We were pretty lucky as we grabbed the top spot on the waiting list.

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They have a shop upstairs that carries accessories and apparel and so we went to take a look while waiting for our turn

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Outdoor seating that nobody wanted to take because it was SO HOT.

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White walls and cement floor

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Vintage furniture

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Equipment to make coffee

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Cute cups sitting in the cupboard

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Iced Mocha - $6.50
The coffee was strong and this drink was bitter with a slightly sweet aftertaste. Perfect example of bittersweet! X really liked it haha

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Hot Chocolate - $6
This was rich and good! Definitely one of the better hot chocolates!

We waited about 40 minutes for our food to arrive.
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Break of Dawn - $18.90
Port bratwurst, crispy smoked bacon, truss cherry tomatoes, sauteed asparagus, sunny side up, mixed greens with japanese peanut vinaigrette.

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served with sourdough toast

The portion is quite huge. X couldn't stop praising the vegetables. He said "the veggie is really good!" at least three times. Haha I guess the peanut vinaigrette made it really delicious. The yolks of the sunny side-ups were runny and it was simple joy spreading the yolk over the buttered sour dough bread. I liked the pork bratwurst. It was tasty and juicy. However, the bacon was too hard and too crispy that it tasted a little burnt. It was like eating crackers. The bacon was left pretty untouched. Everything else went into our happy stomachs!

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Salmon Florentine - $16.90
Toasted English muffins, Norwegian smoked salmon, poached eggs, home made hollandaise, sauteed asparagus.

See the smiley face? Haha

The hollandaise had a little chilli powder sprinkled on them. This made the hollandaise a little spicy, and tastier. The hollandaise was thick and full of flavour. The eggs were perfect and together with the yummy hollandaise, fresh salmon and toasted muffin, this dish was a winner! X said the asparagus was super nice like at least three times too. Hahaha. He's in love with their veggie.

We wanted to try their kong bak bao but they were out of it at around 12 plus. Must be really good!

We also wanted to try their dessert but we saved our stomachs for a buffet. Although food takes a little too long to be served but the staff took effort to inform us about the status of our food and they were pretty warm and nice. Haha we'll definitely be back for more! I really wanna try the kong bak bao haha

20 Kandahar Street
Mon - Thu: 9am - 9pm
Fri, Sat & PH Eve: 9am - 11pm
Sun & PH: 9am - 7pm

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Love, K

K's rating of Maison Ikkoku: 8/10

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The Lawn

X brought me here for dinner after my exam since it was nearby. Located at Biopolis, it is not exactly easy to locate The Lawn as there are so many buildings there. Parking is available in the building itself.

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This is how it works. You first choose your serving size before proceeding to choose the grills, toppings and dressings.
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Toppings you can choose from.

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Meat your greens

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Peach cider
The cider was quite bitter.

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Pot serving with olive rice -$10.90  (I opted for olive rice instead of 6 toppings)
2 grills : chargrilled garlic prawns, aceto balsamic beef cuts

The portion was HUGE! They were so generous with the prawns and beef. The prawns were really fresh, fragrant and delicious. The beef cuts were juicy, soft and packed with flavour. I really loved the prawns and beef! So yummy, we couldn't get enough of them! The olive rice wasn't very impressive next to the outstanding grills. Oh, and the honey ball dressing was good!

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Pot serving with 6 toppings
2 grills: portobello mushoom, grilled chicken breast with maple infusion

Photobucket Once again, the portion is ginormous. Look how big the bowl is!! (don't mind X's ugly fingers HAHA)
There was so much vegetables inside the bowl haha.
The chicken was sweet and extremely tender. Who said chicken breast is always hard? The portobello mushroom was soft and tasty too!

We could hardly finish our food but we sure were full and happy. The prawns, beef, chicken and mushroom were really pretty damn awesome! I know we'll be back again for the meat haha. Service was efficient and the staff were friendly. The boss took time to recommend the grills and dressings to us and chatted with us for awhile. Very pleasant dinner!

31 Biopolis Way, #01-07 Nanos
Mon - Fri: 09:30- 2100
  

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Love, K

K's rating of The Lawn : 8/10