While I was in Singapore, StrippedSteph told me of a nice place to go for dinner that she say I'd simply love. So without much delay after her graduation ceremony at the SIA Training Centre, we made our way to Tampines Mall for dinner.

Walked around the mall, we came up to Cafe Cartel and right smack at the entrance, I saw this huge poster saying St. Louis Pork Ribs. PORK RIBS! WOO HOO!!! Anyway, that was just how my heart was screaming but on the outside, I was as cool as a cucumber. We walked right in, told the waitress that we need a table for 2 and promptly got ourselves seated. That was as far as good service goes as it took them a good 15minutes to come and take our orders, not that we were not ready but because no one seems to be bothered to look at the direction of their customers especially me even when I was waving my hands holding their menu at them like crazy.

Anyway, when our orders was finally taken by a chinese girl who doesn't understand a single word of english, we got our food served. I ordered their MUST TRY set which comes with the Soup of The Day, in this case, it's the Mushroom soup. The soup isn't anything special, mostlikely came out from some can like Campbell's with 3 cubes of toasts.

Then, they served us the Prawn Cocktail Salad, a Mixed Salad with mix fruit cocktail and fresh prawns tossed in Thousand Island dressing. I would say that the prawns do taste fresh but there just isn't enough thousand island dressing on the bowl. Asking the waitress is a waste of time cause she look at me in return and ask me if I'd be able to talk to her in mandarin instead of in english. I was like... WTF!

Then, the main dish showed itself. According to the Menu, the St. Louis Pork Ribs was awarded 100 Signature Dish Award 2005 and Star of the Year '03 - '07. Now, with all those awards, you'd definitely think that it's good eh? The dish looks awesomely delicious and it does taste good... BUT... yes, there's a BUT here. There's just too much BBQ Sauce that it's drowning the pork ribs. The Lip smacking and succulent baby back ribs roasted with home made BBQ Sauce in a way failed for me because of the overwhelming taste of BBQ Sauce which just kills it for me. It would have been perfect if the sauce was thinly coated onto the pork ribs and have a small little bowl with extra sauce for anyone who needs more. Because of that, it loses point in my book.

I was told that I'm a very picky eater but then, I don't think I am, I just enjoy good food and is opinionated when it comes to food. That's all. It's not hard to please my taste buds, just give me chicken rice or KFC and I'm happy.

The Cafe Cartel - Tampines Mall
4 Tampines Central 5
#01-46 Tampines Mall
Singapore 529510
Phone: 6784 6066
Fax: 6784 9964

Ratings:
Food – 3/5
Service – 2/5
Cleaniness/Ambience – 4/5
Value for Money – 3/5

Are you into Chee Cheung Fun? I love Chee Cheung Fun since I was young, I still remember how a lady on a bike would come by my Godmother's place daily to sell Chee Cheung Fun in the afternoon and I'd always look forward to it whenever I could to buy some. Of course, that's long time ago.

These days, one of the favorite places I love to go to get my Chee Cheung Fun fixes is at Lucky Restaurant in Seksyen 17. One warning I'd like to put forth, it's not the cheapest place in town for Chee Cheung Fun. The serving is also quite good. At some place, the same amount of items you pick at this place, you wouldn't be able to have enough.

Took a friend there to eat recently and pre-warned him not to pick too many items unless he is able to finish it. Let's just say that his pocket got a lot lighter but his stomach got abit more fuller. in fact, he had to skip lunch just because he stuffed himself with the chee cheung fun. For me, my normal pick would be 2 chee cheung fun and 4 side items, just perfect to keep me going for the day.

Lucky Restaurant
Chee Cheung Fun Stall
opens only from 7am - 11am
Seksyen 17

Ratings:
Food – 4/5
Service – 3/5
Cleaniness/Ambience – 3/5
Value for Money – 3/5

I Like To Move It, Move It with Madagascar 2! Anyway, last Saturday night at Johor, we were done with the set-up of the venue and thought of just going for lunch around the corner. But then, surprise surprise, we were told to get ready and meet at the lobby at 7.30pm (but we ended up waiting til 8.30pm) before leaving for the restaurant. Did ask them where we are heading to but no one new except our gracious host.

And then we saw it, Danga Bay, I was just sharing with some of the crew what to expect at Danga Bay and so forth and we are there! But wait, the bus rolled on and didn't stop at the esplanade, and then it struck me, the only other restaurant that's famous on that stretch would be the Singgah Selalu restaurant! By Jov, I was right!

Otak Otak (direct translation: Brain Brain)

Anyway, cut all the long chatter short, we sat ourselves down, didn't have to place any orders as they soon served the food and we just jump right at it. I won't talk much about the food that was served but just to share with you in photos what we ate. Some of the photos will have some footnotes though. Overall, the food was ok. I've tasted better but what made it great was the company I was with. We had a good laugh all around so that really makes the night enjoyable.

Milo Dinosaur (Can you see the dinosaurs roaming above the milo?)

Durian Ice Kacang (Serena C ordered it as soon as she laid eyes on it)

Thai Style fried Rice - Spicy dish

Lemon Chicken

Tom Yam Soup

Ikan Bakar

Sotong Bakar

Well, that's what we ate, 3 tables, all sharing the same dishes except for the drinks and the Durian Ice Kacang dessert which only my table get to try. Anyway, Saturday, 25th Oct, I should be on the way to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah by then, hopefully I would have more food experience to share with the readers here. Til then, my next update would be after I return from KK which would be on the Monday!

Restaurant Singgah Selalu
Danga Bay

Ratings:
Food – 3/5
Service – 3/5
Cleaniness/Ambience – 3/5
Value for Money – 3/5

As most of you would have known by now that I was down in Johor over the weekend recently. Unlike the Penang trip where we are housed within the hotel most of the time, we get to move about abit for this trip. Unlike the previous one where we can't go too far, this time around, we get to move about abit. If you didn't know, read my previous post about it here.

Anyway, when we arrived to Johor, the first thing we wanted to do was to have LUNCH! Isabelle told us that one of the famous Mee Rebus stall is located just a walk away. So thinking that it's too good a chance to pass off, we decide to go and give it a try. So with all the luggage placed in the hotel, and getting hungry, ShaolinTiger, Jessica, Leonard and I met up at the lobby and head off (the rest left before we could even reach the lobby). With just a phone connecting our group and the front group, we asked them for direction to the place.

Now, here's the interesting thing, Isabelle told us it's just a walk away... 20minutes later, we were told it's just further up. 5minutes later, we could see the building we were supposed to go to. I was starting to get annoyed and told them we'd just go into this restaurant and eat. And when we call them up to tell them we don't want to walk any further as it's getting ridiculous, they told us that's the restaurant they were at. The same restaurant which is 25minutes walk (short walk my bum bum) from the Zon, a stone's throw away from MSC Cyberport. We were like... ARGH!!!!

Anyway, found ourselves a place to seat, the first few words that came out from my mouth was.... 100plus 2 cans, Mee Rebus 1... CEPAT. And within minutes, the cook came over with our mee rebus. Now, I don't often eat mee rebus, I can't even remember the last mee rebus I ate or where I ate it!

This one, quite a standard sized plate, taste wise, quite ok. I can't say it's the best but then I can't say much also cause this is so far the better one I've tried (if I've eaten better ones, I'd remember right?). I was so hungry or some of them say that I like it so much that I had 2 plates instead of 1. If you're into mee rebus and around Johor, give it a try. And no, they didn't pay me to say that. Next up, the dinner we ate on Saturday night.

Kafe Enam Puluhan

Stulang Laut, Johor.
Landmark: Next to New Hong Kong Restaurant and D'Bali

Ratings:
Food – 4/5
Service – 3/5
Cleaniness/Ambience – 3/5
Value for Money – 4/5

I've not really tried Tony Romas before until this trip to Sunway Pyramid. The last trip to Tony Romas I had was more than a year back with a bunch of friends at Cineleisure and it was mostly for drinks and not for food, so why not go and give it a try this time, right?

I ordered the 6oz Tony's sirloin and BBQ Chicken combo. The sirloin was prepared as a medium cooked and the chicken drumstick was prepared with a healthy amount of sauce, you don't see it as too dry as some place does it or too flooded with sauce like some other places. The glaze just give it that nice tasty look to it. Served with Coleslaw and home made chunky mash potatoes which was just nice.

StrippedSteph ordered the same combo but with Grilled Shrimp instead of the Chicken. Also prepared medium cooked, the grilled shrimps a tad dry though. The restaurant did provide some dips for the shrimps which helped alot. The side dishes she had was the Coleslaw and Corn on a Cob. The corns was a tad dry but was easily solved with some of the sauces that was available.

Coupled with some drinks, the meals was quite decent, not the best I've eaten but decent enough for a nice quiet dinner.

Tony Romas @ Sunway Pyramid

LG1.43, Sunway Pyramid (right next to the Ice Rink)
Tel: 03-7492-1188

Ratings:
Food – 3/5
Service – 3/5
Cleaniness/Ambience – 4/5
Value for Money – 3/5

Went there quite some time back when QQMeng came to visit, with Freaky, MooMooNicole, her sis and another friend, we squeezed ourselves into one little Honda Jazz and made our way to Klang, Weng Heong Restaurant to be exact.

Now, we just basically ordered the standard stuff, a pot of Bak Kut Teh for 7 people even though there's only 6 of us with the major ingredients being the ribs as well as the meat. Now, I'm not sure about other people but I find the soup abit ... too bland. There's just not enough herbs in it. I don't get a kick out of their soup. Very very disappointed with it.

The Ribs are fine but the meat, sigh, another sad thing, there's just not enough fats in them. I told the boss that I love my 'Fah Yuk' as fat as possible and they say no problems, their meat there are all very fat. But, disappointment sets in when I take a good look at the pot. There's not much fats in there as far as my eyes can see. Another disappointment and I'm sure you'd agree with me looking at this close up of the meat, not much fats eh? How could we call it a good pot of Bak Kut Teh when there's no fats in it?

On top of that, we also ordered some vegetables, nothing much to shout about. It's just vegetables, for the ones who doesn't like their meat in the group. As for myself, I'm just happy with my pork, in this case, the bak kut teh.

Well, I'm sure I've angered a few of their regular customers but that's just how I feel about this restaurant.

Restoran Weng Heong Bak Kut Teh

28, 30, Jalan 5, Kawasan 16,
Taman Intan, Klang, Selangor
Tel: 012-382 4408

Ratings:
Food – 3/5
Service – 3/5
Cleaniness/Ambience – 3/5
Value for Money – 3/5

Some of the japanese food I love could be found in Kiku Zakura, after a night's shoot recently, I was treated to a hearty set of Bento from Kiku Zakura. The exact name for this dish is Ajisai Bento.

The Bento consist aside from the usual side dishes of salad, rice and soup, it also has a huge serving of tempura prawn which is quite filling, imagine you have 2 huge prawns waiting to be eaten. What more can you ask for right?

Sashimi - Salmon and Tuna, very fresh, some times I don't like eating sushi at places like Sushi King and such is because of the smell from the raw fish. Here, there isn't any smell and the tender meat just felt like it's melting in your mouth.

Teriyaki Chicken - I normally save this for last as I'd love to take my time biting into the crunchy skin and the sweet taste. It's just a perfect way to finish up the food that's served.

If you're the type who loves to catch the late night movies at GSC, you could drop by this restaurant to have a go at the food as they do open til quite late.

The photos was taken just like the Unagu with a D80 + a 60mm 2.8 D AF Micro Nikkor and a ring light.

Itadakimasu!!!!!!!

Kiku Zakura

Lot T025, Third Floor, Midvalley
Midvalley City Megamall
Tel: 03 2284 0173
Opening hours: 11am – 12.00am

Ratings:
Food – 5/5
Service – 5/5
Cleaniness/Ambience – 5/5
Value for Money – 4/5