Saint Pierre Restaurant at Central Mall has always make headlines in the local food scene. I’m sure no one will disagree that this fine dining establishment is one of the best restaurants in Singapore.

I had the chance to visit Saint Pierre during a recent Singha Beer launch where they commissioned celebrity chef Emannuel Stroobant to create a special menu to show that beer can be enjoyed with fine cuisine.

Imagine my excitement when I saw the North sea grey shrimp salad. It was like a piece of art and all of us did not have any idea how to start with it. The intriguing thousand island ice cream caught our attention when we saw it on the menu.

Ice cream with salad? Who will have thought of it! Frozen thousand island dressing that was presented in an ice cream form, retaining every hint of the salad dressing. This is Chef Emmanuel Stroobant’s ingenious idea of pairing savory ice cream with salad.

Oh my god, I’m sorry to do this to you, but the scallop was really good! Under normal circumstances, I’m not much of a scallop person. Even though I eat them like everyone else, I’d not particularly crave for them.

We can be good friends, but we will never be lovers.

So it came to a surprise when I actually fell for the Singha jelly with lemongrass infused scallop mousse and wild herb salad. Pan-seared to golden brown, the plump and meaty scallop was a scallop that didn’t taste like one!

Covered with a smooth, and intense layer of dark chocolate, the Caramelized banana crusted Flour-less Belgian chocolate cake came with the interesting coconut sorbet. The caramelized banana added a twist from the usual Belgian flour-less chocolate cake. So simple, yet so good!

Singha beer is light and refreshing, and it’s certainly very different from the usual beers that I’ve before. I had a great afternoon at the Singha Beer event with Aromacookery, Camemberu, the Hungrycow, and TheLittleTeochew.

I know beer taste great with fried food or burgers, the question is: will you consider trying beer with fine cuisine?

For more recommendations, read my list of the Best French Restaurants in Singapore

Restaurant Review
Saint Pierre Singapore
3 Magazine Road
#01-01 Central Mall
Tel: +65 6438 0887
(This is an invited session)

One of the reasons why I hardly blog about Japanese food is because I always have difficulty in remembering all the mind-boggling names. I heard of Standing Sushi Bar a while back when it just opened, and the first question on my mind: “are there seats inside?”

The catchy name certainly helps to pique the curiosity of most people, and I found out that the theory of stand, order sushi and eat only applies to lunch where there are no seats. For dinner you can sit down comfortably (although it’s kind of cramp) and enjoy your sushi.

There was six pieces of the California roll ($6) each; since the others were saving up their stomach for the other courses to come, I had the lion’s share of it. There’s just something about California roll that attracts me; this is the kind of thing I could keep eating and still never get enough. Okay fine, that’s just an excuse – I’m a glutton.

SSB’s owner Howard made the selections, and he chose a platter of five nigiri sushi for us; Maguro ($2), Sake Toro ($2), Hamachi ($4), Aburi Hotate ($4), Shime Saba ($3). I particularly enjoyed the scallop which had a tangy sauce to further enhance the sweetness of it.

And how can we do without Sashimi? The Chef’s special ($25) will definitely delight all the sashimi fans out there; I bet you are already salivating at the prospect of putting the thickly sliced, fresh sashimi with a pinch of wasabi into your mouth.

I was particularly intrigued by the Anago nigiri ($6) when it arrived on our table. The long and slimy salt-water sea eel looks so tantalizing with a coat of sauce, and there was the challenge of gobbling it up with one bite.

I have mentioned it before, but girls seem to love their Salmon a lot. And the Salmon Yuzu Yama-mayo yaki ($15) will be the perfect choice; the fish crumbled at the lightest touch and it was tasty with the appetizing sauce, but I would prefer it to be slightly more charred on the surface.

Besides all the raw nigiri sushi and sashimi, there was also some cooked food available and we had the Mix Kinoko Foil Yaki ($10) which by all accounts, wasn’t cheap for just mushrooms, but I have to say it was delicious. There was the special-sauce-which-the-chef-absolutely-refused-to-divulge that is supposedly the success behind the three mushrooms.

And we also had the Tori Karaage ($6) which was quintessentially fried chicken wrapped with seaweed. After having so much raw food, it was nice to have some sinful, deep-fried food for a change.

Standing Sushi Bar has a pretty value for money set lunch, so if you are working in the area, check them out, but you have been warned – there’s no seats during lunch.

* * *

This is the first part of a series that I will be doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.

Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.

Standing Sushi Bar
1 Raffles Place
#B1-02B OUB Centre
Tel: 6533 7078

The first of the many to come, Wan Hao Chinese restaurant at Marriott hotel.

Now what can I say? I totally love roast pork belly! The dish is often an indicator of the standard of a Chinese restaurant; Wan Hao’s rendition was nicely done – crispy top with a thin-and-nice layer of fats. “One cube definitely wasn’t enough”, I protested! But hey, there’s still thirty more dish to go!

Although I couldn’t exactly tasted which seven spices were use, but the combination was seductive to the palate, the Seven spices sea perch fillet.

And just before you are thinking Chinese restaurants are boring and served the usual-you-know-what food, the Hokkigai and salmon sashimi would certainly prove you wrong! Just look at the thickly-and-generous slices of the fresh sashimi. It-is-to-die-for.

For the tasting at Wan Hao, only Catherine of Camemberu fame and myself was present among the five of us. And she absolutely loved the Jelly fish with cucumber. Tangy and Q, it was a refreshing appetiser.

Like the no-smoking campaign slogon which asked you to say ‘No‘ to cigarettes, I could never say no to roast duck. My interpretation of a good roast duck: crispy skin with a layer of fats and tasty duck meat. This one had it all, and say it with me, Oomph-la-la!

Vermicelli with pork fillet. There wasn’t anything spectacular but this is just one, good, comfort food, which stood out among the delicacies we tried.

Beef tendon with white radish

In my humble opinion, Wan Hao has the best Ha Gau among the four places that we tried. All of them used top-quality fresh prawns, but what made the one here stood out was the the skin; some places would do it too thick, and some too thin – it was done perfectly here. Bravo!

I actually preferred the spring roll filled with smoked duck meat to the roasted duck. The smoked duck meat lived up to its name – the very smoky taste within the crispy spring roll.

While some people found that the addition of fish roe to the top only served as an adornment; I thought that it’s fine so long the tiny orange eggs wasn’t in excessive to overwhelm the taste of the siew mai.

I ain’t a big fan of asparagus – the word alone put me off; but I had to try this translucent pretty-looking asparagus dumpling, which tasted decent.

The sea perch fillet with garlic appeared squeaky-fresh; it seemed to be flipping on my plate! The golden mushrooms and tofu were integrated with the sea perch, and I love it!

I knew it was close. I could smell it. The strong alcohol scent. You can smell it from far away. The drunken prawns were as suspected, very strong in liqueur taste; the prawns were big and fresh. I must emphasized, the quality and freshness of the ingredients at Wan Hao was really what set them aside.

Bean curd sheet filled with shrimps

The presentation of the Scallop and asparagus with spicy XO sauce was faultless. Succulent and juicy scallop.

The mere presence of duck shreds greatly enhanced the flavour of the congee. And not to mention there’s sliced fish maw, squid too! All the natural goodness in the bowl of Congee.

It was sensational. Tender, let me tell you, the whole experience: the chewing and swallowing, we couldn’t speak. There was a lump stuck in my throat; I just allowed myself to quietly finished the meat, and inside I was secretly hoping there was more of this.

I was struck in awe of the flavour and texture of the meat, this was certainly my most memorable and favourite dish of the meal. And I couldn’t bear to speak of its name, Kurabuta pork, all the way from Americaaa!

The meal was a late boomer. Just when I thought that the few dishes in front were all good, it got better and better. Or maybe they were saving the best for the last, either way, the Chilli prawns with crispy buns had the “made in Singapore” brand stamped all over it. Spicy, fresh, with the mini mantao bun to dip in to the sauce, it was a superb interpretation of prawns done in our local favourite Chilli crab. A Singapore classic.

I could not, believe how tender the meat actually was. It literally melted in my mouth – I know this phase sounded exaggerating and often over-used, but trust me, it’s true for the Beef tenderloin with black peppercorns. Oh my! I would gladly go back another time just for the kurobuta pork, chilli prawns, and the beef tenderloin alone.

All right, back to the basics. Not many places can do a mean version of the Ee-fu noodles. All of us agreed that this one was just right in terms of the oilyness and bite. Not too oily, not too dry, just exactly how we liked it.

For the first time, I was actually sorry to see the desserts coming – for it signalled the end of the wonderful meal. But Wan Hao dessert did not disappoint as well, the first to arrive, the Lemongrass jelly with lime sherbet was equally pleasing in aesthetic senses. Very refreshing, and a fine finish for us.

There was a big fan of the mango pudding among us, and he was right! I took a nibble without adding in any milk for the original taste; even eaten alone the smooth and creamy texture of the aroma mango was evident.

If you know me, you must know that I’m an anti-durian person. For the sake of sharing with everybody, I popped one durian mochi inside – the mochi was very sticky, the smell of the fabled durian king of the fruits wasn’t very apparent until I took a bite of it, and that’s when I say, Shit!

I love egg tarts, and I always questioned the fact why Chinese restaurants always do their egg tarts in mini sizes. And like the manager of Wan Hao put it, the small bite was just right, anything bigger it would be too much. Crisp golden brown pastry with equally good egg fillings.

* * *

I must admit, I’m impressed with Wan Hao Chinese restaurant. The freshness in the quality ingredients, with the management’s emphasis on this, plus the service of the staff, were all top-notch. I’m not talking about their good service because it was a tasting session, after we finished our meal, we went down to their bakery; the staff was very knowledgeable about their bakes and was very professional.

The 31 items which we tried for this tasting session was half of their weekend brunch buffet which had 70 items, priced at $55 per head. For the sheer quality and variety, the sum is fair, will I be back? Definitely, See you there!

I entered the Marriott hotel on an empty stomach, and I left with a full one; I’m a happy man. My appreciation to the folks from Wan Hao for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.

Read Catherine’s review on Wanhao here

Wan Hao Chinese restaurant
320 Orchard road
3F Marriott hotel
Tel: 6831 4615

Wan Hao is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

We are all old friends, yet we never met before. We visit each other on the web, that is how we “meet” everybody. Food brings us together, finally we can put a face to each other instead of just a nickname. From online, to offline, our food blogger outing.

While waiting for everybody to arrive, we ordered some fried dim sum for the photo shoot first. Hua Ting have more steamed items than fried ones, and the baked chicken & mango tart ($3.90) headed the list. This reminded me of the one that I had at Man Fu Yuan, and personally I felt it was well executed with the sweet mango zing and crust pastry.

I am not a big fan of bean skin roll dim sum, but since this was one of the few fried item and came highly recommended by the staff, we ordered the Deep-fried bean skin with prawn ($4.80).

Oh, the prawns were fresh. Yes they were. But, but the skin was too thick, and well they are not the best Steamed crystal prawn dumpling ($4.80) I had before.

There was the option of doing it steamed or pan-fried. But who could resist yummy-sinful fried food? Not us, we went for the pan-fried carrot cake with canopy ($3.90). Eat first, worry later! For some unknown reasons that continue to evade us, we are seeing restaurants not frying their carrot cake enough. Is it for the health conscious customers, or is it because it requires more oil? I wished they will just pan-fried it longer.

The first page of the menu comprises of the signature dim sum Hua ting serves, yet i was surprised not to find the Steamed siew mai with shrimp roe ($4.80) there. I felt that it was better than their har gau. And oh yes, there was also mushroom mixed within the siew mai.

There was nothing to fault for their Steamed BBQ pork bun ($3.90). I love my char siew bun, and when there was no char siew sou, I comforted myself by indulging in every moment of this.

Drum roll! Announcing the award for the best performer for the meal, I presented to you, Deep fried scallop pastry with onion and garlic ($4.50). My personal favourite out of the 12 dim sum that we tried that day. The pastry literally melted in my month when I took a bite. And I simple love the strong garlic taste within.

I will also like to mention the good service of the staffs at Hua Ting. While I was causally asking my friend what was inside the Steamed dumpling in Teow Chew style ($3.90), one waitress who was walking by overheard us and stopped to explain. While she couldn’t get all the ingredients in it, she went to the kitchen to ask and came back to tell us. So here it is, peanut, turnip, mushroom & celery.

You definitely will have tried char siew and prawn cheong fun before. Okay, how about scallop? Aye most restaurants have that too! All right, I give you Steamed cheong fun with sliced fish ($4.80). Now that’s something new isn’t it? It was a unique and bold creation, and while personally I still preferred char siew and prawn for my cheong fun, you need to give credits to the chef for trying something new.

Steamed soya bean skin rolls with chicken and mushroom in superior oyster sauce ($4.20). With such a long name, I was caught dumbfound and the staff had to kindly explained a few times what it was. It was actually the same as the deep fried bean skin we had earlier. But somehow I like this one more, the oozing out of the oyster sauce when I took a bite into the bean skin rolls. Oh my.

The others wanted lo mai gai, but there was none. We just have to make do with the Steamed glutinous rice with abalone ($5.20) and it was competent enough. There was the grimicky tiny abalone on top to up the prestige level, but I felt it would be better to give me Taiwanese sausages instead of that.

Not many restaurants use duck for their dim sum, it is always like what I mentioned, char siew, prawn & scallop. Therefore we chose the Pan fried shredded duck rolls ($4.20) out of curiosity.

I never like ordering Steamed pork ribs ($3.90) in dim sum restaurants. I felt they were overpriced, and under-portion. Honestly I will rather order another steamed char siew bun to give me more meat. I’m a carnivore!

Total bill was $120 after a 15% credit card discount for 6 person. We tried 14 out of the 20 dim sum available, and that’s quite a lot! I was confused between Orchard hotel with Orchard Parade hotel, so do check your maps before going down.  In my personal opinion, the staffs at Hua Ting merit the good service tag, all of them were friendly and knowledgeable. Thank you!

The six of us ended up somewhere for more desserts after this filling dim sum lunch. When floggers come out to eat, there is always food, fun, joy and laughter. Oh yes, Dslr, snap snap! Look out for my next post on the after-desserts that we had!

Hua Ting Restaurant
442 Orchard Road
Orchard Hotel
Tel: 6739 6666

Read about my dining companion post:
Catherine @ Camemberu
Evan @ Bossacafez
Julia @ AromaCookery
Leroy @ The Hungry Cow
Nic @ Black Tie, White Lie

There are a few things in life which you can never forget. Your first love, the first time flying on a plane, the wonderful taste of food, and of course, my first visit to the prestigious 6 Star St Regis Hotel, and not to mention, the most expensive and excellent dim sum that I’ve there.

I can never forget the taste of Peking duck after trying it for the first time a couple of years back. The perfectly crispy skin with a thin layer of fats beneath. Yan Ting’s Crispy Peking duck ($60 whole duck) served with traditional condiments arrived within minutes after making our order. Instead of wrapping in the typical pancake, the chef decided to use flour skin instead.

Like the usual practice for Peking duck, the remainder of the meat was done in other methods. The one that we had was diced duck meat, which came across as salty. It would be a great compliment with a bowl of white rice, but other than that, there wasn’t much hint of the duck meat. I wondered where the rest of the duck meat actually went. And the second serving ($27) came at a cost of 3 bucks per head.

While I didn’t try any “San Bei Ji”, or claypot chicken with basil & golden garlic ($20 for medium serves 4) before, the rendition here was satisfying. The fragrance of the meat announced the arrival of the dish, the chicken was tender, with some fatty meat and the tasty sauce was the icing on the cake, or rather chicken.

The question mark on my face was evident when I couldn’t figure out what the vegetable on the table was. I was told, the Dou Bei ($26 for medium serves 4) was the superior cousin of the more common Dou Miao. An expensive plate of greens this was, for the seemingly average taste of the vegetables.

We also tried the Crispy garlic pork ($28 for medium serves 4). The pork ribs were crispy, and had a strong garlic taste. The dish also came across as a tad salty. Nonetheless, we dutifully whipped clear the plate of the ribs.

I can never forget my penchant for cod fish. Taking a bite of the Deep Fried Cod Fillet coated with Crispy Cereal ($28), the fish immediately melt-in-the-mouth, with the cereal giving an added crunch. There’s barely enough for all of us a piece each.

I ain’t a big fan of scallop, so this line could be pretty bias. The Pan Seared Scallop filled with Shrimp Mousse ($32 for medium serves 4) was big in size indeed. However, the scallop was overwhelmed by the strong shrimp mousse taste.

I can never forget my mother’s rendition of French bean. I’m of the belief that simplicity is beauty. Using garlic to stir fried the vegetables can always bring out the fragrance of the garlic without covering the freshness of the greens. So I was rather sceptical initially when i saw the Wok Fried French Bean with Minced Pork and Chilli ($20 for medium serves 4). But it did proved me wrong with the wok hei of the beans. And the minced pork didn’t complicate the taste.

Instead of the typical deep fried prawn with mango, the Deep Fried Prawn filled with Fresh Mango ($36 for medium serves 4) came with a twist. Prawns and mangos were wrapped in beancurd skin, and deep fried. To be frank, I dislike beancurd skins, especially those served during dim sum. But this one was decent, the mango could be sweeter though.

With the name Chef Chan Signature Baked Spring Onion Chicken ($28 for medium serves 4), the dish certainly was bundled with expectations. You can’t go wrong ordering the signature dishes, or so it seems. The chicken was plain ordinary, and definitely didn’t warrent the hefty price tag.

I can never forget the best char siew sou ($1.8 per piece) I had before, from Yan Ting of course. Dim sum is not served during dinner, but we made a request to the manager, who to our delight, agreed to ask the chef to make it for us specially. Maybe we were saddled by the huge expectation that we had, but we are guessing it’s most probably because of the shorter baking time, that the char siew sou didn’t turn out to be as good as before. Nonetheless, it was good of the restaurant to do it specially for us, and I’ll be back again for it.

Total bill was $362.85 for 9 person, after a 25% discount using the Astor card. This came up to about $40 per person, which was totally cheaper than what we expected. And if we didn’t drink tea ($40), and no desserts ($48), the add up will probably be around $283 or $30 per head. With the ambience of the place, the prestige of the restaurant, and the decent quality of the food, the price was definitely reasonable. I’ll definitely be coming back for their dim sum, Yan Ting IV. There are a few things in life, which you can never forget after all.

Read about my dim sum visit to Yan Ting here
& Yan Ting snowskin mooncake here

Yan Ting
29 Tanglin Road
The St Regis
Tel: 6506 6888

Yan Ting is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Rabbit Brand, rabbit brand. We are not talking about the rabbit brand sweet. I have heard about Rabbit Brand Seafood restaurant, but i have no idea that they got an outlet selling seafood delicacies, right in the middle of town, Lucky Plaza.

My friend introduce me to Rabbit Brand Seafood delicacies for a budget lunch, i don’t visit Lucky Plaza often, but Rabbit Brand does turns out to be quite a surprise.

A quick look at the menu actually tells you everything about Rabbit Brand, they offer seafood delicacies such as shark fin, abalone, at absolutely cheap prices, how authentic the seafood are remains to be seen, but then you can’t really to expect to have the real deal at a price as cheap as 5 bucks can you?

They have many sets, with the cheapest going at $5.50, to the most expensive at $12.50. Buddha over the wall, abalone, shark fin, sea cucumber, scallops are the seafood delicacies which Rabbit Brand serves.

Set B: Baby Abalone in sauce ($8.50)

The set B option has the baby abalone in sauce, vegetables, rice and chinese tea, and not to mention the cheng tng (literally clear soup, a type of chinese dessert) which comes free with every set.

Whether the baby abalone is the real one or not isn’t really the question here, its the sauce which the baby abalone is cooked in that excites me. The essence of the mushroom and the abalone are clearly all absorbed into the sauce, and just having the sauce with white rice is good enough.

Set J: Shark fin, scallop and scrambled egg ($5.50)

The set J has shark fin and scallop with the scrambled egg. I am skeptical about the shark fin, and scallop mention in the menu because its barely there, but then you can’t complain when the meal is only $5.50. What do you expect?

Nonetheless, i love scrambled eggs, and the one here does well for me. A simple and hearty meal.

Pak Choy Meow ($1.60)

The pak choy meow, or white vegetables comes in four, and two mushroom. Evidently in the picture. The prices for their side dishes selections are cheap, with most under 2 bucks for each one. The white vegetables are good, crunchy and fresh.

Total bill is $16.69 for 2 person. I do think that the prices are rather reasonable for a meal in the heart of the town, Orchard. With normal food and drinks in a food court, prices are about the same, but i think the simple fare here definitely suits me better.

You cannot be expecting to have the real seafood delicacies with the cheap prices you are paying, but its quite a novice tasting such similar ones. Rather than buying you-know-what junk food, have your lunch today at Rabbit Brand seafood specialty!

Rabbit Brand Seafood Speciality
304 Orchard Road
#02-114 Lucky Plaza
Tel: 6737 9722