Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Holland Village

A day of pampering this week.. We intended to go for cheap and affordable hawker food this week for our food exploration but were so drawn by the crowd queuing outside Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Holland Village. 

There are many students queuing up for their steamboat buffet which we decided to give it a miss this round since we missed eating xiao long bao more..

There aren't many tables on the ground floor of the restaurant. Self ordering is required and the place is rather congested. Here's what we ordered:

1. Original xiao long bao - one basket comes with 4 pcs. They look bigger and more succulent than those from Din Tai Fung. True enough, the meat and soup was delicious. The only negative factor is the skin. A little thick. 

2. Sweet and sour fish slices - awesome dish to my liking. The gravy was so well done with the right sweet and sour taste. 6 big slices of fish fried with onions and bell peppers. Just give me a bowl of plain rice to go with it. 

3. Fried nai bai with garlic - a generous portion of vegetables so fragrantly fried as well. Very good dish. 

4. Fried thick noodles with shredded pork and cabbage - self made thick noodles that tasted like udon fried with lots of cabbage and shredded pork. Very tasty dish but may be a little too greasy for some.

Overall at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, we could find a wide range of la mian and other Shanghai dishes more than Paradise Dynasty. It's definitely another alternative source for xiao long bao lovers.

Items Ordered:

Original xiao long bao
Sweet and sour fish slices
Fried nai bai with garlic
Fried thick noodles with shredded pork and cabbage

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 4/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 3.5/5

You can locate them here:

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao
241/241A Holland Ave, Singapore 278976

Restaurant - Chinese

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Jing House Yong Tau Foo and Lao Huo Tang at Cookhouse JEM

We are back at Cookhouse foodcourt JEM to explore the rest of the stalls. Today we decided to go for Jing House Yong tau fu and Lao Huo Tang. I ordered 7pcs of yong tau foo soup and the cost starts at $4.90 for min. 7 pcs. 

The soup was very very tasty and overall choice of ingredients was a lot. Though very tasty, I didn't feel thirsty thereafter so it proves that there wasn't much msg in it.

Kevin went for claypot chicken rice from Lao Huo Tang stall. The dish cost $6 but there wasn't much chicken in the rice. Taste wise was not too bad. Has a little burnt taste and there was enough dark sauce to cover the rice evenly. Not too bad for foodcourt standard.

Another 2 stalls down from our list at Cookhouse. So far we have introduced rojak, korean, mala hotpot, yong tau fu, claypot chicken rice, la mian and fish soup. 

About 5 to 7 more stalls to go and we are done! So do stay tuned.



Items Ordered:
Claypot Chicken Rice
Yong Tau Fu Soup

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 3.5/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: NA
Ambience: 3/5

You can locate them here:

Cookhouse by Koufu
Jem, 50 Jurong Gateway Road, #05-01, Singapore 608549

FoodCourt - Chinese

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Korean food at Varinice Eating House (Clementi)

This week's theme for our food exploration is cheap, affordable and delicious hawker/coffeeshop/foodcourt food. We have been visiting quite a no of restaurants for the past few times and realised that good food cam also be found in affordable venues. 

For a start for our Monday dinner, we decided to go for the Korean food stall at Varinice Eating House at Clementi.

Varinice Eating House is a coffee shop situated beside the old NTUC and where the famous Golden Rooster western stall resides. They served not only Korean food but Japanese bento sets as well. 

We decided to go for their Japanese bento set today since we have been eating their Saba fish rice set frequently which was very good. There are 3 types of bento. All with fried prawn tempura. 


The other meat is chicken cutlet, fish cutlet or salmon slice. Since we don't eat prawn, we changed the dish to korean fried chicken instead with fish cutlet. The fish cutlet is so crispily fried and goes well with the thousand island sauce provided. 

The portion was generous as well. The Korean fried chicken was delicious as well. This generous portion of bento cost us $6 each. Definitely affordable and satisfying.

Though it may not be the best bento set, but it is definitely worth it for its price. Why not give it a try one of these days?? :-)




Items Ordered:

Fish Cutlet and Korean Chicken Bento Set

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 3.5/5
Price: 4/5
Service: NA
Ambience: 2.5/5

You can locate them here:

Varinice Eating House
450, Clementi Ave 3, Singapore 120450

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Dagiya Gogiya at HillV2

For our family dinner today, my sister decided to bring us to a Korean restaurant at HillV2 for BBQ meat. 

This shop is opened by Koreans and all the employees are true blue Koreans. The restaurant isn't very big. There are about less than 15 table spaces.

The restaurant opens at about 530pm and we were surprised by the crowd. Lots of pple started streaming once it was opened. My sister did the ordering and here's what we ate:

1. BBQ meat set that serves 2 to 3 pple. It has a combination of pork, beef and belly. The grilling was done by the server. He rubbed onion on the hotplate and started bbqing the meat. Unlike those restaurants in Korea, they used pork lard to oil the hotplate. So this is definitely the healthier version. 

Though the meat were tender, they don't taste as good as those in Korea. 

2. Bibimbap - healthy vegetable mixed with rice. We ordered the beef version and has tender beef slices to go with it. Overall, the bibimbap tasted ok but not the best. 

3. Seafood soup - this is a very spicy soup with lots of seafood in it. From mussels to sotong to beancurd. Tasted good but definitely not for those who cannot take spicy.

4. Seafood pancake - large pc of pancake fried with lots of spring onions. It's not as tasty as some other places. A little hard in fact. 

5. Kimchi fried rice - looks red and spicy but dun taste as spicy as that. Very fragrantly fried with kimchi and egg. This is one of the better dishes. 

6. Chicken salad with grape yoghurt - tasted a little weird to me. Tasted like Meiji mixed berry yoghurt on chicken and vegetables. Really strange but was good enough to remove the greasy taste of the rest of the dishes. 

7. Steam egg - steam fluffy eggs. Very nice and good dish for the children.

Overall, Dagiya Gogiya is an average Korean restaurant for family and friends. Not the best to visit but can still give it a try.


Items Ordered:
BBQ meat set
Bibimbap
Seafood soup
Seafood pancake
Kimchi fried rice
Chicken salad with grape yoghurt
Steam egg
TouFu Soup

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 3.5/5
Price: 3/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5

You can locate them here:

Dagiya Gogiya
HillV2, 4 Hillview Rise, 01-09, Singapore 669554

Restaurant - Korean

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Thai Gold Food at Sunshine Plaza Bencoolen Street

Thai Gold Food is an affordable Thai restaurant situated at Sunshine Plaza Bencoolen Street. The restaurant is located right opposite NAFA school. A first look at the restaurant would bring you back to those restaurants in Bangkok. 

A little dirty looking floor with very old wall tiles. The servers are all Thais, including the cooks. We sat near the entrance and there weren't many customers.

Here's what we ordered:

1. Phad Thai - one of the most popular Thai noodle dishes. This kway teow dish was fried fragrantly with garlic, beansprouts, eggs etc. Tasted so good with the chilli flakes and peanuts. 

2. Thai basil chicken rice - this generous portion dish was awesome as well. Tasted homely and was a little wetter than other basil chicken in other restaurants. The sunny side up egg was cooked purposely with the runny yolk and mixing it with the rice and basil chicken was a great combi.

3. Omelette with spring onions - this was a special customised dish. It was originally fried with chicken or pork but we found our food too meaty so we ordered with spring onions instead. The omelette was so fragrantly fried that one can just eat it with plain rice. One omelette rice dish. 

4. Hotplate Tofu with chicken - sizzling hotplate with egg Tofu, chicken and lots of vegetables. There were lots of garlic and ginger in it. A very tasty homecooked dish that deserves the thumbs up.

This restaurant has no service charge and gst. A very nice authentic Thai restaurant to visit with frenz. Come down now!


Items Ordered:
Phad Thai
Thai basil chicken rice
Omelette with spring onions
Hotplate Tofu with chicken

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3/5

You can locate them here:

Thai Gold Food
Sunshine Plaza, 91 Bencoolen St, #01-14/22, Singapore 189652

Restaurant - Thai

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Husk at Plaza Singapura

Husk, a all-natural, gluten-free frozen coconut stall, located at the basement of Plaza Singapura, offers refreshing swirly coconut parfaits, smoothies, and more galore. 

One can pair their young Thai coconut desserts with an assortment of toppings including roasted peanuts, fresh fruit, homemade granola and muesli.

Husk is having Groupon offer currently. Just $7.90, one can get 2 coconut parfaits. There are 3 toppings that we can choose from. I had pineapple, muesli and peanuts while Kevin had jackfruit, peanut and granola. 

The coconut yoghurt is tad too sweet, fortunately we had the various toppings to mask the sweetness. The texture wasn't smooth and a little icy. Kids may not like it but more favorable among the adults.

Go try it while the promo is still on, else for the price, would prefer to eat ilao liao or other coconut ice cream like wimi as the taste is much better.


Items Ordered:
Coconut parfaits

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 3/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: NA
Ambience: NA

You can locate them here:

Husk
Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road, #B2-49, Singapore 238839 

Deserts - Frozen Yoghurt

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Soup Spoon Union at Raffles City Shopping Centre

Soup Spoon is having Groupon offer recently. For $14, you can buy $20 worth of food. This offer is valid at all Soup Spoon and Soup Spoon Union outlets. This is rather a worthwhile deal so we decided to go for it!

We visited their Union outlet at Raffles City Shopping Centre. Union serves more variety of food like burger, grills and salad. It was raining cats and dogs when we reached there so we ordered their piping hot soup to warm us up. 

We ordered 2 sandwich set. Each set comes with a medium bowl of soup and half sandwich. I had velvety mushroom straganoff with chicken ham and cheese sandwich while Kevin had SG chicken and mushroom ragout with tuna sandwich. For drinks, we had ice lemon tea.

The portion was huge. Each soup comes with a small bun too. Kevin's chicken soup has a slight minestrone taste. There were lots of ingredients in it. Chicken, mushroom, carrots, pasta and potatoes.


One can feel full just eating on its own. My mushroom soup was indeed velvety thick and rich. Each spoonful was full of mushrooms. Both soup tasted good! 


We love the sandwiches as they were toasted, spread with butter and ingredients so fresh. Lettuce was crunchy. By the time I stomach the sandwich, I was too full to finish the soup.

This was definitely a delicious and healthy meal. Do give their soup a try as they are quite good!


Items Ordered:
Chicken Ham and Cheese Sandwich
Velvety mushroom stroganoff
SG Chicken and mushroom ragour
Tuna sandwich
Ice lemon tea

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 4/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: NA
Ambience: 3/5

You can locate them here:

Soup Spoon Union
Raffles City Shopping Centre, Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road, #B1-77/78, Singapore 179103

Restaurant - Western

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Pappasan at Dorsett Hotel

Previously, Kevin and I have reviewed on their chicken rice and cajun burger. Today we are back here with a group of friends to have a mini lunch celebration. Via Eatigo, we are entitled 50% discount on all food items as usual.

Here's our lunch menu:

1. Mushroom soup - pure mushrooms grinded and cooked. Could taste the mushroom freshness. 

2. Ribeye steak. - 3 of us ordered this. We ordered at medium rare but 1 of our steak was served as medium well. Despite being cooked at medium well, the steak was still very tender.  The mash potatoes and mushroom as sides were good as well.

3. Baked salmon - 2 of us ordered this dish. The salmon is baked with cheese and seafood on the top and drizzled with salsa sauce. Lovely combination. The small honey baked potato were excellent tasting as well. A nice portion for lunch. 

4. Carbonara - lovely creamy carbonara with lots of ingredients like ham and mushrooms. Pasta was cooked to the right texture. 

5. Tomyum Aglio oglio - generous seafood ingredients like scallops, mussels and prawns cooked in tomyum pasta. A very nice fusion dish. 

6. Mee goreng - sounds crazy to eat local food here but is is actually one of their recommended dishes. Lots of seafood in the noodles and noodles are also cooked to the right texture and taste. Sweet and a little spicy. 

7. Bebek goreng - a huge portion of rice with baked duck served with ar char and cracker. A rice is so fragrantly fried and can even eat it on its own.

Besides the good food, service at the restaurant was excellent as well. Water was constantly topped up and as one of the steak dish was cooked to the wrong requirement, they helped us to void it. So it was a free steak for Peter! 

A well worth restaurant to visit with family and friends.

Items Ordered:
Mushroom soup
Ribeye steak
Baked salmon
Carbonara
Tomyum Aglio oglio
Mee goreng
Bebek goreng

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 4.5/5

You can locate them here:

Pappasan
Dorsett Hotel, 333 New Bridge Road, #01-01, Singapore 088765

Restaurant - Western

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Miam Miam at Westgate

Through MoneyDigest, we gotten to know a great deal that is currently ongoing. For the month of Nov, reservations made via Hungry Go Where for Miam Miam is entitled for one for one pasta/rice on the menu. 

This is valid for all the pasta/rice except for slipper lobster pasta and souffle curry rice.

We were shown to our seats and were served by a friendly staff who recommended us some of their better deals to mix and match. 

Since we do not really fancy seafood, we went for their miam miam spaghetti and teriyaki chicken pasta. The miam miam spaghetti is generously cooked with bacon, spinach, sausages, tomatoes and top with egg. 

We are supposed to mix the runny egg with the pasta. Very nice mix of ingredients but we found the pasta a little hard. The teriyaki chicken pasta tasted better. It's spaghetti tossed with mushrooms, ham, chicken and seaweed with teriyaki sauce. 

Taste was good but spaghetti was a little hard as well. Guess it needs to be cooked a little longer.

Overall, with this deal, it's a worth while time to visit Miam Miam with friends and family given the nice ambiance and service.


Items Ordered:
Teriyaki chicken pasta
Miam miam spaghetti

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 3.5/5
Price: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:

Miam Miam
3 Gateway Drive, 01-21/22, Singapore 608532

Restaurant - Western

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RedRing Treasures & Formosa Ban Mian at Food Republic Wisma Atria

Today afternoon is another Food Republic foodcourt exploration for us. We were at Food Republic Wisma Atria for lunch after church. My mum recommended us to try the ban mian there so decided to give it a try.

We ordered ban mian and guo tie from the Formosa ban mian stall. The guo tie took a long time to prepare. We had to wait for abt 10 to 15mins before the guo tie was ready. 

The ban mian soup base was good. Tasty and minced pork very fresh. No strong porky taste. Guo tie was crispy and delicious as well, so the wait was still worth it. I had chicken cutlet horfun from RedRing treasures. 

The chicken was well marinated with spice taste and gravy for the horfun was good. The horfun texture could be better as they slightly stick together in lumps. But overall taste and portion was still worth a try.

More foodcourt exploration coming up from us so do stay tuned.

Items Ordered:
Chicken Cutlet horfun
Ban Mian
Guo Tie

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Service: NA
Ambience: 3/5

You can locate them here:

Food Republic
Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road, Level 4, Singapore 238877

FoodCourt - Chinese

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Fu Lin Yong Tau Foo & Maru Ten Udon at Food Republic Suntec City

Today's another day of food court exploration. Food Republic at Suntec City offers a wide range of famous food stalls like Formosa Ban Mian etc. Fu Lin Yong Tau Foo is another attraction that most people would try when they visit the food court. 

The usual dry yong tau foo is usually served with sweet sauce but for Fu Lin, the yong tau foo pcs are fried and drizzled with their special thick and gooey sauce. The noodles are also served in a separate bowl with the same gooey sauce. 

It tasted very much like the dry beef noodles but with less spice taste and with minced meat in them. A very special yong tau foo worth trying. The chilli sauce serves as a very good dip to go with it.

Maru Ten Udon is the stall located just beside Fu Lin. 

As the stall is named, they are good for their soup udon. 


The udon is served to you dry and you can pour the soup on your own to your desired level. There are different tempura dishes for you to choose from to go along with the udon. 

Free flow of seaweed is available as well. The udon is cooked to the right texture and springy. Very nice udon to be served in a food court. 

The tempura dishes on the other hand are ordinary and could even do better.

For special yong tau foo, do consider Fu Lin at Food Republic Suntec City.


Items Ordered:
Fried Tempura Mix
Udon soup
Yong Tau Fu dry
Dry Hor Fun

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 3.5/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: NA
Ambience: 2.5/5

You can locate them here:

Food Republic
Suntec, 3 Temasek Blvd, 115-120, Singapore 038983

FoodCourt - Chinese

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